~REVISED: Notes at the end~
Ruki got herself up early. 6:00am early, so she could avoid her mother, who she hated. All her mum could do was talk about her latest photo shoots, and how Ruki should get into it, 'Like hell' was Ruki's main thought on the subject.
When her mum got up, Ruki was already walking out the door, "Oh, Ruki-chan! I need to talk to yo-!" Slam! went the door.
Ruki walked up the front garden path, "Yeah, sure, "I picked this dress, especially for you darling! Look at these frills!"" Ruki mimicked, and she sighed. As she walked, she passed the path which Ryou used to go home, 'Wonder where he lives exactly?' then she shook her head, "I dont care for that idiot pretty boy!" she muttered.
It was spring. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. She'd arrive at school soon. She looked away from the beautiful trees quickly, as though it hurt to look at them. It was the season when he left... As she walked, she began to sing the chorus to the song that meant so much to her,
"Zutto zutto issho ni iru to Ano yuuhi ni yakusoku shita kara Sabishii toki mo Hirogaru orenji o nagamete "Kitto kitto daijoubu da yo" ano yuuhi ga sasayaite- "
-Translation-
"We'll be together forever, forever, Because we promised that setting sun In lonely times, we can look at that lengthening orange That setting sun will whisper, "It will be okay"-"
She was interrupted by something she glimpsed. As she passed a sakura tree, a boy, who was standing beside the tree, was staring at her. He was wearing a blue t-shirt, and 3-quarter length trousers. He had messy-ish brown hair, and brown eyes. But the most peculiar thing were the yellow goggles, which he was wearing on his head, "Ah-ah!" was his terrified squeak, because Ruki had begun glaring at him. She was embarrassed really, 'How dare he!' she thought, angrily. He was going red now, and Ruki was having trouble suppressing a blush. They glanced away from each other, and Ruki carried on toward the school quickly. She thought he looked a little familiar.
When she arrived, she sat on a bench, at the end of the school grounds. She felt so annoyed, 'Mental note: don't sing out loud again - ever!' She sat there looking at the ground, waiting until the bell went.
"Hey, this seat taken?" Asked a girl with a sweet-sounding voice. Ruki looked up. A girl stood before her. She had short brown hair, a green knee-length dress, with a yellow t-shirt underneath and brown eyes. The weird thing with this girl was that she had a yellow dog sock puppet on her right hand, 'Jeez, what is wrong with the kids here... Can this school get any more annoying?' Ruki thought, bitterly. The girl smiled. This annoyed Ruki all the more. None of the kid's smiles here could always be genuine, hers certainly couldn't.
"Hi! You're...Ruki, right? I never really got to talk to you!" the girl sat down next to her and continued, "I'm Katou Juri, but you can call me Juri!"
Ruki paused, then "smiled" and said, "It's nice to meet you... Juri."
Juri giggled, "...So, where do you come from?" Ruki didn't want to reflect.
The bell rang. Saved by the bell. She stood up quickly, and mumbled, "See you later" and walked away fast.
Juri, although seemed a little taken aback, overcame it and called sweetly, "Ok! See you later!" and she waved.
When Ruki arrived, again, she sat next to the quiet, spacey girl. As she sat down, she heard a nervous voice. She turned. It was the boy from earlier,
'That's why he was familiar - he's in my class!' she thought.
He looked embarrassed, and said quietly, "Ah... um... Sorry about earlier!" Ruki shrugged. She wasn't going to show any more embarrassment. So she nodded, "It's okay"
The boy smiled, "Phew, I'm Matsuda Takato by the way, and you are... Ruki-san, right?"
Ruki nodded, "...Nice to meet you, Takato-san."
The boy looked at the floor, "Oh... um... your song was really pretty by the way" Ruki felt annoyed, but "smiled" anyway, and said nothing.
"Hey Juri-chan! Where've you been?" one girl asked, from behind Ruki. Takato started blushing deeply, and spun around.
There stood the girl from earlier, "Oh, no where in particular!" she replied cheerfully.
Her eyes met Takato's, and she smiled at him, "Hey, Takato-kun!"
