| an_apple | 2007-12-09 18:18 |
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mood: okay music: Aragaki Yui - Memories Title: At the rainbow’s end Author: [info]ikujinashi & [info]tsukimiso Genre: Drama Rating: R Disclaimer: At profile Main characters: Picture (Updated) Warnings: Brotherly love. Summary: So the love of your life (otherwise known as your littlebrother) is now an ocean away, you’re getting married to a girl youbarely know, and your father has become your drill instructor on theways of the business world. Welcome to the life of Nishikido Ryo - andno, he doesn’t have a clue what to do either. Japanese in this chapter: Niichan - Casual way of addressing one’solder brother, Kawaii - Cute, Otousama - Formal way of addressing one’sfather, Ganbarimasu - To do one’s best, Ne - Hey, right, Deshou -Right, aren’t you/isn’t it. At the rainbow’s end Chapter 30  |Korea| Hiroki sat on his chair, looking down at the table and had his handsfolded in his lap. By the same table, on each side of it sat his newparents - both a bit tense and insecure on what to say. Though Hirokihimself of course didn’t notice this. All he noticed what was going onin his head, what had been going on in his head since yesterday and howhe suddenly heard thousand of voices telling him to do this and thatand he had no idea of which to listen to. He had accepted it, he hadaccepted that he had moved, he knew that he had moved and that hecouldn’t get back now. He knew that the two persons before him were hisnew parents and that he had to become at least friendly with them. Butit was difficult. At the airport he had only met Su-yeon and he hadgreeted, been polite and all but even so he wouldn’t say that he hadtalked to her. He knew nothing about her - what kind of person she was.Except for that she was Fumina’s friend and by that alone he wouldn’tbe surprised if she was at least a little like her. Though she had tobe very nice, both she and her husband whose name apparently wasDal-hwan both had to be very nice people for wanting to take someone ashim in. But, even though they obviously were nice, there was no way that Hirokidared to talk. He couldn’t talk with them; on the plane he had onlynodded when he had been asked something. Su-yeon knew Japanese andapparently so did Dal-hwan, but since it wasn’t their first language itwas most likely a bother to talk in it - Hiroki shouldn’t force someoneto do something like that. And besides he didn’t dare to. There was noway he dared to do something like that, he wouldn’t dare to look atthem - look at their faces… Especially not Dal-hwan’s. He missed Ryo. He missed knowing that Ryo would be in one of the rooms,that he was there waiting for him. He missed knowing that Ryo was outwith his friends but would be back later - or that he had spent thenight at “Yukke’s” or… or something. He missed not being alone, hemissed having someone there… because he didn’t have that now. He wasalone. He was completely alone and he… he had no one else. How was hegoing to survive here without Ryo? How was he going to manage to gothrough a day without hearing Ryo’s voice? How was he going to… how washe going to find a way to live when Ryo wasn’t there? Nervously swallowing, Hiroki nursed his bottom lip between his teeth.Despite just having eaten breakfast he was hungry again - another thinghe wouldn’t be able to say. The food was good though, it definitelywas. But he wouldn’t dare ask for more, it wouldn’t be polite and itwould be almost as if he tried to order Su-yeon and Dal-hwan around,which was not what he wanted to do. He didn’t want them to be angrywith him, he didn’t… he didn’t want them to be angry but honestly hedidn’t want to be here either. He wanted to go back home. Even ifFumina would scold him thousand times and hit him a lot that would beokay, as long as he got to go back. He wanted to cry, too. He wanted tocry so bad but he was out of tears. On the plane to Korea he had fallenasleep and then in the car to the house he had been close to tears allthe time. First thing he had been ordered to do was to go to bed soonce he had walked into the room Su-yeon had showed him and she hadtold him ‘oyasumi’, he had gone to bed - dressed in the t-shirt he hadgotten from Ryo. When he had fallen asleep he didn’t know, but he knewhe had at some point. It had been so long since the last time he hadcried himself to sleep though so he had almost forgotten how his eyeswould always be swollen in the morning, like they were now. He wantedto go and lie in the bed again though, just lie in it and stare at thewall until he cried, like he had yesterday. He wanted so much… Even in a moment like this he couldn’t help but being selfish. Why hadthey adopted him? Why would they, who would want a son like this? Whowould want to have someone so selfish like Hiroki was as a part oftheir family? After a few minutes of fidgeting and glancing at his wife who didn’tseem any more comfortable with starting the conversation, Dal-hwandecided that enough was enough. The three of them were family now afterall! Why should they sit around in silence like this? It didn’t makeany sense. “Hiroki?,” he started with a smile, despite the fact that the boywasn’t looking at him right now - it was good to make a goodimpression, they wanted to get off on the right footing after all. “Ithink I’m right in saying that you don’t know any Korean yet… Butthat’s alright, you know. My mother is Japanese, so it comes a littlemore easily to me…” He laughed a little, though it came out sounding alittle odd in the silence. “It’s English I have problems withsometimes.” Su-yeon looked up at Dal-hwan started talking, smiling a bitrelieved as she didn’t have to be the one to break the silence. Noddingin agreement, she then glanced at Hiroki, trying over and over again tohave herself realise that this boy was her son now. She wouldunderstand of course, if he would never be able to call her ‘mom’ buteven so he was in her and Dal-hwan’s care now and it was somehow a bitdifficult to believe. Sure, Hiroki wasn’t little, he was alreadyfifteen, going to turn sixteen, but he was still a child; a small boywho needed parents to survive, who needed parents that loved him andthat was something she was sure of that wouldn’t take too long. “That’s right,” she said then, trying to keep her voice as gentle aspossible. “Though of course, if you’d want to, Hiroki, we could signyou up for a language school? Or hire a-,” she didn’t manage to finishthat sentence as Hiroki then lifted his head - surprising all of themby actually looking at them. It was scary, it was very, very scary to look at them and thus itdidn’t take longer than maybe three seconds before Hiroki looked downagain. They had nice faces though, both Dal-hwan and Su-yeon lookedlike really nice people and they sounded really nice. Wasn’t languageschool expensive? Wasn’t hiring someone expensive too? They wouldn’thave to spend money on him, they had already done a trip to Japan toget him, that was enough. And they let him stay here, in their house,they didn’t need to do more… “Hi-Hi-Hiro-Hiro-ro-Hiro-Hiro-kki, Hi-Hiro-Hiroki… Hiro-Hiroki i-i-is…i-is-is fi-fi-fin-fine…,” he mumbled then and bowed slightly. That wasdifficult, to talk to them, but he had to be nice in return and tellthem something. After all, they were being all nice with him now and…and… Hiroki blinked a couple of times, trying to get rid of the tearsin his eyes. This was so… so difficult. Dal-hwan