The Game of Love

Chapter Nine: Track Meet Part I

The room reeked of chemicals used to develop film. The room was dimly lit by a reddish light. Someone was developing more pictures again. He looked at the latest batch of pictures. They were the latest additions to his ever growing collection.

He carefully washed the precious photograph in the water, holding it with tongs. She was his hobby. His one precious thing. He traced a finger along her face as he allowed it dry on the line. Despite the chemicals, he knew how she smelled. He saw her all the time, but he couldn't touch her. She was something that was supposed to be worshipped. Unworthy hands should never touch her.

He slammed the tongs on the table. He glared at the picture. He remembered that she had gone out on a date with Doumyouji Tsukasa. There was going to be Hell to pay later.

He started to hum one of her songs again. He knew her better than anyone else. He was closer to her than anyone would have ever guessed.

*

Tsukushi kept walking through the chilly night air until she hailed a cab. Doumyouji was so stunned that by the time he had realized that she had walked off without a ride. He called his cell to go and look for her, but he had a feeling that she had disappeared as she had before. Twice. This was the second time he had allowed her to slip through his fingers.

"Sir, the young miss forgot to take her coat," said one of the servants as she presented the coat to him.

"Damn her. It's just like her to be so reckless," muttered Doumyouji as he grabbed it from the servant. He sighed. What did he do that was so bad? He had no clue what he had done wrong. He looked off into the darkness that she had disappeared to.

Tsukushi didn't feel like going home. Doumyouji now knew where she lived, so she didn't want to go there directly, so she gave directions to the taxi cab driver about where to go.

The cab dropped her off at Kin-san's restaurant. She smiled as she saw Kin-san giving orders to his small staff of employees. He smiled at her the moment he noticed her.

"We're getting ready to close up, Miss," said one of his employees with an apologetic tone.

"It's all right, Tanaka," said Kin-san. "She's a friend of mine."

"It's good to see a friendly face," said Tsukushi. "And it's nice to be in a warm place." She felt hot earlier, but after she had time to calm down, she felt colder.

"You look…um…actually…you look wonderful tonight," said Kin-san. "Why are you dress like that? It's cold out."

"I had a coat earlier. I left it on the boat."

"What boat?"

"The one I was on earlier."

Kin-san looked like he was trying to remember something, then he snapped his fingers. "Yes, that's right. You had your big date tonight."

Tsukushi groaned. "I need something to dull my senses," she murmured.

"Of course. Here's some sake," said Kin-san. "Let's sit in this corner. We can talk. Now, tell me what happened. Something tells me something interesting happened."

Tsukushi sighed and tell him the whole story. By the end he was laughing so hard and loud that his staff stopped to look at them. "It's not that funny, Kin-san," she said with great annoyance. She was rubbing her temple.

"I'm sorry," apologized Kin-san as he tried to control himself, but couldn't.

"You are hopeless, Kin-san, but you've still managed to improve yourself. I don't know why had such high aspirations for him. I changed. So far, everyone else has," said Tsukushi.

"Hey, tomorrow's another day. Everything will look brighter in the morning," said Kin-san.

She gave him a smile. Why was Kin-san always able to make her feel better? So many times she thought of quitting, but an e-mail from him was enough to make her keep going. He was one of the most important people in her life. Her friends were the ones who kept her grounded.

"Hey, Amakusa-san, we can continue cleaning up without you. You can go home," said Tanaka.

"Thank you. I suppose I should go and drop off my friend," said Kin-san as he stood up. "Let's go, Tsukushi."

Kin-san drove Tsukushi home and she was glad to find nothing waiting for her. Everyone in the world thought that she was perfect and envied her life. That was far from the truth. She was lonely and tired most of the time.

Returning home was a blessing in disguise. It allowed her to take an evaluation of her old life and new life side by side. She changed clothes and looked out the window. Kin-san was right. Tomorrow was another day.

