Melina sighed pleasantly as she whizzed down the completely empty highway, glad that she could go at a slightly higher speed than what was allowed, and watch the sunset at the same time. After their cancelled game with Shoyo and that ice cream spree, she and her friends had each gone their separate ways. Jesse and Ciel took the fastest way home, while CJ and Erin planned to head to the mall. She had no idea where Aleine was headed, but she knew as much that she wasn't headed home yet. And as for herself, she was going home, but she wanted to take the longer and more scenic route by taking the road that wound along the coastline of Kanagawa.
Her mind drifted back to the game they had earlier. When they started out, Melina was quite surprised to find out that Shoyo was pretty easy to play against. They didn't perform the way they did in their game against Shohoku. This irritated her slightly, as she had been expecting a more challenging game than when they played against Shohoku and Ryonan. After all, they WERE the second-best in the prefecture, weren't they?
But then Jesse saw right through them. They were obviously having internal conflicts, mostly concerning Hanagata Toru and Fujima Kenji, who, unfortunately, were the two pillars of the Shoyo Team. And Melina knew that their problem concerned that argument they had about Ciel.
It must have been tough for Ciel, trying to put an end to the entire thing, Melina mused. It had been her idea to force Ciel to play during the game against Shoyo, in effect forcing her to face up to the problem at hand. And though it didn't work out the way she thought it would, it DID put an end to the argument. That alone was good enough.
She was also pleased with the way Ciel put it. Back to Square One…yeah, that's a good idea, especially if she wants to keep their friendship. And I'm sure that she does, especially Kenji's. She knew that her friend had a special fondness for the brown-haired, blue-eyed Shoyo player, though how she could give preference to a guy she nearly killed was beyond Melina's comprehension. She giggled. It's like one of those comedy romances in the movies or on TV. Girl nearly kills Guy, they hate each other's guts for a while, and then they end up falling all over each other…
She sighed then. If only finding romance were THAT easy. Melina had had her own fair share of suitors, but more often than not, she always found reasons to "kill them off", as Aleine put it. Sometimes they were too snobby; sometimes they were too boring; sometimes they were too fresh with her. The latter kinds were the ones she hated the most, and she tried to avoid them like the plague. As luck would have it though, those were the ones who often ended up knocking on her door. And when such people came to call, she often resorted to desperate measures, like calling the guards up and having them take the persistent suitor away.
But she realized, with a frown, that it wasn't the only reason why she kept shying away from guys. She had a good deal of suitors who were actually pretty decent: smart, kind, and had a sense of respect and dignity. No, there was that "other" reason, the one connected to the "incident"…
She shook her head. Mel, now's not the time to remember that! Pull yourself together! You should just forget about it and leave it at that! But how could she NOT forget it, particularly since she felt herself starting to fall all over again with a certain Sendoh Akira…
When she first met Sendoh, Melina thought that she had to keep her distance from him. He exuded that cool, suave attitude that would make most girls swoon, but in her case, only made her more wary of him. But she started lowering her defenses when she got to know him more, and found that other side of him, the jolly, happy-go-lucky part that seemed to shout to the whole wide world, "I don't give a damn!" And she liked it. Never had she met anyone who was so carefree, someone who could always find a reason to smile and to laugh. Someone who could make anyone feel special, even with just a smile or a kind word. And she could see why his teammates liked him so much; he always made sure that he praised them for every little thing they did, and tried to comfort and encourage them when they were down.
The fact that I like him is kinda scary, though, Melina thought. Never in the whole three years since the "incident" had she come this close to falling in love all over again.
Watch yourself Mel, her mind told her. If you're not careful you're going to lose it again.
Relax, Mel, her heart whispered. It's about time you found another guy to love you, and Sendoh seems like the best guy for the job! He's kind, witty, and it helps that he's rather cute to boot. That smile of his helps a lot there, don't you think?
Yeah, but remember, those were the same exact reasons you fell for Nicholas, and look what happened to you, her mind retorted.
Melina sighed. What am I going to do?
At that moment, she noticed a familiar person sitting on the pier, a fishing rod in his hand. She smiled when she noticed the hard-to-miss spiked hair. Well whaddya know! Speak of the devil himself! She parked her car near the pier, but didn't make a move to get out. She simply watched him from a distance, observing him. He was sitting on the large metal bolt that was used to tie boats to the pier, and his fishing line dangled from the rod into the surf that lapped at the pier. She couldn't tell if he had caught any yet, but then again, he was probably just holding a fishing rod to act as a cover while he lost himself in thought.
