That night, Tomoe couldn't stop talking about Momo. Except that she called him Takeshi now. She told me, "Oh my god! Momo is so cute! I know I cant stop talking about him but Maiko and Sayu hate it when I do so I had to absolutely not talk to them about him so please, please, pretty please can you listen? I mean you don’t have to listen but at least pretend to listen? Please?"
And I just blinked at her. Then I got up went over to her bed, caught her firmly on both shoulders and shook her. And told her to breathe.
She took a deep breath, and exhaling, told me about all the 'cute' things Momo had done on their way home.
Wonder what Kaoru is doing.
***
Kaoru's POV (oh and POV is Point Of View)
Julie hates me.
She didn't tell me that but I know she does. I was acting like such an ass. I vented out my anger at Momo and Tomoe on her. And she must have felt so bad. Speaking of Momo…
Momo asked Julie out.
And she said no.
Which means I don’t have a chance.
Damn.
But then why did Tomoe want me to ask Julie out?
Maybe so that Momo will turn to Tomoe because Julie would be taken.
So if all this is true, she's not going to ask me to ask Julie out tomorrow.
My jeans just lit up and vibrated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wazup? Hpe ur not stil mad at me! I luv u n all but u knw hw I feel abt Takeshi… if ur stil mad, sry :(… btw, wen u gna ask juli out??
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:03:45pm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not mad but I stil cnt c wt u c in him (*puke*)… dnt respond to tht…
Wait, I thot u wr askin me to ask Julie out jus so tht she'd b outa d way 4 u n Momo…
N 'Takeshi'? Seriously?
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:06:11pm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very funny… lol…
R u crazy? I'm nt tht mean n scheming..! :P… okay maybe I am…
Yes. I call him Takeshi now… why'd u ask? :P
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:10:14pm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"r u crazy?" whats tht supposed to mean? That u did say it to get Julie out of d way or not?
No reason… (*puke*)
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:12:01pm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Duh! I dint say it to get Jul out of the way!!! If she liked Takeshi I'd get out of the way, we're girls we do nice things 4 each othr…
N I wanted u to ask her out becuz shes going soon n u luv her
Ur replyn pretty fast… seems like ur actly intrested in this convo…. :P ;)
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:17:10pm
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I dnt luv her
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:17:56pm
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Ur in denial…
N u both wud b nice together… The girl who can make the viper smile…. :P
Don’t kill me….
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:19:02pm
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Very funny…
But even if, n thts a big IF, I liked her wts d point if she doesn’t like me?? N she h8s me...
Oh I will kill u…
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:20:50
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Okay, now u've admitted u luv her. The first part to solvin a problm is to admit it… :P
She doesn't hate u!!!!!!! Why dyu say tht?!?!!?!?!
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:21:58
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Cuz I ws super mean to her 2day n I vented out my anger on u n momo on her….
I dno y im tellin u… :S
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:22:34
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U no wat…? She's not mad at u… she cant be mad at you… maybe she's a lil hurt but nt angry… (duh!)
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:23:43
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Y duh!? She cn b mad at me…
Sender: Kaoru
Received: 8:23;59
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No she cant…! Nw go to sleep… u finished all m credit…
N dn wry, she'd not mad at u…. She ♥ u! :P
U ♥ her!! :P
Sender: Tomoe
Received: 8:24:42
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Kaoru's POV
I highly doubt her credit is over… and Julie loves me?? I wish..
Im going to stop thinking about her… or at least try to…
***
Next day Morning..
Kaoru's POV
Ranking tournaments…Today… I have to beat that monkey…
---------------------
Momo's POV
I have to beat that stupid, self centered viper…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fast Forward to after school…
Julie's POV
Tomoe is going mad! She keeps fighting (or trying to fight) with me about the match between Kaoru and Momo. She thinks that Momo is going to cream Kaoru to the ground. And I know that can't happen, because I can beat Momo but I'm sure I can't beat Kaoru.
Oh there he is. He's washing his face at the water taps. Now he put his whole head under the taps and drenched his hair in water.
Ooh… his hair is lo-ong…. And n-ice!
Okay… I am never going to tell anyone that I thought that.
I wonder why he hides all that beautiful hair under his bandana…
That either…
Now he's straightened up and thrown his towel over his head. Then, he wipes his face, puts his towel over his shoulder and turns around.
And sees me looking at him…
How utterly mortifying..
Then he looks away… Whaaaaat??? Why's he mad at me..??? I'm going to walk away now. And so I turned around...
"Julie?"
I turned back to face him. "Hey", and walked towards him and he came forward.
