Lè Rose
By: BrokenSonnet32
Disclaimer: They are not mine.
Prologue
People have different ways of easing sadness or depression – some locked themselves up in their room, crying their eyes out; others have the tendency to hit inanimate objects like the wall or some table, or even hurt their own selves for that matter; and some were even driven to insanity or has the tendency to commit suicide.
For a certain person, however, depression only meant one thing – Mocha Ice Cream.
A young girl – around the age of fourteen – sat all alone in the cold stony pavement, wearing a rather unusual bright-colored Japanese kimono. Deep ocean blue eyes stared blankly in space as she popped another spoonful of her frozen delight absentmindedly in her mouth.
'Mou… I am sooo foolish…' she miserably thought, popping another spoonful in her mouth. She sighed, oblivious at the rather peculiar stares some passersby are currently throwing at her.
"What weird dress!" she heard, rather felt, someone take the empty space beside her on the pavement. The girl screwed her face up as her nose caught the distinct smell of something alcoholic.
Frowning at the sudden disruption of her peace and quiet, she turned and stared at the man. He, just like her, was wearing some traditional Japanese costume; crumpled at different places. His long auburn hair was tamed by a rather messy ponytail by the back of his neck.
"You look weird too!" the girl said without stopping for a thought. The young man gave her one dazed smile and placed – what appeared to be a wine bottle – silently on the small spot between them.
"Weird flavor…" he said drunkenly, taking a quick glimpse of the girl's ice cream box.
"Leave me alone, drunk boy!" the girl angrily said – how dare he comment on my beloved Ice Cream!
The man – to the girl's utmost exasperation – only chuckled at her, and took another long gulp from his wine bottle. She watched as his face twisted – probably from the taste of his own medicine – shook her head and concentrated back on her ice cream.
"Why not just drink coffee? Why eat coffee-flavored ice cream?" he suddenly asked, one hand placed firmly near his wine bottle as if to steady himself.
"I like the feeling of ice cream melting in my mouth. It makes the taste stay longer in my tongue unlike when you're drinking coffee… the taste disappear as soon as you gulped the liquid down." the girl answered, her face almost childlike as she placed another spoonful in her mouth, "I don't really drink coffee…"
The young man nodded his head, taking another swig from his bottle.
"Why are you drinking that? You don't seem to like it." the girl asked.
"Why do you think that I don't like it?" the man actually turned to her, his baffled amethyst eyes taking an amused glint as he stared at her own blue ones.
"Because…" the girl placed her spoon on her ice cream box and screwed up her face, imitating his expression when he swallowed his wine, "Your face looked like this." she leaned at the young man, pointing at her face.
The man laughed, so hard gleeful tears had formed on his eyes. The girl frowned at the man, angry at being laughed at like that. She made an exasperated toss of her long untamed hair and stood up, deciding to go find some other place where no 'drunk boy would go destroying her peace'.
"Hey!" she heard him call after some steps. She merely ignored him and continued walking.
She knew he was still following from the sound of rather unsteady footsteps from behind but the girl made no move to stop or even acknowledge his presence. The girl decided to just ignore him – completely ignore him – and maybe then, he would stop harassing her peace. How wrong could one be!
"Just what the heck do you want from me?!" she turned, angrily facing the man – who was still following after an hour of walking. "Just spit it out and leave me alone!"
"Such feisty child…" the young man said, almost losing his balance when the girl suddenly stopped walking to face him, "You will never have a boyfriend if you keep yelling at people like that…"
The girl's face faltered and it doesn't seem to have gone unnoticed for the strange young man. The amused glint on his eyes soon disappeared, replaced by something the girl couldn't quit place on. Before she knew it, the guy had took a firm hold on her right hand – the one holding her spoon, sending the thing falling to the ground with a soft metallic clang.
"Mou! You soiled my spoon!" the girl angrily retorted as the man suddenly pulled her to who-knows-where with him. She yelled loudly, trying desperately to break free from his hold – but for a drunk man, he surely was strong.
"Where are you taking me?" the girl asked after her umpteenth attempt to flee. She looked up at the man's long hair – dancing with every step that he takes – feeling sudden urge to…
"Let me go! Let me go! Where the heck are you taking me, you weirdo!"
