[tuesday, before school, seirin high school]
Everything in Japan was just plain weird - the scene, the food, even the people.
Moving back to my home country seven years after we had moved to the States was a vast change, a change that I knew I wasn't going to particularly enjoy.
It was just the second day of school, yet, as I approached Seirin High School's gates with my younger brother beside me, the commotion of the students were louder than yesterday's. "Weird," I muttered to myself, putting down the light novel I was reading on the way to school inside my book bag.
Inside the school's gates, there were mobs of students from both sides of the campus sitting behind tables, waving signs, and even demonstrating to curious underclassmen the purpose of each of their individual clubs.
"Ah, so is this Club Rush onee-chan?" my first-year brother, Kita Ryuki asked, eyes wide in amazement at this new world called high school.
"Ne. Ryuki, you can find your class by yourself, right? I'll go get some snacks from the vending machine. I'm not going to join any clubs this year," I said, fishing my novel from my book bag and continued to read it through the crowd.
"Onee-chan, you HAVE to join a club! You basically have no friends and refused to make contact with people since we came... Come on!"
After a couple minutes of eye-rolling and Ryuki getting hit on the head twice by my novel, I had agreed to accompany him to the basketball club's table, which was gaining quite a lot of attention. Thanks to Ryuki's height (185 cm compared to my puny 161 cm), we managed to push our way through the crowd to the front of the table, where a brown short-haired girl sat next to a (pissed-off looking) megane guy with black hair.
"We don't have a girls' basketball club here," the girl said lazily, twirling her pen while glancing at the crowd behind us.
"Oh! No, this isn't for me. I'm just here for my brother," I motioned to my towering younger brother who smiled at the girl and placed his right hand on my head. I scowled; I was NOT in the mood for his shenanigans today.
"Ryuki, get your hand OFF me!" I whispered angrily at him, as the baka began to fill out the extracurricular form with his left hand.
"There's no need to be angry, onee-chan! This is the first time you've actually responded to someone in a full length sentence since we came back," my baka brother continued to provoke me, as he proceeded to ruffle my long black hair, making it frizzier than it already is.
"That's right!" Ryuki and I both turned our attention to the front of the table, where a tall, brown haired young man was ruffling the pissed-off megane's hair. "There's no need to look consistently pissed off like Hyuuga here!"
Hyuuga, the megane, turned around and tried to slap the tall boy's hands off his head, but to no avail. "Urusei, Kiyoshi!"
The short-haired girl, aware of the commotion next to her, simply took out a concealed paper fan and slapped both boys with it. She nonchalantly looked up at Ryuki and said, "The placement test for first-years will be this Thursday, after school. Make sure to come in sports clothes and bring water!"
Then, the girl did something extremely unexpected. She extended her hand towards me. "Aida Riko. I sit behind you in class - you can come to your brother's placement if you want!"
I awkwardly took her hand and cursed myself at being socially handicapped; well, in Japan at least. "Thanks Riko. I mean, Riko-chan. Sorry," I proceeded to mumble and make a fool out of myself.
Riko waved me and my brother away with her paper fan, "No problem! I'll see you in class."
A minute later, after dodging through the growing basketball club crowd, Ryuki nudged me in the shoulder with his elbow. "Seems like you made a friend, eh?"
I could only pick up my book and pretend to scowl at him. God, I'm such a tsundere.
[thursday, after school, seirin high school's gym]
I trudged into the gym after school, scanning my eyes around to find Ryuki. He had wanted me to bring him some water, since he had forgotten to bring money to buy some from the vending machines. What a baka.
I was hoping to commit a run-and-gun style of giving him his water, since I didn't want Riko to force me to stay and watch their placement test. Believe me, it wasn't as if I didn't have any interest in basketball, it was just that watching sweaty first-year boys run in a gym wasn't my sort of "fun", even if I was in Japan.
"Emiko-chan!" I winced as I heard my name being shrieked across the gym by none other than Aida Riko. "It seems like you came," she said, eyes twinkling, with one hand holding a clipboard and the other around my shoulder, holding a half-folded paper fan.