"Hey.." I said, again. Partially because all his *awesome* hair had left me *awestruck* and partly cause I felt super horrible for saying what I had and I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Hi… Um…"
"I'm sorry and I um… I swear I didn't mean it when I got mad at you-"
"No… I wanted to say sorry.. Its just that, you know, Tomoe…and Momo…"
"Yeah, its okay… And I'm sorry… I was just kinda in a bad mood-"
Suddenly we heard a crackling noise from the speakers, then, "Kaidoh Kaoru and Momoshiro Takeshi, please report to court 4 for their match"
So I shrugged and continued, "Well… you'd better go…"
He had a weird expression on his face… but then he smiled… one of those sudden smiles which were totally swoon-worthy…
Uh… what was I saying…? Oh yeah… and said bye and began to walk away…
"Oh… Listen…" I called him.. He turned around and I smiled at him and said, "Show Momo what you're made of! Cream him to the ground.."
He blushed I think… or possibly it was the sun (:P) nodded, tied up his hair in his bandana, and walked towards the courts. Momo appeared from the trees on the other side of the courts and both of them reported to the ref. I walked over to the side of the courts and Tomoe came of the trees, blushing. I couldn’t stop myself and so, I stopped and stared. Open mouthed, by the way…
"What?" said Tomoe a little defensively.
"Oh. My. God. "
"What??" said Tomoe again, super defense mode.
"Nothing…" I said, and turned around to focus on what I had to… Seigaku's Ranking Tournament.
There was just one match left in each group. From group A, Tezuka was facing Inui, Tezuka had won all his matches, Inui had lost one against Ryoma and so if Inui lost this match he'd be out of the team.. =(… but then he'd be team manager like he was when they were in middle school.
Group B, Oishi was facing a second year student in court 3. Oishi and Eiji had both won all their matches and it didn't really matter who won this match.
Group D, Taka was playing a third year. Both of them had lost one match each, and whoever won this match would make the team.
And, Group C, Kaidoh was playing Momo, not a very important match but I left it for the last…well, because it was *Kaidoh* playing Momo…. Lol… Both of them had won their matches. Kaidoh had won his matches 6-2 and 6-1… Momo had won his matches (against the same people) 7-5 and 6-4…
And that, is why im sure Momo is going to lose so bad, that he wouldn’t wanna fight Kaidoh for at least a month…
But im not telling Tomoe that…
***
(me: none of the shots used are made up by me… maybe I've added a couple of details but all of them are existent either in the manga or the anime)
Set 1
Kaidoh beat Momo 6-4
---
Set 2
3-3
A good twenty minutes into the second set, neither of them have broken a sweat. The score is 1-0 to Kaidoh's favour, and he won the set 6-4… Momo is putting up a good fight… just not good enough hopefully…
Tomoe's going mad… she and this other girl have got signboards n stuff and they've got a silly chant which they sing every time Momo scores.
And I finally saw the Snake Shot. And Wow!
Basically its like this. Kaidoh sort of sweeps his racket parallel to the ground and suddenly hits the ball with the side of the racket at a steep angle (Inui would probably have been able to tell me the exact angle) and swings his hand upwards. The ball curves away from him and flies over the net, then curves inwards and hits the ground almost opposite of where you think it will because of the initial curving of the ball away from him. Then is the amazing bit. It hits the ground and flies off in the opposite direction, as in the same direction from which it came, almost as if the ball hit an invisible wall besides the ground and bounced of in the same angle as the angle of impact.
And the best part is, he can hit it from anywhere in the court, from almost any ball.
Almost any ball.
Now Momo is using that "almost" to his advantage, and he's returning every ball with slices and away from Kaidoh so that he cant prepare himself for the Snake Shot. Kaidoh almost missed a shot and returned it with a lob, which wasn't deep enough, Momo grabbed the opportunity and used his signature shot, the Dunk Smash.
"40-all. Deuce. Advantage Momoshiro"
Crap.
Five minutes later, the next point was scored, almost an instant replay of the last one.
"4-3"
Tomoe is going mad. She's screaming and jumping. Umm… the umpire is looking this way. I don't know this woman… im just gonna walk to the other side of the court.
Kaidoh throws his racket onto the bench and picks up another one. Tests the strings with his hands then bounces a ball on it. Then he puts the ball into his pocket. Even Momo's switched rackets and both of them walked towards each other. They met near the net and for a second, everyone held their breath then the nodded at each other and Kaidoh slapped Momo on his back. As they walked away, everyone relaxed. Kaidoh looked up, saw me, I smiled at him and he smiled, looked down and I thought his tanned cheeks darkened a little… but then again, maybe it was the sun (:P… Marshal!!)
