The whole week has passed in a blur, but it was never uneventful.
I was still able to catch up with my private lessons in coffee brewing and art that Taiyou gives every Thursday, a dispute between managers in the district under my clan was arranged and I also have been full of self training to prevent myself from turning into a love struck teenager. The thought of falling for a boy never occurred to me… never in my wildest dreams.
Why fall in love in such an inconvenient time? I am a Yakuza leader at the age of 16. There is no room for love… but every time Shindo waits for me by the school gate… I can’t help but stay until the sun almost sets and I have to pedal harder just to get to the car faster.
Lately, everything seemed lighter and fun. It’s like nothing can ever piss me off… even those 2nd year girls who acts like they own the whole school. When the day of the school sports event has finally come everyone in school was in high spirits, they seemed to have woken up from a deep slumber and all the students were in a competitive mood.
Mao and Aoi were part of the cheering squad for the first year students while Sakura was involved in the track and field category and also in the soccer team. I on the other hand was stuck on swimming and Katana.
“Yo Shinku!” Toma called out to me as he jogged towards my side.
“Toma, if you’re going to ask me to have a sparring session with you please make sure you’re really going to come.” I told him exasperatedly as I walked through the halls of the second years.
“I’m really sorry about last week, something came up at home and I just had to leave school for a week.”
“No wonder Mao has been bugging me about hanging out with her lately.” I told myself out loud unintentionally.
“Ah… I had also made promises to her last week. I hope she’s not that mad…”
I gave him a curious look.
“Promises?”
“Well, I did ask for a date with Mao.” Toma answered nonchalantly.
“Date?”
“Yeah… a date. You know, go somewhere just the two of you and…”
“I know what dating means Ikuta, it just never occurred to me that you guys are already on dating terms.” I told him coldly.
“How serious are you about dating Mao?” I stared at him directly in the eyes trying my best to intimidate him.
Toma gave a surprised look.
“I never thought you’re the type to intimidate someone just because of a friend. You are such a protective person Shinku.” Toma shrugged and grinned at me instead.
I was taken a back with his reaction, it didn’t occur to me that he could read my thoughts through my actions and he could talk about it so openly.
“I am serious about Mao so you don’t have to worry about that. What you have to worry about is when we could have the sparring sessions.” He said this then saluted at me with two fingers then walked towards opposite direction living me with my own thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You agreed on dating Ikuta? Why???” I interrogated Mao as we walked towards the soccer field for the ‘track and field’ event.
“Why not?” She asked back looking a bit annoyed.
“Because you don’t know him at all.” I argued.
“No Shinku, I know Toma and you don’t.” She said looking hurt which I don’t understand why exactly she’s reacting this way.
“Why are you acting like this?” I asked trying to make sense out of her.
“For the past week you have been avoiding me and then all of a sudden you’re all over my case about dating Toma. Why don’t you look and ask yourself first and tell me who exactly Shindo is to you?” Mao retorted as she looked at me with those measuring eyes.
This question took me off guard. So this wasn’t really about her and Toma, it was about a guy and me avoiding her for the whole week.
“I didn’t mean to avoid you Mao… Shindo just came out of nowhere, and then I found out that I am sick...”
“You’re sick?!? What happened???” Mao suddenly asked with a worried look, anger completely forgotten.
“No, no… I mean, I thought I was sick but then Takumi made me realize that I wasn’t sick at all.” I said hurriedly, trying to ease her out of her anxiety.
After saying these things Mao just looked plainly relieved.
“Ok, so who exactly is Shindo, aside from being Shun’s twin brother?” She went back to the topic, only this time there was no trace of irritation or anger.
“Shindo… is this guy who turns my heart rate into 200 beats per minute to say the least. He seems to brighten up my day every time I get to see him and most of all he makes me feel like a regular high school kid instead of being a part of a Yakuza clan.”
“Really?” Mao said brightly her eyes wide with disbelief.
“Really.” I nodded my head in confirmation.
“You’re in love.” Mao affirmed.
“That’s what Google.com told me.” I shook my head in embarrassment.
“I can’t believe you consulted the internet instead of going directly to me!” Mao wailed out loud.
“You have to understand I was confused. I have never felt like this before… never had that many real friends to begin with.” I argued once more with her.
This made Mao think for a few seconds, and then she started nodding her head.
“Ok, understood. Just next time when stuff like this ever happens again, you consult your girl-friends! In example me and not go directly to Google!” Mao reprimanded me then clutched my arm to walk together towards the field.
