A/N: Hello! :) Sorry I haven't updated in a long while, but I haven't forgotten about this story. On the contrary, the reason it has taken so long is a combination of a few writer's blocks, figuring out the balance of interpretation for Chigusa's parents for this chapter and still maintaining the comedic balance of the story proved to be harder than I expected (sweat), and I've also started college! And the fact that my dad is almost never home anymore… But we finally came up with a good system to get him to proofread the chapters even when he's miles away, so yay.
Login011: O Fateful Meeting
"Haseo-san..." Atoli found Haseo playing around with things in Canard's Bike Shop. Actually, it looked more like he was yelling at Death Grunty to stop insulting him long enough for him to use the shop's services. "W-we have to talk about this Sunday."
He jumped a little. It had been a couple days since he had asked to meet her offline. They had already made plans to meet for lunch at a shopping district near his apartment so he wasn't expecting her to bring the subject up again, and if so, through e-mail or on the phone, most certainly not in The World. "What do you want to talk about?"
She bowed sharply, "I'm sorry! But I had to tell my parents! They would never have let me travel to Tokyo by myself without telling them what I was doing!"
"Atoli slow down! What are you talking about?"
"My parents won't let me meet you unless they come with..."
"That's all? I don't mind if they feel better chaperoning the meeting, they just want to make sure I'm not really an axe murderer, right?"
"'That's all'? That's not even the half of it! They... They're thinking of this as... as a..." She turned bright red and fidgeted nervously.
"As a what?"
"...A-a prospective marriage meeting."
He turned beet red, "A what?"
"Uh-huh, and they're going to want to meet your parents and see where you live and, and know everything about you and... oh dear... You don't live with your parents anymore, do you?"
"No."
"That's going to be a problem right there..."
"Atoli, don't worry. I can..." He shuddered as if he already did not like the sound of his own suggestion. "I can just call my mom and see if we can just have our lunch meeting moved to their house instead of the restaurant."
"Can you stop calling it a 'lunch meeting'? We're not business associates...!"
"Well, what would you call it?" He snapped a little, his face flushing a little.
She stepped back. She did not want to be as presumptuous as to use the word "date", but "meeting" sounded so rigid and cold and she could not think of anything else.
"Anyway..." He coughed, not wanting to dwell on the subject. "I guess I'll log out and call my mom. Here. You seem to have some sort of magic touch with Death Grunty, I finally beat Matsu on one of the bike courses and I want to test out the new part I got! But the pig's being a pain in the ass, as usual..."
"Oink! Shut up, you nose hair!"
"Make me."
She giggled and knelt down to Death's eye level, "Hey, Death Grunty. You want to put this part on Haseo's steam bike for me?"
Death Grunty's eyes lit up and looked up at Atoli, completely forgetting that Haseo had been asking the same of it just a moment before "For you, Atoli, I would do anything! Oink!"
Haseo blushed and chuckled, shaking his head; blue rings surrounded him and he logged out. Ryou pulled off his M2D, setting it on the desk, and pushed his hair back with his fingers to fix it. He reached over to pick up his cell phone. A feeling of dread came over him as he dialed the number.
'I just know I'm going to regret this...!' He thought, pulling the phone up to his ear and listening for the ring.
"Hello? Misaki Residence." His mother's soft but chipper voice came from the other end and Ryou froze.
'Aw dammit! Mom just had to be the one to answer the phone, didn't she? If I were calling about anything else, one of the servants or Dad would have picked up, but nuuuuu, because I want to discuss something concerning a girl, Mom had to pick up! I can't! I can't do this!' His mind flashed an image of Atoli smiling at him and he flushed. "Hahh..." 'But, I also really want to meet the girl behind that PC…'
"Hello?" Mrs. Misaki called out again. "Ryou,-chan I know it's you, the caller ID displayed your cell number and I can hear you breathing."
Slowly, he spoke up, "...Hello, Mother."
"Oh! Ryou-chan! I'm so glad you called! Listen. Your father just hired a new supervisor in the engineering department who has the cutest daughter about your age. Why don't I arrange for you to meet her this Sunday?"
'I knew it...!' Ryou banged his head on his desk. "Actually, I already have plans this Sunday ...and that's what I called to talk to you about."
