CHAPTER 79
I do not own skip beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.
First trip and its wonders: part three.
Warning: This chapter evokes the longterm aftermaths of what can provoke a sexual aggression. It is not explicit, and is maintained vague on purpose. Nonetheless, it could be upsetting or shocking for the people sensitive about those matters. If it's the case, go to the last portion of the chapter. A marking is added so that's it's recognizable.
They went upstairs, in some living area. A room that had ton of cushions, was cosy to an excessive point, and had a door you could lock. There was a tea and coffee machine, and she had to grin as she discovered there was also one of those infinite vendor machines found all around Japan, and now even inside their freaking cabin. She heard the distinctive noise of a body heavily plopping down in one of the plush worn out sofas.
She pushed a few buttons and walked back to the shrunk form of Ken-san, placing the warm can of tea on the low table in front of him.
She sat in the opposite armchair, and leaned on her thighs as she stared at him. She didn't know much of him. Didn't know if he wanted to be left alone or wanted to speak. Couldn't guess his inner thoughts or desires.
She recognized the symptoms and was fairly sure of what the true issue was. She could see the remains of scars and mental wounds just by his posture. Yet, every wounded human was different. Wounded or not, each human was different. She didn't want to poke and infect the wound further with carelessness.
Yet again, she could see he wasn't recovering. He wasn't shutting her out, sending her away and putting the mask of being alright back on. Not completely. He was certainly not talking neither looking at her, and seemed prostrated. But he could have already told her to back off a dozen times since they sat down. She sighed and rubbed her hair out of her face, taking a chance.
"When?" She asked.
Ken was freaking out, trying to keep his respiration steady, trying not to shake, trying to say something; trying to block the memories.
He heard her sit down, and tightened his lids to hide her presence from his sight.
She didn't say a word. He wanted to tell her to leave. Or rather, he wished he wanted that. But this patient mute presence of hers was comforting in the way he could feel the absence of expectations from her to him.
Then, she said one word. One word and his heart squeezed painfully in his chest like a balloon pressed too hard and ready to explode. One word and he knew the farce was over. One word that made him looked up fearfully.
He stared back at her, observing this elegant poise she seemed to naturally ooze, but always wrapped in kindness. And as he looked into her eyes, that's all that he indeed could see. Gentleness. And a sad understanding. As he observed her, the mysterious Kyoko-san he barely knew but that had his friend twisted into frenzied hot and soft knots, he could only agree. She was fascinating. She had more talent in acting that anyone he could compare with, even from how little he had actually seen, except maybe, Ren. She was humble to the point of annoyance. Charming and beautiful but exceedingly unaware of those facts.
And mostly importantly to him, she had this way of making Ren lose his composure and driving him to the walls that were utterly and adorably hilarious.
He could only understand his friend. Even with how little he still knew about her, he could tell she was special.
Yet, confiding about this was all about was a step he wasn't his raw core would allow him.
But ultimately, as he kept looking in her gaze, the kind acceptance it reflected in his decision to talk or not was what permitted his tongue to unlock on his most shameful disgusting secret.
"Two years and a half ago." He choked out in a disgusted cough, and had to stop because memories threatened to flow back yet again. She nodded in pained understanding.
"Would you like to talk or rather not?" She asked after another long pause.
He eyed her from the side, not sure what was safe, what the point was, even. He shrugged.
"I don't know, fuck, maybe, not like it would change anything." He rambled, angry at himself, at the world, at the situation, at the memories, at being caught; at having to admit anything at all.
She didn't reply and he turned back at her. Her patience seemed infinite as she didn't even frown at his rudeness, and a tight smile gripped at her lips with once again deep knowing eyes staring back right into his soul.
And suddenly, the itched that had rubbed inside of him eased as the ugly knowledge revealed its truth to his eyes. But it was replaced by such a bitter taste, he wanted to regurgitate.
"You were…"He said with the recognition of a pain in her that, though fade, had been so familiar to him from the start. She nodded faintly. He couldn't pursue, though, pushing his tongue to formulate the words was as struggling in moving sands. His mind was a jungle of uncoordinated thoughts that he failed to process.
