Thanks a lot for the reviews/favourites/alerts on Chapter 1! I'm really glad that many people are interested in this story, and every email I received makes my day brighter!
Here on to chapter 2!
As usual, I recommend people to read in ½ page size to give off the feeling of reading a book.
Chapter 2: The Golden Trio
'Takaishi, you are to show Yagami around the campus during recess and lunchtime.'
That was the order Nagakawa gave the fourteen-year-old, although Takeru knew he would have done so without the middle-aged man instructing him to. It was now lunchtime, and he and Hikari had agreed that he would show her around the campus once they finished their lunch together.
He planned on giving her the tour during recess first, but he forgot how curious his classmates could be. Before he could even ask, many boys already surrounded the brown-haired brunette and threw random questions at her, just like they did in the morning. Some girls also joined in and tried to shove off the boys, and poor Hikari could only smile weakly at the attention she was getting. She tried her best to communicate with her new classmates, quickly scribbling words on her sketchbook for each question she was asked, or giving simple gestures to indicate her answers. Some found this way of communication troubling and walked away with a sneer, but many remained and kept her occupied until the end of recess.
So when the bell rang, signalling the beginning of the one-hour lunchtime, Takeru showed Hikari the way to the rooftop, with Daisuke and Ken following them. Hikari thought she heard some murmuring when they all left the classroom together, but she did not ask why. Takeru introduced the mahogany-haired boy with spiky hairstyle to her as Motomiya Daisuke, the captain of the school's football team, and the blue-haired boy as Ichijouji Ken, the vice-captain. From the other boys she learned that Takeru was the captain of the basketball team, and she was amused that she was spending lunch with three sport stars of the school. Daisuke did most of the talking, however, and she listened genuinely to them as they talked about what she should pay attention to or ill-tempered teachers she should be aware of, causing the brown-haired girl to laugh at their description of how horrible some teachers could be.
Once they arrived at the rooftop, the blond let out a sigh of relief and sat on the corner, where Hikari meekly followed suit and took out her lunchbox.
'Wow, they look really nice, Hikari-chan!' Daisuke stared at the food content of her pink lunchbox and visibly drooled, causing his two best friends to roll their eyes at his informal address of the girl he just met. There were some well-prepared onigiri with different flavour, and Hikari blushed slightly at Daisuke's comment.
'Don't make her uncomfortable, Dai.' Takeru snorted as he grabbed a bite of his own sandwich.
'I'm not making her uncomfortable! I'm just saying her lunch looks delicious!'
'Don't mind Dai, Hikari-san,' Ken offered as he shook his head with a kind smile. 'He has a big mouth that says whatever comes to his mind.'
'If he even has one, that is.'
'Hey, I hear that, blondie!'
Hikari couldn't help but smile at the interaction of the three boys. Although they were arguing, she could tell that they were really good friends. She picked up one onigiri from her lunchbox and handed it to Daisuke, tilting her head to one side, as if asking 'do you want to have one?' Takeru and Ken stared, and Daisuke just blinked.
'You mean…I can have it?' He carefully asked, not really sure if that's what the girl meant. It was only after seeing her nod that he beamed widely and took the onigiri and put it in his mouth. 'Oishii!' He exclaimed and had a very satisfied smile on his face. 'Did you make it yourself?' He asked, and Hikari timidly nodded, a pink flush on her cheeks from the attention the boys were giving her. She grabbed another two from her lunchbox and handed them to the other two boys, who were reluctant to accept at first. 'You need to eat too, right?' 'We're not as hungry as Dai is.' But they accepted it at Hikari's persistence, and they also complimented on how tasty the onigiri were.
While they were eating, they also learned that Hikari always cooked at home since her mother was a terrible cook, and her father and older brother would rather let her, the youngest in the family, cook, than had another taste of her mother's horrible cooking. The conversation became a discussion of each family's cooking quality, and Hikari noticed there was a glint of hesitance in Takeru's voice when the blond talked about how his parents were always busy that he also cooked his meals most of the time, along with the worry in Daisuke and Ken's eyes, but she decided not to press on that matter.
During the whole conversation, Hikari was somewhat relieved, and to an extent surprised, that the three boys did not ask her about her condition. She thought they would be curious to know why a mute girl would transfer to their school, but every time the conversation was leading that way Takeru or Ken would quickly change the topic. Hikari figured that they might be trying to give her some space before opening up to them, since this wasn't the kind of topic one would discuss with anyone, and she was thankful for their thoughtfulness.
