Chapter 03
“
…i wanna be a pop star kimi wo motto muchuu ni sasete ageru kara ne...” Sae-chan’s voice rang through the otherwise quiet neighborhood in the early spring morning.
Skipping happily to her tune, she looked back every few seconds for the not-so-genki me to catch up.
“Where does all your energy come from?” I complained.
“Oi! We just woke up from a night’s sleep!!! Shouldn’t you feel recharged?” Just then, she let out a huge yawn that betrayed her true state.
“Hey! Look who just said she’s recharged?”
“That wasn’t a yawn. It was a roar. A silent ROAAR!” Sae started to imitate what she thought was a lion but instead, made a crumpled-up face and produced some growls that sound more like a cat’s purr.
“You sound like an old fat cat.” I said it in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Yukirin, sometimes I’m just amazed how BLACK you can be!” She pulled closer to me and continued with her ‘lion’ impersonation, so close that our noses nearly touched each others’.
“Black?” I asked, trying not to laugh at her silly face.
“You know, blurting venom out of the blue without even batting an eyelid…” She furrowed her eyebrows and made a pout to show how ‘hurt’ she was.
“Wha~~~I!!” Honestly I hadn’t notice that I’d said something wrong, and my eyes nearly popped out.
“This,” Sae gave a gentle tap on my nose, “and your exaggerating reactions, are what makes you so adorable.”
She then skittered away and resumed her half-singing, half-growling routine, leaving me flushed and confused.
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It’s been a week since Miyazawa Sae came into my life. Ever since the day of the audition, things had gotten better and better. First, I got selected to the school band, and Sae-chan made it to the basketball team. Then, we discovered that she lived nearby so I no longer had to walk to school alone. After that, we spent almost every waking moment together, and surprisingly, despite our different personalities, we got along pretty well. With her around, I felt easier to open up to senpai like Yuko-san, Mii-chan and Haruna-san, who were fast becoming my first friends at school.
Her popularity in class did not diminish at all, so I also found myself getting some positive interaction with people who weren’t hostile to Sae-chan’s closeness with me. For example, there was Katayama Haruka-chan, Sae’s science lab partner, whom she dragged along to lunch one day. Because we were both quite shy among strangers, I doubt we would ever hit it off without Sae’s talent of getting along with everyone.
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“Whaccha thinking about yo, yo yo?” a pair of hands flashed in front of my eyes and woke me from my daydream.
“Yuko…saying ‘yo yo’ doesn’t make everything you say a rap…” Miichan mused.
“She’s been like that since karaoke yesterday,” sighed Haruna. “well, as expected…”
“Hehehehhehehe, Nyannyannyanyannyannyan, I am inspired to write a song about you! I’m listing everything that rhymes with your name now…anyone? anyone cares to give the next great R.A.P.E.R. some help?”
“Me me!!” Sae squealed!!
“
Nyan nyan, gotta get some bun bun, taking on the hun hun..uh uh” Sae got up and started “rapping”.
“YEAH!!!!” Yuko and her high-fived triumphantly.
Sayaka, having a convenient height difference with the squirrel, gave her a smack on the head. “Squirrel, trust me, you don’t want to be a raper, even though you do have a tendency for perversion, hahahahaha!”
“My perversion is reserved for Kojima Haruna only,” Yuko answered indignantly, turning to Haruna. The cat turned her head away nonchalantly towards me and asked instead:
“What’s been bothering you, Yukirin?”
“It’s nothing…. I am just too tired from class today…” It’s lunch time, and we’re lounging in the cafeteria before class.
“Yes, I understand, especially in Math when they make us do all these calculations like how many minutes there are in a second…ah chigai…I mean, how many minutes there are in a day…365?? Mou!! Anyway, my solution is always this!” She happily pulled out a DS from the bag and began playing.
Truly, apart from the bullies, whose presence Sae’s sunshine power had been managing to keep at bay so far, there really wasn’t anything that worried me. Except, except, I still couldn’t find Genking, my puppy doll.
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Genking was given to me when I was 5, by a neighbor named Cindy, who was about 10 years older than me. She too, was a very nice person who acted more like a caring sibling than my brother ever would be. Once, I was too scared to slide down the slides in the park because a dog was around at the bottom, looking up at me. Cindy encouraged me to come down and told me that dogs are the friendliest creatures in the planet. However I still hesitated and cried. She scooped me out of the slides and gently stroked my hair, saying “Shuuu, shuuuu, I will let you know there’s nothing to be afraid of in this world….” The next day, Cindy took me to the park again and gave me Genking. “Here, your new best friend!” We laughed and I was able to touch and even play with the dog that came by again, after looking at Genking’s innocent face and her cute, curvy smile.
