"Areh, Sohma-san hasn't come back yet?" A surprise Tohru asked Yuki when she came out holding a pot of her special-made beef stew.
"Ie," he answered and immediately jumped up. "I'll help you take the other dishes, Honda-san," he offered.
"A, arigatou, Yuki-kun," she flushed. He smiled warmly.
"Do you think we should see if she is okay?" she asked to no one in particular, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"It would not be wise to do so, Tohru-kun," Shigure was folding his newspaper and staring at the pot of beef stew longingly. He reached out a spoon to taste and Yuki slapped his hand away.
"No tasting," he said coldly. Shigure put on his glistering puppy eyes, but it had long cease to affect him. It did have an effect on poor Tohru.
"Ee, it doesn't matter, Yuki-kun. As long as you like it—"
"Your cooking are fantastic, Honda-san. I think Shigure knows that already," he assured. He looked at the direction where Yuri went just now. She was a long time in the bathroom. Honda-san was already going into the kitchen ad I followed.
"Anou…Yuki-kun…"
"Hm?"
"…about what Sohma-san was saying just now…what does she mean actually?" She asked hestitately. She flushed and waved her hands at my expression. "EEE!! Gomenasai!! I didn't mean to intrude into your business!! But Sohma-san words were so weird so—" she couldn't go on and blushed even harder.
I put down the plate of dishes I was holding and braced myself on the table. "Ie, you can't blame yourself, Honda-san. Yuri-san's words are weird and always full of hidden meaning. You have to read between the lines." I said.
…and I wonder who spilled the beans about Rin and Hatsuharu's relationship…
My eyes narrowed. Even though it had been like this for years, he never gave much thought to it. If you did anything wrong in the eyes of Akito, you'll be summoned to his room. Many could guess what would happen in there. A shiver ran through me as the memories came running back…
I shook my head to clear it. Those are memories, and will forever be memories. Honda-san was looking at me with concern. I smiled and decided to tell her.
"Yuri-san went to boarding school at 12. Something happened between her and Rin that caused that. It was rumoured that Akito had something to do to." I sighed. Honda-san was listening intently to every word. Her serious face was so cute…I thought.
"Rin and Haru dated once. But they broke up now."
"EEEE???" She almost shrieked. I winced at the sound; though I was more or less used to it the same as Shigure's jokes.
"YURI-CHAN!! You're back from the banana-leaf-toilet!!" Shigure's cry sounded even in here. Honda-san stood with an awkward half-smile on her face which could have said, "Eh?" I sweated.
"Saa, we better get the dishes out." I took up two plates.
Honda-san jerked and took some dishes too.
Honda-san commented on my pale face when i came back. I smiled reassuringly at her, even if I didn't felt like smiling now. Yuki-kun said nothing while Shigure rambled on. They invited me for lunch, but my stomach felt like turning over now at the smell of food.
I gently declined their invitation, saying I need to be somewhere else. I did need it. I had to get away from all this. None of them protested, and I left with the promise of visiting again. Shigure offered to call a cab for me, but I said I had a handphone and somebody was expecting to pick me up anyway.
Taking out my handphone, I dialed the number of Father's phone.
"Tosan, I'm at Shigure's house now. Can you pick me up?"
Out in the window of my room, with my arms folded on the ledge, I surveyed the scene before me. Looks like somebody was coming back. I caught sight of the familiar flowing black hair girl coming out of the car. She stood and looked around. Her sweeping gaze passed me, then returned to me abruptly. From here I couldn't see her face very well, but I could see that she had suddenly became very still.
She hasn't forgotten that day, I smirked. All her visits back here were yearly, and she never once spoke to me. She kept a low profile and stayed out of my way. That was how it should be.
Her father spoke something to her, and she turned and followed him in. She never looked at me.
Laughing, I straightened from my position on the window and walked across the room. The weather today was perfect. It would be a waste to miss it.
"Saa, Yuri-chan, you're back."
I froze in my crying. The cold voice was unmistakable.
"Akito-sama…" I whispered, lifting my head up to stare at the dreaded form. He smiled down at me.
"How are you now, Yuri-chan? I trust that you are no longer a naughty girl?" he smirked. At his words my mouth tightened into a thin line. Oddly, instead of the fear that choked me everytime I saw him, irritation crept at the edge of my being.
"…Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue?" he laughed, and his thin form seem to shook with it. I said nothing. Disgust welled up inside me.
Akito is crazy. He's a pitiful sadist who hurts people for his own pleasure, I thought bitterly.
"Gomenasai, Akito-sama. But I think I have other things to do. I will excuse myself now." I stood up. Akito stopped laughing.
"Neh…Yuri-chan…" The soft voice that used to haunt my dreams, even after I went to boarding school stopped me in my tracks.
"You know the ending for naughty girls, don't you? They get punished…their toys get taken away and they're told to go to bed early…" his voice drawled. "Surely…you learn your lesson already? Surely….you haven't forgotten who I am?"
He was threatening me again. But I wasn't a Jyunishi. Akito did not have any control over me at all. I was to decide things for myself. Now, anger won over the stirring fear at the pit of stomach.
"I haven't forgotten, Akito-sama." I said coolly. My temples throbbed slightly, the rage building up.
Akito's laughter sounded in the background as I left the garden.
Behind the shoji doors not far away, a man whose bangs covered half his face closed his eyes.
The doors behind me shut with a snap as I stood there for a moment, the rage now coursing through my upper being. My head felt crowded with all the emotions now raging.
"…fucking bastard…you can never leave people's life alone, can't you? Fucking dammit…" Curses of every kind I knew spitted out of my mouth, all centered round Akito. The shoji doors were thin; I had to refrain from screaming it all out.
Minutes passed; my raging emotions gradually subsided and I calmed down. I laughed nervously. Never had I cursed somebody. To curse somebody, especially Akito, was unthinkable. What if somebody found out?
Both my hands came up to cover my face and I lay on the tatami mats, suddenly exhausted. A soft sigh came from my parted lips.
The thudding of footsteps outside my room. My eyes flickered to it briefly before I hastily got up, just as the shoji doors slide open once more. Momiji smiled down at me.
"Yuri-chan!! You're back early this year!!" He shouted joyfully, bounding into my room. I smiled back as he kneeled down before me, enthusiasm evident in his face.
"Hai, Momiji-kun." I wanted to continue, but I didn't know what to say, so I kept quiet. He did not seem to mind and bombard me with his excited talk.
"Nee, Yuri-chan, did you know, we have an outsider who knows our secret!! Her name is Honda Tohru and she is the nicest girl I have ever seen!! Everybody likes her, even Hatori-san!!"
"Oh?" Kagura said she was a nice girl, but I had no idea that she was this popular. My respect for her raised a level.
"Neh, have you meet her then? You must meet her!!" He tugged excitedly at my sleeve, and I laughed.
"I have already meet her, Momiji. I went to their house just now." I pointed to the small "X" shaped bandage above my eye. "Honda-san had kindly helped me to bandage it." I explained.
"Areh, Yuri-chan, what happened?" Beautiful brown eyes went as big as sauce pans as he stared at me.
"I knocked myself, that's all. Nothing serious." I said jokingly.
"...Sou…"
A low rumble, similar to the one Shigure made but considerably louder filled the room. I slowly look at my stomach, before grinning sheepishly at Momiji. It was way past my usual dinner time.
"Saa, you haven't eat yet?? Never mind," he pulled me by the arm up. "I know a good café where it serves the best lunch!! Come on!!" He slide the doors open again, pulling me behind. I felt my pockets for my purse.
"Haru-kun!!" I heard Momiji shouted. Looking up, I came face to face with the solemn ex-boyfriend of Rin. He showed no expression at seeing me. Weirdly, Haru was the one of the few who tell us apart by just a glance. It began a few years ago, when I came back from the summer holidays like today.
"Haru-kun, have you eaten lunch yet??" Momiji, still holding my arm asks. Haru looks at him a moment before answering.
"Ie." He said dully.
"Honto ni?? Saa, let's go to lunch then!!" With his free hand, he dragged Haru with him down the corridor.
"Ii deska?" I asked the expressionless Haru beside me. He grunted something in reply, not looking at me. I secretly wondered if he was mad at me, like Rin as the walls rushed past us.
