Human Observatory Entry #294: Vein of Love

rinringo

Summary: In which Konishi Aya sits down to write about a problem ailing Kouzuki Miyu.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Also note that this takes place in the manga-verse; wherein, Miyu stays at Heiomachi. Approximately three to four years after the end. Also, just to keep things clear, words inside brackets (like this) are times when Aya slips and speaks to Santa. You'd get it when you start reading, I hope.

This isn't a diary.

I'm not writing letters to a non-existent persona elaborating my life's woes like a protagonist. I'm not the protagonist, and no matter what you say I do not drag on sentiments for the sake of record keeping alone. You'd know that, for sure. Aren't you a Creative as well? Then among all people, the saying, "write what you know" should be familiar as second skin.

So, next time I catch you, Kurosu Santa, reading this log again (but really, how you have the nerve to insinuate my belongings is a whole other discussion), and if you mistakenly call it a diary one more time I swear I will kill you off in my next play.

By my soul I swear, there is no power in the tongue of man to alter me.

You know I'm serious once I start quoting Shakespeare. So, you better watch out!

(line break, next page for official entry)

This account stars Kouzuki Miyu, who seems to be featured in many of these entries but you can't blame me as much of her life is interesting from her parentage, current situation, and overall character. But don't get me wrong, she isn't a special snowflake (pardon the cliché), she wasn't enchantingly beautiful, charmingly clever or exceedingly talented in anything. (No, I'm not using too many adverbs, Kurosu).

Although, as her longtime friend of five years, I could say that it was Miyu's person as an entirety which made her different. That is to say, "the whole being greater than the sum of its parts" kind of thinking. Now, my words hold no bias as despite the years of friendship Kouzuki Miyu is still a person worth investigating and I speak of no absolutes, and so no lies can be made (or be worth strung; Lying is a difficult endeavor, after all, we both know that It's why being a writer is such a difficult profession).

A funny line she said to describe herself today, is one of the reasons why I made this account. In verbatim, she said, "Someone who embarrasses herself, in the attempts of trying not to embarrass herself." Of course, we laughed when she said this, and we were friends and so it was all right to laugh at the truth, as we watched our friend turn into a bright tomato color out of anger. (I'm sure you've noticed how Miyu's emotions translate so easily with her facial features, you were the one who told me that. I mean it was Saionji-kun who told you, and you told me).

How me, Miyu's and Nanami's conversation lead to that I don't remember, my mind already diluted with a myriad of dialogues; however, I do recall the events after, which served as the meat of this entry.

From the date alone, you can tell that it's the start of summer. Our last summer as high school students. My sentimental self-got the better of me and I managed to convince the girls into getting matching friendship rings.

Have you ever heard of the vein of love? The blood vessel that connects directly from your ring finger to your heart? (Now, I'm not so interested in dispersing my fantasies for scientific fact, so don't come to me holding an anatomy textbook).

But as I explained this to the girls, you'd know it'd tickle their fancy. If married couples were allowed to exchange rings, then what of kindred spirits, friendships? Especially with graduation coming closer next spring, all of us had our own futures to journey into for college. What more to signify our friendship with something as symbolically meaningful? (Pretty romantic, don't you think?)

We were at the jewelry shop, waiting as we also had the rings engraved with our initials on each one (NAM, was better than MAN. It was my suggestion obviously.) The shop owner promised to take no more than two and half hours, so eventually, we grew impatient and proceeded to roam the mall as we often do.

The subject of Kouzuki Miyu only came along as we were looking through stationary, I (of course) noticed Miyu's expression to be down. It was subtle, as she was still smiling but her eyes focused on her feet as if they were more interesting than the display of rainbow pens. So naturally I asked if she felt unwell, and she denied so. Then I asked if anything was troubling her. She hesitated at first, so Nanami had to coax her into verity.

Miyu responded with, "Don't you think it's sad?"

"What is?" Nanami said, her attention from the drawing pencils deterred.

"Of us being separated?" I said, and from Miyu's expression following that confirmed my statement.

"We have a little less than a year together, and to think that each of us will be going their separate ways."

"But that is the melancholy of life," I said, a bit proud but I believe in the power of words, language, semantics. The sentence was the right way to describe the reality.

No one said anything right after, and it was only a couple of minutes later when Nanami broke the silence as her hands circled the tops of a sea of colorful ballpoint pens. Miyu had been scribbling something on the scratch paper deck, and I busied myself with the mechanical pencils.

Nanami had said something along the lines of, "distance strengthen relationships" later pondered along about how it isn't like we'd stop talking to each other altogether. I'm only reporting this blatantly because it was difficult to describe the sadness in Nanami's eyes, it simply wouldn't do justice. All of us knew that it was her who had to deal with a long-distance romance.

"That's why I thought Aya's ring idea was pretty neat," Nanami added, smiling finally. "That way it wouldn't be hard to think of each other often." (The line was followed by a joke, but I don't think it'll translate well in paper.)

And here I was only thinking of the romance in it, sentiment. Nanami saw it as a connection.

Miyu's expression lightened at least, after a good laugh. Leave it to Tenchi Nanami to brighten anyone's day.

"Wouldn't it be great if time stopped, or stretched out longer for our third year?" I said, hands clasped together like a prayer.

"Yes, but then that would be just as sad." Nanami intervened. "What will become of our dreams?"

It was a simple sentence, I had to write it down because it spoke millions. I couldn't help but feel a sense of shame for having such a selfish childish notion. I remembered this dull ache of having realized that I could have belittled our futures. Nanami then proceeded to talk about these dreams of the future. It was just like when we first met in middle school, but different at the same time. Not just in content but the detail. It seemed that to me, and Nanami had the pathway carved in stone, no, marble. Speaking as if ready to walk forward at any moment. (That was the beauty of marble, it shines, reflecting light that it makes one excited for the morning). Then it came Miyu's turn, by that time we started to head back to the jewelry store.

