Chapter 4
Tatsuha
"You know, I could've walked home by myself." Hikaru stood outside the gate to his house. The rain did not let up since that afternoon.
"If I let you walk home, you would've gotten drenched and then sick and I can't have that happening to you now." K stood alongside Hikaru holding an umbrella that sheltered them from the pouring rain.
Hikaru sighed. "Why me?" Hikaru put his hand up to his head. "Out of all people…."
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine. Besides you're perfect!" K smiled and slapped Hikaru on the back.
"Hey!"
"By the way, this is for you." K reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
"What do I need a cell phone for?"
"It's so that I can get in touch with you when I need to." K handed the phone to the reluctant Hikaru. "Keep it on you at all times. I'll be contacting you very soon. Oh, here's the charger." K handed the charger over to Hikaru.
"Anything else?" Hikaru looked up at K getting quite annoyed.
"Yes." K brought his hand up to Hikaru's face and lightly touched the cheek that was bandaged due to Mitani's confrontation with Hikaru earlier that day. "Try not to get hit again."
"I'm leaving!" Hikaru pushed K's hand away, opened the gate and ran for the front door. When he reached the front door, he turned around. All he found was the dark, empty street. He quickly scanned the area but could find no sign of K. Hikaru sighed, opened the door and went inside.
Hikaru closed the door behind him and began to take off his shoes. "Thank you so much. You are a life saver." Hikaru looked up to see a woman he did not recognize talking to his mother. "I can't believe I ran out of detergent."
"Please, don't mention it. Oh Hikaru, you're home. I thought you would be home earlier."
"Oh is this your son?" The woman and Hikaru's mom approached Hikaru. Before Hikaru's mother could answer, the woman began to introduce herself. "I'm Shibuya Miko. But you can call me Jennifer." Hikaru just starred at her not knowing what to say or do. "Your mom has told me all about you. I have a son that is about your age. Oh no! I have to get going. He might come home any minute now." Miko turned to Hikaru's mom. "Thank you again." She turned back to Hikaru. "It was nice to meet you." She moved to the front door. "You should meet my son sometime. I'm sure you two would get along." Miko opened the front door and grabbed her umbrella that was sitting off to the side.
"Be careful Jennifer."
Jennifer left the house and shut the door behind her.
"Why does she want to be called Jennifer?" Hikaru asked his mom. "I thought she introduced herself as Miko."
"Miko is her name, but she likes to be called Jennifer."
"Why?" Hikaru was extremely confused now.
"That's just how she likes people to refer to her."
"Never mind." This makes no sense to me and I'm tired. Hikaru made his way to the stairs.
"Are you hungry Hikaru? I can make you something."
"No." Hikaru made his way upstairs. "I already ate." Hikaru walked to his room and shut the door. He took the cell phone and charger out of his pockets and set them on the table next to his bed. He took out the Bad Luck CD he bought earlier that day from the bag he was carrying and unwrapped the plastic. He took out the CD and put it into his CD player. Music began to play. "Obieta mezuki de iradatsu omoi uwaki na kaze ni hakisutete….." Hikaru made his way over to his bed and laid down on his back putting his hands behind his head. "So this is my cousin Schuichi." Hikaru muttered to himself. Hikaru stared at the ceiling, mesmerized by the music. He closed his eyes. "Maybe I'll go visit him tomorrow."
The doorbell rang again for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Hey, are you gonna get that?" Yuki yelled to Schuichi from his office, but got no response. The door bell kept on ringing. "Hey!" Yuki yelled again. "Don't tell me he's not back yet." Yuki muttered to himself as he got up from his chair to answer the door. He threw open the apartment door. "Yes? What is it?" At first he didn't see anyone there.
"I'm sorry." Yuki looked down. "I must have the wrong apartment." The boy looked at the piece of paper he was holding to see where he went wrong.
"Oh, it's you." Yuki said not wanting to deal with anyone at the moment.
"Huh?" The boy looked up at the man who answered the door.
"Schuichi isn't here, but he should be back soon." Yuki moved aside to let the boy in. Hikaru wasn't sure what to do. "Well, are you coming in or not?"
"Uh, yeah." Hikaru walked into the apartment and Yuki closed the door behind him.
"What did he call you again? Hikaru, isn't it?"
"Huh? Yes."
"I'm Yuki." "I'm going to make some tea, would you like some?" Yuki began to walk towards the kitchen. Hikaru followed Yuki.
"Where did Schuichi go?"
"I think he needed to pick something up at the store." Yuki put down the pile of papers he was carrying onto one of the counters and started gathering everything to make tea.
"Are you waiting for Schuichi too?"
Yuki looked at Hikaru. "What do you mean?"
"This is his apartment isn't it?"
'It's my apartment too."
"Oh, you're his roommate? He didn't tell me he had a roommate."
"Really? That's a surprise."
Yuki began boiling the water on the stove. Hikaru's attention wandered. He looked at the stack of papers Yuki put down on the counter that he found himself next to. There was very little written on the top page. 'My Only One by Eri Yuki.' Hmm. Eri Yuki. Why does that name sound familiar?
"Hey." This startled Hikaru. Hikaru turned his attention to Yuki. "You didn't answer me before. Want some tea?"
"Um, no thank you." Yuki finished boiling the water and prepared his tea. Hikaru looked at the paper again, still trying to place the name that he knew from somewhere. Yuki quickly picked up the pile of papers. "I have a lot of work to get done. You can stay and wait for Schuichi if you want." Yuki left the room leaving Hikaru by himself in the kitchen. Hikaru stood there thinking he probably should've called first before he came over. Perhaps I should come back at another time.