"Oh? Really? What is it, son?"
"Uhh..." 'No! No! No! I can't! I can't tell my mother, aka "The Matchmaking Queen of Honshu", that I want to use their house to host an offline meeting between me and a girl my age! And our parents including the girl's, who are already viewing this as an opportunity to marry their daughter off!'
"Ryou? Are you okay? You're breathing funny again."
"Um... Let me put it this way, I made plans to meet a friend of mine from a net game offline this Sunday and their parents... I just thought it would be best if we could all just meet at yours and Dad's place?"
"...Are you trying to rephrase your sentence to avoid telling me that this friend is a girl?" Her sly grin could be heard through her voice.
'Damn.' "Y-yes..."
"Kyaaaa!" she squealed. "So you've finally met yourself a girl and are bringing her home to meet your parents and vice versa? Of course! I would be more than happy to play the gracious hostess!"
He cried, 'Kill me...!'
XXX
Sunday morning. Ryou, wearing an olive green long coat with sandy-colored faux fur lining on the hood, approached his parents' estate. It was a two story, L-shaped building with large windows, red roof, cream colored siding and the leg extending out from the right side. Surrounded by a cream plaster wall matching the color of the siding and closed off by an iron gate, a stone path led up to the wooden front door that was relatively in the center, but a little to the right. To the left of the path was a bamboo "wall" adorned by small, arranged stones; to the right were a small pond and a stone lantern. He rang the bell at the gate.
"Who is it?" The voice of a woman with a Kansai accent came through the intercom.
"Hello Kiku-san. It's Ryou."
"Oh! Ryou-bocchan! It's so nice ta hear from you! Are your parents expecting you this early? Isn't that 'prospective marriage' thing supposed to be this afternoon?"
He moaned lightly; he was starting to get tired of people slapping the term "prospective marriage" onto the situation. 'We're not getting married! We're just meeting offline! Gawd! Why does everyone want to get us hitched?' "Yes. The offline meeting is this afternoon, but I thought I'd come early."
"Oh, okay! I'll buzz ya in now!" The intercom buzzed and Ryou opened the gate, walked down the path to the entrance and walked inside. The owner of the voice, Kiku, was the housekeeper and was a woman in her mid-thirties wearing a tan dress-suit with short black hair that was drawn back, guided him into a breakfast alcove.
"Ritsuko-sama, your son has arrived," Kiku bowed. Ritsuko was probably a little older than the housekeeper and had long, sandy brown hair and eyes the same fierce reddish color as Ryou's; she was wearing a pink yukata with a brown obi. She was sitting at a kotatsu and was finishing up her breakfast, sipping from a Japanese-style teacup.
"Mother?"
"Ryou-chan?" Ritsuko set her teacup on the table, rose to her feet and approached Ryou. She was about an inch or so shorter than him. "I thought you and your girlfriend and her parents weren't coming here until this afternoon."
His face flushed. "First of all, stop calling her my 'girlfriend'! We're only just meeting face-to-face for the first time today! And second of all stop calling me 'chan'! I'm almost eighteen!"
"So what are you doing here now?"
"To remove any damning photographs of myself from this house!"
"Whatever do you mean, son?" She grinned slyly; she understood his point fully, but wanted to hear him say it.
"You know what I mean! Naked baby pictures! I do not want Chigusa seeing me waddling around in a diaper that's falling off!"
"Awww... But all your other prospective brides loved The Wee-Wee Train!"
"You know, naming the pictures doesn't help..." He glared as he pulled off his coat. "But, at least it was a clean diaper..."
"...You're not planning on wearing that today are you?"
He looked down at his clothes, a white woven shirt with red embroidery at the left hip and right shoulder and a pair of khaki pants, "What's wrong with this?"
"Ryou-chan! Haven't I taught you anything? You can't meet a prospective bride dressed so casually!"
He glowed brighter; Kiku came in and took his coat before he threw it on the floor, "Wh-when the hell did she become my prospective bride?"
"Watch your mouth young man!" Ritsuko shouted; Ryou drew back, realizing his mistake. "Anyway, let's have a look at you." She circled around him, tugging at the fabric of his clothes and positioning him to see his size. "Hmmm... You've grown so much since you moved out, especially in the torso... Trying to impress the ladies, are we? Hmmm?"
