4th Chapter

I've dreamt of something last night.

I was walking on a field filled with tall and gigantic sunflowers, surrounding me. It was bizarre. In that dream; I just kept walking and walking without stopping. However, the weirdest thing is that, there was someone walking with me and that person was holding my hand. That person's hand was cold but held my tiny little hand so gently.

The gentleness of that hand was so familiar yet I can't remember who owned that hand.

"Miss Nagayama! How long are you going to ignore me and daydream?!"

Damn this teacher. It was far better daydreaming than listening to him. He really sucks at teaching Japanese History. He's talking way too fast that he sometimes sounds like he's eating what he was saying. Who would listen to that?

"Trying to ignore me eh? Here's a detention slip!"

He slammed the slip on my table and walked away from me, resuming his 'lecture'. I guess he can't really see that I wasn't the only who is not listening to whatever he was saying.

It is not that I dislike Japanese History nor get bored by it in fact, it's one of my favorite subjects and I always ace it. I just don't like the teacher himself. He's as interesting as finding a needle in a haystack and as fun as defeating your own reflection in a game of rock-paper-scissors in a mirror. You know what they say; 'A student learns more and efficient if the teacher is enjoyable and interesting.'

I can't really ignore this detention slip, might as well get over with this thing.

"Fuu, you aren't planning going to Detention?" one of my female classmates asked, concern seen on her face.

I nod, "Yeah. If I don't go there, that old senile douche bag is going to yell at me until my ear comes off tomorrow."

"No Fuu." she grabbed on to my sleeve, "Don't go there! It's dangerous and it's horrible!"

"She's right." another classmate of mine butted in, "You should really ditch detention rather than going there."

"Why are you so afraid of me going there?"

The two of them looked at each other and gulped at the same time. "The Guidance Councilor is a dangerous man."

From what I gathered from them, he's a creepy man who preys on female students that comes to detention. He'll remember your name and face, but in a completely weird reason. Some girls who had been sent to detention said that there were times where it's like they're being preyed at by the way he's looking at them.

"Geez, you worry too much. As if that man will look at me."

Last time I checked people do not check me out that much because of me having zero feminine charm. As much as I admit it, it's what saves me from constantly being groped in the train.

"Well, gotta go."

"But-"

I just left.

Like hell a man will have an interest to me. Sexy, big busted, well-endowed and, beautiful. I don't possess those kinds of traits. I'm really envious at the girls in my age. You could see that they were really hit by puberty while me, I do not even know if I did undergone the process of puberty.

I'm really stupid, letting such trivial things in my head. If mom was alive, she's going to say that I'm beautiful and what people think of me doesn't reflect who I am. Mom... I really miss her. Thinking about her now reminds me of the dream I dreamt. I couldn't tell if the one's holding my hand was my mom or my dad.

Dad...

Why did my thoughts suddenly drift to him?

My father disappeared when I was a child, leaving me with my mother until she died. When I was young, my mother would always tell stories of how much of an amazing policeman my father was, that he had a strong sense of justice. I wanted to admire him because of my mother's stories but I cannot bring myself to do it. When he didn't return to us for so long, I started to think that he's dead and he will never return to us. Not until Jin appeared to me after my mom died of an illness two years ago. He told me that father is alive the day he picked me up from my school.

I tried to ask him my father's whereabouts but even he was clueless. He said that the car just appeared in front of his house with notes and proof that he's alive. I don't want to believe him at first but when Jin showed me the note itself, I said otherwise.

Sunflowers. My father had always liked sunflowers for some reason, not to mention that he smells like one, not in the literal sense though. Nobody knew this except his own family. The scent of sunflowers are one of the things that reminds me of him, the other one is the tanto with multiple charms dangling on its hilt. Those two might remind me of him however, I cannot remember what he looked like anymore so I end up imagining that he's a huge man who is strong and capable of doing anything, an image of a person whom can protect everyone. Isn't one of the roles of being a father is to protect their child from danger? However, in my case, Jin is the one doing the obligation and responsibility that he was suppose to do.

It doesn't matter anymore, he's not here, he can't hear me and I cannot knock some sense to that man. If he wants to hide forever, until he dies, it does not concern me no more.

"Hey Fuu."

I turned around to see the person who called me from behind, "Hey." I replied weakly.

He gave me a small smile, "I heard that you were given a slip. Did you go to Detention?"

