5. The Annual Sports Day Part I
It had been decided: the annual Sports Day that year would be held on Saturday. Mr. Sawamoto, a rather mysterious woodcutter who had been living in Kurokuro for almost thirty years, had 'predicted' the weather for Saturday: apparently it wouldn't be raining, and that, indeed, was suitable for their event. Mr. Sawamoto hadn't been wrong so far – he had successfully predicted the weather for the annual Sports Day for ten years in a row now. (He could also do other supernatural stuff, such as treating toothaches with just a snap of his fingers, finding your kitten by just knowing its name and the colour of its fur, and he could also make your hunger go away if you could give him ingredients for him to make dinner).
The Yagamis were all excited about it, although one of them had been feeling really anxious and nervous as the day approached. Mr. Yagami and the rest of the men in the village were in charge of most of the things such as putting up tents for the food and drinks section, preparing appropriate items for the games, etc. Taichi, of course, helped out with these things, and so did Yamato Ishida, the eldest son of the new family that had recently moved in.
Hikari had dreaded this very thing: she was sure that Yamato Ishida would tell Taichi about his family members, and she knew that Taichi would recognise Takeru's name. She hadn't told Taichi anything about her meeting with Takeru at the kindergarten, but eventually she knew she would have to spill the beans. It happened a day before the Sports Day took place.
"I'm home! Hey, that smells awesome!" came Taichi's voice from the front of the house. Hikari merely grinned as her brother skipped into the kitchen and sniffed the air.
"How did it go, oniichan?" Hikari asked. "I thought you were never coming home!"
"Nah, we put up the last tent rather late because it was raining earlier," Taichi said, putting on an apron and stirring the soup on the stove. "Almost everyone was there, even that Ishida guy!"
Hikari froze for a bit. Which Ishida guy?
"Uh...which Ishida guy?" she casually asked.
"The eldest one, Yamato Ishida. You know, Takeru's brother?"
Oh snap. You're done for, Hikari... Very slowly, she turned around to face her brother, who was looking at her with an expression that said, 'well, what d'you have to say to that, sister?' She smiled sheepishly.
"How could you not tell me anything about this, Hika?" he asked, putting down the ladle and placing a hand on his hip. Hikari avoided her brother's eyes and went on chopping the onions.
"I'm just...I'm still shocked, I guess," she mumbled. It was true. She was still rather shocked with what happened. Here she was, doing rather great with her life after a good deal of struggling to forget Takeru in the past – and then, just like that, he was in her life again.
"You wanna talk about it?" said Taichi slowly, breaking the short silence between them. Hikari took a deep breath and placed the knife down. "I mean...must be really hard for you. C'mon, don't bottle your feelings up like that, it's not healthy, you know?"
Hikari smiled at her brother's comment. "It's like...I dunno...seeing a kitten that you've given away five years ago because you're allergic to cats..."
Miko, their cat, sort of froze on the spot where she was when she heard the words 'allergic to cats', as if she could understand what they were talking about, but none of the Yagamis noticed this behaviour. The elder Yagami was trying his best to play the good big brother role while the younger one was lost in her thoughts.
"One moment I was all pissed off about the crayons, and the next thing I know, I was panicking like a fish out of water," Hikari said quietly. "He's just...suddenly...right there. In front of me. I didn't know what to do or say – I'm so dead tomorrow."
"Well," said Taichi after a while, "don't worry – you won't be left alone with him tomorrow. The whole village will be all over them, so you can avoid them easily, amirite?"
Hikari merely smiled at this.
"Oh – oh! By the way, what the heck happened to his fiancé? Huh? Huh?" Taichi said excitedly. "Any ideas?"
Hikari suddenly felt hot as she heard this question – his fiancé? Catherine Leroy... It was like being slapped in the face when she thought of that name. She had been trying to forget Catherine just as much as she had tried to forget Takeru. Just hearing that name was enough to make something stir from deep inside her. Was it anger? Jealousy? Sadness? Pain? It was probably all of that.
