Disclaimer: Hmm...no, no and no. I do not own Groove Adventure Rave; it's characters and the series. Now, there's a short disclaimer...
Note: I have no notes...at least not yet...evil smile
Chapter 2
Haru woke up a few hours later, and upon the public addressing system of the ship, had heard that they will be docking in a few minutes. Remembering that his sister had prepared for him lunch, Haru took it from his bag and started to eat silently. He remembered Gale, a close resemblance to "Lucia", and looked back to offer him his food...
He was gone.
"Tch, he must have gone off while I slept..." Haru thought to himself as he lonely ate the few rice balls left.
"The food sure tastes bland without company..." He kept thinking, remembering the times when he ate with his family. They would always seem happy...
The door opened to reveal Gale holding a swig of sake on his arm. Based upon the mild blush in his cheeks, Haru would guess that he was already drunk...
"Gale! Have you gone drunk? It's dangerous to be in a ship in that condition!" Haru cautioned, a hint of panic and worry in his voice.
"Hmph! I am not drunk, thank you very much. I am very much sober." Gale regarded him with irritation as one would to a child, overly in need of attention.
"Oh...I...I thought you were...moosiwake arimasen..." Haru felt hurt, but nevertheless thought of it as his fault anyways. Gale just went by and rested on his bed again, still drinking from the container of sake.
A few moments passed by before the PA system of the ship announced that they have arrived. Haru slowly took his bag, Gale still indifferent of him.
"See you...I guess..."Haru looked at the blonde one last time before he closed the door and decided to walk across the corridor that would lead him down to ports of his new home.
"Hoowow..."
Haru was walking, wide-mouthed, as he slowly took in his surroundings. He only saw Japan in postcards and books, but it was different to be actually in it. Haru wasn't sure of where he is or where he was going; often looking at a piece of paper his father had given him. Their where two things written on it:
"Kuro no Take Daigaku" (literal translation would be "Black Bamboo College")
"Shiro Honya" (literal translation would also be "White Bookstore")
Upon further pacing, Haru had seen the university he was enrolled to. It really wasn't because the university was made of bamboo, but because the gardens were overflowing with every variety of bamboo that his school was named "Guree no Take Daigaku" or the Grey Bamboo University.
"Wow..." Haru managed to mouth out before tearing his eyes off the building. How he wanted to explore it now, but he knew he hasn't much time yet. Finding his boarding house, "Shiro Honya", was more urgent unless he wanted to sleep outside.
Haru hadn't actually quite figured out that the bookstore in front of him was going to be his next home. Luckily it was just a few blocks away from his new school, and he was fortunate enough to get a boarding house nearby.
"Konnichiwa..." Haru entered the cozy little shop, ringing the bell as he did. A few minutes later, a somewhat taller and buff man came and greeted him.
"Irrashaimase!" He beamed, and then stopped short, noticing the white hair. "A gaijin?"
Haru promptly replied, "Hai. Atashi kara Gallage Island desu, soshite, ore wa..."
"Ah. Sou desu ka! You must be Haru-san, ne?" The spiky-haired man cut in, walking from the counter to meet him.
"Hai. Were you expecting me?" Haru grinned nervously; the taller man somewhat intimidating him.
"Uhmm. Y'see, you're father just called in, wanted to check if you've arrived. It was nice that you've arrived safely. Otukaresama desita!" The man bowed gracefully.
"Well, I am kinda tired...Mr....." Haru bowed back and had not realized that the guy knew his name and he didn't know his.
"Ore wa Shuda. You can call me Shu or Shuda-kun." The man weaved his hands across his hair, fixing a few that had fallen into his face.
"Haa...arigato, Shuda-san." Haru bowed.
"Yare yare desu ne...don't confuse me with an older guy, Haru-kun. I'm just eighteen." Shuda had found it somewhat irritating, always being referred to as "the older man".
"Ahh, shichuree-shimashita." Haru bowed profusely, somewhat embarrassed.
"Maa, maa. It's okay. Here let me take you to your room..." Shuda just shook it off and took Haru's two bags in tow. Haru followed him towards the back of the bookstore.
Much to his shock, Shuda had led them towards the backdoor, and into a house, bigger in size and structure. He always thought he was gonna stay in a dingy, upstairs room of some old, moldy shop.
Shuda grinned at Haru's reaction. "Heh, the shop is just a cover. The actual house is here in the back, and no one can get inside but only through this door. This house is where gaijins like you who enter the university stay. Don't get me wrong that this is racial discrimination..." He grinned, seeing that Haru was about to retort to something he said.
