Episode II:
Disclaimer: Aside from Hanamichi Sakuragi and Kaede Rukawa, there are two famous names mentioned in this chapter. I definitely have no right to own their names... but the way I used their names was not a very grave matter... so I hope for your consideration.
Note: From chapter 15, all scenes that came next are not dreams. Don't worry, I will tell it straight if it's a dream. I know I disappointed many of you for making Hanamichi alive, especially my sister, but I hope you would still give this fiction a chance. Having Hanamichi in the flesh would make the story more interesting. Trust me!
Hana-chan hit his cigarette stick and blew it off with a very straight smoke.
He was laid back on a leather couch with his feet relaxing over the table and his legs were widely separated.
Suddenly, a muscular caucasian man wearing nothing but a black cargo pants, perched beside the redheaded boy. The man's hair was long and tied at his back with a ponytail. He had a silver barbel pierced at the end of his left eyebrow, below his lower lip and in the bud of his right light-brown nipple.
The man placed his muscled arm around Hana-chan's shoulder and neared his nose on the boy's jaw to smell him lasciviously.
"Are you hot?" The man hoarsely whispered on his ear. The man was holding a bottle of beer on his left hand and that bottle seductively ran across the boy's long thigh.
Hana-chan was staring nowhere... as if he wasn't aware of the man's movements towards him. It's been a month since Carla left him and since then... Hana-chan's messed life went even more astray.
"Maybe we can have some excitement..." The man plunged his wet teeth on the boy's jaw and bit it softly.
"Hey! It's time for a pictorial!" A brunette tall man came with a camera on his hands. "Take your clothes off!"
Hana-chan's newfound pals that he met in a bar were non-highschool graduates and they earned a living through gay pornographies on the internet. There were five of them and they were all boys so they just had to suck each other to have something for survival.
Now that Hana-chan agreed to have pictorials with them, they became very certain that their internet site would be more successful with a new and younger look.
"Take off your clothes Hana." The man with a camera, Danny, came towards the boy and unzipped his pants.
When Hana-chan was fully naked, Danny prepared his camera and studied through the lens, the perfect angle to take a shot.
The caucasian man, Arthur, was also naked and he abruptly seized Hana-chan down there. Then the camera flashed.
"Good!" Danny remarked. "Another one."
Hana-chan's face didn't change from the start. He wore an emotionless face that was really hard to recognize.
Hanamichi stamped down his foot on the cemented ground of the airport. After several hours of crossing lands and seas, he was finally in Los Angeles, California.
He had hired a private investigator to research about Hana-chan's life in America and it shocked him to know what a terrible life his son was going through. Hanamichi planned to open a case to claim Hana-chan from Kaede and reach Los Angeles next month, but something really made him come there sooner than he expected.
The private investigator sent him a CD with the copies of Hana-chan's pornographies on the internet. Shock was a simple word to describe Hanamichi's initial reaction. He was close in falling to a coma from what he saw.
No. His son's life was going nowhere. A single day could ruin Hana-chan's life more, so Hanamichi dared not to waste a single second in saving his son's life. It was his responsibility that Hana-chan grew up as a delinquent kid.
When Hana-chan was still a little baby in Yohko's arms, Hanamichi dreamed about his life. Hana-chan would be very successful and a bright future awaits him.
But now, it seemed like it was all a dream not to come true... for Hana-chan had become a rebel kid who wastes his life in cigarettes, alcohol and pornographies.
Kaede stood still inside the elevator of one of the finest hotels in Los Angeles.
This afternoon, after his practice with the LA Lakers Team, he received a note from the gym's receptionist. The note absolutely caught his attention that he actually followed what the note ordered him.
It was a short note addressed to him and asking him to go to the penthouse restaurant of the said hotel at 8pm.
Below the note, a name was written and it was the name he haven't spoken for a long time.
Hanamichi Sakuragi.
It had been fourteen years, but Kaede still remembered Hanamichi's penmanship from each curve and each line.
Kaede's reason lacked. He couldn't explain how it could happen... what on earth made him trust the letter? All he knew was that he was there inside the elevator... heading towards the penthouse to meet the writer of the note who claimed to be Hanamichi.
Once that the elevator's door opened, Kaede's heart thumped faster and faster. It never beat as hard and as fast before... even when he had a game against Shaquille O'Neal or Jason Kidd.
He could hear his feet hitting the carpeted floor. The murmurs of the people around seemed to clog his ear. His eyes focused nowhere but to the magnificent double door of the penthouse restaurant.
The door was opened.
Circular tables filled the area and rich guests were perched on it. The dark velvety sky outside the vast glass windows added romance to the place.
"May I please know your name, sir?" The restaurant's male employee in a white formal polo, approached Kaede. Definitely, he knew Kaede Rukawa but it was an ethic in restaurant management to treat their guest with respect.
Before eating in the restaurant, there should be a reservation first, so the employee asked Kaede his name to check for any reservation made and the table number to be certain.
"Kaede Rukawa." He replied stoically.
"This way, sir." The employee directed Kaede towards a certain place. A huge curtain hang freely in one corner and the employee opened it a bit to let Kaede enter and then closed it once more.
It was a special room for guests who wanted to have privacy. Kaede was ansolutely aware of it.
The beauty of the night sky was totally revealing on the room. Lighted sky-blue candles filled the sides of the room and the circular table for illumination. And a very romantic slow tune was played.
Then, Kaede noticed a figure sat on the other end of the table with its head tilted down.
"Who are you?" Kaede queried. He stared closely as the figure tilted its head up and revealed a face that Kaede incessantly longed to see again.
Hanamichi looked at him straight and waited for him to speak.
Unfortunately, Kaede uttered no word, so they merely gazed upon each other's eyes.
//to//be//continued//