Chapter 4
Standing in front of her favorite life-sized mirror, Rika smiled at her own refection satisfied with what she saw. Her dark, long wavy hair flowed down to her shoulders onto a simple white dress which complimented her body perfectly. She watched herself in the mirror as she put on a pair of long shiny earrings. Then picked up her lip gloss from her messed up bed and applied the slightly pinkish colored cream onto her lips. She straighten up and gave a final glace at herself in front of the mirror.
"Rika-chan, you are so cute!" She said to her mirror imaged self in a slightly deeper tone, then turned her head slightly to the left. "Yada~ Yocchan, how embarrassing you’re making my face turn all red." She whined to no one in particular as she waved her hand pretending to push an imaginary person beside of her. "Your red face is cute too." Going back to the deep tone, she stared at herself in the mirror once more as she carried on with her solo skit...
"Rika!!" The angry call of her name echoed throughout the house, making Rika jump in surprise before realizing the time.
"Kya! I'm going to be late!"
Within the large but horridly messed up room, the young lady hopped gracefully over stacks of skirts, shirts, dresses and jeans which spread itself in separate piles across the carpet floor. Reaching the corner of her unmade bed which was practically buried with even more clothes, she frantically threw those clothes on to the floor in search for her bag. After managing to find her bag, Rika finally stepped out of her room quietly.
"Rika-sama, your mother is calling for you." An older and much more matured looking lady spoke softly to the girl whom she had been looking after since birth, "She seems pretty angry if you ask me." She whispered as she glanced into the unbelievably messy room the latter had always managed to create.
"Ah, Kubou-san." Rike turned to face her housekeeper recovering from the slight startled she got from her caretaker. "Ano.. Please don't let mama go into my room, I swear I'll clean it when I get back. Onegai." She pleaded with her hands clasped together tightly in front of her face while she frowned and gave a slight pout of her lips.
"Hai hai, I'll keep her busy." She said while she gave Rika a pat of the head like a little girl. Knowing the girl well enough, the matured lady teased the younger by ruffling her hair slightly, with total awareness that the younger would soon scream at her.
"Kubou-san!! My hairrrr!" Rika whined as she ran away from the older lady thanking her as she rushed towards the exit on the first floor. "I'm leaving now!" Announcing her exit from the house, Rika hurriedly put on her shoes and scurried out of the house before her mother could vent her frustration on her.
She hustled her way down against the tiled surface of the ground which was still part of her family's property, pushed the side gate and jogged down the pathway towards the bus stop. Internally thanking herself for not choosing to wear high heels or any of the other pairs of shoes she had which was not suitable for this much movement, she made a full dash for the bus that was just about to leave her stop.
Coming to a abrupt stop in front of a couple of irritated looking people, Rika took the moment to catch her breath. She stood there for a minute or so before noticing that the queue was not moving yet and the people in front of her were all grumbling irritably, wondering what's wrong she moved her way to the front to take a peek at what's happening.
Almost everyone in the bus stood there glaring at a podgy shaped man no taller then Rika, with large round shaped glasses, in a business suit as he pushed and scurried his way through the crowd towards the entrance of the bus before the door closed. Upon reaching his way out, a figure stood firmly in his way with arms stretched out, following his every move and blocking each of his dodge for freedom. Finally giving up, he stared down at the attractive young girl who blocked him from moving forward.
"Excuse me, but you’re supposed to alight from the front of the bus and pay for your trip too." Rika voiced out coldly as she blocked his exit.
"Oh! Well sorry about that. The Japanese bus system is slightly different from where I come from." Using a slightly foreign accent as a pretext for his actions, he gave Rika a smile which made her insides hurl in disgust. He was giving her an odd look, a look of.. Lust maybe? A look which made Rika's insides hurl even more.
"Whatever, could you just hurry up? Everyone here is pretty much in a hurry."
"Right. Sorry again."
***
"Aren't you hungry?"
"Hi-chan?"
"Your daughter’s broken, Occhan."
Yossi's long time friend spoke as she gulped the soup in her bowl down to the very last drop. She put down her bowl satisfyingly and turned her gaze upon her friend and she shook her head. What was it about that new girl, what’s-her-name which has gotten her bestest friend all spaced out and filled with an aura of bliss lately? Seeing her best friend like this all day long; staring at random objects smiling to herself, not listening to whatever Mai had to say, and not even making sense when she spoke. All began to irritate the older girl. Every single action of Yossi's recently, has been making Mai seem more like the smarter one, which was in fact somehow making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
She waved a hand in front of Yossi's face and then proceeded to smack her forehead, hard. Causing the daughter of the ramen shop owner to fall back against the back rest of the chair in pain, "Oi, I'm going to finish you're ramen if you're not going to touch it." Mai grumbled.
"Uhh-huuh..." Yossi mumbled as she rubbed her forehead watching Mai lean over and place her hands on her bowl of ramen. "...No!! Mai-chin that’s mine!" Slapping Mai's hands away from her bowl, Yossi finally began digging in to her usual free lunch before leaving for work.
Brown liquid flowed itself down on to the lines of thick yellow strings inside of the bowl as Yoshizawa Akira prepared yet another bowl of ramen and placed it in front of an upset looking Satoda Mai while he shook his head and chuckled at the scene between his daughter and her friend.
"Look... She's broken again." Mai grunted and went back to eating her second serving.
Akira took a glance at Yossi and smiled. He remembered that look. Not long ago he had gone through similar feelings and experiences which his beloved daughter was probably going through right now.
To be young and in love.
***
"So, did you get the pictures?"
"Yes I did."
"And what did you think?"
"Perfect."
"Good. Now, about what we talked about..."
Topic: Together Forever (Read 9016 times)