"It's not like that...!" He folded his arms, turning red again. "I've always liked Phys Ed! And it's not like I'm that big, there are plenty of guys in the sports clubs who're a lot bigger than me."
"Why haven't you joined a sports club?"
"You know I have my part-time job! Any sports club would contradict with my hours."
"Your father and I are paying your tuition and half your rent. We could pay all the rent if you wanted to quit your job and join a club."
"Nah. I like having the independence and I need to pay things like my Internet, cell phone and gaming bills. Besides, what would be the point? I graduate in the spring."
"Mmm. That's it! We're going to have to buy you a new suit. Come! You're going to the shopping district with me."
She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him towards the door, but he pulled back, "A suit? Mom! Do you really think I need to wear a suit?"
"I understand your need to impress the ladies with your sense of fashion, but here you're going to have to impress her parents as well."
"Ryou? You're here already?" A man with papers in his hand asked, pulling off a pair of reading glasses upon entering the room. He was a tall man with neatly combed chocolate brown hair that was just a little on the long side, brown eyes and was wearing navy blue slacks, white pinstripe dress shirt and a blue tie that was loose around his neck. It was Ryou's father, Keiji. "Is it one o'clock already?"
"No, it's about nine," Ritsuko answered. "Ryou came early to make sure we wouldn't show his new girlfriend his naked baby pictures."
He grinned, "He really thinks he can stop you?"
"Well, he has your stubborn streak, Keiji."
"Dad? You're home?" Ryou exclaimed. "Isn't this usually the time of year you're always in meetings?"
"It is. But I got a call from your mother saying that you were meeting a prospective bride by your choice today and she wanted me to be here, so I rearranged my schedule."
"Mom! I keep telling you! She is not my prospective bride or my girlfriend! She's just a girl I met on some net game! And Dad...! Tell her I don't need to wear a suit...!"
"Well, you don't expect to meet a girl in this house with your Mother around wearing that do you?"
"Grrmmm..."
XXX
'Why do I have to wear this thing...?' Chigusa thought to herself as she looked at herself in a full-length mirror at a kimono shop. She was wearing a green kimono with a large pink floral print and a worker at the store, who had short black hair pulled back in a small ponytail, was tying a brown obi around her waist. He wore a white woven shirt and black slacks and had a pair of square-rimmed glasses on his face.
"Chigusa!" her mother, Nariko, shouted. She was stern looking woman with short dark red hair cut into a bob and was wearing white blouse and tan a-line ankle-length skirt. "Quit slouching! You should stand straight when wearing a kimono!"
"Oh! Sorry!" Chigusa jumped into a straight position. "But Mother... Is it really necessary I wear this kimono? I mean, I'm just meeting a friend from a net game." 'Never made a big deal about my getting my 'official coming of age kimono' before, all of a sudden I give you two days notice on meeting a friend offline and you have to rush to the store...'
"A friend who is also a boy. You're seventeen already; it is time to start looking at getting married soon. After all, all you and your sister are useful for is to find yourselves good men to marry and carry on the family name."
Chigusa looked down at the floor and began to tear up; she hated when her mother said things like that to her, but what could she do? If her mother said it, it must be true...
"Stop slouching!" Nariko grabbed her daughter's shoulders and forced her to stand upright. "Now I'm going to call this boy's mother again to confirm the time of the meeting, you stay here and don't give the tailor any more troubles!"
As she left, the man stood, "Okay young lady, what do you think of the kimono?"
"He's going to think I'm lame. Who in this day and age wears a kimono to meet a friend?"
"You know, young lady, any guy whose heart doesn't jump at the sight of a girl in a kimono like this probably has less depth than a puddle. Especially when the girl wearing it is as pretty as you. Now, is this guy really like that?"
'Pretty? I'm not pretty...' She pulled her hands up to her cheeks to hide their glow. "No. I guess not. At least I hope not... If he is, my parents will never let me see him again and..."
While she had been talking and fretting with herself, the man had made a few final adjustments, "Well, are you planning on wearing it out or what?"
"I'll probably wear it out. We're going straight to his house from here."
