Even with the car fuselage now acting as a shield separating him from the deluge of rain, Mark was drenched to the point where he couldn't tell whether he was still out in the middle of the storm or not.
He shook his head from side to side, sending droplets of clear liquid in every direction. "What were you thinking walking home in this, Mark?" Miss Satomi asked him bluntly.
Mark ran his hands over his face in an attempt to dry his skin off and mumbled, "Well, there wasn't a bus in sight and I didn't want to have to walk all the way across town from the mechanic shop, so…" He glanced at her; the corner of her mouth was curved up ever so slightly into a smirk. He sighed. "Okay…it was really stupid."
"All you had to do was ask for a ride," Miss Satomi interjected.
"I thought you were still working," he responded. "I didn't want to disturb you."
"It wouldn't have been a disturbance," she maintained. "I would've gladly given you a ride home if you had asked."
He sat back against the passenger seat, his back cool due to the water that had soaked into his shirt. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind from now on, then," he said, smiling.
She narrowed her eyes. "Don't even think of considering me being your private chauffer, Mark."
"I wouldn't even think of it." He chuckled. "I am really glad that you stopped for me, though," he admitted.
She smiled again. "Well, I couldn't just let you walk home in the rain, now could I?" He smiled in return. For some reason, just seeing her smile made him want to.
She turned back toward the front wind-shield and placed her hands on the steering wheel. "So where's your place?"
"About a mile and a half away," he said. "Do you know the apartments by the library?" She nodded. "That's where I live."
Miss Satomi pressed the accelerator and the car smoothly moved forward. The engine hummed subtly but powerfully and Mark then took the time to admire just how nice of a car he was riding in.
Compared to his own vehicle, Miss Satomi's car was superior in every aspect imaginable by leaps and bounds. Coated a bright cherry red, the sports car, from Mark's simple vantage point, contained a high-performance engine that could propel a car such as this from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds. Most of the on board systems were automated, with a digital speedometer, rev-limiter, and fuel indicator, all of which must have cost a fortune to implement. The seats were leather, which made the water from his damp clothes that soaking his skin even colder.
The car glossed over the pavement with a smoothness that Mark could hardly comprehend. Not even the mechs handled asphalt this well. He made a mental note to find out what kind of suspension this kind of car sported.
And only adding to it was the fact that it was raining. A car would normally be harder to control in conditions such as these, but Miss Satomi appeared to be having little to no trouble at all getting the car to go where she wanted it to.
Mark, his interest piqued, turned his head to look at Miss Satomi as she sat behind the wheel, her eyes glued to the road ahead of her. Her hands were loosely holding on to the steering wheel, occasionally turning it slightly to the left or to the right to steady the front wheels. Every once in a while she would tap the brake gently in order to slow the car's momentum, usually when they came to a red stoplight.
She looked completely calm and serene, not worried the least bit about the monsoon conditions she was driving through.
It's almost fitting that she's running an IGPX team, he thought mildly. I'd love to see her at the controls of mech.
He continued to watch her out of the corner of his eye, just watching her drive through the rain and admiring her composure through it all.
Takeshi was right…he thought silently after a while …she does have great legs.
Mark suddenly realized that he'd been staring at her legs, two slender masses of creamy white flesh sticking out of the bottom of her skirted suit.
So long and smooth…
What are you thinking about, Ramsey?! Mark scolded himself. You said it yourself! She's your boss for shit's sake! Just watch, she's going to catch you-
"Mark?"
Great work dumbass!
"Y-yes…?" he said, trying to keep the stutter out of his voice.
They had stopped at a traffic light, rain continuing to pound away at the roof and windshield.
Miss Satomi glanced at him for a moment and then reached forward with her hand. "I'm going to turn the radio on. Is that okay with you?"
Mark was silently breathing a huge sigh of relief. "Uh…yeah. Of course! It's…your car after all."
He could see her eyes dart to him for a moment, as if to inquire about the tone of his voice. He was once again relieved when she said, "I just can't stand long periods of silence while I'm driving."
"Oh, that's fine. I have that same problem."
"Really?"
"Yeah." It was a lie, an attempt to downplay the awkwardness of the previous situation, but he went with it. "I don't know…I just can't drive with the radio off."
She smiled. He sighed silently.
Low-volume music filled the cart shortly thereafter. It was quiet and serene, almost romantic. It was the kind of music that made Mark want to lean back in the seat and just fall asleep. It was that relaxing.
"It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that can't stand to drive without the radio on," Miss Satomi said, continuing the conversation.
Mark chuckled. "I'm not the only one, just so you know."
"Yeah…I figured as much," she said lightly.
They continued on, passing through brightly lit portions of the city that seemed to have been wiped clean of pedestrians by the rain.