frowned and leaned back in his chair a little, though sinceit was just a dining chair it had no give to it. For a moment or so hestayed silent and just thought, went over in his mind the best way toask the question that he knew he had to ask next. “Please understand that I don’t mean to be rude, but…,” he paused forjust a moment, deciding that that had been a good way of starting. He’dalways told himself that he’d be a good father after all, he’dunderstand and respect his children - and while Hiroki technicallywasn’t -his- child, it was the closest thing he had. “Have you gottenany help with your stutter up to now?” Hiroki shook his head, keeping his eyes down all the time. Heunderstood too that it was really impolite not to answer vocally whensomeone asked a question but right now he couldn’t do anything else,saying those three words had been so difficult, there was no way he’dbe able to say something again after just these couple of seconds ofsilence. He wasn’t that good, he wasn’t good at all actually and heknew that but he wasn’t… this was proof of that, wasn’t it? He couldn’teven vocally answer ‘no, sir’ because… because of something. Why wouldanyone want to have a son like him? He understood why Fumina hadallowed these people to adopt him, but why would they -want- to? Su-yeon, also very surprised to hear that Hiroki stuttered so much,looked up at her husband and shook her head slightly as if to tell himthat she had no idea of that. Fumina hadn’t mentioned anything abouthim having any difficulties with anything like this. Of course, nomatter if he stuttered or not, Su-yeon would still want to have himhere, she wanted to take care of him but she was still surprised.Though, this made her a bit worried - maybe there was something elsethat Fumina hadn’t told them about? For a short second she was about torise and go to the livingroom to take out all the important papers theyhad gotten to see if there was anything there that said that Hiroki hadsome illness or was allergic to something but, then she remembered howboth she and Dal-hwan had been going through them very carefully. Andif her memory served her right, according to the papers Hiroki was avery healthy child. Though, that didn’t make this any less surprisingof course. Looking at his wife and giving her a slight nod to tell her thatwhile he hadn’t heard about this before, he’d do his best to take careof it and just to play along (after years together their nonverbalcommunication was generally spot on), Dal-hwan looked back at Hiroki. “I see,” he replied, keeping his voice calm though he couldn’t help butwonder what on earth Su-yeon’s friends had been doing to let animpediment like that get so out of hand without any help at all. Thatdidn’t make any sense, who would do that? “Well then we’ll have to hirea speech therapist as soon as possible… Though of course we’ll let youget settled in first.” Leaning in a bit, Dal-hwan tried to look asunthreatening as possible. “Would you prefer a male or a female, or doyou not mind? We’d like you to take to it as well as possible afterall.” Therapist? Hiroki’s eyes widened as he heard that and quickly helooked up to immediately meet Dal-hwan’s eyes. Did he mean that?Seriously? A therapist was a person who helped people with troubles andproblems and a speech therapist in this case… it would mean that hewould be able to talk normally right? That he would be able to talkwithout making people tired of listening to him? That would… he wouldbe able to talk like a lot of other people, like everyone else. Hewould be… he would be at least somewhat normal, he… It would be like adream coming true. … but dreams are expensive, aren’t they? At that thought, Hiroki quickly looked down and shook his head again.He was very, very happy that they offered of course, definitely! Itmeant that they cared, it was so nice but it would cost so much money. “E-e-ek-eku-ek… ek… ex-expe-pens-expensi-sive…” “No, no, no,” Su-yeon immediately objected and shook her head.“Money isn’t a problem, Hiroki… If you want help, we’d be more thanhappy to help you get it. Right?” She looked up at Dal-hwan and smiledslightly. This was already worrying her slightly; how the boy seemed tobe very reserved. Of course it went without saying that if he had beenstuttering his whole life, that maybe he would become insecure withhimself but… maybe if would continue that way, he wouldn’t ever be ableto open up to them? Of course, he had been there not even 24 hours butstill, it was very scarying to think that it might end up like that. “Of course,” Dal-hwan agreed immediately. After all it was good toshow solidarity and unity as parents, back one another up at everyavailable opportunity and such - yes, he’d read a lot of books aboutparenting. He’d wanted to be a father to Su-yeon’s child for such along time and while it was biologically impossible according to everydoctor they’d been to, papers had been signed and agreements had beenmade and here they were with a child that, according to law, was theirresponsibility until he turned eighteen. “Su-yeon and I want to be the best parents we can be - can we ask youto help us out a little? Just let us know if we can do anything?” Su-yeon agreed, humming so that Hiroki would be able to tell. “That’s right. Hiroki? Anything… if you feel that there’s something youwant to say to us, or ask of us… Don’t hesitate to ask, okay? We wantto get to know you as… as well as possible. We understand that it’lltake time for you of course, but…,” as she felt how tears threatened tofall down her cheeks, Su-yeon looked up and after a quick glance at herhusband, she then looked back at Hiroki - he who, from a couple of daysago, was their son. “Know that you can talk to us about anything. Anything, Hiroki… If you want help with something, we’ll try to help you…” As he nodded in reply, Hiroki couldn’t help but glance up atSu-yeon. Why was she almost crying? It was really easy to tell that shewas close to but why? And why didn’t she? Maybe she would beembarrassed… She was so nice. Both of them were so nice, why were theyso nice to someone who they didn’t even know? According to the law andso on they were his parents today but they hadn’t met before and theydidn’t know each other… Why were they so nice to him… Hiroki had foundit weird when Ryo had been nice to him, but… they had been siblings,they… no, they were siblings - they were siblings, so it should benormal than… than this was, because… Because this wasn’t like how ithad been with Ryo. With Ryo it had been easy, with Ryo it had been…great, it hadn’t been awkward or difficult, it had just been really…really great. Hiroki sobbed and quickly - and as discreet as possible - tried to dryaway the new tears that found their way down his cheeks as he came tothink of Ryo again. If he was like this after just one day - maybe in aweek or so he would have been crying so much that there really would beno tears left. In a month there definitely wouldn’t be any left… Thoughonly imagining a month without Ryo was… was a bit too difficult. Itwasn’t possible. Now Dal-hwan knew that Su-yeon was very capable of dealing with thisby herself at least for a little bit when it was obvious Hiroki wasalso in distress - in fact he was pretty sure that had he turned hisattention to her then she would have wondered if he was some kind ofidiot. But of course he was no such thing and thus the boy before themwas automatically the most important