"Why don't you just sit in the chair and wait until your mother comes back then, okay?"
"Okay." She bowed, feeling grateful that at least the shopkeeper was being kind to her, and did as she was told and sat down, picking up a black blazer before doing so and laying it on her lap. A minute later Mrs. Kusaka walked back into the store.
"Seems I got the father this time... Not surprised, with the short notice you gave us she's probably in as much of a frenzy as I am! Anyway, lunch will be served at two with tea at one, and of course it would be polite to arrive on time. I'll pay for the kimono; you go to the salon next door and have your hair pinned up. I'll go find that idiot father of yours so that we can take a cab as soon as your hair is ready."
XXX
"Mom," Ryou said, wearing his coat again and carrying a garment bag over his shoulder. His mother was pulling him through a shopping district. She had thrown a coat over her yukata. "We came here to get a suit, now we've got the suit. What are we still doing here?"
"Of course you have to get a gift for this girl! And what would be better than..." She pulled him up in front of a jewelry store. "A piece of jewelry?"
She walked in and approached a display case that showcased a necklace with four purple jewels on an ornate golden plate. "Ooh! That one's nice! How much is that one?"
"It's 290,000 yen ($3,034 U.S.) ma'am," the lady behind the counter answered. She wore a black dress suit and wore her dark brown hair in a tight bun. "It's part of the Royal collection."
Ryou tried to hide his glare, "Mom...! Can't we just go to one of those trendy teen places and get her one for 3,000 yen? I may have not have met her offline yet, but I know enough about her online to know that if I give her a 300,000 yen necklace when we first meet, she'll stammer for about a minute and implode in on herself! Not to mention she'd never wear something that gaudy, she's not like that."
"Assuming you're being figurative about the imploding part, she sounds so cute...! But you are not spending only 3,000 on a necklace! After seeing our house, if you hand her a cheap necklace they'll think we're cheap. At least look in the area of 20,000-30,000."
"Okay. Fine..." He moved over to another one of the cases and his eyes landed on a solitaire diamond surrounded on a hollow heart-shaped yellow gold pendant on a thin yellow gold chain. "That one's pretty... Hey, ma'am?" He turned to the lady behind the counter. "How much is this one?"
"Let's see." She pulled the pendant out and looked at the price sticker attached to the clasp. "It is 27,950 yen ($289 U.S.)."
He blushed and smiled softly, "I'll take it; she'll love it."
"Very well, sir. I'll get a box for it and then ring you up." The lady bowed and turned to the register.
"A solitaire diamond heart necklace." Mrs. Misaki stepped up next to him. "What a very simple yet tasteful way to say 'I love you'. You're really falling for this girl already, aren't you?"
He turned brighter and gritted his teeth, "It's not like that! I'm just doing the polite thing like you told me to do!"
She giggled, "You know, you sound just like your father when we started dating? Ohh, I'm sure you'll be just like him...! He used to be so tightly wound and would deny it if someone else asked about our relationship, but when it was just the two of us, he was so passionate...!"
He steamed, shifting the bag on his shoulder. 'Like I really wanted to hear that...'
"Yep. That's the look he'd give all his buddies when they used to tease him."
"Gee, why did Kuhn come to mind just then...?" He mumbled and rolled his eyes.
"Who?"
"A mutual friend of mine and this girl in the net game, he somehow managed to become my best friend and I swear he's trying to turn teasing us into an Olympic sport!"
"Sounds like an exciting guy to have around."
"'Exciting' isn't quite the word I would use. But I guess he's relatively normal by comparison... All he does is chase skirts and annoy me. I have one friend, schitsophrenic with two egos and both play the game as the same character. Another, gay. For me. Oh and the schitso one's female alter ego has the hots for the gay guy and wants to kill me for being her rival in love! By the way, she's eleven, and I think he's just turned twenty-one. Know this one guy, he's sort of my self-proclaimed teacher and he's about Dad's age, drinks like a sailor and teaches like Mr. Miyagi!"
"Sounds like things are pretty lively in this game!"
He rolled his eyes, "Yeah... 'Lively'. Anyway, pay for the necklace and let's go!"