The only thing that eventually came up, on which his mind latched on as a last remedy to get some order inside, was the same word she had pronounced before.
"When?"
"Five years and four months ago." Was her curt answer.
Ken sighed heavily, wishing the world was different, and hoping, even knowing otherwise, that they were a rarity.
"So, you do know…"
She nodded.
Silence stretched, prolonged as if both of them were pulling at one side of an old elastic band, hoping it would keep elongating without them having to talk. But she started again, eventually.
"Do you want to talk?" She asked, as gentle as before.
He opened his mouth, ready to tell her again there was nothing to say but instead a question bubbled out in a rush whisper.
" … do we ever heal?"
She grimaced a tint before her lips pulled into a complicated smile.
"There is no fix answer to that. It depends on a lot of things, I'd say."
"Like what?" He blurted out, feeling impatient and ready to have this recipe toward healing.
"On the type of person they are, first. On the entourage of that person, if they had a lot of support. On, if they let trauma envenomed with time. On their next intimate relationship sometimes. Or that's what I read about it, I'm no psychologist."
"What did you do?" He specified his question.
She shook her head.
"I'm better but even I still have my lows about it." She admitted softly.
He didn't let go her gaze and let his despair and need for a way out seeps through as he insisted with his eyes.
She messed with her hair, clearly feeling awkward about it before replying.
"I think my mental is what helped me the most," She told him. "The mental is the most important thing in many tough situations, and it's not different with dealing with our traumas." "Sorry if it feels condescending, I'm just explaining what I remember reading and why I think it applied in my case," She justified, looking nearly guilty.
"I've always been stubborn and well – …"
"But what did you think, precisely? What did you tell yourself? I don't understand. How can you make this feeling of dirtiness leaves?!" He rushed out. He understood theoretically what she was saying but not how to apply it. What could he do? What should he do?
"I didn't want to lose. It's as simple as that." She told him with determined smile.
"Lose? What do you mean? Lose against whom?"He asked.
"Lose against them," She explained, "I didn't want to lose against them."
Oh.
She rubbed her neck self-consciously.
"I can tell you my thought process but it doesn't mean you'd think the same or better feel the same. But with hindsight, if I had thought differently, I'm not sure where I would be today."
He nodded in acknowledgment and waited.
" … after it happened, well, I sort of realized I was not okay, even after my body healed. And when I realized, I felt – …"
"Broken?" He supplied and she nodded grimly.
"I felt anger rise inside me." She said with rage colouring if ever briefly her eyes. "And with that, outrage. Because if my body had healed then it meant what remained was psychological. It meant I was letting them do this to me by feeling that way. I felt I was letting them won by accepting to be broken. So, I decided to fight, to not let them win. I decided that, if they had had my body-she shuddered as she spoke those words – I wouldn't let them have my soul and my mind. I wouldn't give them that pleasure when they weren't even there anymore. I wouldn't give them that importance, I wouldn't let them make me feel worthless." She ended with a somewhat calmer composure. Ken shuddered at the words she used echoed in him like a razor slipping inside a wound and cutting open the barely holding stitches.
Not let them win…
It was pretty said like that but how. How could he fight against his own broken mental?
"How?"He asked.
She messed with her hair again, and he was starting to see it was a habit of hers.
"Again, there is no textbook for this. I can only share leads and what I did." She warned him and he waved at her to pursue, dismissing her concerns. He just wanted to get out of this pledge.
She sighed deeply, as if it cost her to share all of this. And it did, it was something very hard and personal she was sharing, and he was sure it was not easy for her. But she spoke.
"The basic thing a professional would tell you is that it's about taking back control. Though I would argue every case is different." She added with some irritation before continuing. "We feel dirty because we were touched against our will and most often, because we are ashamed of our powerlessness, because we weren't able to prevent it."
He nodded as it touched right the guilty centre of dirtiness he felt in his core, and a lump settled in his throat.
She rubbed her hands on her face, and he could see how hard it was in fact for her.
"I don't like this cold way of seeing things when it's so intimate and up to each individual but it's the fastest way to explain to you taking back control, from what I understood."
