I may or may not have a reputation and I wouldn’t say that it’s a good one.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Current Date: June 21, 2023

Character: Surya Chandar
Race: Human
Age: 42
Current residence: Yamanashi Region, Japan
 

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I don’t even know why I ever bothered with this blind date. Though, I suppose I should phrase it differently. I don’t know why I agreed to it. Had it come from Ravi, perhaps I wouldn’t even have questioned it but remains the fact that I know it never would have come from my brother. It takes him time to warm up to anyone and the idea that he would warm up enough to someone to set me up on a blind date with them is absolutely preposterous.

I shouldn’t let it bother me that much, the man is never going to come into my life in this particular way ever again and that should be that, but I am bothered because of his clear delusions about his reputation and how he had to uphold it frustrated me to that point. The date lasted all of twenty minutes before I had my fill.

Can I really see this as a blind date? It was through a dating app, certainly, but it wasn’t really one of those apps where you can chat away with the other person and then exchange information no. It was even more informal than this. Fill in the necessary basic info, input a photo—so I knew what he looked like—some other stuff like age, a few things that turn you on, some that turn you off and off you go. The time you’d be willing to meet up with a potential partner and the place. All you see of people are things like these. So sure, swipe, swipe, swipe, click on some you might be interested in, and then wait for an answer. If they agree to the invite, off you go.

It’s a weird app, I guess, but I’d heard a few colleagues talk about it and I was curious.

Since the guy was one that I’d reached out to first, if you would, it was my location that was picked and the time. So, I was there, it was a little sort of bistro with outside seating. I saw him come up and, well I’m not gonna lie, sure, he was pretty good-looking. I still stand out like a sore thumb out here but that’s okay, he had no issues spotting me and sitting with me.

The moment he opened his mouth, though, I knew I was going to regret it. No hi, no hello. He started straight in on facts about his little self-centred soul, this is my name, this is me, this is what I want, this is what I like. I’m sure the gist of the conversation—one-sided, I barely got in any word—can be easily understood. Someone certainly liked to hear himself talk.

I was willing to give it a pass so long as we could possibly make it work in bed but about yeah, twenty or so minutes in, some water on the table and a coffee on my hands because I felt as though I needed that energy, he starts telling me about how he may or may not have a reputation and he wouldn’t say that it’s a good one.

The look he gave me was actually one full of challenges, as though somehow, he was trying to prove to someone that he was best not being argued with and that his word was law or whatever bullocks he thought he was going to spew. Needless to say, I might have scoffed at him and told him that I wished him the best in whatever it was he was interested in but that we just weren’t going to work out.

The idiot tried to physically keep me at the little table, and he very quickly learned to regret it. I was on my quiet, slightly frustrated way home shortly after that and I stopped for a bowl of ramen at a little place that’s not very far from home. I needed comfort food and that was going to be it. I crossed my twin on my way in, he gave me a single look and probably saw my own sour one and didn’t ask for any details, it was probably for the best.

As of my getting home, I deleted the app and told myself that if I was interested in having a little fun, I’d find it by going out there and mingling and that was my best option. I can’t believe I tried the app. Now, I know that one failure doesn’t mean that every other man I could have swiped on would have been just as bad but, you know what, I’ll just pass. It seems the better option to not have to deal with so few means of actually getting to know the other person at least a little more beforehand.

Final Word Count: 801

A date sounds nice, but I’d much rather fight you in the parking lot.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Surya Chandar
Race: Human
Age: 40
Current residence: Yamanashi Region
Final Word Count: 768 words
 

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You know, it’s when you think you know someone that you discover they have a whole other side and when you realize that much, you just want to punch their lights out. I’m surprised I managed to refrain from doing that with Keiji, but man, it was so tempting.

I kept my mouth shut, at first. I figured that it was nothing more than coincidences but seeing him almost weekly as I roamed the streets a bit after work to wind down, every time with a different woman, made me wary.

It’s when I saw him coming out of that love hotel that things started falling into place and well, I put him back into place.

Telling Ravi about it all was a lot more difficult than it should have been but I think that I mostly had my brother’s wellbeing in mind. He’d seemed so happy with every slow step together he and the jerk were taking that I didn’t want to break that but when I felt that enough time had drifted on by for the conversation to be mostly safe, I went for it. It still took more courage than I thought I had but Ravi took to the knowledge fairly well.

There are a few things I didn’t tell him, though. Like one of them how Keiji mistook me for my brother—his boyfriend at the time—when I first approached him. I know that we’re identical, but they’ve known one another for a long time at this point. He scrambled about, trying to find an excuse for the woman on his arm when he realized that I wasn’t my brother, he calmed down.

Looking back, that didn’t make sense; it was as though he expected me to just not say anything to Ravi? I mean, he waved the woman off, who pretty much pouted at him but went on her way, and he then turned to me, brows waggling and looking back towards the love hotel he’d exited. That, there, made my blood boil. That I am one for one-night stands is something I don’t openly scream on the rooftops though I don’t hide it; on that note, I know that Ravi wouldn’t discuss that part of my life with others, so this idiot had either overheard something, or he was assuming that I’d be interested.

