16 KiB
"So... Tokyo, huh?"
"Yup!"
"That's, uh, a long distance to move on your own."
"It is."
"Especially in the middle of the school year..."
"Uh huh..."
"What's up with that?"
"I was also wondering that, Hibari. Your father only asked that I could let you say, but didn't seem to want to explain why. It's quite unusual of him, he's usually a rather direct man."
Instead of responding immediately, the girl reaches over to grab the bowl of rice and begins to empty some of it into her own plate before replying. "Ibari felt I needed a change of scenery for my last year and a half of high school." she says, that same, slightly amused smirk lifting the corners of her mouth as she lowers the bowl, "It's in order to deal with what he deems as 'immature' behavior. Personally, I think he's being unreasonable, but I'd rather this than some of his other suggestions."
"Other suggestions?" Kousaku asks.
"Sending me to a boarding school, non-coed specifically. A few different ones came up, mostly up in Tohoku. Father hasn't been the biggest fan of some of my actions the last few years, so I guess he just wanted the problem out of the way for a while." She shrugs and continues eating.
Kousaku and Harue were both mildly unsettled by this information. Their new housemate seems like a kind girl, but have they unknowingly agreed to house a delinquent of some sort?
Kousaku's mother asks the obvious question, "If I may ask, Hibari, what behavior of yours did he have a problem with?"
The light smirk morphs into something almost devilish, giving Kousaku some very confused chills. He has no idea how to feel about such a menacing expression on that cute face. "Oh, just the usual teenage girl behavior, I suppose. You know, teasing my sisters, drinking some of Ibari's liquor, threatening a yakuza member. Nothing major."
Yakuza?
"You're joking about the last one, right?"
Hibari giggles. "A little."
?!?!?!
"What do you mean, 'a little'?!"
The giggles turn into a full-on cackle. "Oh, that one he actually had no problem with!" Her laughter calms down mildly. "He had his own grudges with the guy, anyways." she notes with a shrug.
With.
A.
Shrug.
Whereas this unsettles him significantly, his mom's reaction is much more mild, bordering on annoyed. She shakes her head and sighs. "I suppose you can only set expectations so high for the head of the Kantou Oozora Group. I had hoped that your father wouldn't get you involved in any of that, Hibari. You or your siblings, for that matter. We've had our share of disagreements on some of his own decisions over the years."
Hibari's laughter dies down fully, though her smile remains. "Ahh, what a rush." she sighed. "Just kidding! Don't worry, Mrs. Sakamoto, Ibari doesn't want me to be involved in business stuff, anyways. He's always afraid I'll make him look bad, so I'm left out of it usually. As for his real problem: he just doesn't like how I express myself. I'm in a rock band—or at least I was in Tokyo—and I don't always dress how wants me to. He says it's inappropriate for the role I was born in."
Kousaku takes a moment to process the rapid whiplash of information. So her dad's a yakuza boss, and mom knew that, but at least she isn't some kinda scary mob freak. If anything, she's kinda fun. It's nice. The thought was somewhat relieving.
His mother, on the other hand, had only seemed to only grow more upset as the girl spoke. "That seems so unlike him. Sending off his own daughter like that..." She moves to get up. "Maybe I should call him and talk to hi—"
"No!" Hibari suddenly shouts, slamming her hands against the table and surprising both of them. She blushes slightly at their startled gazes. "Um, I'd rather not drag you into this, Mrs. Sakamoto. We've been having these disagreements since junior high school and they haven't exactly been productive. I'd prefer to just let things with Ibari rest for a little bit. I doubt it would make much of a difference anyways, unfortunately."
"I see." Harue seems to think on this a moment, then sighs. "Well, I won't do anything you wouldn't want me to, then."
An awkward silence descends on the table after that, as the three of them continue their dinner. Kousaku continues breaking the silence a few times, but between Hibari's still evident embarrassment and his own nervousness, he hesitates.
By the time Kousaku actually does get the courage to speak, the three of them have almost finished their meal and the awkwardness has become nearly suffocating.
"So... did you enjoy the food, Hibari?" he breathes out, barely avoiding a stutter.
"Oh? Yes I did, actually. You made the salad, right? It was pretty good! Do you tend to help with the cooking, Kousaku?"
"I often do most of it, actually."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Mom's an author and often works pretty late to make her deadlines. I started learning how to cook over the summer a couple years back and I've just been doing it a lot to make it easier on her."
"That's... actually really nice of you. I imagine you appreciate that a lot, Mrs. Sakamoto?"
Harue smiled. "Yes, it's been a big help these last few years. My workload in general has been a lot heavier and Kousaku has been stepping up a lot. He's truly been everything a mother could ask for."
Kousaku flushes at the praise. "Mom!" he whined.
His mother laughs. "Anyways, I take it you two are done eating at this point?"
"Yeah."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Alright, then. I'll handle the dishes tonight, Kousaku. Instead, you should go help Hibari get her things up to her room and figure out what you'll be doing the next few days."
"Ah, alright. C'mon, then."
The two teens walk back towards the front door of the house, where they had left Hibari's things before dinner.
