Chapter 7

Misinterpreted

Haru opens the metallic door with the spare key he took with him. The smell of old walls and moldy air coming from inside the apartment is nostalgic, as shabby as it is. It's a Saturday afternoon, dusk paints the outside sky and he decided it'd be best if he visited now, yet he took the very last boat to the city.

In those couple months in the duel academy, he didn't come home once and never missed it either.

As usual, he can spot his father sitting near the living room table, gobbling down a whole bottle of beer, looking over his shoulder, greeting him with a drunk smile.

"Oh, if it isn't my boy!"

"Ah, hey, dad…"

He answers in the most dispirited way, turning his face to not smell the alcohol breath, his father steadily stands up and grabs him by the shoulder, shaking him once. His eyes wander on the surroundings as his father sits back down listening to some unappealing quiz show.

"Where is sis?"

"She's working," he says between nibbles of salted peanuts.

"Saturdays too?!" his voice raises, confused.

"She works every day. Didn't you know?"

That's new… When I left for the academy, she had only one part-time job… I thought she was studying in her free time…

He daydreams while walking to his room, his futon is already spread on the ground and a few magazines of that kind tossed on it, he cusses a few words in whispers, shaking off his head and kicking it out of his sleeping place, dropping his backpack there.

The bed is neatly made at least, the culprit was most certainly Rie. But boy does he prefer the dorms at the school a million times more than this unwelcoming, stuffy room. Just as he stops by the doorstep of his sister's room, a click announces the entrance door opening.

Whirling back instantly he treads there, Rie enters in a rush, gaping surprised when their eyes meet. A tiny smile tugging at her lips, she quickly shakes her feet, her shoes flying haphazardly at the doormat and involves him in an embrace, letting go immediately.

"Nice to see you too," he chuckles delightedly. "I didn't know you were this busy on Saturdays."

"Work."

With a closed fist, she taps left wrist onto the right one, rushing to her room, followed by her brother, his eyebrows furrow worriedly and perplexed at the same time, unwittingly stopping by the doorframe, respecting his limits of space.

His sight accompanying her hectic movements as she drops a sports bag onto the floor, grabbing a change of clothes that seemed like a store uniform of sorts, then putting a book, pen and pencil in there, all so fast he got dizzy just from watching, averting his gaze to the side, finding an even more unexpected vision.

"Are those my duel magazines?" he points at the pile at the corner of her room.

She tenses up with a gasp, nodding briefly, gesturing yet another word by sticking her thumbs between her indexes and middle fingers while closing the rest of her hands, crossing it in front of her and making a swing move starting by swaying it fast towards her brother, then to herself, repeating with her lips:

"Borrow."

He walks to the corner, where there's a compilation of those, crouching down to ascertain it. Some are definitely his, but some other ones are newer, flipping the magazine around, he flaps the pages and skims his eyes through it, stopping when a familiar image spurs: Kaiser.

Somehow I have been seeing his face a lot lately, maybe it's just because he had a bunch of duels? And they were as gruesome to watch as the first one, he's such a bad sport.

"I never knew you were interested in dueling, sis."

She was never into it before. Could it be… Because I left? And now she regrets never having listened to me? Did she finally open her heart to the greatness of dueling?

With a confident smile, prodding his chin up like he was the most knowledgeable in the subject, he speaks up:

"I can give you some recommendations, those magazines you got aren't exactly the most popular ones, you won't see the best duelists here."

"Haru," she spells letter by letter. "Work," repeating the gesture, in a hurry, she shakes off her head, putting more necessities into her bag.

Bored, he takes more exemplars of the stash, paging through them, with half lidded eyes, still in disbelief at the silliness of the situation, his eyes are alerted to yet another article, about the Kaiser.

"Hm, you're a fan of the minor league duelists, Rie? I don't think you should waste your time with them."

There's a halt in her movements, he blinks his eyes to her noticing how she suddenly stopped, stomping her way to him, snatching the magazine so violently the pages flicked all together.

"What? I was just trying to talk to you, it's been a while I haven't visited and my sister who was so against dueling is now into it, can I not be happy and try to chat?"

Setting the magazine onto her study table, she taps her wrist with a finger, indicating she's low on time, zipping her bag up.

"Are you leaving for work now?"

With a loud huff, her nostrils flaring up, she tramples out of the room with her black bag, he again follows, but this time she leaves to the bathroom, the sound of the shower water running starts.

Folding his arms in disapproval at how cranky she is after not seeing him for so long, he sits down in her room, in protest, waiting for her to come out so they can properly settle this.

