Chapter 2
On the way back
"No, Emiko will stay with me a while, I need to have a talk with her. Go Miss Kaioh, your coach is right you'll get a cold." Interrupt M. Tenoh.
Haruka and Michiru looked surprised and a bit disappointed.
"Ok… I hope we'll meet again, Emiko." Said Michiru before to leave Haruka and her father alone.
As soon as Michiru was out of sight, Haruka's father began to bark at his daughter.
"What the hell were you thinking you were doing?"
"Nothing… what are you mad at me?"
"I saw the way you looked at her, Ruka! I'm not stupid, I'm a man, and you looked at her the way man would. And you think I would let you go with her in the girl's room? I think I gave you a better education… you are homosexual, Ok, I understand, but usually you don't act like as a man… I don't appreciate it; that's right. But don't abuse! You wanted to abuse her… to take advantage of her not knowing your real thoughts…"
"I… No… I just followed her because she took my hand… I just didn't thought of it…"
"Ruka… you're not the ideal daughter I wanted, but if you have to be a tomboy, to act like man, please at least be a gentleman, and not a rude pervert!"
"I… I'm not! I promise…"
"You looked in her low-cut, I saw it!"
"No... well maybe I did but…"
"Shut up! I won't hear any single word! I want you to go in the man's room and get changed in a minute!"
Haruka obeyed her father. She knew he wasn't a bad man. He had wanted her to be a girl, but her mother influence had been stronger, so now she was dead he tried to make her become a girl… he had nearly reached his aim… they had moved in the USA when she was ten, just after her mother death, and she had linked with some girls who had influenced her. At the age of 16 she was a cute girl in skirts and wearing her blond hairs long, using make-up and even having a boyfriend, but one evening when her father had come back home she had her long blond hairs cut and was wearing a man school uniform. Her father remembered perfectly that awful night.
(Flash back)
"Ruka? I'm home… Ruka? Ruka!"
The girl had emerged from her room and her father just saw her on the top of the stairs. She had cut her long blond hairs and was wearing a man school uniform. She really looked like a man.
"What did you do? Why?"
"I was just fed up."
"But… Ruka… You have a boyfriend… what does Nathan will think of… this."
"I'm not with him anymore… and all this girl stuff… men, lipstick, gossips and clothed annoyed me."
This night, Haruka's father knew something terrible had happened, but his daughter was like a wall, her glance was empty. He found her hairs on her bed, it seemed she had lost her nerves…He phoned her friends and found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her for a long time and that she just discovered it, and that he was saying everyone she was an awful tomboy and made fun of her with his friends… His father felt sorry for her, and once more he couldn't help himself but curse his wife memory. It was too late now… Haruka wasn't his daughter anymore, she was his son. He decided that same night that it was time to go back to Tokyo.
(End of the flash back)
This same day, Michiru finally accepted her coach offer to compete.
"Good decision, Miss Kaioh, you become reasonable at last. Maybe you'll soon become captain…"
"I just said I would compete, not that I would be your pet! I just want to compete, the captain has to spend too much time in thinking, I have no time for such a job. I'll be on the team to compete, so we'll always win, isn't it enough?"
"Well… it's your decision…"
On her way home, she was still thinking of Emiko, this girl was different of the others, and she had impressed her. She had heard her father tell she was a tomboy, and the poor seemed so uneasy, out of place. Michiru wanted to see her again, but in a different place, to see her in her full condition. But there was this strange sparkle in her eyes, and the way she felt as naked under her glare… Suddenly someone called her.
"Kaioh-chan! Wait for me, please!"
Michiru returned herself to see Ami Mizuno, running after her. She lived not from her house and was also part of the swimming team, she was not as good as her, but she was one of the best. Michiru had been surprised to see she had been defeated by Emiko.
"Mizuno-chan…"
"I wanted to congratulate you, this girl, Miss Tenoh… she defeated everyone except you, you saved the team, and with so much ease…"
"Well… I… I had luck, that's all…" Michiru blushed, she was a modest person.