A few of the girls giggled, as Takato, now blushing furiously, stammered, "M-morning Katou-san!"
Juri brought out her strange dog puppet, and said in a weird voice, whilst moving the puppet's mouth, "Wan wan! Why is Takato-kun red?"
Takato went crimson, and the girls giggled even more, "Um... uh... I..." but he was interrupted.
"Now now, settle down class." said the droning voice of Saki-sensei. Everyone got in their seats. Ruki glanced at Ryou's seat. It was empty. She wondered what had happened. Then she scolded herself again, 'I-DON'T-CARE!" she told herself angrily.
First lesson was maths. Ruki didn't think maths great, but she could grasp it to some extent. Saki-sensei wrote meaningless letters on the board, mixed them with numbers, and gave a long droning account on algebra.
Ruki almost fell asleep, until she heard him say, "Err, Ruki-kun? I would like you to come up here, and solve this problem on the board. It'll show me what you know on this subject." Ruki nodded her head. She stood up, and walked slowly to the front. She picked up the piece of chalk, and began to write down calculations. Algebra wasn't her forte when it came to maths, but she understood the concept well enough.
Once she got about halfway, the classroom door slid opened, "Sorry I'm late! Saki-sensei!" said a cheerful voice. Ruki turned. It was Ryou.
A lot of the girls gasped, "R-Ryou-sama!"
"We thought we'd have to spend the day without you!"
Ruki turned to look at him. He seemed... upset. 'I'm acting like I know him! He's a stupid pretty boy! Ugh!' she thought, annoyed, yet again.
Saki-sensei frowned, "Hmm, okay, Ryou-kun, please take your seat. I will speak to you after class. We're doing algebra, and Ruki-kun here was just working out a problem for us."
"Ruuki eh?" he murmured. Ruki and Ryou's eyes met, and Ryou winked quickly, then took his seat. Ruki turned her head back to the board, making a silent vow to never meet his eyes again.
As she carried on writing, she mentally muttered words like, "Arrogant... stupid... pretty-boy..."
When she finished, she stood back, "Ah! Excellent work! Only, you were incorrect when you made the calculations... here... at the end. Nonetheless, we will make a fine mathematician out of you yet." Ruki felt embarrassed at this. She walked back to her seat quickly. As she did, she felt many eyes on her. Hadn't she suffered enough embarrassment for one day?
As she sat down, a boy with dark blue hair, brown trousers, and an orange coat, turned in his seat to her, and whispered, "Nice work." and smiled. Ruki didn't look at him.
As the bell signalling break came, everyone filed out. Ruki decided to stay. She brought out a small bento, and ate some leftovers from the previous night. She noticed the spacey girl, still sitting at her desk. Her long white-blonde hair was like a veil Ruki couldn't see past. She wore a black gothic lolita dress. Despite the "odd look", Ruki thought she might like this girl, if they were to get to know one another. It was like; this girl had suffered a lot, and closed herself off from everything. Ruki tried to close herself off as well but for some reason, she couldn't quite achieve it... Not entirely.
"Hi! Sorry if I startled you earlier, I'm Jenrya." Now startled, Ruki looked up then back at her desk again. It was the boy from earlier, dark blue hair. He had a very calm aura. One Ruki just didn't mix with. If someone really got on her nerves, she would retaliate in some way! This boy gave a different impression, 'It's weakness...' was Ruki's thought now, 'But, hey, what's new at this place?'. Ruki didn't look at Jenrya, nor did she reply. She was getting a bit sick of this.
Jenrya, slightly taken aback decided to leave Ruki to eating, and turned to the girl named Alice, "Hey Alice! How are you? Haven't really spoken to you much lately..." Alice pushed her hair behind her ears, but said nothing. Although, Ruki noticed there was a sadness in her eyes which she mistook as annoyance. Ruki side-glanced at Jenrya. He looked hurt, but it didnt stop him, "Uhh...you wanna meet up sometime?" he asked self-conciously. This seemed to make Alice more upset. This seemed strange to Ruki. If Jenrya was upsetting Alice this much, why not tell him to go away? Jenrya, acting as if Ruki wasn't there, took the chair in front of Alice. He pulled up closer, "Alice-san..?" he asked calmly. Alice closed her eyes tight, tensing. Jenrya looked more hurt, but didn't say anything. The sight made Ruki feel a little ill.