"Ne," I smiled weakly, awkwardly hugging her back.
"You see, I saw that Ryuki-kun was pissing you off a couple of mornings ago on Club Rush. I invited you to see if you wanted to get him back," Riko whispered next to my ear, as my lips stretched into a Cheshire-like grin. It was nice having a wingwoman again.
Riko had told me to make myself comfortable on the team benches, but since the old team members were so close by stretching, I didn't want to create an awkward scene for myself, so I just sat down at the bottom of the bleachers.
A couple of feet away, there was the tall, brown-haired guy I had seen on Club Rush, intently watching the prospective players. He was clad in the Seirin uniform without his jacket, not wearing any practice clothes as the other old team members were.
As if he could sense you observing him, the guy glanced at your direction and gave you a small half-smile. "Oh shit, oh shit... This is why you should NEVER stare at strangers," I mentally blamed myself.
He got up from where he was sitting ("Oh SHIT, I hope he's not walking over - OH SHIT!") and headed towards where Riko was standing, now in front of two rows of around fifteen shirtless boys. She called out their individual names, and they stepped forward, blushing under her observing eyes.
The tall boy was whispering in Riko's ear and pointed to a name on the sheet. "Kita Ryuki," Riko commanded, and I stifled a snort when my gangly brother stepped out from the second row. Sure, he was tall, like REAL tall for a Japanese kid back in the States, but he just looked like a skeleton with skin packed together compared to the other boys.
Apparently, Riko thought the same. I swear she turned her head back at me before she said to Ryuki, "20 push-ups, count them out loud." I had to resist the urge of taking out my cellphone and recording this glorious moment.
Too wrapped up in my sadistic joy, I didn't notice that the tall boy was making his way towards me, until his shadow covered one of the gym lights that had illuminated my view.
"Hey," I awkwardly said, as the giant (yes, he was a literal giant) sat down next to me.
"Is that your brother over there?" he motioned to the figure of Ryuki on his tenth push-up.
"Yep, the baka," I said, immediately forgetting my polite filter. I hoped my hair covered my blush as I felt the heat rise in the back of my neck as the stranger made direct eye contact with me.
"I'm Kiyoshi Teppei, but you can call me Teppei, or whatever you like since we're the same age." He had a large hand extended towards me, and I felt like a little kid when my slender hands grasped his in what I hoped to be a firm handshake.
"I'm Kita Emiko, and please call me Emiko," I responded. I was at the breaking point of the conversation, usually where people left me when they figured I was so socially inept after I introduced myself. And so, I blurted out, "Why aren't you in your practice clothes?"
"Oh," he looked rather taken aback at this question. "I injured myself after playing in last year's season, and I'm still in rehab, so I can't really play for awhile." Teppei responded, his hand scratching his head nervously.
"Oh, that sucks," I tried to sympathize, but I really had no idea how to continue the conversation.
As if he could sense my unease, he asked, "Did you just move here recently?"
I nodded, "Yeah, I just did. From the States actually, but I was born here so adapting to the language really isn't that hard." I motioned to a book I had recently checked out from the school library. "I've been reading Japanese novels since we moved here in the summer, so I've become more fluent."
Teppei glanced at the book in my hand and lifted the cover to glance at the author. "Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami?" He chuckled, and his eyes crinkled up adorably. "It's a bit challenging you know, even for many people who have lived here their whole lives."
"I know,"I responded, "I like challenges."
I glanced down at the book that I was holding, and I could swear for a minute that Kiyoshi Teppei looked at me longer than usual. I put the book back into my book bag and got up simultaneously with Teppei.
We both stared at each other for a second and opened our mouths to speak. He motioned for me to speak first.
"Ryuki told me the placement exam ended 7, so I'm going to head to the convenience store to buy some groceries. I'll see you later, Teppei-kun?"
"Ah, actually I was just about to head there as well to get something for the team," Teppei responded, glancing to his old team members who were arguing over something Hyuuga had said.
"Shall we go together then?"
I received my answer when the door to the gym was opened for me.
Huh, Japanese boys are weird too.