Chapter 2- The Journey Back Home!
Every pair of eyes turned and stared at the two newcomers, emerging from the elevator with their overnight bags over their shoulders. They were none other than the famous Touya 3dan and Shindou 1dan from the Japan Go team. Both of them appeared slightly flustered to the other players, who had been wondering on their whereabouts earlier on.
'God, I can't believe I overslept...' Touya thought, trying to keep his cool. It was not an easy task, considering the fact that he could feel eyes upon him with every step he took. He darted a glance in Shindou's direction, only to find the latter looking exceptionally at ease despite facing an irritated Waya. Forcing on an expression of indifference, Touya hurried to apologize to Kurata for their tardiness.
Kurata asked, frowning at them, "Now, care to explain the reason the two of you were late?"
Before he could react, Shindou blurted out, in public, that they'd overslept. Touya fought the urge to strangle Shindou right there as most of the Japanese Go professionals turned their eyes on him. After all, his punctuality was legendary, the only exception being the time he'd forfeited a match to play against Sai on the 'net.
"Touya..."
"Yes, Kurata-San?" he answered calmly as he fought against the blush that was slowly creeping across his face.
"Are you sure that you overslept?" Kurata asked, staring at him with wide eyes. "I mean, I would expect something like that from Shindou, but the idea of you doing that is just absurd."
Touya apologized again for being late, wishing he could just dig a hole and hide in it. When Shindou attempted to start a conversation, he glared. If looks could kill, Shindou would have dropped dead on the spot, but he knew Shindou wasn't one to be chased away by a hostile expression.
He watched as Shindou approached him with ease, totally oblivious to the look. Obviously Shindou wasn't going to leave him alone.
"Shindou, just shut up already!" Touya yelled, losing his cool.
Their argument took the majority of the other players by surprise, but that wasn't unusual. Few people knew about Shindou and Touya's rivalry, so they were surprised to see the prodigy lose his cool. But even though Isumi and Waya knew of their rivalry, they were still shocked by his reaction.
Shindou blinked twice and asked in return "Why are you yelling at me?"
"Are you trying to humiliate me even more?" he shot back while clenching his fists and trying to calm himself down.
"Humiliate? Excuse me, I'm just explaining why we were late. It's not my fault you overslept, you know?" Shindou said dryly.
"Not your fault? Of course it's your fault! If you hadn't broken my alarm clock yesterday morning, I wouldn't have overslept today, now would I?" he exploded.
"Yeah, and if you hadn't put your alarm clock by the edge of the table, I wouldn't have broken it! So it's still /your/ fault!"
As they continued glaring at each other, Yashiro sighed and intervened for the third time that week.
"Shindou-san, Touya-san... please continue your argument back on your own time. You guys are attracting a lot of attention."
Both of them settled themselves on the bus without a word uttered to each other throughout the journey back home. Shindou went back to the task of sleeping while Touya kept apologizing to everyone on their childish behavior.
to be continued
date completed: 18/02/05
date revised: 31/03/05