Dear JR,
How are you? Are your limbs still intact? No, I'm not being morbid. It's just that by the tone of Aunt Tomoyo's recent letters, you had been frequently involved in school brawls. Had I still been there, I could have slammed your head against the concrete wall. If you just wanted to get pounded to pulp, you could have just let me or your mother do it.
Anyway, if you ask how I am coping here in my mother's new home, I would have to say that I love it here. My mother is a devout Christian, and she takes me with her to Sunday school. It's amazing! Maybe when I go to college, I'll pursue a degree on theology. What do you think? I know, I know, you're probably laughing at the idea of your tomboyish cousin wearing a nun's outfit. Believe me, I'm laughing too.
Right now, I'm saving my allowance so I can buy a ticket and visit you there in Tomoeda. I miss everyone! I know that I could always ask Mama for transportation money, but I still feel uncomfortable with her. I mean, it's been years since we last saw each other! But she's making it up for me by hanging out with me frequently, even if she just came home straight from the office.
About your question on the guys…well, there are boys who are stubborn and won't stop pestering me. But they're exception to the rules; majority of my guy friends here are real troupers. And about the boyfriend question…nope, I don't have one, even if almost all my girl classmates have not only one but *two* boyfriends! And if ever I do have one, I'll tell you. I'll introduce you to him. But that would go vice-versa, ok? I wanna meet your girlfriend too! I want to make sure that the girl would take care of you and be responsible for you, since maturity is not one of your fortes in life.
This topic reminded me of how many years had passed since I left Japan. I was just ten then…so that makes it six years! I miss Tomoeda! Italy is beautiful, don't get me wrong. My mother moving here is one of the best things that ever happened to me when I moved in with her, but still, nothing beats the idyllic beauty of my hometown.
Tomoeda is my home, because that is where my heart is…
Eriol Hiiragizawa JR. looked at Nadeshiko's letter and sighed. This was her last letter to him, and it had been five years since then. The last thing he knew was his mother told him not to write to her anymore for she wouldn't be home much anyway. She would be staying in the nunnery's dormitory for her theological studies.
"Good lord, she's going to be a nun?!" he remembered exclaiming to his mother who, at her age of forty something, still looked thirty.
Tomoyo Hiiragizawa laughed. "Darling, of course not. Her mother just decided that it is the best place for her to study without being disturbed by—"
"—her suitors," finished Eriol Hiiragizawa, eyes twinkling. It was no secret anymore to the family that JR cared for the young woman…well, to the whole family but JR himself, that is.
"But she might get influenced to become a nun! A FREAKIN' NUN!!!" JR was very disturbed by the possibility. "She wouldn't be pestered by suitors, alright, but she's going to be single all her life!"
"So what's wrong with that, Honey?" asked Tomoyo, smiling. "It's her choice."
"Not if I can't help it," he muttered, jogging up the stairs. He was going to call her right now and tell her that it would be the lousiest career move she would ever made.
The phone rang twice before it was picked up.
"Hello?"
"Nadeshiko, is it true? You're going to be a nun?" he said the last word as if it was a deadly and contagious disease.
"No," said the voice on the other line, laughing. "JR, you're overreacting. I just wanted a place where it is tranquil and serene—"
"Then go to the bathroom, for pete's sake!" he snapped.
Her crisp laughter reverberated on the other line. "JR, if ever I do decide to become a nun, I would make sure that I have prayed for it and pondered on it carefully. Service to God is no simple matter. It demands wholehearted commitment."
"You can serve God without being a nun," he pointed out.
"That is why I said 'if', Eriol Hiiragizawa JR," she said, and he could imagine her rolling her eyes.
"Please, Nadeshiko, don't go there. Mom said I won't be able to call you, and you would be available only on Christmas holiday—"
"We're growing up, JR," she said gently. "You know, you should look for other interests in life."
He felt himself blush from head to toe. To him, she made it sound as if his whole world revolved around her! With his bruised Hiiragizawa ego, he snapped, "Hell, I will! I don't care if you become Mother Teresa! Damn you!" He slammed the phone furiously.
And that was the last time that they had talked. She sent him this letter, but he didn't reply. Months later, he swallowed his pride and finally sent a letter of reply, but she didn't respond anymore.
And that was the end of their communication.
Now that he was twenty-one years old, whenever he looked back at his antics then, he would laugh at his immaturity. And within him, he wondered if Nadeshiko really did become a nun.
Maybe I'll never know.
JR watched as the ball he kicked soared past the hands of the goalie, just as the buzzer sounded.
"WE WON!!!" his teammates yelled, hugging him happily and jumping around, just as their team's fans crowded around them happily.
He smiled. He never really liked sports back when he was young. He remembered it was Nadeshiko who was fascinated with the balls. He grinned wickedly at his thought.
But when Nadeshiko left, he started learning soccer in what he felt was a tribute to her. Later on, he became one of the star players of the school's soccer team.
Boy, would she be surprised if she learns this. He sighed. If.
He was about to hit the showers when the cheerleaders blocked his way, letting out streams of praises. He mechanically pasted a smile on his face. He was too tired for this, but he had to endure this. In a way, he respected women, and would never do anything to humiliate them or hurt them, even if they could be pretty annoying.
And that is the extent of her influence on me, he thought wryly.
"Heads up!" yelled one of his teammates, Aki. The soccer ball sailed past his head and straight on the face of one of the cheerleaders.
"Damn you, Kinata!!!" yelled the victim, throwing her baton at him. Laughing, JR picked the ball up and hit it with all that he could, aiming it at the laughing culprit. Aki ducked, laughing hard. One of their teammates caught it and kicked it back to them, and a new game among the team began! The other team from the other college department could only laugh while shaking their heads in disbelief. At twenty-one, the guys from the Computer Science department still had a lot to grow up.
