Sorry about the long, long wait... no, the plot hasn't changed any, yes, this time skip was completely planned when I originally started this story; I just hit a smidge of a writer's block when trying to start this chapter. A different POV has solved that problem~!
Recapping the Past
People came and went as they pleased, ignoring the brunette sitting by himself in the corner of the little coffee shop. Why was I asked to wait here? He asked himself with a sigh, looking at his watch before his eyes started to once again wonder around the room. This is such a stupid place to meet someone for a job interview...
A bell rang as the door opened, catching his attention. A couple of teenage girls walked in, chatting to each other with their giggling voices; as much as he knew it wasn't who he was waiting for, he couldn't help but stare at them, admiring the line of one of the girl's neck as it curved under her shirt, or how the light reflected in the other girl's eyes, or how-
He shook his head viciously, scolding himself as he looked down at his camra sitting on the table in front of him. Being a photographer is no excuse to check out teenage girls. He glanced back up for a moment, catching one of the giggling girl's flirtatious looks. Even if they are cute.
Grumbling to himself as he looked at his watch yet again, he pulled his portfolio onto the table to flip through it. Whoever this stupid fashion designer is, he's fourty minutes late!
The bell above the door rang again, but this time he ignored it. Instead he gazed at one of his pictures in the portfolio, a finger trancing over the delicate lines of a petal...
"Kazu?"
He snapped his head up at being addressed, only to stare blankly at the person in front of him. "R-Rika..?"
The 23 year old Kazu hadn't seen Rika since they had graduated from high school 5 years ago, and even then he hadn't seen her often. They had gone to different schools, had hung out in different crowds... Henry and Takato were the only reason he did see her, whenever his two friends dragged the callous girl out of her shell to enjoy her life a little bit.
"Kazu," she said again, snapping him out of his daze. "You have a camra... I take it you're the photographer I'm supposed to be meeting?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out; he could only watch as she sat down, slidding her jacket off of her shoulders gracefully as she did. Her hair is longer, he noticed. Her red locks were left out of the high pony tail she used to wear as a child, framing her lavender eyes perfectly. And then she looked up at him, her eyes meeting his in that same piercing gaze that she used when they were younger, and he couldn't help but reach for his camra, wanting to photograph her in that moment...
Instead he laughed, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as he finally found his voice. "Yeah, I would be the photographer... does that mean that you're the fashion designer that I'm looking for?"
"No, Kazu, you're looking for the geezer in plaid suspenders," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she looked down at his portfolio. "Are these your work?" He nodded. "Do you mind if I look?" He nodded again.
She took his precious portfolio into her hands, opening it and looking at the first few pictures dismissively. He tried not to feel hurt, instead cast about for something to talk about... "So... how've you been?"
"Good obviously," she replied, taking an extra moment to overlook one photo or another; he wrung his hands together nervously, itching to know which one had caught her attention.
"Come on Rika!" he whined. "I haven't seen you since highschool! What have you been doing all these years?"
"I became a fashion designer, duh."
"Well, obviously," he parodied her. She flipped through the next couple of photos without a care before another one caught her attention. Which one is it? "But what else have you been doing..?"
"Nothing much else," she answered with a shrug. "Just got back from America; some company wanted me to sign a contract for to sell my clothes in their stores... but I didn't like their models or their photographer. So now I'm here."
"When did you go to America?" He asked, trying to keep the conversation from getting awkward.
She glanced up at him for a moment, an amused smile on her face. "A couple of weeks ago, Kazu. Stop asking me for my life story." She turned back to the photos, moving to the next one carefully.
Kazu sighed, digging a hand into his hair. Same old Rika... does she ever change? "Well, did you want to know how I've been doing..?"
"If I wanted to know, I would've asked."
He glared at her for a moment, but her amused smile was still there. Is she teasing? "I started getting interested in photography in my last year of high school-"
"Is that why there's pictures of me in here?" She interrupted, looking up at him with a mischevious grin as she held up a picture for him to see; it was one with her and Takato. Takato was running in the background, yelling something as he nearly tripped over his own feet. Rika stood in profile, eyes sparkling as she laughed.
"Well... about that..." he tried to look anywhere but at her, his nervousness coming out in his words. "Well... you're the daughter of a famous model, and well..."
