CHAPTER 2: MY NAME IS…

Wa was born a rather blunt girl. She spoke her mind often and clearly.

When her preschool teacher refused to give her the extra star she thought she thoroughly deserved, Wa told him exactly how she felt about him. And while her teacher was quite surprised (and secretly impressed) by this little preschooler's arguments, he nevertheless gave her detention for embarrassing him in front of the class.

"No one likes a smart ass," one of her classmates said under his breath.

When her grandfather favoured his male grandchildren over the female, she accused him of being a chauvinist and ungrateful to the woman who gave birth to him. She would've continued with further accusations, had he not fallen to the ground, suffering from a heart attack.

"Guess no one has ever taught her manners," one of her aunties whispered to another, who added, "Or respect."

When her father gambled away their family's savings, she told her father how disappointed she was in him and how she wished she had a more decent man for a father. But that night, she saw her mother in the living room softly crying herself to sleep, muttering,

"Oh, I am such a bad mother."

Thus from a very young age, due to her unfortunately good hearing, Wa learnt not to speak her mind. Since keeping all her feelings bottled up was rather psychologically damaging, Wa then learnt not to think. Learning not to think turned out to be harder than she thought, so then she tried to be subtle. But all this time not thinking must have resulted in some permanent damage, and she became so subtle that even she couldn't tell whether she was trying to be subtle or not. Come to think of it, she wasn't even sure what subtle really meant anymore. Perhaps she had never really known in the first place.


Flashback…

April, Shohoku High School

It was the second day of the new school term.

The hallways were filled with the usual buzz of students chattering and giggling as they filed out of the classrooms and off to lunch.

However to Hiroyasu Keitami, the corridor was quiet.

She stood alone, head bent down, trapped in her own ghostly world. Forms flitted through the narrow space, but never stopped. And she just stood there, watching as the figures passed her, desperately seeking to connect…

And then HE appeared and changed her life.

She felt his presence first.

He felt tall…really tall…quite possibly a head or more than her.

At almost 170cm, Keitami was taller than most girls in her grade and indeed most guys, so this was quite a rare occurrence.

When Keitami turned to look at him, her heart stopped for a few seconds when she realised that apart from being tall, he was also really handsome…agonisingly handsome.

For standing before Keitami was quite possibly the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His straight raven black hair fell casually just above his eyes. He had high cheekbones and the most delicate and yet obviously masculine features. His startling blue eyes appeared to bore right into her soul even though he was looking elsewhere...

Unfamiliar feelings washed over her as she felt herself unable to look away. It appeared that everything, sight and sound, had just melted away, and there was just the two of them. Her heart was pounding at an impossible rate and her face was heating up as an unexplainable feeling of excitement bloomed within her. She didn't even realise that she was staring at his back…

"So perfect," she heard a familiar voice say, which was followed with a silent "oh crap" when she realised it was hers.

Then, without even time to recover from her own embarrassment, Keitami felt someone grab her arm and pull her towards them.

It was a girl.

She had short light brown hair and was half a head shorter than Keitami. The most anyone could say about her was 'cute'

Just like half the girls in the school.

In fact, there was probably nothing distinguishing about this stranger had her face not so strongly resembled a beetroot.

Keitami would've snickered had she not suspected that her face was a similar shade.

The short-haired girl softly nudged her in the waist, winked and said, "Tell me about it!"

Keitami felt her face redden even more.

Without warning, a second hand grabbed her other arm and she turned to face another girl.

'Oh great,' Keitami thought. 'Now the whole school knows…'

This girl was a little taller than the first, had two brown pigtails and bangs that appeared to be cut just a little too short.

"Is he also a sophomore like us?" the pigtailed girl asked Keitami and the short-haired girl.

"Oh, I'm not a sophomore!" Keitami exclaimed, before she blushed once again and muttered, "I'm only a first year."

The short-haired girl seemed particularly surprised by this new revelation.

"But you're so tall!"

The pigtailed girl merely shook her head lightly and gave Keitami a knowing look.

'Don't worry about her…' the look appeared to say.

Then the pigtailed girl's face brightened and she offered Keitami her hand.

"The name's Matsushita Kazuko and my friend over here is Yamamoto Rumiko." And then in a lower voice she added with a wink, "Always a pleasure meeting someone who shows the same tastes and interests as myself."

Keitami felt another blush coming when she took on the full meaning of Kazuko's last comment but managed to blurt out her name.

Brrrrriiing…

The morning class bell rang and Keitami was forced to depart from Kazuko and Rumiko. But before she left, Kazuko whispered in her ear, "Meet us at the gym at lunchtime. I heard Rukawa-kun is going to be there."

She winked again and walked arm in arm with her friend down the corridor, leaving Keitami alone once more.

Keitami puzzled over what had happened. She assumed Rukawa-kun was the boy that she had just spotted and that she was going to see him again with her new friends.

'Ahh…friends,' Keitami thought. 'I could get used to that word.'

And that was the day that the Rukawa brigade unofficially began.


Another flashback…

Not too long ago…

Three girls were huddled in a triangle in their pyjamas, whispering and giggling. The door was safely locked to keep unwelcome guests from hearing any secrets that might be traded during the sleepover party.

"Yeah, great idea Ka," Wa said in a rather deadpan tone.

"Of course," Ka said excitedly, failing to hear the hint of sarcasm in Wa's voice. "We'll be on the frontline to support Rukawa as he makes ALL his shots!"

"Remember the routine girls?"

"Uh huh," Ru and Wa nodded like twins.

The three rose from their spots and did a series of jumps and squeals.

"Rukawa! Rukawa! Love me, Love me Rukawa!" the three girls screeched with passion, before they all collapsed on the floor again, giggling with exhaustion.

"Great!"


"Oh my god, is she awake?" I heard a familiar female voice ask as I opened my tired eyes and the room came into focus. Everything looked so white, the place smelt like death and random memories were beginning to fade away again.

"Am I dead?" I asked, groggily.

"Of course not dearest Wa-chan! You're in hospital," Ka-chan came into view and she gently wrapped her arms around my shoulders. "We would never let anything like that happen to you."

"Even if it means fighting that scary baka," Ru added.

I raised an eyebrow. "You two attacked Sakuragi?"

"Yup," Ka-chan said proudly. "But it wasn't like we had much of a choice. You were getting squashed to death and he wasn't exactly budging in his out-of-it state. As president and vice president of the Rukawa brigade as well as official best friends of yours, we had to do something."

"Oh you guys," I said softly, quite moved by their loyalty and too tired to speak any louder.

"You looked so helpless under him, almost as bad as when we first saved you in the general hall when you were a first year," Ka continued. "You looked so sad, so directionless, so hopeless at that time as well. But when we saw you light up just a little when you saw Rukawa-kun, we realised that at least you had good taste…so we decided to rescue you."

'Oh my…' I thought.

"Oh, by the way Wa-chan," Ru said, looking embarrassed. "The doctor told us you can leave when you wake up, but you need to register at the reception area first. Ka-chan and I couldn't exactly do it for you cause we… umm… don't exactly remember your real name…"

Ka-chan immediately gave Ru-chan the evil eye. I was feeling equally embarrassed. The truth was, I couldn't really recall Ka-chan's and Ru-chan's real names either. When we had first established the Rukawa brigade, we had encouraged everyone to call us by the names Ru-chan, Ka-chan and Wa-chan respectively. Our parents and teachers originally dismissed this idea as ridiculous and just a phase that would eventually pass over. However, when it didn't, and we continued to correct them every time they called us by our real names, they finally relented just to shut us up.

"Why don't you two wait for me outside while I change," I said as I looked at the white cotton hospital gown I was wearing.

Ru-chan and Ka-chan were still arguing as they walked out.

"You can't be that direct with her!" Ka-chan was saying in a low tone.

"Well, what was I supposed to say?" Ru-chan retorted.

Ka-chan was just about to hiss something insulting to Ru-chan when suddenly, she turned towards me and flashed me a warm smile.

"Oh by the way Wa-chan, sorry about the plan. I suppose being on the frontline wasn't as effective as we hoped."

Then they both disappeared through the doorway. For a few moments, the sounds of their bickering lingered, until they gradually faded away.

I frowned.

My name is…

Hmmmm…

A gust of wind bellowed outside and appeared to be singing strange lyrics as it swept through the bony, leafless branches of the trees.

"Keitami," it appeared to whisper.

Keitami

Hmm…

My name is…

Hiroyasu Keitami.


Disclaimer: Most of the characters belong to Inoue-san, I just delve deeper into their character

Authoress' Note: Again, a huge thanks to all those who reviewed especially my lovely regular reviewers. I was so motivated this time that it didn't actually take months for me to produce another chapter. I suppose the fact that I am still in my uni break has something to do with it too. A gigantic thanks to my lovely beta readers iced T and Swifty for unsticking me during writers block and gradually teaching me to gain a respect for commas.

celestialmaiden: I'm not sure if she is the prettiest one to everyone, but if you are also referring to the tallest brigade member with really long hair, then yes

Yun Fei: Hehe…well when it comes to Sakuragi, nothing can be expected. He is always full of surprises. I cant really reveal how he knows what to do yet but hint it is semi-related to how he also managed to deal with Anzai having a heart attack quite well.

As to who the main character is, Its probably going to be Wa-chan for a while. Might shift to Sakuragi, or Rukawa. I think mainly Sakuragi-OC but I do want to explore Rukawa's character as well so possibly it would also be Rukawa-OC or a triangle? Which ones do you guys prefer?

I'm thinking of using a technique where I go behind the character's minds (just the mains ones) and the perspective changes in different chapters so we learn a little more about these characters. Do you think this might be interesting? Or too confusing?

Iced T: Ah yes…I miss voices…

momo: its coming out now dude :p