After lunch Daisuke and Ken had to meet with their football coach to discuss some team matters, so Hikari was left with Takeru who showed her around the school campus. She didn't realize the school was that big before, having many clubrooms for afterschool extra-curricular activities, and also a large football pitch for team practice. She also noticed that a lot of people seemed to be looking at the blond standing next to her as he gave descriptions of what the rooms were used for. Most of them were girls, and he looked a bit uncomfortable with the attention he was receiving, but when she tugged his shirt and looked at him with concerned eyes, as if asking what was wrong, he would just shrug and gave her a smile, and kept going with the tour. She wondered why the boy seemed to be so mysterious at times, even though he was generally friendly and kind.
She took out her digital camera to take pictures of all sceneries that Takeru showed her. After taking endless amount of photos, Takeru chuckled.
'Why are you taking so many pictures of the school?' He asked as the girl snapped another shot of the basketball court that they had just arrived at. He found it amusing that she acted like the school was some kind of famous scenic spot, when he never really spared another look at the sight. 'It's not like they will disappear tomorrow,' he casually added.
However, he did not expect Hikari to have a small, painful smile on her face as she wrote down her response on her sketchbook.
'You never know what will happen. Besides, it'll be easier too if I have to ask for directions to a certain place.'
Takeru suddenly felt guilty, for he thought he might have hit a spot that the girl was trying to avoid. She looked uneasy as he casually raised that question, and he now realized why. It wasn't easy for her to adapt to an environment where everyone could easily vocalize their mind. It was like being a black sheep among a crowd of fluffy white lambs. Something might have happened in the past that caused her to treasure each moment so much. He mentally smacked himself for how insensitive he was, and he needed to say something to break this sudden, unbearably tense silence.
'Hey, you know what?' He turned to the girl who didn't seem bothered by his previous question, or at least she was trying to pretend that she didn't care, Takeru thought. 'We have a match tomorrow after school here.' He pointed at the empty basketball court. 'It'll be the first game of the season. You should come watch the game. Dai and Ken will be here too.'
The crimson-eyed girl looked at him, and Takeru could not read her expression. Again, he felt like he had done something stupid. She probably already had some other plans, and she was trying to figure out a polite way of declining your offer, he thought. Hikari took out her pink mechanical pencil and wrote on a blank page of her sketchbook and showed it to him.
'Can my older brother come too? He used to study here, and he won't let me walk home by myself afterwards.'
He nodded, remembering how overprotective her brother was, based on her description during their conversation beforehand, when they asked about her family. Having an older brother himself, he could understand why Hikari's brother seemed to overreact whenever something happened to her.
'Sure then! I'll come and watch the game!'
He didn't know why, but he felt his lips curved upwards to form a grin.
'It's a promise, then. If you don't come I'll get mad at you, and you'll lose your first friend at this school.' He teased with a sly grin, and Hikari silently giggled at his silly request. She knew he meant well, though, and she also thought that it would be a good chance for her to experience her school life like other normal students did. That was what she had been hoping for when she begged for her parents to let her enrol into Odaiba Junior High, and what she tried to tell the headmaster and Nagakawa when she met them. While being mute meant she couldn't talk, she wanted to live a normal life like any other person of her age did. She wasn't going to let her disability affect her life that much.
'There's something I want to ask you.'
Takeru nodded for her to continue.
'Why is everyone looking at you when we were walking around the campus?
Takeru's face darkened a bit, but he quickly recovered from it and he ruffled his messy blond hair, thinking of what to say to the girl who had an innocently curious expression on her face. It was not something that he liked to brag about, but he also reckoned that she would learn about it eventually. He sighed and sat down, his eyes observing the basket on the other side of the court. Hikari followed suit, feeling that this would not be a short conversation.
'People here call me, Dai and Ken "the golden trio",' he spoke with an irritated tone that Hikari did not fail to notice. 'It has something to do with us being the key players of our sports team. We are…' Takeru struggled for a second to find the right word for his sentence, '…some sort of idols, I guess. They think we're special and treat us differently.'
Hikari recalled the murmurs she heard when leaving the classroom and the glances she received when Takeru was showing her around the school campus. They did look at the three boys differently, as if they were some kind of sacred beings that they dared not approach. She tried to connect the dots together, and she thought she knew why. Her brother had mentioned that Odaiba Junior High was a school that valued sports a lot, so with them being the leaders of their respective teams meant they were constantly under the spotlight. Hikari could understand why the girls looked at them in awe, and some boys looked at them with envy burning in their eyes.
'I really don't like the attention that we're getting, to be honest,' Takeru rested his elbows on the ground as he leaned backward, sighing while looking at the ceiling aimlessly. 'It's annoying. It is as if we are nothing but sports stars, and somehow that is a big deal. That's why we don't have many friends.'
