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The Beauty of Silence — Chapter 5
Early next morning, Ren awoke to find that Pilica had thrown out all the milk in the house. As she was the one in charge of breakfast that morning, Ren was not surprised that there was no share for him. Man, can girls bear grudges or what? Ren had actually anticipated this, and he couldn't really blame her. Oh well, I'll just have to go out to buy some more milk then, before visiting Horo if Pilica doesn't throw me out of his ward.
Pilica had left the house way before anyone woke up and it wasn't that hard to guess where she went. Yoh had wanted to visit Horohoro too, but was met with the objection of Anna, who insisted that Yoh needed training even more now.
"Anna, it'll be alright. I won't lose any of my battles and make you lose face or something, everything will work out fine! So…" Yoh tried to plead with Anna, but as usual, it was in vain, for it was greeted with a firm, and cold 'NO'. Not that Anna was heartless or something, but what good would Yoh be there for? She had a sneaking suspicion that Ren would be there, and it's best to let Pilica and Ren settle their differences elsewhere before they disrupt the peace and tranquility of the inn.
Even the rest, besides Yoh, were not spared. They were made to cook, clean, tidy up etc, and due to Horohoro's, Ren's and Pilica's absence, there were more chores to do. They were just puzzled over why Anna would care so much about this run-down inn's cleanliness before Anna announced that from the day onwards, the inn is a rightful property of the Asakura family, meaning that she had just, on behalf of Yoh, bought over the inn. Before the gang could get over this first surprise, there was a new one for them, for the first patron of the inn was none other than Hao Asakura.
Ren hesitated before letting his hand, which had been poised for knocking, fall back down to his side. He had been contemplating whether to enter Horohoro's ward for quite some time. The knocking would be for Pilica's benefit, for Horo wouldn't be unable to hear it anyway. The hospital is not a place where you can create big dins, and Tao Ren was simply not eager to let the whole world know he had came and argued with a young girl in public.
Horohoro had awoken that morning to find a new Ikupasui that Pilica had craved on the bedside table. Koloro had been awake for quite some time, judging from the fact that she was already jumping up and down on his pillow doing what he thought were morning exercises. Pilica had came well equipped today, for she had brought along a whiteboard and marker, and was now rapidly scribbling tons and tons of questions upon it.
"Pilica, shouldn't you allow me some time to read the questions?" Horohoro winced inwardly. He still hadn't gotten use to how weird all this sounded, or didn't sound. He couldn't know for sure whether he just thought or spoken all this, for only silence greeted his ears. This does need lots of getting used to.
After an uneventful breakfast, for which Horohoro was thankful for, Pilica continued trying to make conversation for the next few hours before stopping to make a phone call to tell Tamao not to cook her share of lunch, as she'll be staying here till the evening. She left a note for her brother, telling him where she went and where she would be going for lunch — the hospital cafeteria, so he would be able to find her when needed. Horohoro had nodded to acknowledge these facts, so off she went, not noticing Tao Ren in the corridors.
Ren had turned at the corner opposite to the one Pilica was headed for to avoid meeting her. Perhaps I can enter now, after all, I have no more excuses not to go in. With that, Ren pushed the door open firmly, and was surprised to see Horohoro looking at him expectantly, gesturing to the whiteboard Pilica had left there.
"Koloro kind of told me you were here," Horohoro said, pointing towards a badly drawn picture of him and Bason. "She drew it, doesn't it look cute?" Ren stared at the picture. In it, the drawn Ren was scowling away, and when Ren look up once again to stare at Horo, he didn't understand what was making the ice shaman grin in such a goofy way. Oblivious to him, he was scowling in the exact way the 'picture Ren' was.
"What took you so long to enter? Koloro drew it ages ago."
Ren took the whiteboard wordlessly off the table and wrote, "Your sister was here." Horohoro looked at him quizzically, and Ren realized that Pilica hadn't told her brother anything about the cold war that had started since last evening betwe to lose in this new form of argument. Besides, the tension is just lost when there's such a long time lag. No use having an argument that's not spontaneous. Besides, I can't stay angry with Horo for long.
"Well? What exactly DID happen? If you bullied her, I'm going to whack you till you cry for help," Horohoro didn't know why, but the moment he saw Ren, he just can't help starting another argument. He looked at the reply Ren had written: You are not capable of whacking me till I cry for help, though I'd love to see you try. What happened for the next few minutes was a heated exchange between those two, though neither of them really meant what they say, with Horohoro's and Ren's temper rising as they quarreled as like before. After the few minutes though, Horohoro started to grin back in the goofy way as he returned back to the good mood he was in when Ren first entered. Seeing him do make my days happier, thought Horo secretly, though he would never admit it to Ren.
Ren was first perplexed by the way Horo's mood did a complete 360 degrees turn, before realizing what was so funny. It took so long for Ren to write a reply, and by then, Horo would have thought of a new retort. So Ren was bound to lose in this new form of argument. Besides, the tension is just lost when there's such a long time lag. No use having an argument that's not spontaneous. Besides, I can't stay angry with Horo for long. With that, Ren just sat beside Horohoro for the next half hour in companionable silence, each enjoying one another's company.
Author's note: Just found out today that my anonymous reviews is disabled. If my anonymous reviews is enabled, does it mean I can receive them now? Ah well, hope everyone enjoyed chapter five…