AN: Konnichiwa! I have returned with a new chapter of Summer's End! I apologize for dragging on and on when it comes to updating, but I am trying my hardest to be prompt with my updates and at the same time, write a good story. I certainly hope you enjoy this chapter!
CHAPTER 10
"Searching For 'Yuki' "
To be disturbed in a pleasant dream...
...is unforgivable...
In the early wakes of dawn, a young, gray-haired boy sat on the steps of the back patio of the shelter. Instead of basking in the sun and enjoying nature's greeting, he was using his portable communicative device to reach someone who could guide him to a certain place.
"What do you mean that person is gone? When could we meet?" he asked calmly, yet intensely. A moment of hesitation came upon him as he listened to the voice on the other end. "Ah, I see. Okay, then I'll make an appointment, then. My name? Souma Yuki. I was one of ...uh... the 'models'. Thank you, miss. I'll be at the corporate office at four."
click
The boy let out a huge sigh from his effort. "I certainly hope that person could help us," he thought out loud. "He knows Wantu-san pretty well, ne?"
"If he doesn't help, we'll make him," another boy's voice answered his uncertainty. He walked up and sat next to the other boy. "Anyways, that person shouldn't have left us unsupervised with a stranger...although, that person is a strange one, also..."
"Kakeru, I already set up an appointment with that person. We're going to the main city to find information on getting those pictures back."
"Already? Oh man!" Kakeru whined.
"What's wrong," his friend questioned.
"We couldn't use secret devices and use our color code names... 'Agent Red'?" a huge, silly grin was plastered across Kakeru's face.
"This is no time to be a moron," the so-called 'Agent Red' reflected the opposing expression of his counterpart. "We have to get them back quicky, before they are processed. What horror..."
Kakeru quickly shifted to his serious mode. "Alright, Yun-Yun. Till then, relax a bit, okay?" He patted the boy lightly on the back and smiled lightly.
"Alright," the other boy smiled back, faintly.
"Uwwaa! Yun-Yun already prepared for our search!" Kimi beamed after she heard of the plan. The four teens were sitting outside at the picnic benches, enjoying the afternoon meal. "Your very assertive, Yun-Yun! Kimi likes assertive men like Yun-Yun!"
"Eh...eto...I wasn't assertive at all," Yuki sweated at Kimi's sudden outburst of praise on to him.
"Kimi likes Yun-Yun still!" she continued. "Yun-Yun's smart, beautiful, charming..." A light bonk landed on her head before she could finish.
"Itai! (Ow!)" she whined, while rubbing her head.
"We all get it, Kimi-chan! If you continue on, Machi's going to think you are trying to entice her lover!"
BAM!
"Owwieee!" Kakeru cried. He looked over across from him to see a fiery red face from the mentioned girl. "I was just teasing, Machi! You don't have go all postal on me! I was actually defending you!"
"It's best to keep unnecessary mentioning to yourself!" she snapped.
"So you were jealous of Kimi-chan?" he continued taunting.
"Damare!(Don't say anything!)" the girl yelled. The boy next to her ignored the incompetent remarks from her brother and quietly smiled at his beloved.
Lately, she has been more responsive. It makes me happy because it's proof that she's found her comfort zone with us...her friends.
"We all should get ready to depart for the city," he informed the group as he rose from his seat. "Although, the appointment time is four, we should leave early to find the place."
Around the hour of two and a half, the four adolescents drove from the quiet atmosphere of their summer home to the noisy surroundings of a busy city. During the drive, the driver and the front seat passenger were battling for the radio stations of their choice, while the backseat passengers watched.
"No, no Kimi-chan! Zanjou 45.9 has more variety! Change back!" the driver whined directly at the girl next to him, while he tried to keep his attention to the road.
"Kimi likes Sujsuki 70.6! It got Kimi's songs! It's better! Kimi likes it better than Kakeru-channns!" the girl whined back. At that argument the driver press the SCAN button to change stations. The girl responded by pressing the button again. The driver also repeated the action with a fierce look of determination on his face.
Behind the bickering ones, were their quiet counterparts, who started to pick up the annoyance from the front. The boy in the back reached over between the two and switched to a random station of no one's choice.
"We'll chose this one and lets leave it as that!" he snapped. He sat back into his seat with his arms crossed. The two in the front looked at each other and looked at the radio. The contraption was playing a slow, but rock-ish type of j-song.
"Hey! This is the new single from that newcomer...ano, what's her name?" Kimi asked Kakeru.
"I don't remember either, but it sounds good!" he grinned. "Nice choice, Yun-Yun!" he complimented the boy in the back.