I told him that while a little romp could have been nice—it wouldn’t have, I’m not that kind of guy—I would have much preferred to fight him in the parking lot. That got the message across and man, he tried to run off. I got through to him about very gently telling my brother that they could no longer be together and that he then had to stay way far out of either of our sights or I was going to make him regret every second of it.

You know, I’m not actually a violent person. Ask my twin, he’ll tell you that I’m just a sweet little lamb and it’s not even that much of a lie. I don’t even like violence and people that are into the whole BDSM scene just don’t do it for me. I don’t judge them, they can do anything they want with their partners so long as everyone is willing but it’s just not my thing.

I still wish it hadn’t had to come to that, Ravi just seemed so happy with that other idiot in his life, but I couldn’t just sit back and let him be nothing more than an experiment for someone else while he got his fun in love hotels every week while he was supposed to be going steady with someone else. If there is one type of person I also can’t stand, it’s cheaters.

That’s why I make it so very clear to the people I go on dates with that I rarely do more than one-night stands. Now and again, there will be repeats but there still are no strings attached. My string seems to be very securely attached to someone who doesn’t do one-nights and I don’t know that I can allow myself to commit. I’ve tried, I really have, and I struggle with it. I should probably be seeing someone about it but at this point in my life, I just don’t know if it’s worth it.

Though, thinking back on how much I find myself drawn to this guy—and I know he’s drawn in too—I might have to consider it but… what if it doesn’t work out, even if I do get stupid therapy?

Why didn’t you warn me that the movie was sad? Did you just want to see me sob uncontrollably?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Surya Chandar
Race: Human
Age: 39
Final Word Count: 717 words
 

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I’m glad that Ravi has found someone to love. After Josiah, he was so broken up that I thought he’d never try again. He’s my twin, my family, my everything; he deserves happiness and I would have given up mine for him. It took him a long while to get back up from the heartbreak but he did and they’re going steady now. I’m happy for him.

Am I happy for myself? I’m not completely sure. A few months back, I met someone whose attitude towards life made me wonder a little. Someone whose hot piece of ass was and still is so delightfully tempting that I find myself craving a chance to have it in my hands. I want to be in that ass, I want to feel its heat, I want to do so many things to it and its owner but… I can’t.

That particular ass belongs to a very fine man who refuses to do one-night stands. I don’t blame him, we’re not all meant for that but when we did first meet—he’s the friend of a friend, neither of whom I’ve slept with—I felt like there was a connection and I didn’t want that, I didn’t. I don’t see myself as being able to commit to anyone. It’s not that I’ve never tried before, because I actually have, but I just can’t do it. I have issues and I admit to them. One-night-stands have worked out well in my favour up until this point in my life.

I still talk to the hot piece of ass—and let me tell you, it’s not just his ass that’s hot. The whole of him is gorgeous, his personality is spot on and I feel myself gravitating towards him every time we do cross paths and talk and by the little gleam in his eyes, I think he knows this. He knows he’s desirable but he seems to not be trying to sweep me in, not willingly.

So, to distract myself from something I know I’ll never really be able to get my hands on, I turn to others. Now, usually, I don’t mind going on a quick date before we get to the fun part. Usually, it’s dinner outside, or we go to the movies, or for the ones I meet at bars—I don’t drink much, trust me—we’ll be coming back to my place and I do usually see about entertainment before pleasure.

As it was, my last date turned out to be a near fail but, as I can barely think about anything else but that one hot piece of ass I can’t have, even when I’m with someone else, it was easy enough to get back in the mood. In all, that last date had started well, I can’t complain. We met through a mutual contact, we actually had a walk in the park, we sat somewhere for sunset and his hand was always ridiculously high on my thigh and if we hadn’t been in public, I would have sat him on my lap and we’d have gone at it right there and then.

Instead, I took him back to the apartment, I picked one of the recent movies that had come out—something a little sappy—and we settled to watch that. I had in mind to make sure we were nice and relaxed for our fun but… halfway through the movie, that I did think was far more sappy than sad, he started to cry his heart out. By the credits, he asked me why I’d picked such a sad movie; he wanted to know if I did it just to see him sob so uncontrollably and for a few moments, I thought the whole thing would be ruined.

As it turns out, though, a well-placed hand and a few naughty words whispered in his ear and he was more than willing to beg for more. It was a wild night but he clearly made it on my ‘never again’ list. I’m not going to lie, he’s a crier even during sex and that’d a bit of a turn-off. But seeing as I wasn’t really seeing him as we were getting busy, I suppose that might be what saved it.

I keep all of my promises, but I’m not so sure I can keep this one.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Surya Chandar
Race: Human
Age: 38
Final Word Count: 629 words
 

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I still think about it, despite the fact that it’s been a while since it happened. I think I still think about it because he’s gotten back in touch with me. In a way, I’m glad it’s me he contacted and not Ravi. Ravi wouldn’t have survived it, I don’t think. He’s been tentatively, still, dating someone since February. It took him months before he even could think about the idea of a date and I know that he and his current boyfriend have known one another for a long time.

