Sorry for not updating, couldn't think of anything for a while. Sitting in front of a PC for weeks is frying my neurons. College… busy…
Arg, I really should move my Shin Shirayukihime Densetsu Pretear website… Geocities ads… I'll try to get it hosted. Anybody out there willing?
Okai, here goes. This is a rather short, disappointing chapter. I decided not to put translations as these are the commonly used words (in anime) and you'll get it without any explaining on my part.
A Song For My Beloved
Chapter 4: The Voice of Reason
It felt like a crime to wear it. Ever since she realized that the man from the bus to Hokkaido was actually a really popular singer, it seemed like a sin to hold onto the necklace.
How she didn't recognize him was a mystery, even to her. His posters were everywhere; he endorsed almost all of the items found in malls. I really need to get out more often. During all those hours of research, she had not paid attention to a single picture she had on file of Sasame. She just wanted to get the nitty-gritty details, snap a particularly cute picture of him and get her salary for that month.
Himeno switched her sound system on for the first time in eight years, not to play her favorite Sting CD but to listen to the radio and hope to find a song by the Sasame. Himeno had no problem at all finding one; practically all of the radio stations were playing his new single, Silent Wall.
Maybe
The hardest thing of all
Is for two hearts to face each other and be
Unable
to say a word
Pain immeasurable by
Silent silver tears
Terrified, threatening to fall
into the basin of sadness
Where
darkness consumes every drop of life
Left inside a tattered soul
Two hearts that will never be one
Separated only by the silence
that waits for eternity to cease
That's sad… Himeno turned the radio off and fingered the ring, clasping it with apprehensive fingers. "Yosh!!!" She stood up abruptly, knocking the alarm clock off her bedside table. "I must give this back to him!"
Her plan was basically to put the ring in an envelope, scribble a short thank you note, and slip it under his door. That proved to be tricky as he had guards posted at the hallway. So much for being discreet…
Another was to pretend that she was a fangirl (a particularly rabid one) and somehow fling herself on top of Sasame, distracting him with pleas to create children with him while slipping the necklace into his pocket. Himeno strongly decided against this one, for many reasons concerning her dignity. Aside from that, the possibility of getting thrown into jail was really huge… No thank you.
She threw herself onto her bed in her frustration, not minding when the fluffy pillow fell off. Himeno stared at the ceiling of her flat, focusing her eyes on that particular spot where the paint was starting to flake. Mou…
It was at that moment when her friend, Satomi decided to call. "Moshimosh?" Himeno had to hold the receiver at least a foot from her ear when Satomi's excited squeal came through it.
"Himeno-chaaaaaaan!!! How was it?! Was he as gorgeous as usual? Did you get to talk to him?"
"Hai, Satomi-chan… mochiron desu…"
"Uso!!! Honto ni?"
Barely able to answer all her questions, Himeno decided to spill the beans and get it over with. "I knew I should have gone! But my boyfriend's parents were nice too, except Takeshi's mom made inedible pudding which reminded me of my mom's gardening gloves, but anyway-"
Satomi ranted and raved about missing the whole thing, and meeting her boyfriend's parents (who had to put up with Satomi's rather bubbly personality). Himeno sighed and flopped down onto her bed once again. What do I do with the ring?
"Nee, Himeno-chan? Are you there? Are you even listening to me?!"
He kept on thinking about that girl he had met on the bus. Sasame couldn't believe he forgot to ask for her name and number before riding back to Tokyo with his bodyguards. He distinctly remembered saying to her, "We'll meet again" and wondered if he could keep that promise.
"Oi, Sasame, you need to do that exclusive I was telling you about yesterday. I promised you a week-long vacation if you agree to do one," Masako informed the silver-haired singer. "Do I really have to?" Sasame looked at her with such pleading eyes that she was almost tempted to drop the whole thing.
"Hey, at least you get to choose which magazine," she said comfortingly. Masako spread a couple of magazines on the table for Sasame to survey. Tokyo Talk, J-Channel, Kawaii-Kakkoi, Sugoi Uta… these were the top magazines vying for the one-on-one with Sasame.
Sasame couldn't decide about which magazine to choose. They all seemed professional and they all had good layouts. Also, he had done exclusives with all those magazines during the past five years of his career. So far, they all had a good track record, except for Kawaii-Kakkoi, which had this female employee who managed to kungfu her way into his room and steal a lot of his stuff, including some of his boxers and a couple of strands of hair from his comb. Sasame heard she transferred to another magazine after getting fired for that stunt. It was impossible not to notice that she was the culprit, especially after finding this mini-shrine dedicated to him in her cubby, complete with his hair stuck to some crude doll she made. Her name was something like Sato—ko? Satoshi?
Demented females aside, he suddenly remembered the strange question thrown at him during yesterday's press conference. It was so unlike the other inquiries, trying to actually delve into his soul instead of just confirming things heard from the grapevine. Sasame decided to stick with that reporter, so at least the whole thing wouldn't be such a painful experience. Maybe I can finally show my true self, the Sasame behind the whole shebang.
"Hey Masako-chan, which of these magazines was the last question from yesterday from? You know, the 'fairytale question'?" Masako smiled and said, "Let me see, yeah, that was a unique one. I thought you were going to faint on me or something; you took such a long time to answer. If I'm not mistaken, that reporter was from Tokyo Talk. You want to do the exclusive with red-sweater girl?"
"Yes please. Please arrange for a meeting with that girl from Tokyo Talk."
To be continued…
Advance happy birthday to me! Yayness! I'm having a hard time writing fics right now with my midterms and all, but I'm trying my best to finish this so I can get finish Picture Perfect, to make way for my pending Pretear fics (I promise you, they're really interesting stuff!)