He nodded again in silence.
"If you feel otherwise and want to tell me, well, correct me and – "
He lifted a shaking hand to stop her.
"You hit the – … – nail of it. I just want escape this hell, please." Ken said earnestly and she nodded.
"Right, sorry."
"So, taking back control. Empowering yourself, in short." She repeated after a trembling breath. "Some people do it by trying to take control of their emotions and going to see a professional."
"Did you?"He asked.
She shook her head.
"I didn't want to talk about it."
"I bet not many people go."
She nodded.
Another silence followed before Ken dared to ask her to continue again, using all his energy to focus on the now and then and not think about what this was really about.
"Other people try to take back control by having the control in new relationships…" She said, trying for a lighter tone but Ken grimaced.
"It doesn't sound like a very healthy way, said like that." He commented.
She agreed.
"It rarely is. Not at first, at least."
"For some, it's slightly different. They won't go into relationships but will try to get reacquainted with their bodies as they feel like a stranger inside of it."
Ken could get understand that desire. The feeling of not being the one in control, to have that freedom being robbed from you, night after night of reminiscence, nightmare after nightmare. It would make you do absolutely anything to stop the helpless feeling.
"I tried that one for a little bit at some point." She mumbled, making him lift his head back at her. "I don't think it will heal you but it can be necessary to prove to you not every experience have to be like that."
He wanted to throw up. It was not even graphic but just knowing she had lived that too, to the point she had thought every experience was like that. Even for a brief second. He didn't understand her fully there. Taking back control of your body, he got it. But this. Unless it was your first, you knew intimacy was always different. And then he understood, and bile rose with such an intensity it burned his throat. He closed his eyes. He couldn't let her see what she would take as pity in his eyes. Because he knew. To the rare people he confided in, he knew the unavoidable pity seen in their eyes. He knew sometimes, it was genuine compassion. But no matter what, sometimes, with the trashy feelings inhabiting you, you could only think it was pity. It didn't want to make her endure that yet again, when she was taking up on herself to share all of this to help him.
Tightening his hands and clinging to the old beige velvet of couch, he kept his eyes shut tight and nodded, waving at her to pursue.
"What I did is slightly more literal, I guess." She expressed. "I wanted to fight them, I wanted to fight against what they inflicted me, and against what they were making me feel. So I learned to fight, literally."
He opened his eyes at her soft tone, and her face was portraying a more serene look.
"I learned self-defence, karate, I learned how to throw men double my size, I learned how to recognize drugs in a drink, and even tried developing some endurance to it. I learned all sorts of things, really." She told him with a smile. "Until I could be confident enough I could defend myself."
"Then I spent a lot of time hitting a sandbag… I imagined hitting their faces, turning them into ashes, cutting them into pieces…" She had a feral grin as she remembered for a second before turning back to him. "I – he saw her hesitated to relay something before showing him an embarrassed expression – I stayed alone and screamed and screamed sometimes, then I would exhaust myself with outdoor activities until I was drained. It was really cathartic." She finished with somewhat of a grin.
He looked at her, and looked, and just didn't know what to say. He could imagine the countless days going on about her days, and fighting and fighting until exhaustion.
"And then?" He slipped. "What happened?"
She shrugged with nonchalance and he wondered it was forced or if what made it possible for her were years of getting stronger and fighting.
"Time passed." She said, a soothing smile gracing her face. "Nightmares became fewer, I felt more confident in my ability to defend myself, I managed to meet a few friends, and I also got very busy with works."
She noticed his glazed eyes at this and tried a reassuring smile before shrugging again. He briefly wondered why it felt so familiar before it dawned on him where or rather from whom she had picked that up. It would have brought a smile to his face in a less dense context.
"The wound is still there, but it's mostly healed." She said.
He stayed silent for a long while, mulling over everything she told him. She let him take as much time he needed.
"Nightmares … how often do you have them?"
She smiled and nodded.
"Before coming back, it was more or less once a month, when I felt too low." She told him and he had to ask.
"When was your last one?"
She had to ponder before replying, and that was very telling in itself.
"Seven weeks ago … maybe… I'm not even sure." She finally said, and she couldn't help the smile that broke on her face when she apparently herself realized it had been this long.
His eyes swelled at the weight of her words. If he could have that … it was every single night for him… If he could have that, if he could have that … he would try anything. She came sitting next to him but didn't move closer, giving him silent comfort as he composed himself.
"… Do you think I could do it? That it would work?" he asked. "Learn to fight." He specified when she didn't get his thoughts right away.
She tilted her head, and showed him a gorgeous grin, and his heart bolt for a second. "Why not? Of course, you can do it."
He shielded his vision. Gosh, that view was dangerous. He was starting to see why Ren had not stood a chance.
"I'm not the most athletic." He admitted later.
"I didn't know a thing before starting." She said, and he had a hard time believing that looking at her svelte figure. To think all that was accomplished in only five years.
"And why would it not work?" She asked.
"Well, I tried music and a few other stuff, and though it helped to some level … it was never enough."
"Then, it's worth a shot. At the very least, you will feel stronger." As she understood fully there was nothing to risk anymore.
He nodded. She wasn't wrong. He thought about it for another long minute.
"I might be able to take some lesson after the trip but," He started, "in the meantime, could you help me out, and show me some things, give me some pointers?" He inquired, feeling bashful to even dare to ask her that.
She hesitated.
"I'm not sure I'm the best person to teach you, Ken-san." She said but when she saw his crestfallen face, she rushed into adding.
"It's not that I don't want to. But you will have naturally more strength as a man and – "
He lifted a hand, and shook his head to interrupt her.
"I don't think it applies here, I'm rather weak, I never fought in my life." He told her before adding. "Plus, Ren told us, you were stronger than most women he knew and we have more or less the same calibre. You are even a few centimetres taller than me."
He saw her pondering that before smiling at him.
"Alright then. If you are sure."
He held her gaze as he explained his main reason.
"If anything, I want it to be you at first because I know you will understand. You will know what can help, and I won't feel as awkward if I have to speak about some things."
Her eyes lightened up as understanding slipped inside them.
"Of course. Sorry."
He waved her apologies away.
"And you would rather not have to justify yourself about this sudden interest, I bet."
"Yes."
Another moment of stretched silence passed, but it was appeased, at least to him, by the new resolve he felt pulsing in his veins.
"Ren and I need to train for the last scenes of the movie during the stay, so we were planning to go to the gym anyway. But some part can be trained alone. You could tag along on those, and I would try to start showing you what I can." She proposed him, and he was finally able to pull up a smile. It was not yet hope, but it was a potential. A possibility.
"Thank you."
She frowned.
"I'm not giving any certitude or promise, you know that, right?"
He nodded, he knew. But she was trying.
"Thank you anyway."
They stayed in companionable silence for a little longer as Ken processed their discussion, and felt very grateful for her ever-patient attitude. Until she looked at her phone, making him suddenly think she was finally getting impatient, but she surprised him with her words.
"You know, I was thinking," She began, "Ren and the others won't be back for a while still so if it's light, I could already show you some moves." She proposed and he felt floored at how prompted she was being. He was imposing on her already, and he knew she must feel sore from the lessons she had. Learning a new sport was always taxing, and the ones exercised in mountains were often even more so. Especially if you were brand new at the practice. And after their chat, he just felt like taking a nap.
She chuckled his surprise away.
"Nothing like striking the iron while it's hot, don't you think?" She said with an uplifting grin that made him want to be able to have this sort of positive energy coursing in his own veins too. She was right, though, it was far from a bad idea to go before he lost momentum and motivation. He was easily distracted by his music so if he wanted to do this, he needed to grab at it first-hand.
"But I'm still sore, it would need to be very light, I'm warning you," She added. "More like a prepping lesson to the true ones."
He nodded and stood, feeling pumped that they would start right away.
"Let's go, then."
She laughed, and he had turned around before catching that blinding joy on her face again.