---
Still Set 2
Score : 4-4
Fifteen minutes later, the score is 40-30, with Momo in the lead. Kaidoh's just gotta win this set to win the game 2-0. Else, if Momo won this set, it would be equalized and they would have to play at least 2 more matches. Almost the half the school was here. The rest were at the Tezuka-Inui match which was still going on, in Tezuka's favor. Oishi just finished his match and walked over to the Group A match. Taka was done too, but he just sort of hovered between both the matches that were still going on.
Both of them are on the attack now, with Kaidoh sending Momo all over the court. Momo has begun to pant slightly, Kaoru's broken a sweat. Momo's serve, he uses his special serve, the Bullet Serve, where you can barely see the ball. 'Momo is a power player', explains Inui, who I turned around to see when I jumped at the sudden deep voice behind me… 'The bullet serve works for his style, the problem is that Kaidoh is versatile' he said, as I turned around to see the lob Kaidoh hit in return to the serve being sliced through the air by Momo's top spin. Momo's shot sped towards the edge of the court, Kaidoh jumped at it, and from mid air hit it with the top strings of his racket. It flew around the pole of the net and hit the ground just within the sideline. Momo missed it by about a foot.
'Boomerang snake' said Inui. 'When he used it the first time in middle school, it was by accident, but now, it is one of his most famous shots, one of the most difficult shots to get right too.'
'40-all'
Boomerang snake… Nice…
Another long rally. Inui lost his match and his spot on the team, 2-0. Tezuka won it 7-5, 6-3, and retains his captainship. Inui was pretty upset about it, but then the prospect of being the team manager and testing his new and improved 'Azou' on the rest of the team seemed to cheer him up. (me: Inui is this tall scary guy who makes these 'healthy' juices which are super gross tasting, and his 'Azou' knocked out even Fuji, who generally likes Inui's juices. Even Tezuka's hands were shaking after drinking the 'Azou' and he is usually immune to Inui's juices which knock the rest of the team out. He usually uses these juices as punishment for those who don't finish the laps in time.)
Momo just used his Jack Knife, which is such a powerful shot that the last person who tried to return it lost his racket. Yeah, Inui's fact. Kaidoh, who was close to the net, ran towards the baseline, gripped his racket with both his hands and…
Hit it backwards! Oh.. My.. God.. He just hit the ball backwards! OMG! And not just backwards, it’s a snake! It hit just inside the service area and bounced up in the opposite direction. What *is* that?
'Reverse snake' said the voice. I turned to find Tezuka. TEZUKA! Standing right behind me. Inui looked at him and said 'I've seen him use it, once, but I hadn't known that he had perfected it.' Tezuka nodded and turned his attention to the court, where Momo was staring at the ball, amazed, and a little pissed.
The score is now 5-4. Kaidoh's gained the lead.
"Julie CHAN!!!!!"
Do I really have to tell you who it is? Yeah. I thought not.
I know his hug is called the Apocalypse and The Hug of Living Death, after the potion in Harry Potter, but actually, its not that bad. Initially at least. Then he squeezes the air out of you so hard you'd think he was making lemonade and you were the lemon; then hugs you so tight you can barely breath. Okay let me go now… I can see the light flashing in front of my eyes…
"Hi! Julie chan! I swear she's become thinner…"
"Maybe because you crushed her?" said Oishi coming from behind him.
"Haha.. Very funny. She knows I do it because I love her. Don’t you Julie-chan?"
"Yes I do Eiji… But im not sure my ribs agree…"
Eiji looked pretend-offended for a few seconds, then threw his arm around my shoulders. Someone called him from near Court 3 and he put his hand on my cheek, leaned down and whispered into my ear, "Bye, bye… See you soon?" and ran away.
I don't know why, but my face felt kinda hot and I really didn't want Oishi or any of the guys for that matter to say anything so I turned to face the courts, feeling a little flushed.
---
Another rally… It is 30-15, Momo in the lead. Score is still 5-4. if Momo wins this one, it'd be equalized… actually looking at them both now, either of them can win this match.
Inui explained why both of them are so involved in a match whose outcome doesn't really matter to either of their positions on the team. The Singles 1 position was Tezuka's, Single's 3 was Ryoma's. the Double's 1 slot was the Golden Pair's (Oishi and Eiji), Double's 2 was occupied by Taka and Fuji. Whoever won this match would be given preference to play in Single's 2.