"You thought it would be a good career booster?" She laughed out. He just nodded, shocked at her reaction. She isn't mad at me..? She's not going to kill me? "Relax Kazu... so long as you didn't sell any of them to magazines or something, I won't hurt you."
"Right," he laughed as well. Hope she never figures out I'm the one who gave the newspapers that picture of her at prom a couple of years ago...
They stayed silent for a while longer, Rika looking over the pictures and Kazu becoming increasingly nervous. He was't used to the lack of questions, or the continual silence; most interviews he'd been to, it was with a company and their questions seemed endless with every picture. And Kazu had a lot of pictures.
"So..." he broke the silence eventually. "Did you want a coffee or something..?"
"No," she answered curtly.
Hn. He grumbled to himself, leaning back in his chair. The bells at the door sounded again, and he looked up to see who it as; a little old lady with her grandson, probably coming to get a cookie or something. She really hasn't changed much...
"How's everyone else, Kazu..?" her voice as soft when she spoke. He almost didn't hear her for his daydreaming.
"Everyone else?" He blinked, looking back at her. He was shocked to see that she looked nervous, scanning over one picture or another... Kazu smiled. So she missed us. "They're good. Takato's been working in the bakery with his parents, Kenta went to college with me," she snorted quietly, and he saw her roll her eyes. "He's trying to become a newscaster, but personally I think he's gonna be stuck as the coffee-monkey forever..."
"Coffee monkey?" She asked, her lavender eyes looking up at him once again.
"You know..." Kazu gestured with one hand as he tried to explain. "The guy that always seems to be running to get coffee..? Or lunch? Or the 13 inch ruler?" She laughed, nodding. "That guy! The coffee monkey."
She quieted down, a happy smile on her face as she looked down at the next picture; then she frowned. "What about Henry..?"
"You know Henry, always the smart one..." Kazu laughed, trying to ignore her frown. Is she upset? "He's a computer programer or something high tech like that; I never really understand what he's talking about whenever he goes on about all the do-hickies that he works with."
She rolled her eyes, putting the portfolio down for a moment; Kazu looked to see what picture she was on, and his eyebrows raised in a silent question. Is that what brought about her frown..?
It was a picture of Henry that he'd only taken a few weeks ago; the half-Chinese blunette was craddling a crying young woman against his chest, looking down at her adoringly as he muttered meaningless things to try to make her happy, a hand gently brushing her hair...
"Have you read over my contract, or did you find this through some listing or another..?"
He blinked again, her impromtu question catching him off guard. "Aa... I never read a contract. I just called the advertised number and some guy told me to be here at this time..."
She sighed, resting her elbow on the table and dropping her chin into her cupped hand. "Well... I don't have a contract with me, so this'll have to strickly be a verbal thing, and you'll have to come to the studio tomorrow to sign-"
"Does this mean I have the job?" Kazu asked in disbelief. Rika is hiring me..? No way!
"It depends." She narrowed her eyes at him, causing him to smile back at her sheepishly. "There are certain requirements you have to meet."
"Like what?" Kazu asked, the feeling of elation having not yet left him.
"First of all, I have to approve of your photography style," she chided him. His smile grew. And she obviously has, otherwize she wouldn't be continuing on about this! "Then, my model has to approve of your photography style."
He frowned. "You have a model?"
"Just one," Rika sat up straight, reaching back to dig something out of her jacket pocket. When she found what she was looking for she turned back to Kazu, holding out a small picture for him to look at. "He'll kill me if he figures out that I showed you that... but if you don't recognize him, he'll be even more hurt."
Kazu took the picture curiously, and almost choked on the air he was breathing. "Ryo? Ryo is your model?"
"It lets him get easy money and spend the rest of his time doing the things he likes to do," Rika shrugged. "Besides... my male clothes are designed for him."
"B-but..." his shoulders slumped. I thought Ryo would be doing something cool, like becoming an astronaut and going to Mars or skydiving or something...
"Don't worry, he still does all his stupid stuff," Rika consolled him. "He's coming back from bull fighting in Italy this evening, if that makes you feel better."
"Bull fighting?" Kazu perked up immediately.
"Yes," Rika rolled her eyes. "Please, never mention it again. Carrying on-"
"But I wanna talk about Ryo!"