Long ago, I promised Ravi that I never would hide anything from him but I don’t think I can keep this particular promise right this very moment and I blame Josiah for it. He and Ravi had been dating for six months when he just up and left, leaving my brother a note about how he’d gone off in search of adventure and he wished him the best of luck. He left everything behind but most of his clothes and his suitcase. It broke Ravi.

So you can imagine that I was pretty surprised when I received a text from Josiah, almost a year to the date he walked out on my brother. He asked me for some news, asked to know how things were and I told him that if he so much as tried to approach Ravi, I’d rip his balls off and feed them to him. Surprisingly enough, that seemed to work with that. That or he just hadn’t had in mind to get in touch with Ravi at all and I was fine with that.

That was a while ago and he fires up a text my way now and again, mostly asking about my day and talking about his. I don’t know that I could consider him a friend, he’s not. He was pretty damn good-looking and I’ve always wondered what he was like in bed but I don’t know that I could go that far with things, not after he just up and walked away from my brother.

Even though, even if it were to happen, it would be all of a single night, nothing more. I don’t do relationships, not in the way Ravi does. People are aware that, once we start ‘dating’, it’s all physical and we’re likely to only spend a week to up to a potential month together before we both go on our merry way. It’s rare, though. Most of the time it’s one night here, another night there, then we move on. Some come back, we repeat the process, others don’t and I’m good with that too.

Josiah is just something else entirely and I’m not sure what to do about it. I’m pretty sure that just one night spent with him would be pretty interesting but Ravi still is and always will be my brother and he comes first. Josiah never got in touch with him after he left, never sent any news, nothing. I’m the one who ended up dealing with all of the things he’d left behind. I helped Ravi pack it up but I took those boxes out of his apartment myself. I know how torn up he was about it all, despite the fact that I knew he’d been realizing that he didn’t love the guy as much as he thought he did. Still.

I suppose we’ll just have to see. I’m still trying to decide whether or not I’m finally going to tell him that the guy’s gotten in touch with me but I don’t know that I will, not yet. His current relationship still feels like it’s so fresh and brand new that I don’t want to chance him giving it all up because of one stupid idiot.

I say things I don’t mean all the time and I’m trying to get better about that.

Timeline/World: Modern Monotony – Beyond the School Grounds
Characters: Surya Chandar
Race: Human
Age: 37
Final Word Count: 610 words

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My brother is the one who should be seen as a prime example of what a good person is; a good worker; a good soul. Though I’ve gotten much better about it in the last fifteen or so years, there still are plenty of days when I say things I don’t mean. It’s like I don’t have a filter and I’ve always disliked that. I can’t begin to explain what it feels like, trying to talk normally to someone, only to utter the first thing that comes to mind whether that is the right or absolutely wrong thing to say.

I almost lost us our potential job, said fifteen years ago, in one of the most prestigious and best schools in the world because my tongue got way ahead of me and my brain didn’t have time to catch up. Thankfully, mister Rochemont and my brother were able to talk things through and I was given a chance. I don’t know what I would have done without Ravi. Though if it had come down to the fact that he was given the job and I wasn’t, I would have tried to find a job elsewhere in the nearest city, since the school was a little far for day by day travel. I would have missed my brother but I would have tried my best.

It was fun enough while we were growing up. I didn’t really care. I could get away with a lot of things because Ravi would often be nearby to soothe things over when it was absolutely necessary, to tell people I was just kidding and that I didn’t mean it. Never once did he then turn my way, in public or private, to tell me to watch my tongue. He would shake his head and give me this slightly amused smile of his. I’m glad he loves me the way he does because I wouldn’t have gotten very far in life without him.

I still remember one occasion in particular, I think we were twelve and we had been invited to this birthday party. It was for a girl we weren’t very fond of but her parents were our parents’ bosses and it was one of those rich people parties where you invite people because you can and to show off. That was a recipe for disaster, of course. Ravi stayed at my side all along, you would have thought we were tied at the wrist but he already understood my lack of filter. We met up with the birthday girl and just as I was about to open my mouth to tell her how ugly her puffy pink princess dress was—because it was and Ravi told me he believed the same when we were alone, later on—Ravi squeezed my hand and squeezed it hard enough that I ended up with bruises later but I kept my mouth shut.

He played the good guy, the kid who played nice and who liked his nose nice and brown. He told her how great everything was and how much he loved her dress—that was such a girl thing to say—and how he was thankful we’d been invited because everything was so grand. She gobbled it all up and he buttered it on so sweetly that she started to hang out with us at school. By the time we were fourteen she’d tried four times to ask my brother out on dates and he’d gently turned her down. A year later, she was dating another rich boy and we all had peace, finally. I had a lot of bruises during those few years, thanks, Ravi.