@wings4dreams: Yeah, Yossie will remain intriguing for quite some time
F.Y.I
Chapter 6
Repeat
December 6 (5.59pm)
“Who’s not here?” Yuko asked in her normal authoritarian voice.
Ai replied instantly, “All of Morning Musume is here and Yossie as well. Only Miki, Rika and Nacchi aren’t here.”
Yuko nodded knowingly. “Where is Nacchi?”
Natsumi yawned and exclaimed happily, “I’m here~”
“You just took a nap, didn’t you?” Nacchi shook her head defensively. “Yes, you did.” Yuko looked straight into her eyes.
After a moment or two, Nacchi conceded defeat by saying, “Ok, I did.”
Yuko frowned and shook her head disapprovingly. “Where is Rika then?”
Natsumi shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll look for her then,” she spoke before she left the room.
As Yossie listened to the exchanges between Natsumi and Yuko, she grew worried and her mind was off the conversation that Miki and her had earlier for the first time since she stepped into this room minutes ago. Yossie thought, “Rika, where are you? Are you ok? I should have looked for you but I wanted to give you sometime on your own to reflect on what you had done and our relationship. Furthermore, I wanted to see Miki’s state because after all, you almost caused her death…Nacchi, please find her. Please.”
After Natsumi left the room, Yuko addressed the girls in front of her, “Okay, I guess everyone here knows what happened to Miki. If you are intelligent enough, you will have figured out long ago that someone in here either strangled her herself or helped in the process. Now, I want you girls to report to me where you were during that time and I want you to surrender any electronic devices such as hand phones or pagers now before things turn ugly. Start with you, Ai.”
Ai froze when she heard her name.
What will Yuko think of me as the leader when she sees this? Will I be regarded as the culprit? Ai spoke softly in trepidation, “I…was in a spare room when I heard a loud bang and went to the storeroom. I reached there with Nacchi and Kei, right?” Kei nodded. Yuko stared straight into Ai’s eyes. Ai trembled at Yuko’s relentless stare at her.
Should I tell her? Is it better for me to tell her? What about my reputation as MM leader? But I don’t want to be seen as the culprit. Ai mumbled, “I’m sorry Yuko.” She quickly took out her phone from the right pocket of her jeans and put it in Yuko’s hands before running off.
Mari whispered to Yuko, “Hey that girl is suspicious.” Yuko didn’t reply as she was engrossed in exploring the phone in her hands. She smiled and shook her head when she saw, ‘Last Dialed Number: Matsuura Aya. 6.12.2007 17.33’
Yuko put the phone away and spoke, “Ok, Risa, you’re next.”
“I was walking along that particular corridor when I heard the loud bang-”
Yuko interrupted, “Did anyone come out of the room?”
Risa shook her head. “Then I went in and I saw Miki lying over there. Eri came in soon later. I don’t have any electronic devices with me, by the way.”
Mari whispered to Yuko, “This one is suspicious too. The 1st to arrive at the scene has a very high possibility to be the culprit.”
“Yossie, it’s your turn.”
“I was in the toilet alone. My phone isn’t with me now. I left it in my room.”
Mari whispered, “She’s suspicious as well. She doesn’t have any alibi at all and she might have a good motive to kill Miki.”
Yuko nodded. “What about you Sayu?”
Kusumi replied, “I ‘killed’ her! I was escorting her back to the living room when you came and informed us about what had happened. We surrender our hand phones to Kaori this morning already!” Kaori nodded.
“Aika, where were you then?”
“I was hiding with Junjun in her room.”
“I thought you are supposed to hide on your own.”
Aika retorted, “But…I feel safe with Junjun.” Junjun blushed. “We thought that there was some commotion out there so Junjun left the room first. She said if the ‘murderer’ was out there, at least only 1 of us would be caught and I would be safe.”
“I see.” Yuko winked at Junjun. “Junjun, why are you so nice to Aika as to sacrifice yourself for her?”
Is Yuko giving me a chance to tell her how I feel towards her? Is this the ‘chance’ that she was talking about earlier? Junjun gazed at the girl who insisted to hide with her earlier and took in a deep breath.
I was courageous enough to cross the borders to join Morning Musume. Nothing would be too difficult for me to accomplish here. Nothing would be too difficult for me to express. “Because I like you, Aika,” Junjun whispered.
Aika kissed Junjun on her cheeks and exclaimed, “I like you too, Junjun!” Junjun blushed.
Yuko cleared her throat and addressed everyone, “Ok, now I’ve a rough idea about where you were during that time. Now you are free to go off. Dinner will be served in an hour’s time. By the way, if you want to ask, I’ve already interrogate the seniors earlier.”
The girls dispersed pretty quickly after that and Yossie just about caught the girl she wanted to speak to, pulled her to one side and asked, “Hey why are you blushing?”
Junjun replied, “Am I? I thought that is a normal reaction after someone kissed you!”
“Say, what did Yuko tell you earlier?”
Junjun was stunned. How did she know that Yuko had told her something? Were her emotions too obvious? Damn, maybe Aika had sensed something as well. “She-”
Yossie whispered into her ears, “She told you that you like Aika and you should take advantage of this gathering to tell her how you feel, right?”