That statement startled Hikari. From what she observed, although Takeru did not interact with others as much as Daisuke did, she saw him talking and laughing with many classmates beforehand. She couldn't really believe that he, seemingly one of the most popular boys in the school, would not have many friends.
'Don't get me wrong,' Takeru interrupted her thoughts, seeing her widened eyes. 'I know many people and I talk to them, but a friend is…different, you know? Friends are not the same as acquaintances.' He sighed again. 'That's why I hang out with Dai and Ken a lot, because they feel the same. We don't like to be seen as some kind of heroes just because we play our sports. We don't like to be treated differently.'
Hikari studied the blond in front of her carefully. His ocean blue eyes showed a glint of sadness that she did not like. She didn't know him well enough to say if his concern was a legitimate one, but then she also felt sad that a fourteen-year-old had to worry about things like that. Shouldn't they just enjoy their school life and have fun with their friends? Should a junior high student think about things negatively like that? She couldn't really understand it, for she had always thought that going to school would be fun. Takeru's story seemed to tell her that she had been naïve all along about that matter.
Still, she wanted to go to a 'normal' school because she wanted to be a 'normal' junior high student. It made her frown to see her first friend in school with that dark, sullen expression on his face.
'Sorry for saying such gloomy things to you,' Takeru detected that her eyes had turned sorrowful, and he bit his lips. 'Forget about what I said. It's not that important, really. It's just that you'll hear that expression and rumours about us soon.' He rose from his position and read his watch. 'It's almost the end of lunchtime now, so I think we should head back to the classroom.' He gave her a reassuring smile that meant to lift her spirit, for he didn't want to ruin her first day of school by telling her about his personal issue with trusting people.
However, Hikari responded by tugging his sleeves, causing him to turn around to face her, and showing him the words she had just written on her sketchbook, with a small but sincere smile on her face.
'I don't want to be just someone you will talk to, Takeru-kun.
'I want to be your friend.'
He didn't know what expression he had on his face when he read those words. To say he was startled would be an understatement, but at that moment he felt a rush of warm emotions filling his stomach. A small gesture like that was enough to lift the corners of his lips, and the genuine smile on her face also told him that she really meant it. She did not want to be just someone he knew in life; rather, she wanted to be someone he could trust if he ever needed a shoulder to lean on.
Their moment was interrupted when Daisuke and Ken spotted them and urged them to go back to the classroom. As Daisuke complained to Hikari about how boring their next lesson was going to be, Takeru walked behind them slowly, with his eyes staring at Hikari's back, and Ken was aware of the unreadable expression on his friend's face.
'What's wrong, Takeru?' He asked in a kind voice, and he made sure that he whispered it softly so that Hikari could not hear him. The subtle frown of his friend did not escape from his eyesight. The blue-haired teenager knew that something must have happened for him to act that way, and it seemed plausible that the brown-haired girl was the reason why he had that odd look on his face. 'Did something happen between you and Hikari-san?'
To his surprise, the blond sounded very calm. 'Nothing, Ken.' He put his hands in the pockets of his trousers, and looked at the girl walking in front of her. 'I just think that she's different from others.'
Hikari seemed to take notice of their glances, and turned her head to face them and smile warmly. From the corner of his eyes Ken saw Takeru's lips form an upward curve. What caught his attention was that there was something different in his smile. It was a sincere one that he seldom saw the blond wear on his face when facing people he just met.
Ken just gave a knowing look at the mute girl, and then at his friend who didn't notice his glance but who kept his eyes on the girl walking in front. Seeing that brought a tiny smile to his face
As her first school day came to an end, Hikari let out a sigh and quietly packed her stuff. She waved politely at her classmates who were leaving the classroom, and smiled at Takeru, Ken and Daisuke, who had to attend to their respective teams' practice, as they left in a hurry. She took her stuff and found her way towards the school entrance, where her older brother had promised to wait for her after school.
She was glad that she got along with her classmates and became good friends with 'the golden trio' on her first day of school. After knowing they were sports players, Hikari worried for a moment that they would be prideful boys who talked about nothing but their achievement, but they seemed to be friendly people who did not mind waiting for her slow response to their conversation.
She inwardly giggled at how different those three were. Daisuke was passionate and loud, but a caring person at heart. Ken was kind and polite, and very observant. And then there was Takeru. She was still trying to figure out what the blond was like. On the surface he was warm and genial, but his dark expression during their lunch break and his monologue at the basketball court made the fourteen-year-old wonder if he had a deeper side than she thought.