"That wasn't luck… you seemed to… you were… like a dolphin, and she was a dog…"
"Mizuno-chan… you shouldn't…"
"That's not an insult, I mean… she wasn't in her element, but you was, she was strong and all… but you were more at ease. In fact all of us were worse than her, we're not less than dogs…"
Ami Mizuno laughed, Michiru couldn't help but follow her. She was
kind, but shy, and her sense of humour was cute but clumsy. Michiru liked her, but she was not fond of friendship, Mizuno had tried several times to talk with her but Michiru had always stayed cold.
"Everyone on the team is jealous of your talent. You know… every if them are training all the time, but you just swim at your rhythm, enjoying the contact of the water… but when the race begin you're faster than anyone."
Michiru became red with embarrassment.
"Well… I just have some gift with water things; I've always been like this. But you're pretty good; you're the best in the team. Everyone knows it, I'm an amateur, you're a pro."
"But you swim faster…"
"I've got an idea, learn me to be a pro, to train and everything, and we will train together, if you compete with me, you'll improve…"
"That would be great!"
Michiru left Ami when they arrived at her doorstep. She didn't know why she had made her this proposition… but the idea had just come to her mind naturally. But after all, it was not bad… It was a strange feeling… this contact with the others… she felt as though something had changed in her, for the first time she had made a real contact with one of her mates… not the first time… the first had been Emiko… She had felt as though her mind was clearing… as though a huge wind had passed through her soul… before she had just leaved in a world of silence… like in a deep ocean... now she was experiencing something else…
Haruka remained silent on all the way home with her father. She knew at the way he was driving that he was still mad at her. But suddenly, the most wonderful sight disturbed her… Michiru was walking home alone. She was wearing a white dress that let her legs appear till under her knees and blue-jean jacket. Her wonderful turquoise hairs were floating around her thin waist as she was walking.
"Dad… it is Miss Kaioh… look she is walking, we should drive to her home…"
"Did you lost you head?"
"What?"
"Look at yourself!"
Haruka was wearing her usual men clothes.
"You think she will smile at you? A girl you cross in a swimsuit in a pool isn't meant to become a man right after. You've got a secret to keep, no one knows that you are a girl. Youre crazy mother declared you as boy when you born."
"It is your fault… if I hadn't been in this stupid competition… I could be myself with her… then you are telling me I've got no chance to see her again… unless I become a girl again… you're unfair."
"I'm not, without this stupid competition you wouldn't have met hear, Ruka… and no, you can't be a girl in Tokyo's streets. The only way you can be a girl is to go back to the USA and we won't do it within years."
"Well you're scared everyone discovers that the great industrial Tenoh's son is a girl…"
"I'm not. I'd like you to be a girl."
"But I'm not. So what you are scared Is that everyone discover that your disappeared wife was mad and of the great scandal it would be… imagine the newspaper's headlines… " Tenoh's tomboy", "Tenoh's mad wife changed her daughter in a son" or… "how far men go to have sons: the story of miss Tenoh."
"Shut up, Haruka! Well, we can't take this simply because she won't recognize you… she saw a gorgeous girl in a swimsuit with wet haired stuck on her head. There is a handsome young man, well dressed and dry… and somewhat… masculine. No one could confound you with a girl, no one ever guessed… I see you as a girl because I'm your father… but well… sometimes I forget a little you are not my son…"
"Thanks dad."
They left Michiru come back home alone, to Haruka's great despair. She wondered whether she would see the turquoise-haired girl again… she wanted her to be her friend… she had no friend… but for the first time in two years, she wanted one. This girl was special… and attractive… but this was not the point, thought Haruka, trying to forget the sinful images she had of the girl. Her father was right she was becoming a rude and pervert man…
Author's note:
Thanks to the person who reviewed, I'm glad. If you really like it please continue to review… And if something's wrong or if you have comments tell it, please, it can only help the story to improve… thanks for reading.
