NOTE: "Italicized" is Korean speech

Chapter 7: Crush


Sometime in the middle of the year, it came to Kelly's knowledge that Tatsuya had a crush on someone. That someone was her sister.

She had her suspicions, but after confirming it with Mr. Rodriguez, Kelly was certain that the blushing and the sideway glances hinted of Tatsuya having a crush.

It was…strange. It wasn't like Sarah was particularly ugly or anything As a matter of fact, with her long and shiny hair, expertly applied cosmetics (from watching countless makeup tutorials), slender limbs and trim waist, and pretty eyes, it wouldn't be unusual for Tatsuya to like Sarah. No, it wasn't strange to like Sarah, but it was strange to like her sister.

If anything, Sarah was the only reason why Tatsuya would visit her house again to watch Kpop with them—and by them, Kelly meant Sarah and Mom. For Kelly, Kpop was interesting for only awhile. Anyway, afterwards, it escalated from there—Kdrama. Those programs that Sarah would be so absorbed in watching nowadays had another audience in form of their Japanese neighbor. It didn't take long for him to just stick with it from wanting to be close to the older girl to being genuinely into whatever series that they would watch.

Kelly, Jaime, and even Taiga hung around in the living room to see what the hubbub was all about. However, after twenty minutes of staring at the television screen, Taiga ended up dragging a snoozing Jaime and a dreadfully bored Kelly out the door. He would have dragged out Tatsuya too, but he looked happy enough seeing some guy standoffishly confess his love to a girl.

"This is your fault," Taiga had once accused her, somehow linking her friendship with Tatsuya to Tatsuya's recent returning interest (obsession) with Korean entertainment.

Unimpressed, Kelly only responded by arresting the boy into a chokehold—the one that Sarah would do the same to her if Kelly managed to annoy her enough.

"What is up with Tatsuya? He's so boring now," Jaime whined. After another failed attempt in getting Tatsuya to do something—anything other than station himself next to Sarah and keep his eyes glued to the television screen—the trio retreated to Mr. Rodriguez's house.

"Well…" Kelly exchanged glances with Mr. Rodriguez. The man shook his head, indicating that she shouldn't say a word. Darn. It was something that she really wanted to share with Taiga and Jaime, but Mr. Rodriguez said that it would only upset Tatsuya if it was known that he had a crush. It especially would be tormenting if Jaime would know because the brat would lord it over Tatsuya.

"Well what?" Jaime pouted as he stuffed another cookie into his mouth. "Tatsuya's been really weird. What's going on with him?"

"It her fault," Taiga insisted, glaring at Kelly.

"Shut up, Lion."

"It Taiga, not Rion!"

Jaime spat out his milk and began to laugh hysterically. Mr. Rodriguez promptly mopped up the milk and scolded Kelly for being rude.

"He—he said Rion!" Jaime cried, slapping his hand on the kitchen counter.

Taiga did a perfect rendition of a tomato.

"It your fault!" the third grader shouted, jabbing a finger at Kelly's direction. "You take away my basketball friend!"

After having listen to Taiga's baseless accusations for a week—an entire week—Kelly groaned and threw her arms in the air. "Then I'll be your new basketball friend! Just stop complaining!"

"No. You stupid in basketball."

Apparently, Jaime had already told Taiga that story.

"Then why don't you make Tatsuya play with you again?" Kelly grouched.

And that was what Taiga did. It took plenty of wheedling on his part, but Taiga managed to get Tatsuya on his feet (with reluctance) and head over to the basketball court. By some miracle, Tatsuya's passion for the game was reignited and the two played until it was almost time for dinner.

Taiga was pretty proud of his efforts, but it still dismayed him to see Tatsuya still spending time over at the Kang's.

"I'm not sure if this is about Tatsuya's crush on my sister anymore," Kelly said to Mr. Rodriguez.

"Well, maybe he found a new love."