"As long it keeps it quiet," the boy replied in a calm, but 'obviously annoyed' tone.
"It's called 'Summer's End' by Miako Niho," the girl next to him finally spoken since the group departed.
"Eh?" Yuki was baffled by the girl's sudden words. Summer's End?
"Kyaaa! Kimi wants her CD!" the other girl chimed.
"Wow, Machi, I didn't know you are into this type of thing," Kakeru commented.
"I am not," Machi responded cooly. "I heard it when we were at the photo shoot."
"S-Summer's End?" Yuki questioned.
"Yes," Machi answered briefly and turned away. Yuki looked away from her and stared at the radio in front of him.
Is this too good to be true or has 'he' heard it before?
He stood quietly as he listened to the last verse of the song:
In days close to ending,
Will it again be you, me and the sea?
As we close the book of memories made,
as precious friends and lovers of warm days,
Promise to never let go as long the sun rise;
May our bond never die.
"May our bond never die," Yuki repeated the last fragment under his breath
I never thought that time could pass at a instant. Only five more days to go.
Once the teen arrived to a blocks of tall skyscrapers, the driver slowed down to look for the building. "What's the number again?" he asked.
"Seventeen-thirty-six," Yuki answered while he looked for the building, also.
The search went on for another ten minutes until Kakeru saw a fancy, glass-like building with the words BONSHI-BONSHI PUBLICATIONS in neon green letters and the huge, black numbers 1-7-3-6 over the entrance.
"Here we are!" he announced.
"Alright! Let's park and start investigating" Yuki uncharacteristically jumped with excitement.
"Yeah! School Defense Corps! Ho!" Kakeru called out as he drove to the parking garage across the street.
"Uwaaa! It's huge!" Kimi commented out loud as the group entered through the sliding doors. The building stands seventy-two stories tall, decorated with glass structures for windows and steel railings along the balconies, spiraling up. There were banners of advertisements hanging from the railings. While the girls were looking upward, the boys headed straight for the receptionist desk.
"How could I help you?" the young receptionist asked without looking.
"Ano, we have an four 'o clock with Tapo-chan from 'Fab Mag'," Yuki responded.
"Your...aah..." the girl came to a halt when she noticed the young man. "Oh my! It's you! You're so beautiful!" she exclaimed with a fully flushed face. Her eyes sparkled so brightly in the slightly lighted area. " I'll inform Tapo-san right away! Kyaa!" the girl stepped away to her phone, still in blush mode.
"It looks like the pictures are already out," Kakeru said. "For the magazine, I mean."
"That's not good, considering those pictures," Yuki sweated.
"What did you two do anyways?" Kakeru asked in suspicion. "You did not do it did you? HUH?"
"We did not do that!" Yuki fumed along with a heated face.
"Oh yeah! Maybe the proof is in the pictures, ne?" the other boy argued back.
"Want to say more!" Yuki reached over and grabbed Kakeru's neck. "I'll choke you!"
"Bring it on!" Kakeru said as he also gripped his opponent's neck.
"Ah!" the receptionist was startled when she faced the two fighting men. "Sumimasen! Sumimasen! Tapo-san will see you now!" she yelled over the two.
"Oh! Gomen!" Yuki stopped his actions, immediately apologize to the receptionist and motioned to the girls to come over.
"Tapo-san is on the forty-seventh floor and the elevators are right behind us! Have a nice day!" she directed.
"Thanks, Miss!" Yuki said. The group followed him to the elevators to go up to the floor number forty-seven.
"I can't believe you actually spoke to him," another receptionist commented after the group departed.
"I know, right?" the girl giggled.
As the elevator rises to the forty-seventh floor, the two boys and two girls enjoyed the view of the complex.
"Kimi wonders how much money does the chairman of this place makes and if he would let Kimi be his secretary?"
"I don't think your intentions are what they are looking for," Kakeru remarked.
"Kakeru-chan has no say if Kimi could be chairman secretary!" the girl retorted lightly.
"Who said that the chairman is looking for a secretary anyways?" Yuki inserted his remarks, although he thought this was an absurd conversation.
"Oh! That's right! Kimi's being silly! Silly Kimi! Kimi's already Yun-Yun's secretary! Was Yun-Yun afraid to lose Kimi? Mmm?" the girl leaned in closer to Yuki.
"That's not it, Kimi," Yuki replied. The quiet one next to him, mentally shook her head of the nonsense of the conversation.
The group exited the elevator to the forty - seventh floor and walked down a narrow, curved hallway to a pair of black doors.