thing at the moment. The elder of the two males moved from his seat, where he suddenly feltfar too official, and knelt next to Hiroki’s chair - he’d read thatbringing yourself down to a child’s level can help them relate to youafter all and there was nothing he wanted more than to have his -son-able to relate to him. “What is it?,” he asked, trying to make it asobvious as possible that he was genuinely concerned. Maybe he wastrying too hard, in fact he probably was but he didn’t care - that wasmuch better than trying too little. Hiroki didn’t know what it was, he didn’t know why or how, but forsome reason it really made him feel sort of good at the same time as hefelt terrified. Dal-hwan was suddenly so close but he sounded so nice,he really sounded nice. It wasn’t like when Tadashi had talked on thephone with whoever it had been and he had tried to sound really… niceand gentle; he succeeded of course but even so there had been somethingto his voice that made you see that there was something else there,too. But Dal-hwan really sounded… he sounded so nice, and that alonemade Hiroki cry a few more tears. What had he done to deserve this? “N-n…,” he started then, figuring he should try to answer the questionhe was given - it was the least he could do right now.“N-nii-niich-niich-ch-cha… nii-niich-chan…” Ah, well, that Hiroki would miss at least some things from his oldhome was inevitable; who wouldn’t, after all? But of course Dal-hwanand Su-yeon had foreseen this and thus kept as much contact details aspossible on hand - in case they would be needed. Most teenagers thesedays had strange and magical means of contacting any person on theplanet within minutes if they so wished, but Hiroki evidently wasn’tthe talkative type. “If you want to call your brother then you’re perfectly welcome to usethe phone,” Dal-hwan stated with no amount of uncertainty in his voice.“True that you haven’t been here long, but this is as much your houseas it is ours now.” He didn’t know how he did it, but somehow that made Hiroki stopcrying and instead he blinked. Call Ryo? He had never talked to Ryo onthe phone before, he couldn’t remember he had ever talked on the phonewith anyone before… But now Dal-hwan said that he was free to call Ryoif he wanted to? The number wasn’t the problem; Ryo had given it to himonce and said that if he wanted to get the hold of him he could justcall him. Of course, Hiroki had never actually dared to touch the phoneat home though, but even so he had memorized the number just so that hewouldn’t have to go around with a note in his pocket all the time. Alsoit was something of Ryo’s, it was Ryo’s phone number and shouldn’t oneremember stuff like that about people they care about? Wasn’t it justlike remembering how a person looked? “Hiroki,” Su-yeon said then as she turned slightly in her seat andsmiled gently at him. The next word she said, she was a bit unsure ofif she should use it or not. But just like Dal-hwan had said, this wasHiroki’s house just as much as it was theirs, they were family now andthe best thing would be to get used to it as fast as possible. “Dad can help you if you’re not sure of how to do it,” she continuedthen, smiling a bit wider at how nice it felt to say ‘dad’ aboutDal-hwan. Of course she didn’t think that Hiroki didn’t know how aphone worked, but since they were in two different countries now itwent without saying that maybe Hiroki wasn’t sure of how to do, whatnumbers to dial in order to call to Japan. “If you miss your brother you should definitely call him, I’m sure hewould be happy to hear from you too.” Fumina had told Su-yeon that theother brother whose name apparently was “Ryo”, didn’t mind the move inthe slightest, that he was fine with it and had come to accept itquickly. Of course she didn’t think that her friend lied about that,but she was convinced that a parent would never know everything theirchild was thinking. If Hiroki was this sad about not being with hisbrother, the two of them had definitely been close and when someone whoyou were close to moved away you would always miss that person so rightnow Su-yeon was pretty sure she was right when she said that Ryo wouldbe happy to hear from Hiroki. Even though Su-yeon and Dal-hwan hadalready informed Fumina about that the flight had gone well and all,probably it would be different if… She could only imagine how it wouldbe like if her sister suddenly moved abroad, after all. If she’d hearthat everything was okay she would be relieved of course but she’dstill want to hear from her personally. The silence that had passed had felt a little like an eternity, but asSu-yeon noticed how Hiroki nodded slightly she smiled widely and noddedin agreement. It had been an eternity of silence that had been worthgoing through after all; this meant that Hiroki would accept help fromthem. Even if it was just a small thing like this it was a first step. “Then Dal-hwan, you will help him? I think the livingroom would bebetter than the one in the hallway…,” it would give Hiroki a little bitmore privacy at least. “Mmhm,” Dal-hwan muttered, smiling - that was the first time he’dactually been called ‘dad’ by anyone and it was kind of an awesomefeeling after having waited all this time. He stood up and stepped backso as not to be quite so imposing, looking down at Hiroki. “Come on then, I’ll show you what to do so next time you can do ityourself, okay?,” he asked amiably, motioning toward the door. It was weird, getting told that Dal-hwan was his dad now, but forsome reason Hiroki couldn’t help but actually like it somewhat. It wasstrange and weird but Dal-hwan was nice, he was really nice and… andwhile Hiroki was definitely sure of that he would never be able to callhim ‘father’ it was sort of comforting to know that, to get told thatthis nice person was his dad. Maybe he accepted things too fast, maybehe was accepting Dal-hwan and Su-yeon too fast but he wouldn’t know -they were nice, nice people were to be trusted after all. When Hiroki and Dal-hwan got into the livingroom, Dal-hwan made surethat Hiroki was looking and told him carefully how to do and whatbuttons to push for the next time. Then, when he handed the phone overto Hiroki, he told him to just dail the number but leave out the first0 and once the younger one had dialled the number to his brother’s cellphone he got told to not rush and was then left alone. It was scary, Hiroki thought. To sit with a phone to his ear like this,to hear the empty tune that let him know no one had picked up yet andjust wait. Wait for Ryo to actually pick up. To wait for him… Hirokilooked up at the door Dal-hwan had closed behind him; he was reallynice. He was so different from all teachers in school that tried to benice, he was so different from Tadashi… Dal-hwan was nothing likeTadashi, but still they were both his ‘dad’ now. But they were nothingalike… Dal-hwan was much nicer, he was much… much more gentle. Ryo yawned, already regretting how little sleep he’d gotten. It wastaking its toll already and now he had to go meet and greet with hisfuture wife - which of course he was going to make as much effort as hehad to for, after all if they got off on the wrong foot it wasn’t asthough he could really pick someone else. Probably the same for her,but he didn’t know that for certain and he wasn’t about to go screwingthings up in the hope that she’d get sufficiently irritated to wranglea change of partner. At least she was cute. Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and pulled it outwith every intention of answering; though he hesitated a little at thewords ‘unknown number’ on the screen. Eh, he decided after a moment ofdeliberation - he was bored enough to bother talking to someone whoprobably had the wrong number anyhow. “Hi?,” he answered, obviously slightly confused as to who would be calling that wasn’t on his contact list. In that moment, just as he heard Ryo’s voice, tears immediatelyfilled Hiroki’s eyes again and the first thing he did was to sob.Though of course he didn’t think of that Ryo heard that, he was doingit silently after all and thus it… Ryo was so far away, he shouldn’thear something so small like that. Though, now that he was there, whenRyo was listening… because it was Ryo. Ryo had answered, that small‘hi’ had definitely been Ryo - it was his voice it… “N-nii-niich…,” was all Hiroki managed to say before he choked on histears though and tried his very hardest not to cry more than he alreadydid. He thought that talking to Ryo would have him feel better, thathearing Ryo’s voice would make things better and easier to deal withbut even so he was crying. Ryo’s eyes widened, and he was sufficiently surprised to even stopwalking - though he barely noticed that. All he could think of rightnow was the voice coming from his cellphone and how it couldn’tpossibly be the voice he thought he was hearing. That was impossible,wasn’t it? “Hiro..?,” he asked, hardly even daring to believe his ears - but… Allof the signs were there. Who else had ever called him ‘niichan’ afterall, who else would have any reason to? But even so it seemed far toogood to be true, any second now the person on the line would ask who onearth this Hiro person was and life would go back to how it had beenhalf an hour ago. Surely? Something so small as Ryo saying ‘Hiro’ caused more tears to falldown Hiroki’s cheeks and even though he tried to dry them away it justseemed to be impossible for the time being. It seemed as if… as if hecouldn’t do anything else but crying. “Mm,” he hummed in reply though, just to let the other one know that heindeed was Hiro. Ryo’s Hiro and no one else’s and… and… Hiroki tried totake some calming breaths and to a certain extent he succeeded prettywell. “M-mi-miss nii-nii-niich-chan… mi-miss…” Right now he felt small, he felt smaller than he ever had before. Hefelt alone and small and he knew, he -knew- that Ryo wasn’t just out oranything. He knew that Ryo… that Ryo wasn’t going to get to this housebecause he… he didn’t belong to this family. They weren’t familyanymore. Upon realising that, more tears started to run down Hiroki’scheeks and he closed his eyes hard. “Nii-niich-chan…” Ryo swallowed hard, holding on to his cellphone as though it wouldfly away if he didn’t. It was really him, right now talking to him onthe phone, it was really Hiroki - it had just been a day and yetsomehow it felt as though they’d been apart for centuries. “Hiroki…,” he muttered, surprise still in his voice - it still allseemed too good to be true. Like he was imagining this whole thing, ordreamed it or something. Maybe he’d fallen asleep on the bus orsomething? “A- Are you alright? Where… Where are you?” Despite wanting to do nothing but cry, cry and cry some more, Hirokinodded and hummed slightly. He wanted to say nothing but ‘niichan’right now simply because that made things more real, as if he wasreally talking to Ryo and not anyone else. But he was… he was talkingto Ryo no matter what he would say, right? Ryo wouldn’t go anyway? Itwas a bit scary, talking on the phone with him… he didn’t know if hewould go away or not but… but then again Ryo had asked questions,didn’t that mean he wanted to… to know? That he would wait for answers…it had to. It had to mean that… This was so scary, it was so scary totalk to someone when you couldn’t see them. “I-i-in…,” he started then, his stutter not being as bad as it had been when he had talked to Dal-hwan. “K-Ko-Korea…” In Korea, huh… Well Ryo had kind of known that - but hearing it wasweird, like… He didn’t even know. It was pretty surreal even despitewhat he’d spent pretty much all of last night sitting up thinking. Likehe’d been plunged into some kind of weird alternate dimension. “Oh,” he muttered, unsure of what else to say to that, and checked hiswatch quickly - if he was going to be on time to meet Sawajiri thenhe’d have to get going. Sure Tadashi had said it would be okay to usethe car today but if that was what it took to impress her then shewasn’t worth impressing, and it wasn’t far away anyhow. “But you’reokay right? What are those people like? They do anything?” A small smile grew on Hiroki’s lips as he got the same questionagain; Ryo asked him again if he was okay. And he asked more too -Hiroki didn’t know why but for some reason that made him a bit happy.It didn’t make things right, definitely not, but it was… somehowencouraging. He didn’t know how it worked, but it was the same witheverything else Ryo managed to do to him - he wasn’t sure of how itworked but he liked it anyway so it didn’t matter much. “Mm,” he thus hummed again and nodded a bit more. “Th-the-they…re-rea-really n-ni-nice… H-he,” for a short second Hiroki had beenabout to say ‘Dal-hwan’ but then he remembered he wasn’t even sure ofif that was okay, if he was allowed to say his name like that and thushe instead decided to go for ‘he’, surely Ryo would understand? “H-hesa-sa-said th-th-that i-if-if Hi-Hi-Hiro wa-want-wants-s t-to.. t-toI-I c-ca-can g-g-go t-to… to a s-spee-speech-ch th-th-thera-therap…th-therap…” After that last attempt Hiroki gave up and lowered his headslightly. It was always so embarrassing when this happened, when hefound new words he couldn’t say, when there was words he couldn’t saybut tried to say anyway… it was so embarrassing to cut himself off likethat. But… but Ryo would understand anyway, right? He always did… hehad to… Ryo blinked, slightly surprised, though he couldn’t help but smile -he’d understood, of course he had, after all this time talking withHiroki it would be strange not to. Hiroki was finally going to get somehelp to speak properly then? Finally he wouldn’t have to be frustratedwith not being able to say certain words, or embarassed when a fullsentence took a while to say - Ryo himself had never experienced thosefeelings first hand, but it still made him happy to hear that hisbrother would hopefully no longer have to either. “That’s awesome!,” he exclaimed, not caring that other people couldmore than likely hear. “That’s what you wanted, right? You got so muchbetter even in that little time, I’m sure it won’t be long beforeyou’re talking as much as me.” He laughed a little, shaking his headslightly. “…Well, maybe not quite as much as me.” The smile on Hiroki’s lips instantly grew as he heard how happy Ryogot, he sounded very happy just because of something like this…something that was for Hiroki’s sake and yet Ryo got so happy, he evenlaughed about it and that… Hiroki tried his best to blink away thetears and then as Ryo said that last sentence he couldn’t help butalmost laugh a little himself. That was probably true, he would mostlikely never talk as much as Ryo but that wasn’t a bad thing, it wasn’ta bad thing that Ryo talked a lot either, he was… he was interesting tolisten to, he was funny to listen to, though when Ryo said it himself… “K-ka-ka-kawaii…,” the younger one said before realising that it couldbe