“That’s why I’m glad you’re my friend.” I said truthfully this time.
“I’m just glad you’re starting to accept that I am REALLY your friend and you are becoming more like a girl than being a Yakuza-hard-headed-leader you were supposed to be.”
“I’m turning into a softy.” I muttered grudgingly.
“And that’s not good?” Mao asked.
“I’m not sure.” I shook my head in response.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sakura won the 50 meter dash run during the first event then won the 100 meter event too. The girl was unbelievably fast, and all that time I have been staring at her in awe.
How can a girl who wears glasses, works at a night club and, look so weak be that fast?
“You’re all red and sweaty.” Aoi said as she reached out the towel to Sakura who grabbed it and nodded with thanks.
“That’s what you get for running a sprint and a hundred meter dash.” Sakura replied as she drowned herself with a bottle of water.
“You look exhausted! Did our cheering work for you?” Mao said excitedly as she re-enacted the cheer with her bright red and yellow pompoms.
This made me smile involuntarily because she looked utterly silly but in an appealing way. I wouldn’t blame Toma for liking Mao even in her childishness.
“You guys were great too. The cheer was definitely kakkoi. Who came up with that cool cheer?” Sakura nodded at her and Aoi.
“Aoi did. She’s unexpectedly good with words.” Mao put her arms around Aoi’s neck brushing the pompoms on her face teasingly. This made Aoi shrug shyly in the process, her face turning scarlet once again.
They started talking about the next events when someone called out to me from behind.
“Shinku! I’ve been looking all over for you.” One of the class representatives from my class came rushing towards me.
“What’s wrong?” Mao asked.
“The swimming match was moved today, and it’s about to start in 30 minutes! We have been looking for all the other players to round them up and prepare by the pool.” He could barely get his words out as he tried to speak in between breaths. He must have been running the whole time, just looking for the players.
“Why didn’t you just announce it on the PA system?” Aoi told the guy.
He just smacked his head when he realized his stupidity.
“I was already panicking, besides that’s supposed to be the sports committee’s job! Not mine.” He defended.
“Look, I didn’t bring my suit. I thought today was going to be the katana match? Who changed the schedule?” I asked feeling aggravated by the sudden change.
“The student council suddenly agreed to exchange the katana schedule with the swimming, because the pool was actually scheduled to be drained later this afternoon for maintenance. This is not my fault, so please don’t get mad at me. If you have any complaints go directly to the student council, but don’t worry about the suit they will provide it for you. I’ll see you at the pool in 30 minutes. Ja.” Then the class representative set off towards the school building.
“Come on! You’ll be late…” Mao tugged at my arm to run towards the school building and into the swimming area.
Sakura and Aoi were running behind us.
“Mao, I’m not prepared!” I shouted at her as we ran towards the building.
“Whatever it is, we’ll be able to deal with it.” Mao called out to me with certainty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Here’s the suit.” Mao gave me the swim suit but I just gawked at her.
“Are you kidding me?” I said totally bewildered.
“No. Come on Shinku!!! You have to wear this or we’ll lose by default.”
“Mao!!! That’s a backless suit! DO YOU SERIOUSLY WANT ME TO WEAR THAT?!?” I growled at her.
“Yes! You have to…” Mao started to say until she realized something.
“No way! You can’t wear this.” She realized it just now.
“What do we do?!?” She started to panic.
“What’s wrong?” Aoi just came into the girl’s changing room with Sakura.
Mao looked at Sakura knowingly and gave her the suit.
“No way…” Sakura muttered as she checked the swimsuit out.
“Is something wrong?” Aoi asked looking pretty confused.
“It’s the suit, Shinku can’t wear it.” Mao said lamely.
I stood there looking at them, trying to think of other options. For once I wanted to win for my class, but now it seemed that I just had to withdraw and cause a default.
“What’s wrong with the suit?” Aoi asked again.
“It’s backless.” I answered without thinking.
“What’s wrong with your back?” She said curiously.
Mao, Sakura and I looked at each other silently.
“She has a big scar on her back, a really huge one.” Sakura said wittingly, trying to cover up for me.
“Ah… so that’s why Shinku was pissed off for the sudden change and kept muttering she wasn’t ready.” Aoi nodded knowingly.
“I have an extra suit which covers up the back. I was never a good swimmer in the first place, but the Speedo branch company in Japan that my family owns kept sending me their latest suits for trials.” Aoi walked towards her locker in the changing room and took out the swim suit then gave it to me.
