Yesterday's Memories
Chapter Three: A Fresh Start
"Now, I can marry you."
Kaoru heard the words distinctly, but understanding them was a different matter entirely, and the same question kept ringing in her head.
Since when was she engaged?
Before she could pull away, the man tightened his arms around her. His embrace was unyielding, but to be in his arms was...comfortable. She remembered being held like this as a child once before. Kaoru felt safe and snug whenever that certain person hugged her, as if nothing could harm her.
That was how she felt now. She knew nothing about this man, but the feeling of his arms wrapped around her was soothing. Everything about this was surreal, but at the same time, it felt right.
Snapping out of her absurd thoughts, Kaoru felt that the logical thing to do was to step away from this stranger and get some answers.
No matter how nice his arms felt.
Putting her hands against his chest, Kaoru made her best effort to pull away from her guest. She backed away enough to see his face, but he kept his hold on her shoulders.
Kaoru said the only thing that came to mind.
"Wh...what?"
Distress crossed his face, but he persisted.
"I've come back for you, Kaoru-chan," he stated, his words still weighed with the emotion he had shown her through his one-sided embrace. "I'm here to marry you like I said I would."
Her logic slowly returning to her, Kaoru stepped away from the man's arms completely and stood from her seat. "Sorry, but you're mixing me up with someone else."
The man stared at her in confusion. "No, I'm not."
"You have to be!" Kaoru argued, her hands flailing up and down in her outburst. "I've never seen you before!"
Her last sentence made him stop, as if she had physically stricken him with her words. But Kaoru was too caught up with how bizarre the whole situation was to notice.
"This doesn't make any sense! I CAN'T be engaged, especially to someone that I don't know! I mean, I don't even have a boyfriend!"
Kaoru suddenly ceased in her ranting and smiled nervously.
"You're a friend of Sano's, right?" she asked. "He put you up to this, didn't he? Well, it's not very funny—"
She was cut off when two masculine hands gripped firmly around her tiny wrists, turquoise eyes burning into her.
"I would NEVER joke about this." he stated evenly, his hands still around her wrists.
Then, he brought his right hand to her face and cupped the side of her face. He savored the soft, warm skin underneath his palm. His left hand kept her steadily in one place, but the way that he had touched her cheek was surprisingly gentle.
Again, memories tickled the recesses of her mind, but Kaoru pushed them back.
"Kaoru-chan..." he spoke, his voice heavy with dread and hope at the same time. "You really can't remember?"
His hand left her face and then traveled downwards, his fingers grasping the metal ring that hung around her neck.
"...have you forgotten me?"
Kaoru took this moment to scrutinize her guest. She examined the handsome face and the strange, yet unusually fitting, slivers of white hair.
She would've been more comfortable if he wasn't staring at her like that, but it couldn't be helped. The way his eyes seemed to plead to her was almost heart-wrenching, even if she didn't know him. And the way that his fingers were clutching her ring...it was as if he was holding onto it for dear life. If the ring had not been metal, it would've probably crushed from the intensity of his grip. It was like this man was clasping the piece of jewelry for comfort, like it was the last thread of his happiness that he was desperately clinging onto...
'...no...it couldn't be...'
A flicker of dark, seemingly uncombed hair and slightly tanned skin flashed in her head. A face slowly materialized, and Kaoru could distinctively make out a boy's arrogant grin and eyes full of mischief.
He had the same eyes. Although there was anxiety in them, this man had the same shade of turquoise. She concentrated on his hair and imagined that the white had darkened into black.
Had his skin been a little tanner, he looked like the spitting image of someone that she had once known...
"...Enishi...?" the name sounded unknown to her, but at the same time, it was familiar. It had been so long since she had heard the name that Kaoru was almost fascinated with it.
In her bemused state, she had lost control of her actions, causing a ceramic mug to be knocked off the coffee table with her hand.
The shattering of the mug against the wooden floor brought her partially back to her senses, her mind still a mess.
"That's two I broke today," she sputtered incoherently to herself as she picked up the pieces. Enishi knelt down onto the floor and helped her by taking some of the wet shards into his own hands.
"So, how are you?" Kaoru asked. Enishi noticed how hard her hands were shaking. She was obviously trying to hide her shock by starting a conversation with him, even if her attempt was unsuccessful.
He smiled. Kaoru hadn't changed a bit.
"I'm fine now," he said truthfully.
He followed her back into the kitchen to dispose of the pieces of the broken mug. They then went back to the living room where Kaoru told him to take a seat. She then proceeded to pace back and forth with her childhood friend watching curiously.