*

Susumu stretched as he prepared to do the track meet. The field of Eirin was filled with spectators. His event was fast approaching. He was an all round track star, but his events were long and high jump. Eirin had many guests that day. To his surprise many members of Eitoku showed up. It wasn't limited to just members of the middle and high schools. There were people from the university level of Eitoku.

"Look at all the people, Makino," said a voice from behind him. Susumu turned around and looked at the speaker. He was the same height as Susumu. He had dark hair and dark eyes. He looked almost like one of the members of the F4. "Hello, Nishikado. Don't let them distract you," said Susumu.

"Why would I? We're on your home turf," said Nishikado Tori.

"That's right," said Susumu as he gave him a lazy smile. "But I have no intention of getting over confident."

"I hope not," said Tori.

There came a lot of yelling. Both boys looked up to the stands to see what the ruckus was about. "I don't believe it. Eitoku's F4 are here," said one of the relay runners.

"I had no idea that your brother was interested in your activities," said Susumu.

"I didn't know he was coming," said Tori.

Despite the politeness of their conversation, neither boy liked the other very much. They were able to maintain some civility before the matches, but afterwards anything could happen depending on the outcome. If Susumu won, then Tori would raise Hell. If Tori won, then he would taunt Susumu, who was far from interested about who won and who lost. He was only interested on how it would look like on his high school transcripts. Not being perfect, wasn't a fear of his. However, he always wanted to do his best at everything.

Susumu wondered what the F4 were doing there. He didn't think they were there to cheer anyone on. He thought about his sister. His sister said that she would try to make one of the meets, but she was busy with a photo shoot that day for a magazine and an interview. Susumu looked straight at Doumyouji Tsukasa. What was going on through the thick skull of his?

The F4 were sitting at one of the stands. "Let's see. There's my brother," said Soujirou.

"There's her brother," said Akira. "I thought they didn't get along. They seem to be talking to each other just fine."

"But nothing has happened yet," observed Rui.

"What do you think will happen?" asked Akira.

"Both of them are evenly matched. However, Tori lacks the discipline that Makino Susumu has," replied Soujirou thoughtfully.

"So, you don't think your brother is going to win?" asked Tsukasa.

"I didn't say that," answered Soujirou with a smile. He may have thought of his brother as a brat, but Soujirou still wanted him to win the match. "You're cheering on Makino's brother, aren't you?"

"He was practically my younger brother at one point," said Tsukasa. "Besides, his sister may show up."

"You didn't say what happened on your big date," noted Akira.

Tsukasa tightened his hands into fists as he glared at Akira to be quiet. Soujirou started laughing, "Looks like we've fallen into old patterns."

The horns blew to signal the first round of events. Susumu's and Tori's events were the last ones. Halfway through the meet, Tsukushi showed up. She was dressed in a pair of casual pants with sandals with heels. She wore a wool sweater that opened in the front that covered over her white blouse. She wore a pair of sunglasses and took the first bleacher as her seat. She saw her brother pacing back and forth, waiting for his event to begin.

More time slipped by before the announcer made the announcement for the last two events. "For the last two events we have high and long jump. The jumper representing the schools are to come to the field immediately."

Tsukushi could hear the deafening cheers coming from Eirin's side as the announcer announced Susumu's entrance. Not to be out done, the Eitoku students shouted as Nishikado Tori was announced. Both boys looked at each other. Tsukushi could feel the tension.

She held her breath as she waited for Susumu to go. Since Eitoku's coach had won the coin toss, they were the ones who went first. Tori ran down the long runway and jumped. Tsukushi couldn't believe it. It was like he was floating in midair for a moment before his feet drove into the sand upon his landing.

"Eighteen and a half feet," shouted the judge. "Makino is up next."

Tsukushi was half hearing the people around her. They were all sighing like morons. The great Makino Susumu was up next. She smiled to herself. Susumu walked up to the runway. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Ready. Go," said the judge at one end.

