"Ryo! Ryo!" a friendly voice in a strange place called out to him. He seemed to be in a forest, where there were many trees around him - cherry blossom, oak, mahogany, redwood … It was a splendid, it almost like heaven!
"Ryo! Here! Over here!"
He turned to see a figure dressed in green like a nymph. She appeared to be smiling up at him, but he wasn't sure. The sun was directly cast upon his eyes, so the glare from the light made it hard for him to see her face. But he was sure it was she - the unmistakable flowing brown hair being played upon by the wind. She was standing a few feet away from him now. Oh how easy it would be to come closer to her and hold her tight. All these years, he waited for her to come back - rise from the dead.
"Come here, Ryo. Come…"
She was calling for him now, urging him to come to her with an outstretched hand. The voice was painfully familiar, so familiar and long gone that he wished so hard to hear it again. She was standing still now, looking up at him with her masked face
"Ryouske, come! Let's drive through Mount Akina. I want to visit the Wishing Tree again"
There was an echo of joyful laughter and excitement in her voice, but he still couldn't see her. Oh how he wished to see her and hold her and hug her! If this was a dream, he never wanted to awaken and lose this marvelous moment.
Suddenly, it became dark and snow began falling. It fell on his face, his clothes... He could feel its coolness against his body, the hardness of it a contrast to skin's softness. The sun wasn't there anymore. It as hidden behind the dark clouds that was cast over him. He looked back just to find that she wasn't there anymore. She had disappeared with the forest and the dream. On her place stood a tree covered in snow. It looked like the Wishing Tree he and she used to visit on Mount Akina. No, it wasn't just the image of the tree. It was the same tree!
"Shizuka!!! Shizuka!!!" He desperately searched for her in the vast emptiness that replaced the forest. He called out for her, "Shizuka! Come back! Come back to me…!" He tried to turn and run, but the extreme coldness of the snow inhibited any kind of motion. He stood still, unmoving, like a monument. He was slowly being buried beneath the pile of cold tears falling from the sky. He was slowly sinking… freezing… losing control… He wanted to chase the dream and not let it slip away. He wanted to find her, but she was gone.
He suddenly awoke, feeling the intense cold invading his body. He left the air conditioner in his room for too long, and now he was shivering due to the low temperature. Drowsily, he turned off the machine and glanced at the timer beside his bed. Eleven Ten . It was nearly high noon, but he was still dozing off in his room. Unmindfully, he went to the bathroom and took a shower. The water was warm against his skin, thanks to the ever-reliable water heater. The warmth replaced the coldness he had felt earlier and returned the life in his body. He let the warm water trickle down his dark hair, down his pale face… The strange dream suddenly returned to him.
"Shizuka…" he muttered under his breath, "It's been so long." He contemplated on the dream for a while, thinking of the most logical meaning it tried to convey. It was short-lived, momentary, but vivid and realistic. It was odd, however, how he could not see her beautiful face in the light. And why was it that she wore a green nymph dress? She'd never worn green before, thinking that it didn't suit her. But what could it mean? Why would she make an apparition to him in his dream? He didn't understand why she would disturb him now. He hadn't dreamed about her for three years…
He turned off the shower and dried himself. Obviously, there was no use thinking about the preternatural. There was no answer right now anyway. He put on his clothes and headed for the door.
Keisuke thought he was up too early today. Usually, he would find his brother sipping coffee by the table and reading the morning news when he walks in the dining hall. But today was different, and it wasn't because Keisuke woke up earlier than his brother. Nay, he still got up late after the sun has appeared on the horizon. What was odd was that his aniki was even later.
"I wonder what has happened to him…?" Keisuke muttered to himself while he devoured the eggs on the table.
"Oi, aniki," Keisuke called out when his brother appeared on the dining hall. Ryouske was already dressed in white cargo pants and navy blue polo. "Where have you been last night? You came in later than I did!" He was stuffing his mouth with hotdogs shaped like an octopus.
Ryouske was already sipping his coffee when he replied, "Nowhere in particular. I just drove through Akina to cool off."
"Really now?" There was a cloud of doubt in his eyes now. He thought his brother was lying, "If that's the truth, then why did I find this in the passenger seat of your car?" He flaunted a wallet in front of his aniki's face. You would have guessed that it was a girl's wallet just by looking at it. The flowery designs on the leather said it all. "I found it there when I was searching for the Bad Luck CD I left in your car stereo. I know this is a woman's wallet. Look at the distasteful choice of floral design!" He shook his head in disgust. "However, I like it. It's yellow green, you know." He put the wallet on the table and started teasing his aniki, "So who is the lucky babe, Ryouske? Come on, you can tell me."
Ryouske, who was sitting across his brother on the table, folded the morning paper and sipped his coffee. He seemed oblivious to his brother's incessant teasing. Finally, when he felt that his brother was really anxious to hear the answer, he replied, "Ah, you mean Yumi? I just met her last night. Her car engine broke down, and I happened to pass by"
"But still," Keisuke seemed to be enjoying this topic of conversation, thinking that he could rile his brother for fun, "you never let any girl sit on the passenger seat. I think she is be special."
Special, all right. He thought to himself. She is special to the point of being bizarre . He thought of the way she acted so lively and brazen, like an untamed falcon. She was so carefree and without inhibitions. She is odd. Really odd. And he remembered the departing kiss the girl gave him before she disappeared into the shadows. She was truly different from other women he had known. They don't kiss guys whom they just met for a couple of hours!
Ryouske was jolted back to reality when his brother started waving his hand in front of his face.
"Aniki…" Keisuke sounded mockingly shocked, "You have an unusual look on your face. It's scary!" He inspected his brother's face more closely and saw the deep lines on his forehead that meant that he was thinking really hard. "Yuck! You seem to be distracted with this female." He shook his head in disgust.
Ryouske just clucked his tongue in response to his brother's taunts. "You just know her, KT. She's really weird." He started to withdraw from the dining table and headed for the garage where their cars were parked.
"Oi! Where are you going?" His younger brother was suddenly at his side. "You're going to return the wallet? I'm coming with you. I want to meet this special lady." Keisuke emphasized the word special, for his brother to understand his real agenda - which was to spy on him.
"Whatever"
Almost an hour had passed, and Keisuke was getting impatient. He didn't know that this girl was living in Ashikaga, and Ashikaga is at least two hours drive from his home! "Ryouske, you could have warned me that the drive would be long." He was getting whiny by the moment. He frowned, letting his brother know how unhappy he was of waiting for too long, "I could have brought some CDs and turned up the stereo, you know." He was desperate to find something to do. Out of boredom, he explored Yumi's purse. At first glance, the purse looked ordinary except for the wild green color. But when Keisuke opened it, he was surprised at the contents. There were lots of ID's, membership cards, and visa and credit cards. The thickness of the wallet was due to these laminated plastics!
"Ne, aniki," Keisuke said "did you know that Yumi's real name is Sydney? I think she's not Japanese" He was inspecting the wallet's contents - from the cards to the license and the ID.
"No," his voice was still cold and distant, "and I don't think you should be doing that."
"Whatever". He didn't even flinch in the coldness of his brother's voice. Besides, he was already used to it. But at least I won't be bored anymore… Keisuke thought to himself with an evil grin as he searched through another pack of cards. There were so many cards to go through, that an hour would not be sufficient to complete the task. His eye was caught by a white, formal-looking plastic card. It surely seemed out of place. When Keisuke flipped it over, he realized that it was an office card.
He scrutinized the picture in her ID and realized that the eyes that were staring back at him were the color of deep green emeralds. They were both enchanting and fascinating, you would feel like you were being pulled into it. It was like being enchanted to go to the deepest part of the sea.
…Sydney Smith… "So her full, real name is Sydney Smith."
…twenty years old… "She's twenty! Younger than you are."
…blood type AB… "She's blood type AB, too, like me. Hehe"
…resident of Memphis, Tennessee… "And she lives in US. So that explains the name."
…and doctor of medicine… "And she's a do-" … A what?
Keisuke's mindless chanting of the information on Yumi's card was cut off. He was shocked to even speak, A doctor of Medicine?!? He was dumbfounded at the idea. A twenty-year old girl was already a doctor? If this were true, the she should be a real genius. Then she should also be a good match for his loveless aniki. They both have the same intellectual endowments, though in different fields.
However, a tinge of worry seeped through his mind. Even if they had much in common, there was still a wee chance of them getting together. For the simple reason that Ryouske despises doctors! Well, not really despises, but more of dislikes them. He became like this when the doctors failed to save Shizuka from the realm of death. Well, it wasn't completely the ER doctors' fault, because the discovery of her body was too late. But it was also her personal doctor's fault for not giving her the right dosage of the pills!
The accident caused his brother a lot of pain, and he knew it. His brother changed almost overnight from a perky boy to a grave one. But the greatest effect of this incident on his brother, in his opinion, was the loss of his brother's dream to follow in their father's footsteps. When Ryouske was young, he used to say that he wanted to become a doctor. Due to his exceptional performance in school, their parents thought that it would be attainable. He remembered how they used to call his aniki as "Doc", and Ryouske would smile and say, "Soon". But it was different now. Ryouske didn't even like going to the hospital anymore, not even when their mother lay in her deathbed in there. During that time, Keisuke stayed all the time, watching over his mother, while his brother locked himself up in his room and waited for further announcements. It was horrible! But Keisuke understood to well. He knew that his brother's anguish was not yet healed, so there was no use in pushing him.
Keisuke felt the car had suddenly come to a complete stop. He realized that they were already at Yumi's place, and her wallet was still in a mess! As fast as he could, he returned the cards to its proper places and handed the purse to his brother. "Good luck, aniki!" and he threw the purse at his brother. Ryouske caught it and, as usual, just ignored his brother. Instead, he took out a pair of dark sunglasses and put them on. In addition to that, he hid the mass of his rich dark hair beneath a baseball cap and got out of the car.
Ryouske, in his disguise, was standing in front of the blue apartment's gates. He was in the middle of pushing the button of the doorbell, when suddenly it swung open. In an instant, he came face to face with an unfamiliar-looking woman.
"Excuse me?" She stared at him from head to foot. She was a tall woman, almost as tall as he was. She had a nonchalant look on her face, "Can I help you?"
"My name is Ryouske," he replied in his diplomat's voice - smooth and sure, "I'm here to return the purse that Miss Smith dropped in my car last night." He held out the flashy wallet in front of him as proof. "Is she here?"
The woman took time to think about it and to scrutinize the man from head to foot before she answered, "She's here all right. You can come in." She led him inside the garden and into the house, finally leaving him in the porch to wait for Miss Smith.
He sat on the huge black couch, willing himself to be comfortable in this strange place. The paintings on the wall looked very gothic to him; they do not possess color at all. And the sculptures around him looked like ancient creatures that stare back at him with watching eyes. It was really creepy, making the hair from the back of his head rise. Then, out of the blue, he felt a light tap on his shoulder.
"Yo! How are you?" It was Yumi, dressed in yellow sleeveless shirt and white tennis shorts. She looked like she came from tennis practice, with the sweat still trickling down her face and the hair sticking to her forehead like plaster. He looked at her and saw the tan of her firm and muscular arms and the nice, shapely legs. She was brown, and he was pale. It was a pleasure to the eyes to see such a thing!
"I'm here to return this to you," he said very straightforwardly. "You dropped it in my car last night." He gave her the wallet, his hand brushing against hers. It was light, yet it was enough to make his skin tingle.
"Oh my wallet!" She exclaimed, too loudly for his ears, though, "I was looking for it in my bag and couldn't find it." She took the wallet from his hands and thanked him dearly. "It was a good thing that I didn't lose it. All my valuable stuff are in here." She placed the wallet on top of the side table and gave him a warm, almost shy smile. "You know, from the moment I first met you, you were always saving my hide." She laughed softly at the idea of her being a damsel in distress always saved by the man the mask. It was funny. "I was thinking," her forehead was crinkled in consternation, "how about you join me for dinner tonight? Just for thanksgiving." She looked at him expectantly.
"Look," Ryouske started in usual coot tone of voice, "I have many responsibilities, and I don't have time for this."
"… but he's going to join you for dinner." A voice from the doorway continued. It was Keisuke! He was leaning on the door, his arms folded across his chest, and a smirk lifting one side of his lips. He was apparently proud of his smugness.
Ryouske glared at his brother for his intrusion. The last thing he needed right now was commitment to anything. He rebuked his brother for interfering, "Keisuke, how dare you interrupt our conversation?" The intensity in his eyes was overwhelming, but Keisuke didn't seem to mind.
"I am here," he held out his hand to the unfamiliar woman whom he guessed to be Yumi, "to make you act gently with this delicate lady." He lifted Yumi's hand to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. "My lady, I presume you to be Miss Sydney Smith a.k.a. Yumi?" He was now staring into the deep ocean of dark, tantalizing emerald eyes he'd previously seen in photos. He decided they were better seen up-close.
Yumi's first reaction was shock. She didn't realize that this man could have opened his wallet and searched through her cards to determine the owner of the purse. However, she quickly recovered and asked him in an equally sweet voice, "Aye. My name is indeed Sydney, but they call me Yumi." He studied his face and guessed that he was Ryouske's brother, that fact was obvious. "And I suppose you're this rude man's brother?" She scowled at Ryouske, who was still staring intently at his bother.
Keisuke chuckled softly, "It's pretty obvious, huh?" He raked a hand through his thick yellow hair, "but I am more perfect." And he flashed her his photogenic smile that was enough to melt ice cream. This same smile never failed to make girls' knees to give under their legs.
"Maybe," she said unmindfully. From this point of view, he looked more charming than his older brother did. A brilliant idea suddenly came into mind. "What's your name again?" She asked.
"My name is," Keisuke said in a husky voice, "Ta…"
He was stopped midsentence by a painful jab in the ribs. It was his brothers elbows poking him.
"His name is Nobunaga Keisuke." Ryouske continued for his brother, so smooth you wouldn't know it was a lie.
Suddenly, Keisuke understood his brother's lie. Until now, Ryouske hadn't coped with the drawbacks of his popularity. He didn't like the fact that women fantasize about his face from the magazine pages. But most of all, he didn't like it when people treat him differently just because he was a star. The only people who treat him normally were his family and his Red Suns teammates.
Yumi nodded and turned to Keisuke, "would you mind, Keisuke-san, to join us for dinner tonight? My friend would be most happy to meet you." She said with a naughty wink. It was apparent to him that she was plotting something.
"Is she the one who opened the gates for me?" Keisuke asked, excited at the notion of meeting the proud lady who he was eyeing earlier.
"Nope. That girl is my friend's sister. You will be more interested in Kira than in her, I promise"
Keisuke kept playing the suave boy, "It's fine with me, as long as she's as a beauty as you are."
Yumi couldn't stop the heat from rising on her cheeks. The comment was so straightforward, and she wasn't used to positive criticisms.
"Yumi-san," Ryouske broke through Yumi's self-consciousness. "We need to go now. We'll just come back later for dinner." He then turned to Keisuke, waiting for him so they could already leave.
"Yumi-chan," Keisuke started again, "thanks for the invite. I'm looking forward to tonight." He flashed him another picture-perfect smile that deepened Yumi's blush.
When they were already inside the white FC, Ryouske started lecturing his younger brother. He was saying about how improper it was to meddle in somebody else's affairs, and not embarrassing a person in his own home.
"Look who's talking," Keisuke said in his irritatingly bratty voice. "Who embarrassed who again?"