Silence prevailed in the room while Kaoru walked back and forth, her fingers intertwined and her eyes fixated ahead, never looking at him.
"Why don't you sit down?" he asked her.
She abruptly stopped in her steps and shook her head. "No, I'm okay." She tried to smile, but her uneasiness made the effort a failure.
"...I've wanted to see you for fourteen years now," he suddenly spoke, his eyes looking sorrowfully at her despite the confident smile he wore. "After you left Kyoto, it took everything I had from running after you, Kaoru-chan. And now, after all these years..."
He bent his head, his smile still present on his lips. "I was looking forward to seeing you when I learned you lived here," he laughed quietly. "I guess I was so worried that the address I had written down was wrong that I didn't even notice you outside in the rain."
"Don't feel bad," Kaoru interrupted. "I didn't notice you either, what with the white hair and all."
He chuckled at her slight joke, but the sadness was etched on his face. "I was so happy that I had found you again. But..."
He lifted his face to hers, the sad smile on his attractive features.
"You...don't look happy to see me."
Realizing how insensitive she had been to him, Kaoru walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. She placed a frail hand over his, sympathy and regret pulling her away from her bewilderment.
"I'm sorry," she began. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you, it's just that I've had a really long day."
Enishi fell silent, wondering what could've happened to make Kaoru so exhausted.
"This morning I caught three of my students looking at pornography when they SHOULD'VE been reading Japanese literature. Then I had to assign them to detention for two hours. After that, my neighbor came to visit me and brought an unexpected guest that I haven't seen in over three months. Then I spent two hours making sure that those students I told you about cleaned my whole classroom until it was sparkling. I walked over to the grocery shop because my car broke down for what has got to be the hundredth time, and I walked home in the rain because I was dumb enough to forget my umbrella.
"And then, I bumped into you. You're the second unexpected person that I've seen today, believe it or not."
She laughed softly at herself, Enishi's stare remaining on her.
"That certainly does sound like a long day."
Kaoru was about to say something, but then he pulled her into another tight embrace. His fingers intertwined with the black tresses of her hair, his lips almost brushing the lobe of her ear.
"When we are married, you won't have to go through any of that," he whispered into her ear. "As your husband, I'll provide for you."
The questions flooded into her mind again at the words 'married' and 'husband'. Kaoru didn't know whether to be more offended or more surprised at the peculiar way Enishi was acting.
"...what do you mean, 'married'?"
Enishi pulled away, his eyes holding hers. She almost regretted asking the question from seeing the hurt look on his face, but marriage was too serious of a topic for Kaoru to merely brush it aside.
Especially when it seemed like Enishi wasn't kidding about it.
"Don't you remember when we were children?" he asked her. "Don't you remember why I gave you that ring in the first place?"
Reluctantly, Kaoru shook her head. Truth be told, she couldn't clearly remember the whole reason behind the ring, but she kept it for its sentimental value.
"I always thought that it was a gift," she answered tentatively.
"Well, that's part of why I gave it to you," Enishi replied, and he squeezed her hand affectionately. "Kaoru-chan, remember when your cousin came to my home to take you back to your family?"
A nod.
"You said that you still wanted to be with me. I gave you that ring so we could be together."
She swallowed the lump in her throat. Kaoru didn't like where this was going at all.
"It's your engagement ring."
Kaoru balked. Her trembling fingers clasped the ring on her necklace, and she looked at it with disbelief.
She always knew there was something about this ring that was so significant. But she was too young to remember it in the span of fourteen years, until now.
Kaoru looked at Enishi, and the strings of her heart were pulled by the compassionate way he was holding her hand and the glimmer of hope in his eyes.
She took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy to tell him, but she had to. Enishi didn't deserve this. Not in the least bit.
"...I can't." The words were almost unsympathetic to say, but they needed to be said.
It took only a few seconds for the words to pass through his ears, but comprehending them was a different, more difficult matter. "...what?"
"I said I can't," she repeated, firmly this time. "With everything that's going on right now, I can't get married—"
"But you said that you would," he cut her off, his voice rising.
It almost killed her to see her childhood friend like this, but Kaoru had to do this for both their sakes. "Enishi, this is for the best—"
"I asked you if I made you happy," he interrupted, grief and anger clouding his eyes. "I asked you if you wanted to be my wife, and you said that you would. You said that you would...!"
"I was eight years old!" Kaoru's voice rose to a shout. "I didn't know exactly how serious marriage was, I was only a child!"
"And so was I!" he yelled back at her, startling her. "But unlike you, I meant everything that I said! I wanted to be your husband, I wanted to be with you!"