"Actually, you're father was the original proprietor of this boarding house. Did'ya know that he had once stayed here to study?" Shuda was growing more amused at Haru's change in reaction all of a sudden.
"Honto ka? Yokatta desu ne..." Haru still marveled at the structure. "But, Shuda-kun, I thought you were the owner?"
"Me? Oh no! I'm working here and partly taking care of the place. No one actually owns this place. Only your father and his partner allow entry to this house. I'm just, one would say, "a caretaker"." Shuda began explaining.
"But are you not lonely here, Shuda-kun? And who is otosan's partner?" Haru looked at him with sad eyes.
"Lonely? I don't know about your context of "lonely"! "Shuda chuckled, impulsively running his hand briskly on his hair again." and actually, I don't know who his partner is." He regarded Haru with a favored eye.
"Sou ka..."
"Kyoo, we go and fix you up. Tomorrow, classes start ya know! C'mon Haru. You might want to see the inside of the house! Or do you want to stay here and cling by the wall?" Shuda took the bags he laid down and carried them up the entrance stairs. Then he opened the door, motioning for Haru to come in.
Haru's eyes widened.
"Sugoi! Sugoi desu ne!" Haru kept turning round and round, wanting to get a 360-degree view of the house.
Heck, it wasn't a boarding house. It looked more like a mini hotel. The spiral staircase that led to the second floor was casted with antique railings. The mini-chandelier sparkled gloriously over a table with four chairs and a table. A room on one side led to the kitchen and dinner table. And another led to a room with a piano, a canvass, a few other musical instruments and some paintings. Shuda climbed the stairs and motioned for Haru to see his room.
"Oh wow..." Haru couldn't believe his own room was this big. Roughly larger than his own room, it came complete with a double sized bed, a study table, a cabinet, it's own carpeting, a connection to the bathroom, and a window which led to a porch outside. A computer sat idly in the side of the table as well.
"Breakfast, lunch and dinner are at 8:00, 12:00 and 7:00 respectively. You may use anything around here. There are five bedrooms all in all. You, me, and two guys you will later meet already occupy four of which. The other one is sleeping right now, seemingly he just arrived a few hours before you." Shuda smiled at him.
"Eeto...I don't think even I can afford all of this..." Haru suddenly looked worried. Even if his father was part owner of this place, he couldn't bare being just the burden of others.
"Glad you brought that up, we have shifts in here to take turns managing the bookshop down below. There's no worry financially, because the bookshop almost shoulders all of the expenses." Shuda started to leave. "Just tell me when your free time is so we can set a schedule."
"Arigato, Shuda-kun. I'll come down later." Haru bowed as Shuda waved a lazy hand at him. He almost seemed like a nice guy to look at.
Haru unpacked his bags and fixed the room according to his preference. It took him almost all day, but he did it nevertheless. Tired and sweaty afterwards, Haru decided to take a bath.
The youth lazily dumped his clothing in the laundry basket, and closed the door afterwards. Laying his bare body onto the king-sized hot water tub elicited a few moans from him, the water so comforting. It was also convenient as the tub came with a bath pillow, and Haru closed his eyes, smelling the scents of the bath oil and soap mingling with the steam of the room...
A few minutes later, the steam began to grow thick. Haru didn't mind, still in the state of half-sleep. He was starting to almost fall asleep, not noticing the gentle rippling and splash of water across him.
Moving his foot to a better position, it gently brushed against something "strong". Haru knew it wasn't soap or porcelain. Waving a hand to brush the steam wafting in front of him, Haru almost squeaked in shock at the person in the other side of the tub, the other youth also shocked, but his was laced in irritation and hidden anger.
"YOU!!!" Both had finally spoken up after a few minutes of silence...
Shuda was still confused, one at Haru, fully clothed, who was blushing furiously yet his face contorted in anger. And the other at Gale, who was lazily sitting by the chair, a towel wrapped around his waist, head snapped to the side, face in anger and annoyance at well.
"I trust you two know each other?" Shuda started to ask the both of them. Haru still stared angrily at his lap, neither recognizing Shuda's question or Gale's indifference.
"Hmph, we met at the ship we rode on already. As if that wasn't enough, he was trying to harass me in the bath tub!" Gale glared balefully at Haru.
"Am not! You over-grown ecchi! You're the one who barged on me while I was taking a bath!" Haru defended back.
