Here's chapter two of 'Crossing of our Paths'! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
Crossing of our Paths - Chapter Two: The New Student
When Hiwatari Kai thought that he was going to a different country to go and do his final years of studying there, he didn't really think twice what would happen if he actually did. After all, he was home schooled for his entire life and didn't really think that his grandfather would actually suggest that he would go and do a bit of socializing while studying. It's not like he's going to be choosing a career, after all… he's the heir of one of the richest companies in Europe and possibly the entire world.
But, due to certain circumstances, his grandfather did send him to another country and the old man did send him to a University - in fact as of right now he was supposed to be packing since his flight was tonight. Anyway, his grandfather sent him to a place where he doesn't know any people and a place where people could annoy him and deliberately ask for their demise if they ever try and mingle with him. And so, despite the fact that he really hates the idea - and that he's mad at his grandfather right now - Kai can't help but obey him. In any case, his grandfather took him in when his parents died a long time ago and it really wouldn't be nice to disobey him after all his grandfather had done to give him a good shelter and food.
He still remembered the conversation they had last week…
-- Flashback --
"I'm going to where?" he asked bluntly, having a stunned look in his eyes. He couldn't really believe that his grandfather would actually send him to some mediocre university. What's really the point of going there anyway? He preferred home schooling more because there were no noises from the other students; no troublemaking and mostly no shrieking girls that attach themselves like suction-cups to every first good-looking guy they see.
As if he heard Kai's thoughts, his grandfather sniffed and crossed his arms. "If you think this university you're going to is second-rate, you're very wrong. In fact, its one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, and believe it or not, your grandmother and I went there."
Kai looked at the desk in front of him and saw a picture frame with his grandmother in it. He never really knew that both his grandparents went to university there. In fact, his grandfather never tells him anything about their family.
"So… how many years exactly do I have to study there?" he grudgingly asked.
"Are you agreeing that you're going?"
The crimson-eyed youth glared at his grandfather, who glared right back, and gave a small grunt. "Depends," he muttered as he leaned back into the chair he's sitting on.
"Depends on what?"
"I get my own room and the fact that I won't have to socialize with plebeians that also have to go there is a start," he muttered sarcastically. He really wasn't asking much, was that so wrong?
His grandfather heard the sarcastic murmuring and gave a defeated sigh as he massaged his temples, trying to ignore the incoming migraine. "I was going agree with your demands anyway," he retorted, receiving a disbelieving look from his grandson. "So, do you accept or not?"
Kai gave a disgruntled noise and nodded reluctantly.
"Good, I've already told the Headmaster of the University to tell the Dean to put you into a single dorm room so that you could concentrate better on your studies."
"You already took care of this?" Kai asked, feeling stupid all of a sudden. "Since when?"
"Three weeks ago."
The slate-haired man glared at the elder man and crossed his arms.
'Damn it…'
-- End Flashback --
As much as he hates to admit it, his grandfather can really be a manipulative bastard and uses it as much as possible. He can't help but feel proud at times that, that's his grandfather. However he can't really help but feel that he wants to punch someone in the gut so hard right now that their children and grandchildren could feel the pain.
"Kai-sama, have you finished packing yet?" An elderly woman came into his room with a soft smile as she carried a plate of sandwiches and a glass of juice, placing it on a wooden table.
The young man, who was addressed as Kai-sama, shook his head and continued brooding while sitting on his bed with his back hunched and fingers crossed, supporting his chin. In front of him was an opened, half-empty suitcase with clothes thrown in as well as other necessities that the young heir needed.
The elderly woman, who we shall call by the name of Nana, shook her head and kneeled down in front of the said suitcase, folding some of the clothes and making space for the slate-haired man's arm bands and long, white scarves. "It was like only yesterday that Hiwatari-sama had taken you in right after your parents passed away and put you under my care, and now look: you're on your way to college," she said, closing his suitcase while Kai stood up and helped her place the luggage near the door.