Kaoru was at a loss for words, surprised by Enishi's sudden outburst. One minute he was a composed gentleman, and the next he was a man on the verge of a breakdown, all over an exchange of words between them as children. What was she to him? What was it about her that drove him into a tumult of rage?
"But I guess I was a fool for coming here," he continued, the smirk on his face unsettling her nerves. "I should've known that Shinomori had some part in your sudden change of heart."
"Shinomori...you mean Aoshi?" Kaoru asked, wondering why her cousin would have anything to do with this conversation.
"Isn't it obvious? When he brought you back to Tokyo, he convinced you to forget about our engagement, didn't he?" he said accusingly with a grim smile. "How fitting for someone of his character."
Kaoru came alive with anger, standing up from the couch and glowering at her guest. "Who are you to judge my cousin? You don't even know Aoshi, so you have no right to label him like that!"
"If it weren't for your beloved cousin, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place."
"What the HELL are you talking about?!" she shouted. "You can't blame Aoshi for a decision that I made! He doesn't have anything to do with this—"
Her words were caught in her throat when her coffee table flipped over, soundly crashing onto the floor. The impact drowned the pitter-patter of the rain outside, and it sent a slight tremor through the room.
Taking her eyes off the fallen table, she looked to Enishi. He was standing like she was now, his tall form towering over her. He was the epitome of intimidation at that moment. His lips were drawn in a scowl and his eyes sent a cold shiver down her spine.
"He has EVERYTHING to do with this!" he roared, his resentment reverberating off the walls of her apartment. "He was the one that took you away! If it wasn't for him, you could have stayed in Kyoto! If he hadn't come, you could have stayed with me!"
Kaoru was silent, not knowing what to say. His hands were drawn into fists at his sides, shaking with rage. She looked bravely into his eyes, and she saw the antagonism was swirling in the smoldering turquoise pools.
But she saw something else in them. His eyes spoke of loss, sadness, pain...
...and she had caused them all. Whether she had known it or not, Kaoru was the reason for his heartache.
He turned on his heel and briskly walked away. Before she could even stop him, Enishi left her apartment, slamming the door on his way out. After the door had settled on its hinges, the steady rhythm of the rain shower outside was all she heard.
She was left with her troubled thoughts and overturned coffee table for company. Without saying a word, she left the living room and went into the kitchen. The numbers and white background of her calendar stood out from the pale paint of the wall. Her hand flipped onto the next page and a certain date caught her attention.
June 10. A little over a month until the anniversary of her father's death.
Kaoru sighed and her hand fell away from the calendar, wishing that she had remained in bed this morning.
* * * *
Drops as cold as liquid ice ran down the white strands of his hair. The rain was beginning to seep through his trench coat, forming goosebumps on his skin. He had waited out in the rain earlier before, but this was worse. And the fact that the downpour had raged into a storm had nothing to do with it.
Enishi never felt so cold before in his life.
He was an idiot, and absolute goddamned idiot. How could he expect someone to remember a promise that they had made fourteen years after the day of its creation? To believe that she would welcome him with open arms, to believe that she would be prepared to become his wife...it was all very childish of him.
Enishi was usually a rational person. Back in Kyoto, he was even deemed as aloof and calculating as his father. He was a man of logic, a realist.
Kaoru had changed that. Every moment he spent as a child laughing with her and holding her hand brought a sense of peace that was so blissful that he couldn't put it in words to this day. When he was around her, he didn't feel that he had to be tough or indifferent. Other than his sister, Kaoru had accepted him whereas all other people had been afraid of him.
But now, she had rejected him. Just like everyone else. And that alone was unbearable.
He had lost his dreams. He had lost his happiness. But none of those could add up to the loss of her...
Footsteps sounded in the thick sheets of rain, but he ignored them. They grew louder, each one splashing in the endless puddles created by the night rain. He ignored them though, the words of Kaoru's rejection echoing continuously in his head like a broken melody...
The footsteps stopped, but he paid no attention. The sadness that threatened to take over what was left of his mental stability was too overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that he didn't even notice when a voice began talking out of nowhere...
"Hello? Hey, are you deaf?!"
The enraged words stirred memories of a conversation that occurred recently, and his head snapped up to meet a pair of bright blue eyes glaring from a livid, but nonetheless beautiful face.
"You really are a jerk, you know that?" she yelled over the pounding rain, her finger stabbing the middle of his chest. "I was kind enough to let you into my apartment because I didn't want you to get sick, and you get pissed at me for not agreeing to marry you!"