She stood up, "Dammit Jenrya! She doesn't want you hanging around?" 'She's like me...' said a voice in her head. Then, after grabbing her stuff, Ruki stormed out the class, leaving a stunned look on Jenrya's face, and the shadow of an emotion on Alice's. Something that represented anger.
Ruki walked through the school grounds, her hands in her pockets. She stared at the ground, not caring who she walked into. She passed several smiling faces like those three, Takeru, Hikari and Daisuke who called out to her, but she ignored them. *Plip* A drop of water landed on Ruki's shoulder. It was beginning to rain. She didn't care though. She'd walked through the streets at night plenty whilst it rained. It suited her mood. It always suited her mood. She noticed the bench she sat on earlier and headed over to it.
As she walked, she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder. She didn't turn round, just kept walking. Whoever it was grabbed her by her arm and stopped her."H-hey! Get the hell off-!" She turned around to see who had grabbed her. She groaned, "You again Pre-!" Ryou interrupted her, his face looked stern. Ruki was surprised to see him like that.
"Why did you say that?" He asked, his voice equally as stern as his face.
"What?" Ruki returned that sternness.
"Why did you say that to Jenrya?" He kept his voice low.
Ruki looked away, "Because... she looked so upset... he was upsetting her, and it was getting on my ner-"
"Getting on your nerves...? What would you know?" Ruki realised Ryou was still clutching her arm.
She wrenched it away from him and looked at the ground, "What the-? ...Because once you've been hurt so badly, no one can help." She turned to Ryou, and said angrily, "But you wouldn't understand, Pretty Boy!"
She was about to stalk past him, when Ryou put a hand on her shoulder, "...And you do...?" he said, his voice sounded completely different, not that flirtacious voice, but a quiet voice, shaking with emotion. He turned around and half-whispered, "You know what it's like to be part of an experiment?" Ruki's eyes widened. She turned back to him. His normally "smiling" face, was replaced with one of pain. Maybe this was closer to the real him...?
Ruki shook her head, "T-That's stupid... dumb... not true..."
Ryou shook his head, "Which is why no one knows. Who the hell would believe us? 2 years ago, Jenrya and I were wondering around the outskirts of the city. We passed by Alice-san's house. Alice-san back then, was a... kinda outgoing girl. I suggested we looked through the window..." And Ryou told Ruki the story of how Alice became so... different:
"Hey, Jenrya! Lookiiiiie! It's Alice-san's house!"
Jenrya turned around, looking embarrassed, "A-Alice-san?"
Ryou grinned, "Yep! Let's look through the window!"
"N-no way! That's creepy!" but Ryou was already at the window, "H-hey!" Jenrya whispered hoarsely. He looked through the window, next to Ryou. The house was the size of a mansion, and a lot of kids suspected that Alice was a rich kid. (No one ever went round to her house, since rumours of her father being a mad scientist were pretty off-putting). The sight that met Jenrya and Ryou's eyes were not what they expected. Surely something like Alice sitting at a long table, dining or something, but never this. Alice was floating unconscious, in a wide, long, experimental tube. The substance she was floating in was a sickly green colour. Talk about cliche. Alice's eyes opened slightly, "F-father! Please! Not me! D-don't!" and then the substance began to glow; Alice's figure lost, and all that could be heard was a high-pitched scream.
Normally, whenever Ruki heard "sad" stories from other people, she would walk away in annoyance, 'Who cares?' she'd think. In this case as well, she was tempted – it sounded so ridiculous. But Ryou seemed too serious. She couldn't dismiss it. She took a step back, and whispered, "Th-that's terrible! Why hasn't anyone done anything about him?"
"Because no one knows!"
"Why not tell someone then?"
"Because...he has an upper hand on us, he's a big-shot scientist for the government - No one would believe us!" Then, Ryou smiled very slightly, irony present. "Nice to know there's human emotion in there somewhere."