(me: Seigaku plays team tennis, those who make the team are called Regulars. In like the state tournaments or Kanto tournaments school tennis teams play each other and not individual players. There are 5 matches each team plays. Three single's games and two doubles. The Doubles matches are played first, D2 and D1 in that order. Then S3, S2 and S1. the first team to win three matches wins.)
The score is now 30-all. Kaidoh just equalized it with a snake shot. Momo's becoming awfully close to returning them now… Kaoru'd better change tactics soon.
Momoshiro's serve. He uses his bullet serve and it is supposed to be virtually un-returnable. But then again, Momo knows what Kaidoh can do, so he rushes the net. Kaidoh returns it with a volley and, guess what? Momo dunks it. Kaidoh lunges for it but misses.
"40-30"
Momo serves and Kaidoh returns it with a powerful backhand to the extreme right of the court. Momo lunges for it and returns it with a top spin. I think Kaidoh just smirked, and he returns it with a powerful shot that Momo misses by inches.
Wait a minute…. Wasn't that Momo's shot? Did Kaoru just use the…
"Jack Knife" said Inui… I freaked out at the sudden voice though I know I should have gotten used to Inui by now. "Kaidoh can use the Jack Knife. Momoshiro didn't know that…"
"That’s gonna be bad for his confidence levels… At least before he thought his shots were his own shots…" Oishi… Everyone's mommy… :)
Momo seemed to be stunned. He didn’t return the shot, though it hit the court inches away from him. Kaidoh smirked and walked towards the baseline, waiting for Momo to serve.
Five minutes later, Momo is finding it hard to score points. The score is 40-30 and Momo is evidently exhausted. Kaidoh is sending him to either side of the court alternatively and Momo is panting really hard now. Momo is returning every ball away from Kaidoh as well but then Kaidoh appears to be returning every ball almost effortlessly. Kaidoh hits a Snake Shot. Momo misses.
And the match is over. Kaidoh wins, 2 sets to love. Momo shakes hands with Kaidoh, who pats him on the back and Momo exits the court and walks away, without looking at anyone. Tomoe dropped her signboard and ran after him.
"Maybe he feels worse because his girlfriend was counting on him to beat her brother" said Oishi.
I was kind of… I mean, very surprised to here something like that come out of a guy, so I turned around to see everyone else staring at him as well.
"What?? You guys didn't know they were going out?" asked Oishi, slightly defensively.
Most of the others looked dumbfounded and slowly blinked and shook their heads. Eiji who had just come and heard just the 'girlfriend' part said, "Are you crazy? Momo has a girlfriend? Who would go out with him?"
I smiled and walked away, listening to Oishi telling him about Momo and Tomoe… Eiji sounded kinda shocked…
Kaoru was talking to Coach Ryuzaki. She spoke to him for a while then she walked away towards the school building. Kaoru turned around and saw me.
He's walking towards me and now it feels as though my ribs are gonna break with the force of my heart beating against it. . . NOT!!... Hahaha…
Ohkay… I am kinda nervous, and you can't blame for that. He was super *gorgeous* (*swoon*) and was walking towards me, looking me in the eyes, as if I was the most important person in his life, in his world…
"KAIDOH!!!!!" came a shout from behind me, and the moment was lost. In an anime I'd probably have turned into glass and shattered into a gazillion pieces and fallen to the ground, as Kaoru stepped over me and walked towards Eiji, who, by the way, was the cause of this current loss in ambience.
Did I ever say Eiji was cute? Well then, erase all of that from your memory. Done? Thank you.
Ugh.. Now Tomoe's calling… :(… bye-bye Kaoru-chan :(
Lol….
***
Still Julie's POV
I just got a cell phone!! :) :) !!!! Lol…
For the past couple of days Tomoe and me have been convincing Tomoe's mom to let me use the SIM card her dad bought for me. Since me and Tomoe have different extra-curricular activities and all… NOT! Mostly so that Tomoe can ditch me to go on dates with Momoshiro, and then we can meet up and come home together.
Tomoe is fiddling with my cell phone now. Adding contacts apparently.
I'm hungry… Tomoe's parents have gone out for dinner and we chose to stay at home, not because we don't wanna go, just because we're to lazy to get up and dressed. I think I'll cut some fruits or something…
Now I'm back upstairs with two bowls of fruit salad. Tomoe throws my phone at me and said, "I added all the people we know… and even added favourites…"
She added the last four words in this weird tone, so I just had to check who she had marked in my favourites list. There were my old contacts, my best friends, then her and Kaoru.
Kaoru.
I had his number.
What am I supposed to do with it?