A clap of thunder rattled the sky, but it fell on deaf ears.
"I possibly had the WORST day of my life, and you topped it all off by accusing my cousin of something that he didn't do, and then you flipped over my coffee table! You don't go destroying other people's things! Especially if they invite you into their home!"
He was speechless, allowing her to continue her tirade as the storm raged on.
"And you don't lose your temper and take it out on other people!" she screamed. "It's disrespectful and it's just plain RUDE!!!"
There were a few moments of silence between them, until he could find his voice. "...why are you here?"
Kaoru was taken aback by his question, but she held onto her anger. "What do you mean why am I here? To take your sorry ass back to the apartment!"
"But why?"
She sighed, too exhausted to be mad anymore. Kaoru took a seat beside him on the bench. "Because I was afraid of you getting lost."
Turquoise eyes widened, but she only continued. "You said that you were from Kyoto, right? I didn't think that you would be too familiar with this city, so I went after you."
Enishi noticed the rain-soaked jacket that clung to her like a wet rag. Her hair was completely drenched from the downpour, and her white skin was glistening with water. From looking at her in this weary state, he would've guessed that she had been searching for him for about two hours.
He felt his stomach twist in knots...no, he was supposed to be angry, he was supposed to be infuriated with her! She broke his heart and their promise, she was the one that drove him out of her apartment in the first place!
"I said that I didn't want to marry you, but I didn't mean that I didn't want to see you."
Enishi felt his apathy wash away upon hearing the words. He looked at her as if he were hypnotized, wanting her to continue.
"Despite wrecking my property, I'm glad that you came to Tokyo," she said. "I always wondered how you were doing all these years."
"...so...why?"
Raven brows creased when she heard the hint of pain in his words. "Why won't you...?"
Comprehension dawned upon her. "We haven't seen each other for so long, Enishi. I could be completely different than the person that you cared about fourteen years ago. I don't want to rush into something serious because I don't want you to regret it in the end."
She looked him right in the eye, the solemnity never leaving her face. "We might've been friends, but there's so much about me that you don't know. And I hardly know anything about you."
He turned away from her. The stern tone she had used had solidified the rejection. Kaoru wasn't going to marry him, and he would return to Kyoto with his lost hopes...
"But I guess that's why I'm glad you came to visit," she spoke again. "So we can catch up."
Kaoru stood from the bench and stepped in front of him. Her hand extended out to him, a smile gracing her lovely features.
"Let's start over. Nice to meet you, I'm Kamiya Kaoru!"
He looked at her hand, and then he looked at her. Despite her peculiar behavior, he returned her smile.
"Yukishiro Enishi," he replied, taking her frail hand into his.
"It's a pleasure meeting you," she continued. "Well, no sense standing out in the rain like this. You can tell me more about yourself at my apartment."
Had it been anyone else who said that, Enishi would've thought that the statement had implied something more...intimate. But Kaoru's innocence had pushed aside that thought while she dragged him onto his feet and he followed her through the rain.
Glancing at the corners of his eyes, he noticed that she was shivering from the cold. She was getting more soaked by the second as they walked, and he saw her recoil slightly when another roar of thunder sounded into the dying evening. Apparently, she wasn't too enraged to ignore her fears this time.
Without giving it a second thought, he slipped off his coat and placed it over Kaoru's head. She stopped in her tracks and questioned him with her eyes, but he disregarded it as he pulled her into his arms.
"...you're something else," he whispered, but she heard him through the rain and howling of the wind. "You really are."
Kaoru softened at the emotional words, and she felt herself relaxing in his embrace. There was that peace again, the same soothing effect she had felt earlier when he had hugged her. It was so comforting that she closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped in his strong arms...
...the spell only lasted for a few seconds. She remembered where she was, and she immediately stepped out of his embrace, doing her best to glare at him and praying that he couldn't see the pink that tickled her cheeks.
"Don't get too friendly, mister," she huffed. "We just met."
He had missed the warmth of her delicate body, but he smiled in spite of himself. "Of course. I apologize."
"Oh, and for your sake, you better hope that my table isn't broken. Otherwise, you're getting me a new one."
Enishi laughed for what it seemed like the first time in ages, and he walked side by side with Kaoru as the rain continued to fall.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Believe it or not, this chapter was difficult to write. It was hard writing about Kaoru's reaction to the engagement; I had to pull it off and manage to keep her in character. I really hope that she isn't Mary- Sueish or OOC. What do you think Kaoru fans? Did I express her temper well?
Anyway, thank you very much for all the feedback! I have so many plans and twists to keep this story going! Thanks again for your support ^_^
Chapter Three: A Fresh Start
"Now, I can marry you."