Ruki was narrowed her eyes at this.
"But now do you understand why Jenrya tries so hard?" Ruki felt angry, 'He's treating me like a kid!' But then another thought struck her, "But that still doesn't explain the... annoyance in Alice-san's eyes!"
Ryo calmed down a little bit, "Heh, that wouldn't be annoyance. We think the experiment put some sort of... emotional inhibiter into her. She can't express emotion anymore."
"That bastard..." was Ruki's quiet reply. She looked at the ground, "...Why tell me? Of course I'm going to be a little sceptical. Why think I'll believe you?"
Ryou didn't reply for a moment, then asked, "...I may feel annoyed at you, Ruki, but I certainly trust you. I have to-" He stopped himself.
""You have to"? What kind of response is that? What do you-" It was her turn to stop herself. "...Look, I just don't care, okay?" She walked away from Ryou, never meeting his eyes.
"Ah-! Ruki!" But she carried on walking, "Ruki... You..." Then he looked down at himself, "Hey, it's raining! And I'm drenched!" and he took shelter in the building close by.
The day carried on. Ruki deliberately moved to another seat, she didn't want to face Alice and Jenrya. She felt so annoyed, with both of them, and herself. When the bell rang, Ruki was the first to leave. The sooner her mum moved from here, the better.
As she walked back, she heard a familiar, annoying, flirtatious voice call, "Ruuuki!" he was acting flirty and silly again, as if earlier never happened. This grated on Ruki's nerves. When he caught up with her, he said cheerfully, "Hey, I apologised to Jenrya for you!"
Ruki stiffened. She turned to him, and voiced her angry thoughts, "What gives you the right to apologise for me!"
Ryou took a step back, "I'm sorry Ruki, it's just that, I could tell that you wanted to apologise, but you couldn't! Matter of pride and the like, yeah?" Ruki paused, and they started off home. '...Maybe...no, he's wrong! ...No...I don't know...but!'
"...Whether or not that's true." She said, surprisingly calmly, "It doesn't give you the right to apologise for me. It is my decision. Understood?" Ryou blinked, and then really understood. Maybe he had crossed a line. If anything, he was apologising out of annoyance that Ruki yelled at Jenrya. He was defending his friend Jenrya, really. They were both out of line.
"And another thing, since when were we close? I don't recall saying you could call me "Ruki"!" This brought Ryou back from his thoughts.
He chuckled, put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Oh, we're close! In fact, we're so alike that it's scary!"
Ruki shoved his hand off her shoulder, "Uhh, no we are not! You're an idiot pretty boy and I'm...well, I'm..." she trailed off.
Ryou chuckled again, much to Ruki's annoyance, "No, I wasn't referring to who we pretend to be." Ruki gave him a strange look. He continued, "I think you were a little different back then. Maybe."
"What are you talking about?"
Hurt flashed in Ryou's eyes, but he quickly replaced it with a fake grin, "Haha! You really don't remember, huh? Well, that's ok! Maybe you will someday!"
Really, Pretty-boy, what are you- hey!"
Ryou was already running in the direction of his house, "I'll see you tomorrow, Ruuki!"
Ruki turned toward her house, "He's so strange." she muttered aloud, 'But I can see a lot of other things in him...' whispered yet another voice in her head. She shook her head and began walking home.
As she got through the door, she saw her mum was waiting for her in the kitchen doorway.
"Mom, I'm really not in the mood." Ruki said, about to go upstairs, when her mum caught her arm.
"Look, I just want to say that-!"
"I don't wanna hear-"
"We're staying!" Ruki's eyes widened,
"W-what...?"
"Okay... Maybe not for good, but it's most likely!" Ruki down the hall, into her room and slid the door shut as hard as she could. 'I've got put up with these idiots for the rest of my school years!'
~REVISED: I hope that's better. I'm trying to tackle OOC-ness alongside character developement and so on. It's annoying ._. I'll try to revise the next one soon, seeing as the sooner I revise all these the sooner I can write the new chapter~