True or False
Part 2: Akari
By: Snakey
Extra Symbols:#: This is something I put after a sentence that you may not understand due to Japanese traditions, so please see author's notes if you don't understand a sentence with a on it.
I finally invited Hikaru to our go club today. It's been awhile since I saw him. We just happened to bump into each other on the train yesterday, and our conversation slowly lead to me inviting him to our go club. Hikaru had agreed happily, and told me how he missed being in a go club. He reached into his pocket, and drew out a pen and a receipt. He drew a map on the receipt, and told me he'd meet me at a café not far from my school. I was so excited then.
"Don't be late, Akari, or I'll be screaming at you right in front of your Go club members!" He laughed, and stood up since he reached his destination. Of course, that destination was the station near the Go Institute. I may not go there as much as Hikaru, but I recognized it from seeing Hikaru leaving at this station too often.
I couldn't wait till tomorrow. I could finally introduce him to my new friends at the Go Club, and I'm sure he'd enjoy being at a Go Club again. Tomorrow is going to be a great day! At least, that was what I had been thinking before. But when I was off the train and walking home, I started to have second thoughts. Was it really a good idea? Would it be a burden to him? His career's already about Go… would it be too much Go to handle? He must be quite busy with shidougo clients and Go events… should I really drag him to more? Would it stress him out? All these thoughts started rushing at me like a tidal wave. Stupid stupid stupid… Hikaru loves Go. It is his life, and he loves it. How could more of what you love hurt?
"Go is his life…" I said it out loud this time and stopped. Hikaru's life was Go, and nothing but Go. His friends all relate to Go too. Am I still his friend? I know how to play Go, but not at the level of him and his friends. I didn't see him very often either. Why am I thinking like this? I'm Hikaru's childhood friend; of course I mean something to him! I shook my head to rid the ridiculous thoughts from my mind. I moved forward to continue my way home.
That night, I couldn't sleep at all. It was very unlike me, since I often fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. It was a busy day too, so I should have been really tired. But I wasn't. Why can't I sleep? I tossed around, but gave up after awhile. It only made me more awake. Since I couldn't sleep at all, I decided to just stare at the ceiling until sleep eventually hits me. But that only made me think back to what happened today. Am I too excited about Hikaru coming to my school's Go club? Well, I am excited, but that shouldn't cause me to not be able to sleep… After thinking that, I remembered what I thought about on my way home. Go was Hikaru. There was nothing more important to him than his Go. If I don't even understand Hikaru's Go, would I even understand Hikaru?
So much for waiting for sleep. I was completely awake now, and aware of the thought that just occurred to me. I sat up so I'd be able to think more clearly. I've always known that I would never be able to understand Go as well as Hikaru. He was a genius in that game. But I didn't care, since I knew I would always be his friend. But ever since he graduated and we went our separate ways, I felt like a gap opened up between us. We hadn't exactly lost contact with each other, but I could no longer understand him. Why couldn't I understand him? Oh right, because he's a complete genius in Go and I just play it for fun. We were in completely different worlds.
I wanted to stop thinking. I wanted to stop spotting these differences between Hikaru and me. I wanted to close my eyes, drift off to sleep, and just wipe out all thought. Thankfully, God had been merciful, and gave me my wish.
I felt much more energetic the next morning. No thoughts of not knowing about Hikaru at all. Only thoughts about him were how I was excited he'd be at the club today. I woke up, stretched out my arms and legs, and started my daily morning routine. When I went downstairs for breakfast, and greeted my parents as well as my older sister. My father had already started eating, and was watching the morning news on TV. My mother was pouring out tea for him while his eyes were fixed on the screen. My sister had huge eye bags, which meant university was getting to be too much for her. I looked out the window after announcing that I'm going to eat my breakfast. I dug in and looked outside. It was a sunny day, with the sun shining brightly. It was a little unusual, since it was nearing the end of April. But, I couldn't wait for Golden Week.# Ever since I went on to high school, I've been overly busy with school work and extracurricular activities.# When Golden Week comes, I'll finally be able to take a break from school. Maybe I get Hikaru out of the house to hang out with me during Golden Week…My face felt a little heated. I continued to eat while covering my blush from my family.When I finished, I grabbed my schoolbag and left the house.
I greeted my classmates when I reached my homeroom, including Mitani-kun. He is the only one I know from Haze's Go club that goes to the same school as me, and even sits behind me in homeroom. I was able to make Mitani join the Go club with me, but he said he'd only participate when he felt like it. Of course, the Go club in this high school had a lot more members compared to Haze, but I still wanted Mitani to join with me. I needed someone I knew from before to see if I was improving in Go.
The bell rang, signaling that class had started. I bowed and sat down at my desk. My homeroom teacher was a middle aged woman called Yamamoto-sensei. She had started her lecture, but I wasn't listening. I was staring at outside at the sunny morning. It was so relaxing to look at it like that… And I drifted off.
Hmm…? I woke up and looked around me. I was in the old science lab at Haze where we met for the Go club. Why am I in Haze…? This must be a dream…I noticed I was wearing my old Haze uniform too. It's only been a little less than a year since I graduated, but I still miss Haze Juu. I stared at the room blankly, recalling my memories of the Haze Go club. Hikaru dragged me into this club… if it wasn't for his sudden interest in Go I never would've experienced so much in junior high. I'm much better than I was when I started Go in my freshmen year. Hikaru is too. He improved so much that it was beyond imagination. From the boy who was only good enough for third to the Go professional that is feared by even the highest ranked players.Hikaru… He changed so much in our days as Haze students. That's right, he changed during junior high. He matured, and became a Go professional. He was almost another person to me now. I probably won't understand him anymore…
And there were those thoughts again. Thoughts about Hikaru. Thoughts about how I thought of Hikaru. Thoughts about how I'd never understand Hikaru again. Why am I thinking like this? Hikaru won't forget me! I'm still an important part of his life…right? The conjecture I made last night proved my statement to be completely wrong. Hikaru's life was Go. Everything related to Go was important to him. I barely had anything to do with Go, which meant I was unimportant… I was unimportant to Hikaru…?
"…saki…Fujisaki… Oi…Fujisaki…"
This time I woke up for real. I groaned a bit as I got up. I guess I was sleepy after since I didn't get a lot of rest last night. I looked to see who had been calling me. I had been expecting Yamamoto-sensei to be fixing me a glare for sleeping in class. But instead, it was only Mitani poking me with his pencil.
"Fujisaki, you really shouldn't sleep in class… Yamamoto-sensei has good aim with throwing chalk, remember?" Mitani whispered, his statement forcing a giggle out of me. It sounded a bit like what the Hikaru I knew would say.
Unfortunately, my giggle was a little loud and Yamamoto-sensei heard me. "What's so funny, Fujisaki?" The classes attention was turned to me now.
"Oh! It's nothing! I just giggled at something Hikaru said!" I blushed in embarrassment. The class got even more confused at the situation. Mitani had his eyes wide too. Did I say something wrong…?
"Fujisaki, who is Hikaru?" Yamamoto-sensei raised an eyebrow. Eh? Hikaru? How'd she know about Hikaru?
"EH?" I voiced my thoughts this time.
"Fujisaki… you just said 'I just giggled at something Hikaru said'…" Mitani whispered to me again. Realizing what I just did, my face grew even redder in embarrassment. I thought about Hikaru so much that I even said his name out by accident!
"Oh! Nevermind! I didn't mean Hikaru, I meant Mitani! He just said something after he woke me up just now!" My waved my hands in front of my face frantically to clear things up. Mitani nearly smacked his head down onto his desk. Did I mess up again…?
"Oh, I'm so sorry to have bored you to sleep, Fujisaki. I think after school duties will wake you up, don't you?" Yamamoto-sensei gave me a fake smile, and I realized yet another mistake on my part, and it cost me this time.
I stayed in after school as I had been told to. I started to wipe the boards with a wet washcloth and sighed. Why did I have to think about Hikaru so much? I even have a Go club meeting to attend to today! Then, I remembered something. I was supposed to meet Hikaru at the café to take him to the club! Since remembering, I rushed through all my duties and then left as soon as I could. I dashed to the café according to Hikaru's directions. I was already thirty minutes late. And since I was meeting Hikaru, he might've already left with his limited patience.
The café was in view now, and through its windows, I surprised myself by finding Hikaru still sitting in his seat, not looking mad at all. A little closer and I found out why he didn't look mad. He was in a conversation with his rival, Touya Akira. I was slightly more relieved and thankful to know Touya-kun had kept Hikaru company, but when Hikaru saw me heading for the café madly, his expression changed into a slightly angry one. He wasn't in a good mood at all, he just forgot about me when he was talking with Touya-kun.
I rushed into the café and said with the last of my breath, "Hi-Hikaru! I'm… so sorry that I'm half an hour late!" Then, I knew I add to tell him my reason for being late. I couldn't exactly say I had to stay after school for thinking of him too much and blurting out his name, now could I? I had to think of something else that would allow me to avoid that topic completely. "I didn't know I was supposed to stay behind today to clean up the class…" Good enough, I guess. It wasn't all a lie too. I really didn't know I had to stay behind to clean up. And I'm sure Hikaru won't ask why I had to stay after school, since he'll just assume I was the class monitor for the day.
"Actually, you're forty minutes late, Akari. And if you were going to be late, you could have at least called me on my cell phone." He took out his cell phone and held it at me. He had a cell phone?
"You're always late too! And when did you get a cell phone? You never told me! Baka!" I was still breathing heavily, but I just had to yell at him for never telling me about his cell phone. How could he not have told me! Boys…
"Sorry, Akari… I thought I already told you about my new cell phone… I mean… Even Touya knew! I never even thought that I'd forget to tell you!" I winced from what he said. He had forgotten me.
As a cover up, I turned to Touya-kun instead. "Ah… Sorry Touya-kun… I didn't even realize you were here…" I apologized for ignoring him. "Did Hikaru drag you along with him?" Then I turned back to Hikaru and looked at him unhappily. Why did he forget me…?
As a punishment for being late, I was to treat Hikaru to a meal. But when he invited Touya-kun too, I was a bit worried about my wallet. Also, it would me I couldn't be alone with Hikaru and possibly ask him how he could have forgotten me, or even other Hikaru-related topics that have been on my mind lately. But, he remembered to give me his cell phone number when we left the café, so I decided not to push him on the forgetting me topic.
We were going to get some ramen, and the heat was just deadly. I was sweating from head to toe, and Hikaru was complaining as he suffered from the heat. Touya-kun, however, looked perfectly composed in his school uniform. Hikaru seemed to be scanning him as well. "Oh right, you still go to school, Touya. How can you still go when you already have a stable job for a living?" Touya-kun frowned at him.
"Shindo, it's true that we are go professionals at a young age, but it doesn't give us a right to stop education. I would like to have something else to use in the future aside from go." Until now, I never knew just how talented Touya Akira was, to be able to put up with both Go and education. I wonder if he did well in education too?
"I-Isn't it hard to keep up at school though, Touya-kun?" I asked strictly out of curiosity.
"Not really, I plan my schedule for everything I do in the day, so I make time for both school and Go." I wish I could do that…But I wasn't as talented as him, and probably never will be.
"Ah, can we eat something else? It's so hot out that I don't want to eat ramen." I was shocked. Hikaru without ramen? Touya-kun read my mind.
"Shindo, do you have a fever or something? You never give up a chance to eat ramen, especially not when someone's treating!" He seemed to know as much about Hikaru as I did. I guess I never really knew more about Hikaru than his other friends.
"Just because I decide to have something other than ramen doesn't make me sick!" Hikaru stuck his tongue out. It seemed like the old Hikaru was back for the moment. "Well, it's hard to believe since you always drag me out on game days to have ramen for lunch!" …I didn't even know Touya-kun yelled. "That's because you never EAT any lunch! No wonder you're so skinny!" I was completely surprised by their behavior now. It wasn't like their usual selves. They also realized how uncomfortable I was.
"Go-Gomenasai! I forgot that you were with us Fujisaki-san! It's just that Shindo was starting another mindless argument…" Touya-kun apologizes politely, but Hikaru… "You're that one that started it, TO-YA-A-KI-RA!" He didn't even seem to bother, and he also had the other boy engaged in another shouting match. I sighed, but they didn't even know. I felt a bit left out like this. Hikaru had, yet again, forgotten me. I felt like I was on the verge of tears. One of my most important friends was going to forget me. Worst, I already didn't know this new him. "…Akari?" He knows how uncomfortable I am now, but I have to leave before I lost it.
"Hi-Hikaru, I'm sorry. I just remembered there's something I have to do… I'll see you later!" And I ran away.
…To be continued.
Author's Notes: Akari's part took me so long to write… I don't know as much about her character compared to Hikaru's, so it was much harder… And I hope people remember Akari having an older sister. XD She was mentioned when Akari gave Hikaru tickets to the Haze fair. (The one when Kaga first appeared!) And now, about the #s. 'Golden Week' is a special week of holidays in Japan. It's April 29th to May 5th. During this week, all Japanese schools and some businesses are closed. I hope you liked this chapter! It was longer than expected, but that's a good thing. I accept any types of reviews (but not flames from people that just don't like HikaAka.) and thank you for reading!
P.S: I will be sure to add more humour in the next chapters.
March 19th, 2005