Kaoru heard the words distinctly, but understanding them was a different matter entirely, and the same question kept ringing in her head.
Since when was she engaged?
Before she could pull away, the man tightened his arms around her. His embrace was unyielding, but to be in his arms was...comfortable. She remembered being held like this as a child once before. Kaoru felt safe and snug whenever that certain person hugged her, as if nothing could harm her.
That was how she felt now. She knew nothing about this man, but the feeling of his arms wrapped around her was soothing. Everything about this was surreal, but at the same time, it felt right.
Snapping out of her absurd thoughts, Kaoru felt that the logical thing to do was to step away from this stranger and get some answers.
No matter how nice his arms felt.
Putting her hands against his chest, Kaoru made her best effort to pull away from her guest. She backed away enough to see his face, but he kept his hold on her shoulders.
Kaoru said the only thing that came to mind.
"Wh...what?"
Distress crossed his face, but he persisted.
"I've come back for you, Kaoru-chan," he stated, his words still weighed with the emotion he had shown her through his one-sided embrace. "I'm here to marry you like I said I would."
Her logic slowly returning to her, Kaoru stepped away from the man's arms completely and stood from her seat. "Sorry, but you're mixing me up with someone else."
The man stared at her in confusion. "No, I'm not."
"You have to be!" Kaoru argued, her hands flailing up and down in her outburst. "I've never seen you before!"
Her last sentence made him stop, as if she had physically stricken him with her words. But Kaoru was too caught up with how bizarre the whole situation was to notice.
"This doesn't make any sense! I CAN'T be engaged, especially to someone that I don't know! I mean, I don't even have a boyfriend!"
Kaoru suddenly ceased in her ranting and smiled nervously.
"You're a friend of Sano's, right?" she asked. "He put you up to this, didn't he? Well, it's not very funny—"
She was cut off when two masculine hands gripped firmly around her tiny wrists, turquoise eyes burning into her.
"I would NEVER joke about this." he stated evenly, his hands still around her wrists.
Then, he brought his right hand to her face and cupped the side of her face. He savored the soft, warm skin underneath his palm. His left hand kept her steadily in one place, but the way that he had touched her cheek was surprisingly gentle.
Again, memories tickled the recesses of her mind, but Kaoru pushed them back.
"Kaoru-chan..." he spoke, his voice heavy with dread and hope at the same time. "You really can't remember?"
His hand left her face and then traveled downwards, his fingers grasping the metal ring that hung around her neck.
"...have you forgotten me?"
Kaoru took this moment to scrutinize her guest. She examined the handsome face and the strange, yet unusually fitting, slivers of white hair.
She would've been more comfortable if he wasn't staring at her like that, but it couldn't be helped. The way his eyes seemed to plead to her was almost heart-wrenching, even if she didn't know him. And the way that his fingers were clutching her ring...it was as if he was holding onto it for dear life. If the ring had not been metal, it would've probably crushed from the intensity of his grip. It was like this man was clasping the piece of jewelry for comfort, like it was the last thread of his happiness that he was desperately clinging onto...
'...no...it couldn't be...'
A flicker of dark, seemingly uncombed hair and slightly tanned skin flashed in her head. A face slowly materialized, and Kaoru could distinctively make out a boy's arrogant grin and eyes full of mischief.
He had the same eyes. Although there was anxiety in them, this man had the same shade of turquoise. She concentrated on his hair and imagined that the white had darkened into black.
Had his skin been a little tanner, he looked like the spitting image of someone that she had once known...
"...Enishi...?" the name sounded unknown to her, but at the same time, it was familiar. It had been so long since she had heard the name that Kaoru was almost fascinated with it.
In her bemused state, she had lost control of her actions, causing a ceramic mug to be knocked off the coffee table with her hand.
The shattering of the mug against the wooden floor brought her partially back to her senses, her mind still a mess.
"That's two I broke today," she sputtered incoherently to herself as she picked up the pieces. Enishi knelt down onto the floor and helped her by taking some of the wet shards into his own hands.
"So, how are you?" Kaoru asked. Enishi noticed how hard her hands were shaking. She was obviously trying to hide her shock by starting a conversation with him, even if her attempt was unsuccessful.
He smiled. Kaoru hadn't changed a bit.
"I'm fine now," he said truthfully.
He followed her back into the kitchen to dispose of the pieces of the broken mug. They then went back to the living room where Kaoru told him to take a seat. She then proceeded to pace back and forth with her childhood friend watching curiously.
