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Photograph

Chapter Three

Mira had brought all the pieces of her camera to a small repair shop in the mall, in the hope that there would be some way to fix it. She knew that it was a very long shot, but she couldn't help but try.

Her heart dropped like a stone. "There's nothing you can do?" she asked.

The man looked at her sympathetically. "Sorry, miss," he said, "there really is nothing. It's broken beyond repair."

She was afraid of that. She cursed silently. If she had only looked at where she was going, maybe this hadn't happened. How can she have been so stupid? Why couldn't just one of them had looked up and dodged out of the way in time for her camera not to break? She looked up in the heavens, a questioning look to the ceiling.

"I'm really sorry," he said, watching her closely with a sympathetic look that Mira despised in people. She hated it when people think that the right thing to do was pity her, she was just stubborn that way, "but I think that you should start thinking about getting a new camera."

If it was possible, her heart sank even farther. Buy a new camera, she thought, snorting inwardly, yeah, that would be as possible as having my parents get back together.

She thanked the man - she still had herrespects -and walked home crestfallen. She looked at the broken pieces in her hand. There goes more than a decade of savings, she thought gloomily, down the drain.

As she walked, she couldn't help but feel slightly angry at Sendoh. Why did he have to choose that particular time to walk in the hallway? But she did soften when she thought that he had offered to help, to pay for the damages, to pay for the camera.

During that time, that was what brought her back to her senses. She had vehemently refused him paying for anything, thinking that people can't possibly be trusted no matter how talented or popular they are. More so if they were talented and popular, she thought. She had grown up trusting no one but herself and she wasn't going to begin trusting someone just because they offered to pay for her digital camera.

This was just her being hard headed. She had lived a difficult life, having to deal with screaming parents, horrible scandals, and no friends. This caused her to rely on herself, because if she wasn't going to do it herself, she'll die. It seemed like such a hard philosophy for an eighteen year old, but then she does have a hard life.

Divo, her dog came bounding happily at her when she got back home. He was easily half her size and twice as adorable. He, of course, had no idea why Mira was being so gloomy, so she decided to give him a small smile and pat him lovingly as they entered her home.

She stood in front of the garbage can. She moved away from it just as quickly. She just didn't have the heart to throw it away.

Monday came and Sendoh locked his jaw as he entered the classroom. All throughout the weekend, whenever he wasn't playing basketball, he thought about what had happened in the hallway a week before. The girl's sad and pained look was etched in his brain and try as he might, it just wouldn't go away.

He was ridden with guilt and the only possible solution occurred to him yesterday: either he paid for the damage or he would replaced it with a new one.

Now, he wasn't the richest guy in the world. If he just as much money as Rukawa Kaede had –a fact that he learned through a certain girl not to be discussed at this time – then he wouldn't have any trouble going to the mall and buying a camera just like the one she had. Unfortunately, he didn't have the kind of money needed to pay for one of those, he checked on the mall the day before. That left only one other alternative.

"Hi," he said, sitting next to the blue streak haired girl.

She turned her head, which was then rested on her desk and stared at him with her cool blue eyes. She didn't answer him and his smile faltered when she didn't smile back.

"I was just wondering if you were okay," said Sendoh, trying again, his smile still bravely hitched back in his face.

This time, there was a flicker of surprise in the girl's face, and she managed a small smile. "I'm fine," she said quietly.

Sendoh heard whispers behind him from the other girls, but he ignored it.

"Don't you sit over there?" she asked, pointing at the chair he usually sits.

Sendoh smiled again. "Well, yeah, but I thought that maybe a little sitting rearrangement would do me good," he said. "I'm really sorry about your camera."

The girl shook her head. "It's okay, I'm sorry for hitting you."

Sendoh waved it off. "Is there any chance of fixing it?"

The girl nodded her head gloomily. "I checked," she said, "they told me to start looking for a new one."

Sendoh looked as crestfallen as she was. "I'm really sorry."

"Forget it," she said, resting her head on the desk again and looking extremely glum.

"Listen," said Sendoh, "I really would gladly pay for it, -"

The girl turned to him, a slightly irritated expression in her eyes. "I don't want your money," she said icily.

Sendoh was taken aback. It was such an icy tone that he hesitated whether he should do what he was about to do. "Well," he said slowly, "can I at least know your name?"

The girl studied him silently. After a while, he took out his hand and presented it to her, "I'm Sendoh. Sendoh Akira," he said, "what's your name?"

The girl looked at him for a second longer, then took his hand and shook it. "My name's Mira," she said. "Hiroshi Mira."

"Nice name," he said, fishing out something from his bag. Mira looked curiously at him. "Here," he said, handing over a silver digital camera, slightly bigger than the one she doesn't have anymore.

Mira didn't take it. "And what," she asked, eyebrows raised with a haughty expression in her face, "am I suppose to do with that?"

"It's yours to borrow," said Sendoh, "I borrowed it from my cousin, he doesn't use it much, and I thought it might serve a better purpose with you."

Mira glared at him. "I don't want your money," she said coldly, "so why the hell would you think I would want that?"

Sendoh's ever present smile faltered for the second time in fifteen minutes. "I'm only trying to –"

"I don't want your help," she said, "don't you get it?"

"But I thought since you love to take-"

"Listen to me Sendoh," she said bluntly, glaring at him and leaning in dangerously, "I've lived the past decade of my life fending for myself, never relying on anyone but me, since there's no one else that I can turn to. I've learned to trust no one but me and I'm not about to stop doing that and rely on someone like you just because you happen to have been there when my camera flew off my hands and broken into a thousand pieces. Now why don't you get that through your thick skull and leave me alone."

Sendoh felt highly offended, and placed the camera back in his bag. He glared at her slightly, and stood up. "I just thought that since you love photography so much you could let your pride down a notch," he snapped. "I'm only trying to help, to make you feel better."

"Well stop then," she answered, not looking at him.

He gave Mira one final look and stamped back to his seat by the window. He saw most of the girls in his class glare murderously at Mira, and though he couldn't help but feel irritated, he found that he wasn't angry.

Mira stared at him through those blue eyes. He saw that they weren't the cool blue eyes of someone who tries to hide everything about their life, but they were the icy blue eyes of someone who had suffered and been hardened by a difficult life.

Sendoh decided then and there that he wasn't about to give up on her. He didn't know what it was about her that made him so interested, but he was determined to find out.