Okay, I just finished a game of Sudoku (thirteen minutes, w00t!), and I'm ready to [finally write this chapter! I'm really really really really sorry for how lazy I've been with updates (two months is unforgivable!). True, I have been really busy with school, but I've had plenty of time in which to write this chapter (and three or four more, too). To compensate, I'll give you TWO chapters! And chapter four's gonna be great, I can't wait to write it. Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ya'll. And/or Hanukah and/or Chinese New Year's.
RANDOM CRAP: It's been a pretty exciting two months for me. I got a car, my dog died (she was fourteen years old!), I got an 1880/2400 (1280/1600) on my SAT, and we have an illustration for Love Is Funny! My super-special-awesome friend fishuu drew it, and it looks great, so check it out on her deviantArt. To make things easier for you, just google fishuu, then check her scraps page. It's awesome. Thanks, Fishuu! This chapter will be dedicated to you. And I might put you in the fic later (though it'll probably be because I'm too lazy to come up with a name… . )
BY THE WAY: Right after I wrote Chapter 1, I saw the episode with Santa's origin story. Turns out he's a BA. Who woulda thunk?
Chapter 2- Agitation
My plan worked perfectly. Pucca was nowhere in sight, and I was able to walk through Sooga Village in peace for once. It was wonderful. The whole street seemed to glow in the sun. The sky seemed clearer. Even the people seemed - if possible - cheerier than usual.
It was great at first! But then…. I started feeling a little unnerved. What was with all the pink? And… why were there so many couples out? I couldn't see any single person amongst the couples. Even Mio had scurried off to flirt with that pink cat he always fawns over. Stupid cat.
Anyways, I was on my last nerve as I walked up to the Goh-Ryong. At least there had been no sign of Pucca yet. Thankfully.
"Hiiiiii-yah!"
Without a moment's hesitation, I ducked as a figure whooshed over my head, then jumped up and kicked him in the back of the knees. He fell over backwards, just as I had planned, and I made to elbow him in the face. I stopped the attack inches in front of his nose. We both stayed like that for a few moments, then Abyo suddenly burst out laughing.
"You're sharp as ever, Garu."
I smirked as I helped him back up. He brushed off his back, still grinning.
"Bet you're glad that Pucca's not here."
Hell. Yes.
I nodded quickly. Why wouldn't I be? A guy would have to be crazy to pass up such a chance at freedom. And I'm not crazy. Abyo continued chatting as they climbed up the stairs to the restaurant.
"Yeah, she left early this morning and hasn't been back all day."
I gave him a questioning glance. What'd she leave for? It was far too early for her to be looking for me. I felt an odd sense of foreboding- something wasn't adding up here.
"Who knows? Ching said something about Valentine's Day, but who knows what that's supposed to mean." He snorted and scuffed his shoe against the ground. "Girls."
I grunted in agreement. What did Valentine's Day have to do with it? It wasn't for another month, at least; it was only the middle of February. Valentine's Day isn't until…. March, right? Yeah. March the… fifteenth.
That's it.
Definitely.
The restaurant wasn't very crowded when we walked in. Ching, Ssosso, and Santa were the only people eating, and Dada was cleaning a table in the back. Ching immediately lit up when she saw us. That crazy chicken of hers was sitting on her head as usual, looking a little alarmed by the disruption.
"Hey, guys!" she cried.
"Hey!" Abyo sat down across from her, and I sat next to him. I wondered for a second why Ching was here this late in the afternoon, but just as quickly let it go. Girls were always doing crazy things. It's best not to think about it.
Dada came and took our order, astoundingly managing to balance a tray of dishes in one hand while writing our order on a pad of paper with the other. At nearly nineteen years old, his balance and coordination had improved considerably, but he still had a ways to go. As if in accordance with my thoughts, he suddenly tripped and dropped the tray with the unmistakable sound of shattering dishes. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
It was then that I noticed - felt, rather - the awkward silence settling over our table. I looked over at Abyo. He was fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat. My glance rolled over to Ching. She was nervously biting her lip and glancing up at Abyo every so often. I suddenly felt the urge to bolt. Then the storm hit.
"A… Abyo?" Ching's voice shook slightly. Abyo jumped as if he'd been zapped.
"What! I mean, uh, yeah?"
They were both trying very hard not to look at each other. I eyed them suspiciously. What the heck was going on?