Silence prevailed in the room while Kaoru walked back and forth, her fingers intertwined and her eyes fixated ahead, never looking at him.
"Why don't you sit down?" he asked her.
She abruptly stopped in her steps and shook her head. "No, I'm okay." She tried to smile, but her uneasiness made the effort a failure.
"...I've wanted to see you for fourteen years now," he suddenly spoke, his eyes looking sorrowfully at her despite the confident smile he wore. "After you left Kyoto, it took everything I had from running after you, Kaoru-chan. And now, after all these years..."
He bent his head, his smile still present on his lips. "I was looking forward to seeing you when I learned you lived here," he laughed quietly. "I guess I was so worried that the address I had written down was wrong that I didn't even notice you outside in the rain."
"Don't feel bad," Kaoru interrupted. "I didn't notice you either, what with the white hair and all."
He chuckled at her slight joke, but the sadness was etched on his face. "I was so happy that I had found you again. But..."
He lifted his face to hers, the sad smile on his attractive features.
"You...don't look happy to see me."
Realizing how insensitive she had been to him, Kaoru walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. She placed a frail hand over his, sympathy and regret pulling her away from her bewilderment.
"I'm sorry," she began. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you, it's just that I've had a really long day."
Enishi fell silent, wondering what could've happened to make Kaoru so exhausted.
"This morning I caught three of my students looking at pornography when they SHOULD'VE been reading Japanese literature. Then I had to assign them to detention for two hours. After that, my neighbor came to visit me and brought an unexpected guest that I haven't seen in over three months. Then I spent two hours making sure that those students I told you about cleaned my whole classroom until it was sparkling. I walked over to the grocery shop because my car broke down for what has got to be the hundredth time, and I walked home in the rain because I was dumb enough to forget my umbrella.
"And then, I bumped into you. You're the second unexpected person that I've seen today, believe it or not."
She laughed softly at herself, Enishi's stare remaining on her.
"That certainly does sound like a long day."
Kaoru was about to say something, but then he pulled her into another tight embrace. His fingers intertwined with the black tresses of her hair, his lips almost brushing the lobe of her ear.
"When we are married, you won't have to go through any of that," he whispered into her ear. "As your husband, I'll provide for you."
The questions flooded into her mind again at the words 'married' and 'husband'. Kaoru didn't know whether to be more offended or more surprised at the peculiar way Enishi was acting.
"...what do you mean, 'married'?"
Enishi pulled away, his eyes holding hers. She almost regretted asking the question from seeing the hurt look on his face, but marriage was too serious of a topic for Kaoru to merely brush it aside.
Especially when it seemed like Enishi wasn't kidding about it.
"Don't you remember when we were children?" he asked her. "Don't you remember why I gave you that ring in the first place?"
Reluctantly, Kaoru shook her head. Truth be told, she couldn't clearly remember the whole reason behind the ring, but she kept it for its sentimental value.
"I always thought that it was a gift," she answered tentatively.
"Well, that's part of why I gave it to you," Enishi replied, and he squeezed her hand affectionately. "Kaoru-chan, remember when your cousin came to my home to take you back to your family?"
A nod.
"You said that you still wanted to be with me. I gave you that ring so we could be together."
She swallowed the lump in her throat. Kaoru didn't like where this was going at all.
"It's your engagement ring."
Kaoru balked. Her trembling fingers clasped the ring on her necklace, and she looked at it with disbelief.
She always knew there was something about this ring that was so significant. But she was too young to remember it in the span of fourteen years, until now.
Kaoru looked at Enishi, and the strings of her heart were pulled by the compassionate way he was holding her hand and the glimmer of hope in his eyes.
She took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be easy to tell him, but she had to. Enishi didn't deserve this. Not in the least bit.
"...I can't." The words were almost unsympathetic to say, but they needed to be said.
It took only a few seconds for the words to pass through his ears, but comprehending them was a different, more difficult matter. "...what?"
"I said I can't," she repeated, firmly this time. "With everything that's going on right now, I can't get married—"
"But you said that you would," he cut her off, his voice rising.
It almost killed her to see her childhood friend like this, but Kaoru had to do this for both their sakes. "Enishi, this is for the best—"
"I asked you if I made you happy," he interrupted, grief and anger clouding his eyes. "I asked you if you wanted to be my wife, and you said that you would. You said that you would...!"
"I was eight years old!" Kaoru's voice rose to a shout. "I didn't know exactly how serious marriage was, I was only a child!"
"And so was I!" he yelled back at her, startling her. "But unlike you, I meant everything that I said! I wanted to be your husband, I wanted to be with you!"
