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A Thousand Cranes
Chapter Two - Realizations
CONTINUATION...
"You look familiar..."
Tohru felt a little self conscious from his intense stare and she replied nervously,
"Um... maybe you've seen me around before."
Kyo shook his head as if he was trying to shake some thoughts out of his mind and he muttered,
"...So are you going to take this book or not?"
Tohru looked up with a red face and shook her head furiously,
"No, please take it!"
Kyo took the book from the shelf and looked down at it, then back at her,
"So I take it that you like origami?"
Tohru fumbled around with her words,
"Well... yes... and no."
Kyo shot her a strange look and asked,
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Tohru laughed good naturedly and rubbed her arm as a nervous habit,
"I just meant that I like to watch others make it, but I'm horrible at making it myself..."
Kyo chuckled softly, making her look up at him, and he said softly to no one in particular,
"I once knew someone who completely sucked at it too..."
"Really?"
"Yep"
Tohru felt her heart churn and she couldn't help but wonder to herself,
Could it be...?
"What... what was her name?"
Kyo looked away and tightened his grip on the book,
"Eh... you don't need to know."
Tohru suddenly realized that she was being too nosy to a person that she barely knew and she quickly apologized,
"Oh, I'm sorry for being so nosy."
Kyo just cleared his throat and thrusted the origami book in her face,
"You know what? You take the book, I don't really need it. I was just looking at it anyway."
He dropped the book into her open hands and breezed past her, and out of the bookstore without saying another word to her. Tohru stared down at the glossy cover of the origami book and wondered to herself,
Maybe it's him...
Tohru thought about how in so many ways it could be him but after a moment of pondering, she decided that she was probably just overanalyzing things too much. She sighed and looked down at the picture of the crane on the front cover and after a while of contemplating on whether or not to take out the book or put it back, she ended up putting the book back in its rightful place on the bookshelf. She didn't even know what she was thinking, buying a book about something that she couldn't even make, plus it would make her constantly think about the boy from her past.
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However, the next day she found her mind trailing back to the boy from her childhood and the boy that she had met recently at the bookstore. She sighed and put her hand over her forehead as she walked out of the school building after school and let a breeze tickle her skin. Her pace slowed down when she got to her house and she remembered the boy again, and how she had always went to his house to play. Without another thought, she picked her legs up and walked a block down from her house, stopping in front of the old house that Kyo had used to live in before he had moved away. She stared up at the old exterior of the familiar house and bit her lower lip, wondering where that boy was now.
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Kyo was walking around the neighborhood back to his old house when he stopped right in front of Tohru's old house, as if on instinct. He gulped and stared at the house for a long hard minute, and then took a deep breath and walked up the stone steps to her front door. He eyed the door and willed himself to lift up a shaky finger to ring the doorbell, but instead, he found himself chickening out because he ran off the front porch breathing heavily. He held his hand to his heart and felt his nerves being fried from all the new nervous feelings that had risen up.
What if she doesn't even remember me anymore? Or what if she doesn't even live here anymore? ...I bet she doesn't even think about me anymore.... Maybe she forgot.
The thoughts that flew through his mind confirmed his actions and he left her house, walking quickly back to his old house. As he got closer to his house he saw the same girl from the bookstore staring up at his house without blinking. He walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder, making her snap back to look at him,
"Excuse me, but is there a reason for why you are staring at my house?"
Tohru's eyes widened to the size of saucers and her words tumbled out in embarrassment,
"Huh?! Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I was just um... observing it... because, um... because..."
Kyo waved his hand in the air to let her know that he was over it,
"Just forget about it."
Tohru sighed and lowered her head to the ground,
"Sorry..."
Kyo rolled his eyes at her and said sternly,
"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry about alright?"
Kyo left her standing there and continued to walk up the steps but her voice caused him to turn around,
"Wait! You... live here?"
Kyo nodded slowly and said with sarcasm,
"Yea, that's why I'm going into the house."
Tohru's cheeks flushed and she asked him,
"You mean you just moved here?"
Kyo went back down the stone steps so that he was standing in front of her,
"Well... I've always lived here, I just had to move and stuff when I was little and now I'm back here for the time being."
Tohru felt as if her heart just stopped beating and her mouth dropped wide open. She was so shocked that she felt the tears fill her eyes as she walked up closer to him. That's when he stared straight into her eyes and realized that she had the same innocence and purity in her eyes as the girl from his childhood and they both finally realized it at the same time. They both screamed out their names in unison and they stood there gaping at each other for a few moments, not knowing what to say to each other quite yet. Tohru finally squeaked out,
"I-I can't believe that it's actually you! I knew that orange hair... but I just wasn't sure if it was your orange hair!"