That's the thing though, she didn't answer. Her silence had caused us to slow down our pace. We kept our eyes on her, waiting for a pip of her voice. (I passed by the bookstore without demanding for us to enter, it got pretty serious).

The tension that precedes Miyu's words were justifiable, the emotional load made it hard to form the right sentence. So, in the end, Miyu ended up stuttering, because you know how the emotions affect your coherency. The gist of her point regarded two options: to stay or to leave. Not just stay in Heiomachi kind of problem but a continent-wide problem. Miyu felt conflicted about staying in Japan or the US for her college education.

"What's holding you back from making the decision?" As you'd expect the mature Nanami to ask. However, I knew the answer. Pretty simple, elementary. It traced back to Miyu's earlier concern. It was then Miyu's glassy eyes that confirmed this. To think, that our friendship had grown to such kind of understanding. Whether it was us, our friends, Saionji-kun, or all those things. The underlying fact was she will end up leaving us all behind if she decided one over the other.

Now the question lies, what's keeping her from telling her parents of her decision to stay? Nanami followed up her question with that very thought in mind.

Miyu hesitated. I would know because she avoided our eyes, her gaze flew through all corners of the jewelry store. The sound of the craftsman shuffling through his wares filled the room. It was then when I pulled myself back into a reverie. Of those times in middle school, when Miyu had to be separated with someone. It wasn't difficult to recall a face of a darling baby boy, and an odd alien creature (Sitter-pet, was what Saionji-kun called Wanya-san right?).

Kouzuki Miyu was familiar with separation. Her among all people. So, you couldn't blame her for cherishing the permanency that Heiomachi offered. It will only mean that the price of her decision had to be equally grave. To have her hold back on the decision to stay.

That's when the jewelry person handed back our rings, paid our dues and left the shop. We stood there outside the entrance, looking at our silver bands. N.A.M. was engraved in the most elegant script on the inner side. It leveled up our cheap accessories to an extent.

We were in the middle of all that awe when Miyu decided to speak, "I know I haven't told you guys this." Miyu started, the box that held our rings was on Nanami's hand. "It's about my dad…"

We didn't (couldn't) say anything, and by that time Miyu held our eyes firmly, a glistening sheen over her sclera, at the same time they seemed to avoid the box.

Her hands trembled slightly, ever so slightly as if tap on a switch. "My dad, well. For a while now…" She pondered on, for a while it was hard to catch on most of her words. "Well, he's been sick. For a while now actually, well not forever, but just a while. The doctors have yet to give it a name, and so…"

Her eyebrows pulled to the center, a pretty bad sign for what's to come. Me and Nanami's eyes just glued on to her, we were the stillness among the bustling mall crowd. Miyu continued, "Well, then my mom. You know how she is… A lot like me, completely hopeless and then there's that thing with NASA*. I don't think I can let them leave without me."

(*Refer to Human Observatory Entry #290, it involved a lot of astronomy, and I'm not as familiar as you are.)

We wait for her to speak again, and after a few seconds, I approached her after taking out her ring from the box. (Just to let you know, we all had the same ring size). I opened her hand, placing the silver band on the middle of her left palm, "No matter your decision we'll support you," I told her then.

"We'd even check on Saionji for you, mail Purin. Anything," Nanami joked, snorting a little. Miyu started to cry then, and some hugs were exchanged. Writing it all down is causing me to tear up myself so no powerful prose for now. I know how well my writing is to feel the authenticity of the feeling. (I've got awards to prove it, don't deny it).

I didn't expect Saionji-kun to arrive later after that when we were huddled so closely. Miyu tried to hastily wipe her face clean, the ring from her palm fell off and started to roll away. Miyu tried to chase after it, but it landed right on the tips of Saionji-kun's shoe. He picked it up before she got anywhere near it.

"NAM?" He said, with a quizzical brow.

"Our initials." Miyu tried to act tough, her throat quivered a little though.

"I knew that," Saionji-kun began inspecting the ring on his hand, "Isn't MAN a better arrangement?" (Miyu didn't say anything, and don't you dare agree with Saionji-kun! NAM was better).

"Whatever give it back please," Miyu demanded with an open palm. At this point, me and Nanami resigned to silence.

I did not expect Saionji-kun to walk toward her then, in even, sure steps. He held her left hand by the wrist and gently lifted it up and as if on impulse Miyu's fingers fanned out. "You're crying again," he said as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

Her face was red, and I couldn't tell if she was about to cry again or was she just embarrassed. Look at them, from that distance, of a simple bystander, it looked just like a movie of the protagonists sharing vows. It was theatre-level romance if I don't say so myself. I realized seconds later that me and Nanami had to look away, our faces red from the scene. (Surely after this, the concept of the Vein of Love, you'd believe to be true right?)

How do these two flirt without having to flirt at all is an all new level.

"I wasn't crying," Miyu said. They started their usual argument after that as if nothing happened. As if pulling off such a scene was the most normal thing in the world. Well, at least Miyu had stopped crying.

(Ugh, Kurosu my eyes are blurry. I'm gonna leave this here and call you instead).

Hi there! So this is my first Daa! Daa! Daa! In a while, I've got more but those have been buried through my old notebooks over the years. I hope to find them someday. Anyway, this was an idea that came out of re-watching the whole series, and re-reading the manga. The fandom isn't as big as it used to be but the series holds a very special place in my heart. Perhaps I'll write more in the future as well!