Kaoru was at a loss for words, surprised by Enishi's sudden outburst. One minute he was a composed gentleman, and the next he was a man on the verge of a breakdown, all over an exchange of words between them as children. What was she to him? What was it about her that drove him into a tumult of rage?
"But I guess I was a fool for coming here," he continued, the smirk on his face unsettling her nerves. "I should've known that Shinomori had some part in your sudden change of heart."
"Shinomori...you mean Aoshi?" Kaoru asked, wondering why her cousin would have anything to do with this conversation.
"Isn't it obvious? When he brought you back to Tokyo, he convinced you to forget about our engagement, didn't he?" he said accusingly with a grim smile. "How fitting for someone of his character."
Kaoru came alive with anger, standing up from the couch and glowering at her guest. "Who are you to judge my cousin? You don't even know Aoshi, so you have no right to label him like that!"
"If it weren't for your beloved cousin, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place."
"What the HELL are you talking about?!" she shouted. "You can't blame Aoshi for a decision that I made! He doesn't have anything to do with this—"
Her words were caught in her throat when her coffee table flipped over, soundly crashing onto the floor. The impact drowned the pitter-patter of the rain outside, and it sent a slight tremor through the room.
Taking her eyes off the fallen table, she looked to Enishi. He was standing like she was now, his tall form towering over her. He was the epitome of intimidation at that moment. His lips were drawn in a scowl and his eyes sent a cold shiver down her spine.
"He has EVERYTHING to do with this!" he roared, his resentment reverberating off the walls of her apartment. "He was the one that took you away! If it wasn't for him, you could have stayed in Kyoto! If he hadn't come, you could have stayed with me!"
Kaoru was silent, not knowing what to say. His hands were drawn into fists at his sides, shaking with rage. She looked bravely into his eyes, and she saw the antagonism was swirling in the smoldering turquoise pools.
But she saw something else in them. His eyes spoke of loss, sadness, pain...
...and she had caused them all. Whether she had known it or not, Kaoru was the reason for his heartache.
He turned on his heel and briskly walked away. Before she could even stop him, Enishi left her apartment, slamming the door on his way out. After the door had settled on its hinges, the steady rhythm of the rain shower outside was all she heard.
She was left with her troubled thoughts and overturned coffee table for company. Without saying a word, she left the living room and went into the kitchen. The numbers and white background of her calendar stood out from the pale paint of the wall. Her hand flipped onto the next page and a certain date caught her attention.
June 10. A little over a month until the anniversary of her father's death.
Kaoru sighed and her hand fell away from the calendar, wishing that she had remained in bed this morning.
* * * *
Drops as cold as liquid ice ran down the white strands of his hair. The rain was beginning to seep through his trench coat, forming goosebumps on his skin. He had waited out in the rain earlier before, but this was worse. And the fact that the downpour had raged into a storm had nothing to do with it.
Enishi never felt so cold before in his life.
He was an idiot, and absolute goddamned idiot. How could he expect someone to remember a promise that they had made fourteen years after the day of its creation? To believe that she would welcome him with open arms, to believe that she would be prepared to become his wife...it was all very childish of him.
Enishi was usually a rational person. Back in Kyoto, he was even deemed as aloof and calculating as his father. He was a man of logic, a realist.
Kaoru had changed that. Every moment he spent as a child laughing with her and holding her hand brought a sense of peace that was so blissful that he couldn't put it in words to this day. When he was around her, he didn't feel that he had to be tough or indifferent. Other than his sister, Kaoru had accepted him whereas all other people had been afraid of him.
But now, she had rejected him. Just like everyone else. And that alone was unbearable.
He had lost his dreams. He had lost his happiness. But none of those could add up to the loss of her...
Footsteps sounded in the thick sheets of rain, but he ignored them. They grew louder, each one splashing in the endless puddles created by the night rain. He ignored them though, the words of Kaoru's rejection echoing continuously in his head like a broken melody...
The footsteps stopped, but he paid no attention. The sadness that threatened to take over what was left of his mental stability was too overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that he didn't even notice when a voice began talking out of nowhere...
"Hello? Hey, are you deaf?!"
The enraged words stirred memories of a conversation that occurred recently, and his head snapped up to meet a pair of bright blue eyes glaring from a livid, but nonetheless beautiful face.
"You really are a jerk, you know that?" she yelled over the pounding rain, her finger stabbing the middle of his chest. "I was kind enough to let you into my apartment because I didn't want you to get sick, and you get pissed at me for not agreeing to marry you!"
A clap of thunder rattled the sky, but it fell on deaf ears.