He sprinted and jumped into the air. The same effect from Tsukushi's point of view. Time seemed to stop for a moment just before he touched the ground. "Eighteen feet and three inches. Points to Eitoku," said the judge.

Tsukushi heard everyone on Eirin's side groan. The Eitoku's side gave a large uproar. The last event was next: the high jump.

"Come on, Susumu. You can do it," whispered Tsukushi, sending him her strength.

Tori did the high jump. There came a roar from the Eitoku crowd. He had broken his personal record. Susumu didn't look the slightest bit bothered by Tori's success. It was probably because Susumu was better at high jump than he was at long jump.

In a matter of moments, there came a louder cheer from Eirin. Susumu out did Tori's personal best. Tsukushi didn't like the look on Tori's face. It was a look of annoyances mingled with anger.

"The winner for the semi-finals is Eitoku. In two weeks, the final track meet will take place in Eitoku," said the announcer.

Susumu went to his gym bag and took off his track shoes. He changed into a pair of causal running shoes.

"So, you think you did pretty well, don't you, Makino?" asked Tori in an irritated voice. He had a good reason to be annoyed. His personal best wasn't good enough.

"I didn't beat my personal best at the high jump, Nishikado," answered Susumu as he stood up. "And next week, I intend to blow you and Eitoku out of the water. I just let you have this win. Just enough to let you think you have a chance next time."

"You bastard," whispered Tori as he grabbed Susumu's shirt. "You're nothing more but Eirin trash."

"You're in my home turf. I'd watch what you say, little man," said Susumu as he gripped around Tori's wrist and twisted him off.

There were murmurs from both sides. It wouldn't be the first time that Tori and Susumu had a fist fight after a track meet, but the fight was quickly broken off by the coaches the last time. However, the coaches were both injured the last time, so they looked wryly at each other.

"Enough," said a quiet voice.

Both boys stopped. "Oneesan?" whispered Susumu, suddenly feeling childish.

The F4 looked on with surprise. The field was already clearing, but everyone had stopped. "Why don't you two settle down? Stop acting like little boys," said Tsukushi calmly.

"Who the Hell do you think you are?" demanded Tori.

Tsukushi looked at him over her sunglasses. "Excuse me?" she asked. Her tone seemed to resonate with power. Tori opened his mouth slightly as he gaped at her.

"I can't believe it. I didn't know that Makino-san had an older sister," said someone on Eirin's side.

"Wow," said someone on Eitoku's.

The F4 had gone down to the field during that time.

"Can't fight your own battles, Makino? Do you really have to drag your older sister into this?" asked Tori.

"I can fight my own battles, Nishkado," said Susumu as he glared at him. "You're lucky my sister is here. Otherwise, you would be kissing the grass right now. You're nothing more but a spoiled brat."

"Susumu, stop," ordered Tsukushi. "Stop going down to this kid's level."

"Kid? You bitch!" shouted Tori.

"Hey! It's Eitoku's F4. I didn't know they were here!" shouted someone.

Tsukasa stopped when Tori called Tsukushi a bitch. He glared at Soujirou. Susumu's face was still, but the fury was in his eyes. Tsukushi held up her hands to gesture anyone to stop moving. She turned and looked at Soujirou.

"Ah. I see you're here. Nishikado Soujirou, I suggest you teach your younger brother some manners, before I do," said Tsukushi.

She turned on her heel and walked off. She saw Tsukasa out of the corner of her eye, but didn't bother to turn to look at him. She walked up to Akira and Rui, who were standing in her way. She pushed passed them as if they were nothing.

"Oh my God! She shoved passed the F4 like they were nothing," said someone on Eitoku's side.

"Makino-san's older sister is so cool," sighed one of the members of Susumu's fan club.

Mariko had watched the entire scene with amazement. Along with everyone else, she had gained more respect for Susumu's sister.

"You have no idea who you're messing with," said Susumu as he gave Tori a wave. "We'll settle this next time."

