Chapter 13

Forbidden looks

"Hi!" Julia cheered to the old japanese woman from the fruits shop. The woman nodded slowly. "Ok. Hum.. I would like four oranges, four apples and two pineapples, oh and I'll take this small bag of strawberries. Please." The woman nodded again and started to put the fruits Julia requested into plastic bags.

"That would be ten yens please." The woman said giving Julia the bags of fruit. Julia thanked the shopkeeper and left. Outside, the streets were wet from the rain of the other night. Thousands of people passing by, running, talking, walking. Everything so different from the place where she lived in America. Here, the houses were big, the buildings were enourmous and the citizens were always busy even the air was different. She shook her head and started walking when she felt someone collapsing onto her shoulder causing her bags to fall on the ground. "No! The fruits..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry... I wasn't looking where I was going..." A girl with orange brown hair and brown eyes apologized to Julia. "Here... Can I help you?" She offered, picking up the bags.

"Thank you. Are you all right?" Julia asked to the young japanese girl, noticing her eyes were filled with water and her lips were trembling.

"Yes... It's just that I'm having a really bad day... I'm sorry again." The girl said lowering her head.

"It's ok. I should have been more careful too... I'm Julia Chang." Julia said stretching her hand to her new friend. Something inside Julia told her that she could trust this girl, she didn't know why, but she could. The girl shook Julia's hand and smiled timidly.

"I'm Miharu Hiranu. Nice to meet you. Can... Can I help you with the bags?" Julia smiled and nodded.

"I would appreciate it, thank you."

******

"Xiaoyu! I'm home!" Julia yelled closing the entrance door after Miharu had entered.

"Hi Julia! Miharu?! What are you doing here?" Xiaoyu asked smiling at the girl.

"Do you know each other?"

"If we know each other? We're from the same class in college!" Xiaoyu said. "I should be the one asking, do you know each other?"

"We met on the street, she helped me with the bags. What a coincidence, huh?"

Miharu looked around her, she had never gone to Xiaoyu's house and she felt amazed to see how big it was. She watched the perfect brown wooden floor, the beautiful paintings made, by Julia on the walls, the colored rugs on the floor, the expensive sofas of the living rooms, the tables, the straw chairs, she could even notice how clean everything was. It was everything different from her house. The thought of her home made her eyes water even more than they already were.

"Miharu, what's wrong?" Xiaoyu asked to her sad friend.

"Oh, It's nothing you should worry about..." Miharu said trying hardly to sound normal.

"Is it something with your parents?" As Xiaoyu asked this, Miharu started crying not holding the tears that wanted to fall from her eyes. She covered her face with her hands and kneeled on the floor. Looking at the miserable girl in front of her, Julia touched on her shoulder trying to confort Miharu.

"There was a... huge... fight... between me... and... and... my parents." Miharu started to explain between tears and sobbings. "They... kicked me out of the house..." Julia and Xiaoyu changed looks and looked again at the crying Miharu. "I don't know what to do!"

"Miharu... I'm sorry..." Julia said.

"There's room for one more here in my house. If you want to, you can stay here." Xiaoyu said kneeling next to Miharu who looked at her through her wet eyes.

"No... I don't want to bother you..."

"Bother? It would be great having you here!" Julia said cheering up to try to console her.

"Yeah! It's going to be a lot of fun!" Xiaoyu said smiling.

"I hate Steve! I just hate him!" Christie interrupted slaming the door after her. "We broke up!"

"Christie... Hi!" Julia said making signes with her eyes for Christie to understand that they had visits.

"Oh... Hi Miharu. What's wrong?"

"She's staying with us!" Xiaoyu informed.

"Was it her parents?" Christie whispered and Xiaoyu nodded closing her eyes. "Wait a minute... You broke up with Steve?!"

"Yeah... I mean, HE broke up with me! Can you believe it?! He just said "The problem is with me..." It's always the boys problem. I didn't understand! Everything was going so well between us! What could possibly be HIS problem?!" Chriestie bursted angryly.

"Xiaoyu? I'm tired... Can I sleep for a while?" Miharu asked trying to let Christie tell everything to her friends. She kind of felt a little out of place in that conversation. Xiaoyu nodded and led Miharu to her new room.

***

"She will be fine." Xiaoyu said coming from the kitchen to give a cup of tea to Christie. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah... I will get over this. It will just take some time, but I will!" Christie said swallowing.

"You two seemed so good to each other! Why?" Julia asked confused.

"That's the point! I don't know why, either. He didn't tell me the reoson. Somehow, he's afraid of me to get sad and heart broken! Well... Big news!"

****

"You broke up with Christie?! Why on Earth?!" Howarang yelled. "I thought you told me yo loved her!"

"I do... did... But, look, I'm not used to have long relationships. It scared me how the things were going so perfectly!" Steve explained thinking about Christie.

"Well... In the girls eyes and like Julia said: "You two are a woderful couple", so... You're scared? Man... Having a soul mate is great! I don't understand you!" Jin explained thinking how great it was being with Julia.

"Yeah, but... I'm confused, ok? Let's talk about something else, ok?"

************Hi again!!!!!! Next chapter is on his way! It will be called: Jin... As we know him! Thank you for the reviewes!! ******************