"I possibly had the WORST day of my life, and you topped it all off by accusing my cousin of something that he didn't do, and then you flipped over my coffee table! You don't go destroying other people's things! Especially if they invite you into their home!"
He was speechless, allowing her to continue her tirade as the storm raged on.
"And you don't lose your temper and take it out on other people!" she screamed. "It's disrespectful and it's just plain RUDE!!!"
There were a few moments of silence between them, until he could find his voice. "...why are you here?"
Kaoru was taken aback by his question, but she held onto her anger. "What do you mean why am I here? To take your sorry ass back to the apartment!"
"But why?"
She sighed, too exhausted to be mad anymore. Kaoru took a seat beside him on the bench. "Because I was afraid of you getting lost."
Turquoise eyes widened, but she only continued. "You said that you were from Kyoto, right? I didn't think that you would be too familiar with this city, so I went after you."
Enishi noticed the rain-soaked jacket that clung to her like a wet rag. Her hair was completely drenched from the downpour, and her white skin was glistening with water. From looking at her in this weary state, he would've guessed that she had been searching for him for about two hours.
He felt his stomach twist in knots...no, he was supposed to be angry, he was supposed to be infuriated with her! She broke his heart and their promise, she was the one that drove him out of her apartment in the first place!
"I said that I didn't want to marry you, but I didn't mean that I didn't want to see you."
Enishi felt his apathy wash away upon hearing the words. He looked at her as if he were hypnotized, wanting her to continue.
"Despite wrecking my property, I'm glad that you came to Tokyo," she said. "I always wondered how you were doing all these years."
"...so...why?"
Raven brows creased when she heard the hint of pain in his words. "Why won't you...?"
Comprehension dawned upon her. "We haven't seen each other for so long, Enishi. I could be completely different than the person that you cared about fourteen years ago. I don't want to rush into something serious because I don't want you to regret it in the end."
She looked him right in the eye, the solemnity never leaving her face. "We might've been friends, but there's so much about me that you don't know. And I hardly know anything about you."
He turned away from her. The stern tone she had used had solidified the rejection. Kaoru wasn't going to marry him, and he would return to Kyoto with his lost hopes...
"But I guess that's why I'm glad you came to visit," she spoke again. "So we can catch up."
Kaoru stood from the bench and stepped in front of him. Her hand extended out to him, a smile gracing her lovely features.
"Let's start over. Nice to meet you, I'm Kamiya Kaoru!"
He looked at her hand, and then he looked at her. Despite her peculiar behavior, he returned her smile.
"Yukishiro Enishi," he replied, taking her frail hand into his.
"It's a pleasure meeting you," she continued. "Well, no sense standing out in the rain like this. You can tell me more about yourself at my apartment."
Had it been anyone else who said that, Enishi would've thought that the statement had implied something more...intimate. But Kaoru's innocence had pushed aside that thought while she dragged him onto his feet and he followed her through the rain.
Glancing at the corners of his eyes, he noticed that she was shivering from the cold. She was getting more soaked by the second as they walked, and he saw her recoil slightly when another roar of thunder sounded into the dying evening. Apparently, she wasn't too enraged to ignore her fears this time.
Without giving it a second thought, he slipped off his coat and placed it over Kaoru's head. She stopped in her tracks and questioned him with her eyes, but he disregarded it as he pulled her into his arms.
"...you're something else," he whispered, but she heard him through the rain and howling of the wind. "You really are."
Kaoru softened at the emotional words, and she felt herself relaxing in his embrace. There was that peace again, the same soothing effect she had felt earlier when he had hugged her. It was so comforting that she closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped in his strong arms...
...the spell only lasted for a few seconds. She remembered where she was, and she immediately stepped out of his embrace, doing her best to glare at him and praying that he couldn't see the pink that tickled her cheeks.
"Don't get too friendly, mister," she huffed. "We just met."
He had missed the warmth of her delicate body, but he smiled in spite of himself. "Of course. I apologize."
"Oh, and for your sake, you better hope that my table isn't broken. Otherwise, you're getting me a new one."
Enishi laughed for what it seemed like the first time in ages, and he walked side by side with Kaoru as the rain continued to fall.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Believe it or not, this chapter was difficult to write. It was hard writing about Kaoru's reaction to the engagement; I had to pull it off and manage to keep her in character. I really hope that she isn't Mary- Sueish or OOC. What do you think Kaoru fans? Did I express her temper well?
Anyway, thank you very much for all the feedback! I have so many plans and twists to keep this story going! Thanks again for your support ^_^