Where was she now? What had happened to her? An image of a graceful young lady suddenly crossed Hikari's mind: tall, slender, with fair skin and beautiful wavy golden hair...
Hikari began to chop the carrots quickly. "I dunno," she mumbled, answering Taichi's question. "She's probably in some fancy college, doing ballet and piano or something..."
"Hmm," said Taichi thoughtfully, "the last I heard, she's anaemic, right? What do you—?"
"I don't really care, Taichi," Hikari cut across him, moving away quickly to transfer the carrots into the pot. Right on cue, their father came home, announcing happily that everything that needed to be done for the Sports Day had been done. "Well, why don't you go and see what dad needs? He might be tired," Hikari said to Taichi, who looked uncertain for a moment.
"...Will you be okay?"
"I'm fine," she said dismissively. Her brother gave her a long stare before exiting the kitchen, saying, "Hey, dad! Want a cup of coffee or somethin'?"
Hikari stopped stirring the soup and sighed once more. Why did it sting so much, even after five freakin' years? After all those crying sessions and picture-burning ceremonies, it seemed like she still had not managed to let go of it... She didn't like this feeling. She didn't like being jealous of someone...because that was not the kind of person she was.
"Get yourself together!" Hikari said, scolding herself as she tried to forget Catherine Leroy, her beautiful face, her golden hair, and her fiancé.
—X—
Hikari woke up when a familiar tune reached her ears. Stretching, she rolled to her side and slowly opened her eyes. Lying on the mattress next to her on the floor was her friend and neighbour, Miyako Inoue. (A/N: Hikari's house was the traditional Japanese house, you know, where people sleep on the mattress and the doors are those that can slide from side to side? X3 Yeah, that one).
Miyako was a year older than Hikari, but her spirit was the spirit of a teenage girl who had just discovered the power of gossiping. Hikari didn't know when Miyako got into her room, but she was ready to bet that Miyako's parents had already locked the doors of her house when she came back late last night. It wasn't the first time, all right — whenever this happened, Hikari's grandmother would kindly invite Miyako to sleep over for the night.
After the death of her mother (pretty soon after Aoi-chan was born), Hikari's father had decided to move to her grandmother's house. That was how the Yagamis ended up here in Kurokuro.
Still rubbing her eyes, Hikari sat up and looked around for the source of that familiar tune. By now, she could recognise the chorus of the newest hit song, 'Colour My Life'by the Teenage Wolves. She finally found the source of this music — it was coming from Miyako's cell phone (which lay next to its snoring owner). Shaking her head, Hikari reached over and turned the alarm clock off.
"Miyako," she said, shaking her friend's shoulder. "Miyako! Wake up."
"Huh—? Wha...? Yes, mother!" said the purple haired Miyako, sitting up quickly.
"It's just me, silly," Hikari said, throwing a pillow at Miyako, who looked pretty confused. "You came into my house last night, remember?"
"Oh," said Miyako, already lying down on the mattress once more. "Yeah, yeah I did..."
"Did you come home late again?" Hikari asked, folding her blanket.
"Hmm..."
"Where were you?"
"Mmm – mmhmm..."
"Fine, don't tell me," said Hikari, now folding her mattress. "But weren't you the one who was excited about the Sports Day and was like, 'I gotta sleep early so I'll be fresh and energetic for my team!' and stuff?"
Miyako yawned and rolled over to the other side. "...What're you talking about?" she said sleepily.
"The – Sports –Day! Remember?" Hikari said, grabbing the pillow Miyako was hugging. She then watched as Miyako's sleepy eyes grew round.
"That's today?" Miyako gasped, sitting up once more.
"Yep," Hikari simply said, putting away her blanket and mattress. In one swift movement, Miyako shoved her glasses on, rolled her mattress and pushed it into a corner of the room before doing the star jump.
"Yosh!" she said. "I'm SO ready for today! I heard Sakura's brother's dropping by from college just to join us – and you have to admit it, he is CUTE."