taken as an insult - it wasn’t though! It definitely wasn’t, becausethis was… Hiroki talking to Ryo - Hiroki wouldn’t ever even dream aboutinsulting Ryo, it wasn’t something that couldn’t be done and even if itcould, why would one want to insult him anyway? He was the nicestperson on the planet after all. “Eeh?!,” Ryo exclaimed immediately, not having expected -that- ofall the possible replies Hiroki could have given. What was cute aboutthat, about being happy for his brother because he got something hehadn’t been able to get for such a long time? It wasn’t fair to gosaying stuff like that! “You take that back!,” he ordered, though there wasn’t any force in hisvoice and he did have to keep back laughter as he said it - it was soweird, doing this over the phone but at least it was better than notdoing it at all. Beggars can’t be choosers after all… Ryo had never hadto apply that principle before. So weird. “N-noo…,” Hiroki shook his head slightly and shyly looked down atthe floor. It felt almost as if Ryo was there, almost. It was almostthe same as having him right there next to him… only he couldn’t seehim. But Hiroki had a good imagination - or at least he thought he did.He could picture Ryo before him as he said that, not liking to becalled cute at all but still having to hold back a smile… because if hesmiled it would look like he smiled about being called that and that hedefinitely didn’t like, but still… Why was that anyway? Why was it thatRyo tried very hard not to smile in moments like this? Because hewouldn’t smile about being called that but still he tried to… “R-Ry-Ryo…,” the younger of them started then as he really wanted toknow now. “W-w-why… wh-why… i-it-it’s n-not-not b-bad or… ora-anyth-thing b-bu-but… but wh-why d-d-do R-Ryo-ch-chan s-s-smi-smile…a-at-at th-thi-things-s l-li-like ri-ri-right n-n-no-now?” “Who says I’m smiling, hm?,” Ryo asked, though it was obviously arhetorical question since he knew just how obvious it was that he didsmile - even over the phone. He was a bit predictable like that. It wasgood to have some predictable things even if it wasn’t good to beentirely predictable. He even forgot to check if anyone was listening before he said the nextthing - it just kind of came out of his mouth without his permission.“Because I love you…” Of course, mere milliseconds after he’d said it,it became the most embarassing thing in the world - but he couldn’ttake it back, because that would make it look like he didn’t mean it,and he most certainly did. “…I guess.” The younger one fell silent at that and his eyes widened slightly.He had heard Ryo tell him that before, he knew that Ryo felt like thatbut even so, hearing it always surprised him so much. Though, of courseit was something that made him happy, very happy and he was sure thatno matter if Ryo would say it thousand of times he would never gettired of hearing it. It made him so happy to hear something like that,it was pretty much indescribable. “Hi… Hi-Hiro t-too…,” Hiroki mumbled then, breathing slowly as heseemed to finally have calmed down. Maybe it would be okay to live hereas long as he got to talk to Ryo on the phone sometimes, as long as Ryodidn’t disappear then maybe it would be okay. “Hi-Hir-Hiro lo-lovesn-niich-chan too…” He didn’t even cry anymore, the traces of tears were still on hischeeks of course but he didn’t cry because it was better now. Ryo waswith him now so it was okay, everything was suddenly okay again. Theonly way they could get better would be if Ryo was with him or if hewas with Ryo but… but for now this was enough. The mood seemed all strange now, kind of serious like? That was noway to spend a phonecall when they didn’t even have all that much time- so Ryo laughed slightly to break the tension he could feel. What onearth had come over him to just come out and say that? Of course hemeant it but really, it wasn’t like him at all - especially when hecouldn’t even see the other person’s face. “Thanks,” he replied, still smiling. “What have you been up toanyway?,” he asked, genuinely curious. “Is it nice there? Bigger thanhome or not? Would be just like you to land a great big huge place.” Ormaybe not, but it was kind of a nice idea. Wasn’t as though Hirokididn’t deserve it after all. The way Ryo talked about it, it sounded almost as if Hiroki was atthis amazing place that he wanted to go to too. He sounded curious,almost as if he wished that he was there, too… That thought was nice;imagine if Ryo would be there with him? Imagine if the two of them bothhad been adopted then this would be very nice, but now it was onlyHiroki and Ryo wanted to know what it was like so of course Hiroki hadto tell. “I-it…,” the younger brother looked around slightly and shook his headas he realised that no, it wasn’t bigger than Fumina and Tadashi’shouse. “N-no-not a-as bi-big… bu-but… bu-but i-it-it’sre-rea-really-really ni-nice… th-they a-are-are ni-nice… A-an-and,” asmall smile grew in Hiroki’s lips as he glanced over at the big pianothat stood just a couple meters away from him. “Th-they-they ha-have api-piano…” Probably he wouldn’t be allowed to touch it though, Hirokirealised this but maybe he would be allowed to listen to when Su-yeon(or maybe Dal-hwan) when she (or he) played. That would be better thannothing, after all. “Oh?,” Ryo replied, liking the sound of this already - if Hirokiwasn’t going to be here then at least he was going to be at somewherenice. In fact over there was more than likely better for him,especially if those people he was with were really good people… Lookingat it from a not-selfish standpoint, Ryo realised that he had no optionbut to be happy for his little brother. “Well if they’re nice then maybe they’ll let you use it,” he remarked,seeing no reason why anyone should stop someone doing that unless itwas some incredibly expensive rare masterpiece piano - which was kindof pointless anyway. Why make or own an instrument that nobody’s goingto play anyhow? Wasn’t that kind of the point of them in the firstplace? “You should ask them sometime. I mean it’s not like you suck oranything y’know? If you did it’d be different.” “Th-th-thank y-you…,” Hiroki immediately replied and bowed slightly.He didn’t think so himself, of course he didn’t, but if Ryo thought sothen that was enough. Sometime, someday he wanted to play a piece ofmusic he’d written himself for him, maybe in this living room? That wasprobably a bit too much to wish for but if it would be here, thenHiroki would sit by the piano (that was white, by the way - differentfrom Fumina’s black) and maybe Ryo would sit here, in this couch andlisten to him… That would be really great, wouldn’t it? “N-ne…,” he started then, not quite sure of how to say this but feelingas if he needed to hear what Ryo thought about it. “I… Hi-Hiro i-is..i-is pr-prob-probab-ably-ly m-mea-mean… b-bu-but… T-Ta-Tadashi-shi,”that was weird, talking about him in that kind of way but he wasn’t hisfather anymore was he, so he didn’t have the right to call him ‘dad’right? “… N-no… H-he-here… He he-here… i-is…di-diff-diffe-differe-rent… f-fro-from o-ot-otusa-sama,” mentally heapologized for not being able to say ‘Tadashi’ again - he didn’t knowwhy but he simply couldn’t. “He-he… he do-does-does n-no-notso-sou-sound-sound a-a-as… as…,” now Hiroki fell silent. He knew whichword he wanted to use - which word it was he was looking for - but evenso he didn’t want to say it out loud. Because if he did he was… it