Truth Is
You see, Misao always wanted to be number one in Aoshi's eyes. Sadly, after failure and failure again, Misao finally decided maybe no guy would want her. But summer's full of new opportunities, right?
Chapter two – The Good She Didn't See
Summer…so much fun. Hot, sunny days and warm, starry nights, nothing got better than that.
You could do anything too since there wasn't any school. You could go swimming at the pool, fish in a nearby lake, or shop wherever money could be spent. But the best thing about the summer was spending some quality time with your friends. That was probably the most fun thing of the season.
So why was Misao was so bored?
The whole first day so far Misao had spent just comprised of using her rear to seat herself onto the couch. Her only exercising was moving her thumb while pressing the TV remote to surf through the channels.
"Hey fatty, you think you could help around the house for once?" Shiro called out to her as he carried a box down the stairs. He was already packing for college even though the application for college dorms didn't start in at least a month. He had a lot of stuff though so maybe that's why, "Missy can you help me with this box? I can't see it with it in the way."
She dragged herself off the couch and picked off the box that was on top of the box he was holding and lifted it up, "Geez, what the hell are you holding in here?"
"Trophies. You know, the stuff you'll never have."
She got mad, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? I HAPPEN TO HAVE A LOT OF TROPHES!"
He chuckled a little, "Yeah, you have one for being student of the month in second grade and one for a sportsmanship award for basketball a couple years ago. And I have no idea how that happened."
He began laughing while Misao shoved the box back on top of his and yelled, "How do you like that? I'd like to see how far your trophies will get you now!"
She stormed down the stairs and huffed as she sat back down on to the couch and began flipping through the channels again.
"Misao! You know I was just kidding! Misao!"
"Not listening!" She yelled back the volume of the television gradually climbed.
It was a muffled sound, but Misao could hear a crash in the background behind the blaring volume.
Misao giggled a little as she lowered the volume. Just then, Soujiro entered the building from outside, "Hello Misao…what happened here?"
Misao climbed up from her position and looked behind her to find a mess, which her fallen brother had made, "Oh, I didn't know you dropped that much. Sorry."
Shiro threw some junk off of himself and stood up, "Yeah, thanks…" he replied as he dusted his shirt off, "So now can you help me with all this?"
She nodded and hopped down and Soujiro walked over too.
As they began to pick up some of the material, Misao came upon an old book, "What's this?"
Shiro looked down and replied, "Oh I think that's mom's old scrapbook."
She looked up, "So how come you have it?"
He shrugged, "I might've took it to take a look at it and forgot to give it back. Mom's probably looking for it…what's in it anyways?"
Misao opened it and coughed as the dust picked up, "Just a few old pictures…"
She began flipping through a few more pages as Soujiro shifted over so he sat next to her. Shiro ddi the same as well, "Whoa, is that mom?" Misao exclaimed as she brought the photo album closer to her face as if that helped her see better.
"Yeah, I remember mom told me that was on a trip…the trip that dad asked her to marry him."
She gazed down at the picture a little more. Her mother was so pretty way back then. It even showed now but the years covered it up somewhat. Misao remembered that her mother was visiting Hawaii that week with her husband to be and a close friend. The pictured showed all of them. Her mother was dressed in a white dress with a lei of yellow flowers that she wore around her neck. Her father was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt that made him stick out like a sore thumb.
But, there was a woman to her mother's left. Another woman dressed in white with yellow flowers around her neck. She had pitch black hair and these beautiful dark blue eyes…it reminded her of…
In the corner of her eye, she looked at Soujiro who was staring at the picture as well. He was smiling, but it wasn't his normal smile. It was if he was admiring the picture.
"Soujiro…is that your mom?"
She looked up for a moment, and then returned his gaze to the photo, "Yeah…I remember she told me the story about your parents."
Her head turned a little, "What story?"
Soujiro took one final look at the picture before sitting up straight, "She told me about how she knew your mother since forever and how your mom always told my mom that she always wanted to get purposed to in front of a beautiful sunset. Maybe even get married there too. And when your mother met your dad, she only told him once but he always remembered it. She thought he'd forgotten but on a sudden trip to Hawaii, he popped the question in front of the most amazing sunset my mom had ever seen. And a year later, they got married at the same spot."
He paused as he took a look at Misao. It seemed as if she wasn't even paying attention she was so deep in thought, "it's a pretty good story I guess," he added as he took the book from her and began looking at it.
"That's so romantic…I wish the man of my dreams would ask me to marry him in a situation like that…"
Soujiro took one last look at Misao before he sat up and began cleaning. Misao was still in her own little world by the time the mess was already cleaned up.
"She does that," Shiro said, "She just blanks out every once in a while."
"Shut up Shiro!"
"Yeah, yeah…sure thing," Her older brother grumbled and chuckled as he stood up and headed upstairs.
"What? You're just going to leave all your stuff here on the floor?" Misao yelled after her brother.
"Yeah, just drop them off outside in front of the door. Thank you!"
Misao turned around and crossed her arms in a huff as she began to pick up the mess that had befallen the floor. But as she was picking things up one at a time, Soujiro began to help her. But it wasn't long until he finally said, "Your brother cares for you a lot, doesn't he?"
Misao dropped the trophy she was holding and looked up with a confused look, "What do you mean?"
"Well," Soujiro began while picking up the trophy she dropped and handed it to her, "I can hear it in his voice, if that makes sense. He has a certain caring sound to his voice. You two must be close."
Misao's head backed away as her eyes widened a little, "Are you kidding me? We're anything but close! We're like…we're like enemies!"
He tilted his head, "It doesn't seem like it…"
Her eyes widened as she backed away a little, "Are you serious? Didn't you just see us fighting a few minutes ago?" she asked loudly. But Soujiro just sat there and smiled as he looked downwards.
"Whatever you say Misao."
Her eyebrows then twisted, "What do you mean, 'Whatever I say?' Hey wait a second!" she called out to him as he stood up and began to walk upstairs.
"What?"
She scrambled up to her feet, "Don't just leave me down here with all this stuff! You have to…can you...will you help me?" she called out to him as he leaned on the railing of the staircase and smiled. Well, it was actually more of a smirk but it still counted as a smile.
"Do you need me to help you?"
She opened her mouth as if she was trying to saying something, but nothing came out. It was strange because she never fumbled with her words. She always made sure not to mess up with her words so she wouldn't look like an idiot in front of other people. But now…this was different.
"Cat caught your tongue?"
She snapped out of it, "What? NO!"
With that, he ran up to his room and she chased him. They kind of resembled little kids.
And that's another thing Misao had never done before, act immature or younger than her age.
"I said wait! WAIT!" he ran through his door and Misao followed a few moments after.
"Just try and catch me!"
Was it that she was getting…
"Where'd you go?"
…comfortable?
Misao looked around the room, but she couldn't find a Soujiro. She took a few steps forward until she reached his bedside. She noticed that on the pillow laid a small frame. She bent down to get a better look at it, only to find a small photo of this beautiful woman with black hair, black eyes, while wearing a simple white dress…wait. Wait a second.
All of a sudden she heard footsteps behind her and as she turned around, she caught a brief glimpse of Soujiro running out the door.
She didn't have enough time, but as she took one last glimpse at the picture, the picture of the beautiful woman, Soujiro's mother, just seemed a little darker.
For some strange reason…
But then she ran out the door as she followed his lead.
"Soujiro! Where'd you go?" she called out and to her disappointment, no one answered. She stopped running by this time as she stood in place while trying to listen for creaks in the floor or the sound of doors clicking shut. But amazingly enough, she heard nothing as she continued to wait.
Soon five minutes passed by as she refused to make any movement just in case she'd miss the long anticipated noise. She wasn't about to give up.
Five more minutes passed by…
Another minute…
Click…
"HYAAHH!"
Then she just pounded on whoever walked out of the nearby door.
Sadly she didn't know that was Shiro's room.
Too bad she didn't know it was Shiro…
"What the hell Misao?"
She looked up from where she and her elder brother laid. There sat an angry looking Shiro as he held his shoulder, "How the hell did you jump high enough to reach my shoulder?" he shouted as he gently caressed it, "It HURTS."
She gave him a meager smile, "Oops…sorry."
"Sorry?" Shiro began, "SORRY? My arm hurts like a mother! What did you think I was, some freak burglar or something? Have you ever heard of self control? LOOK BEFORE YOU FRICKING LEAP?"
By this time, Misao was crawling away with her back to the floor as Shiro continued to fume. But she was then abruptly stopped by something she bumped into.
She looked up only to find a confused looking Soujiro.
"What the?" she yelled as she hopped up, "Where were you?"
He still looked a little frightened, "Well, I ran downstairs and waited but after several minutes I got bored so I watched a little TV. Where were you?"
Something snapped in Misao's head, "WHERE WAS I? I was waiting up in the middle of this hallway so I could sneak up on you! But you, you were watching TV this whole time? Why didn't you come get me?" she finished as she gasped for air since she was yelling the whole time.
"You little psychotic freak! You mean to tell me you were just waiting here the whole time then out of nowhere, BAM. You decide to go kung fu on my ass? My shoulder hurts hell of bad! I'm going to kill you!" Shiro hollered as he scrambled up to his feet even though his arm hurt.
Misao squeaked while she spun around to hide behind Soujiro who was well past the point of confusion.
"What happened?
"I'll kill you!"
"Don't let him get me!"
Just then Misao and Shiro's mother walked through the front door with a bag of groceries. After shutting and locking the door behind her, she turned only to find the mess Shiro, Misao, and Soujiro left. She sighed to herself as she walked towards the mess and hopped between the open spaces that were left from when the three were actually cleaning up the mess.
But as she set her grocery bag onto the kitchen table, she decided to clean up a little so no one would trip, fall, and die. As she walked over, she kneeled down and began picking up items and gently setting them into the partially crumpled box. And as one of her hands reached for one of her son's trophies, something caught her eye as it shimmered in the sun from the open window.
There laid the picture of her, her husband, and Soujiro's mother. She gazed at it for a moment before finally picking it up. As she did, she held it out in front of her for a moment as she reminisced the moment it happened, the proposal.
It was amazing really, how much things had changed over the past few years. It seemed like time was making its way too quickly around her. It made her sad to know that he would never see Misao's wedding, let alone her graduation. He never saw the growth spurt she had last year, or help her in times when she had problems. He would never see Shiro's big day when he would set off for college, he would never see any of that.
It hurt to know he didn't see how things improved, or how much they became better. It hurt to know she would never see him again.
It hurt to know he was gone.
But, she had to move on. It was how she worked, how she functioned. She could never spend that long on something or then she'd fall behind, so that meant she had to do the same with remembering him. So she had to move on or she wouldn't function properly.
But she did miss him so. She missed the way he held her close, the way he always listened to her and her dreams, the way he'd smile and make things feel better, and the way he had always been there.
So Misao's mother took one last heartfelt look at the picture before she held it close to her chest.
There were no tears and no breakdowns. She wasn't tremendously sad because she knew that's how things happened, and she learned to cope ever since the doctor told her he wouldn't make it. But sometimes, sometimes there's a sadness that isn't sad, but surpasses it. A sadness that can only be described in thought, in memory…
…A sadness of hope maybe?
'Please promise to be strong for me…'
She promised and kept her word for so long, but it was just getting so hard and even harder as every second slowly ticked by…
She couldn't take much more of this.
She sat up and headed towards the kitchen so she could begin to prepare dinner. As she pulled some carrots out of her shopping bag and as she set them on the table, she set the picture of her, her husband, and Soujiro's mother onto the area of the counter next to herself. She smiled at it and continued to work.
But she jumped when she heard a crash noise, "OWW! MOM!"
It was Misao.
It as also Misao who came ripping around the corner with Shiro close behind, "Mom, grab her!"
Misao sprinted past her and her brother soon followed, "Now why would I grab Misao?" The two were basically running around in a circle around the dining room table, constantly stopping as if they were trying to psyche each other out.
Soujiros then walked into the kitchen and chuckled.
But, for some strange reason, he diverted his attention for a split second.
And he saw the picture of Misao's parents and his mother. He took a look back at Misao's mom who showed a great deal that she used to be a very beautiful young woman. And he took a last look at his own mother, who was very beautiful as well. Her essence though, now that was something that he always noticed. There was always this sweet sorrow about her. He remembered how she would tell him a story about how she and Misao's mother were so different, and they still managed to stay best of friends.
Indeed they were different though. Misao's mother was the giggler, the flirter, the one who always managed to get these great boyfriends. His mother on the other hand and one who saw the whole picture, and tried not to go along with things because of peer pressure and other difficulties teenagers would come across. She was quieter too, she still had a good time, but she didn't always need to be with a crowd that defined her. She was friendly loner; one who could have more fun while sitting outside than going to the movies with a group of friends. She was one people would look up to, but had a certain fear towards her since she could see you so well. She didn't always get the right guys, but as she began to understand why and how things worked, people couldn't separate from her. But there were always those times when she wished she could sit out in front of the stars and listen to the music of the night.
But Soujiro didn't know that, he just thought there was something different about her than other people…she saw something they didn't. She say more than she wanted to. But it was a good different, he could tell.
What he couldn't tell though, was the personality his mother had, had rubbed off a little on him. But he couldn't tell because it blended with the personality of his father, who was always smiling no matter what happened.
"Oh Soujiro," Misao's mother asked, "Can you help me stop them?"
He nodded as he walked over to them. He grabbed Shiro's shoulders as Misao's mother stepped in front of Misao.
"Now what happened?" she asked quite firmly.
"She's out of control! She jumped out of no where and kicked my arm off!"
She turned to face him, "Let me see."
He walked over to her as he scowled at Misao along the way. She returned the favor by sticking her tongue out at him, "Now let me check," his mother cooed as he flinched when he lifted it.
CRACK.
Out of nowhere, Misao's mother grabbed his arm and popped it back into place. Soujiro stood back in horror as he watched Shiro fall onto his rear.
"Good thing I know how to put dislocated shoulders back into place."
Shiro stared in horror at his mother, "How'd you know it was dislocated?"
She chuckled, "It runs in the family! If you set your hand on the victim's shoulder and your left pinky finger begins to tingle, the shoulder is either dislocated, broken, sprained, or twisted."
Soujiro was a little frightened, "That's not a good percentage, you know."
Shiro gripped his arm, "Yeah! What if it was broken?"
Everyone in the room looked at her, "Well, it would've hurt a lot, wouldn't it have?"
Shiro eyes bugged out as Misao took a step back. Apparently their mother had found an unknown strength…
"Well it's not all my fault," Misao taunted, "It's the fat oaf's fault for sneaking up on me."
Her brother shot up from where he was sitting, "SNEAK? You MUST be joking! You attacked me! There's nothing else to it!"
Misao flared a little, "I ATTACKED you because you SNUCK up on me!"
"No I didn't!"
"Yes you did!"
"No way!"
"Yeah way!"
"I swear to God if you attack me again, I'll hang you upside the porch."
"WHA! Mom!"
Apparently, this was Soujiro's new family. They were a little quirky and a little different, but it still worked out, right? He would have a lot of work to do. But, his mother would be proud.
He just couldn't wait until he could get to see her.
He was getting a little homesick.
"Shiro!" Their mother called out, "How about you get Soujiro to help you out a little with your belongings?"
Shiro looked back and forth between Soujiro and his mother and shrugged, "If he can take it…"
Shiro then walked past Soujiro and led him out the door, "Come on smiley boy, let's go."
Soujiro's head picked up. He'd never been called smiley boy before. It had a certain ring to it that he liked about it.
Soujiro followed after him and up the stairs and back into his room. He had never really been in Shiro's room before. As Shiro opened the door, Soujiro stared in awe.
Shiro was the real deal! In one corner of the room, Shiro had a mountain of judo, soccer, and football trophies. In another corner, there was an imitation Eiffel Tower made of tooth picks. In the third corner laid a stack of college application letters that all had accepted marks on them. He seemed quite the achiever.
"Wow, you have a whole lot of…"
"Crap. All this stuff just gets in the way."
Soujiro looked around some more, "You mean you don't like all of this?"
In awe, Soujiro began to read all of application letters while Shiro threw some more trophies into a box, "Yeah it's great but sometimes…just once in a while you get tired of looking at all this junk," he lifted the box once it was full and set it by the door, "Hey, can you put all of those letters into that box?" he asked while pointing to a bow with a red X marked on it.
"How many letters are there in here?" Soujiro asked while flipping through the pages.
"Ah, I don't know. Maybe about eleven?"
Soujiro double took Shiro, "You applied to eleven schools? Isn't that kind of expensive?"
Shiro picked up the tooth pick Eiffel Tower and dropped it into another box. Soujiro watched in horror as the masterpiece fell to a shamble, "Nah, I actually applied to three schools. All the rest are like, scholarships."
"For sports?" Soujiro asked while taking a quick glance at Misao's brother's trophies.
Shiro pushed the box full of tooth picks by Soujiro, "One for soccer, one for football, two for judo, two for arts, and two for academics. And don't ask me how that happened."
Soujiro picked the box up that held the tooth picks, "Wow, you do a lot, don't you?"
"Yeah," Shiro began, "Just when I get bored though."
Shiro picked up a couple boxes while Soujiro held one and opened the door, "Oh, Misao told me that you were leaving soon but, dorm applications don't start for what? Another month or so?"
Shiro traveled to the stairs and began to walk down as Soujiro followed after him, "Well, what she didn't tell you was that I'm going off to see the world! A week in Europe and two weeks in America. Also a few days in Hawaii for some R&R."
As they reached the bottom of the staircase, Shiro walked to the front door and opened it so he could set his boxes down outside. Outside, Misao was setting a box into his car. While accidentally bumping into the car a little too hard, she set off the car alarm, "Ooh! Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
Shiro rolled his eyes as he set the boxes down and ran back inside the house. He came back out in no time with his eyes as he pushed the unlock button, "Hey Weasel, try not to hurt my baby, ok?"
She pouted a little and stuck her tounge out, "Such a feisty little kid."
"You two seem very close."
He said it again.
But he didn't receive the same response as he did with Misao. This time, Shiro turned his head to face him for a moment, but then turned back and smiled, "Yeah we are…or were. Ever since her whole high school thing started she's been having a rough time. I don't know if it's the grades or the friends or the guys or what, but all I know is that being a girl in high school can be a little difficult."
Soujiro shot Shiro a questionable look, "What?" Shiro began, "You've never met a high school girl who's said she hates life?"
He shook his head while Shiro rubbed his eye, "Maybe it's just been that I've spent too much time with her but I can tell, she just doesn't understand it."
"Doesn't understand what?"
"Doesn't understand," Shiro started while taking in a deep breath, "Why she is who she is. I mean, she sees these other girls who have boyfriends and a whole posse of friends but Misao only has a select few. She has other friends, but they're just not as close. She just doesn't understand why she doesn't seem normal. She's a nice kid, but I think she's come to realize that being a nice kid can be pretty hard if you know what I'm saying."
Soujiro looked at Shiro again, "No, I don't know what you mean."
He looked dumbfounded at Soujiro, "Dude, where have you been growing up?"
Soujiro was about to speak before Shiro interrupted, "You know what? Never mind. It'll probably turn out to be a good thing to have a friend just a little bit more naïve than her. May do her some good."
"What do you mean I'm naïve?"
"Never mind."
"Shiro!" Misao called out from his car, "I am not lugging your huge boxes around. You do it!"
She stomped up the walkway and past them as she entered the house.
Shiro rolled his eyes as he picked up the two boxes he had carried down the stairs and walked down to his car.
In truth, Soujiro did understand what Shiro meant. It was just the words he spoke that left Soujiro, himself thinking. Maybe Shiro was being overprotective. Maybe he was just worried that his little sister would grow up too fast while he was away. Or grow up completely no one knows.
But it was nice to meet someone who cared for another person who cared for another person as much as they cared about themselves. Maybe that's why all the prizes and awards he had received meant nothing. Maybe it was because he felt more for Misao than his own good doings.
Shiro really was a good person.
Misao too, was a good person.
As it turned out, the more Soujiro lived, the more he realized there really are good people out there. People who aren't controlled by greed, power, and lust.
It was nice to be comforted with that thought.
He only wished Misao knew as much as he did.
Thinking of Misao, he looked over to her as she continued to sit on the couch and flip through the channels.
Or maybe it was just a girl thing…
But that's when he decided…
"Hey Misao!"
She looked over behind her back, "What?"
He walked over to the side of the couch, "Do you play soccer?"
Her head picked up, "Yeah, why?"
Soujiro shrugged, "I don't know, I just happen to have this soccer ball with me and I was wondering if you could show me a good field. And maybe you could join me if you can keep up."
She jumped up from where she was sitting, "Of course I can take you on! Come on! There's a field a few blocks away. I'll show you how to play real soccer."
As the two left the building, Soujiro picked up a ball that was dropped by Shiro.
As Shiro watched them walk down the street in the opposite direction of himself, he couldn't help but smile.
Maybe she would be alright after all?
But 'maybe' was such a vague word…
End.
WUT iiT DO? Yeah, this one was a little short. But hey, I'm getting sleepier by the moment. Oh um, for the next month or so, I'm gonna be pretty busy, and just count that for the summer too. Oh, and When Dreams Come True? Yeah, I have absolutely NO ideas for that one. So if you want to leave some deeply needed advice in the review section, it would be muchly appreciated.
And oh my goodness! Over my time on being on an author named sangPakko came along and emailed me a few. After a while, we came to the idea of making a story together. sang is actually an author on other sites who is pretty darned good at twists and plots you normally don't see every day, so I'm very exited about writing this story. It'll take a while, but it'll get done some time or other. And they'll be the keeper of the story so watch out for the author sangPakko and the story called Finding After. That's about all we have so far plus a few notes so peace out, we're gonna make you the best RK SxM you've ever read.
Bye!
NaiLAUG!