"Oh.. I messaged Kaoru and gave him your number.." said Tomoe. I glared at her and checked my sent messages. "No not from your cell… from mine"
Whew… imagine if she had sent it from mine and knowing Tomoe she would have sent something like-
---
HEY!!! Kaoru, its me Julie! I got a new number!!
Message me n message often!!!
Ily ily ily ily!!!
♥
Jul… :)!!
---
Maybe not that bad but something along those lines.
I don't know if I should give him a missed call… or message…
What would I have done if he was any other guy?
Uh… forget it… I'll think about it tomorrow…
Me and Tomoe have this understanding. Usually we never sleep and we just talk into the early hours of the morning, but once every few days we get totally exhausted, or else one of us is in a very bad mood and we just plug in our earphones and go to sleep. Today, was one of those days. Not that either of us were bummed out, but we were both kinda tired. Wow.. Hard to believe selections were just today!
And so, I switched off the lights and both of us crawled into our beds and seconds later I heard Tomoe's breathing slow down, indicating that she had fallen asleep. I put my iPod on shuffle.
You know how you put your iPod on shuffle and skip each song till you reach the one you wanna hear? Yeah that’s what I was doing. Then I just got tired and the song started playing…
It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And that word grew louder and louder
Till it was a battle cry
I'll come back when you call me
No need to say goodbye
I don’t know what's gonna happen between me and him.. And even if anything happens I doubt it'll be serious.. Because then I'd leave and it'd be very, very sad. I don’t know if the long distance thing will work out between us..
Look at me! I don’t even know if Kaoru likes me and I'm thinking about how I'd handle a long distance relationship.
My pillow just vibrated. I pick up my cell phone and Kaoru has missed called.
***
Kaoru's POV
I just missed called Julie. I don’t know if I should have or if its sending the right sign but I don’t care! I wanna talk to her now!
Okay I'm acting like a five year old… but I wanna talk to her!
Today after my match I was walking towards her and I still remember the way she was looking at me… It had felt so nice and so perfect, until Eiji ruined the moment. It had felt as though there was nobody else in the world but me and her and we were always meant to be together… I know I'm being cheesy and I swear I will never say that out aloud. I'll never live it down if I did...
She just miss called back. I missed called her again, within like a second or something. Then she missed called. Then I missed called her and it went on for a while.
Um… I think I'll call her… I wanna hear her voice.
I cant believe I just thought that…
I got out of my room and sneaked down the stairs and across the hall. I picked up the cordless and softly ran up the stairs. Thank god mom didn't see or hear anything. I swear sometimes it seems like her life's ambition is to get me a girlfriend.
Julie missed called. I'm gonna call her up now…
The phone is ringing and I glance at the clock. Crap! It is 12:30!! Shit! What would she think if I called her up just now? But now its too late…
"Hello"
I love her voice…
***
Julie's POV
It was so nice talking to Kaoru yesterday. He called up at 12:30 and we spoke till 2am I think. And I don't even remember what all we spoke about. I'm sitting in the bus and we just pulled into Kaoru's stop. Tomoe, who was sitting beside me, got up and sat with Momo in the last seat, leaving no place for Kaoru except to sit with me. Kaoru just entered the bus and, this time, didn't look around for somewhere else to sit, but came and sat next to me, pushing Ryoma, who was attempting to sit in the seat next to me, into the next seat. I couldn't help laughing, it was funny, and he looked at me and gave a rather sheepish grin…
His smile gave me butterflies...
I have fallen so bad…
Or else its just that Tomoe's mother stuffs us with food before we go to school everyday…
"Hey", I said, slightly breathlessly… You know, because of the butterflies/indigestion…
"Hey.."
Tomoe made a funny noise from behind so me and Kaidoh turned around to see both Momo and Tomoe listening intently to our conversation. Tomoe saw me looking and shrugged defensively and asked, "What?"
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing.."
Both of us turned our backs to them but we didn't start talking until we heard Momo and Tomoe chattering away themselves.
"When did you fall asleep?" asked Kaoru..
"Um… I think around 3… you?"
"Around then…"
"You look sleepy…"
"Yeah… I woke up at 6 to go running"
"Aww! You didn't sleep at all did you?"
"I did… A bit…"
"Why don’t you sleep now? We do have around 20 minutes to school"
"Yeah right. Are you nuts? I'm sitting next to you and I'm gonna waste the opportunity by sleeping?"
"Very funny"
In just one midnight phone conversation, our relationship had transformed from secret sudden smiles to very obvious flirting.
And it wasn't just him who was flirting.
Though he had declared that sleeping would be a waste of flirting time within five minutes he was out. His head lolled from side to side during each turn before finally coming to rest on my shoulder. His hair smells nice…
I can't believe I just thought that…
"Awww!"