Just then the door bell rang. Hikaru left the kitchen and went into the hallway. He expected Yuki to come answer the door. The door bell rang again. Hikaru waited a few more seconds before answering it. "I'm coming." Hikaru opened the door. He looked at the man standing before him. "Um, Y-Yuki?" Hikaru was quite perplexed. "What did you do to your hair?"
"I could ask the same thing of you. What did you do to your hair? Is this a new look your going for?" The man pointed at Hikaru.
"What?"
"You know, it doesn't look so bad. I liked the pink hair, but either way you still look cute." The man stepped closer to Hikaru. Hikaru immediately became very nervous.
"U-um, he-he. What are you talking about?" What's going on?
The man leaned in, coming face to face with Hikaru. They stared at each other for a while. "Wow!" The man yelled and spread his arms wide and threw them around Hikaru.
"Ahhh!" Hikaru screamed as he was pushed backwards and onto the floor. "Ow!"
"You're just too cute!" The man said loudly, hugging Hikaru tightly, while lying on top of him.
"Please, let go!" Hikaru was struggling to get out from under this man who looked just like Yuki but with black hair. Why is he doing this? Hikaru kept on struggling. The more he struggled the tighter the man held on to him.
"What is going on here?" Both Yuki and Schuichi said in unison.
"Schuichi is that you? Please help me!"
"Tatsuha!" Schuichi stood in the doorway to the apartment holding a plastic bag. He moved over to Tatsuha and Hikaru to help his cousin.
"Schuichi?" Tatsuha looked up.
"Tatsuha please let my cousin go."
"Your cousin?" Tatsuha got up slowly but was kneeling on the floor over Hikaru. He looked at Hikaru and then at Schuichi and then back to Hikaru. "Wow. He certainly looks just like you."
"Do you mind?" Hikaru was starting to lose his temper.
"You're even cute when you're angry." Hikaru shot a nasty look at Tatsuha.
"I hate to interrupt all your fun," Everyone turned to Yuki to see him staring at them with rage burning in his eyes. Schuichi, Tatsuha, and even Hikaru began to panic. "But I would appreciate it if you would all just shut up!!" Yuki shouted at the group still hanging out in the foyer of the apartment, walked away and slammed the door to his office.
"Schuichi, do you really live with that guy?" Hikaru asked still looking at the spot that was now vacated by Yuki.
"He's probably the only one who could live with him. He's lasted this long." Tatsuya responded while standing up. Schuichi offered his hand to his cousin to help him off the floor.
"So this is your cousin, Schuichi?"
"Yes, this is my little cousin Hikaru." Schuichi put his arm around Hikaru.
"Hikaru, this is Tatsuha, Yuki's younger brother."
"Younger brother." I guess that explains why they look alike.
"So what brings you here Tatsuha?" Schuichi moved to the door and closed it.
"I was nearby so I decided to stop by and see what was going on. I'm glad I did. I got to meet your cousin." Tatsuha looked at Hikaru and smiled. Hikaru blushed and looked away.
"Leave him alone, Tatsuha." Schuichi grabbed Hikaru's arm and dragged him into the kitchen. "Besides, he's with someone."
"What are you talking about?" Hikaru asked Schuichi. Schuichi didn't answer.
"Why are all the good ones taken?" Tatsuha said to himself and proceeded to the kitchen.
Schuichi put the bag on the counter and began to remove items and put them away.
"Well, I guess I should leave you two alone." Tatsuha said as he entered the kitchen.
"What? But you just got here." Schuichi stopped what he was doing. "What about Yuki?"
"I'm not going near him. He might hurt me. I'll come back some other time when he's not so busy. I'm sure he's trying to meet some deadline."
"Deadline?" Hikaru repeated. "Ah!" Schuichi and Tatsuha jumped. Hikaru remembered the book he had to buy for his mother. "That's where I remember the name from." Tatsuha and Schuichi looked at each other, not sure what was going on. "Wait a minute, you live with Eri Yuki? The author?"
"Oh so you read his books?"
"What? No! My mom likes to read his novels. I had to pick one up the other day for her."
"Yeah, right. You like all those mushy, romance books and you know it." Schuichi began to tease Hikaru.
"I do not!' Hikaru raised his voice. Schuichi and Tatsuha ran over to Hikaru and covered his mouth.
"Shh! You don't want to piss off Yuki anymore do you?" Tatsuha whispered to Hikaru.
Hikaru realized what he just did, panicked for a moment and then relaxed. Tatsuha and Schuichi removed their hands from covering Hikaru's mouth slowly.
"Well, good luck tomorrow night Schuichi. I'll be watching. It was nice to meet you, Hikaru. Until next time." Tatsuha smiled.
"Yeah," Hikaru looked away. Why does this guy give me such a creepy feeling? "It was nice meeting you too." Tatsuha left the kitchen and then they heard the apartment door close. Schuichi proceeded to put the rest of the groceries away. "What's going on tomorrow night?"
"Oh, we're announcing our tour tomorrow night on TV. Hey," Schuichi finished with what he was doing and walked back over to Hikaru. "Why don't you come?"
"What? Where?"
"To the TV studio tomorrow night. It'll be fun and you'll get to see me perform. You've never seen me perform have you?"
"No, I haven't. I just finished listening to your CD."
'So, what did you think?"
"I liked it."
"And?"
"And? I liked it."
"That's all you can say is that you liked it? That's it! You're definitely going tomorrow."
"But I have a couple of Go matches to play tomorrow. I won't be out until after 4:00."
"Oh that's fine. We don't need to be at the TV station until 5:00. We can pick you up after your matches. Where will you be?"
"At the Go Association."
"Where's that?"