"Mark?"
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you a question?"
Mark shrugged. "Sure."
She paused. "Why are you living all the way out here?"
He blinked. "What do you mean?"
Miss Satomi chose her words carefully, remembering how touchy he had been when this subject had been brought up in the past. "I know how wealthy your family is." Mark rolled his eyes. "I would've thought that you'd be staying in a more…higher-end place than this."
His laughter seemed out of place. "And what makes you think I would prefer that?"
She felt her cheeks warm slightly, indicating her embarrassment. "Well…I just-."
"That's alright," he interrupted. "I don't mind you asking." He took a deep breath. "I really don't enjoy those high-end places, as you called them, as much you may think. I mean, yeah they're really nice and all, but that's not me. I'm not someone who would stay in really expensive and luxurious place just because I could."
"Plus those luxury apartments are too big. I would never be able to get enough stuff to even come close to filling one of them."
"That's understandable."
"And more importantly, the place I have right now is closer to the track and headquarters, which means that if I need to get to either place in a hurry it won't take me very long to get there."
She smiled. "I always did wonder how you managed to get to work so quickly after I called you some of those times."
"What? Did you think I was doing my best impersonation of Takeshi on the roads?" he responded lightly.
She looked at him amused. "Not quite." He smiled innocently.
"What about your parents?" she asked.
"Huh?"
"From what I heard, and it's just what I heard and what little you've told me, you don't exactly have the best relationship with them." Her voice was quiet, barely louder than the soft music. "What happened between you and them?"
Mark sighed again. "Well…it's not that easy to explain. Why do you want to know about it anyway?"
She shrugged her shoulders, not taking her eyes off the road. "I guess I'm just curious."
Mark rested his head against the cool glass window to his right. "I know you've already done your fair share of research on my past," he began. "My family's been among the higher-class of society for generations, going back to when my grandparents were kids. Our company has been in existence for just as long. So it was only natural that my parents wanted me to continue the tradition and learn the family business."
She nodded.
He continued, "I thought I was going to end up working for the family business even up to the point when I started college. That's when my interest in the IGPX manifested itself."
His face almost seemed to light up as the memories came flooding back to him.
"My roommate was a huge IGPX-fanatic. He had all this merchandise and all these collectables that he wouldn't stop talking about. He kept going on and on about how his dream was to be a pilot." Mark paused. Then he laughed. "Now that I think about it, he reminds me a lot of Takeshi."
"And it was he that got you interested in the IGPX?" she asked.
He nodded. "I had heard stories about it in the past and occasionally my Dad or somebody else would have a race on, but it wasn't until then that I really got into it. I started watching the races and pretty soon after I became interested in potentially having a career in the sport."
"I knew I could never become a pilot, I was too old at that point, so I ended up hanging around the machine shop on campus, watching the specialists work on similar stuff, and then the next semester I enrolled in classes. A while later, when I had virtually become the best mechanic on campus, at least as far as my instructors were concerned, I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life."
Mark's voice quieted. "Naturally, my parents weren't exactly pleased with the idea of me working as a mechanic. But when I was recruited by Team Satomi, there was nothing they could do to stop me. So, despite their best efforts, I chose to follow my dreams."
"And eventually they accepted it?"
Mark paused. "Well…I wouldn't say accepted. More like begrudgingly realized that I wasn't going to conform to their way of thinking. Don't get me wrong, if I ended up having to go back and work for the company, I wouldn't think ill of it. But right now, this is what I want to do with my life. I'm happy here."
He glanced at her. "You remember the day you hired me, don't you?"
She smiled. "Yes I do."
"I told you that I wanted to be able to work in the IGPX for the rest of my life and that hasn't changed at all."
Miss Satomi suddenly laughed. "When you first walked in looking like you did I thought you were looking to become a busboy."
Mark closed his eyes and then shook his head. "Gee, thanks."
Miss Satomi had to cover her mouth with her palm in order to quell her laughter. "I'm sorry…" she said remorsefully.
"It's alright," he murmured. "I forgive you." Then he slowly opened his eyes and glared at her. "Provided…" Miss Satomi's expression and figure stiffened. "You do something for me."
Once they stopped at a red light, Miss Satomi slowly turned her head to look at him. He was smirking. Now it was her eyes that narrowed. "And what might that be…?" she inquired.
"I forgive you…provided you answer a curious question that I have."
She paused. "Okay. What is it?"
"Where did you come from? How did you end here, where you are now?" he asked.
Miss Satomi sighed, mostly in compliance, but it also contained a trace of relief.
"Well…I've been around the IGPX as long as I can remember," she began. "I started working for my family's company when I was still a kid, bringing the workers coffee, making deliveries, any odd-job really."