It's sad she had to sell her phone, but according to her words, it was getting old and clunky and she will get a new one once she can afford a good one. Even if he knows a bit of sign language, communication is still an issue.

Her room is the same as he remembers, but those magazines aren't her style, many are even his. Impatient, he looks over the pile in suspicion, yanking another sample, this time, a paper falls from it, a cutout section of a newspaper article talking about "Hell Kaiser Ryo".

Wow, wow, this is getting a bit odd…

All the magazines feature many duelists, but the main converging point about them is how they're focused on badmouthing minor duelists and how in all of them, there's an article about Hell Kaiser Ryo which his sister bookmarked with a paperclip.

No way… Don't tell me she's a fan of a guy like this? Please, God, if she's gonna be into dueling now that she doesn't take the example from this guy! She can be a fan of any other duelist, really!

Gulping dryly, fearing what else he will find, his efforts proceed, but beside the strange bookmarked pages, the other books she had were normal. He sighs in relief, maybe it's one of those girl crushes like practically all the girls in school have for Edo Phoenix, but as long as those are a "from afar" crush, it's alright and safe.

Right as he thinks that, his sister enters the room again, rubbing her hair with a towel and frowning at him, her whole face wrinkling as she blabbers a voiceless gibberish, folding her arms to scold him for dawdling around her room so long.

"Oh, I see how much of a fan of dueling you are!"

He flaunts one of the magazines with Ryo on the cover, his eyes dropping halfway in an acidic criticism, she gawks in shock that he's running his hands through her stuff again.

"Out of all the pro duelists out there, he is your idol, seriously?! I don't want to sound mean, but this guy is like the bottom of a barrel in terms of dueling," her face reddens as the blood boils. "Did you know he keeps slandering his opponents?" her lips prim sulkily. "Not to mention the over the top edgy visual. If you're gonna idolize a duelist, this guy isn't the one!"

Yanking the magazine away from his grip again, she rams him backwards, putting her belongings back into place, quickly seizing all the magazines borrowed from him, piling them up and shoving it onto his chest, to give him no excuse to be checking her things.

"Why are you so angry at me? I was just-"

Showing him a palm flat up and executing a harsh chop move with the other laying, open hand, a soft thud echoes in the space, complaining at him.

"Okay, I get, I'll stop, but tell me how come you suddenly got a crush on-"

Covering her ears, her whole body shudders, she can't take any of his questions anymore, she grabs her things, gesturing the word "work" again and darts out of the room, he can only realize what has happened once the click of the main door occurs for the second time.

Did I mess up badly? I was just trying to warn her to not waste time with silly stars, but… Why is she acting so weirdly? Well, I can apologize and clear this up once she's back.

At a bakery,

Rie sets trays with bread dough on a metallic frame that's already almost filled with shelters of unbaked bread. Her thoughts drifted far away from reality.

Why did she get so overworked at Haru again? He's probably believing all that trash the magazines say. They only insult Ryo, but what they say is biased and incorrect, calling him ruthless, unprofessional and a villain. True he's insipid and cold, even mean at times, but he's not heartless, she understands after meeting him in person. If he was this awful person they portray, he wouldn't have done a fraction of what he did for her, that's for sure.

Removing one of the trays of fresh, warm bread from the oven, she slides the bread batch on a cooling racket, leaving the kitchen area to engross into another task, her ears catching the faint ambience sound of the TV, her eyes widening.

It's Ryo, in an official broadcast duel again, the holographic explosions cause his opponent to shout, his smirk enlarging at the sight, has she ever seen someone act so smug as he does? And he doesn't stop there, summoning an even bigger creature similar to that card she held before, but with multiple heads, with a tyrannical shove of his hand, he orders an attack, by the end of it, his rival is on the floor, passed out, the paramedics have to bring him out of the stage as Ryo himself walks out at the scrutiny of the audience and reporters who shout questions.

Is the life of a duelist much harder than hers, for instance? Being chased by the media constantly and having an image to upkeep, how much can this negatively impact a person's core? Did he get molded by it or changed by it?

"Hey, don't stand in the way," a coworker snaps his fingers near her ears, startling her. "We have to wash the dishes!"

Her lips split apart momentarily, nodding still disoriented at the sudden call and resuming her work.

Night time,

Haru shields his yawn with a hand, his eyelids becoming heavier by the minute, his father has long fainted from all the drinking, drooling over the table and snoring, he brings a blanket over to cover the man.

