Chapter 2. Ice King
Suna read his favorite book while he waited for his mother to finish cooking breakfast. The silent teen was absorbed in his book; he was trapped his own little world. Although he was physically there, mentally he was in a different dimension. Suna was as good as deaf. His mind subconsciously drowned out the sounds of the hissing skillet frying fresh fish, the bubbling pot boiling savory miso soup, and the rice cooker beeping. Suna may as well have been anosmatic too. The aroma of homemade breakfast filled the entire household and spread outside; all the neighbors on the same floor noticed the pleasant scent and their mouths watered. On the other hand, Suna's mind didn't register the fragrance, it stubbornly ignored it.
"Makoto, yesterday I bumped into our new neighbor, the gentleman next door. Did you know that he has a son your age?" Suna's mother mentioned, turning off the rice cooker and opening the lid. She waved the steam rising from the rice cooker out of her face and neatly scooped the rice into two bowls.
His mother's voice brought him back to Earth, and Suna placed his bookmark where he left off and his book inside his bag.
"Yes, I met him yesterday," Suna quietly answered. He didn't want to talk too much about the new student.
"Ah, so how is he? Nice? He should be, considering how polite his father was," the slightly aging woman placed two bowls of rice on the spotless table. She walked back to the counter to fetch the fish.
"I guess. He's popular with the boys."
"Just like Takeo, huh?" after Suna's mother transferred the golden fish from the skillet to two plates, she walked over to the table again to set the two plates on the flat surface.
"... I suppose," Suna reluctantly (and almost bitterly) admitted. He let himself stare into space. It pained him to acknowledge that Ryuu wasn't a bad person. It was so much easier to hate someone when he or she was a terrible person. It was more difficult to dislike someone when he or she was a decent person and didn't deserve the hate. It annoyed Suna to no end because he felt extremely guilty for holding such a grudge.
"Is he also popular with the gir-ouch!" Suna's mother hissed and set down the bowls filled with steaming miso soup on the counter.
"Are you alright?" Suna got out of his chair and went to his mother's side.
"Ah, I'm so clumsy, I wasn't looking where I was going," Suna's mother laughed, but she was obviously in pain, "I'll be fine, it's probably just a minor burn."
Suna frowned when saw that his mother's hand was a pinkish red. He led his mother to the kitchen sink and turned on the cold water. He gently took his mother's hand and held it under the faucet. After a few minutes, he turned off the faucet and told his mother to sit down while he got the first-aid kit. Suna's mother sighed and shook her head in exasperation because of her over-protective son. In a short amount of time, Suna reappeared with a roll of bandages in his hand and a pair of scissors. He kneeled by his mother's side and carefully wrapped her hand with the bandages and used the scissors to snip the gauze.
"Thank you Suna," Suna's mother smiled at her son as she affectionately ruffled his hair. Suna's eyes softened and he stood up to put the scissors and gauze away.
Before he sat down on the cushioned chair, Suna wiped the spilt soup off the counter and the floor with a paper towel, disposed the soggy towel, washed his hands, and brought the two bowls of miso soup to the table (he placed the bowl with less miso soup in front of himself and gave his mother the bowl with more soup).
"Itadakimasu," the mother and son picked up their chopsticks and started to eat.
After Suna finished his meal, he excused himself and washed all of his dishes in the sink. When his mother was done, he washed her dishes for her too.
By the time he completed his task, Suna looked up at the plain clock in between the pale blue cupboards. The short hand was pointing to the eight and the long hand was pointing to the three.
"Takeo should be here any minute," Suna glanced at the door and picked up his bag.
Two more minutes passed, and Suna contemplated whether he should leave or wait a little longer for his friend.
Three more minutes passed.
Just before Suna was about to reach for the doorknob, the doorbell rang. When Suna pressed the button on the monitor, he was greeted by Takeo's huge nose and eye, which were probably only a centimeter away from the camera lens.
"Takeo, take a few steps back," Suna ordered, accustomed to his friend's childish behavior. He watched Takeo take a few steps back, only to have his head cut off by the screen because he was too tall.
Suna stifled a little laugh, but his small smile disappeared in an instant when he saw who was next to Takeo. Ryuu.
"Hey, Suna! Are you coming out yet?" Ryuu asked, waving at the camera.
"Yes," Suna opened the door, but before he left, he called over his shoulder, "Take care mom."
Just before he closed the door, he heard his mother respond, "See you later Makoto!"
Suna turned around and looked at the two jocks in front of him.
"So is this really a camera?" Ryuu asked, pointing to the small, shiny circle above the small plaque that had the name Sunakawa printed on it.
Suna nodded in response.