The guy gave her a quick smile and replied in a very calm voice he said, "Out, of course! I'll treat you!" he gave her another smile and continued to walk, as if dragging a very uncooperative girl was the most common thing in the world.
"Mou! Let me go!" she yelled again – and out of desperation, threw her half-empty box of ice cream at his head. Whether it was good luck on his part or not, the girl never figured – the next thing she knew was her box of frozen delight lying silently on the cemented ground, its content melting.
'Mou! That was my favorite too!'
The girl sighed, exhausted from her failed flee-attempts and decided to just trust the strange man – I can always give him a good smack on the head if he tries something weird, she reasoned.
They entered a rather expensive-looking restaurant with the name 'Lè Rose' engraved in a set of gold plates. The strange man took her to one vacant table farthest the door – the girl has the tiny suspicion that he intentionally chose it to make it harder for her to flee. In the back of her mind the girl wondered, 'Was he really drunk in the first place?'
"Sit down." the man pulled the chair out for her. Unconsciously, the girl found herself smiling at the small chivalrous gesture. The man took the seat right across hers when the girl finally sat down.
A man dressed in a very formal suit was soon beside the young pair's table – pen and notepad ready to jot down their orders. The girl scanned the menu handed by the waiter and frowned – 'Mou! I can't afford anything…' she sadly thought, already drooling at the pictures of several delicacies.
"Your orders, gentleman, fair lady…" the waiter asked politely. The girl gave him one small smile and said in a whisper, "I'll just have a glass of water, thank you."
The young man sitting across the girl waved a hand and said with a smile, "Please give her every good thing in this menu." he said, much to the girl's surprise, and added at the waiter's inquisitive stare, "I'll have a bottle of wine."
"I don't have any money with me, just to let you know." the girl seriously said as soon as the waiter was out of earshot. The strange man only gave a smile and told her that, '…it is my treat, don't worry about money…'
The waiter soon went back with their meals. The girl sniffed the sweet aroma of several scrumptious-looking delicacies in air, feeling all hungry all of the sudden. She waited for the strange man to pick his chopsticks up before picking her own – it was his treat after all.
"You have a big appetite." the man commented, watching the girl consumed almost every food that she could reach. He smiled, plopping his chin on his hand as he continued to watch her – as if she was one very wonderful work of art.
"Can you stop staring at me like that?" the girl said after some time, finally noticing how the strange man had stopped eating to watch her.
"You amuse me." he said coolly. The girl wondered if what he said was supposed to be an insult or a compliment. She rolled her eyes and looked back at him.
"You have weird-colored hair." she said, eyeing his bright hair with great interest.
"My mother is a foreigner." he said with a shrug.
"I see." the girl shrugged as well, facing her meal. "Why were you drinking that stuff again?" she asked, seeing that the weird-headed man took another long swig of his wine.
"Why were you trying to empty a gallon box of ice cream?" he countered, pouring another wine on his glass.
"It's just something I do whenever I feel bad." the girl said, "How about you?"
"Wine makes me forget some… things…" he said the last word with a very solemn look on his face that the girl actually wondered what happened to this guy. She watched as he gulped his wine down and poured another glass.
"You'll get really drunk if you continue doing that." she said, concern for the strange man overwhelming her.
"Just like how you'll get diabetes if you continued to consume that amount of ice cream." the man smiled, "Good thing you threw it at me… and missed!" he chuckled as her face quickly burned with annoyance at the small reminder.
The pair continued with their meal without another word exchanged, except for the girl's worried attempts to stop the young man from drinking his 'beloved' wine. He was pouring his umpteenth glass of wine when his cell phone suddenly rang. The girl sighed in relief as she watched the man excuse himself and answer the phone.
She watched as the man's face became solemn again, probably from what the person from the other line was saying. The man continued to talk with some foreign language the girl never understands. When he ended the call, there was a deep frown adoring his face.
"I have to go." he suddenly said and before the girl could even react, he pulled out some money from his wallet and placed it silently on the table.
And without further ado, the man with a weird-colored hair left.
To be continued…
A/N: So, what do you guys think? The prologue is just as what happened in my dream (probably with some twist, hehe). I do hope you enjoyed it. Please leave with a review. Until next chapter (hopefully)… Ciao!