Tori was stunned. He had never seen anyone before stand up to the F4 like that. Who was his rival's sister? What allowed her to get away with that?

He was snapped out of it by Doumyouji Tsukasa. "How dare you call a perfect stranger a bitch?!" he shouted as he grabbed Tori's shirt.

"Tsukasa, he's my brother. I'll discipline him," said Soujirou. He wanted to laugh out loud because Tori had just met his idol and insulted her. "Come with me," he told his brother.

"I don't have to go anywhere with you, Aniki," shouted Tori angrily. "And if you ever touch me again, I'll rip your arms off," he said to Tsukasa as he turned and walked off.

"Looks like you and Makino have your hands full with your younger siblings," said Rui.

"Yeah, but she's got her brother better trained than I do," said Soujirou as he watched his younger brother's retreating back.

"This new group. Wow," said Akira as he turned and looked at Tsukasa. "You surprise me. It's not like you haven't called her that before, and you've also called her worse."

"I'm the only one who gets to call her that," said Tsukasa.

*

Tsukushi and Susumu went to Kin-san's restaurant that night for dinner. "You didn't have to step in, Oneesan. I was handling it," said Susumu.

"Didn't look like that to me," said Tsukushi.

"You just can't barge into my life and try to run it for me. I can do that on my own," said Susumu.

"I know. I raised you that way."

"Then trust yourself and let me handle my own problems. I'm not stupid."

"Yeah, but you guys weren't thinking with your brains at the time."

Kin-san was busy making sure everything was running smoothly in the kitchen. There were plenty of customers eating, drinking, laughing, and talking.

"I had no idea that competition between Eirin and Eitoku was that fierce. And I thought the beauty pageant was bad," continued Tsukushi with a laugh.

"It only started when the track teams got really good people on them," said Kin-san as he showed up with a smile and took a seat.

"Nishikado's got a big mouth. It just makes me want to punch it off his face," said Susumu. "He talks too much."

"Still, you shouldn't sink to his level. You can't expect him to be as good as you character wise because he was raised to think that the world revolves around him," said Tsukushi.

"Look who's talking. You're the one who threatened his brother," scoffed Susumu.

"You did?" asked Kin-san.

"No. I didn't. I just told him to teach his younger brother some manners," said Tsukushi with a shrug.

"I see. What are you going to do tomorrow?" asked Kin-san, thinking that a change of subject was best.

"I have to get up early in the morning for another shoot for another magazine. They want to get some predawn and some dawn shots on a rooftop. Then I have class in the afternoon. A workshop actually," said Tsukushi.

"Looks like you've got a full day ahead of you," said Susumu. He really didn't like his sister working so hard to support the family. He was working his job at the café and earning money on his own. That was how things should have been like. Susumu wasn't proud of his parents and he didn't respect them as much as he respected his sister.

Yuki walked up to their table. "How did it go?" she asked as she took a seat.

"Eirin lost this meet, but the next meet is in two weeks," responded Susumu.

"You went, didn't you?" asked Yuki.

"Yes," replied Tsukushi. "I have to go back to my apartment. I have to finish my work for class and get ready to wake up in the morning. Thank you for dinner, Kin-san." She stood up and put her coat on.

"I'll see you soon," she continued with a smile. Yuki watched as the bodyguards proceeded to leave with her.

"Be safe, Tsukushi-chan," whispered Yuki, causing Tsukushi to pause.

"You, too," whispered Tsukushi, knowing what she meant exactly.

"Why are there so many guards? The Emperor of Japan travels with less company," observed Kin-san.

"Hardly anyone in Japan can connect her voice with her face," said Susumu as he looked at Yuki. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Gaia's trying to keep their top investment in one piece," replied Yuki. They're trying to keep her alive.