I thought to myself for a second and dwelled on the stuff that my classmates just told me. They were seriously concerned at me and are geniunely scared. Maybe I'm being way too careless to think that because of something like having no feminine charm makes me immune from being harassed and abused. There are different kinds of monsters lurking around.

I shook my head, "nah. I changed my mind. I'll ditch it after all."

After hearing me, he let out a sigh of relief, "I'm glad that you won't. You'll become a victim yourself if you did. You don't know who you are going against."

Don't tell me he's afraid of that man too. Just who is he that he can strike fear not only to female students but to male students too?

"Never mind that, where were you whole day? I didn't see you all day, not even your shadow."

"Here and there."

I arched an eyebrow. I know what he meant by 'here and there', it meant that he's busy doing his 'job' and that job is to pickpocket unsuspecting people. Sometimes I forget how the two of us have met.

"Shinsuke, didn't I tell you that you should stop mugging people?"

He looked away, "I can't. Mother's medicines had become more expensive than before."

I can't really scold Shinsuke about his method of getting a huge sum of money even if it is wrong. It is indeed had become hard for him to obtain money needed for his mother's medication. The money he needed can't be earned by the means of working part-time jobs or having a small sideline. I always visit auntie whenever I had the time so she won't be lonely with her son running here and there to get money. I even checked the prices of her new medicine and it was one heck of a set of numbers! It was almost enough to give me a heart attack and be admitted to that hospital.

I held his hand. "Shinsuke, you know that I'm helping your mother too so you don't need to skip classes to do your 'other job'."

He sighed, "I know. But, the amount we need is much bigger than before."

"We can do this. The doctor said that her health is actually getting better, you can even see how your mother's skin glowing better than before." I reassured him and squeezed his hand.

He just smiled at me in return but the worried and pained look he has still remained on his tired face. I'm glad that he's doing his 'other job' not too often unlike before. It took me back when the two of us first met.

That was a year ago. It's just so happen that I got lucky from gambling that day. I was just about to walk inside of a popular ramen shop that I've always wanted to visit when he bumped into me and took both my handmade purse and the white envelope from my clutches. I followed him and stumbled upon a small and almost run-down house.

When I heard his voice, I almost want to break the door to his house and give him a lesson for a lifetime but I abandoned that idea as soon as I heard a voice of an woman in between of her coughing fit. Curious about the two people inside, I looked at a small window.

I saw him, giving a medicine for his mother. It looked expensive. He probably used the money he stole from me to buy it. Seeing that it was for his mother, I let him keep the money. The day after that, before going to my school, I peeked at the window again and his mother saw me.

She had this suspicious look on her tired face but was immediately replaced with glee when she saw my uniform and mistakenly thought me as her son's girlfriend. I immediately told her that I was not but she's too busy being happy. She then told me that her son has gone already went to school, the same school as mine.

I was really surprised when I found out that he does attend the same school and class. He was the rumored mystery student who rarely attends classes.

As soon as the school bell rang, I went to him and confronted him about his job and his mother, and that brought us to this present day.

Both of us, most likely I forced him to, agreed on sending his mother to the hospital and to split the bill for the hospital expenses and medicine in exchange that he'll stop, or at least minimize, stealing from people before he could harm himself. The expenses for the hospital weren't that hard to pay since her late husband has a pension and she has a health card. The one that is a pain in the ass is her medicines, they are crazy expensive but can still be bought.

She and her son Shinsuke might not be related to me but I don't regret helping the two. Maybe the reason why I am helping so much is because something inside me, telling m e that I don't want Shinsuke to be like me, a kid who lost her mother. That's why, I'll work my butt off until auntie gets better which is not far from now. I really thank God for answering my prayers.

Little by little, her health is becoming better and her coughing fit disappeared. She even has the energy to tease us and insist that Shinsuke and I should get married after college.

Now that I think about it. With our situation, it certainly looked like that we are a married couple! Well, it wasn't so bad I guess. I'm sure that Shinsuke thought the same.

"I didn't know a washboard yourself is capable t'get a boyfriend."

That voice!

"Hey."

Dang, it really was him.


I'm back from the dead. I just wanted to say thanks for Gipsyduende for submitting an in-depth review. I really matched some of the scenes from the anime so the essence of originality of the trio won't disappear because it was set in modern times. I'm glad that you like the story so far. Thank you.

To others out there, feel free to submit a review. *wink* *wink*

Edit:
Date of Revision: 3/20/19

Date of Revision: 11/14/2022