XXX
"This is a pretty high-end neighborhood...!" Chigusa's father, Hiro, exclaimed sounding quite impressed. They rode down the street in a cab; he was in the front passenger's seat while Chigusa was in the seat behind the driver and her mother was across from her. He was an average-sized man with short light brown hair and wearing a gray suit.
"Hmph!" Nariko scoffed. "Maybe you're not so useless after all..."
"Nariko, please stop calling our daughters useless...!"
"Not here, Hiro, not here," she snapped. "I don't want to hear this right now."
The two adults began bickering quietly; Chigusa, her hair now pinned up in the back with small handfuls at the sides, covered her ears and looked longingly out the window, wishing she would have just snuck out of the house instead of telling her parents about meeting Ryou.
XXX
"Now when she comes in..." Ritsuko turned to Ryou; she was now wearing a long sleeve shirt with a scoop neck and a long gypsy-style skirt with a large floral print in black, purples and greens. "I want you to invite her down to the garden while your father and I sit down with her parents to tea."
"What? Why?" he screamed. He was now wearing a black suit with a green silk tie.
She giggled, "To give the two of you some privacy to get to know each other, of course...!"
Ryou folded his arms, looked away and puffed out his cheeks.
"Don't argue with your mother, son," Keiji said, now wearing a navy blue suit coat.
Kiku walked into the parlor and bowed, "Your guests have arrived."
The two adults stood, but Ryou slumped back, 'Why did it turn out like this...?'
"Ryou-chan! Stand!" His mother snapped her fingers as she shouted. "And don't slouch! You'll wrinkle your suit!"
'A suit I didn't even want to wear...!' He reluctantly stood but kept his arms folded. His mother tried to motion to him to put his arms at his sides, but he would not respond. Chigusa and her parents walked in; she was wearing the same frustrated expression as Ryou, the adults began introducing themselves and their children. Her parents seemed to be at least be putting up the appearance of a better mood.
When he saw her, Ryou dropped his arms and his expression changed to awestruck. 'Th-that's Atol-I mean, Chigusa? She's... beautiful.'
Chigusa looked up from the tan drawstring purse in her hands and took a glance at Ryou, her cheeks flushed. 'So that's Ryou? He-he's really good looking...! ...At least with him wearing a suit, I don't feel so silly in this kimono.'
"Well go over there." Ritsuko whispered and pushed him gently on his back towards Chigusa. "Go on and introduce yourself and then take her down to the garden."
Ryou blushed and tripped over his own feet when his mother pushed him. After a few seconds of standing awkwardly in the center of the room, he approached Chigusa, scratched the back of his head and bowed. "Hello Chigusa-san, I-I'm Ryou." When he rose, his face showed how nervous he was. "W-want to go down to the garden while our parents sit to tea?"
Chigusa blushed deeper, tilted her head and giggled a little, 'Is this really the boy who plays Haseo? I never thought he'd be the type to be so proper...! Though, he does look a little uncomfortable...' "S-sure."
He held out his hand, she took it and they headed deeper into the house. The garden had eastern influences; from the tearoom on the side of the house, which was adorned with bamboo, there was a large pond that streamed into a waterfall. Around the pond to the left was a stone path that led into the heart of the garden. Although some parts seemed to be dense and secluded off by walls of bamboo, most of the garden could be seen from the tearoom.
As the two teenagers walked to the far side of the pond, Chigusa was watching the ground and playing with the drawstrings of her purse and Ryou was looking away and seemed unsure what to do with his hands. He glanced up at the tearoom to find his mother was now standing there and signaling him to put his arm around Chigusa's shoulders. His face flushed and he waved his hand to shoo her away.
"Huh?" Chigusa looked up.
"N-nothing!"
"Your parents' garden is beautiful."
"Heh. I gotta visit more often. I hardly recognize half of it anymore," he commented distantly. She giggled sharply, releasing tension; he blushed and cracked a sort of half smile. "What? Did I say something funny?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
"Hey." He looked off towards the house. "Looks like my dad pried my mom away from the step for a bit." He turned to her with a playful grin and inadvertently grabbed her hand. "You want to use this sixty second window to escape to someplace where we won't feel so much like koi?"
She looked from his face to their clasped hands, trying to figure out how to react. Eventually she let him pull her along and giggled, sounding more relaxed, "Sure."
He helped her raise her skirt a little and they ran off deeper into the garden and away from the house and came to one of the small alcoves with a wooden bench in the center. He helped her sit down on the bench then followed her and loosened his tie, "Finally...! I was suffocating back there!"
She giggled again. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, "You're such an odd person offline. ...Hm? What are doing with your phone?"
She leaned over to see the phone screen, as her hair brushed against his shoulder, he jumped slightly, "...O-oh, sorry. You must think I'm so rude. But I just got an email."
"From who? Anyone I know?"
"It's from Bo."
"Is it private? What did he say?"
"It says, 'Um... Be friendly?'"
"Hee. For what?"
"It's a response to the discussion we've been having about application requirements."
"Oh. That one you sent to us to decide what applicants for Canard officially should do to get in?"
"Yeah. Apparently Bo hasn't read the second email I sent him telling him he doesn't have to come up with any trials to enter Guild Orientation... Speaking of which, you really don't expect me to put the trial description for your department on the website with that emoticon on it, do you?"
"Yes!" She said, standing and lightly slamming her palms on the bench to give her support and shoved her face into his. She pursed her lips in attempts to look serious, but it just came out silly. "People need to know that you're not always such a sourpuss!"
He tried to hide his flushed face and chuckled a little at how cute she was acting, "I don't mind you and Tabby and I tolerate Silabus using them, but I don't want certain people thinking that I..." His phone vibrated in his hand, he punched a few buttons and after reading it's brief message he laughed again and read it out loud. "'Oh sorry Haseo-oniisan, I didn't see this second e-mail you sent. Please ignore that last message.'"
She stifled a snicker and sat back down, subtly shifting a little closer to him, "If I had a son, I'd wish he were half as sweet as Bo-chan..."
"Yeah," he grinned, not thinking of the implications of the sentence. "Just so long as the universe doesn't decide to balance itself by giving him a sister like Saku."
She tried not to laugh but it was no good "You're... You're a lot different than I expected you to be."
"What do you mean by that?" He jumped, feeling a little offended.
"W-well, you're still a little rough around the edges, but you're a lot quieter for one. And another, you're so polite and proper; you seem to do everything the right way..."
"Believe you me." He grinned, moving a little closer to her. "About half of that polite and proper stuff is at my mother's prodding to impress your parents; the other half is conditioning. Trust me, I'm not always like that! ...But you're a lot different from what I expected, too."
"Huh?"
"...You're a lot prettier than you made yourself sound."
"Ueeh...?" She turned bright red.
"Oh! Look how cute in the alcove...!" Ritsuko's voice came from the alcove's entrance.
"Mo-om!" Ryou's face now matched Chigusa's. Chigusa looked down and tried to bury her face in what little hair was hanging down. Keiji walked up and wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders.
"And on that note, we'll be leaving!" He pulled his wife away.
After the parents left, Chigusa turned away, "You get along with your parents a lot better than I do with mine… Although, mine have been acting kind of weird since we pulled up to your house."
Ryou didn't want to see her get herself into a funk, tried to think of what to say or do. "I'm sure they just have your best interests at heart."
"That's what I'm worried about..."
"Huh?"
"I'm... I'm not worried about myself; I'm worried about you and your parents..."
"Why?"
"They try to hide it, but my parents are kind of, 'gold diggers'; about half of the guys they tried pairing me up with lived in a house like this. That's why they're acting weird, they're ecstatic I found what they were looking for for me on my own. Especially after your father introduced himself. I never knew your father owned a company, and such a big one too. Saki Communications? Isn't that... What does that company do?"
"We develop um... the technology that goes into creating various programs and 'apps' for cell phones."
"Oh."
"...Does, does this change your opinion of me at all?"
"Huh? N-no! Not at all! I don't care about those kinds of things."
"...Hey." He grabbed her wrist. "I just remembered something! I just hope it's still here!"
"Wh-wha?" She stammered, grasping at the ends of her kimono to keep from tripping over it as he pulled her along. Shortly the two of them came into a small clearing that appeared to be a small bird sanctuary with a birdbath, a feeder and a couple houses. A couple birds could be seen at the feeder and one in the bath.
"Oh good!" he said quietly so he would not to scare the birds. "It's still here!"