"Alright, let's get this over and done with!" Yuki said as he opened one of the two doors. He quietly entered like a mouse (no pun intended) with three other following him. The first thing in his view were different displays of magazine covers, featuring other models and stars; decorating the reception area, along with leather couches and a coffee table. Kimi walked over to view them, while Machi followed, only to be seated. Yuki and Kakeru walked toanother reception desk with an older woman talking on the phone.
"Yeah, yeah. That's just to bad...Okay, call me in twenty," she ended her call and wrote something down.
"S-Sumimasen," Yuki nervously said.
"Mmm?" the woman looked up and smiled, "How could I help you, um..."
"Oh, Sohma Yuki. I have an four o' clock with Tapo-chan," he replied.
"Four o'clock? Hmm...oh...I think we spoke before," she recalled. She pressed the button of the pager and spoke, "Tapo-san, Sohma-san had arrived to speak with you. Shall I send him back?"
"SEND HIM ASAP!" a quick reply sounded from the pager.
"Right away! You may go on back, Sohma-san!" she directed.
"Arigato, obasan," Yuki bowed. "Oy, Kimi, Machi, let's go!" he called out to the girls. The girls left their spots and followed Yuki and Kakeru to the double doors ahead.
"KONNICHIWA, MINNA-SAN! COME! COME INTO MY HUMBLE BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT!" greeted the awaited editor/ model coordinator of Fab Mag. That person was sitting behind a modern, glass-top desk, which was very neat with everything in place. The rest of that person's office was decorated overtly with pictures of self with celebrities, models and random people, along with the colors of black and white.
"Eh-heh, thanks for seeing us at such notice, Tapo-chan" Yuki laughed nervously a little after 'that person's' exuberant greeting.
"NO PROBLEM, YUKI-CHAN! PLEASE TAKE A SEAT AND LET'S CHAT!" Tapo directed the four guests to the couches nearby the desk. Yuki and Machi sat in one, while Kakeru and Kimi sat in the other. Tapo sat in a comfortable seat, which accompanies the couches. "NOW, WHAT COULD MOI DO FOR YUKI-CHAN?"
"Um...eto...you see..." Yuki spoke as he thought of how to put it into words for the magazine editor.
"He wants his naughty pictures back!" Kakeru suddenly said without caution of the words.
"Naughty pictures?" Tapo said in his smallest voice. "What naughty..."
"There are none!" Yuki yelled in defense. "And you," he pointed to Kakeru, "keep your nonsense to yourself!" he seethed.
"It's not like you are going to say it!" Kakeru retorted.
The girl sitting next to Yuki blushed profusely and turned away. The boy gave himself a moment to settle down. "You see, Tapo-chan, our contract has been violated by Wantu-san. He took unnecessary pictures without our permission" He banged his fist on the glass coffee table tensely, although he didn't put a crack in it.
"Naughty pictures?" that person questioned again.
"It was not like that!" Yuki grew impatient again. He put his hand over his eyes and forehead in frustration. "Gomen," he sternly apologized, "We just want the unauthorized pictures back."
"Hmm..." Tapo tapped a index finger on the chin as he appeared to be thinking. The tachi (group) watched as they awaited for a answer. "YOU WILL HAVE TO RETRIEVE THOSE FROM WANTU-SAN!" Tapo finally spoke and reverted back to his loud self.
"That's what we are hoping to find out from you," Yuki said. He was feeling unsure if that person could help them.
"THAT'S SIMPLE AS VISITING A PHOTO GALLERY, LITERALLY SPEAKING!" Tapo chimed.
"Huh?" Yuki questioned. "Photo gallery? Do you knowwhere that is?"
"YUKI-CHAN! I AM SO HAPPY THAT YOU ARE HERE!" Tapo got up with his arms wide open. " THE GALLERY WILL OPEN IN A HALF-HOUR, FEATURING Y-U-K-I! WHAT WILL BE MORE THAN PERRRRFECT IF HE WERE TO SHOW IN PERSON!"
"What?" Yuki jumped and perplexed over the sudden announcement. "Y-You mean, it's already done?" he pointed his index to Tapo.
"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, MY YOUNG PROTÉGÉ! YOU ARE GOING TO BE IT! YOU ARE THE GALLERY!"
Yuki stood very still with his shirt clenched tightly with an stern grip. A look of mortification was displayed on his featured face.
"Oh my, Yun-Yun is a walking photograph," Kakeru joked. "Shall we go see him?"
How disturbing it is to be departed from a dream into a living nightmare...
...with your hidden dreams...
VIEWED BY THE WORLD!