"Tsugoi te!!" Exclaimed Momiji, licking the Pistachio flavour ice cream in his hand.
My fork dug into the spaghetti in front of me. Not bad, I thought as I chewed. Opposite, Haru took a bite from his burger he ordered.
The café Momiji took us was not far away from the Sohma Main House, just a few blocks away. A sign above it said, "Jazz Café". The walls were painted bright orange, with rounded yellow tables and red plastic chairs to match. Just as the name of the café suggested, jazz music sounded in the background.
I twisted my fork and ate the rolled spaghetti. The sauce got on to the side of my mouth, which Momiji pointed, laughing all the while.
"Yuri-chan, you eat like a baby!!" he cried. I hurriedly wiped it off with the paper napkin.
Haru watched it all silently, never joining in.
I tried to start a conversation with him. But being the poor communist, it didn't go so well.
"Haru, you just started 1st year in secondary school right?"
"Hm."
"Kagura said that you go to the same school with Yuki?"
"Hm."
"Did the Headmaster ask you why your hair is like that?"
"No."
"Oh." Slightly taken back, I kept quiet for a moment. "Did he ask you to change it then?"
"No."
"Do you still like playing football?"
"No." The last of the spaghetti vanished from my plate. Momiji was still licking his ice cream, looking at a family on a nearby table. I wiped my mouth on the napkin.
"Did you meet with any troubles at school with that hair?"
"……." A finger came up to his ear, and he twisted it rythmaticly. The burger was still in his hand, and I found that he had only eaten a few bites.
"You're such a nosey person."
My hand froze on the dirty napkin on the table.
"…Eh?" I asked, praying that his would-be reaction was just my imagination.
"...You ask too much questions. It's so troublesome to answer them all." The hand twisted one final round before it came out. "Why do you care so much about me anyway?" His head lifted; the look in his eyes chilled my blood. The gentle and soft-spoken Haru was gone, replaced by the wild, vicious look on his face.
"You care so much for strangers; more than your own sister. Why don't you stop poking your nose into other people's business and pay more attention to your own people??" The burger fell onto the floor; the plastic chair scraped the floor as Black Haru stood up, his hands on either side of the table. Momiji was staring at us stricken-faced, his ice cream forgotten.
"You left her when she needed you most." His voice deepened and got considerably louder as he raged on. "You ran into hiding at that stupid boarding school, when at here she was being kicked out of her own home by her parents. And still you have the nerve to act concern about me??"
I gripped the sides of my plastic chair; wide eyes fixed at his every movement. The impact of the words gradually sank in, and the familiar feeling of worthlessness and embaressment mounted high, piling over each other and overwhelming me. Tears prickled at the edge of my vision; it was happening again.
First Rin, now Haru. Everybody is disgusted at my patheticness. I blinked and one tear slide down. Why was I so pathetic?
"Haru…" I heard Momiji tentatively asked. The surrounding was oddly quiet now; all the heads were focused on us.
"What? You're crying?" In the midst of my tears, I saw vaguely the figure of Haru leaving his place. A hand grabbed my chin roughly; I flinched and was thrust up to meet Black Haru's face. The whites were dominating his two eyeballs, the pupils almost shrink to small purple dots.
"Don't you dare cry in front of me." He whispered. "Don't you dare. You didn't know how bitterly she cried that day. She was being kicked out by her own parents, and where were you? Ten thousand miles away, probably gossiping about the newest idol with your bunch of friends!!" He shouted.
Ie…I wasn't like that at all…I silently protested. …I wasn't like that AT ALL—
The brisk click-clack of high heel boots on the smooth floor sounded beside me. Water splashed on the side of Haru's face; because of the how close our faces were, half of the water splashed onto my face too. I gasped at the sudden cold liquid on my face and felt Haru let go of me.
Panting slightly, I wiped the excess water off. When I looked up, Haru was remaining still, the water still dripping off the edge of his face in rivulets. His eyes had the look of absolute surprise. And beside us, with the empty glass in her hand…
I never thought I would see the same face twice that day.
Ie: no
Tsugoi te: more or less means "This is incredible!"
Honto ni: really?
Ii deska?: Is this okay?
Tatami: a sort of mat that Japanese use to cover their floors
