Getting a serious writer block during these days plus hectic hours at work. Gomen ne for the slow updates, nevertheless, I would still like to thank BabySis, Som, Drina & Dytia for reviewing this humble fiction of mine. Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu! (bows)

IT IS JUST ANOTHER LOVE AFFAIR?

Chapter 4  - Break A Leg…

" You are late," Soujirou muttered out impatiently when he sensed a familiar presence and turned his head. He was shocked to see Akira limping towards him with the help of two clutches.

" Now you know the reason." Akira quipped, rolling his eyes. " Can we change the location? I don't think I can sit on the ground with this big white clay casting on my right foot and these two nasty things." Akira grumbled out loud.

" Sure." Soujirou replied, trying hard to muffle his laughter by covering his mouth.

" What's so funny?" Akira frowned. " Nothing," Soujirou said with his head turned away. " Let's go."

*****

" Of all places, why here?" Akira complained out loud. " I feel like a monkey in a zoo." Upon Soujirou's insistence, both settled themselves in Eitoku café whereby everyone's attention eventually fell onto Akira's injuries.

" Who's calling?" Shigeru's sudden appearance never failed to shudder the F2.

" Urghh! You this monkey girl! Don't you ever use up your energy?" Akira growled while trying to get himself positioned back comfortably onto the chair.

" Not when I see the both of you!" Shigeru bubbly remarked. " You know it so boring without Tsukasa and Tsukushi." Shigeru took a seat between the F2, without asking. 

" Ohhh…another failed affair, I presume." Shigeru finally noticed Akira's injuries, giving him a sympathetic glance. 

" Yes and no," Akira said. " I managed to escape, UNHURT, before that husband of hers banged into the room." Both Soujirou and Shigeru narrowed their eyes in a doubtful manner.

" What?" Akira cried, getting a little irritated by his cynical friends. "What do you explain this then?" Shigeru asked and she couldn't resist the temptation in hammering that bulky while clay lying just beside her.

" Ita!" Akira almost screamed his lung out. " Gomen ne." Shigeru stuck her tongue out playfully, " Naughty hand!"  (Piah! Piah!) 

" So, what happen next?" Soujirou probed, getting quite impatient about the whole thing.

" Haiz~" Akira sighed. " It's a long story."

*****

A loud, rambling noise began to fill the air, getting louder as it seemed to come closer and closer. Kumiko turned to run, but she couldn't move. Her legs felt as heavy as lead. The wind was so strong that the trees around her were being pulled from the earth, the bigger ones crashing to the ground.

" Where am I?" Kumiko questioned herself but she couldn't get any answer.

" Kumiko, over here!" A voice echoed in the air and Kumiko was searching for the source of the voice. From a distance, Kumiko spotted a familiar face.

" Kurota?"

" Kumiko, over here!" Another voice was heard and Kumiko turned.

" Yoshi?"

" Kumiko, over here!" Yet, another familiar voice.

" Kenchi?"

" Kumiko, over here!" Kumiko realized she was engulfed by the shadows of her past lovers.

" What the hell is going on?" A confused Kumiko covered her ears with both hands and had her eyes shut, not wanting to see or hear those familiar faces and voices. All was quiet for a few moments, Kumiko slowly opened her eyes, and everyone was gone.

" Phew!" Kumiko heaved a sigh of relief. Suddenly the earth seemed to explode before Kumiko's eyes. It cracked open, breaking up in large pieces, as if it was a jigsaw puzzle that someone was angrily pulling apart.

" What the hell…" The ground broke beneath her. Kumiko tried desperately to grab the rocks, the hard earth and finally the clumps of grass at his feet. But it was no use; she wasn't strong enough.

" Oh! Kami!  I promise I will be good in the future! Save me!" Kumiko screamed out her prayer and hoped for a miracle. However, her prayer seemed to go unheard.

Kumiko was falling now, falling a long way down, her body spinning and turning as she went. And she was screaming. There was a loud bloodcurdling scream that seemed to be not coming from her but from the huge black space beneath her.

*****

" Damn it!" Kumiko cursed, cleanly forgotten about her previous promise to God.

" Haiz… she even curses in her dream." Kumiko heard her father's voice. It sounded as though he was from a long way away, his voice faint. " I really don't know what she really wants." The next sentence seemed closer, his voice louder.

With an enormous effort, Kumiko opened her eyes. It was a dream? Kumiko wiped the sleep away and shook her head to make she was awake.

" Finally…" Kumiko turned her head slightly and noticed her father's stern expression. I am now at home? Wasn't I supposed to be in neechan's apartment? All the sudden, Kumiko felt like Alice who just came back from the wonderland, except, hers was a terror-land.

" Young lady, where were you last night? And how did you land yourself in such a miserable state? Were you involved in a gang fight or what?" Mr. Nanaji questioned out pointedly as he stared hard at his distraught daughter.

Something flashed in Kumiko's mind and Kumiko placed a hand on her head to try to stop it from throbbing. That shadow…something big had fallen onto me! Who was that? All the questions pop out but no available answers were given.

" Anata, slow down a little. She's just awake." Kumiko spotted Mrs. Nanaji standing beside her father looking concerned. " Stop shedding those crocodile tears of yours!" Kumiko snarled.

" Is that how you talk to your okaasan?" Mr. Nanaji reprimanded the willful daughter of his.

" This woman is not my mother! My mother is already dead. I hope you have not forgotten the culprit of this tragedy?" Kumiko hissed, glaring at the couple.

" You…" Mr. Nanaji became speechless, his face redden with anger.

" Calm down. Your blood pressure hasn't been too stable lately." Mrs. Nanaji quickly gave Mr. Nanaji's chest area some gentle strokes so that he would not get too tensed up.

" I am out of here." Kumiko wanted to get down from her bed but was pulled back by something. " Nani?" Kumiko pulled her blanket away in order to see what was stopping her.

" Damn it!" Once again, Kumiko cursed out loud when she found a thick layer of white clay casting covering almost half of her left foot.

…To be continued.