Who else could it be…
"What Tomoe?"
"Both of you look so cute!!!" she almost screamed, extending the word 'cute' to almost five syllables.
"Oh. Shut. Up."
***
Julie's POV
After 20 minutes of absolute torture of Kaoru's head on my shoulders and him snoring like an elephant into my ears…
No I'm just kidding… ;)
Take like the absolute opposite meaning of everything I just said…
He doesn't snore either, except for these super cute sighs every few minutes. As if the whole world was resting on his (*hot*) shoulders, and all of the 6 billion people in the world were depending on him to bring the earth out of poverty, global recession and economic instability.
Not really, but his sighs were super cute…
Anyway, I'm sitting in English Literature class, we're doing Tennyson. The poem about Elaine, yeah the Lady of Shallot. I had done it last term for our class project so I knew it. As in really knew it. So I was just doodling. A piece of paper landed on my latest doodle of Arthur stabbing Tennyson with the sword he pulled out of the rock. I looked at Kaoru who was sitting beside me. He was grinning at the text. As in like the Cheshire Cat grin. I opened the folded paper.
Kaoru had written, in his messy but legible hand(I don’t know how he manages that)
Wazup?
NM… Wht up wid u?
Nm… I'm bord…
Me2… Whats Tennyson's prob…? Why couldn't he just let Elaine be?
I knw! If u wna pay attention I'll ttyl?
Naah its kay… I knw dis poem… did it last year… bt if u wna lisn…
Nope… u can tutor me… :P
Kay I dnt mind… :)…. Y d ':P' face?
Cuz ur returning the favor…. Plus, v cn hang out…. If u want to tht is…
Bang out?... Oh wait… its hang out… If I want to what?
Very funny… my handwritings nt tht bad…. Actually yeah… it is.. :P… ur so dum… what? u want me to spell it out 4 u?
I wnt mind… :P
Wnt mind what?
Either… :P
???
Nw hu's d dummy?? Yeah we can 'bang' out…
I threw the paper onto his table and the bell rang. We had PE next so we got up to go. I was thinking last night, the Kaoru I see when I talk to him isn't a lot like the Kaoru everyone sees slouching around the school, hissing at anyone who gets too close. It is weird, as though he is two people at once.
Me and Tomoe walked to the locker room.
"So… are you and Kaoru-chan officially together now?" she asked with this weird gleam in her eyes…
"Um… we're friends…"
"Yeah… sure"
"Seriously… We're just friends!"
"Until he asks you out?"
"Ye-…. -Uh!!! Tomoe!!! Shut up!!!"
We took out our gym clothes from Tomoe's locker and went to the changing rooms. We have tennis practice today. Okay so the gym uniform over here is a white t-shirt with our names sewn on which we wear with these tight little blue polyester pants, which are embarrassingly short, instead of regular shorts. No, girls don't wear those tiny skirts for gym unlike in the animes, not that these pants are any better, they make our butts and thighs look super fat. The boys get to wear regular shorts, and it is totally not fair. The Regulars wear their team shirts for practice but Tomoe says that it is not a rule, they just like to wear it cause it looks kakko-ii. Cool.
Me and Tomoe got out of the changing rooms after going hyper about my new Regular's shirt for a while. Near the courts, we found most of the Regulars crowded around a poster put up on the wall. We fought our way through and saw the poster (which was in Japanese), I backed out and walked towards the courts, swinging my racket.
Suddenly I felt a pair of strong arms around me. Someone had grabbed me from behind. My instincts told me to scream… But then I recognized those arms and smiled. I dropped my tennis racket, then elbowed him in the ribs, not very strong but enough to make him release his stronghold of doom…
"OWW!!!"
I turned around and smiled at Eiji who had this hurt expression on his face and was rubbing the part I just elbowed.
"Aww! Sorry Eiji!!"
"Its okay"… then he pouted and crossed his arms in front of him.
"Sorry.."
He pouted and turned away from me, but then I saw a twinkle in his eyes… I decided I'd play along.
"Eiji…. Soo sorry! How do you want me to make up for the horrendous crime I did?"
Eiji turned around, smiled and gestured me to come closer, as though he'd whisper into my ears what he wanted me to do. I took a step forward and stretched up towards his face. He leaned down to my ears. I waited for about 3 seconds then
"BOO!"
I gave a little scream of surprise and lost my balance( I was standing on my toes).
Eiji caught me with one of his *strong* arms and set me on my feet. I glanced at him reproachfully but could continue for very long because he exclaimed, "You're so cute when you're mad!!" and hugged me. I'm not going to describe the intensity of that hug just because I've said it before.
