A Girl from Someplace Sweeter

11 – A Boy Worthwhile

At school, Tsukushi hadn't really expected Akira to approach her on his own, not to mention ask her for a few minutes of her time. "I know Tsubaki so well, and I think you're just as interesting a person," he complimented. She blinked a few times at him and a little, wide-eyed toy on her briefcase jangled.

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" she asked. "I was planning on going back to my classroom for lunch to catch up on some work."

Akira balked. "That's so studious of you," he commented dryly, "but wouldn't you rather spend your lunch with a handsome guy like me?"

"Handsome?" Tsukushi burst out laughing. "Well, you may make some girls topple over from heartache, but I hardly find any of you four boys appealing." She rolled her eyes when Akira grabbed his chest, looking stunned and in pain.

"Uh!" he yelped. "I'm struck!" He tipped dramatically, but when Tsukushi made no move to help him, he coughed and stood upright. He brushed a lock of hair away from his eyes and straightened his shirt. "Well, wouldn't you still like to eat with me? Soujiro is pursuing a lady friend and Rui and Tsukasa are being boring dolts. I'd like someone to sit with," he told her with a grin.

Tsukushi sighed. "Fine. The cafeteria, then?"

"That sounds fabulous to me!" Akira took her briefcase and bento, hoisting the former over his shoulder. She gaped and stopped, actually having to jump to try to take back her stolen items.

"What was that for? Give that back to me!" she cried, jumping once more, though he held it far out of her reach. Akira raised one eyebrow.

"I'm just being chivalrous," he defended, "as a lady should never have to carry her own things in the presence of a man." Tsukushi growled, but was forced to give up due to their large height difference.

"Fine," she muttered. They started walking once more, though she was quiet. Akira glanced down.

"So how do you like Tokyo?" he asked at length.

Tsukushi sighed and played with one of her braided pigtails, tossing it back over her shoulder. "It's all right, I suppose," she replied, "but Hiroshima was less... pretentious. At least, the school I went to." Akira nodded.

"You went to a commoner's school, didn't you?" She immediately jumped on the defensive.

"Common is better than this!" she huffed in response. "This place is... I don't know what. I don't know anyone, and I get followed and stared at like I'm some rare animal. I've met maybe two people I like." Akira raised his eyebrows.

"Two?"

Tsukushi nodded vehemently. "Makiko, she's in my class, and Sakurako." She shook her head. "This place is like some bizarre, miniature high society!"

"...So you don't like me?" Tsukushi paused. She certainly hadn't expected that response.

"No, no! I'm... I'm not saying that!" she tried. Akira did look slightly offended. "It's just that... I can relate to them. Makiko understands me, and Sakurako is so friendly to me." She sighed—she had dug herself into a hole.

"I think I know what you mean," he said in a lower tone. He shrugged his shoulders as they walked into the cafeteria, and Tsukushi quickly found an empty table. They set their things down in silence.

"Look, I'm sorry," she apologized. Akira raised his eyebrows to look at her. "I do like you. Far more than my brother, at the moment, and that Hanazawa Rui!"

"Rui? What did he do?"

Tsukushi's flame immediately lit. "He's so sneaky—always appearing where I don't want to see him, not that I ever want to see him at all. He's always talking to me, but then acts like a jerk. I don't get him, and I don't want to." Akira watched her face as she spoke, and as she was always so animated, seeing her nose wrinkle in annoyance amused him. "What are you staring at?"

"It's just funny you say that," he replied, "because he says the opposite about you." She blinked, and narrowed her eyes. Ah, it intrigued her, he thought slyly. Girls never told the truth.

"What... what does he say about me?" Tsukushi asked after some deliberation.

He lifted one eyebrow and leaned forward on the table, surprising her, so she quickly sat back to avoid having her face too close to his. "He mentioned you the other day, and told me, 'I don't know what Tsukasa is so huffy about, she is cute.'" Immediately her faced turned red. Bingo! "When I inquired further, he stopped talking and looked away."

"He's just shallow," Tsukushi announced and slapped her hand on the table, telling him, "Don't believe anything he says, he's just trying to irk me. But enough about me, Mimasaka-san. Tell me about yourself."

Akira blinked. Well, that was odd, he thought, as she propped her head on one hand and opened her bento box with the other. He wasn't really used to people changing subjects that rapidly, nor was he accustomed to anyone being interested in him, personally, at all. He pondered what to say before telling her, "There isn't much, I'm just me. One of the F4, that's enough for most people."

She scoffed at him. "I'm not most people," she reminded him. "Besides, I think there's more to you than that. A charming, funny guy doesn't just spring out of nowhere." Tsukushi knew she should have stopped herself, blushed, and tried to take it back—but she didn't have it in her. When he gaped, she shrugged.

"Well, uh," Akira said, nearly slapping himself when he stuttered. "I don't know. I have two sisters. My family is pretty normal, I suppose," he told her. He was being a blabbering idiot: he never told people about his home life, and certainly not to a girl with a family as estranged as Tsukushi's. He was tripping over his own feet.

"Sisters?" she asked genially. He nodded. "How old are they? Do they go to this school?"

"Oh, no, no," Akira waved his hands. "They're twins, actually. They're in middle school, so they're not on this campus, though they do attend Eitoku." Tsukushi nodded.

"Ah," she hummed. She looked thoughtful.

"Well, how about you tell me something, now?" Tsukushi blinked at him.

"There's not a lot to say," she admitted, snapping up some seaweed in her chopsticks and pressing it onto her fish. "My mom died two and a half years ago, which isn't all that interesting. I lived with my mother's friend Aoike—I had gone to school with his son Kazuya since I was little, so it was easy to stay with them." Akira nodded his head.

"Do you miss your mother?" He knew he shouldn't have asked it, but she seemed so outgoing at that moment; so revealing. He wanted to learn as much as he could while he still had the chance. She was intriguing to him.

She shrugged her shoulders disaffectedly. "Every night, but I've gotten used to it. I didn't think about her much when I lived with Kazuya, because they were like family to me... It's harder, here," Tsukushi told him.

"I can't imagine." He sighed. "Tsukasa's family was never really, well, a family." Tsukushi nodded her head.

"His mother hates me," she admitted. Akira raised his eyebrows when she dropped her head a little and exhaled. "It's hard living on this money that doesn't even really belong to me. His father—I mean, our father—was so kind to me, but I feel like I'm imposing on something I don't deserve. It's even harder when Tsukasa won't talk to me and Tsubaki lives in America, I really only have the maids to talk to." She shrugged her shoulders.

Akira was surprised; she had such a complex, but it was an endearing one. She didn't seem very complicated like so many of the teenage girls he abhorred, and instead all her feelings revolved around her common values. He thought it sad that she was really all by herself in a world she wasn't used to.

"Well," he said at length, "though I can't say I know what you're going through, I understand what you're saying. But think of this: if your father thinks of you enough to take you in and overturn even Tsukasa's old lady to keep you here, then I think he probably already knows how you feel. Don't worry so much. Even if Tsukasa is a jerk, he'll watch out for you—and don't feel alone, because you have lots of people around who are your friends. Soujiro and I are always around, and Rui likes you, even if you don't like him—though you may not think so." Akira smiled at her. "How about you come out with me tonight? My last lady's husband found us, so I'm single for a while, and I'm not quite up to the dating scene yet. You can help me ward off the vultures!"

Tsukushi laughed at that, and nodded her head. "Well, I'm busy until seven, but after that, I can go." Akira grinned.

"Great. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty."