You Mean, Rukawa has a Best Friend?

Chapter Five

Kira whistled as she walked on the sidewalk, away from a long hard day at school which included a particularly exhausting mathematics exam. She had her pink headphones on, Kaede's present last Christmas, which still amazes her, because she never thought that Rukawa would never even dare touch pink headphones, much less buy a pair, gift wrap them and hand them to her on Christmas Day. It amazed her that he even found pink headphones, which for the life of her couldn't find, no matter how many times she looked.

Speaking of her best friend, she had managed to not talk about Sendoh for the past two days now. It was making her immensely proud of herself, since most of the time, she would bore Rukawa to death with all her stories about how gorgeous he walks and the time he talked to her and blah, blah, blah...

She had refrained from talking about said crush because everytime she mentioned it, his, that is, Rukawa's, hands would compulsively close on whatever he's holding, most of the time, basketball. She was worried that it might just burst all of the sudden, so she decided, after mentioning Sendoh the third time, to stop mentioning the boy. She guessed that Rukawa was still not insulted by what Sendoh said the other day.

Said headphones were then in her head, blaring loud rock music in her ears, while she was whistling to the tune of the music. She then felt these headphones suddenly ripped from her head, and was so surprised that she turned around sharply and the headphones was lost from the man's grip and hit her in the chin.

"Hey, what the hell do you – oh," she said, angrily, then looking to see who tried to take her headphones, she felt her face become warm and wouldn't be surprised if her face wasn't as pink as her headphones, which were now dangling in her neck.

Said taker of headphones was none other than Sendoh Akira smiling at her sweetly and looking at the headphones. "Hi," he said, smiling a little wider.

"Er, hi," she answered back, smiling shyly. She then looked at him straight in the eye – her mother has always mentioned that it's best to look people straight in the eye when talking to them, makes you seem serious and really intent, or something like that – and said, "Sorry, I didn't think that it'd be you."

She wondered vaguely if Sendoh was still thinking of what happened the other day, but all wondering went out of her head as soon as Sendoh opened his mouth.

"That's okay," he said, "So, um, is Rukawa pissed off?"

Ah, so he does remember. Kira gave him a sort of apologetic smile. "Kind of."

Sendoh rubbed the back of his head. "Ah," he said, looking slightly guilty."I didn't mean it to come out in a mean way you know."

"You should be telling that to Kaede, not me." she said, not wanting to get into the middle of these two boys, but as one of them is her best friend and the other is her crush, she guessed that she was already in the middle without realizing it.

Sendoh smiled at her. "I'm sure that you'll be able to relay the message."

Kira looked at her knees. He was right, she would tell Kaede about this, and hopefully, she can tell him how immensely sorry Sendoh was, though he said nothing of the sort.

After a short silence, Sendoh suddenly said, "Nice headphones."

At this Kira grinned. She was rather fond of the headphones, because they were one of Kaede's seemingly impressive gifts – he always knows what to give her, always, and she thought that it was both sweet and intimidating, because it almost always trumps her present to him, almost because last Christmas, she gave him a basketball signed by the Miami Heat, his favorite team. She had to give up an arm and a leg for it but it was worth it, because that was the only time she had trumped his present and she gloated wholeheartedly for a week after that – and because they were pink. "Thanks," she said, "I like them too," she added, then wanted to punch herself for sounding incredibly dorky.

Sendoh nodded. "I'll bet you do," he said, "where'd you get it?"

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Why?" she asked teasingly, "you want one yourself?"

Sendoh laughed and shook his head quickly, "No, no, no," he said, "I have a cousin, it's her birthday on the weekend, and she likes pink so …"

Kira nodded, secretly relieved. It just won't seem right if Sendoh Akira, star player of the Ryonan basketball team, liked pink headphones. "Oh," she said, "well in that case you'd have to ask Kaede," they were walking together now, though neither of them seemed to notice that fact nor where they were going, "he got me these," she gestured to the headphones, "last Christmas."

Sendoh's eyebrows raised. "Really?" he asked. Kira nodded, smiling. "Wow, Rukawa huh, actually buying pink headphones."

Kira grinned. "Well you will too once you find out where he bought these," she answered. "Wonder what the cashiers would think?"

Sendoh looked at her. "Haha," he said sarcastically.

Kira looked at him. He was still looking at the headphones and she wondered exactly why. "Er," she said, "you okay Sendoh?"

"Call me Akira," he said, grinning, "Rukawa really gave that?"

Kira nodded vigorously, a small frown forming in her face. "It's not that hard to believe you know," she said, hoping she didn't sound rude.

"I didn't mean to sound so disbelieving – "

"Well you kinda are," she answered, then raised the eyebrows. "He's not as bad as you think, you know, Kaede, he's really nice, and always gives nice presents."

"Does he?" asked Sendoh indifferently, as if he didn't particularly wanted to talk about Rukawa at the moment, but he was the one who raised the subject of headphones, and Rukawa did give it to her, so this wasn't her fault.

She continued on. "Hmm," she said, "on my last birthday, he gave a leather bound journal, and the complete set of Roald Dahl books."

"That's nice of him," said Sendoh, who still looked like he didn't think of Rukawa as the generous type. Kira was starting to feel a bit pissed off at him, but then this was her crush, one that she had looked longingly at like some expensive stuff toy (which coincidentally Rukawa has also managed to give, two Christmases ago, a large and very adorable lion), and this thought in her mind made her feel a little more happy that Sendoh was walking beside her though she had no idea where they were going, they were just walking, plus he kept smiling at her a whole lot. "So when is your birthday?"

"Oh, far away," she answered.

"When?"

"August 10," she said, "months and months away."

Sendoh smiled, "August ten, right," he said, as if making a mental note. "got it, and I won't forget, promise."

Kira smiled, then suddenly looked around and said in surprise. "Oh, this is my house," she said, giggling, "good thing I looked around eh?"

Sendoh nodded and looked at her house. It was the normal middle class family house, wide and open, but not so large, the windows were all closed and the house was dark.

"My parents are out at work," she said, looking at Sendoh, "so I have the key to the house." She was fighting whether she should let Sendoh in, but they haven't even gone out yet and already she would let him in? To find something else to say, she pointed at the house next door, "that there is Kaede's house."

Sendoh turned to the right, and saw the other house, his eyes widening a bit. The house surprised Kira at the beginning too. It was easily more than twice the size of her own house and everything looked like it was made of marble.

It didn't just look big from the outside, it was incredibly huge on the inside. When she and Kaede were six, he invited her in his house and was in awe at how large it was. They spent a good long hour playing one single game of hide and seek, Kaede was it, and she thought he had given up on her, but then she found out that there were so many places to hide he had been looking all this time. He evn had some of the maids go and help him.

Kira saw the look in Sendoh's face. "I know," she said, grinning at him as he looked at her. "When I first went there, I lost Kaede and got lost. Mind you, I was six."

Sendoh grinned back, then his watch rang. He looked at it, then sighed. "I have to go back," he said, looking at her, "Uozmi's scheduled practice now and I'll be late."

Kira nodded. "Go ahead," she said, secretly relieved that she didn't have to think about inviting him to come in her house. "Thanks for, er, walking me home." Kira suddenly had the notion that that was what he really wanted to do.

Sendoh's smile seemed to suggest that this was so. "My pleasure," he said, waving goodbye. "Bye then."

"See you around then," she said.

"I certainly hope so!" he cried before running all the way back to school.

Kira couldn't help but grin as she pushed her key in the door. She opened the door excitedly and rushed to her room, intent on telling someone the events that just happened, and since Kaede won't be home until later tonight, and he probably won't like it, butshe'll tell anyway,she would tell her adorable lion, which she calls Kae-chan, who we all know is named after the giver. She didn't think that there was anything wrong with talking to adorable toy lions, especially when the lion itself was as large as you.