"Did you see the poster Julie-chan?"
"Umm… Yeah… It is in Japanese if you didn't notice.."
"Oh… We're having a dance!"
"Like a prom?"
"Yeah… Sort of… It is in three weeks"
"Oh…"
"It’ll be before you go back!"
"Oh… Yay!"
Eiji laughed, put his arm around me and walked me to the courts all the while chattering about tennis practice and how he was late and how I had to be there as a shield for him from Tezuka. I didn't quite follow everything that he said because he was speaking too fast but yeah, I understood that much.
He wasn't late apparently. Neither Coach Ryuzaki nor Tezuka had reached yet. Eiji dragged me over to where Oishi and Momo were talking.
"Hey guys!"
"Hey Eiji… You're late… And you're strangling Julie-chan" Thank god for Oishi… He seems to be always watching out for me…
Momo grinned at me and was about to ask me something when I said "She's back there near the dance poster by the coolers"
Momo nodded and went towards the coolers. Eiji, who still hadn't let go of me, made a funny noise and looked down at me and asked, "Who?"
"Tomoe" Me and Oishi said simultaneously.
Eiji looked amazed and asked, "What does she see in him?"
Oishi shook his head and I said, "She's liked him since forever! You jealous or something?"
"Yeah!! Why does he get a pretty girlfriend? Why do girls even like him?"
Oishi looked slightly annoyed and said "Kikumaru…", in an almost 'warning' tone.
"Seriously! He's my friend and all, but he flirts with everyone!!"
"So do you…" said Oishi, but the annoyance was gone from his voice.
"I don't flirt with them the way he does! I can't believe you're on his side Oishi!!" When Eiji said that… Even I could see he was genuinely hurt… Maybe him and Oishi had a fight earlier, they were inseparable as far as I knew.
"Eiji…"
"No.. It's okay… I'm just kidding!" Then he flashed him one of his dazzling smiles… He looked down at me as though he'd almost forgotten I was standing next to him… and continued "Tell Tezuka I'll be coming. I'm gonna take Julie-chan to her court."
Oishi just nodded and turned away.
That was weird…
Anyway, I'm walking to courts with Eiji and I look up at him and he's not smiling.
"Um… Eiji? Are you okay?"
He looked down at me, smiled and said, "Yeah, why?"
"You seem kinda upset…"
"I'm okay…"
I figured he didn't wanna talk about it, not to me anyway, so I dropped the issue. But I did put my arm around his waist. He smiled.
"Hey Julie, you wanna hang out sometime?"
Uhh… Eiji is a nice guy but then… I don't want him to think I like him or anything…
I guess he noticed me feeling… umm… weird, so he continued…
"Just as friends, I know you and Kaoru kinda have a thing…"
I didn't know what to say to that! My mouth just popped open and stayed that way… I mean, if I said yes, I would be admitting to the 'thing' if it existed; and otherwise I would be saying that I liked him….
"Yeah, Eiji, I'd love to hang out with you… And no, there is no "thing" between me and Kaoru…"
"Yeah, yeah say what you want… He likes you anyway… And I'm pretty sure you like him too…"
"Eij-"
He cut me off and continued, "Don’t deny it! Its okay! He is a nice guy… Very few people look past the scary factor…"
I sighed. No point in denying it…
"You do like him, don't you..?"
"Umm… He is a nice guy…"
Eiji sighed. I looked up at him, then he said, with this wistful expression on his face, "Damn. Why are all the good ones taken?"
Then he burst out laughing, thankfully…
The guy is weird!
***
Next Day, Chemistry Class
Julie's POV
Chemistry is boring… No actually its not… Call me geeky but I actually like Chemistry. It's just that I've done all this last term.
Someone keeps saying "Eiji"… Wait, it’s the sensei… Why is the sensei saying "Eiji"?
Oh… He's saying Ag. The symbol for silver. Oh, that explains "Eiji ions"… :P
Why the hell am I hearing Eiji's name everywhere? Especially when I'm dreaming in class? I shouldn't be dreaming about Eiji, we're just friends… I think…
He is super gorgeous… And very, very… Um, how do I say it?... Well, powerfully built??
Okay. That's it. Enough is enough. I'm supposed to be concentrating and not dreaming about Eiji Kikumaru's super hot arms. This stops, right now.
Damn… Those arms…
Uhh… This is IT!
***
Same Day… Night
Julie's POV
Just got back from super awesome shopping madness with Tomoe, Sayu and Maiko… Well, window shopping, mostly. They wanted to start looking around for dresses for the dance… When they told me, I was like "Already???" but then they said that most people had already bought their dresses…
Anyway, we went around, store to store, trying on clothes and shoes……………
Exhausted.
