I've been planning this chapter for months! Muahaha. I'm sorry to all you romance fans out there – romance really ISN'T my kind of thing but I'll try (in later chapters :P) because that's what my genre states! Enjoy!
x
Chapter 6
I got dressed into something more proper before realizing that my flatmate wasn't home. Just as well, this way Tadashi won't get the idea that we're living together.
What if he comes home when Tadashi reaches downstairs? I panicked.
No, it isn't Friday the 13th. Nothing will happen. Shush, I consoled myself.
I searched high and low for a note from Ru and finally found it stuck on my alarm clock.
Gone to school. I'll be back in the evening. Feeling better so get takoyaki, okay
Sigh.
Whatever.
Okay.
x
"Tokita-san?"
"Yup."
"You can come down now."
My heart almost leapt out of my throat as I grunted (why did I grunt?) my consent and prayed to the heavens before opening the door.
x
I found my heart falling along with the motion of the stuffy elevator as it descended onto the first storey with rapid speed.
Really. I kid you not.
I wasn't so caught up with Tadashi at that point of time but I was still nervous about being alone with him. I'm still a girl, all right?
Ding-dong! went the lift in its sickly happy voice, mocking me to get out and face Tadashi and probably barf.
This is it.
The doors parted to reveal a stunning pearl-white Vespa. That caught my eye before he did, serious. Well, it did stop me from barfing, but not embarrassing myself.
"You ride that baby to school?" I gasped the moment I approached.
Tadashi nodded, giving me a weird kind of grin at my choice of words.
"It's beautiful!" I beamed. Mom used to drive one and I totally idolized it.
She, of course, told me to keep my filthy hands to myself. (You know Mom.)
"Well, get on then," Tadashi flashed me a megawatt smile.
x
"You live here?" I raised my brows. After visiting Buckingham Palace when I was eight and then vowing to acquire it for 15 generations of my descendants, I thought that there was no other place I wanted to have for a home. But as I grew up I learnt that normal people earning normal money (like me) should just be happy with a roof over their heads. That's why I was surprised at what was before me.
A towering four-storey mansion was looming up in front of me as we drove past its front gates. For someone studying in a public school, Tadashi really didn't strike me as someone wealthy. Sure, he was always the neat kid with normal grades and a penchant for reading MotorWorld but that was pretty much how I perceived him.
The normal guy with the slightly immortal looks.
"Young Master, you're home," a middle-aged lady stepped off the steps to the porch where Tadashi stopped the scooter.
"This is Miura-san, our housekeeper," he whispered to me before smiling at the lady who had wrinkles the nice sort of way, if you get what I mean.
"Good afternoon, Miura-san," he greeted. "Could you please show my friend to the Red Room while I put this into the garage?" he gestured to the Vespa.
Miura-san nodded kindly and put a hand on my elbow, steering me towards the front doors of the massive house.
x
"They actually have so many rooms that they sort it by color?" I whispered to Miura-san as politely as I could.
Miura-san chortled, "No, dear. It's not like that. It's just more convenient to color code the rooms that don't really belong anywhere."
"What does that mean?"
"We have the Drawing Room, the Recreation Room, the Ballroom, the bedrooms – those are the 'important' rooms. The other rooms all have colors, like the Blue Room, which is actually the place where Master stores his DVDs, the Paisley Room, where Madam stores her fashion collection-"
As Miura-san went on, I muttered, "Oh boy, this is like a fairytale."
It was then we stopped in front of a red door.
And they tell me it's not sorted by color.
"Oh, we're here!" Miura-san gave me an embarrassed laugh as if she wanted to tell me she was sorry for rambling. I returned with a polite smile.
Miura-san pushed down the golden handle (read: GOLDEN handle) and the door swung open, revealing a grand piano standing in all its regality.
"Please have a seat, I believe Young Master will be coming soon," Miura-san nodded kindly.
I bowed and she left the room quietly, leaving me to take in my surroundings.
x
I sat myself down at the piano. It was closed, but even if it were open I wouldn't be able to play it. I never was as good at music as art. In fact, I was pretty horrible.
And what's more, I knew that opening up pianos that weren't your own wasn't polite. Especially in the home of the guy you happen to be in love with.
I stood up and walked to the display cupboard – it was made of wood, finely polished, and it looked really old but anyone could see it was well-maintained. In it were lots of black-and-white photos – it made me wonder which was Tadashi because none of the people inside the photos resembled him. They mostly featured kids. Um, to be more exact, they mostly featured the same kid.
Well, it couldn't be him. The photos looked too old and they probably dated back to the fifties, looking at what the little boy was wearing.
Wait.
This little boy looks a LOT like Ru.
"Tokita-san," I heard the door click open. Spinning around, I enthused, "You've been keeping a lot from people at school, haven't you?"
"Um, I take that as a compliment. Thank you," Tadashi replied with a somewhat nervous smile. He walked over to me and I asked, "Are these pictures of you?"
He stiffened. "No," he enunciated slowly, "These are of my father."
He looked up to meet my eyes and before I could look away, he whispered, "Hey."
"Hmm?" I felt my heart racing; we were just centimeters away from each other, so close-
"There," Tadashi let out a sigh of relief, after picking a spider off my hair, "all better."
The truth was, I wasn't really afraid of creepy crawlies besides, well, ants.
I just stared, dumbfounded, as Tadashi passed me and walked to a small, round coffee table under the window with two quaint carved wooden chairs facing each other. Recovering quickly, I followed in his wake, mentally kicking myself.
"So, what did you want to tell me today?" I said brightly, probably a tad bit over-enthusiastic in a bid to soothe my thumping heart.
Tadashi looked me squarely in the eye. "I'll get to the point," he leant back and closed his eyes.
My attempt to 'soothe my thumping heart' failed miserably and it simply escalated out of control.
He's gonna say he loves me and we'll marry and together we'll stay in this mansion have have twenty thousand chil-
"Stay away from Rukawa," his stare was fixated on me. And it wasn't a normal stare, it was an irate, bone-chilling stare that I somehow couldn't connect with Kawasaki Tadashi.
I responded in the most possible way – "Huh?"
Tadashi sighed, "I know he isn't your cousin."
Man, this guy a stalker or what?
"Remember the day you met me in Tokyo?" Tadashi gazed somewhere past my right ear, avoiding my puzzled frown.
"Yes," I replied slowly, not able to understand fully his purpose.
"You think I really couldn't remember his name?"
I held the breath that I just took in my lungs. What is this boy talking about!
Tadashi continued, "The moment you left, I stopped laughing."
"Why?" I asked, squriming a little at the memory of pushing Ru away frantically so I could avoid an awkward situation with Tadashi.
Ignoring my question, Tadashi continued, "That day during the basketball match you told me you both were ignoring each other. I was happy for you, Tokita-san. Rukawa is someone you don't want to mix with. Trust me."
I riled back at the hidden snarl in Tadashi's calm words.
Within those few seconds that I tried to conjure a reply to Tadashi, images of Ru flashed in my mind – Ru buying takoyaki for me on payday and saying that I could have most of it, Ru drawing a stupid sketch of me snoring on the sofa, Ru and I quarreling over who was to pay the food bill that month because who didn't flush the toilet how many times, Ru bringing home an injured kitten one day, Ru rushing out to play basketball after the kitten died after an infection, Ru and I burying the kitten in the park…
"Youdon't have a right to say that," I snapped back, aware that I was defending my flatmate aggressively enough to make Tadashi think Ru and I were more than friends.
"You don't know him well enough," Tadashi insisted, his voice becoming more urgent. "You're probably just a friend, no, an acquaintance to him, maybe, but I've known him longer than you have – I've known him almost all my life, and-"
I got up from my seat hotly, not wanting to hear anymore. "I don't care how long you've known him, Kawasaki-kun, but deep down he's a sincere, tender-hearted guy who cares for people in ways that they would never expect," I struggled to be civil. Tadashi was quiet, his gaze averted.
The silence in the room was placid but somehow, threatening.
Just tell him that you're Ru's flatmate, Angel Kaede pleaded.
No, don't – he may just be misunderstanding Ru! If you tell him that you live with his, uh, nemesis, or so it seems at this point, he'll never reconcile with you, ever! Either Ru dies or you die, Kaede! Devil Kaede cackled.
Kaede, you have to defend Ru! Angel Kaede sobbed.
No! If you tell him that you guys are flatmates, your hopes of a relationship with Tadashi will be lost forever! Devil Kaede giggled.
Angel Kaede whispered her final plea, Are you even sure that you love this boy, now that he has made these claims on Ru…?
Finally Tadashi spoke, "He fools women as well as he fools men, I can see that. How deep do you know him?"
I did not want to face Tadashi. Was the guy that I had fallen for actually saying all these unkind words about Ru? How could any of it be true?
"Look, Kawasaki-kun, I have no idea where you got all these misconceptions about him from, but trust me, the Rukawa I know isn't like that, okay?" I wheezed, slumping down into my seat, suddenly exhausted with all the drama. "Why are you telling me all this anyway?" I questioned, irritated at Tadashi's persistence in getting me to believe that Ru was from the Dark Side and he and I were allies of the Realm of Light or something.
"You're my… friend," he seemed to step around his words. I snorted at his explanation.
Tadashi tried again, "I don't want you to get hurt by him. You're always around him when I see you out of school, and I thought that you're obsessed with him and I know what kind of person he is and I know what kind of person you are so…"
"So you don't have to dictate what I want to do and what kind of friends I choose, if you know what kind of person I am," I spat.
'Obsessed with him'? Bad choice of words, Kawasaki.
"I'm not dictating you," Tadashi's eyes widened as he whispered this, obviously horrified that I had thought of something like that. I felt guilty for misreading his intentions, but still – he was insulting my best friend!
"Well it sure looked that way!" I feigned annoyance to mask my guilt.
"I'm trying to protect you!" Tadashi cried, wringing his hands in despair.
"I won't be able to understand what the heck is going on unless you tell me why you're making all these claims on him."
Tadashi's arched eyebrows drew together – he was uneasy.
"Just tell me, will you?" I wanted to go up and shake him till his teeth rattled, but I didn't want to make things worse.
"I… can't."
"My goodness, isn't it hard for you?" I muttered sarcastically.
Tadashi stared at me sadly for a few moments before looking away. I sighed, turned on my heel and trudged out.
Never once did I look back.
x
Somehow, I wasn't so sure that I was in love with Tadashi anymore. What's more, a little voice kept berating me in my head, saying that I was selfish not to say that Ru was my flatmate I am the ultimatum when it comes to knowing how he is and I kept the truth just because I wanted to see if Tadashi and I could still be together in the future.
I shut my eyes tight.
Who are you, Tadashi? Why are you so freaking rich? Why are you so set against Ru? What has he done to you?
"Toki…"
My eyelids flitted open.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
With that Ru walked away from my bunk. I just looked as his figure moved out of the room, casting a shadow on our linoleum floor.
What was that for? I asked myself, bewildered.
I was hardly charged up after last night, nursing Ru, and I slept for four hours straight after running home from the Akamiya Estate this afternoon but it wasn't enough to ease the fatigue. I clambered down from my bunk.
"Ru?" I trudged out of the bedroom to The Back, where Ru was working on his proposal. "Sorry I didn't get the takoyaki."
Ru gave a grunt which meant, "It's okay."
"Um, what was that 'thank you' for?"
Ru turned and pointed to the easel, and I blushed. "Oh, that," I gave a frantic mop of my forehead even though there was no sweat, "That's nothing."
I really get uncomfortable when people 'discover' my work. It's like stealing in on something that's private, you know? And they manage to give critiques even before I have a chance to explain what it's about and all that.
"It's something," Ru said softly, still working on his concept sheet, his hand moving deftly across the paper. "Encouragement, Toki," he shrugged, "That's what it is."
He spun to look at me, his eyes telling me he really liked it.
"You don't usually talk so much about a piece of art, you know," I laughed, drawing my chair up beside him.
"I only talk when I am involved in the piece of art, and seeing that the artist has chosen to draw me, of course I have things to say," his concentration moved back to his storyboard.
I could see the hint of tugging at the corners of his lips, but that's how he communicates, I guess. He gives this sort of half-smile that doesn't even qualify as a half-smile… But it's worth it to even have that. I loved this boy, but I didn't fall in love with him. I loved him as I loved Matsu, and that was what made it special.
I looked at him in wonder, This guy drawing in front of me is someone I mentored, someone I watched open up to me, someone who loves his family enough to sacrifice all that he has.
There is no way, no way at all, that what Tadashi said was true.
"I think your drawing skills have dipped, though. My cheeks look too round," he noted solemnly.
I hit him in response and exclaimed, "You try doing shades in oils!"
He pushed my forehead back lightly and muttered, "Do'ahou," before going back to his work.
No freaking way.
x
"Ru," I tried to sound casual that evening as he was brushing his teeth, "do you know Kawasaki-kun very well? As in, from junior high?"
Ru shrugged.
I took that as a no.
"But you certainly did hear about him right? I mean, he's good looking and everything," I pressed on, thankful that Ru thought that I was being interested in Tadashi that's why I was asking.
Ru stopped brushing and turned to look at me. His was literally foaming at the mouth and looked as if he had rabies.
Then he pointed to himself, let the finger linger for a few brief seconds, before turning back to brush his teeth.
That meant, "So am I."
I made a face and said, "You're such a male! But seriously, was he popular in school?"
Ru gave a shrug.
This probably indicated that Ru didn't know because he was asleep most of the time in school. One more point to the drooling flatmate, ping ping ping.
"Well," I fretted, "do any of your other friends know about Kawasaki-kun when he was in junior high?"
Ru seemed a little weird at this point, irritated even. He rinsed his mouth and plonked the toothbrush into the container a little harder than he needed to and turned slowly to face me.
"I don't know," he mumbled, walking past me and saying, "Your turn."
My eyebrows furrowed at his sudden change in attitude and I absent-mindedly picked up my toothbrush. Why was he being so pissy?
I fingered my toothbrush absent-mindedly and then I suddenly realized something about it. It was my toothbrush, all right, but it was wet. I touched the other toothbrush, and it was… dry. Which meant…
"OI! YOU SLIMY DROOL BALL! WHY DID YOU USE MY TOOTHBRUSH? THAT WAS MY FIRST KISS!"
Sigh. Men.