JR was enjoying the friendly battle when his eyes caught something…or someone. He turned to the left, then frowned. No one was there, but he was pretty sure someone was looking at him.
Nadeshiko's eyes sparkled as she picked up the long hem of her skirt and dashed down the stairs, clutching her traveling bag. Her Aunt Tomoyo was right; JR could already play a mean game of soccer!
She hurried towards the field, where she was planning to surprise her long-lost friend.
"Take this!!!" Aki kicked the ball back to JR, who caught it expertly with his head. He made it bounce on his forehead, then slammed it back to them when he got his momentum.
Aki was able to slam it back to him, only it lost its direction. JR watched as it buzzed past the side of his head. He laughed. "Nice try, Aki-"
He turned around and saw that the ball was going to slam on a nun heading their way!
Instinctively, he ran and dove on the nun, the ball barely missing her face by inches.
They tumbled down the grass, the nun below him, but his arms cushioning the back of her head and her spine from the injury. When he felt the impact cease, he opened his eyes, almost at the same time she opened hers.
And he found himself looking at the most beautiful tawny eyes he had ever seen, a pair of huge, expressive almond-shaped eyes that he thought belonged to only one special girl. Her lashes were long and naturally curled; he was sure, for he had seen his female classmates this intimately close before.
But that was beside the point.
He gulped when he felt his fingers itching to touch the delicate creaminess of her smooth cheek. She was as flawlessly beautiful as his mother, and he thought of his mother as the most beautiful woman in the world.
No way, he had never felt this way before…well, maybe once he did, but again, that was beside the point.
And the point was, she was a nun.
"Shit!" he cursed, looking down at the nun who stupidly ran across the field. "What were you thinking, Sister? This is not a convent garden, bloody Christ!"
"Thou shalt not use God's name in vain, JR," said the familiar voice. Her amber eyes met his own dark ones, twinkling familiarly.
His heart constricted. "Oh no…" Recognition dawned on him. Of course she was one in a million. He should have known.
"Oh yes," she said, fixing the wisp of hair that loosened from her headdress. "Is that how you welcome your long-lost tyrant, JR?"
"Shit!" He got up, just as his teammates crowded around them curiously, wondering what was taking him too long in helping a nun get up.
"Nadeshiko?" It was Aki who first recognized her. "Oh god…you're a NUN?!"
JR's forehead creased. "A nun? Nadeshiko—"
"A nun-in-training," she said sort-of-defiantly, looking at JR. "I have decided that I want to serve God—"
"WHAT?!"
"I'm not yet a nun, and it is my Christmas vacation. When I come back to Italy, I would formally be adopted into the convent." She grinned, her proverbial naughty smile. "Don't look at me like I'm a sicko."
"But you are a sicko!" And with that, JR marched away, fuming.
"Well at least I'm a mature sicko!" she quipped. She was about to follow him when Aki stopped her. She turned to him, eyes asking.
"He missed you terribly," said her former soccer playmate. "Maybe this christmas, you'll change your mind."
"He had grown to love me as a sibling he never had," she shrugged. "Of course he would miss me." She didn't want to touch the pointed reference he gave to her.
Because it was stupid.
They were cousins since forever. Of course he wouldn't miss her the way a man misses a woman…at least not the way she missed him…
Her cheeks flamed. "I-I'll see you guys later. I have to go and make sure the brat gets home with complete set of bones."
"'Kay," said Aki, giving her a thumbs up.
Nadeshiko struggled to run after JR while trudging on her bag. The man didn't look like he wanted to help her though.
"JR, wait up!" she yelled. "Be a gentleman and help me here!"
"Leave me alone!"
"I'm telling Aunt Tomoyo, and you won't get your allowance for this week!" she warned.
That got him. He turned around, frowning. He took her bag and hoisted it effortlessly over his shoulder. Her eyes widened in surprise and admiration.
Where is that weak, asthmatic boy that I used to outrun every time? The one I push over the swing and order to push it for me for two straight hours? Heavens, he had grown so strong! Are those muscles I see?
"What are you looking at?" he asked, annoyed. He wasn't looking at her, but he could feel her staring at his back. He fought back the colors rushing to his face.
"Good Lord, I'm not a statue of a saint! Don't look at me like that!" he barked.
"You most certainly don't," she agreed. St. Joseph don't have muscles as well toned as yours. She quickly slapped herself inwardly with the thought.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?" He finally turned around, glaring at her.
"Why are you so mad?" she asked back.
"I asked first!"
"Ladies first!"
"Shit, you're a nun!"
Her eyes looked at him questioningly. "A nun is a noble vocation. Are you an atheist?"
"Hmp!" He turned around and began to walk away wordlessly, but she knew he was still mad.
"ERIOL HIIRAGIZAWA JUNIOR!!!" she yelled, making him stop.
Damn her, for she had the same effect on him as she used to back when they were still kids.
He was forced to turn around. "WHAT?!!"
"If you don't stop your impossible attitude, I'm going to get my bag from you and I'll go back to Italy, and you would never see me again!" she threatened.
Panic flashed in his eyes, but he kept quiet.
"Now will you tell me what's bothering you?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips, just like when they used to have a confrontation.
"No," he mumbled.
"Alright," she said. "But don't take it out on me." Her voice softened. "It's been years since we last saw each other. We deserve something much better than this cold treatment, right?"
His eyes softened, and his voice dropped into a shy murmur. "I missed you."
She didn't hear it. "Come again?"
But he had already made an about face and was heading for the Hiiragizawa mansion. Nadeshiko shrugged; she still had two weeks to know what was eating him.
tsuzuku
This is a three-part epilogue ^^
- syaowee