My father, your mother

New York, America…

"The first fatal accident this year happened at 12 midnight in London, two blocks from Trafalgar Square where the 1997 countdown took place…"

"Mum, it's Dad," said Rukawa Kioshi, his eyes glued to the television, as the camera zoomed in to show the face of the male victim, who looked exactly like his father.

Rukawa Haruko was also watching the television, and her mind went blank as she took in the scene. "Rubbish, it's not your Dad."

Kioshi took another look at the television. "No, it is. Look Mum. It's really Dad. Can't you recognise Dad?"

"Shut up! It's not him! Your Dad's supposed to be doing business in Hong Kong, how can he be in England?" Haruko refused to accept the possibility, or the fact, that her husband had died.

"But it's true. Look."

"This is not him!"

"Mum, what are you talking about? Look, we've got to go to London right now." Kioshi tried to persuade his mother.

Haruko shook her head. "This is not true and I'm not going!"

---

In a London police station, England…

"So, you're saying that the deceased gentleman is your father, but that the woman who was with him at the time of the tragedy is not your mother?"

"No," mumbled Kioshi, too lost in his own thoughts to be paying attention to the question.

"Hmm?" The man raised his eyebrows.

Kioshi looked up and realised his mistake. "Well, I mean… yes…"

The man took off his glasses. "So, who was she then?"

"She's my mother."

Both Kioshi and the man turned to look at the newcomer, a girl in her early twenties. She had shoulder-length brownish-black hair, and there was a tiny tattoo of a cherry blossom beside her right eye.

"Sir, this is the young lady from Japan" said the policeman who came in with her. She seated herself beside Kioshi.

"So, your father couldn't come either I suppose?" asked the man, taking from the policeman some documents.

"Yeah," she answered.

Kioshi was still looking at her. "Er, hi. I am his son, Rukawa Kioshi. Are you um… her daughter?"

The girl glanced at him. "Sendoh Kiori."

The man looked up from the documents and asked, "Are you two related in any way?"

Both Kioshi and Kiori rolled their eyes in frustration, and then she answered, "Listen. I don't know him, and he doesn't know me. Only my mother knew his father, and that's about it. You understand now? That's all."

The man looked at her. "They didn't just know each other, sweetheart." He paused for a while, before continuing, "We checked with the police in Japan, and were informed that they had a joint bank account in Japan, and a house there under both their names."

Their shoulders visibly slumped at the information. Kioshi shook his head, hoping against hope that it was all just a bad dream, and that he would be waking up soon. Meanwhile, the man handed them their respective parent's things recovered from the wreck. "Their personal belongings."

Kiori's eyes started to fill with tears. As she went through the items, she realised that some of them actually belonged to the other guy. Irritated, she threw the stuffs to Kioshi, one by one, without so much as a look at him. In response, Kioshi picked out her mother's things from among his father's and put it non-too-gently on the table in front of her. Then, they glared at each other.

The man cleared his throat to get their attentions. "You may take your respective parent's body home after the autopsy, or you can have the body cremated here in London. But it'll be a lot less complicated, and everybody will be a lot less miserable, if you have the bodies cremated here. It's up to you."

Although Kiori was already crying and Kioshi was staring into space, they had heard what the man had just said. Both opted to cremate the bodies in London, and so the cremation was done in a nearby church. After that, they took the first flight back to Japan. They needed to sell off the house, as there wouldn't be anyone living in it anymore. But most importantly, they needed to know about the relationship between their parents.

---

Kanagawa, Japan…

As soon as the plane from London had landed at the Kanagawa airport, Kiori quickly made her way to the entrance, trying to get as far away as possible from Kioshi, who was walking behind her. It was bad enough that they had taken the same plane back, she thought. She didn't want to get stuck with him any longer now that they're in Japan.

They took separate taxis, and she was about to go on her way, when she saw Kioshi struggling to tell his driver where he needed to go. The driver couldn't understand English, and Kioshi's Japanese was as fluent as a 3-year-old's, or even worse. As much as she disliked him, she felt that she couldn't leave him just like that, so she went back to help him.

"Move aside, and let me do the talking." Turning to the driver, she said, "The house is not far past Kanagawa University. Just before the Kainan Hospital, turn into a downhill road and go right up to the end. That's it." She turned to Kioshi. "You, remember to lock up. The house isn't yours, you know. God, you look so dumb. Remember to go to the lawyer's office at Takezato Building tomorrow. Do you know where it is? It's in Yokohama. Do you know where Yokohama is?"

"Look, I was born in Japan. I know where Yokohama is, ok?" Kioshi snapped, clearly annoyed at her.

"If you're born in Japan, then don't speak English. Show off," Kiori retorted, before walking back to her own taxi.

Kioshi got into his taxi and started mumbling to himself, "I hate that girl. I hate this city. I hate this whole damn thing. What the hell am I doing here anyway? That girl is just like this city, a bunch of flashes and inside nothing. Gotta get this thing done as soon as possible and get the hell out of here."

Finally reaching the house, he went in and began to explore. The house had a lot of glass windows; one side of the house which overlooked the sea was practically glass from top to bottom. It was not elegantly furnished, but it had a homey feeling to it, as if everything in the house belonged in it one way or another.

Among the decorations in the house was a model of a bridge, obviously done by his father. Besides that, there was also a model of a hand which was made out of clay, wind chimes, an aquarium, and lots of pictures pasted on the wall. Most of them, Kioshi observed, were pictures of his Dad and Kiori's mother during their younger days.

The house was rather untidy, so Kioshi decided to do a little cleaning. He found some old records, and put one into the record player. Rolling up his sleeves, he immediately got to work, cleaning out the aquarium first, as the strains of the song 'Try to Remember', sung by the Brothers Four, began to fill the air.

-Flashback-

20 years ago, at the University of Kanagawa, Japan…

It was orientation night for the first-years of KanagawaUniversity. As part of the orientation, the seniors had set up a challenge for the male students; to barge into the female's dormitory and grab their most prized procession, the gong. It seemed like an easy task, but not when the girls were throwing water bags at you and hosing you down with water. They barged in anyway, braving through the 'attacks', and although not a single person, boys and girls alike, was spared from being wet, everyone had a great time.

Among the boys, there was this one person in particular who was trying his very best to get to the gong. In fact, he was the first to barge in, and was practically unstoppable by anyone or anything. If it was a pail of water, he would grab it and dump the contents onto the other person; if it was a hose, he would snatch it and douse whoever that was blocking his way.

In no time at all, he was within reach of the gong, and finally, after much hand-wrestling, he had the gong in his hands and held it up. The guys started chanting 'Victory, victory' while the girls booed. Even then, the water attack never stopped.

One of the girls in particular continued drenching the guys with water from a hose, especially the one holding the gong. His back was turned towards her, and the shirt was torn, revealing a huge tattoo of Pokemon on the back. Naturally, she started laughing, and at that very moment, he turned around to face her.

And that was when Rukawa Kaede and Sakuragi Hanamichi met each other for the very first time, and fell in love at first sight.

-End of flashback-

Tbc...

---

Okay… so how was it? Anyway, some notes to be noted. The song 'Try to Remember'is supposed to be played in the background throughout the whole flashback scene. Another thing is, conversation written in italics means that it is in English, while conversation written in normal style is in Japanese. However, in future chapters, during flashbacks, it will be the other way round; italics for Japanese and normal for English. Lastly, please read and review. Ja!