Author's note: I want to thank Cherissa for pushing me to finish this chapter and for reminding me countless times to give it a happy ending. She also helped me get rid of my writer's block by providing me some ideas that I managed to twist and edit! EnjoyDedicated to Cherissa!
The conference room was huge. No, massive was the correct word to describe it. The whole board of directors, who were dressed in elegant business-like black suits, sat down on the velvet black comfy chairs that surrounded the wide, long table. The boss of the whole company entered the room. He had long hair that was highlighted in a funky colour of yellow. There was a red bandana tied around his forehead. Many bosses of their companies were stern and strict and proper in their grooming, but not this boss. He was a ripe age of twenty-three years old and his name was Mr. Sanosuke Sagara. With a playful childlike smile etched on his face, he said cheerfully," Shall we being the meeting?" The company's name was the Singaporean-Japanese association of Fencing School. The company was a well-established fencing school which was co-joined by the two countries.
"Mr. Sagara," One female board director began. She had let her straight rebonded hair down her shoulders. She was and looked like an Asian beauty. Her name was Megumi. Mr. Sagara slapped himself internally and told himself to stop staring at Miss Megumi and instead, pay attention to what she had to say." This boy…has violated the rules of or company's contract!!!" Megumi said as she tried to keep her anger in check.
" Please explain everything clearly," Mr. Sagara said as he leaned back into the comfort of his chair. Megumi continued," One year ago, a boy named Shinsani Homme signed a contract with the Singaporean-Japanese association of Fencing school. The contract has stated clearly that our company would give him a fencing scholarship to study in the Singapore school of fencing. His parents are businessmen that fly to and fro from Japan and Singapore. So after much consideration for this scholarship, they decided to migrate and stay put in Singapore. Shinsani purposely violated the rules of the contract by enrolling himself into a local school!" Megumi said angrily, pounding her fist onto the marble-tiled table.
"Okay…but why did you discover his offense at such a late period of time?" Mr. Sagara questioned doubtfully. Megumi rolled her eyes.
" Our company has always had responsible and talented youngsters who abide by the rules of our contract, so obviously we don't have to go and check on them after we have issued them contracts. It was only recently announced in the news that two students of Jefirerose High School was going to sing for the new anime production and we discovered Shinsani was actually singing in it!"
" Why do you and the other directors in the room have such black faces?" Mr. Sagara asked again, obviously incapable of understanding the serious offence that the youngster had just committed. " Because…we tried to confront him and ask him nicely to come back to our company and he actually resisted arrest from our officers. The worst thing is, he has run away from home and has not been attending school for one week!" Megumi finished her speech through gritted teeth. All the other directors were nodding vigorously in agreement.
" Oh so now I DO see the problem." Mr. Sagara said aloud thoughtfully. Megumi rolled her eyes and barked in agreement," Yeah…it could have taken longer than a century for you to acknowledge that fact." "So what do we do now? The boy's missing…" One of the directors piped up. The boss's fingers drummed the table as he pondered for a solution. "Does he have any close friends? Where are their usual hangouts?" He asked.
Everybody flipped open their thick files of research and searched under the FRIENDS page. Fang Shiyuan was listed as the first friend. "Fang Shiyuan…"Megumi read aloud. " She's Shinsani's fencing partner in school and she's also the girl whose supposed to sing a duet with Shinsani for the anime production. Perhaps she could even be Shinsani's girlfriend." Her fingers went up and down the columns of the different pages that she was flipping through as she struggled to find the locations of the frequent hangouts.
" They were last seen at the Heeren, which is at orchard road. But we had had futile searches for the last few days. I wonder if we will be able to find the boy there." Megumi said, with a heavy sigh.
"Whoever said we must have only a one-tracked mind? I'm sure the boy's friends are as equally worried for him and they are searching for him too. Let's target this girl. Orchard Road, you say? Great, let's hit the Heeren right now! Remember to call some of our officials over and we shall communicate through walkie-talkies." Mr. Sagara announced happily, standing up from his seat. "Who wants to tag along?"
It was starting to drizzle outdoors. The slight drizzle came down to the earth as silent small beads of water gently landing on the ground. Shiyuan's uniform was getting a little drenched as she walked in the drizzle. She silently cursed herself for forgetting to retrieve her umbrella from her locker. She last remembered Laura trying insistently to tag along with her because she was worried for her. However, being the strong-willed girl that she was, Shiyuan rejected her offer. She was not willing to let any of her friends get into danger. She was on an important mission-to find the missing Shinsani and she vowed to complete the mission all by herself.