They didn't have much of a conversation besides him asking when will his father ever get another job, to which the man responded by telling how many times he was refused after putting his curriculum to work for different companies during the week.

Well, if you're indebted, I guess no one's gonna hire you… Plus, he isn't even doing well to care for his appearance.

Looking at the clock on his PDA, he raises a brow, it's almost midnight and his sister isn't back yet.

"Is she having a night shift in one of her jobs or what?"

Sighing deeply, he supports both hands on the ground, legs crossed and a vague gaze at the bright TV screen illuminating the dim dark room.

I didn't know she was having such a hard time working… Maybe I should stay over during the whole winter break… I could take her to a minor league match, if that interests her, I'm sure she'll be happy.

Getting up, he walks to her room again, a pitied curl of his brows, entering without any ceremony, staring at her empty study table, kneeling down and touching its slightly dusted surface in sadness. Unlike him, she isn't having the most time to improve her knowledge, it seems.

Meanwhile, he's at the duel academy, living the life of his dreams or almost. There's a bitter, sharp pinch on his heart, his fists closing unwittingly, determining to himself. Once he graduates and become a true duelist, he'll pay every cent back and give his family a better life too, that's how it should be, hopefully Rie will hang on until then, still, that she's overworking is unacceptable.

He treads to the living room, his father is soundly asleep, a nerve snapping there, how can one be so lazy?

"Dad!" he calls only once, so screechy, his old man sits up straight in no time. "When did you say sis is coming home again?"

"Argh, I don't know, don't ask me, she's working, okay?" he wobbles his hand, averting his eyes, still drowsy.

"What do you mean you don't know?" he clutches his fists indignant. "She's your daughter, shouldn't you establish a curfew or something?"

"Look, she won't come back tonight," he replies, annoyed at all the queries, but regrets instantly after seeing his son's face pale.

"Not tonight? Don't tell me she's really working some sort of 24h convenience store overnight?"

"P-probably, I have no idea, you ask her when she's back! You're gonna spend the weekend here, right?" he stutters so nervous Haru can only distrust the words.

"Dad?" he tilts his head in doubt, to pressure the man. "You know something about it?"

"No, I don't! I can't keep an eye on her 24 hours a day, okay? She's grown up and she found many jobs to keep the house working, you be grateful to your sister she's working so hard!"

Working so hard? In what type of job exactly? His blood simmers uncontrollably, indignant. What exactly is happening in this household?

At the hotel,

Rie slides the thick, knitted pattern black stocking with a double layer of sandy colored frilly borders up her thigh, dressing up unwillingly, her eyes wavering as she remembers Haru's wrinkled face while questioning her. No way she will tell him what's going on, but down the road, she may face regret for her choices.

Despite it being a weekend and Ryo having a duel in the pro-leagues, he still came to this hotel. And here she thought it was connected to whatever he was doing in the underground, but is it possible he's trying to "speed up" the debt collection?

Cinching the overcoat around her figure and tucking her feet in high heels, she walks out of the dressing area, mechanically taking the keycard to the hotel room the guards offer.

Her mind so afloat during the whole way there she bumps into someone unintentionally at the intersection of the corridor, both her and the person bouncing back a step, the bag strapped to her shoulder swaying and knocking her waist.

The other party is a sturdy looking man, maybe double Ryo's build, older too, around late twenties perhaps, his neat white suit crinkled a bit, he adjusts it and the small golden chain connecting a blue rose pin from his chest to his lapel.

His blonde strands of hair fluttering gently as he smiles, his long lower lashes glimmering a bit as his blue eyes squint relished.

"I'm sorry, are you hurt?"

He steps ahead, stopping at a close, but reasonable distance, his eyes gauging her from up to down calmly, undressing her with a gaze alone, a smirk sprouting on his face. She shivered at the uncanny, chilly sensation spurting in her veins. Before she knew, he took her hand onto his, holding it meekly.

"Maybe I could offer an apology with a glass of champagne in my room?"

A cracking noise echoed inside her head, freezing her in place, the smile of that man didn't look all that kind and welcoming as before. Her fingers twitched, instinctively breaking free from him, his gaze landing on her expectantly until a voice disrupted it, from behind her:

"Here you are."

Ryo's steps were the only sound rhythmically, the carpets muffling the dull clack of his boots, halting once he was close enough to her, casting a side glance with a stoic face that composes the scarce array of expressions he has.

"Don't loiter in the corridors," he berates in an uninterested tone, his arm coming around her upper back, leaning in on her, blowing the words softly into her ear, but loud enough so the other man hears it too. "I'm anxious to see what you're wearing today."