"And I knew you looked familiar in that bookstore! B-But I just didn't believe that it was you."
Tohru and Kyo laughed together and walked over to the giant oak tree that held many old memories. They sat down underneath it and Kyo asked sincerely,
"So... how are you?"
Tohru smiled at him and answered,
"I'm good... I mean school is a bit on the tedious side, but other then that, my life is very good. What about you? Where did you move to? I don't even remember asking you that when you first told me!"
"That's 'cuz we were little and stupid."
Tohru giggled and then repeated herself,
"So where did you go for all these years?"
"Well... I went back to China with my adopted father, Kazuma, because my mother... died."
Tohru gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth,
"What?! B-But I never knew... Oh gosh, I'm so sorry for not being there for you when it happened..."
Kyo smiled at her with the same lopsided smile that he had always given her to make her feel better,
"Don't be sorry... it's not your fault, if anything, you made my life helluva lot better."
Tohru blushed a tiny bit and then looked straight ahead,
"So... then you went back to China with Kazuma and what happened there?"
"Well basically I trained up there in the mountains and I had a pretty good life up there... but then one day he suffered a minor heart attack and I heard that the best hospital was in Tokyo, so I brought him here before he suffered a more severe case. Now I'm living back here for the time being."
Tohru put her hand over his and said with an emotion filled voice,
"I hope that he will get better..."
Kyo felt his whole body heat up from her touch and he replied,
"Thanks."
Tohru then lifted her hand from his and crossed her arms over her chest with mock anger, then she said,
"You know! And you never even thought to contact me!"
Kyo smiled a small smile and confessed with honesty,
"I thought about calling you a thousand times… but… I was scared."
Tohru's eyes widened and she blushed. She then felt another sad thought enter her mind, making her eyes get all droopy and sad. She asked him with a doleful face,
"You're staying here right?"
Kyo paused for a long time, not knowing what to say, so he answered as truthfully as he best could,
"I don't know..."
Tohru hugged her knees to her chest, the light from her eyes had completely left. Kyo felt his heart drop to his stomach; he hated himself for causing her pain so lifted his hand and ruffled up her hair gently, making her look up at him. He gave her another lopsided grin and said warmly, while patting her on the head,
"Hey, don't look so sad, okay? I'll be sticking around, okay? So stop pouting... 'cuz you look like a dog when you pout."
Kyo grinned at her teasingly and she broke into a wide grin as well, swatting his arm playfully,
"I don't look like a dog!"
Kyo chuckled at her tone and then looked at her straight in the eye, making her body burst into flames,
"A cute one."
Tohru's face turned completely red and she looked away quickly, just as he did as well. Kyo stuttered out to fix himself,
"Just kiddin'!"
Tohru gulped and said loudly,
"I-I knew that!"
They both fell into a silence and then he suddenly asked her,
"So... do you have a boyfriend?"
Why do I suddenly feel so bad about telling him? He's just a friend after all, not like I like him or anything right?
She cleared her throat and said as confident as she could,
"Yes, and his name is Yuki... what about you?"
Kyo felt his heart crack slightly when he heard her say 'yes' but he recovered after a moment and answered casually,
"Nah..."
Tohru's eyebrows rose slightly and she said with a voice full of surprise,
"Really? I thought all the girls would be swooning over a boy like you in China."
Kyo smiled sheepishly and he glanced at her with a glint in his eye,
"Oh really? Is it because I'm such hot stuff to you?"
Tohru rolled her eyes playfully and laughed at him with a voice full of sarcasm,
"Yes of course."
He poked her playfully and she poked him back lightly, blushing again for no exact reason.
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When she got home the phone rang soundly throughout her house and she picked up the phone,
"Hello?"
On the other line a male voice spoke up,
"Honda-san?"
Tohru recognized right away that it was Yuki and instead of feeling hyped up, like she used to, she felt a strange sense of disappointment fill her heart. She tried to push the feeling out but it wouldn't budge. Yuki's voice snapped her out of her thoughts,
"So... you want to grab a bite to eat right now? The night is still young."
Tohru blew out a breath and after a long while of yelling at herself for being so cruel, she agreed and said in her best cheerful voice,
"Of course! Where do you want to go?"
"How about the cafe near the school? I'll meet you there in a half an hour. Bye princess."
Tohru held the phone in her hands and said with a voice filled with emptiness,
"Bye..."
She hung up the receiver and dragged herself up the staircase to her room, closing the door behind her.
What happened to me? Why is it that I feel so differently for Yuki all of the sudden...?
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