"Woahhh, cool! In the town that I lived in, we never had stuff like this!" Ryuu did the same thing that Takeo did as a child, he shoved his eye in front of the camera lens and stared into it for a while like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
Suna looked away, and he tried to stop himself from laughing at Ryuu, "Come on, we should go now. If we continue lagging on like this, we'll be late for school."
Suna started walking ahead of the two. It didn't take long for the jocks to hurry up after him. After they took the train and got out of the metro station, Ryuu and Takeo started to talk about the most ridiculous things they've done when they were little.
"Suna, what's the craziest thing you've done?" Ryuu asked, jogging up to the quiet teen.
Suna shrugged and stayed silent.
"Yeah, I figured that much. You seem like someone who would be a perfect child," Ryuu let out an exaggerated sigh and slung his arm around Suna's neck. Suna tried to duck under Ryuu's arm.
Takeo loomed over Ryuu and gave a menacing stare, "Suna doesn't like physical contact."
Ryuu immediately backed off with his hands in the air, "Ah, sorry, sorry! I didn't know," he turned to Suna, "Excuse me," Ryuu did a little bow. Suna found Ryuu's interchangeable casual and polite demeanor extremely baffling.
"It's OK, and there's no need to be so formal," Suna continued to avoid eye contact with Ryuu and stared directly ahead.
Ryuu watched Suna walk ahead of Takeo and him for the third time this morning. The teen shook his head a little, perplexed.
"Is he usually like this?" he turned to Takeo, once Suna was out of earshot.
"Uh... Suna doesn't like to talk a lot. He's been like that since he was a kid. He also doesn't like making new friends," Takeo explained as best as he could without using complex, long sentences.
"Ah, I see," Ryuu nodded, "So he doesn't have any friends?" the teen looked a little concerned, "Poor guy..."
"No!" Takeo bellowed, causing Ryuu to jump (and the people around them), "Suna has me and my girlfriend Yamato," Takeo thumped his chest like a gorilla and snorted loudly.
"Suna is a good friend. Very good! He's always there to help me-and Yamato!" Takeo shouted and waved his arms around randomly for emphasis.
"... Huh, I guess that I shouldn't have been so quick to judge him. I've always thought of him as some Ice King, but now that I think about it..." Ryuu went silent for a few seconds.
Takeo stared at Ryuu, he wondered what his new friend was thinking.
"Maybe he's afraid that he'll lose his only friend to me..." Ryuu quietly murmured to himself.
"Hey, Takeo, why don't you catch up to Suna? He looks pretty lonely by himself. I'll just stick near the back, I'll be fine," the teen suggested to Takeo.
"Right, Ryuu!" Takeo saluted seriously before he dashed over to Suna. The time it took for the giant to reach Suna's side probably could have broken the world record for timed sprints.
Ryuu watched Suna turn to Takeo with a seemingly placid face, but even from a distance, Ryuu could tell from Suna's eyes that the teen was glad to have his friend next to him. Ryuu smiled to himself, satisfied.
Review Replies:
Guest: Yeah, Suna is pretty cute in his awkward, antisocial way XD. Unfortunately, Ryuu doesn't like him. Yet. As much as I'd love to pull off the "love at first sight" scenario in this fanfiction, I really feel like it wouldn't suit Suna or Ryuu's personality. Suna (from what I've observed) is the kind of person who won't let someone get close to him easily. On the other hand, Ryuu is the kind of person who wants to know someone at least decently well before he decides he likes them (sorry for the long, boring explanation). They'll figure it out later, don't worry :) Sorry, that's all I can say for now. I don't want to spoil too much.
Stevenbomb2015: I hope that the fandom grows bigger; My Love Story! is such a good anime, it deserves more fans. Also, thank you so much! I was really motivated to write more after reading your review!
A/N July 13, 2015
Well guys, that's the end of this brief, uneventful second chapter. To be truthful, this chapter was more of a filler (and a way to get more of a glimpse of Ryuu's character). The next two chapters involve more drama and not-so-happy-themes. I probably won't be able to get the next chapter out until Thursday or Friday (maybe later, I'm super busy with summer school homework and prepping for the SAT and the ACT, which is ridiculously time-consuming). I wonder if college has more homework than high school... I'm starting to lose my appetite... I better stop thinking about school-work before I hurl.
I'd also like to apologize for all the typos in this chapter (I'm assuming there are still a lot of them I haven't caught yet, even though I did proofread this three times). I'll make sure that I'll edit this chapter when I have the time. When I'm under a lot of pressure *cough* parents and their high expectations *cough*, my editing skills and my creativity decrease dramatically... Yeah, it's probably better for me to finish the next chapter during the weekend so that the quality of my writing isn't crap... like right now...
Thanks for reading, and hopefully you guys are having a less stressful summer than me,
-ShootingStar103