Her shoulders bristle up, her cheeks turning peach-pink, where did that come from? Is this a payback for the acting she did before?

"Oh, my, I didn't know you had company already, what a pity," the blonde man raises his arms in rendition, stepping back. "Well, have fun young lady, I'm free if you're ever interested," he beckons with a shiny smile and winks.

Ignoring the man, Ryo tugs her forward slightly, indicating they should walk. Puzzled at him, she follows as he walks her to the room, casting many glances over his side, he mutters so silently between his teeth she could barely hear.

"That guy is bad news."

Her eyes bulge out in shock, her body quivering under his grip. It's not until the door of their room is closed when he lets go of her and folds his arms sternly.

"Don't let his smile deceive you, he's a sponsor of the underground that supports a bunch of illegal business trades, including your 'line of work'. Are you aware of how much trouble you almost got into?"

Denying with a livid hue on her face and a brisk swing of her head she blabbers something. He snorts, the most disapproving and disappointed gaze of his landing on her.

"There's only so much I can do if a guy like him tries his chance with you, don't look like easy prey here."

E-easy prey?!

How can he be so rude, despite having the truth on his side? Regardless, she shouldn't let her mind run amok when she's in this place. It doesn't help that Haru's been on her trail.

"Don't loiter in the corridors, come directly to the room if you don't want guys like him ogling you or more than that, get it?"

Affirming with a slow, but firm nod of head, her mouth opens and closes, seeking for unfindable sentences, his voice breaking her immersion once more:

"Did he do anything to you before I arrived?" he bobs his head her way.

Her weak shake of head is enough of an answer, he lets out a heavy sigh, startling her. It was too much of a close call, he's glad nothing bad took place there. Turning away without further adding words, he makes his way to the couch, dropping down with a low thud.

Her eyes widened subtly in awe, was he relieved for her sake just now? Following him, almost enthralled, she sits down automatically. The cushion beside him jiggles a tad, his body slightly bouncing on the seat a shuffling noise reverberating, alerting him she's nearby.

Opening his case, he unpacks his full duel disk and a screwdriver, the noise of metal scratched slightly as he tinkers with it is the only ambience sound.

"Is there a problem?" he asks without casting a glance at her, then pausing briefly, gazing at the walls, revising his speech. "What I said before was a joke, you don't need to stare at me to death."

Proceeding with his displacing of pieces, he senses the intense, glassy stare piercing him, as soon as he prepares an answer, glancing over to her, she averts her gaze, lost on the floor. He silences for a moment, she's not even changed into her casual outfits. Was she so shaken by what happened outside that she's too stunned to move? No way.

"I'm just fixing my duel disk, it needs a check-up from time to time. Have you never seen this in your entire life?" he comments, attempting to soothe the mood.

Scoffing to himself, he shakes his own head shortly, considering her background of not paying attention to dueling, she most likely doesn't understand. Her response to him is an emotionless, thoughtful glance that lands on the table.

I knew those tabloids spread many lies, but what they write and what people say about him… How he's tampering with duel disks and winning through inflicting sheer terror on his opponents rather than with skill. This is unfair.

The way her blue eyes drifted to a different realm while pondering deeply was alluring, he found himself mesmerized by it.

"You got picked on by that guy because you have this most teasable face."

He blurts out with a smirk, finally a reaction sparks, she winces with fidgety hands, trying to gesture words he can't comprehend.

Teasable? This is the only face I have!

"Though I'd love to tease you more too, remember the people out there won't just stop at that."

Finishing the sentence in a serious tone, his smirk disappears, her breath ceasing momentarily, her brows curling up, she shifts on her seat, gripping the coat on her lap so tight it wrinkles around her fingers.

Because everyone just sees what the media shows, people like Haru are convinced he's no good person and he doesn't care, it's frustrating to watch.

A sole brow crooks up on Ryo's expression, wondering what's with the meditation she's having while pouting. Unlike he thought, she could be quite anxious and noisy to the point he'd be bothered just by her presence. He learned how to erase her existence from his mind, though, and it worked for a while, but when she's being so unusually quiet, something's wrong.

"Huh," he puts the screwdriver aside. "Rie, are you still troubled-"

But despite the abrasive mannerisms,

In a second, she stands up, he flinches in reflex as she walks up to him, patting his arm with soft plops in some sort of approval, a faint smile breaching through her lips.

Ryo is actually a very nice guy isn't he?