"I was just w-wondering if you, um… if you…" Her voice trailed off and she was staring at the table as if her life depended on it. She blinked suddenly then glanced up at him. "If you would like to go out with me today."
Abyo stared blankly at her for what seemed like an eternity. Neither of them noticed Dada place our noodles on the table, then quickly walk away as he saw what was happening. I immediately began eating.
Abyo cleared his throat suddenly. "Today…?"
She nodded shyly, still not looking directly at him. Won shuffled her feathers.
Another eternity. I slurped up another spoonful of noodles. Noodles…
The atmosphere suddenly shifted, and the tension dissipated like morning fog.
"Sure, why not?" he replied, nearly choking on his words. He grinned weakly back at Ching, who had immediately brightened.
"All right! This is gonna be the best Valentine's Day ever!"
I nearly choked on my noodles. Wait, what! Abyo looked at me worriedly.
"You all right there, Garu?"
I nodded my head, still spluttering. My head was reeling in shock. How can today be Valentine's Day? Suddenly, it all made sense. The couples, the hand-holding, the pink- ugh, the pink-
I must have been staring or something, because Ching asked, "Garu, what's wrong?"
I blinked, wondering how to convey this, but Abyo furrowed his brow for a moment, then said,
"Hey, I know! You didn't know that today is Valentine's Day, did ya?"
One horrified look was all it took.
Ching laughed and Abyo thumped me on the back good-naturedly.
"Don't worry, it happens to all of us."
I tried to grin back at them, but a terrible thought struck me- where the heck is Pucca, then?
I swear, I nearly felt the floor drop out from under me then. She had to be off planning some horrible, frightening, awful… date for us. My face blanched.
Ching and Abyo gave me worried looks. I must've looked something awful right then.
"Garu, are you sure you're-"
I never gave Ching the chance to finish her sentence. Excusing myself as politely and quickly as possible, I stood up and walked as calmly as I could to the kitchen. I had to know where Pucca was. She could just be off doing harmless girly things somewhere for all I knew, but I had to be sure.
I reached to open the door, but it flung open before me as Dada rushed out with a bucket of water. He managed to skirt around me without much trouble. The door swung closed again. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open. The smell of fresh noodles took hold of me as I entered, and I nearly forgot what had been troubling me.
"Ah, if it isn't Pucca's boyfriend!" Uncle Dumpling twittered.
I flinched. Why did everyone have to call me that? It's nothing like that! You couldn't even call us friends anymore. She's more like a friend of a friend of my friend. That's all. Well, it would be, if she didn't obsess over me so much.
Oblivious to my torment, the other chefs turned around, looking slightly surprised. It wasn't often that I came into the kitchen. How would I explain this to them?
"You must be looking for Pucca, then," Ho offered.
I resisted the usual twitch that came upon hearing her name. Instead, I nodded my head as casually as I could. The three chefs immediately lit up when I acknowledged that I was willingly looking for their darling Pucca. Great.
"She left for the beach this morning," Uncle Dumpling nearly sang.
Linguini winked at me. "And said it had something to do with you."
"It must be for your present," Ho finished.
They looked back at me expectantly. I smiled back, knowing it looked more like a grimace, and gave a quick bow before I left the kitchen as quickly as possible. Their chuckling was cut short by the door swinging closed behind me.
" -he'd be so much happier if he just hooked up with Pucca! I don't understand it, Abyo," Ching sighed. Great. More people talking about me. Just what I need right now.
"How is Pucca, anyway? I haven't seen her much."
"I dunno, she's been so distant lately… it's like she's starting to give up hope, Abyo."
Abyo's eyes widened. "Pucca?"
"Yeah, really, right? That's why she's counting so much on today to catch his attention," Ching sighed again.
Well, that certainly rattled me. Pucca was giving up on me? I almost felt worried, but quickly pushed that sentiment aside. Good riddens, right? Right.
But why does everyone have to keep insisting that we should be together? It's not gonna happen! I glared at Abyo and Ching as I approached them, clearly letting them know what I thought about their little chat. Abyo froze as he saw me and almost looked scared. Ching, seeing his expression, turned around. She gasped when she saw me.
"Oh! Garu, we didn't realize you were-"
I never gave her the chance to finish her sentence. Like it mattered. I stormed out of the restaurant with Ching and Abyo's astonished faces staring after me.
It was no longer sunny as I trudged down the road out of the village. Dark clouds covered the sun and thunder rolled all around me. The wind began to pick up.