I got myself a kimono!!!!
It's very, very pretty in a sort of pale to dark violet color… Mostly pale lavender to like deep violet at the edges with these *beautiful* complicated black floral patterns on it.
I said I wanna wear this to the dance but Tomoe almost slapped my face, she says its too "not dressy" for the dance… Almost like casual wear…
But then I didn't want the "dressy" kimono the lady at the store showed me…too gaudy…
Anyway, I'm trying on my kimono!!! It's really WOW!!!
"Hey Tomoe! Could you do my hair up the way your mom does?"
Tomoe just appeared from the bathroom in shorts and a t-shirt (which we bought tonight) and said, "Yeah! Oh my god!! It looks soo pretty on you!!!"
Hmm… It'd probably look more authentic if I had black hair…
A knock on the door…
------------
Julie's POV
Kaoru just walked in…
He seems… Umm… Dumbfounded to be exact…
-----------
Kaoru's POV
Wow.
I mean, wow.
Like, whoa.
Like, damn it, she looks so… wow.
-----------
Julie's POV
This is kinda embarrassing, to have the guy you're totally crushing on walk in when you're playing dress up in a kimono.
Tomoe is totally "un-flustered". Obviously. Its not her crush who walked in, its her brother.
***
Later that night…
Julie's POV
Kaoru just left. After the initial speechlessness, we had a perfectly civil conversation. Or at least as civil as we could be with Kaoru glaring at the door once in a while when we heard Tomoe's voice talking on the phone with her Takeshi.
She still is. Talking on the phone with Momo, I mean.
Lying cuddled up in my blanket feels so nice. If only Tomoe would stop yakking. No, its okay actually. Cute, at least until now.
Okay, now its gross…
Tomoe seems to understand. She just got up and went out of the room i.e. into the bathroom.
So there we were back home from somewhere inside my head-
I scrambled up and grabbed my phone from the side table… It'd better be something important, making me get up from bed like that.
I looked at the screen, its some random number. Might as well pick up.
"Hello"
"Moshi moshi! Julie-chan?"
"Yeah, who is this?"
"Heloo Julie! Its EIJI!"
"Hey Eiji!!! How'd you get my number?"
"Kaoru"
"Oh"
"No, I mean I took it from his cell when he wasn't looking"
"Oh, ohkay…" we both laughed for a few and then conversation continued.
***
Next day morning…
Julie's POV
Getting ready for school and I can't stop thinking about my conversation with Eiji. It was fun. Not the same kind of fun as talking to Kaoru, but fun, in a different way. Eiji just keeps flirting and making me laugh and teasing me with Kaoru. So he's like a brother in a way. A brother who I don't really want as a brother. I mean, come on. Which girl would want to make such a hot guy her brother???
La la la…
Anyway, I'm really, really happy. I don't know why, but I am. Spoke to my mom, dad and brother about an hour ago, Adrian's home from university and he's missing me.
Feels nice to be missed.
Tomoe just got out of the bathroom, sleepily staring at my face.
"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face or something?"
"Noo… Why are you whistling?"
"Beeecause I'm happy?" I asked, stretching the 'bee' of because to a coupla syllables.
"Why?" Tomoe seemed genuinely puzzled, why the hell would I be happy early in the morning. She knows me enough to know that I'm not much of a morning person.
"Cause I slept well! And I spoke to Addy in the morning!"
"Nice!… I wanna meet him!!"
-----
Moving on…
In the bus…
Kaoru's taken his what-I-hope-will-be-usual-seat next to me and is telling me something about tennis. I'm trying to listen, but I have just half my mind on the conversation. I'm listening, responding but with just half my mind.
Its very hard. Kaoru's not the kind of guy who reeks of deodorant or cologne or whatever. Well yeah, there is a subtle hint of deo but I could also smell his aftershave, his mom's favourite lemon grass soap, his shampoo, whatever fabric softener his mom used…
No, no sweat.
I was so gone.
---------
Kaoru's POV
I'm whistling a tune I heard the band playing on my way to class. People are staring at me cuz Kaidoh Kaoru doesn't walk in the hallway whistling. Kaidoh Kaoru doesn't whistle. Kaidoh Kaoru doesn't do anything but hiss around…
Well. I don't care. I will whistle when I want to.
Talking to Julie is nice. The only problem is that I often lose track of the conversation so I just blab. Fortunately she hasn't noticed yet.
I wonder why she hasn't noticed…
Naah it can't be.