Her eyes lit up and she blushed, also speaking quietly, "Your parents have their own private bird sanctuary?"
"More like a hideaway with a bath and a feeder. ...The houses have been replaced with newer ones. My mom had it made when I was a baby to help stimulate my sight. There's also a little dish somewhere where she'll put an orange slice in for butterflies in the spring. I haven't been here in years. I had almost forgotten about it."
"And yet you brought me here...! Thank you...!"
XXX
In the dining room, which was lavishly furnished, everyone had finished eating; one maid was clearing the used dishes off the table while another placed cakes and coffee or tea in front of them. "Ryou has been mentioning that the two of you met on a net game." Ritsuko spoke up, turning to Chigusa. She picked up her teacup and sipped from it. "But how exactly did you two meet?"
Chigusa jumped slightly and glanced over at Ryou, as if to ask him if it were all right. He grinned and nodded his head, "Oh, well, it's kind of complicated... Basically I had just started playing The World..."
Ritsuko and Keiji's interests peaked at the name of the game and looked at one another in concern. Neither of the teens nor the other set of parents noticed and Chigusa continued her story, "And the guy that had taught me how to play got in a heated argument with Ryou-san. I mean really heated, both Ryou-san's PC and the guy I was partying with were very high-level famous players, so they attracted a crowd. After that, I kind of followed him around to try and make him understand the other perspective; at first I just kind of annoyed him."
"But eventually circumstances brought us closer and closer," Ryou added.
Ritsuko, trying to set her concern aside, decided to continue the conversation, "I understand the two of you have a lot of interesting mutual friends on this game? One name came up, uh, Ruun?"
"It's 'Kuhn' mom."
"He named himself an honorific?"
"There's a silent 'h' after the 'u'."
"Oh. Is he from Switzerland?"
"Uh, no. He lives in Tokyo but I think he told me he grew up in Kanazawa."
"Why were you talking to your mom about Kuhn-san?" Chigusa tilted her head.
"Chigusa-chan!" Nariko chastised. "Don't speak out of turn!"
Chigusa blushed and looked down at her lap; Ryou either did not or chose not to notice Nariko's reprimand and scratched the back of his head.
"Uh well, that is... Um..." He sought a way to answer the question that would not worry Chigusa or rouse the parents. She eventually just giggled shortly, indicating to him that she understood the situation.
"An ability to communicate non-verbally, the two of you have known each other for a while," Hiro grinned.
Ryou's face flushed deeper, "Um! Well... Not really, Kuhn's just entirely way too predicable."
"According to our son, he's a skirt-chaser," Ritsuko blurted out.
"What?" Nariko exclaimed. "Chigusa-chan! You didn't tell us you were playing with a womanizer!"
"It's not what you may think. Sure, he may wink at me on occasion out of habit, but he's..." she giggled. "He's too afraid of Ryou-san to do anything."
"Don't you talk back to me! Honestly! What kind of manners is this boy teaching you!"
"Honey, not in front of the others...!" Hiro held his hands up in front of him and waved him.
'I cannot stand this woman,' Ryou thought. 'I want to learn more about the real Chigusa-san, but her mother keeps yelling at her, making it difficult.' He stood. "May Chigusa-san and I be excused? I'd like to talk with her more and show her around."
Chigusa blushed. 'Is he really asking to be alone with me?'
Ritsuko giggled, at least pretending to not notice the other couple, "Of course! You two go on; you don't want to hang around with us boring adults!"
uhhXXX
"What did you... You, you asked to be alone... with..." Chigusa stammered, she and Ryou walked out onto a balcony adjacent to what appeared to be Ryou's old bedroom, which was on the inside direction of the leg of the house's L-shape. The room was dark and they could not see inside well.
"Augh!" He moaned and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry, I know what it sounded like, but I just couldn't stand to listen to your mother anymore! I just wanted to talk to you, but I'm used to how strong-willed you are in The World. And just seeing you jump every three minutes because your mother was yelling at you, insisting that you be a 'proper young lady', was starting to piss me off!"
"I-I'm sorry...!" she bowed.
"I'm not mad at you, I just can't stand to watch the way your mother treats you, you deserve better than that."