Mio was nowhere to be seen. He's probably still off with that damn girlfriend of his. I have no idea why, but this irked me to no end. I broke off running through the woods to my home as the first few drops of rain began to fall.
It was raining heavily by the time I walked through the door. Every inch of my skin and clothes was soaked. Not to mention I was chilled to the bone.
I was still seething about what had happened at the restaurant, but the run back had helped me to blow off some steam. All I needed now were some clean clothes and a good hour of meditation. And a hot bowl of soup wouldn't do me any harm.
My evening set, I changed into a dry set of clothes, lit some incense, and prepared for my much-needed meditation. I sat down with my sword beside me and began a series of breathing exercises to calm my body and mind. Goodness knows I needed it.
I breathed in. The smell of incense became stronger. Every sound seemed intensified, yet at the same time diminished. Time lost all significance.
I breathed out. All my troubles were forgotten. Now I could bring them back one by one to handle them more easily and with less stress.
So, Pucca was off finding a gift for me. What's so bad about that? I should have expected it. True, Valentine's Day did catch me unawares, but it's nothing to be so agitated about.
Now, about how everyone keeps trying to pair us off. That was certainly something to be agitated about. It's obvious that I have no interest in her. Why would I? She's obnoxious, intrusive, has no respect for anyone else's interests- I could go on and on. I just can't stand her. Yet still they insist on bracketing us together.
I can't stand it anymore! What about what I want? Doesn't anyone care about that? Especially her! All I want is to-
A knock at the door interrupted my flow of thoughts. I jolted out of my meditation, feeling distinctly peeved. If there's one more thing I can't stand, it's having my training disrupted.
Trying as best I could to curb my agitation, I opened the door. Before I could do anything to defend myself, I was engulfed by a mass of red. And then I heard it- the sound that I hate and fear more than anything else in this world. Her giggle.
I jumped back, and sure enough- it was her.
Pucca.
Even though she was completely soaked through, she was grinning up at me. In her arms was a large, wrapped, box-shaped package that could only have been for me. She almost would have looked cute if I hadn't been so damn angry.
I took the package from her and glared at it. It was absolutely horrifying. The whole thing was wrapped in bright pink paper embellished with swooshing red hearts, and tied with a ridiculously poofy red ribbon. A tag was attached with "I Love Garu" scrawled across it in red with hearts covering any white space. A surge of white-hot rage burned through me.
I dropped the present.
Under any other circumstances, I would have taken the present and rolled my eyes as usual. But this had to stop. I was tired of people trying to push me where I didn't want to go, where I had never wanted to go.
I glared at her with pure hate, then slammed the door as hard as I could. There was a long silence, but I finally heard the sound of her moped as she drove away.
I dropped down to where I had been meditating before she came. Never in my life felt so agitated before. I was so sick of her chasing me all the time! Would this never end?
Nothing could calm me down now. Not even three solid hours of sword practice would clear my head. My hair was plastered to my face with sweat as I finally gave up and went to bed.
But even sleep evaded me. I just couldn't shake this agitation I felt. Something was very off, I could sense it.
It wasn't until the earliest hours of morning that I realized it- as I'd slammed the door in her face, Pucca's eyes had been filled with tears.
I couldn't believe him! After all the trouble I'd gone through to get his gift. And he just drops it and slams the door in my face!
Tears threatened to overwhelm me, but I tried as hard as I could to blink them back. I didn't even pay attention to where I was driving; I just kept going. Anything to get away from there. That look in his eyes- he hates me. I know it.
And why wouldn't he? I know I've been so horrible to him ever since that day.
But he didn't have to act like that! He's always been so polite before; that was one of the things I loved about him so much.
I sighed. Pucca, you are hopeless.
My sight blurred with tears again, and angrily tried to blink them back. Why did I have to be like this?
There's no way I'm ever gonna cry for him again!
I lifted my arm to my face to wipe away the tears, and then suddenly everything came to a horrible stop. I heard something shatter, and I screamed as I felt a brutal pain in my arm, and then I was flying.
I lost all sense of what was up and what wasn't as I sailed through the air. Then I suddenly straightened out, and I could see the stars stretched out in the sky above me.
They're so beautiful…
That was my last thought before I felt a crushing pain and my world disappeared.
Woohoo, cliffy! Don't worry, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow. It's gonna be so great! This chapter was pretty intense, huh? And long! I expect lots of reviews, of course! Though that's never been a problem with you guys. Until next time, then!