"Give me a minute, let's grab some training clothes. I hope you have some." She told him as she unlocked the door, a thoughtful thinking from her he was grateful she had, and they came face to face with Mei, looking like she was about to knock and yet not. A brief guilty face passed in expression but it shifted to blank a second further. She grinned with a false perk Ken knew all too well, and he had the sudden certitude she had been up to something fishy.
"So, you were in there." She stated as if she was confirming it when, he was sure she had already been aware. "I'm glad I found you. Airi-san would like to apologize when you feel like it Ken." She said like he was the one at wrong here.
"Tell her I will talk with her later, I'm going somewhere with Kyoko-san." He said before turning back to her. "In five in the entry?"
She nodded before adding.
"You can call me just Kyoko, you know."
He thought about nodding but then thought about a certain someone, and thought otherwise.
"Kyoko-chan?" He proposed.
She grinned and nodded before heading to her room, and he did the same, ignoring Mei who pouted and glared at the back of the tall young woman before a sick disgusted smirk pulled up on her face.
They went straight to the gym centre, and changed. Then Kyoko-chan showed him the muscles to pay attention to in self-defence and fighting when he told her he had no idea whatsoever for that too. They stretched a good amount of time since they had both just come back from skiing so needed to do it anyway, and there was a whole lot of muscles involved. Mostly everyone. It made him groaned since he admitted, he had skipped stretching after ski the first two days. Sportive wasn't his middle name, and he would normally have little to no interest in intense sports. Outdoors activities were the only exceptions, and mostly because it was with friends. He wouldn't have gone if he had been alone. He would have cooked up some new sheet of music and worked on his new song.
She demanded him to warm up his wrists and them to give them to her to hold, with him facing her. She tightened her palms around them in a special hold that, she told him, even with a man's strength would be hard to get away from. Then she said.
"Free yourself."
But no matter how much he pulled, he couldn't. She showed him how to position his fingers, how to make his hand as thin as possible. Told him to use his thumbs, to pinch her to let go. Give him tricks and tricks on how to do it.
Then make him try again. And again, and again. After half an hour, he was finally able to understand how to do it but was still failing half of the time, despite having assimilated the theoretical knowledge. Then, she let go, and made him give her his wrists again but held behind, at his tail bone.
He understood what he had to do but he couldn't.
Then she asked him something he would have preferred not to have to answer, even knowing why she was asking.
"I'm going to ask you something sensitive, you are fully allowed to not desire to reply if you don't want to." She warned him. "But knowing this will permit me to know if what we are doing would be enough for you or not."
He nodded grimly, bending in defence, worried of what she was going to ask.
"Was your aggressor a man or a woman? Were they alone or?" He gasped at that question rippled inside, and threatened to submerge him in his memories but she held him upright, serving as support until he was able to take back control.
He turned haunted eyes to her, begging her to drop it as he asked.
"Is it really – …?"
She held his gaze with firmness, and he could see her the frankness reflecting.
"I promise you if that information wasn't necessary, I would never try to pry."
He swallowed down his saliva before mumbling.
"It was a man."
"When you were – … targeted in the past, I don't find a better word, sorry, were they mostly men or?"
He nodded, incapable of formulating more.
"Can you fucking tell me why this was necessary now?!"He asked, feeling like she was twisting in his wounds.
She apologized before explaining.
"If, it had been a woman," She said. "Learning how to break free from my hold would have been enough to be sure you would be able to do so with mostly any woman outside. Even more so, since I'm kind of strong for a woman."
He nodded, waiting for more.
" … but since it wasn't, later on, once you mastered breaking free of my hold, you will need to be able to do so with a man instructor." She told him. "For example, if you were able to break free of any hold, no matter in which position you were restricted from someone the calibre of Ren, then you should normally be able to break free from anyone."
He shuddered at the thought to be this vulnerable with a man in his back. He shook his head.
"I don't think I would feel comfortable."
She sighed and waited until he looked at her.
"Ken-san," She said, "I can show you the moves, make you memorize every single one of them but I can't make you learn the strength you would need to apply."
"Most important, I can make you feel the pressure and level of strength that would be applied on you." She added.
"But you would be able to free yourself from someone Ren's calibre, right?" He said with certainty.