"Oh, so you were a Jessie, then."
She glanced at him suspiciously and then smiled. "My Grandfather always told me that he hoped I would work for the company for a long time. He was the one that I ended up spending a lot of time with when I was little because my parents were working so much. I got the opportunity to follow him around a lot and see what he did. I ended up getting the notion that I wanted to be just like him when I got older."
"Once I got out of school I came back to the company, but the Board of Directors didn't want to trust me with anything too delicate because I was so young and inexperienced."
"Like us all," Mark echoed.
She nodded. "I spent about a few months working on various projects for the company when the position of managing the IGPX Team opened up. Since I had been around the Team almost all my life, I thought it would be something I would enjoy, so I applied for it."
"As you might expect, the board didn't think too highly of it, but since the Team wasn't really going anywhere at the time, they didn't see how it could get any worse. They gave me the job…and that's basically the whole story."
"Are you glad you did it?" Mark asked. "Took the job running the Team that is?"
She paused. She seemed to be staring out into nothing as she continued driving down the road. Her eyes seemed to gloss over with emotion.
She smiled beautifully. "Yes. Of course I am."
Mark smiled as well. "So are we. The Team that is."
She glanced at him quickly, her smile bright as ever, then back at the road. "I know. I can tell every day when I go into…"
Her voice trailed off until she was silent. Mark stared at her wondering what it was that had made her stop. Her expression had changed. Now it seemed as if she were staring at nothing, her mouth slightly agape, and her eyes wide.
They had stopped at another intersection and Mark suddenly realized that her eyes were not on the road.
They were focused on the radio.
Mark noticed that a new song was now playing. This one had an equally soft and serene melody; with a tempo that was not quite fast and not quite slow. The rhythm seemed to mimic the raindrops falling on the car.
Then the words started.
I don't want you to give what you don't have.
Don't make a vow that you can't keep.
I don't want you change your position.
Don't hang around just to please me.
"Miss…" Mark caught himself. He remembered what she had told him earlier. "Michiru…" he whispered. "Michiru!"
Hearing her name seemed to snap her out of her trance. She stared ahead for a moment, then glanced at Mark, her eyes still wide and glossy. What's the matter with her? Mark wondered.
Finally, Michiru turned her attention back to the road. "I-I'm sorry…" she whispered. "I just…haven't heard this song in a long time…"
"Oh," Mark murmured.
She brought her hand forward to touch the volume control and then looked at him again. "Do you mind?"
He offered her a smile. "Go right ahead."
The volume increased and Michiru pressed the car's accelerator just as the song began its refrain.
Let me love you, let me love you.
Free of all rituals, nothing habitual.
Something you can sink your teeth into.
Let me love you, let me love you.
Free of where have you been,
Freedom what's take command
Something you can fall right back into.
My love for you…
Mark became entranced by the song's melody, the atmospheric sensation that swallowed the car and the surrounding scenery. The song just seemed to fit in with the situation; rain falling all around them, car tires splashing through the puddles on the road, the car's engine humming along absent-mindedly. The atmosphere created by the song was simply breathtaking.
"I haven't heard this song in years," he heard her whisper. "I used to love it when I was in school."
Mark couldn't help but smile. The song was invigorating to him. "Yeah…I can remember hearing this too," he recalled.
"Really?"
"Yeah," he said, glancing at her. "I didn't really pay much attention to it, but I remember it."
Her expression seemed to light up. "I don't know what it is…I just really love this song," she whispered sincerely.
There was a long pause as the music swept over the entire scene.
Then Mark laughed. "What is it?" Michiru inquired.
"It's funny really," he said. "All this time we've known each other…we never really got to sit down and get to know one another on any sort of personal level."
She nodded.
"But if I would have known that's where you came from…I would have asked about sooner."
"Why?"
"Because now I realize just how much we have in common," he said, smiling. She returned it.
They reached his apartment shortly thereafter.
Mark placed his hand on the door opener and turned toward her. "I want to thank you for this, Michiru."
"You don't have to," she responded kindly. "I would've done it without hesitation."
"Still. I'm really grateful to you." He tried not to stumble over his next words. "I also enjoyed the conversation we had."
She smiled. "Me too."
"I-If there's anything else…you ever want to talk about…feel free to…talk to me about it," he offered.
Her smile did not waver. "That would be nice. I'd like that."
"I would too," he answered quietly. He opened the door, the hissing sound of the rain piquing his ears. "Thank you, Michiru!"
"I'll see you on Monday, Mark!"
"You too!"
As he closed the door behind him and before she drove off into the distance, the last thing he heard was the final words of the song that had so captivated him.
Let me love you…