Chapter 2

Bankotsu arrived five minutes before ten to pick me up, he is always so worried Im actually going to ditch him he does this each time we meet. If I say two pm, he's here five or ten minutes before the arranged time.

I never was going to ditch him actually, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my time alone a lot, but his company has never been a bad one. I met Bankotsu when we were both eleven years old. I had just moved from Europe and it was the first time I was going to a Japanese school

flashback—

September of 1999

"Good morning children, today we have a new student transferring all the way from Europe! His Japanese is not so good, so please help him out." The teacher spoke to the classroom in slow motion so the new kid could understand, even though he couldn't.

"Could you introduce yourself to the class, honey?" Her English was bad, but she had no bad intentions. The little boy with unusual lavender eyes and blonde hair blushed at her sudden smile but slowly moved away from her side to stand in front of a whole class filled with other eleven year olds.

"Hajimemashite" was all he could manage to say in a low whisper. He had tried so hard to learn Japanese over the last two months, his tutor said he was the best student he had ever had, and he knew it. But right now he couldn't utter a word, he was so scared.

What if they didn't like him? Would the other boys bully him because of his snow white skin? Or would they instead make fun of his weird eyes? Like other kids had done in the other schools he had attended over the past years.

This were all questions that passed by his mind, as the son of one of the wealthiest families in the world everyone was expecting so much from him, but right now that didn't matter. He was still young and for the moment he had some other business in his mind.

"Its ok if you are uneasy, you can introduce yourself individually later on. But let me get you someone to help you get used to the school, ok?" again he only nodded but didn't moved another fiber in his body.

"Now kids, who would like to be little Inoguchi-san's guide for the rest of the week?" His heart pounded, his palms sweat, opening his eyes was out of the question; going through all of this again was too painful to take. None of the boys or girls dared raise their hands on the other schools, and he knew this was just about to repeat again. His new teacher would have to either pick someone or give extra points for whoever would be his guide.

"Mr. Shichinintai is going to be your guide for the week Inoguchi-san. Please take a seat next to him at the second row." Could this be real, someone actually wanted to be his guide, maybe even his friend.

"Come sit next to me, Inoguchi-kun. From now on I am in charge of you." And so, he knew this school and this boy had just changed his life completely.

End Flashback—

Im almost sure everyone in the world knows that men don't need that much, well they actually need almost no time to get ready. Life is pretty easy for us when you look at the 'taking care' of our body aspect of life.

Most of us have short hair, and when its long its mostly a bit below the shoulder line; which makes it easy to dry, just give it a couple of minutes out in the hot city temperature and, done! All ready to go. We also almost don't have to take care of our weigh, since we lose body fat really fast. A friend of my mom's once told me he lost twenty pounds in a month; twenty pounds, can you believe it! Just imagine living with a nine year old child on your arms for all your life and then suddenly, one day the child decides to go down, and then you'll know what loosing twenty pounds mean.

Fifteen minutes was all I needed to: pick the shirt and the pants I wanted, take a shower, wash my hair, dry myself and get into my cloth took me. Not a personal record, but I can't say Im not proud of it.

Bankotsu didn't even have to wait for me, and neither did I. As I was walking out of the building of my new home (at least it felt like that, home that is) his car stopped in front of me. I got in as soon as I got to the door, only to find Jakotsu already in with some blonde girl, a player like always even if he did look a little feminine himself.

Getting in to a club is not a difficult thing, if you have the Inoguchi and Nintai last name, that is. With one look at our ID's we got in, to the VIP off course. From up here we could see all the other people dancing together, moving at what they thought was the rhythm of the music.

The VIP room for this club was a very special one, and one of the best one's I have seen in all my life. A room about the size of a basket ball court with small tables for up to 4 people and a large bar with two people attending. There was a stage and apparently it was karaoke night, so people would go up, pick their favorite tune (the best 400 music of 2008-2009) and sing with the piano accompanying.

Bankotsu and some girls got up and began singing some stupid love songs, everyone 'booed' he can't sing at all and neither could his girls. After two or three songs of ignoring everyone they finally came down again. Jakotsu had preferred to go downstairs and meet some 'normal' girls, as he liked to call them, I believe easy was what he was going for.

As far as the night had gone, nothing interesting had happened for me; I sat at one of those high chairs in the bar after a while of putting up with two blondes who were so interested in my family's business I thought they knew more about it than I did. My other two fellows seemed to be having the time of their life, and I was happy for them.

I wasn't paying attention at all to the karaoke people, most of them gave up after one song, a though crowd we were; that's what a girl with braces who went up to sing said after singing just five phrases of 'be my escape by relienk k'. And it was true, we are a tough crowd, even if we didn't scream mean things to the people who were brave enough to go up there, we wouldn't even clap when the music ended.

It never crossed my mind that I was going to meet her at that place again. At first I couldn't notice it, there was a certain fog on the air, due to all the people smoking, but she was there. I got to see her walking into the VIP room; I got to see those eyes again. Since the moment I saw her, my eyes went straight to hers, and that is where they stayed for the rest of the night.

The silver eyed girl went straight up the stage and asked the pianist if she could play a song, he agreed; who could say no to that pair of eyes, to that face? She got up on stage, and the room became filled with small whispers, 'who is that girl?' 'did you see her eyes', things like that.

She didn't introduce herself, she just started singing; and the moment I heard her voice again, I was in trance. Tears came streaming down my cheek, but I don't think anyone noticed, they were all too caught up, looking at that girl.

The way she sang, the pitch of her voice, it was all too perfect. Almost throughout the whole music her eyes were closed and her voice echoed into my mind. The lyrics were so sad, and her face didn't show anything different.

It talked about a lost love, unrequired too; an old long distance relationship. Young teenagers lost in the bloom of love and summer, but as the summer had to end, so had the love. He needed to return to his home, and she began school again; nothing could be done, so they had to say goodbye.

The story went on for a while, they called each other, most of the time he called and she listened to his stories about coming back for her the next summer. They were going to rent a house and live together. But not so soon afterwards, his calls became less frequent but she still loved and yearned for him.

Years later, she was to find him again. He was a big corporative guy now, and she a medicine student. 'No time to play again' they both said in their heads, and even though they were still crazy about each other, they never crossed ways again.