"Yes, but breaking free isn't the same portraying the strength." She insisted. "When you are breaking free, either from hands or arms, you are using as minimum strength as you can, and most of all, you are using the adversary's strength against himself."
He understood but couldn't help to add.
"But come on, we all heard and even saw for some, you lifting Ren in the air at your filming."
She laughed.
"Yes, I can do that," she admitted, "But it doesn't mean I'm stronger than him."
He wasn't so sure to get her point and showed her his confusion. She smiled.
"It's as simple as this: If we were to both it a plank for example, he would always have more strength able to apply in a hit. If we run, momentum and endurance play in it, but ultimately he is taller and stronger so there are good chances he would catch up to me and go faster."
"I would never be stronger than him, but I don't have to be." She told him. "What's important is knowing how to use your own strength, and what amount to use in front of different levels of strength."
He was finally starting to understand.
"I need to experience those different levels to know what amount to use and how, that's what you meant."
She nodded happily.
"But with a new instructor, wouldn't I have to justify some things about my reasons, of what makes me uncomfortable?" He asked, already feeling the fright of having to justify and to be judged, rising.
"Not necessarily. You can take private lessons or you can take common ones but they should respect our privacy and focus on the lessons no matter what. An instructor who can't do that is just not a good teacher." She stated coldly.
She saw he still didn't feel comfortable and eventually added.
"But that's also why we are doing this right now." She said, trying appease his blatant fear, he was sure. "So that you would have some basics, and that you would know what could be important to work on, and even more important, what could be triggering to you." She finished as she finally released his wrists and faced him again.
He thought hard about it as they pursued some other exercises. She encircled him in a new hold, telling him to tell her at any time if he felt uncomfortable as she glued his arms to his side and told him to break free again. But she was so patient, and he felt so at ease that he never felt threatened.
When he failed to remove himself from the cage she was forming around him, she explained in this case, breaking free by just twisting around wouldn't work. He needed to throw her above him or make her fall down. He looked at the hard mat where their bare feet were on, afraid to hurt her. She reassured him it wouldn't harm her and they kept at it for another moment. He never managed to throw her, even after she beautifully shown him, with him as an example, how to do it. Her equilibrium for that was too strong for him. But by the end, he finally managed to slip his right leg behind her calf and made her fall backward, though with him too. Once on the ground, she told him, in that position, the best move would be, elbowing her in the ribs to finish to make her let go if your adversary, her in this case, hadn't still.
He understood how but didn't dare to do it yet.
They took a break and he asked her what had been turning in his mind during the last couple of minutes.
"Do you think Ren would be willing to help if I asked him?"
She blinked at the change of discussion and he explained his thought.
"I'm apprehensive to do this with a perfect stranger and it would give me an idea of the strength that could be applied on me." He explained. He was pretty sure the bastard of his nightmares hadn't been as strong as Ren, so it would be perfect.
She still didn't say a word, as if she knew what the issue was here, and he sighed. Yes, he knew, if he asked Ren for his help, he was pretty damn certain the man would give it him without second thought. What he was really afraid of was something else.
"Do you think he would ask me to explain things, that he would prod about it before helping?"
She lifted a brow before shaking her head as if it was obvious.
"What do you think?"
He hesitated, and even though he knew his friend, he couldn't help but doubt. He didn't think it was rational but he couldn't help, he had to have some reassuring.
"Ren would never ask you to tell him things you aren't comfortable with, Ken-san." She said with such certitude it was nearly scary. "You really don't need to worry about that aspect. And I agree, it could put you more at ease, if you want to and feel comfortable enough."
He nodded, and let out of breath. Yes, it had been silly of him. Of course Ren wouldn't pry into things if he didn't want him to.
"I will ask him." He told her in a lighter tone.
They tried a couple more exercises before changing back into warm outside clothes and heading out of the gym.
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They were halfway back to the chalet when they saw the others, thirty feet away or so. They had apparently already put skis and other materials in their lockers and had decided to take the return path going through this the snowy park filled with pine trees rather than the straight one.