With a distance from the school entrance, she spotted a tall, brown-haired boy with spiky hairstyle leaning by the gate, his hands placed casually in the pocket of his school coat. Some looked at him with a curious glance, for he was wearing the uniform of Odaiba Senior High, but he just ignored them. She beamed and sprinted towards the standing figure, who was watching other students leaving the school and did not expect her to jump into his arms, causing him to take a few steps back with his eyes widened.
'Woah, Hikari! You scared me!' The boy gasped, but he quickly recovered and held the girl in his arm protectively. Hikari giggled and clung to his arm affectionately. 'How was first day of school, my dear imouto-chan?'
'Very nice.' She made a hand gesture as she settled herself and the two began to walk away from the white school building. 'I made some friends, and they are very nice to me.'
'That's good.' Yagami Taichi grinned and raffled his sister's hair playfully, earning a pout from the crimson-eyed girl. His expression turned serious in the next second, however. 'Did anyone make fun of your condition? And don't lie to me, Hikari. You know that I know when you're lying.'
Hikari looked at her brother and sighed, knowing that it would be futile to lie to her older brother. 'There were some who looked at me strangely, or avoided talking to me, but most of my classmates were nice and they were willing to talk to me.' Seeing the frown on his face made her feel guilty about revealing this to him. It wasn't his fault that she was in such a situation, and if anyone was to be blamed it would be herself. She didn't like it when what happened to her got her brother worried.
She continued to use sign language to communicate with her older brother, who was giving death glare at people who had an odd expression on their faces as they passed by. 'What are you looking at?' He yelled at some of them, who kept staring at Hikari as if she was some kind of endangered species. Hikari frowned and sighed, and she tugged Taichi's sleeves weakly. 'Don't worry, onii-chan. I'm fine.' Really, it wasn't like she had not encountered worse before. In fact, she was already used to people giving weird glances at her, and she decided not to tell Taichi about the uncomfortable silence in the classroom when she 'announced' to the class that she was mute.
'At least you have Nagakawa to be your class teacher. I know he doesn't judge people…' Taichi mumbled under his breath, and Hikari desperately wanted to change the topic. She loved Taichi, but she was hoping sometimes their conversation would focus less on her condition and more on other stuff. Suddenly, she recalled her conversation with Takeru during lunchtime.
'Do you want to watch the school's basketball game with me tomorrow?' Taichi was not surprised that his sister changed the topic, but he was a bit taken aback by her request. 'Basketball? Hikari, I never knew you're into that sport.'
'A friend invited me to go watch the game. It's after school tomorrow,' she kept moving her tiny hands in the air as they were getting closer to their apartment, 'and I know that you won't let me walk home by myself afterwards.'
Taichi couldn't help but chuckle at her last statement. 'You know that I don't mind doing this for my cute imouto-chan. At least, until I start to get busy with football practice at school.'
They turned another corner and their apartment building was in their sight now. 'So, a guy invited you.'
That wasn't a question, but a firm statement that Hikari could hear the venom in his tone, and she just had to laugh. 'Unless you want me to have no social life at all, then yes, it's a boy.'
She didn't bother to listen to Taichi's elaboration of how she was too young to start dating, or how teenage boys were just after her looks and would eventually break her heart. All she could think about was that tomorrow she got to see her friend play, not to mention that Takeru would get mad if she didn't come! Thinking about that brought a smile to her face, and she could not wait for tomorrow to come.
End of Chapter 2
In case anyone is wondering, there won't be any Daikari romance in this fic. Any Daikari moment is purely on friendship basis. This is a Takari, after all. There won't be character bashing too.
This chapter is actually a rather awkward one, in the sense that it can be merged with the first chapter or the next one and still won't disturb the flow of the story that much. But then, I don't want each chapter to be excessively long, so I decided to separate them. This chapter, along with the first chapter and the coming one, is more on providing minor clues that will contribute much to characters development and help move the plot forward, so please bear with me if you think the development is rather slow.
I've roughly got the whole story planned out, and seemingly it will be longer than I thought. Right now I'm thinking there will be at least 15 chapters in total, but will depend on how reception goes and if I want to change anything about the plot later. The point is, the development will be rather slow, compared to my other stories, so please be patient if you're anxiously looking for intimate Takari moment. They will come eventually, but just not that soon. This chapter and the next focus more on Takeru's character and background, and then we'll see more of Hikari's. Based on what I have now, Miyako and Iori will make their appearance on chapter four.
I'll be busy writing my research paper these two weeks, so the next update will probably be a bit late. Hopefully I will have time to upload the next chapter in a fortnight, but I can't say for sure. Anyway, I hope you'll stay tuned for it! And please review to let me know what you think!