Melina grinned when she thought of that possibility. God only knows how many times I've used my riding as a cover-up story so I can ponder the imponderable.
Just then, however, the person she had been observing turned around, and looked straight at her. Sendoh smiled, and laid his rod down on the concrete beside him. He stood up, and approached her, his blue eyes twinkling and that infamous lopsided grin of his plastered all over his face. "Konnichiwa, Melina-chan."
Melina smiled up at him. "Hi Sendoh."
* * *
Sendoh smiled down at the shorthaired girl who sat behind the wheel of the silver BMW, surprised to even SEE her there. I never expected that she would come by this way.
Taoka-sensei had let them off early that day, though for what reasons Sendoh never knew or found out. But still, he seized the opportunity, as they say, and took off before Taoka-sensei could change his mind. After a quick walk home to pick up his fishing rod and some bait, he took a long, leisurely stroll towards the little pier that stood not that far from his home, and once he got there, he sat down on his favorite spot, let down his line into the water, and waited. While he waited, he let his thoughts drift where they would, and after several minutes (or hours), he realized that most of them centered on Melina.
And how couldn't they, he thought amusedly. From the moment he had seen her, she had held his imagination, almost out of his will. He found himself thinking about her more often that he should, and though it annoyed him that he should always lose his focus, it provided an attractive alternative to the boring lectures his teachers forced onto him during class.
But there were some things that he couldn't understand about her. Like why did she flinch when he touched her after their game? That particular incident stuck in his head, and was the main focus of his thoughts from the day it happened. A lot of possibilities entered his mind, each worse than the first, until it came to the point that he didn't want to think about it anymore.
He smiled down at her. "What are you doing here, Melina-chan?"
"Oh, I just decided to take the more scenic route home," Melina answered with a shrug and a smile. "We just came from Shoyo, but Jesse suddenly cut our game with them."
"So you played against Shoyo." Sendoh looked down at her, and then suddenly had an idea. "Mel-chan, why don't you get out of the car? You're not in a hurry to get home, are you?"
Melina shook her head. "No. Why?"
"Why don't you stay here and chat with me a while. I've got a lot of time on my hands right now, and I'm getting pretty bored. Let's watch the sunset." As he spoke, Sendoh pulled the door opened, and held his hand out to her in invitation.
There was hesitation in Melina's voice. "Where are we going to sit?"
He pointed to where he had been sitting a moment ago. "Right over there."
"Uh…a little close to the edge, isn't it?"
"That's what's so nice about it. The view is fantastic from there." Sendoh caught her hand in his, and gently pulled her to her feet. Wow, she didn't pull away from me! "Come on!"
Melina shook her head then, and a hint of fear appeared in her eyes. "I don't think we should go so near to the edge…"
Sendoh laughed playfully at her. "What's so wrong with that? I'm not planning to push you in or anything. And besides, you aren't afraid of the water, are you?"
At his words, Melina blushed, and lowered her gaze. "Actually…I am."
That floored him. He stopped his teasing, and looked at Melina with a combination of surprise and curiosity. "Honto?"
"Yeah. I mean, I'm not afraid of water when it's in a shower or a bathtub or a pool – as long as I can see the bottom, I'm fine. But when it comes to lakes and the ocean…that's an entirely different cup of tea."
Curiosity finally winning over his surprise, Sendoh had to ask the inevitable question, "Naze?"
A small smile crossed Melina's face. "It's a pretty weird story, actually. When I was four or five, my family went to a lake up in Canada. My older cousin took me out to the middle of the lake in an inflatable raft. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty strong that day, and the raft turned over. I wasn't wearing a life vest, and I didn't know how to swim, so I nearly drowned. After that, well…let's just say I've stuck closer to land ever since."
"Oh, I see." Sendoh stared at her for a moment longer. Fears really get embedded in her for a long time. I wonder…did she flinch before because of some fear? If so, what sort of fear is it?
There was silence for a long while; then Melina smiled, and got back into her car. "Well, looks like it's getting pretty dark already. I got to go home now. Nice seeing you, Sendoh." With that, she started up the engine, and drove off, leaving Sendoh to think about what she had told him.