Da Capo (At the Beginning)
-Meeko Melodie
Meeko: Konichiwa! Weekend! Listening to some random Japanese songs! Update! Of course, thank you so much for your reviews!
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Recap from last chapter:
His heart became much lighter now that he had the idea how to get Izumi back; how to get her girl back into his embrace.
And the thought of it was soothing and ...nice.
End of Recap
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Chapter 10: Alone and Not Alone
The sky was getting darker by the minute. Traces of stars were starting to appear in the slightly darkening sky across the city of Vancouver. Soft breezes were rippling across the deserted street that led to Vancouver International Secondary, bringing leaves racing across the empty path.
It was only September and already, it was starting to get chilly.
Izumi hugged herself to keep her body warm, although it didn't really work because wind was fiercely slashing her slim body.
Still, Izumi continued to walk against the wind while her eyes were stung hot with tears. They rolled down from her emerald green eyes and burned her cold cheeks.
She didn't even bother to brush them away. They just kept rolling down her cheeks and fell onto the ground, shaping five-pedaled flowers on the concrete ground.
Walking without noticing where she was going, with tears blurring her sight, she bumped into something hard, or rather someone.
Izumi looked up and saw a pair of dark blue eyes staring intently at her.
"Kouichi, what-what are you doing here?" Izumi asked amazedly. [Meeko: Yes, Izumi still didn't know he was in the school all along.]
Kouichi smiled lightly, "I'm here to ask you why you're here, crying your heart out?"
Izumi smiled back weakly, "Well, I-" She stopped. "No, seriously, Kouichi, why are you here?" She was so light-headed after the shock of witnessing something she shouldn't: Kouji kissing another girl, that she didn't even notice Kouichi's school uniform.
"I just decided to join you for fun," Kouichi replied, obviously pointing at himself and the noticeable clothes.
"Oh," Izumi exclaimed, finally getting it.
"You seem very surprise," Kouichi noted, leaning slightly on the street light pole that was standing near them.
"Well," Izumi laughed, brushing away her tears quickly and hoping Kouichi did not notice, "it wasn't everyday you can reunite with a friend in a boarding school out of hundreds of others in the world."
"True," Kouichi admitted, and then decided to change the topic, "so why are you so sad?"
Izumi had wished Kouichi wouldn't bring it up, "it was nothing, really."
"Liar," Kouichi stated carelessly, looking straight into Izumi's tear-stricken eyes.
Izumi dodged Kouichi's x-ray gaze and stared at the ground, ignoring his foot which was tapping impatiently against the ground.
She wished Kouichi would take his eyes off her, which was making her uncomfortable every minute flew by.
"It's alright if you do not want to tell me," Kouichi backed down, "it is your right to keep something private to yourself." This only made Izumi guiltier than ever.
After a while, "I know what you're thinking," Kouichi told her.
"You...you do?" Izumi questioned, frowning as she looked up.
"Kouji problems, am I right?" Kouichi fired back neatly.
Izumi could only hang her head down again and she nodded in defeat.
"I don't know why you're worrying," Kouichi said, switching his weight from one foot to the other, "apparently, he looks like he still misses you."
Izumi took it as if it was a joke, and she laughed bitterly, "Sure he misses me whenever he was not around that silver-haired girl."
"So apparently, kissing that girl does not count as one of those missing moments of his," Izumi finished confessing. She felt much lighter after she said that out loud to someone.
"Huh?" Kouichi was confused, "but he did look miserable in music class today."
"Sure he did," Izumi said sarcastically, not believing one word of it.
"I'm serious, Izumi," Kouichi continued, taking note of her sarcastic voice, "his eyes turn all red when he was practicing that song about being 'lonely again' or something like that and I'm sure you know as well as I do that we don't see Kouji Minamoto cry every other day."
"Well, maybe he had dirt in his eyes or something," Izumi said, although her voice sounded unconvincing and she hoped she was right. She hoped Kouji was still missing her.
"Whoa! Hold it right there, Miss Orimoto," a voice shouted in Izumi's head. "I thought the other side of me just told Kouji Minamoto to get lost and forget about me," that little voice continued.
"That's true," the other little voice inside Izumi said, and it argued, "but we just can't help ourselves by missing that blue-haired former cute boyfriend of ours, now can we?"
"Still," her other side disagreed, "we should have some constraint in ourselves and at least tried to ignore him and give him the Cold Stare when he passes by."
"What the hell is the use of that?" the other voice interrupted and on and on it went inside Izumi's head. Typical female internal struggle.
"Izumi, you there?" Kouichi was worried, witnessing her blank face expression.
"Huh?" Izumi had obviously tuned out for a moment there, "yea, I'm just thinking over stuff."
She paused, "maybe...maybe you're right, Kouichi. Maybe..." Izumi stopped again.
"Just take it easy, alright?" Kouichi told Izumi and walked towards her.
"Thanks, Kouichi," Izumi smiled.
"For what?" he asked, now standing in front of Izumi.
"For..." Izumi was lost for words, "for everything." Kouichi embraced her calmly and it startled Izumi for a second. But when he kissed her forehead lightly, then straightened himself up, Izumi realized that he was just being friendly was all.
She sure did not wish that 'incident' kissing with Kouichi three years ago in Ryo's party happened all over again.
Nope.
The memory pained her. That was the day when Kouji stormed on her and demanded break up between them.
But that was all in the past. They were all just part of the ancient history.
The street light pole, that Kouichi was leaning on, ignited and blinding yellow beam glowed, gleaming upon Kouichi and Izumi.
"Well," Izumi started, pacing," I better be going, it's late." She looked up at the almost darkened sky. Stars were glittering brightly above them, happily blinking their eyes from the sinister heaven.
"Alright," he replied simply and started to cross the street. His dorm was on the other side not far from where he was standing.
"Goodnight then," Kouichi added, winking at her playfully, "oh, and do try to win Kouji back from that horrible Jocelyn freak girl whatever-her-last-name-was, because I really do not want such a seductive-yet-evil sister-in-law if they really, unfortunately get married, which I doubted anyway." He grinned and left.
Once again, the street was quiet with Kouichi's footsteps fainting in the way. Wind was whipping viciously but Izumi didn't feel cold anymore.
She still didn't know what was going on between Kouji and that Jocelyn girl but when she found out...
Izumi hugged her body once again and began to walk back to her dormitory.
She hoped Elli remembered to bring her something back from dining hall to eat; she was starving.
Meeko: So, people, how's it? Crummy? I know. But that's the best I could come up with. The usual: send me some comments or suffer, blah...blah...blah...