Everyone went their separate ways shortly after that. Yuki walked home by herself. She couldn't stop thinking about Tsukushi's situation. How could she bravely go to work and out into the open, while acting as if there was nothing wrong? Yuki stopped because she could hear footsteps heading towards her; she felt a chill down her spine as she turned around slowly. "Who's there?" she asked out loud.

Yuki stopped when she saw who was coming towards her. "Nishikado-san?" she whispered.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," he said apologetically as he gave her a smile.

"It's okay. What are you doing here?" she asked. She realized how close they were to her house.

"Do you mind if I walked with you for a while?"

She shook her head. "I was wondering if you liked your new job. How is Tsukushi?" continued Soujirou.

"She's fine. She's just really tired. Her schedule's hectic," replied Yuki, not knowing what to do. She was used to seeing him only in passing. It looked like he had gone out of his way to sought her out.

"Do you like working for Gaia?"

She gave an enthusiastic nod. "Yes. It's wonderful. There are so many nice people there. My supervisor is so kind. And Sammi Collins, Tsukushi's manager, is really something. The company is run by women, so there aren't a lot of men in higher positions. It's an unique company."

"Better than working for Akira's family?"

"Mimasaka-san's family's company was a nice place to work, but this way I can get to where I want to go faster."

"You that Akira would have given you a good recommendation, if you wanted," said Soujirou.

"I wouldn't have taken any offers other than the chance that was given to me at Gaia, Nishikado-san. You and the rest of your friends got to see Doumyouji-san. You could fly to America and he came back here from time to time. I can't. I couldn't. She was too busy and I had to work, too. I haven't been able to any time with my best friend in five years. Do you really think I would have passed up the chance to work with her? Do you really think I would pass up the chance to help her dreams come true?" Yuki's voice had dwindled down to a whisper as she spoke to him.

Soujirou found himself being pulled in by her words. He understood the feelings behind them. "I didn't even know you were working for Akira's family until it was too late. I'm sorry I didn't keep up with you," he told her.

"Why? It's not like we were friends in the first place. We only knew each other through Tsukushi and Doumyouji," she said.

"I should have tried. You were probably pretty lonely after Tsukushi left, but you wouldn't have told me anything anyway, would you?"

She shook her head. "I'm not that kind of friend. I wouldn't betray Tsukushi's trust. She was going through so much. For all the times she has been there for me, it felt nice for a change to be able to be there for her. It's nice to feel needed."

"You knew all along that Tsukushi could make it without any of us, didn't you? You had that much faith in her," said Soujirou in amazement.

Yuki gave him a smile. "I thought you would have already known that about her, Nishikado-san. What you just said proves how little you and the rest of the F4 ever knew her."

Soujirou gave a laugh. "It's been so long since we've talked like this," but he stopped. They were standing in the street that led to her house. In a moment, their conversation would be over. He didn't know why, but he wanted to keep talking to her for just a while longer.

"This is it. You don't have to walk with me any further. I can do it on my own," said Yuki with a smile. "Good night, Nishikado-san."

Soujirou felt like his feet were cemented to the ground. He watched as she turned and walked off towards her house. "Good night, Yuki-chan. See you around," he said, but he had said the last part only to himself.

AN: I suppose this should be labeled the "Nishikado Brothers" chapter. Yes, Tori appears to be a jerk, doesn't he? Well, think of him as an id and I wanted to show that he was different from his brother. I also wanted to make the opening a little more scary to show how much the stalker keeps track of Tsukushi.

Now, I've attempted to leave the relationship between Soujirou and Yuki kind of unresolved, but not strained. He really can't grasp the reason why he is trying to so hard to talk to Yuki. She will be extremely cautious this time around.

I've also put up a few plot bunnies at the my journal: http://kirika.ujournal.org. You can read them. I suppose they're kind of like spoilers, but not really. It's sort of there to help me keep track of things. BTW, the next chapter will not be the continuation of the track meet. Two weeks must past first. On that note, I have exams coming up, so I can't update next week on Friday, but it will most likely be Saturday. ;_;

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.