wasreally mean, it was… but it was true, wasn’t it? At least he thoughtso, but he was mean by thinking so… “Co-cold…” It took a few moments to rearrange that sentence in Ryo’s mind sothat it said what Hiroki meant to say, but he managed - he alwaysmanaged after all. And to be honest he wasn’t surprised. You’d justhave to be a normal person to be less cold to Hiroki than Tadashialways had been. Any person on the street could do that and thus hewasn’t exactly impressed, but he was slightly relieved. Of course Ryoknew that even if those Korean people had turned out worse than Fuminaand Tadashi then he still couldn’t do anything about it no matter howmuch he might want to… But it was nice to hear that at least the guywasn’t like that. So far. “That’s good,” he replied honestly. “You deserve it after everythingthat happened here y’know… Enjoy it, okay? Do me a favour and try to befriends with them? Just… don’t forget you still have a brother.” Itshowed in Ryo’s voice that he didn’t honestly think that Hiroki woulddo that - but it could be said anyway! The younger one fell silent for a while at that. He wanted to befriend with them, he wanted to get along with them too! Of course hedid but it was… it was scary. They were saying that they were hisparents and he understood that they were and all but it was… “N-ne-never, wi-will ne-never fo-forg-forget n-nii-niich-chan n-ne…,”he replied first, before looking down at the floor. Would Ryounderstand? He understood everything else, didn’t he? He always saidthat he did and he always acted as if he did but now that he reallyneeded to, for some reason Hiroki hesitated… maybe he was being stupid?Maybe it was silly… to feel scared because of it. Maybe normal peoplewould just accept what was given to them, especially when it… wassomething so nice like this, but even so… “B-bu-but…,” Hiroki started in a low voice and nursed his lip betweenhis teeth as he lowered his head slightly and let his hair fall down inhis face. “I-it-it… sc-sca-scary…” Scary? It didn’t seem so, thinking about it in a way that made sense- but people generally didn’t make sense. Ryo knew that if he wereHiroki and got thrown into a house that was totally different withpeople that were totally different in a country that was totallydifferent… No matter how much better it was than before, no matter whathappened it would be scary at least to begin with. Only understandablereally. “I know,” he replied, his voice coming out surprisingly gentle - hewasn’t sure if he’d meant to sound like that or not. “But… I’ve neverdone it but it only makes sense that it’ll get easier, right? And… Idunno how much they’d let you or anything but if you call me I’llalways answer… You’ll be fine though.” “B-but…,” Hiroki whispered as tears burned in his eyes again and helooked up, up at the ceiling in an attempt to not let them fall. Hecried so much and even if made him feel better sometimes he reallydidn’t like it. At one point he had been someone who didn’t cry much atall, he had rarely cried and he hadn’t even had to fought hard to holdback his tears back then… but now he cried all the time. Why was he soweak? “Bu-but… i-if-if… if… Hi-Hiro’s-s a-alo-alone… ca-can’t… can-can’td-do… no-not a-al-alone…,” he argued then, not liking the thought ofhaving to get used to this. He knew he had to of course, but when evenRyo said it it became so much more real… it became… it… “Ry-Ryoch-chan… i-is-isn’t he-here a-an-and…” Sighing quietly, just to himself though he had no idea if it couldbe heard over the line, Ryo took a loose coin from his pocket (therewere a few in there for some reason, evidently hadn’t bothered to putthem in his wallet again) and fidgeted with it just for something toconcentrate on. He really didn’t want to say what he was about to say,but it was true and… Maybe he just hadn’t wanted to admit it before butnow there was no getting around it. “You don’t need me that much,” the older one muttered, judging in theback of his mind that he wasn’t far now from the café at which hismeeting with Sawajiri had been scheduled. “I’m gonna miss you - hell Imiss you already but I know you can do it even if I am stuck overhere.” Why was it so much easier to come out and say things right now?Maybe because he couldn’t see Hiroki’s face or anything… He didn’t know how it was possible, but hearing Ryo said that hemissed him, it made Hiroki feel as if his heart became warmer. It was aweird but still very familiar feeling; he felt like he always did whentogether with Ryo - when Ryo managed to make him embarrassed. Only nowthe warmth that he used to feel in his face was… in his chest instead.Or, too. Hiroki nursed his lip between his teeth as he hummed audibly, notnoticing himself just how shy he suddenly sounded. He missed Ryo too,that was why he had called after all - because he missed him. Buthearing Ryo say that… for some reason he hadn’t expected it, and it was… “G-ga-ganb-ganbari-ri-rimas-su…,” he mumbled in reply, not knowingwhatelse to say. If Ryo wanted him to do well, if Ryo said that hecould do it… then maybe he could, Ryo wasn’t ever wrong after all. Ryo smiled, and had they not been hundreds (possibly thousands, Ryowasn’t all that good at geography) of miles apart by now, he would haveruffled his brother’s hair like always. Maybe it was weird to misssomething like that, it was kind of silly after all. “Good boy,” he muttered, having to hold back a short laugh as herealised that it sounded as though he were talking to a dog rather thana person. “So how did you like flying anyhow? It’s been ages since Idid it-” the last time had in fact been while Ryo had been only tenyears old “-but I always used to hate it. Landing especially, but thewhole time it’s like your life is in the hands of the guy flying theplane y’know?” Flying… how did he like flying? Did he like flying? Hiroki tried toremember what he had thought yesterday, if he had been scared orthought of it as fun or if he hadn’t noticed much difference at all… “Hi-Hiro sl-sle-slept a-alo-lot…,” he answered first and nodded a bit,that was true. He had slept quite a lot but not as they lifted nor whenthey landed so… had he thought anything especially about those parts?“Wh-wh-when st-sta-starti-ting… wh-when… wh-when li-lift-liftin-ing…wa-was-s sc-scar-scary… bu-but-but la-la-land-di-ding-ing wa-was-s…was… o-okay…” This was where Ryo would normally smile and nod a bit. Then he would besilent and then comment on what Hiroki said, usually looking at himwhen he did and then they would, somehow end up changing the subjectand… Well, maybe things didn’t work like that now. Not on the phone,not when they weren’t even close to each other… Probably not. “Aah,” Ryo muttered purely to show that he was listening, and smileda little more widely. “You always were braver than me though, so I’mnot surprised.” Well that much he knew to be true; especially afterhaving read the book Hiroki had left for him. He could never hope to beas brave as that. It was kind of a good thing that he didn’t need tobe, really… Or else he’d be in some trouble. Now, should he say something else? Ryo knew that he talked more thanHiroki usually but it really felt like he was carrying thisconversation - maybe Hiroki didn’t want to talk anymore and was justtoo nice to say so? But that wouldn’t be like him, thinking that… Itdidn’t occur to Ryo that Hiroki wasn’t exactly accustomed to talking onthe phone a lot. As the older one didn’t say anything, Hiroki nervously lookedaround. Maybe he was supposed to say something now or maybe Ryo had tobe somewhere soon, maybe he wanted to say goodbye now? But when Ryowanted something he always said so, or if he was busy he explained soand Ryo hadn’t said anything… maybe he simply didn’t know what to say?Maybe even Ryo could run out of things to talk about… maybe even Ryogot stuck at what to say sometimes? “N-ne…,” Hiroki hesitantly said then after, what felt like an eternitybut probably only had been about thirty seconds or so had passed.