Sun rays through windows
Summer's warm yellow ribbon
Blinds me to all else
"Hey, Honda, what are you up to back there?"
The sudden voice caught him off guard, and Honda's pen scratched out an ugly black line across the page as he almost leapt to his feet.
"Nothing. Nothing whatsoever." Came his abrupt reply, seemingly oblivious to the looks on his friends' faces. Yugi and Jonouchi both had that same raised eyebrow, that same look of quiet concern. Neither of them wore the expected sly grin though, so Honda felt assured they hadn't seen him looking up from his attempted poetry.
Looking up the classroom towards his muse.
Looking to her empty seat-
What? Empty seat?
It was true, Nosaka was no longer at her desk… In fact the entire rest of the class had disappeared, leaving him alone with both Jonouchi and Yugi.
"You uh, you ok pal?" Jonouchi started a step forwards, hand out. "You seem a little-" Honda cut him off by slamming his hand down onto the tiny square of paper on his desk, crumpling the poem in his palm and thrusting it into his pocket. "-Jumpy" Jonouchi finished.
"I'm fine!" He shot back, wondering if it might not have been a better idea to eat the paper instead, destroy any evidence. After all, there was no way he was going to present this to Miho just yet. It needed work. Something so small wasn't a sufficient way to express himself, to express every factor that had made him feel this way about her.
Jonouchi shook his head, thinking better of trying to decipher just what was up his friend – Getting into that head could spell all manner of weirdness. Honda seemed like a simple guy most of the time. But then there were his odd… Moments.
"We're going to grab some burgers, you wanna come with?" Yugi asked, his confusion turning back to good old fashioned bright-faced cheer.
"Sure." Honda replied, after a little while of thinking it over, turning his eyes to Miho's empty desk. "Sure."
The library had been surprisingly busy for the entirety of the lunch period, and numerous times Honda had been forced to slam a book down on top of his compiled sheets of paper, to hide his work from any potential prying eyes. He groaned just a little as his stomach knotted, growling up at him. Skipping lunch to come here and be near his muse had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too. He had convinced himself that her sudden disappearance after class had been the cause of his poetic failure. That and the interruption from his friends. But here. Ah, here was different. Nosaka was a student librarian, and that meant she would be here till the end of lunch, and be kept plenty busy. Busy enough to not notice him lingering around.
Not that she ever did seem to notice, mind you. It had been a sticking point in Honda's latest attempt to pen his innermost thoughts and feelings.
By books surrounded and in stories rest
Near tales of romance and of bravery
I cannot hope you'll hear my love confessed
.
A woman of knowledge and beauty blessed
A form which must always inspire envy
By books surrounded and in stories rest
.
You'll know of all the lines, you'll see the best
Through such a shield of words you won't see me
I cannot hope you'll hear my love confessed
.
Every day I learn and each night I test
Myself against parents of poetry
By books surrounded and in stories rest
.
But I know my words will remain repressed
Far from your learning I will always be
I cannot hope you'll hear my love confessed
.
To reach your eyes I shall remain obsessed
And pray that one day my words you will see
By books surrounded and in stories rest
I cannot hope you'll hear my love confessed
"You trying to convince people you can read?" Jonouchi slammed a thick reference book down on the desk next to Honda's hands, sending a powerful vibration through the wood and drawing glances from just about everyone in the library. Honda's cheeks throbbed, felt as though they were ready to just sizzle off his face, his vision blurring.
"Oh, you know, just getting a little extra revision thrown in." Honda gently lay one of his books down across the paper. "Something you should look into occasionally. You know it couldn't hurt to just-"
"Yeah, we're not having this conversation." Jonouchi said, patting his friend on the back. "Anzu ever brings it up, I can pretend to listen. Yugi, I can humour him. Not you, buddy. Not you."
Honda sighed, his composure returning, the room finally coming off its Tilt-a-Whirl.
"So why are you here?"
"Fetching you, naturally," Jonouchi got in close, head almost propped up on his friend's shoulder. "All you need to know are three things."
"And those are?" Honda started to file away the books and the note paper into his bag.
"A two-man operation. Our dignity as men on the line. Panties."
