Ano Hito no Jijō (That Person's Circumstances)
by
Saddletank

Chapter Four – Of Test Tubes and Sakura Petals

Not only am I an average student. Or did I say below average?

I'm forgetful too.

Or maybe that should be easily distracted.

Well, whatever.

It was second period in the afternoon. History. And I'd gone straight from first period in the chem. lab back to 1-A's homeroom.

Without my bag.

What was I thinking?

You don't want to know.

Well, probably you do, you wouldn't be here listening to my tale if you didn't, hm?

I'll tell you. I'd seen that weird guy from 1-F in the corridor at lunchtime. That hippy with the dyed light brown hair. The one who hardly bothers to wear school uniform. Loose slacks, a tee shirt, jewellery. I swear that if he had little round glasses he'd look like John Lennon. He looked like some kind of musician or beatnik. Very laid back.

Smooth.

And ear piercings. Three of them. Left ear.

Damn, he was having a laugh wasn't he? How does the prestigious Hokuei High put up with that?

Maybe daddy is a school governor or something.

I didn't know his name, but as he passed me he glanced at me.

Well, down at me. He's tall too.

And he caught me glancing at him.

In response to his imagined snigger my face went red. And at the end of chemistry I was still thinking about him.

If he could get into Hokuei High looking like that maybe there was hope for even me.

So, thinking about fake tans and John Lennon, I forgot my bag.

- - - oOo - - -

I had a few minutes, so I ran back.

I stopped in the doorway.

She was in there. Washing up the equipment; the beakers, the test tubes, the pipettes, the refraction bulbs.

She was working at the sink by the window. Class rep duties I guessed.

That red hair. That quiet sense of superiority. That so bloody clever attitude. If she wasn't so nice to everyone, so helpful, she'd piss me right off. The John Lennon wannabe and her. One so laid back he was horizontal and the other so upright you could haul a flag up her spine and salute it. Two opposites.

Hm, make that three.

Can you have three opposites? Is that possible?

The third opposite was with her.

Arima Soichiro.

Here was another person who moved in a different world to me.

Everyone knew Arima. He was the freshman rep, and our other class rep. And so intelligent I felt like a gibbering primate when I was near him. I was simply lower down the evolutionary scale compared to him.

Those diagrams in the geology text books? You know the ones I mean? On the right of the page is a small wriggling wormy thing, then fish, then newts and frogs and so on up through cute furry marsupials that look like chibi-Totoro's to monkeys and apes and then knuckle dragging Neanderthals. And then, on the left of the page an upright man. It's always a man. And he's always naked. And he's beautiful. No beer bellies here. And for some reason he's always walking with his left leg advanced so you can't see anything.

Funny that.

And he's beautiful. A perfect specimen.

That was Arima. Perfect. Homo-Bloody-Perfect-Arima-Sapiens.

I don't often think of boys as beautiful. Plain, cute, fat, hot. Yes. But never beautiful. Except Arima.

Beautiful.

The girls talked of nothing else. It was the eyes. I'll tell you about the eyes later.

And me? In comparison? Go back a notch or two in that geology diagram.

Knuckle dragger. That's me.

So here was a nice homely scene, Miyazawa and Arima, side by side all cutsey cutsey like man and wife at the kitchen sink.

There was one thing I noticed that marred his perfection.

It was on the back of his left jacket shoulder.

I hadn't seen it in the lesson.

A little pink petal. Just one. A single sakura blossom petal.

Hm, well, it was nearly May and the sakura were flowering. Maybe he'd just had one fall on him at lunchtime.

Or maybe… just maybe…

…he had been lying down somewhere, under the trees, the petals falling like lovers dreams, drifting down, swirling around, fluttering like young hearts do…

…onto him.

And…?

My mind imagined someone (I won't say who, you'll think me weird) with him, lying on the warm spring grass, the sakura blossom fluttering onto them both…

Dammit! You'll be late for history.

I went in. They heard me. They turned.

"Uhn, 'scuse me. Forgot. Bag."

I grabbed it and went, my stammered, unnecessary "gomen nasai" hanging in the room behind me.

Hell, it's a chem. lab, not their kitchen!

What's the matter with me?

Eyes.

That's what.

They had both turned at the sound of my footsteps. I had looked back. Two pairs of eyes fixed me, nailed me to the spot.

I choked out my lame excuses and left.

I'll tell you about eyes later.

- - - oOo - - -

9 May 2007

For author notes about Chapter Four and notes on Japanese words, please see my forum (click on my pen name).