The Fortune
Written by: Fujiwara Zakuro
Chapter 4: Last Chance
AN: I'm on a roll! I've written two chapters for one story in one week and the first chapter of my soon-to-be uploaded story (Opposites Attract).
Two years later, it was grade five and autumn approached winter. Izumi finally accepted the fact that she liked Kouji. She'd sit on the bench facing the soccer field with her friends and watch Kouji play soccer. She had to admit, he was pretty cute and quite good at playing soccer. 'Why do I have to be so pathetic? He can't possibly like me! We barely even talk! That was only grade three that we actually interacted with each other...' Izumi thought sadly to herself. The other thing was that they'd grown farther apart from each other since they no longer sat together or were in the same class. And if she did try to talk to him, she'd look at the ground and stutter. 'Why... just why?' Izumi yelled inside herself. "Um, Izumi, you look kinda tense. Is there something wrong?" Amaya asked her best friend. "No no, it's nothing to worry about!" Izumi insisted. "You're thinking about my brother again... aren't you?" Amaya asked Izumi slyly. Izumi sighed, "Yes... I am." "Well, I honestly don't think that you should be so shy! I'm sure that he likes you, too!" Amaya tried to comfort Izumi. Izumi nodded, but just stared out into space and let herself get lost in her thoughts.
He had become more open at the end of grade three. Izumi had finally gotten fed up with his unsociability and told him to open up to more people. He did as Izumi told him, but from then on he got in trouble a lot. Izumi smiled at this memory.
Izumi entered her house. "Mom, I'm home!" she called out. "Hi, honey! Come into the family room. We need to... talk." Her mother replied. Izumi obeyed her mother and sat on the floor of their family room. She laid her bag beside her. "You know that we were selling our house, right?" her mother asked Izumi. Izumi nodded and said, "It's supposed to be sold by spring or later, right?" Her mother nodded. "But the problem is that there are already buyers that are giving us an excellent price..." her mother began. "NO! We can't move now! It's too early!" Izumi screamed. She was on the verge of crying. She didn't want to leave her home. She loved it too much. Her mother opened her mouth to speak, but Izumi already ran upstairs to her room and flung herself on her bed. She cried really hard and lay there with her teddy bear.
Everytime her parents spoke to her about moving, she'd cry. She also almost cried when she told Amaya and her other friends about moving. "Oh my gosh, Izumi... we'll miss you!" one of her friends said. Even though her parents said that it wasn't completely decided that they were moving, Izumi knew that they were lying. Of course they'd move and ruin her life. And by the time it was December, they finalized the move, making Izumi only have until Christmas Vacation to stay in her beloved neighborhood. One of her other best friends was in another country during December, so she wrote a note to her and put it in her friend's bin. While writing that note, she remembered about Kouji. She opened up her jar of fortunes and fished out her very special fortune: Love is in your future. She wasn't so sure if she knew who it was referring to as her "love", but she had a hunch. She read it over a few times and that ripped a piece of loose-leaf paper out of her binder and scribbled down a short note to Kouji. She folded it neatly into an envelope and wrote down on the back "Amaya, give the note in this envelope to Kouji."
The next day, Amaya found the envelope in her bin and knew who it was that gave it to her. She gave it to her brother during lunch and told him it was pretty important. "Who's it from?" he asked her, but she just ran down the hall. He saw her get stopped by the hall monitor. "YOU! STOP RUNNING!" the hall monitor cried out. Amaya skidded to a stop and accepted the written ticket from the monitor. Kouji just shook his head. 'Silly kid...' he thought.
He got in class and opened the note. It said.
Dear Kouji,
I never thought this to be possible, but I like you... a lot. Well, I don't really know how this happened, but I just thought you ought to know. And I wanted to tell you before I went to my new school. Have a great winter!
The letter was signed with a signature. He examined it for a while and finally recognized it. "Izumi..." he murmured to himself. "Kouji! What is that neat thing you got there?" Takuya burst out behind Kouji. He snatched it from his hands and read it. He burst out laughing. "You gotta find this girl!" Takuya cried out. "What girl?" Kouji's other friends arrived at the scene. Takuya passed the letter around the group. Kouji got aggravated. He snatched it from Takuya and said, "It's Izumi Orimoto. Help me find her in the other class." Kouji said. Takuya followed Kouji into the other classroom.
"So, did you give it to him?" one of Izumi's friends asked her curiously. Izumi nodded and blushed. She took a spoonful of noodles into her mouth. She saw Kouji and Takuya at the door. 'Oh no...' she thought. She swallowed her noodles forcefully. "Hide me... please!" she whispered frantically. Her friends looked at the door and knew why. They stuffed her under the table.
"Have you seen Izumi?" Kouji asked a girl named Madison. "No... I don't remember seeing her. Go ask those guys over there." Madison pointed towards a group of boy's right next to Izumi's group.
"No... he's getting closer!" Izumi whispered. "Run fast, Izumi!" her friends said. Izumi calmly came out from under the table and ran past her friends.
Takuya saw Izumi from the corner of his eye. "Kouji, I saw Izumi. Wait here, she'll be too nervous to talk if you are there." Takuya reasoned out. He marched towards Izumi. "Hi Izumi." Takuya said. "H-hi." Izumi stuttered. "Did you happen to write Kouji a note on white paper with blue lines...?" Takuya began and at that moment, Kouji showed up. "And it looks like that?" Takuya finished. Izumi found this stupidly funny and giggled. "Well...?" Takuya asked impatiently. Izumi became nervous again. She conjured up all of her courage and said...
AN: MUAHAHAHAHA! The evil cliff-hanger! Stay tuned for the next chapter and find out if Izumi lies or tells the truth!