"What? But-" Any further protests from Honda fell on deaf ears as he was shepherded out of the library, getting strange glances from a number of the other students, but not the lilac-haired librarian, calmly sorting away a pile of old books on chemistry.
"It's today. It's today." Honda intoned to himself, a mantra as his shaky hand traced out the vague shapes of words onto the paper. Today would be the day he would utilise his masterpiece. Today would be the day he finally showed his work to Miho Nosaka. Today would be the day it all came to fruition, and the rest of his life with her at his side would start.
The entirety of the last week, he had seemingly done nothing but watch her from afar, keeping track of every interaction she had. He confirmed what he had already suspected – That she was quiet and shy, but deep down a kind soul. She didn't say much, but when she did speak, she lifted spirits and removed fears.
Honda stood at her locker, the corridor abuzz, but no-one looking his way, his hands clutching at a bundle of paper. His Haiku on the top, the Villanelle underneath, and at the very back was the masterpiece. The Ghazal.
A beauty that has ensnared me with her ribbon
And now I have no hope of escaping that Ribbon
.
Her words are like the rarest flower opening
With soft petals falling – Yellow as her Ribbon
.
She cannot meet my gaze with those enthralling eyes
I see from behind, each day – the Yellow Ribbon
.
In me an ache as I see each act of kindness
Warmth of spirit shining Yellow as her Ribbon
.
Know that Hiroto has watched, with hopeless romance
And words of love for she of the Yellow Ribbon
"Ok, you really have to let me read these y'know." Jonouchi's voice was almost expected at this point. Honda's head drooped in resignation, half-heartedly pulling the paper close to his chest. "I've only been able to catch a word or two over your shoulder before I had to give myself away. Sneaking around aint my style so much these days."
"You knew I was writing poetry?"
"Yeah, didn't believe it at first. Kept telling myself – You're seeing things. This is Hiroto Honda we're talking about."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
A long pause passed between the two of them. Overhead a bell rang, and the corridor began to empty.
"So," Jonouchi finally ventured, "You going to let me read them?"
"And why the hell would I do that?"
"Hey, just thought it might help you out to get some opinions on your work before you go cramming it into some poor girl's locker. I may not know poetry, but I know girls."
"Forget it. This is my collected works on the girl of my dreams. This is the culmination of all my knowledge of, and feelings towards her."
"And nothing I say will change her response to it, since she doesn't know we're having this conversation right now. Unless she's me. Oh god, she's not me is she?" Jonouchi grinned as he made a grab for the paper.
"You're really not going to let up, are you?"
"Also not my style these days."
"Fine. Just, give me the bare bones of what you think." Honda passed over the three sheets of paper to his friend, delicately, as if handing over a grenade. "I don't need a full-blown critique."
"Deal." Jonouchi picked up the pages and eagerly started reading through, his eyebrow raising after each line, each poem, until it seemed to threaten leaving his face altogether. Finally, with a sheepish look on his face, he came to the end and passed the pages back to Honda.
"Well, what did you think?"
Jonouchi was quiet at first, biting his lip, as if trying for the longest time to use tact. "These are really your fully collected thoughts about her? Compiling everything you know about her into verse?"
"That's right." Honda couldn't help feeling a little smug. His words had clearly had an effect on his stunned friend.
"Your entire knowledge of her is: She's nice. She works with books. She doesn't speak much. She wears a yellow ribbon. That's it?"
The silence in the corridor was painful. If they had strained their ears, they could probably have heard a whispered conversation clear on the other side of the school.
"You… You don't think it's any-" Honda was cut off by Jonouchi's raised hand of protest. The blonde closed his eyes and set off down the corridor, a hand going to his temple as he started to hum.
"I'm getting a vision," Jonouchi told him as he walked away. "I see the future after you give her those poems. I see… A restraining order…" He stopped short of the exit, turning on his heel. "I'll give you a minute chief. Do what you feel you need to do, I may rib you about it, but I'm not here to stop you. Meet me outside when you're ready, but don't take too long, we get caught cutting class again and Nosaka's response will be the least of your worries."
He slipped out of the door before Honda could respond, leaving a young man alone with a locker and a collection of papers.
Honda sighed, looking up at the metal box, then back down to the poems.
"Please be the right thing to do." He whispered.