Hikari shook her head at Miyako's enthusiasm. She had been on a hunt for "The Perfect Boyfriend" ever since Hikari had first moved in. Hikari knew that Willis was on Miyako's list, but for some odd reason, talking about Willis in that way had always been awkward between them. They used to gossip a lot about Willis when he first arrived – Miyako even thought of confessing to Willis some years back, but she didn't do it. From that day on, Hikari never knew what Miyako's feelings really were when it came to their American friend.
"Oh, by the way," Miyako gasped as she did her twentieth star jump, "I heard something interesting last night at the bar!"
"Oh?" Hikari hugged her knees, prepared to listen to the newest gossip.
"You know the new family? The Ishida family?"
"Yeah, what about them?" Hikari asked flatly. People seriously need to stop asking me if I knew them or not!
"The eldest," Miyako gasped, "Yamato Ishida – huff – is actually Matt – huff – from The Teenage Wolves!"
This was indeed something interesting. Miyako had been fascinated with The Teenage Wolves since they first debuted early last year. They had released a mini album and had been lying low ever since – the members were really protective of their private lives, so not much was known about them.
"Just think!" Miyako went on. "Matt, right here in Kurokuro, attending our little insignificant—"
"Don't let Mr. Yamada hear that," Hikari piped in (Mr. Yamada was Kurokuro's enthusiastic 'mayor', who was really psyched about the event).
"—Insignificant Sports Day! I can ask for his autograph and take a picture with him and EVERYTHING!" Here, Miyako gave a high-pitched squeal.
"Gosh, Miyako, keep it down! You disturbed me from my awesome dream!"
"Morning, oniichan," Hikari grinned. Taichi had stuck his head into the room, looking both sleepy and irritated. "Sorry about that."
"You woke Aoi-chan as well," Taichi grumbled as the five-year-old appeared at the door, rubbing her eyes.
"Oh, hey, Aoi-chan!" Miyako said, instantly kneeling by the little girl. "Did you have a good sleep?"
"Mm-hm," said Aoi-chan, settling down on Miyako's lap.
"Well, let's all have some breakfast," Hikari said, "and then we can have some fun today!"
Both Miyako and Aoi-chan cheered at this, and Taichi complained about the noise, but afterwards he joined in the excitement all the same. Everyone was chirpy that day, even their grandmother, and Hikari wished and wished that she could be as excited and happy as the rest of them, but she knew that on that day, it would finally be impossible to avoid Takeru.
—X—
The weather was absolutely lovely.
It was teasing her. She was so nervous inside, she was almost sure that there was a storm coming – but obviously the storm was only within her. The day was absolutely nice.
Almost everyone was there: they were scattered across the field, chatting to their friends and neighbours while waiting for the event to start. Some people, like Taichi and Miyako and Willis, noticed that Hikari was not her usual cheerful self, and except for Taichi (who knew why she was behaving that way), the other two were rather worried about her.
"Are you feeling ill, Hika?" Miyako asked, and Mr. Yamada finally decided to show up for the opening speech.
"Yeah, you look pale," Willis agreed, placing a hand on her forehead. "Nope. No fever."
"I'm fine," Hikari said, blushing slightly. She had spotted the Ishidas earlier – they were halfway across the field from where she stood – and she had been staring at Takeru without realising it: he was wearing a simple green short-sleeve T-shirt, a pair of black trousers, and a cap, which he wore backwards. He looked genuinely happy and was saying something to Mrs. Matsuda. Hiroki-kun, who was with him, didn't look as friendly, and was standing real close to Takeru. "I'm just, uh, a little nervous about the aerobics warm-up! You know how much I suck at it, so..."
"Lame excuse!" Miyako said, squinting her eyes at Hikari. "You're nervous about meeting Matt, aren't you?"
"Yeah...and that," Hikari mumbled. She noticed that Willis had finally understood what this was all about, because she saw him staring at the tall blonde at the other side of the field afterwards.