"Talk about him tomorrow, when you see him." She growled at him."Seriously, you're still worse than a rapid fangirl whenever Ryo is concerned..." he opened his mouth to argue, but she cut him off. "May I finish?" Kazu stopped the curses from escaping his lips, and nodded. "Good... Ryo has to approve of you're photography style. You have to approve of photographing Ryo-"
"I'm good with that."
"I figured," she shook her head as she continued. "Then I have to approve of your model, who I should be meeting tomorrow, but seeing as-"
"Wait, my model?" Kazu asked, interrupting her again.
"Yes, your model." Rika drawled out. "If you had read my contract already, you would've known that you need to have a female model willing to sign herself into my company."
"You have a company?"
"It's my mom's technically," Rika explained, annoyance in her voice. "She starting a modling company a couple of years ago... but that's not the point. She has to be willing to join my company... I'm assuming you don't have one yet, so I can wait until the end of the week, but I have deadlines to make and-"
"No, no, I think I might have someone!" Kazu said excitedly. Oh my god this interview is going so great! He pointed at the picture on top of his portfolio, the one that had caught Rika's attention. "Her!"
The one of Henry and the pretty young girl.
"Her?" Her scowl was back, sobering Kazu up quickly. "And who exactly is 'her'?"
"U-um..." he reached forwards, grabbing her portfolio as he searched for a better picture of the girl. He found one quickly enough, tucked away at the back, and put it in front of Rika. "It's Suzie."
The picture was taken in the park, just when the sakura blossoms were starting to fall. A breeze had picked up the petals, causing them to dance in the girl's hair as she smiled at someone out of the frame. Her hand was up, checking that the flower behind her ear was still there as her arm hugged her own middle, trying to keep warm.
"Suzie?" Rika frowned, one of her hands falling onto the tabling, her fingers druming against the wooden surface angrilly.
"You remember Suzie," Kazu said meekly. "She went to the digital world with us? Henry's little sister..?"
Her eyes softened, her frown slowly disappearing. "Henry's sister?"
"Yeah," Kazu laughed nervously. "She's become rather photogenic... she doesn't want to be a model or anything, but she doesn't not want to be one either... hell, she doesn't know what she wants to do in her life right now."
"Henry's sister."
"Yeah," he nodded, feeling a bit more confidant. "She's 19 now... she moved out of her parent's place just after she graduated, because of some fight they had about her not wanting to go into any secondary school, and she's been living with Henry ever since and working at a nightclub as a waitress and-"
"Henry's sister," Rika repeated again. This time Kazu just nodded, watching as the redhead started to smile again. Who else would it be? "Right well... I can get caught up on her life story later... right now I have to go and catch up on sleep. Jet lag and all," she stood up, pushing her chair back as she grabbed her jacket. "I expect you at the studio with Suzie no later than 10 o'clock, okay?" Kazu nodded. Rika shrugged her jacket on easily before she picked up the picture of Ryo. She pulled a card out of her pocket and dropped it onto the table in front of him. "I'll see you then, Kazu?"
"Of course!" He cheered.
She smiled, turned, and left. Kazu just sat there in disbelief, listening to the bells ring above the door as he thought to himself, dammit, now I'm going to be late to work tomorrow...
-
She walked down the familiar streets towards home, her hands stuffed in her pockets and the sounds of people walking around her. She only looked up to watch the crosswalk signs.
I'm back, she thought to herself. She had been bouncing back and forth between countries for 6 years now, ever since her last year of high school. She's been to America, Thaiwan, China, Paris, and a few dozen other places, looking and admiring and sketching, all the while taking courses to become a fashion designer... after all, if she couldn't be a model for her mother, why couldn't she design the clothes her mother wore?
The only problem was that now her mother was 'too old' for the photo shoots. No one wanted an old lady to be the face of a company... and suddenly, after all the time Rika had spent trying to be a fashion designer for her mother, she didn't have anyone to design for.
And that's when she had found her client in America; she could do all her work here, so long as she had her own photographer and her own models, and her clothes would be sold in another country. Her mother had been excited, and reluctantly Rika agreed that she was excited as well. But now she wasn't sure how she felt, home for the first time in a long time and staying for once. She thought about the picture she had seen of Henry and his sister, thought about the raw emotions the picture had inflicted in her.
She shook the thoughts out of her head, but it didn't quiet work; instead she thought about the last time she really had spent time with Henry. With only Henry...
"Stupid boy," she muttered, though her lips still tingled at the memory of a night six years ago now.