In a way, Genking was not only my best companion, but also a proxy to Cindy, who had moved to Tokyo a few years ago. She knew my timid personality well, but was never too pushy about it, always taking care of me and encouraging me to do what I want. In fact, that’s how I picked up a musical instrument in the first place. So whenever I felt sad and discouraged, if I couldn’t find Cindy, I would always talk to Genking. Now that he’s gone, it got me really worried. Well, I was sure that no one would break in just to steal a toy, so I convinced myself that he’s still lying somewhere at home.
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After class we went to basketball practice as band rehearsals were not on that day. We sat on the benches to watch them. Haruna dished out her NDS while I caught Sae-chan’s eyes glittering with admiration as she followed her captain’s every move. Her short, unruly curls bounced up and down as she ran back and forth the court to warm up, imitating what the captain was doing.
This is a side of Sae-chan I rarely got to see because she’s always been the strong one between both of us, and it really lifted my spirits.
“Let’s start!” shouted Captain Sayaka. The team members quickly filed into their respective positions. It’s a practice match today.
The two groups played against each other with the tallest two, Sae-chan and Sayaka, going head-on each other frequently. The passes were so fast that I couldn’t even follow. A swoosh and a fake here and there, and slowly the match started to build up.
“Wow, I didn’t know you’re that good!” Sayaka said while trying to dribble the ball pass Sae.
Sae sniffed and responded, “You too captain, my muscle fibres are twitching in excitement. Watch out!” Her hand shot out and tried to block the captain’s move, while Sayaka quickly changed her direction and passed to the squirrel.
“Easy there, first-year!” she smirked. The pace of the game got a lot quicker with more pants and shouts from the teammates. Even Haruna was peeking up from her NDS more often to see how it’s going.
After 20 minutes and very close scores, the team was ready for a break. Watching Sae-chan walk towards our bench, I noticed that one of her shoelaces was falling loose. Baka! I was thinking to myself how childish she looked at that point, with sweat beads rolling down her slightly blushed face, her hair all messy and ruffled up due to the intense action. I leaned forward to warn her of the shoelaces, but she was also rubbing sweat off her eyes and arrrrraaa! She stepped on her own shoelaces and tripped forward.
My head banged onto something and I lost my balance too, my eyes closing reflexively.
After landing on some uneven surface, I opened my eyes.
A pair of glassy globes, black, deep and mesmerizing. I couldn’t see anything else. Huh?
My nose, it’s resting on something soft…no wait, my body too….huh? My lips felt the moist of someone’s heavy breathing from below.
The situation I was in — directly landing on top of the hapless Sae-chan —dawned upon me and I sprung up in shock. Sae-chan was perhaps injured with the impact, as she lied motionless and not even blinking, like a statue.
“Nose and nose…chu chu!” Yuko exclaimed and clapped her hands, followed by Sayaka’s roar of laughter. That seemed to have shook Sae-chan out of her coma and she blinked furiously, sitting up and scratching her head while doing so. I walked back to the bench and sat down, daring not to look at Sae-chan’s or any other people’s faces.
My heart was beating like crazy but the light of her eyes was deeply imprinted in my mind for the rest of the day, and a warm fuzzy feeling crept up my head.
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After practice, we walked back home together. There was an awkward moment of silence but finally, Sae-chan decided to talk.
“Ano, Rin-chan, sorry about just now, did I hurt you?”
I peeped sideways to find an equally shy girl stealing glances at me. Boy, that’s very unusual of Sae…
“Of course not, don’t worry about it! Sae-chan, are you alright though? You cushioned my landing after all…” I could feel my ears heat up again recalling that scene…
“Rin-chan, you’re light and soft like a blanket, you didn’t hurt me one bit!!” Sae-chan started stuttering. “I…should’ve been more careful with the shoelaces…..honto ni, gomen ne!!”
I looked at her flustered face and let out a laugh.
“Baka! I’m more worried about your ability to tie shoelaces than anything else! Miyazawa Sae-san, how old are you?”
“Heheh, as long as Rin-chan is here, I don’t have to worry anyway, since you’ll make sure I’m well groomed, right?” She gave me a mischievous wink and started skipping around me.
Back to her baka-mode again, she took my hand and forced me to skip all the way back home with her.
The sakura trees in our neighborhood is fully blossomed now.
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So this is it! Please let me know what you think!
Topic: Heaven on Earth (Mayuki) - Chapter 9 - Uekara Maritroll (Read 33712 times)