"At least you should have locked the door! Any person can get in you know!" Gale still didn't face him.
"Only an ecchi yaoi hentai would go inside a bathroom without knocking first!" Haru's face flushed with red.
"Oh, I doubt that! I do think you left the door unlocked on purpose!"
"Yoku dekimasu nee?" Haru sarcastically drolled.
"At what?" Gale snapped his eyes at Haru.
"At making other people's lives miserable."
"I think that role fits you, Haru Glory!"
Haru was taken aback, this time by Gale. The fire in his eyes seemed to be one that was fueled a long time ago, and it seemed that Gale did mean what he said. Haru chose to be silent this time, his suspicions that Gale and Lucia were at least, related in some way. Gale snapped his face away from Haru this time.
Shuda muttered something about teenage hormones, and decided if the two wouldn't reconcile, then they would just have to find another house to stay into. Haru resolved it would be a bad situation for his father to find out he was thrown out of the house and heavily brought his hands to shake Gale's, who also was very much annoyed at Shuda for "going into other people's business".
"Tadaima!" The door opened to allow a black, spiky-haired teen to get in. Shuda left both of them to greet the newcomer.
"Okairi!" Shuda happily greeted, and Haru wouldn't have made second thoughts that Shuda was acting like a giggly high school boy.
"Aiya, Shu-chan!" The boy dropped his bag and sauntered forward to Shuda. Haru noticed that he wore metal piercings, three of them, above his left eyebrow. His hair, spiky enough, did not match Shuda's and dropped neatly onto his forehead. He was wearing an overcoat over his own shirt and had white pants and leather boots on his get up. A necklace, with a silver skull hung lazily at his neck. Haru could swear that guy was just a few inches taller than him.
Shu-chan?!?!
A few moments later, Gale and Haru's eyes twitched at what the two did and front of them.
Shuda and the boy made out in front of them, and the boy was enjoying most of it. Their kiss was so deep; Haru swore that both had forgotten he and Gale were there, watching everything they did. The smaller boy playfully nipped at Shuda's lower lip before Shuda took him later on.
A few minutes later, both finally relinquished the other as each of them were finally satiated of the other. Shuda grinned at both of them, still standing wide-mouthed at what they have seen.
"Uhm, this is Hamrio Musica. He was a boarder here last year and is still studying. At least, now you know Haru what the answer to your question was about me being "lonely"?" Shuda chuckled even more, even as the other nudged playfully at Shuda's neck.
"Hmm, you must be Haru-san, yes?" Musica finally took off from Shuda to gaze closer at Haru, almost examining him.
"H...h...Hai..." Haru stuttered, as Musica's face grew closer and closer.
"Kawaii..."
Without warning, Musica took Haru from his lips. Haru's eyes grew wide as he realized that a boy was kissing him!
But why...
Why can't he push him away? Why doesn't he tell him to stop?
Why doesn't he feel disgusted?
When Musica finally released Haru's lips, Haru was still breathless, regarding Musica with wonder, as well as Shuda. One last look at Gale, who kept staring at anything aside from him, set him off.
Haru fainted right on spot, a small breath passing his lips before falling to the floor.
"Haru-kun? Daijobu ka?" A small worried voice, kept lingering on his head. A headache shot through his head, jolting him from his reverie.
"Itai, itai, itai! Doko wa..." Haru mumbled, holding his hand to the part of his head that hurt the most. He was still seeing things in blurred vision.
"Yokatta na! It's good you got over it..." Musica breathed out.
"Huh...na...na...nani?!?!" Haru, growing purple, realized that he was lying on his bed...
Without his clothes.
"Musica-san! Did you...did you..." Haru was too shocked, frequently checking under the cover of his blanket on why he was bare-naked.
"Aho!" Musica slapped Haru's head as the youth rubbed it in, feeling that part of his head paining again. "Of course not! Right after you fainted, Shuda was the one who brought you here. I only came here to check on you up."
Right...
"Haru-kun? What happened to you? After I shook your hand, you grew clammy and dropped dead on the floor..." Musica started explaining, wringing out a washcloth from the basin of cold water and applying it on Haru's head.
"Haaa? I...I thought you kissed me! And you and Shuda-san were making it out as well!" Haru got confused this time, why his side of the story won't coincide with Musica's.
"Now, you're being silly Haru-kun." Shuda shook his head in exasperation at the doorway. "I think the reason why you fainted was because you hyperventilated. You took a hot bath, as I suspected, and you never finished it with a cold shower. I think that would be the sanest reason why you dropped cold on the floor."
"We only took your clothes off because the heat might have gone to your head." Musica emphasized, pointing at his cranium.
"Sou ka...I was hallucinating then...Ahh...gomen nasai..." Haru bowed, blushing furiously at both of them. It must have been pretty insulting for both of them that Haru was insinuating that they were homo or something.
"Ah, forget it. I brought you your dinner, Gale is also taking his food at his own room." Shuda brought in a tray of food.
"Anou...Shuda-san...did Gale and I...quarrel or something?" Haru peeked from his spikes of hair.
"Uhm..." Shuda was trying to ignore Haru's question, until Musica cut in.
"I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt him or something, Haru-kun." Musica looked away." But based on what Shuda-san had said to me, he must have been hit really bad by what you said to him earlier..."
"That's just me...I always manage to screw up everything..."
Musica and Shuda looked up to Haru, who was conveniently hiding his eyes beneath his hair again, tears slowly flowing in his cheeks.
"Anou...Haru-kun..." Musica tried to reach to him, until Shuda took his arm.
"Haru, you're here in Japan now. Whatever your past was cannot reach you here. Try to live a life different from what you hated or liked. Be the person you wish to be in here. We're here to understand you, don't you forget that." Shuda slowly stood up, dragging the reluctant Musica from his bed.
"Eat your dinner, and just leave the tray by the side of the bed. I'll come by to pick it up later. Oyasumi, Haru-kun..." Shuda gently eased the door shut.
"Shuda-san..." Haru raised his head, Shuda waiting to here what he wanted to say.
"Arigato...soshite oyasumi nasai..."
Shuda gave a gentle nod as he finally closed the door. Haru took a few bites of food, yet had lost his appetite. He knew...that his nightmare will haunt him again...
Whatever your past was cannot reach you here. Try to live a life different from what you hated or liked. Be the person you wish to be in here. We're here to understand you, don't you forget that.
Haru eased a gentle smile at what Shuda had said. It gave him comfort to sleep peacefully that night.
Oyasumi...
Meep! Chapter 2 is done!
And I wanted to clarify things here, since all in all they are in Japan, I was gonna add some vocabulary. Not to get confused, here are the words I used in here. And they say you don't learn anything from reading fan fiction! Hah!
Konnichiwa – a standard greeting but literally means "good afternoon". It can be used at anytime of the day.
Moosiwake arimasen - not commonly heard but literally means "forgive me". The more casual term would be gomen nasai or simply gomen.
Irrashaimase – "welcome"
Gaijin – the other term for "foreigner"
Atashi kara Gallage Island desu, soshite, ore wa... - "I'm from Gallage Island, and, I am..."
Sou desu ka – "Is that so"
Otukaresama desita – "You must be tired"
-kun – a term used by males to establish familiarity.
Sichuree shimashita – "Excuse me [for what I did/said]"
Maa...maa – "relax"
Honto ka? Yokatta desu ne! – "Are you sure? That's great/wonderful!"
Kyoo – "today"
Sou ka – "I see"
Sugoi desu ne! – Can mean either "It's great" or "It's terrible" It all depends on context. Which means sarcasm is useless here.
Eeto – it goes the same with "anou". It is very much close to the expression "Uhhh/ uhmm/ ahhh" where the speaker can't get his first words right. It could also mean he doesn't know how best to put it to words.
Yoku dekimasu nee? – "You're good at that, aren't you?"
Tadaima! – "I'm back!"
Okairi [nasai] – "Welcome back"
-chan – a term of endearment attached to a name to signify great familiarity. Using this otherwise on persons not close to you can be somewhat an insult, depending on the situation. (try saying this to your Japanese teacher, which you two aren't that close, and I doubt he won't screw you up.)
Daijobu ka? – "Are you okay?"
Itai, itai, itai... - "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"
Yokatta na! - "That's good!"
Soshite – "and"
Doko wa... – "where [am I]..."
If any of you found errors in my Japanese, please feel free to correct me. Although I assert that what I used is appropriate and right, it would be best if someone, who actually speaks the language, came up and tells me if something is wrong.
Hooray for me if there is none. Tee hee...
Go! Go to Chapter 3! Before Musica fans start tearing me apart on why of all people was it that it was Shuda I paired him up with.
Hey, wasn't that just a delusion?!?! I thought Haru was just hallucinating? ;