“You should go change. We only have 15 minutes left before the game starts. We’ll wait outside.” Aoi said smartly then walked out with Sakura.
“You’re saved.” Mao sighed in relief.
“I don’t know what to say.” I was completely at loss of words, how convenient was it for Aoi to bring an extra swim suit?
“You don’t have to say anything! Just change!!!” Mao shouted at me and hurriedly pushed me towards the cubicle to change.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Splash… splash…
The water cascaded through my body as I kicked my legs harder to get closer to the wall. One last lap remained and all I could hear were muffled sounds. My goggles snagged tightly to my eyes as I glided faster and faster towards the end of the pool. I wasn’t aware of how far I was from my opponents, I haven’t even tried looking at my side because all I had in my mind was to win this race. I haven’t felt the pressure of being competitive until I saw Sakura run that race earlier. It has been so long since I have last taken a swim like this, I’ve only done swimming for pleasure but not for an award.
So this is how it feels to struggle for the first place instead of fighting for your life. The pressure is there, but this time… it was different.
The wall was getting closer… and closer still… until I was able to tap it and take a real breath out of the water.
My breathing was heavy when I broke out of the water and laid my hands on top of the gutter wall where Mao has been standing all along shouting words I couldn’t understand. Not that my hearing has gone bad, my mind wasn’t just registering whatever she was saying. I wasn’t able to check if I was the first one to arrive, because right that moment all I was thinking was air… a whole lot of air.
I quickly removed my goggles and cap to look at her properly, she was beaming too much that her face might just break into two.
When I have finally given her my undivided attention, Mao shut off her mouth and showed me three fingers. I tilted my head while looking at her fingers, not entirely understanding what she wanted to imply.
“THREE SHINKU!!! THREE!!!”
“I’m third?” I looked around at the other swimmers who where resting by the gutters.
“No silly! Three wins. YOUR THREE WINS!!!” Mao started shrieking at me while shaking her pompoms. All the freshmen who were there to support the swimming event started chanting.
I couldn’t help myself from giving off a huge grin.
Winning again felt good. REALLY GOOD.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I’ll go get changed.” I told the girls when all the other swimmers were done changing.
“I’ll follow you shortly to help remove the suit.” Mao called out after me.
I walked into the shower room and started washing my face with soap when I heard someone come in.
“Mao, I’m at the first cubicle just come right in, my face is full of soap. Can you just please unzip my back? Then you can just wait outside with Sakura and Aoi.” I called out to Mao.
“Shinku, Mao got held up because she was talking with Toma. I offered to come in, but I think she didn’t hear me so I just went ahead because you might be waiting. Here, let me get that for you.”
It was Aoi.
I quickly rinsed my face with water, but it was already too late to move away from her. I heard a loud gasp coming from her as I felt the zipper from my back quickly go down. I didn’t have to ask if she saw, because I already knew. When I turned around to look at her, she was gaping at me paralyzed with shock. I was dripping with water when I started to walk towards her, I tried to open my mouth to say something but she suddenly backed up and staggered until she lost her balance and hit the tiles in a sitting position.
Once again I have been careless and even caused Aoi to be too petrified to speak.
I just looked at her helplessly not knowing what to say until I heard some footsteps coming from the door.
“What happened?!?” Sakura asked looking confounded by the sight of Aoi.
Aoi started to point her finger at me as I continually kept staring at her.
“Sh…she… she’s… tattoo… dragon… a yakuza.” Aoi stammered at Sakura her voice barely audible.
Sakura looked at me her facial expression suddenly became anxious and then I angled my back towards her and showed my back. It was Sakura’s turn to gasp sharply. It was her first time to see it too. After a few seconds of shock she immediately recovered and started to speak calmly towards Aoi.
“We’ll explain.” Sakura gave Aoi a bitter smile.
“YOU KNEW?!?” Aoi shrieked at her.
Sakura nodded.
“What about Mao?” She whispered looking dubious this time.
Both Sakura and I nodded at the same time and with this reaction Aoi slumped to the floor dejectedly.
------------------To be continued------------------Notes from the Author:I finally got Aoi out of the dark. Now she knows… it’s a matter of how she takes it in. >_<
About this chapter, I have being racking my brain on how to reveal things to Aoi about Shinku being in the Yakuza. Then this suddenly came up, I could just picture how she falls flat on the floor with shock. *evil grin*
Post a Comment