“H-he… th-they-they… sugg-sugges-sted-ted fo-fo-for m-me-me t-to-tota-take-take… ta-take cl-cla-class-classes-s i-i-inKo-Ko-Korea-Korean…” Why he said that he didn’t really know, but hewanted to talk about something just as he wanted for Ryo to knoweverything about him and thus… maybe this was a good thing to say?Unless Ryo found it annoying… maye he really did want to say goodbyeafter all…? Korean classes? Well that only made sense since Hiroki was in-Korea- and all, it was a bit much to expect that everyone knowJapanese just so they could communicate with him… But for some reasonRyo found the idea a little weird. It was strange enough to hear theyounger one speak a full sentence in Japanese, let alone any otherlanguage. But he’d get better with this speech therapy he’d mentioned,right? And… Those people over there would be the first ones to hear it…Ryo was pretty sure he wasn’t being a bad person to be kind of jealous. “Don’t you want to?,” he asked. “I know you, when you tell yourself youcan do stuff you usually do it. You’d probably be good at it once youget this therapy stuff.” Did Ryo really think that of him? Hiroki smiled slightly as herealised that what Ryo said probably was true, that he really thoughtthose things of Hiroki after all and… and that was so amazing. Eventhough he had gotten rather used to that what Ryo said and thoughtabout him was different from what everyone else did, it was still a bitoverwhelming everytime he realised that Ryo thought so… highly of him.Because this was highly, you know? It was… what he said was such nicethings. “Y-yo-you thi-think s-so?,” he had to ask though, wondering if maybe hewas asking too many questions. But Ryo would tell him if he did, right?He had to… Ryo didn’t reply for a moment, looking up - he realised that hereally had to get off the phone within the next minute or so. He didn’twant to, of course not, but it wasn’t as though he could just talk onthe phone this whole time… At least he could call back later. Or someother time. Now that he had this number - or his phone had it at least- it was really a relief. It at least meant that he wasn’t cut off fromHiroki entirely. “Of course I do,” he replied sincerely. “Listen, I’ve gotta go… I’mmeeting…” At the last moment he faltered, unwilling to say her nameoutright though it would probably be obvious. “…Someone. But you’recalling from your new place right? I can call back sometime?” “Ah,” Hiroki let out as he was slightly surprised to hear that, butnodded as he understood. Differently from what Ryo though, he had noidea of who it was he was meeting, to him this ’someone’ might as wellhave been Yusuke or Masa - just that Ryo didn’t remember the name ofhim at the moment. “I-it-it’s o-ok-okay…,” he thus replied and nodded slightly. He didn’tfeel disappointed even if he wasn’t very happy with that he had to saygoodbye now, of course he wouldn’t be happy about that. But Ryo saidthat he would call back - he didn’t say when but Ryo was busy, ofcourse he wouldn’t be able to give a date or anything. Though, asHiroki pretty much never had said goodbye to someone over the phonebefore, he didn’t know what to say next. He didn’t like saying goodbyeand especially not to Ryo so… instead of saying such a thing heremained silent. Well at least Hiroki didn’t sound all sad about it, that would havemade it much more difficult to end this call… Ryo was thankful to hisbrother, as always, for being so understanding. He knew that hecouldn’t have done it were they in opposite positions. “Eat a lot of Korean food for me, okay?,” he laughed slightly. “See youlater.” Well, he wouldn’t, but it was pretty obvious what he meant. Even though Ryo couldn’t see it, Hiroki nodded to the first thing -he was pretty sure Ryo didn’t mean that he should think of Ryo when heate food but just to eat a lot and take care of himself and such… Ormaybe Hiroki was imagining that? But it made sense, didn’t it? “H-ha-have fu-fu-fun… n-ne…,” he said then, now very insecure on how tocontinue this. Should he turn off the phone now or would Ryo saysomething else? Or maybe… the phone turned itself off? But that soundedreally weird, not really as if… phones could do that right? Or maybethis wireless one could… Ryo smiled as he hung up and immediately went into the ‘receivedcalls’ bit of his phone to add the number to his contact list. He felta lot better having done so - and it was kind of cool seeing ‘Hiroki’in there with all his other contacts. He wasn’t bothered that peoplemight see it; even if it takes you to go through someone else’s phone,the contacts aren’t normally what you look at, and besides there wereundoubtedly a -lot- of Hirokis in the world. None anything like -his-Hiroki of course, but still people who shared the name. Right, now, right into his ‘most awesome cool guy in the world’ mindset- that had been the default for a long time, but had just lately takenmore of a backseat. He was pretty sure he’d run out of chances to thinkany other way now though. Ah well - right now we’re just hopingSawajiri Erika would turn out to be at least somewhat bearable. While Hiroki was talking to his brother in the livingroom, Su-yeonsighed heavily and looked down at her hands from where she stood in thedining room. “Dal-hwan…,” she said in a low voice, not wanting for Hiroki to getdisturbed or anything from their talking but they really had to talknow. She didn’t know what to say though, she wanted to feel confidentin that she and Dal-hwan was the right parents for Hiroki and that hewould come to like them, maybe even love them if they were lucky butfor some reason it felt difficult. For some reason it was very…difficult to think like that now. The boy looked terrified and ofcourse it was understandable that he was afraid, but even so… Folding his arms lightly, Dal-hwan looked at his wife with gentleeyes. He knew what she was thinking, not because he was a mind-readeror even because she made it obvious but because he was thinking thesame thing himself. Of course they’d anticipated something of anawkward start but he knew that he personally had been surprised by justhow introverted that Hiroki had already shown himself to be. Perhapsthat was why his biological parents were willing to allow friends toadopt him despite his being fifteen years old. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, though he was barely able to follow hisown advice - it was pretty nerve-wracking after all, this was alife-changing decision they’d made. “But…,” how could she not worry? Even though Hiroki had just beenthere with them for about, almost twentyfour hours she was alreadyfeeling as if she was failing somewhat at being a good mother. Shewanted to be a good mother to him, the best if possible, and up untilnow she had thought she knew what to do in all kinds of situations butnow when it counted… she found herself being a bit confused and veryinsecure. She wouldn’t show this to him of course, that would just makethings worse but even so… “What if he won’t open up?,” she asked then before lifting her head tolook at her husband. “What if he will be like that in school too anddon’t get any friends? You know how kids are these days… they couldbully him for something like being silent…” Dal-hwan sighed slightly - he’d been worried about that too, about whatcould be done if Hiroki resisted settling in… He hadn’t come up withanything more useful than being open as parents and trying to make himunderstand that he could talk to them about any difficulties he washaving. Hopefully this first offering of the use of the phone when heneeded it would help toward that. “There’s nothing we can do more than encouraging him,” he muttered withsomething of an air of defeat. “If we could do more then I’m not surewe should anyway… Shouldn’t give the impression that he doesn’t have tobe independant at all.” “That’s true but…,” Su-yeon sighed in reply and looked slightly overher shoulder at the door to the livingroom. He was still talking withhis brother, it was a good thing that he had been honest about that -maybe some encouraging words from Ryo was what he needed? Someday, ifFumina and Tadashi allowed it, maybe Ryo could even come to visit… itwould be unfair if they wouldn’t allow that though seeing how Hirokiand Ryo apparently were very close. Or at least she assumed so,considering how fond Hiroki seemed to be of him. “How about… how will we suggest the name to him?,” she continued thenas she looked back at Dal-hwan. It wasn’t that she was against Japanesenames or anything, definitely not, but in order to make everything aseasy for Hiroki as possible the best thing would be to give him aKorean name as well. If nothing else it would give his futureclassmates one reason less to bully him. Most students these daysdidn’t really mind foregin names and such, at least she didn’t thinkso, but if there was one thing she definitely didn’t want to happen itwas that Hiroki would get bullied. “I think we should say it soon but I have no idea of how…” To be perfectly honest, Dal-hwan really didn’t know how to go aboutapproaching that subject either - a name was a really personal thingafter all and if it came out wrong, the suggestion to take on a Koreanname might be seen by Hiroki as an attempt to move right in on his lifebefore they even knew him properly. “Maybe you should do it,” he suggested - knowing that it would beobvious it was a suggestion and not him trying to escaperesponsibility. “He seems the type to respond better to a womananyway…” In other words, a mama’s boy. But that wasn’t a bad thing!Really wasn’t. Just the fact that Hiroki existed and was here and allwas a great enough thing to cancel out any flaws he might prove to haveanyway. “Maybe…,” Su-yeon answered and then let a light sigh leave herchest. She didn’t think of Hiroki as a bother or anything, definitelynot but things like these were a bit difficult. It would be difficultto adjust to have another person living with her and Dal-hwan no matterhow much she didn’t want it to be. It was only natural after all, sheand Dal-hwan, just the two of them had been living together for yearsand years already… Though of course it went without saying that Hirokiwas welcome to change things the way he would come to do actually doso… It was a positive change though. “I hope he will like us…,” she said then and smiled at her husband whoshe often referred to as her soulmate. Her friends said she was being ahopeless romantic but she really did believe in things like that, thatthere were two people made for each other in this world and that shehad been lucky enough to find the one who had been made for her. “Youthink he will?” Dal-hwan immediately smiled back, drawing confidence as he alwaysdid from the face of the woman he would just as easily refer to as hissoulmate - if he were the type to say things like that out loud. But itdidn’t matter that he didn’t, because Su-yeon would, and she alwaysseemed by some kind of magic to understand that he was thinking theexact same thing even if he didn’t say it. Maybe they were liketeenagers… But if being like teenagers meant staying like this, notarguing every other minute like other married couples their age, thenDal-hwan definitely didn’t mind it. “I’m sure he will,” he replied, though he wasn’t completely -sure-since one never really did know, but Hiroki seemed the friendly type.Or at least, the type to accept friendliness where it was offered. |Japan| Sawajiri Erika was bored. She was also slightly annoyed and -this-close to actually leave the cafe at which she was waiting for thisNishikido Ryo to show up. Of course she knew that she had to wait untilhe actually came or else her father would be very upset and so on butRyo was late. Sure, it was just a couple of minutes but as she was agirl and all she had showed up fifteen minutes before their decidedtime and thus she had been sitting here alone for about nineteenminutes now. It was just getting a little bit embarrassing by now. She sighed heavily as she took up her cellphone (which was course puton silent mode) out of her pocket and quickly wrote a mail to one ofher friends, whining a bit about how she was bored and how NishikidoRyo most likely had gotten cold feet and turned back home. Sure, he hadlooked good on the photo she had seen but who knew how old that was andbesides, everyone knew that all goodlooking guys were assholes anyway.Even the one she was currently dating but he wasn’t superhot so it wassomewhat acceptable, he wasn’t the best boyfriend ever but at least hedidn’t have fifteen girlfriends at the same time which Ryo most likelydid. Ryo tried very hard not to look as underwhelmed as he felt by thiswhole thing as he entered the cafe - immediately looking to see ifshe’d arrived earlier than him. He was pretty sure she would have,after all he’d ended up a little late, but surely she hadn’t turned up-that- early unless she was like really taken with him or something… Ormaybe she was just like that. He had no idea. As he spotted her he was grateful to realise that the picture he’d seenevidently wasn’t very old, since she looked just like it, and headedover to her. “Sawajiri-san, right?,” he asked as he’d approached the table,immediately putting on an expression that gave the idea of beingpleased to meet her… though he hadn’t even really met her yet. Erika looked up when she was spoken to, surprised to see that thevoice evidently belonged to Nishikido Ryo. For some reason she hadexpected him to sound more… stuck up and pleased with himself, afterall he looked like that kind of guy. Though, this was a nice surpriseand thus she immediately smiled and nodded. “Sawajiri Erika,” she introduced herself and then nodded to the chairopposite of where she sat. “Nishikido-kun deshou?” Okay so she had toadmit it, he looked really good and if they would marry and all that,if things ended up like their parents wanted it to, their kids wouldmost likely look really good. That was always a great thing to lookforward to, now Ryo just had to have a nice personality and maybethey’d actually get along well. Once he had dumped his fifteen othergirlfriends that is. ——— Chapter 31: “You think I’ve had thirty four girlfriends?!” –Chapter 31 will be up on the 8th. Written by aisoshoko Sawajiri Erika China: http://sawajiri-erika.cn/2007/12/at-the-rainbows-end-chapter-30.html |
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