Spot-on. But why does she know? She wasn’t even here when Yuko told me about this… “How-”
Yossie interrupted, “I guess I’m correct. This girl never changes. Never. She hooked us up about 7 years ago.”
“You mean Rika and you?”
“Smart.”
“So the 2 of you got together because of her?”
Yossie smiled as memories of the past flooded her mind. Then they were still innocent and impressionable. 7 years ago, she attended her 1st MM annual gathering and it was the most unforgettable one.
******
7 years ago
‘Ishikawa Rika has added you as a friend.’ Yossie was puzzled at the message popped up on her Friendster. She had just created an account an hour ago and she hadn’t told any of her friends about it yet.
Ishikawa Rika…who is she? Is she another random girl who has a crush on me in school? Since I’m quite free now, I shall just fool around with her. She clicked on ‘CONFIRM’ and sent her new friend a message on Friendster, “Hello do I know you?” It was a nicer way of saying, “Hello, do you think I will know you, stalker?”
Minutes later, the reply came, “I’m sorry I think I added the wrong person. I’m really sorry. By the way, I’m Ishikawa Rika. Nice to know you~
”
Oh she isn’t some random girl who has a crush on me. “I’m Yoshizawa Hitomi. Nice to know you. It actually meant, “Nice to know that you are not some crazy stalker of mine.”
“You like to play soccer?”
Oh man, this girl sucks at conversation starters and she has been reading up on my information on Friendster. “Yeah, do you have any favourite singers or bands?”
This is such a lousy question but at least it is way better than hers though.
“I like Morning Musume a lot! My friends say I’m crazy over them ^_^”
I heard of them before. What songs do they have? She went to do a quick google for Morning Musume’s songs. “I like Morning Musume too and I love Love Machine!”
Gosh, how does the song even sound like?“I love it too! Do you want to go for the 4th generation audition together? No one wants to go with me
”
Poor lonely girl but what if she turns out to be a freaking old man? “I’ll like to but I can’t sing…”
“Oh well, it’s ok
! I sent you the picture I took with Goto Maki last year…”
Goto Maki? The name sounds familiar. This girl has no internet literacy at all. After she viewed the photo, she sent a message, “Hey let’s go for the audition together.”
At the gathering (June 2000)
“Hitomi-”
“Yuko, can you please don’t call me ‘Hitomi’? Call me Yossie or Yossi. Please.”
“Okay. Well, I guess only she can call you Hitomi.”
Puzzled, Yossie asked, “She?”
“Yeah, the girl you’ve been staring at for the past hour.”
Yossie said defensively, “I wasn’t staring at her! I was just maintaining eye contact with her during our conversation!”
“You don’t seem to be maintaining that much eye contact with me though.”
“That is because-”
“That is because she’s special to you. That is because you like her.”
Yossie laughed. ‘Oh come on! We’re just friends!”
“It’s only about a month plus since the 4th generation joined. Why are the 2 of you so close?”
Because we know each other before we joined. Ever since that day they knew each other, they had met up several times to practise for the audition. Perhaps it was hard work that paid off or maybe it was just sheer luck, both of them got into Morning Musume as part of the 4th generation. “I don’t know.”
“That’s why I say you like her.”
“Hitomi~” Rika exclaimed as she ran towards them.
Yossie chided, “I told you a zillion times not to call me that!”
“Ok, I shan’t make you angry, Yossie.”
“I am not angry.”
“You are.”
“No I am not.”
Rika smacked Yossie on the butt and teased, “That must have hurt right? Hitomi.”
Yossie laughed and pinched Rika’s cheeks. “If you call me that again, you will end up with a square face I swear.”
************
Yossie was shot back to reality as she recalled how she had slapped Rika earlier on those cheeks that she used to pinch for fun.
“Yossie, you were in a daze for so long. Did Yuko get the 2 of you together?”
“Junjun, people take years to realize they love each other and confess. Don’t rush into it.” Yossie felt tears welling up in her eyes as nostalgia overwhelmed her once more. She smiled and said, “I’ll help the 2 of you so don’t worry too much about it. See you.”
December 6 (6.40pm)
She opened the door and was shocked to see Aya sitting on the chair beside Miki’s bed. “Aya, why are you here?”
“Kei-chan, I just came a while ago. Ai called me.”
I wonder how Yuko will react to this. “Uhh, is she still asleep?”
“Is someone looking for me?” Miki asked in a half-asleep voice.
“Yes, I’m but I can pop in later. Rest-”
Her eyes were still closed. “It’s ok, Kei, just shoot.”
“Uh, it’s fine,” Kei said as she headed for the door.
“If you want to ask me who I think the culprit is, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I don’t plan to find out who the culprit is. She has the guts to attack me unlike-”
Aya interrupted, “Miki-”
“As long as she doesn’t hurt Aya, it’s fine. I’ll make sure that won’t happen.”
Kei was at a loss for words. She didn’t know whether she ought to admire Miki’s love for Aya or chide her for being so confident that she wouldn’t die even if that culprit was at large.
If she doesn’t even want to find the culprit who almost killed her, how can we find out more about that incident that landed the 2 girls in jail? How do we find out how that weird brain of hers works? Unless we…no, I shouldn’t even think of that. No, I need to erase that thought…
Side-note:
I hope the Friendster idea is fine. Please comment
Topic: F.Y.I 29 - Recurring Moments (Read 124490 times)