She blushed, "Huhh..."
"So," He leaned over the railing, sensing her discomfort, he shifted the conversation. "Let's not dwell on that depressing subject."
"Huh?"
"I know we emailed each other a while ago to learn about each other offline, but it sort of ended up as just a conversation about beef bowls... Um, do you like any other kinds of foods? Like, what kind sweets do you like?"
She blushed, surprised that he was so casually asking about her, "Well, actually, my mother doesn't really allow me to have that many sweets. But sometimes I'll head out to school a little early, stop at the sweet shop near my house and buy a little bit of mochi or a package of konpeito."
"Oh. That's cool. What are your favorite flavors?"
"Well, with konpeito it's definitely the soda flavor! Um... With mochi, it's a tie between the type you eat when the cherry blossoms bloom, and the type with the peanut butter inside!" She was beginning to get excited and he chuckled. "So what about you?"
"Huh?"
"What kind of sweets do you like?"
"Uh, well..." He scratched the back of his head. "I guess I'm not really one for sweets, though I do like melon bread and... Well, I guess I like various baked goods. And chocolate, who could hate chocolate?"
She smiled and clasped her hands together in front of her and tried to hide her cheeks, "I-I know this really good recipe for a strawberry cake. Maybe I could bake one for you sometime?"
He blushed and looked over at her smiling face, "Uh, sure..." He back smiled warmly. "That sounds great. But enough about food, you mentioned to me once that you kind of like to write sometimes. What sort of stories do you write?"
"Oh-! Um, well... Not much really, I've tried various genres, but like I said before, I have trouble figuring out the middle and filling in the plotholes. I had one idea for a school drama that I thought was pretty good, but I seemed to lose direction with it."
"Could I read some of them sometime?"
"Ah!" she jumped. "I don't think so... they aren't really any good..."
"You know, to help your stories, it might be good to get a second opinion from someone who would want to help you improve, rather than just criticizing you. And learn to take constructive criticism."
"Oh. Despite my otherwise jumpy personality, when it comes to my writing I take criticism pretty well! That is, unless the person is just trying to be a jerk… But I usually go to sites specifically for writers, so I don't usually get a lot of those..."
"It'd probably still be a good idea to talk with someone who knows you well. Also, have you considered going to college and taking some courses to learn some better techniques on story development?"
"My parents don't really want me to go to college; they just want me to get married right out of high school... which is why they were so ecstatic about today. They're pretty upset about me being seventeen already and still not even having a boyfriend..."
He looked away, 'Well, what about...' "...me?" he mumbled.
"Huh?"
He jumped back, "Uh, n-nothing!"
"Oh... Well." She smiled and leaned over the railing, closing her eyes. The wind blew through her hair. "I'm really glad we did this, even though it didn't exactly go as we planned, but still... It was fun meeting you offline!"
"Yeah," He folded his arms, turned around and leaned his back against the railing, staring back into his old bedroom. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, gray jewelry box the necklace he had gotten that morning had been put in. 'Oh. I almost forgot about this thing...'
"Chigusa-san," he called softly. He pulled the chain out of the box, she looked over.
"Wh-what is that...?"
"It's a gift. For you."
"It's so beautiful... But. I can't accept this."
"Don't think anything of it." Reaching the chain around her neck, he clasped the necklace and let his fingers slip to the pendant just below her collarbone and let them linger there a while. Her cheeks pink, she reached for the pendant to have her wrists grabbed; she pulled on them slightly to keep the insides against her chest. When she looked up, his face was slowly drawing closer to her own but stopped short with his lips an inch above her own.
A/N: Yeah... Since this is a comedy, I didn't want to go with an interpretation of Chigusa's parents that they were overly abusive or anything (I'm not that brave). I also gave her a sister because she doesn't really seem like an only child to me; at this point I don't know whether this sister will actually show up, but... Oh, and in case this is confusing you, (I doubt it, but...) the reference to Chigusa being a writer is from the manga. I just thought it was an interesting little fact about her and decided to use it. :) Anecdote - The name "Kiku" means "chrysanthemum", a reference to the emails with Saku when she was thinking of leaving. I wondered, "Why does Haseo randomly know the meaning of chrysanthemum in the language of flowers?"