Kyoko briefly asked Ken-san if he felt okay joining them right away or he still needed a moment, and when he gave her his assent, they began to make their way to them. They were coming closer but the group hadn't noticed them yet. Momose-san seemed to have stopped them at the pond bridge to observe the tiny frozen river, she saw Ren and Kijima talking a bit on the side, at the outskirts of the trees, and suddenly Kyoko had an idea. She had still been thinking about getting revenge on that burned ticket. Oh, she would find a way to pay something for him too but it wasn't enough, and this was just the perfect opportunity.
She giggled aloud in expectation to the result, and Ken-san shot her a look that said he thought she was mad.
"Care to tell me your crazy thoughts?"Inquired Ken-san as they made a few more steps, and Kyoko stopped before grinning at him and squatting down. He had her back to her, which meant he couldn't see her. She snorted when he shifted even closer to the perfect position. She gathered fluffy white powder in her gloved hands, and started to squeeze and shifted to make it into a snowball. She wouldn't hit him directly she thought as she made the ball harder. It was too obvious, and he might avoid it. He had insane reflexes so she refused to take that risk. She thought about it again, loving it was a pine tree they were under, which meant huge weight could be handled by those covered-in-pines branches. She just had to be certain of the angle. Just the right angle.
Her snowball looked like ice and was rock hard when she was finished. Normally, she would have hesitated, far from her the idea to hurt anyone. But the areas were clear of anyone. She had a full straight line to her target, the pine tree first high branch.
"Kyoko-chan, this snowball seems a bit hard," Ken-san said worryingly, "What are you plotting to do with this?" He asked as she stood back swiftly.
"To hit a pine tree." She laconically stated, though the shit-eating grin sporting her face was devilish.
Ken's head made rounds between staring at her, looking at the big snowball in her hands, and the group further ahead. He did that on repeat for a full minute until what she had in mind dawned on him, and he wrapped an arm around his sides like he was barely holding himself back. His grin mirrored hers as he asked.
"You sure you can hit that tree?"He still asked for reassurance.
"Positive."
"It's revenge for the paid clothes?"
"Positive."
He snorted.
"I'll give you space to aim right." He said and took a few steps back, lightly shaking.
She thought fast, took a stance, thanking her training on getting targets for a role in the past, and started to aim but Ken-san stopped her last second.
"Wait!" He demanded and she saw him hurry in pulling out his phone before pointing it at the direction of the group. She shook her head, there was no need to film this, though she could understand.
She took back her stance, aimed, and threw her snowball in one straight beeline. It hit the perfect spot she had been aiming to, right at the supporting area of the huge branch which trembled heavily at the hard impact, thanks to how hard she had made that ball, and drop the full heavy bundle of dusty snow it had been supporting down. Right on Ren's head and shoulders.
The shock on his face as he rubbed snow out of his eyes and mouth was to die for. Her laughs shook her sides and she could see she wasn't the only one as Ken-san singsong he had it on camera in the middle of hits of giggles, and she could see Kijima hollowing by Ren's side. She saw how he briefly looked around to determine from whom it was, staring at Kaï, Momose and the others who all shook their heads in confusion and more and more merriment. And then he saw her. She waved her hand at him with another pull of her tongue, and could hear the echoes of the group laughs when they understood what happened.
She saw him shook off some more snow from him, in very, slow, deliberate, precise moves. He pointed his index at her then made a move to tell her to come here, and she shook her head with a chuckle. Like she would fall for that.
She saw him grin, and thought she might have seen a challenging look taking roots on his face, but with the distance, she couldn't be sure.
"… I need to run." She told Ken-san, still eyeing Ren as he said something to Kijima.
"I think you better, yes." He commented as in a flash Ren was halfway toward Ken-san and her, flying such a sprint even she was surprised at his rapidity. And there was no doubt whatsoever about the focus of his chase.
She bolted.
PS: Hello everyone. Look who is unexpetedly back with a new chapter. Yes, me. This chapter is a bit dark, but it was necessary. I hope you will still appreciate it.
See you soon, hopefully.
Kisses.
Mimagfan.
AUTHOR OUT.