"Ahh!!!" Shiyuan let out a tiny shrill as the drizzle turned into a heavier downpour. Holding her schoolbooks over her head, she ran as fast as she could into the entrance of the mall. "That was close…" She thought to herself. Setting down her books on the floor, she took out a tissue and knelt down beside her books to dab them dry. She sighed to herself as she was reminded of her mission. How on earth was she supposed to find Shinsani? She was all alone and the loneliness was getting to her. "But if someone was after Shinsani, obviously he wouldn't be in the shopping mall. He wouldn't be so stupid to trap himself within an enclosed space." She thought to herself. "Unless…he's hiding along the streets of Orchard…"
She picked up her books hastily in excitement as she ran out of the mall, forgetting all about the heavy downpour. "AHHHH!!!!" She screamed loudly, as her books dropped into a puddle of dirty and muddy water. Her hair was getting drenched and her uniform was so cringed and wet too. Taking a deep breath, her hands stretched forward to clasp the dirty books. Clearly, Shiyuan was upset because she was one person who took great efforts to take care of her beloved possessions. People walking by with umbrellas brisk walked and one person accidentally stepped on her books." NO!!!" Shiyuan sighed in great dismay. She grabbed her books and sprinted back into the mall for the second time. It was not surprising that she slipped and fell down because of the slippery surface of the floor and the next second she was sprawled on the floor, her books scattered in a mess beside her.
"Need a help there?" A booming voice said. Shiyuan lifted her head hopefully and fervently wished to see Shinsani's face, but to her utter disappointment, she saw someone who looked like he was barely out of his teens. Her hand slid into offering hand as she stood up." Cool hair colour!' She exclaimed in awe. Mr. Sagara smirked at the comment of flattery. Megumi helped gather up her scattered books on the floor and slid them in a transparent plastic bag. "I reckon your name is Fang Shiyuan?" She asked.
Shiyuan's eyes widened in shock. "H-how…did...yy-ou know?" Miss Megumi walked up to her and gave her a grim smile. "I'm with him. We are from the Singaporean-Japanese association fencing school. We know you because we know your friend Shinsani Homme." Shiyuan nodded, skeptical of the two strangers.
"Your point would be…?" Shiyuan asked as politely as she could. " We want to ask you about Shinsani's location. We need to find him urgently as he has committed some sort of offense." Mr. Sagara explained. Shiyuan nodded. Yeah okay. "Two strangers coming up with some kind of cock-and-bull story. I shall have to think of an intellectual plan to throw them off.". "I'm actually looking for him too. But the problem is, he didn't say anything to any of us friends before he left. I'm stuck here trying to find him too. Let's spilt up to find him!" Shiyuan said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I'll do anything to escape away from these two weirdo strangers," She thought.
Miss Megumi seemed to read Shiyuan's mind as she said reproachfully," Thinking of running away from us?" Shiyuan seemed shocked. She stuttered," Look…I don't even know why you two are after him…"
Mr. Sagara turned to look at Megumi and said," She's right. All right. He broke his fencing contract with us. He's supposed to be enrolled in the Singapore fencing school when our company gave him a scholarship but he went on to enroll himself in some stupid local school. He has been resisting confrontation from us ever since." He retrieved a photo stated copy of their contract from his pocket, which Shiyuan took and inspected.
Shiyuan's face began to heat up." Watch what you're saying…my school is not some stupid local school." She said heatedly. Mr. Sagara wore an apologetic look on his face. Megumi cut in," We've been combing this mall last Saturday but we still couldn't find him. Any idea where he might be?"
Shiyuan seemed to be in a loss of words for a while. She felt dumbstruck. Now everything was coming together just like parts of an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle being fixed together to form a complete picture. " So…the officers were here last Saturday…he actually kissed me to silence me so that I would not grab their attention…oh no I've mistaken Shinsani for bad intentions! HMPH, stupid him. It's just typical him to keep such a big problem to himself. Now, why in the world am I feeling hurt and sad because he didn't wish to confide in me? Didn't I just make up my mind never to get infatuated with someone like him??!! What am I to do now???" Shiyuan closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath to regain her calm posture. " All right…I will help all of you. Look me up tomorrow in the afternoon outside my school. I will look for him today and I will tell you if I find him." She stated.
The duo seemed to be contented with her answer as they walked out of the entrance of the mall and both of them were sheltered with umbrellas from their bodyguards. Their chauffer opened the door of their long BMW and they slid inside the car seats. The car door was shut and the car whisked off in a flash.
"YARRRRR!" Shinsani yelled out loud, as he did a parry attack on his sensei. His teacher easily tackled it and soon, Shinsani found himself being flung against the cool hard surface of the wooden floor. "You're improving day by day! That's good!" The fencing master chuckled to himself as he took off his fencing head shield. Shinsani shook his head as he took off his too and they bowed to each other. "I'll go take a bath first," Shinsani said, somewhat awkwardly. His fencing master nodded in understanding.
It had been one week since Shinsani had pleaded with him to stay at his house. The fencing master, Ruma-sensei, was aware of the whole situation. He had forced the truth out of poor Shinsani. Being a compassionate sensei, the fencing master had no choice but to take him in. Still, he couldn't help but realize the severity of the matter and he wished Shinsani would just confess his offense to that company and stop making everybody worry for him. "Let me take a look at his bag. Maybe I will something that will help him." Ruma-sensei thought. He felt a twinge of guilt seep through him but decided that he was doing it out of concern for his disciple.
Ruma-sensei emptied his knapsack and out came all his stuff. Jeans, t-shirts, extra fencing suits, CDs and what's that…A PHOTO OF HIM AND A GIRL? Ruma-sensei snatched the photo up from the messy bundle of things to take a closer gaze at it. True enough, it was Shinsani and another one of his disciples, Shiyuan. They were dressed in their fencing suits and grinning in the photo. He turned to the behind of the photograph and saw Shiyuan's handphone number scribbled in untidy handwriting.
"Brilliant…" Ruma-sensei smiled. If he couldn't help his disciple himself directly, at least he could make the effort to count on others to help him.
Three hours had passed. Her watch buzzed again. Shiyuan sat down tiredly on one of the benches provided in the mall. She rubbed her eyes tiredly. Perhaps she should just give up and go back home and begin the search again the next day…Perhaps she should just give up totally and forget all about Shinsani…Perhaps she should call up Shinsani's parents to ask for clues…Perhaps…Perhaps…Her eyes were about to droop close due to her lethargy but a noise buzzing in her sling bag distracted her. Rubbing her eyes, she searched for her handphone in her bag and answered," Hello?"
" Is this Shiyuan-chan? I'm Ruma-sensei, your fencing master." Ruma-sensei said in his usual deep and gruffly voice.
"Ruma-sensei! What's up?" Shiyuan asked, somewhat surprised that her fencing master would be calling her up.
"Are you Shinsani's girlfriend?" Shiyuan eyes narrowed in disgust." We are fencing partners and we are a duo for singing practices. That's how simple our relationship is," She said icily.
"Okay, okay. Joke's over! Shinsani's at my house now. Apparently he has taken refugee at my house for the past one week. He has explained to me everything. Come down now and convince him to own up to the company! It's better to be an honest dude instead of a cowardly coward, don't you think so?" Ruma-sensei said.
Shiyuan's mood lightened up upon hearing about the news of Shinsani! She was so close to reaching her long-awaited mission! Picking up her pen and some spare foolscap paper, she wrote down the address of her sensei's home before squeaking thank you to him and ending the phone call. "Thomson Road…isn't that the house directly next to Thomson Plaza?" She asked herself.
The journey taken from Orchard Road to Thomson Road was one hell of a long journey. First, she was caught in a drizzle. Then she was caught in a downpour. She fell and bruised herself. Her schoolbooks must have been filled to the brim with dirt and filth by now and they were probably in a state of being unable to be used for educational purposes. Yet, no matter how lethargic or sickly she felt, Shiyuan felt the urge to strive on. She took a bus ride (bus no.162) that went stopped directly at the bus-stop outside Thomson plaza. The bus ride was approximately about one hour and Shiyuan picked up whatever strength she had left to walk to the house that was located further inside the street Thomson Road. Her plastic bag of filthy books dragged along on the floor as Shiyuan put one foot ahead of each other wearily. She was getting even more drenched, walking in the rain again, but she did not give a care, just as long as she made it to the house.
"House number 70," Shiyuan breathed, a wave of happiness flooded her senses. She pressed the doorbell and the auto-gate instantly opened, allowing her to step in under the shade of the rooftop. Ruma-sensei came out of house and bellowed worriedly," Whatever happened to you??? You look a wreck!!!" He ran towards the half-dead Shiyuan, who managed a small smile. Ruma-sensei helped her carry her sling bag and plastic bag of books as she stumbled into his house. She hadn't had time to admire the beauty of Ruma-sensei's wonderfully designed bungalow house. "Thank you Ruma-sensei," Shiyuan said. "Ano, can you take me to see Shinsani?"
"No problem, after you get changed out of your disgustingly wet uniform, or else you'll get a cold. You're lucky I have a daughter whose about the same age as you and is of the same build as you. She'll lend you some home clothes to change into." Shiyuan sniffled and smiled with gratitude. As soon as she changed out of her wet uniform into more comfortably warm clothes, which consisted of a gothic blue baggy t-shirt and a black knee-length skirt, Ruma-sensei led her down their living room, down their dining room, down their kitchen, down the corridors and down to the opening entrance of the fencing hall. "Ruma-sensei, you have such a big house!" Shiyuan exclaimed in awe.
"Uh-oh, this is it. I'm going in to see him again. Hmm. The anger of Last Saturday's events seems to have faded away so naturally from me. Argh. Whatever. I shall just get him to own up so that we can get up with the whole anime production thing and I'm not going to take up fencing again next year, so that I will be spared the torture of seeing him again." Shiyuan thought.
"Erm, Shinsani? You have a guest here," Ruma-sensei cleared his throat. Shinsani's head, who was buried into his school textbook of Biology, looked up and gaped at her. Shiyuan was equally shocked to see his reaction. "I'll leave you two alone then," Ruma-sensei said. Shiyuan and Shinsani bowed to him as he took his leave.
"What are you doing here?" Shinsani said, his cheeks flushing a tint of red.
"What do you think?" Shiyuan said, sarcasm dripping with every word. The two sat down together on one of the benches. Shinsani fiddled with his fingers nervously as he kept stealing glances at Shiyuan.
"Ruma-sensei called you here?" Shinsani asked softly, his voice sounded as if it was filled with guilt. Shiyuan nodded slowly. " Why didn't you tell me of your problem?" Shiyuan's voice sounded oddly strange and Shinsani suspected that she was hurt.
"Why? Because I didn't want to get you involved and I didn't want you to come into contact with any of those dangerous officials from the company." That was Shinsani's inner thoughts. "Because…B-because…I..I…" Shinsani stuttered, horrified by his difficulty to confess the truth. Taking that as a hint, Shiyuan snapped," Fine you don't have to think up of a reason. If you didn't want to tell me, I'm cool with it."
"NO! It's not! You're not! What I wanted to say was I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to get involved and be harmed by any of the officials that were after me!" Shinsani shouted heatedly. Shiyuan blushed furiously. "YAY! That means he did want to regard me as a friend and he would have told me the truth!"
"Okay…I heard you…" She began. "But…the boss of the company did come to tell me about everything." Shiyuan said, facing Shinsani. "You have to confess your deeds Shinsani! You're just being a holy coward by making everybody worried sick about you! They will find you, even if you intend to stay in Ruma-sensei's house all the while!" Shiyuan's words seemed to prick Shinsani's conscience like a thousand needles stabbing a person's skin.
"I broke the contract." Shinsani said simply. "Yes I do know that, but I don't see why you want to run away from all this mess."
Shiyuan said worriedly. " You wouldn't want to know of the grave consequences," Shinsani said darkly. "Yeah? I wouldn't have wasted four hours of my precious time searching for you today! I wouldn't have dirtied my books if not for the fact that I was so trying to hard to find you! I wouldn't have got caught in the heavy rain if not because of you! Without you, there will be no anime production!!! GET IT?" Shiyuan screamed into his eardrums.
"WHAT? How could you be so stupid? Are you all right now? I think you're getting a cold…" Shinsani's hand went over to touch Shiyuan's forehead. Shiyuan flinched from the warm sensation. She was feeling numbly cold all over and her nose was getting all runny.
"So will you just go and confess? I'd be proud of you…" Shiyuan said in a hopeful, childlike and pure voice. "One more thing…I am to report to Mr. Sagara and Miss Megumi tomorrow after school for news of you."
"I'll meet them there after school at the school gate and be honest with them." Shinsani cut in.
Shiyuan smiled gratefully. She smiled a blissful smile. Finally her mission was completed. The happiest thing was hearing that Shinsani trusted her as a friend and believed in her. She made him realize his faults and now he was confessing his offense, all thanks to her. She had saved the day. Best of all, she did not realize how much she had missed Shinsani for one week. A blissful thought lighted up her cold body as her head went dizzy and the ground rushed up to meet her. She felt warmth embracing her in a second and thought she had heard someone calling out her name. Whatever. She was just too content with her happy feelings and the feeling of being in the warmth of the person's arms. She stopped thinking and her eyes drooped shut.
A/N: I'm so darn proud of this chapter! WHEEThis is my longest chapter ever!:) Do review!!! Thanks!!!!