A/N: This story is a spinoff story of The Boy Next Door.
Oliver had forgotten how long he had stood along the aisle leading to the only functional lavatory, waiting wastefully for what felt like a rare visit to the King’s throne. The line was inhumanely lengthy, largely because the plane was an hour before landing, and all his fellow passengers had elected to preserve time, choosing to go now instead of at the airport.
As the current occupant of the throne continued to linger, Oliver eyed the line of disgruntled faces behind him. He had a distinct sensation they were collectively staring at him piercingly, but he was not about to feel guilty for being in first position. Admittedly, he had always enjoyed being in first place, even for events as trite as this. However, his victory feeling was slightly marred by the sight of a little boy standing next to him, grimacing anxiously by his mother’s knees.
Glancing at his jolly surroundings, the crowded airplane was overwhelmingly noisy, with all strains of competing sounds tightly knitting the dry cabin air, the roaring voices of his fellow passengers expressing their alarming joy and excitement, when they realized they were an hour away from landing, concluding what had been an excruciating flight from Osaka to London. Judging by the excitement, it was obvious to him that everyone definitely had someone to look forward to at the airport gates: a girlfriend, a father, a wife, or a daughter, waiting eagerly for them, so they could reunite and catch up the time that was lost.
“SWOOSH…” the sound cracked through the door, but it remained stubbornly closed. Oliver glimpsed at the boy again. His thighs were now tightly entangled and his hands were pressing deeply into his abdomen, with his mother guarding him pleadingly. The image of the boy’s face turning pink somehow numbed Oliver’s bodily functions.
It wasn’t like he really had to go, Oliver reasoned as he patiently trampled his way back just as the lavatory door opened, to the delight of the urgent little boy. Unlike the other passengers, Oliver was in no hurry. He could go at the airport. He did not anticipate anyone waiting for him at the arrival gates anyway, so he was in no hurry to rush. After all, he had isolated himself for such a long time from his old friends, neighbors, and teammates, and secretly working in Hogwarts as a teacher’s assistant last year.
As irrational as his decision to temporarily work in Hogwarts was, Oliver had been hiding in search of a new future, after his fiancé left him without explanation. Oddly, running away and the inability to bear physical pain were uncharacteristic. They were contrary to what he always believed himself to be, a tough resourceful survivor with a boundless competitive spirit, but his faith in himself was shaken when symptoms of his mysterious illness began to surface; he was broken beyond repair, lonelier than dust, and spiraling on the brink of collapse. It was hard to reconcile for him at first, because he couldn’t attribute his grave condition to the many manly injuries he suffered as a Quidditch player over the years. To his surprise discovery, he was suffering from a new injury, one he had never imagined himself being hurt by.
After successfully clawing his way back to his section, Oliver’s eyes unconsciously tumbled onto the two passengers that had been sitting behind him. They had been sweet-talking to each other sickeningly from the beginning. In a rippling moment of turbulence, Oliver couldn’t avoid but visualize himself in them, because he was, once upon a time, just like them too, him and Yuriko, basking under the spotlight that was the center of attention.
All his teammates and friends knew Yuriko, because during their seemingly brief time together, they were inseparable. After he revealed to her the truth about him being a wizard and a professional Quidditch player, she shockingly became his permanent supporter and loudest fan. It was a surprise for him that she liked Quidditch and was comfortable being around wizards and witches whizzing in the air with their brooms, even though she had no knowledge of his world prior to knowing him.
Yuriko gave his teammates a lasting impression when she made him propose on his knee in front of them. As expected, everyone was sympathetic towards him when she abruptly left him soon after, but he was convinced it was his deteriorating performance that was the sole reason leading him to resign. Inexplicably, his eyes would be consistently searching for her shadow in the audience stands instead of watching for the incoming Quaffle. He excused himself from the team before the world finals, citing a back injury, and walked away, illogically giving up a promising career in professional Quidditch.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Oliver decided he had absorbed enough of their graphic display when the man began to slurp his girlfriend’s ear. He carefully navigated to his crammed window seat, mindful of his blond hair neighbor, who had been sleeping quietly the entire flight. Had it not for her silky breathing, Oliver swore he was sitting next to a corpse for the past uncountable hours.
”00:55:42…” displayed his blue entertainment screen in front of him, confirming the flight was entering its final hour. He still had one hour left of his past to deal with. What else could he do but once again dwell on his memories…
Thinking back, Oliver would paint the journey of last year as like he was swimming away from familiar territory. Submerged in the dark borderless ocean, he would find himself searching for a new location that would give him peace and distance, preferably the opposite corners of the seas, only that the new shoreline continued to elude him no matter how faithfully he swam. The frigid waves kept pushing him back, with each one more powerful than the last, the waves acting like memories, soaking every crater of his skin. Numb with cold in the water, he would succumb to the waves and be washed backwards, back to the place where everything begun, a place he was trying desperately to escape from.
He never knew it was possible that a person could live like this. He was a body without a heart, wandering blindfolded in the present time. His chest was nothing more than an empty cavity of muscles; his heart had detached itself from his body as it continued to be tortured in yesterday’s time zone.
In the end, it was an epiphany when he realized he had to resign his position at Hogwarts. Seeing the bold success of Ginny reuniting with Harry, he concluded he must come out of hiding to search for Yuriko, to find out the truth as to why she left him so suddenly. It was the reason why he headed to Osaka. He understood her father had forbade her from marrying him after finding out he was a wizard, but he believed what they had could withstand this obstacle, until she abandoned him at the train station when they planned to run away, leaving behind only a scatter of words and her engagement ring in an envelope.
It appeared Oliver’s entertainment screen had short-circuited in the midst of his thoughts. Replacing the solid blue background and the digital clock countdown was now a faint image trying to clarify itself. His screen must be malfunctioning, he groaned to himself, because his neighbor’s display was unaffected. Studying it closely, the image began to spool from the digital snow, shaping itself into a rainy scene of rooftops as it began to play without command. Clearly, it was not from the many suffocating romance movies that were showcased for this flight. Instead, the actor in the clip was familiar but disappointing; it was of him standing shakily at Yuriko’s doorstep, his finger tenuously positioned at the doorbell.
Even though the clip had no audience, it had not ceased to play, as the Oliver in the screen finally summoned the courage to ring the doorbell.
“Ring…”
Moongate Beckons When The Canvas Sleeps by gossipweaver
Chapter Notes: Oliver was one of the four main characters in The Boy Next Door, Part 3 of My Guardian Angel series. His role as Ginny’s unlikely soul mate was based on his relationship with Yuriko Nanikawa, a muggle girl who left him, apparently having succumbed to the pressure from her father, who discovered Oliver to be a wizard. Here is his story.