"Kei," Ryouske's voice was now dark and deep, "you didn't know what's going on; you shouldn't have interfered."
"But she was inviting us - I mean you - for dinner. What's so wrong with that?" Honestly, he couldn't find anything wrong with Yumi. In fact, she was flawless in the sense of the word.
"But she's different , Kei. You still haven't seen it. But once you do, you'd be shocked." He stopped talking and started driving for home.
It was already six in the evening, and Keisuke was still not dressed for the dinner they were attending. Ryouske was waiting in the living room and reading the latest issue of Time magazine he bought earlier on the way home from Ashikaga.
"Ryo!" Ryouske heard his brother yell from his room, "What do you think about a bright green polo?"
Ryouske shook his head at his brother's indecision. He spent the last hour trying to decide on what to wear for the dinner. He stormed through his closet, changing from tangerine polo to yellow long-sleeves, to lime green shirt.
"Oi," Keisuke was standing in front of his aniki now, wearing a bright green colored polo. "How's this?"
Ryouske looked up from his reading material and shook his head in distaste. "You're not going to a carnival, Kei. And for Pete's sake, it's night! You'll glow brighter than the fluorescent lamps." He looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late. He finally stood up and dragged his brother to his room. He threw at him a pair of dark blue cotton polo. "Here. Wear this." And he went back to reading his magazine.
An hour later, the two brothers were standing in front of the blue apartment's front gate. They were both carrying a bouquet of red roses and a box of chocolates. Keisuke insisted on them. "For formalities," he said. Keisuke rang the doorbell. After a few moments, a woman dressed in long, black halter dress appeared to greet them. Keisuke guessed that she must be Kira.
"Kira-chan," Keisuke said in his smooth voice, "for you." He offered her the bouquet and box, the smile never leaving his face. He looked him up and down and guessed that she was a little older than he was. But it didn't matter anyway. She still looked gorgeous in the dress. It was simple yet elegance was there. He could see from the post lamp that she was as tanned as Yumi had been. She was perfect for him.
"Ah," the woman said in surprise, "you must be Keisuke. Yumi had told me about your meeting earlier." She accepted the gifts gracefully and led the two of them inside the house, "you are as sly as a fox!"
When they had arrived on the dining hall, Ryouske was surprised to see that their dinner wasn't traditional Japanese style. A huge dining table for eight people was in the middle where a feast fit for the gods was prepared. The prepared food was varied, but he observed that they were All-American food.
"So you must be Ryouske, then," Kira's words broke through his thoughts. "Yumi was telling me earlier how you saved her neck many times." She looked him in the eye, not flinching from the coldness she saw in there. "You have my gratitude. Yumi is dear to me like a sister. She saved my mother from the brink of death." Her expression turned solemn, and he guessed that she was serious. "I know people find her strange here. But please take time to know her more. She needs friends." And she turned away, returning to Keisuke with a photo album. Ryouske was left there, staring at the brightness of the chandelier.
There was a sudden hush of silence in the room. Ryouske turned to see Yumi walking gracefully down the staircase. She was wearing a red blouse and black stretchable skirt that ended just above the knee. Her hair was tied back neatly in a ponytail, the strands shining against the chandelier lights. She was wearing simple clothes, yet when it was on her it seemed just as glamorous. She entered the dining hall with a poise that speaks of confidence and smiled up at Ryouske, who was looking at her with intensity enough to melt ice. She wasn't intimidated at all by his stance. Instead, she leaned up against him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Hello. Thank you for coming to night."
Kira and Keisuke stopped what they were doing when Yumi entered the hall like a queen. They were staring at Yumi and saw the friendly but affectionate exchange of greetings. They stared at Ryouske, who stood there frozen like a statue. They were expecting something from him, a slight nod or anything. But Ryouske didn't care. A million thoughts were racing through his mind, and he didn't know what would win.
Nyahahaha!!! Done with the second chappie... I hope you had fun reading it. Keisuke is a really fun-loving guy, right? And Ryouske is a pain in the ass...