Without adding any other gesture, she leaves, clamping herself into the bathroom. His lips gaped open with the unfinished sentence on the tip of his tongue. Did he just get petted? For what exactly? Swaying his head to shoo the perplexity from his mind, he recovers his tool tossed somewhere on the side and continues dismantling his duel disk to give some maintenance to it.

As Rie comes back to the dim, moody apartment, there's a note at the table, she frowns at it, picking it up distrustfully.

"I'm sorry for rummaging through your stuff before, sis. I hope you're not angry. I'll be back to the academy earlier due to some stuff left to do there, but I'll come back during winter. Don't work yourself too hard and take a break sometimes."

Yawning, she glances over the clock, it's well past six. Did he take the first boat to the academy? Smiling briefly, she puts the note down.

After a well deserved shower, she waddles sleepily to her room, throwing herself onto the futon and climbing under the blanket, fast asleep. A nightmare festers on her.

First, she takes a look at the folding door to the side, identified with a white sign in black letters showing "1-B", concluding thus: she's inside a classroom, not just any classroom, but the one from her high school.

The image becomes unclear, glitching to the bathroom of the hotel, then it's a wall instead of a door there and she's pinned against the sink, a tall figure towering in front of her: Ryo Marufuji. What is he doing here? No, the better question is: what is she doing here?

Looking around hazily, the bathtub edges far behind them blurs along the wall, changing into a larger space, in a blink of an eye lines and lines of chairs strewn over the room, a brown scheme of colors of the waxed ground and the wooden seats, a blackboard across the room.

A soundly slap hits the wall behind her, she staggers a step, flinching. Her back stumbling onto the blackboard behind, cornered there, the frame of it bending her in the most uncomfortable way. A smirk opens on Ryo's face, his arm stretched, blocking her right side, those ravenous green eyes locked onto hers, she can't stop looking at him either, gawking.

He leans onwards, his whole lower arm supporting on the wall, dangerously shortening the distance between them, his jagged blue hair sliding on his shoulders, her eyes squint, his image glitches, his eyes are suddenly brown, a completely different boy is ahead of her, his uniform is a dark-blue blazer and pants, same color as her own clothes which also changed, consisting of a dark-blue high waist skirt whose borders were occulted by the white shirt with a dark-blue sailor collar, a red tie around her neck.

The reminiscence is familiar, she trails off while averting her gaze to the side and when she looks at him again, it's Ryo there, notably taller than the boy from before.

"Hey, Rie, don't you want to blow me up?" he asks nonchalantly.

There's a soundly gasp, which he replies by scoffing softly, his hand unashamedly gliding on her cheek, her head bouncing back in reaction, knocking on the board. This… has happened before, in this classroom, but not with Ryo.

"Come on, Rie, why are you so shy?" his fingers slither across her jaw, cupping it firmly, dabbing on aggressiveness. "I've been wondering," his breath blows on her neck, an immediate shiver runs all over her body. "How many things can you do with your mouth? You don't really need to speak, honestly…"

"Don't say those words," is what keeps ringing in her mind, her heartbeats drumming so hard inside that her chest hurts, the beat resonating inside her ears. "Please."

"And how those smooth lips of yours would feel on me," his fingers grazes the bumps on her lips, the ones he made by gripping it so lasciviously strong. "Don't you want to know that too?" he whispers into her ears.

Trembling at the unrequired proximity, she shuts her eyes closed. A loud slam soaring, she pushes him away with both hands, his shoes clack dully as he stumbles a step back, when she opens her eyes, that sight is engraved into her mind, that brown haired boy, his sharp grey eyes widening, opening his arms demanding an explanation as he frowns, the image mixing with Ryo glaring arrogantly at her. When she darts out of that room…

Rie wakes up sitting in a jolt, her chest cramped, breathless with the scenes of the dream lingering in her thoughts, she slaps her hands onto her head, covering her heated, flushed face, what in the world is she even dreaming about? Ryo never said those words to her, that wasn't him, it was another person, and it was long ago why is she jumbling it all up?

That person is not in her life anymore, thankfully. Embracing her knees and burying her face for a good minute, a single sniff comes out.

Her teary eyes narrowed as she peeks out to check the white glowing numbers on the visor of the clock across from the room, on her study table. Ryo would never have such a poor attitude, would he?

The next second, it sets off, the repeated sound of it echoing in the silent room. Grabbing her pillow, she lets out the overwhelmed breath of air inside its fluffiness, dreading what's next in this day that started so "awesomely" and with weary eyes, she stands up for a brand new morning.