Kai silently agreed at the woman's words. She was the one of taught him mathematics, science, basically everything academically. Not to mention, she also took care of him when he has a fever or when he accidentally fell down, she would come and mend his wounds. All in all, as much as he grudgingly hates to admit it, Nana was like a grandmother to her - since he has never met his real grandmother (she died right before when he was born, or so he was told).
"Good luck on your journey, Kai-sama. May you be most successful in Japan," Nana said as she bowed a little in respect.
The Russian gave a small, genuine smile. Right after his grandfather, Nana was the next person that he would thank. "Thanks, Nana. That's a lot coming from you," he replied and then closing the door when the elderly woman left. He lied down the bed and stared at the ceiling. He might as well get some shuteye before the flight.
When Kai arrived to his destination, he was most disappointed. Just after he got out from airport, it was raining a little bit; and he hated the rain - a little bit or not. Not to mention it was four in the freakin' morning when he arrived and that short nap that he took before the flight was not very relaxing and long - hence the word 'SHORT' was put before the word 'NAP'. He also almost lost his luggage in the conveyer belt where this lady accidentally took it and almost had a fight with the said lady. In other words, Kai's in the worse mood you've ever seen in your entire life.
It didn't help that the ride from the airport to one of his summerhouses - he's going to rest there for a while - takes two hours and that he has to meet the Dean of the University in four hours. So all in all, he's going to be jet-lagged and cranky all day long.
'I supposed I should rest in here… keh, the driver better not get lost,' he thought, as he looked at the interior of the limo and leaned back at the leather seat. Despite the fact that it was going to be very uncomfortable, Kai slept anyway.
When he arrived at the summerhouse, it was already six-thirty in the morning and noticed that the sun's starting to come up. It looked like a large villa with a huge balcony in the front with two foundations supporting it above the entrance inside the huge house. There were fruit trees and flower bushes by the front sides of the summerhouse with gardeners tending the plants carefully. In the middle of the field was just a grassy field with lights coming from the edge of the pitch, lighting the road.
Kai got out of the limousine and stared at the vast structure and felt a small nostalgia through his veins. He suddenly remembered vaguely when he was little and before his parents died, they would often come and spend the summer here. He missed those times despite the fact that he hardly remembers it.
He shook his head and ordered the chauffer to take his most needed suitcase and entered the place, seeing servants cleaning the floor and dusting the sculptures. The Hiwatari heir motioned for one of the maids and ordered her to take the suitcase and brought it to his room while ordering another maid to prepare him breakfast. He then went upstairs to his room, and laid down on the bed, looking at the ceiling just as he did when he was still in Russia.
'I might as well change clothes to look presentable,' he grunted as he sat up. He heard a knock on the door and a maid came in, telling him that breakfast will be ready in ten minutes. Kai dismissed her and went to his suitcase, getting a few clothes and walked towards the bathroom to take a short shower.
When he came down to the dining area, a well-prepared breakfast was served with a plate of eggs, bacon strips and French toast. A hot mug of coffee was placed on the side and today's newspaper beside it. He acknowledged the maid standing near the table as she bowed to him, thanking silently for the breakfast and ate in silence. After eating, he looked at his watch and notice that he has half an hour to spare before meeting with the Dean and headed out the garden.
The garden is the best place out of the summerhouse. There was a pond with water lilies surrounding it and fields of flowers are planted around the gazebo that's placed in the middle. He vaguely remembered that his mother planted most of the flowers here when they used to come and visit.
He sighed and ran a hand through his slightly dishevelled hair, closing his eyes.
He definitely missed those times.
…
"Ah, Hiwatari-san, nice to finally meet you," was the first thing he heard when Kai entered the Dean's office. His crimson eyes gave the Dean's outstretched hand when he offered him a handshake that he returned stiffly.
The Dean gave a small, nervous smile and carefully sat down, after Kai took a seat in front of his desk. "I was told by your grandfather that you were supposed to be coming next week?"
"Something came up."
"O-Oh, I see. Very well," the Dean cleared his throat and gave an uneasy laugh. To tell you the truth, he's never this anxious to meet a new student; after all he meets every new student that comes to the campus to discuss what can be arranged. But how can you smile at a person who's looking at you like you have some kind of disgusting thing on your face? "I was told that you requested for a single dorm room?" he asked.
Kai nodded curtly, with his arms crossed over his chest. "Yes, I requested a single dorm room. I don't want any disturbance that could irritate my studies," he replied with a monotonous voice. He smirked inwardly when he noticed the uneasiness and was satisfied that he could still intimidate a person twice his age. Good.
The elder man cleared his throat again and straightened up his tie. "I see… well, you made a good choice since the single dorm rooms are located in an individual building, but I'm afraid that can't happen," he said, trying to ignore the glare that was appearing on Kai's face. "You see… two troublemakers of the campus thought it was funny to infest termites in the building," he explained, his voice turning icy for a second and Kai thought he heard some muttering about 'Chemistry Lab disasters and Lab mice in the Girls Dorm'.
"Anyway," the Dean continued, his voice coming back to normal. "Since the that building's closed, we have assigned you to a suite dorm room. You'll be sharing it with Ivanov Yuriy," when he said the name the Dean pursued his lips like ate something sour. "Kinomiya Takao," again the elderly man pursued his lips. "And Mizuhara Max," his voice changed completely back to normal.
"Normally I would ask one of the boys to take you and give you a proper tour, but there are classes being held right now and the three of them have it," he continued on as he gave Kai a few papers. "I suppose they could do it right after lunch, is that alright?"
Kai just continued to nod quietly but there was a nagging question etched on his mind. And before he was able to ask the question, the Dean beat him to it.
"You're wondering what are the three like, correct?" he asked the crimson-eyed Russian.
Kai just looked at him stiffly and scolded himself for being a bit predictable. The Dean once again ignored the glare and explained, "The ones you should look out for are Ivanov and Kinomiya. Those two are nothing but troublemakers and if you're wondering, they were the ones that infested the singles dorm building. You have nothing to worry about Mizuhara. He's very studious and I'm one hundred percent sure that he won't bother you and your studies.
"Now, I mostly talked with everything you need to know and Hiwatari-san, I'm pleased to welcome you to our University." The Dean concluded, as he and Kai stood up and shook hands again for the last time. "You can go ahead and take a look around. Within the papers that I gave you is a small map around the area and I'll have my secretary call you after lunch so that one of your roommates could show you to your dorm. Have a good day, Hiwatari-san."
Kai left the office and looked at the surrounding area. The administrative building is only a ground floor building shaped as a box - excluding one of the sides - and surrounded the small fountain in the middle. The slate-haired Russian walked out of the building and looked at the map in disdain that he actually has to read the map thoroughly so that he wouldn't get lost in this place.
To his left he saw the football field with the bleachers and just right beside it was the soccer field. Right across from the two fields were the tennis and basketball courts, also with bleachers. To his right, Kai noticed that it was the lecture halls and much to his annoyance, there were people gawking already when they noticed him right away. He walked away from the building and headed towards yet another building to which Kai noticed that it was the library. He noticed in the map that there were at least three libraries in the campus: one near the enormous cafeteria near the Chemistry and Physics sector (meaning that the floor above half of the canteen are the Chemistry labs and just a corridor away were the Physics classes); a huge one near the lecture halls (where he is now); and the last one by the dormitories (in which he still has to explore).
He walked further straight, ignoring some of the students, who currently has no classes, staring and pointing at him as he passed by them. He noticed the Music department as well as the Emergency Ward building. Since it was spring, he could see a lot of Cherry blossom trees planted with the flower petals dancing in the cool air breeze.
Anyway, he continued to walk even further seeing the dormitory area with the girl's dorm and the boy's dorm in separate buildings. Further down the middle is a closed building of what Kai realized it was the single dorms. They're all the same height, and it was a three-story building. He was reluctantly amazed at how those two troublemakers (who he now knew they were two of his roommates) could put termites at a huge building like that.
The Russian then noticed a girl with ginger and dark brown coloured hair walking towards the girl's dorm, looking irate. He heard her mutter something about 'the Psychology lecture hall smelling like a garbage dump' and 'Stupid idiot, why go to class even though you're sick?' He was fairly glad that she didn't notice him; he preferred to be not known to anyone just yet.
By the time he finished his exploring the campus, the bell rang. Since Kai didn't want to be seen by annoying people - especially squealing girls who would try to grab his clothes and molest him, he went back to his limousine that was parked right in front of the campus entrance. Just as he was to enter the vehicle, he noticed four people walking out of the library.
The one with raven hair and honey-coloured eyes was scolding the one with red hair and icy blue eyes, who was just smirking triumphantly as if he's done something to irritate the former. In front of them were two other people, one with blond hair and the other with dark blue hair. It looked like the blond was ignoring the latter, which was trying to apologize to him.
They were a bit loud too, much to Kai's chagrin and - to his annoyance - his inquisitiveness.
"That was uncalled for and you know it!" the one with the honey-coloured eyes exclaimed as he sat down on the bench.
The red head one stood beside him and shrugged. "No, it wasn't! That stupid dumb ass should've looked where he was going! I mean, hello? The width of the corridor is like, what four to five feet? Geez, even an obese person would've missed walking into me!"
"C'mon Max… you know you want to talk me, please? Just say hi or something…" said the one with dark blue hair.
"…"
The red head turned his head towards the blond named Max and the blue-haired man and said, "Takao, how about trying to seduce Max? You know, if you would give him a striptease, he'd talk to you in a snap."
"SHUT UP, YURIY!"
The icy blue-eyed man laughed and turned towards his raven-haired friend. "I know you agree with me, Rei-chan," he said his name in a singy-song voice. "I mean, you would snap at the guy too, especially if you're in a hurry."
Kai watched the one who was known as Rei sighed in exasperation and shook his head. "You know what? Fine. I agree with you," he said, opening the book that he was holding.
'So these people are my roommates, hmm? The Dean never told me that the three of them are friends,' he thought, as he observed people walking out of the campus for lunch.
A few minutes later, he noticed the girl he saw earlier walking towards the four people with another girl in tow. Afterwards, two more came to them, and the red head now known as Yuriy ran towards the one with dark grey hair, giving him a hug.
To Kai, he's never seen a bunch of people acting like that before. His first impression of the people that are going to be his classmates were that they were an annoying horde going to parties twenty-four seven and not giving him any peace if they were in the dorms. He shook his head, clearing his mind and kept on staring at the group, particularly at the one with raven hair.
'This is going to be a worth my time after all…' he thought, smirking slightly as he leaned back against the leather seat. Out loud he said, "Take me back home, there are some things I need to do first."
The chauffer nodded his head and drove away, heading back to the summerhouse.
"Could Mizuhara Max, Ivanov Yuriy or Kinomiya Takao please report to the Dean's office? I repeat, Mizuhara Max, Ivanov Yuriy or Kinomiya Takao please report to the Dean's office." Blared out the speakers throughout the campus as Kai waited patiently back at the Dean's office.
A few minutes later, both the Dean and Kai heard three people talking out loud from the other side of the door.
"You two are in so much trouble, it's not even funny."
"Damn right it isn't funny!"
"Your right… it isn't. It's down right hilarious!"
"ARGH, stop LAUGHING!"
"… I don't recall on doing anything bad, did I?"
"Haha… Oops, my mistake. The only one in trouble here is Takao. No offence Maxie, but your boyfriend's worse than you."
"WE'RE NOT GOING OUT!" two of the voices exclaimed, sounding embarrassed.
"Not yet anyway…"
Kai watched the Dean rolling his eyes and clearing his throat sternly - and loud enough - making the three people silent. "Please come in," the elder man said.
The door opened and in came two blushing young men, one with blond hair and blue eyes and the other with dark blue hair and brown eyes; and a young female with ginger and dark brown hair and green eyes. The three of them gave a small bow towards the Dean quietly and stood in the side, as they noticed Kai in front of them.
"Ah, Mizuhara-san, Kinomiya, I see that the both of you are here… but, Fernandez? I thought I asked for Ivanov, did I not?" the elder man asked, as he raised his eyebrow questioningly.
The green-eyed girl crossed her arms defiantly and closed her eyes. "Yuriy's going to be late for class, and since I don't have one right now I took his place," she replied.
"I see… very well. Kinomiya, Mizuhara-san, meet your new roommate for the next few years, Hiwatari Kai," the Dean walked around his desk and motioned Kai to walk towards the other three. "Hiwatari-san, meet Mizuhara Max," Kai saw the blond gave a small wave. "Kinomiya Takao," The blue-haired youth stopped sticking his tongue out towards the Dean when he turned around. "And Fernandez Julia." The Spanish female acknowledged him with a nod.
"Since the three of you don't have classes right now, you don't mind showing Hiwatari-san around, do you?" the Dean finished while watching the three in question nod their heads obediently. "Good. The four of you are dismissed."
Kai followed the three friends as they went out of the administrative office, overhearing their conversation for a bit. He glared at them, thinking that he would never get a night's rest with how loud the blue-haired man's talking.
"MAN, I thought for sure I'd be fried… whew!" Takao guffawed as he put an arm around Max, who slightly blushed at the gesture.
Julia rolled her eyes and kept on looking straight ahead. "Just keep on telling yourself that, Baka. Anyway, we're supposed to be showing your new roommate around." She sulked and suddenly glared nothing. "I don't see why I have to do it… Yuriy owes me for this."
Hearing the only girl sulk, Max pulled away from Takao and gave the sulking female a half-hug, turning around to meet aloof, crimson eyes. "Konnichiwa, Kai-san! Umm, you don't mind going to the library first, don't you? I promised a friend of mine that I'd return a book for him." He held up a pretty thick book as he said it.
Kai shrugged and continued on walking, hoping that they would continue to ignore them. Unfortunately, he was sadly mistaken since Julia walked in front of him and gave him a small smirk. "What?" he asked in a small voice.
"I saw you earlier," was the only reply.
Takao snorted and put his hand behind his head. "No duh, you saw him at the Dean's office - OWW!"
"You idiot, I wasn't talking about that!" Julia snapped at the Japanese man, smacking him in the head. "What I meant is that I saw him staring in front of the dorms earlier." She looked back at the slate-haired Russian. "You think I didn't notice? Just because I was cursing some idiot in my Psychology class doesn't mean that I'm not paying attention around me. And anyway… you pretty much have to be wary around here… it's mandatory."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "And why is it mandatory?"
Just as Julia was about to tell him, Takao just noticed the book Max was carrying and exclaimed,
"Wait Max, isn't that the book Rei had earlier?"
"Yeah… why you ask?"
Takao gave a confused look at took the object from the blond. "You mean he's done already? But he only got that out of the library before the lunch bell rang! Not to mention this thing probably has four hundred pages! And that's NOT including all of the footnotes!" Instead of walking towards the library, he ran to the dorms, ignoring the Max and Julia's warnings.
"Is he stupid? Didn't Rei emphasized to that idiot that he's going to take nap and doesn't want to be disturbed?" Julia said, gesturing at the Japanese man while talking to the blond.
Max gave an apologetic smile to her and Kai, and ran after the blue-haired man, yelling, "TAKAO! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BOTHER REI REMEMBER! COME BACK HERE!"
The Spanish girl sighed exasperatingly and motioned the slate-haired youth, who has been watching the whole time, and started to walk faster. "Let's go… as tame and innocent Rei is, he'll bite Kinomiya's head off if he didn't get his rest." And right before Kai could say that he doesn't care and that he would pretty much want to be alone for the rest of the years he's going to stay here, Julia grabbed him by his scarf and dragged him towards the boy's dorm.
Meanwhile in a certain dorm room, Rei slept peacefully in his bed after staying up late all week, preparing for that upcoming Physics test that he was supposed to have earlier today but ended up having it cancelled instead. He rolled around a bit, oblivious to the impending doom that will come knocking to the door.
End Chapter Two
Crystal: And thus ends chapter two! -grins- Anyway... I'm in a hurry. THANKS SO MUCH for those who reviewed! I'm sorry that I couldn't do that 'Thanks' thingy because I'm in a hurry... really sorry! -bows-
Don't forget to review!