"Don't worry! You just stick with me, and I bet we're gonna do fine!" Miyako said happily. "Ooh, look! Mr. Yamada's ready for his speech!"
Indeed, he was. A moment after that, the man in his late fifties called for people's attention and had began his speech: "Good morning, Kurokuro! How are you today?"
The villagers gave a mixed reply of "Good!" and "Fine, thank you!" and "We're okay, what about you?"
"Well! Thanks to Mr. Sawamoto, we can once more carry out our Annual Sports Day. You, sir, have never been wrong so far – I thank you, from the bottom of my heart."
Mr. Yamada bowed in the direction of the woodcutter, who simply bowed back with a mysterious expression on his face.
"This year, our Sports Day is gonna be more exciting," Mr. Yamada pressed on with a bright face, "because we have a new addition to our small community – we haven't been expanding much, the last one to join us was Willis, and that was, what? How many years back was that? Three? Four? I do believe it's been—"
Here, Mrs. Yamada nudged at her husband slightly, saying, "Honey, you're getting sidetracked."
"Oh – oh, yes, I am! Sorry, folks, I blabber when I'm excited," Mr. Yamada said, grinning. "I was saying: this year's Sports Day will be more exciting, because we have a new family here in Kurokuro. Now, you've already know the name, I presume, but not all of you have met them. So I'd like the Ishidas to please, step forward here with me. Yes, that's it, come on!"
People started to applause as the Ishidas approached the microphone stand where Mr. Yamada was. Mr. Ishida had this big smile on his face while his wife looked rather embarrassed but pleased at the same time. Hiroki-kun followed his aunt closely and wouldn't budge from her side, while his two older cousins stood calmly behind their parents. Now everyone was eyeing them, and Hikari noticed that a group of teenage girls began to whisper excitedly to each other before giggling when they saw Yamato and Takeru.
"Well, it's not every day you get to see cool blonde guys!" Miyako whispered once she noticed what Hikari was looking at. "Those schoolgirls are just over-excited!"
"Yeah, over-excited like you?" Hikari whispered back, and Miyako simply squealed silently.
"Hey," Willis piped in silently, "I'm a cool blonde guy – you see me every day!"
"Oh, hush, you!" Miyako said, turning her attention to the Ishidas once more.
"We're very thankful to have moved here," Mrs. Ishida was saying, and her husband nodded in agreement. "And we're looking forward to get to know all of you!"
Hikari couldn't help but notice that they looked exactly the way she remembered them from five years ago (but with obvious signs of ageing). Seeing them gathered together right there just brought back so many memories: without noticing what she was doing, Hikari's hand slowly touched her right cheek, where she had been slapped by a certain someone's grandmother five years ago during a basketball match... That was the first time she had met Takeru's whole family...
Without realising it, she was staring at him again – and this time, he caught her eyes. They stared at each other for a moment. Hikari was just wondering how someone's eyes could be so blue when he suddenly averted his eyes. She quickly did the same, feeling herself going red.
Why did he avert his eyes? She was sure that she was going to look away first, but he beat her to it... Hikari knew that it shouldn't bother her, but it did: why did he look away? Was he as nervous as she was about the Sports Day, or was he simply not interested in her?
...
Well, if he wasn't interested in her, shouldn't she be celebrating it?
"Hikari-chan, are you sure you're okay?"
Miyako's voice managed to pull her back to reality. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Her purple haired friend narrowed her eyes in disbelief, so Hikari gave a big grin. "Honest!"
"You're acting weird today, you know that?" said Miyako, but she dropped the issue. Hikari sighed in relief, only to face a worried-looking Willis.
"Don't worry," he said in a low voice, "he can't do anything to you."
"Yeah," she agreed, clapping with the rest of the neighbourhood as the Ishidas bowed after their little speech, "yeah, I know."
A/N: Oh, writer's block, I dislike you. :( Sorry guys, I wanted the chapter to be longer, but AAH. I'm writing the sixth chapter right now...dunno when it'll be up, though. D: