Chapter 4 Unexpected Reunion
"EEEE???" the girl cries, excited.
"Hajimemashite! Watashi was Honda Tohru des!"
"Aa, hajimemashite!" Honda Tohru? Ah, now I remember! Kagura mentioned in her letters...the girl who knew the Sohma family secret...
"...Sumimasen, Sohma-san? Anou...you really do look like Rin.." She smiled up at me.
"Aa, arigatou neh," I heard that countless of times before. In fact, that was one of the reasons Kaa-san sent me to boarding school. We looked so alike people often mistook us for each other.
"Ja, shall we go home then?" I noticed his gaze was directed at Honda-san. I felt the sinking feeling of being left out in my stomach, like a total stranger in their midst...wait...I am a stranger...
Maybe I could use that as an excuse to decline her offer...to chase after Rin...
"Hai! Shall we go then?" She turned to me, features expecting.
I blinked; beside me, Yuki did the same. Obviously he did not expect this. She did not seem to have forgotten her offer just now then...I mentally sighed. But still a part of me wanted to decline the offer and chased Rin...
"Neh, your bleeding, Yuri-san," Yuki pointed to my eye. Once again, it proved to be the centre of attention, I thought sarcastically.
"Maybe you should come with us. It'll leave a scar if you don't tend it properly." He said calmly, giving a small smile.
Honda-san, if even, beamed even wider and repeated her offer.
"Neh, shall we go then?"
With the two of them, I couldn't turn down their offer this time.
Honda-san told me the whole thing during our journey home. I chuckled silently to myself when I heard the part how she had knocked Yuri-san with the door.
Aah, Honda-san can be a bit clumsy at times...I cupped my hands to my mouth as giggles broke out, remembering the time when Honda-san had missed the ball during a ping-pong match with Kyo.
"Tadaima, Shigure-san!" Honda-san opened the gate and announced. Shigure looked up from his newspapers, his spectacles giving him a somewhat grown-up look.
"Ah, Okaerinasai, Honda-san, Yuki-kun—" he stopped, spotting Yuri-san behind me. His eyes widened slightly with surprise, but his fake warmth immediately sprang into action.
"Aah, Yuri-san, you're back! So soon!" He cried ethuasiclly. I stepped coolly past Yuri-san and went upstairs to my room to change. Honda-san disappeared into the kitchen with the promise of a First Aid kit. That is, if she could find it in the endless depths of the Sohma cupboards that were filled with goodness-knows-what. I snorted.
Looks like she found it, I observed when I came down.
Yuri-san was sitting on the seat beside Shigure-san, who had taken back his fake warmth and was now reading his newspapers again.
I took my place opposite of Yuri-san and watched.
They chatted while Honda-san expertly dressed the wound. Honda-san would never cease to surprise me, I smiled.
"Sou da ne," Yuri-san agreed to something Shigure said. Suddenly she paused and looked out of the window.
"Shigure-san..." she said.
"Hm?"
"...how is Rin's condition now?"
Everybody paused in their work. I look at Yuri-san. Honda-san who was in the middle of closing the kit stopped and looked at Yuri-san. Shigure was blinked, then laughed.
"Ya ah!" He scratched his head. "You are her sister after all. So you heard what happened? According to Ha-chan, she was out of hospital a few days ago."
An awkward silence ensured. I said nothing but stared at my hands on the table. Rin was at the Sohma House Resort too. She was hiding and threatened Honda-san and me not to tell anyone else.
"Sou..." she said slowly.
"...and I wonder who spilled the beans about Rin and Hatsuharu's relationship..." she finished softly.
Nobody spoke after those few words. I tensed in my seat, realizing the hidden meaning in her words.
Honda-san stared blankly at us, as if we all had started speaking gibberish.
Shigure dropped his funny stance and regarded Yuri-san. Her eyes never left their position on the window. The air was tense in the room.
"Saa..." Shigure scratched his head again, closing his eyes.
"...who knows?"
Yuri-san turned and narrowed her eyes at Shigure.
Minutes of tensed silence dragged on. Honda-san was frozen in her posture, brown eyes wide and questioning.
Yuri-san looked out of the window again.
A rumbling broke the web of silence in the room. The sound was coming from Shigure's stomach.
Shigure blinked before bursting out giggling. He patted his stomach and addressed Honda-san, who jerked free from her posture.
"Tohru-kun," he smiled widely. "Would you mind making dinner? It may seem rude but my stomach insists on it." He patted his stomach again and scolded: "Bad stomach! Bad stomach!"
I sweatdropped. Trust Shigure to break the mood.
Well, at least the tension is broken. Honda-san flustered at Shigure's words and bounded off to the kitchen. Shigure picked up his newspapers again and began to read, ignoring Yuri-san, who had not move at all.
There was nothing I could do. Just as I was about to get up to the kitchen to assist Honda-san, Yuri-san said: "Is there a bathroom here?" and stood up. Her expression seemed somewhat shocked, which brought me to think that she might have regretted her last words.
Shigure looked up for a moment.
"Yuri-chan!!" he suddenly exclaimed, puppy eyes wide and teary. "How could you!!"
Stunned by the sudden change in expression, she blinked and uttered out: "Huh?"
"How could you think we do not have a bathroom!!??" He pouted. Yuri arched an eyebrow and was about to say something when he continued.
"Do you we live in the Stone Age?? Where people do their business on banana leaves!!??" he exclaimed in mock horror. I snorted.
Yuri seem to be at a lost of words. Shigure decided to take advantage of it.
"Maah," he put a finger to his chin. "I guess living in the Stone Age wouldn't be that bad." His brow furrowed in concentration, which was obviously faked. "Hmmm....imagine Yuki-kun running around with only leaves to cover—"
I immediately towered over Shigure menacingly, who suddenly had shrinked to the size of an ant. Purple eyes glinting, a vein twitched in my forehead.
"I'm sure Yuri-san would appreciate you answering her question without any nonsense," I said coldly. Shigure sniff and turn to Yuri-san.
"The left after the front door," sobbed Shigure.
Yuri turned was out of the room in a flash. Judging by her movements, she seem to be in a hurry. Woman's problems??
Sighing, I got up to the kitchen.
I raced out of Shigure's house only to find myself in front a maze of bushes and trails. Right...the living room window was on the right side of door...where I had seen Rin...
I turned right and ran into the forest. Branches and leaves scraped my face occasionally; I brushed them away impatiently and trudged on. I followed the outline of the house and reached the living room in no time. Dodging behind some high-grown bushes I crawled on all fours to pass by unnoticed. I reached a tree and peeped out from it. Yuki-kun was asking Shigure-san something. Honda-san was presumably in the kitchen making lunch. Good. They hadn't notice me.
I slip away from the tree and continued on again. If I wasn't mistaken, Rin ran this way when I saw her at the window...I made my way through the tangles of massive tree roots. She couldn't have gone far...even if she was the Horse in the 12 Zodiac...
Soon, I came to a clearing. Grass covered most of the place, with a pile of flat rocks at the end of it. Tall trees edged around the grass-covered clearing.
I gasped softly. Rin, her raven black hair billowing in the wind, was sitting on one of the flat rocks. Her back was turned to me.
I advanced forward. I had only taken a few steps when Rin noticed my presence. She swiveled her head and intense black eyes narrowed. She didn't moved. I continue forward.
I stopped a few paces before her.
"...What do you want?" After all these years without talking, Rin shot the question at me.
"I came back to see you." I stated simply.