She leans down to grab her luggage, rolling it towards the stairs with clear intent to carry it up.
"Hey, uh, wait a second!" He rushes to her side. "That bag was heavy just bringing it inside! You'll hurt yourself trying to drag it up there on your own. Let me help."
Hibari stares at him blankly, almost confused by the offer. "I appreciate the suggestion, but I really can deal with it just fine by myself—at least better than you were doing earlier."
Then she grabs the handle and effortlessly carries the bag to the top of the stairs.
With one hand.
One.
What the hell.
She turns around to face him and tilts her head quizzically. "What's the hold up? Bring up my bass for me, will you?" She begins to move down the hall, then stops and turns back around with a light blush staining her cheeks. She looks down at him, a goddamn insanely cute expression of mild embarrassment on her face as she does.
"Oh, uh, which room is the guest room?"
"...first door on the right. My room is the second one."
"Ah! C'mon, Kousaku!"
She leaves his line of sight from the bottom of the stairs, and Kousaku just stands there for a moment, taking the first moment he's had all night to process what was happening.
One of the cutest girls he's ever met is moving into his house for at least a few months, and he's just being a complete and utter mess. He's blowing it. He's barely getting a single word out or... what was it he'd said to Daisuke earlier that day? Getting to know her? She seems interesting as hell, too. Between the band she mentioned and her dad being a yakuza of all things and her joking about it, he's finding himself wanting to know her. And instead he's just been stuttering all night at every little thing she does. He's barely been managing to respond to her at all.
He hates that.
It's rude! It's lame! It's... unmanly! He can do better, and he will! Determined to get his shit together, Kousaku grabs the guitar case and carefully carries it up to the guest room, now Hibari's room. The girl had set her luggage down and opened it against a wall and was at the moment just stretching out against the bed. Kousaku pointedly ignores the little bit of midriff revealed by her sweater creeping up as she does so.
It's substantially harder to ignore the little moan she makes while stretching. "Ungh! Ah, sorry! It's been a long trip here and I'm a little tired." The blond sits up and, upon seeing him, gives him a teasing smirk. "Enjoy the show?"
Kousaku manages to mostly keep his reaction in check, if not without a little nervous fidgeting and a cough. He is not going to answer that question, though. "I just, uh, brought up the guitar. Where should I put it?"
"Oh, hmm... I think that corner is probably best." she gestures towards the side of her bed opposite the nightstand. "It's designed to be able to stand, just put it with the flat part down." He does as she tells him. "I'll just be in here emptying out my things for a while, Kousaku. I can take care of it myself, so don't feel any need to stay and help." She gets up fully and walks over to her bag, getting on her knees and beginning to sort and take things out of it. Mostly clothes, Kousaku notices.
"I was actually wondering if I could just stay in here and talk? I wasn't planning on doing much tonight anyways and it feels wrong to not, I dunno, help you get acclimated? School doesn't even start back up for a few days anyways... Oh! Would you like to go out with me?"
She jolts up in surprise and looks at him, eyes wide. It takes a few seconds for Kousaku to realize his mistake. Foot, meet mouth.
"I-I-I just meant that I could show you around town! Tomorrow! Maybe meet a couple of my friends, that sorta thing. I was gonna see one of them tomorrow to start getting ready for classes, too, so we could help you catch up if you need it."
Her surprise fades as Kousaku explained himself, morphing into a teasing grin.
"O-only if you want to, of course, I just thought it would be nice." he finished, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, I would love to go out with you, Kousaku. Make sure to show me all your favorite make out spots." He could feel himself heating up. "Pff, you're bright red! Talk about pure-hearted. Don't worry! I'm just teasing you~"
She winks at him and turns back towards her luggage, continuing to unpack. "In all seriousness, that sounds good. You're also welcome to stay, though I get the feeling you might want to be careful about any talking."
He just grunts in response, not trusting his own voice, and sat down on the bed.
The two of them sit in silence for a while, Hibari occasionally getting up to put things in one of the drawers or hang some of her clothes. From what he can see, a lot of them seem pretty cute. Of course, he still wonders how they'll look on her but he's already gotten the sense that Hibari was good at coordinating outfits. If what she was wearing in the moment was any indicator, she's a rather fashionable girl. Definitely out of his league.
Goddammit, Kousaku! Stop thinking about your new friend being attractive!
"So, I've been meaning to ask, you're in a band?"
"Yep! Or at least I was. After I sang for the school cultural festival last year, Takanashi and Matsumoto—they're the other guitarists—thought up this whole plan where Matsumoto faked a broken arm just so they could rope me in. I figured it out pretty quickly, but then they asked me to join and, well, it was fun, so I said yes. They've honestly been my best friends the last few months, especially Takanashi..." she trails off wistfully.
"At least you could always call them." Kousaku said.
"I suppose, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Father doesn't want me back in Tokyo any time soon, either, so it's not like I could just go for a visit and play with them. I'm just going to miss their antics, I guess."
"Antics?"
"Well, outside of how they got me to join, Takanashi and Matsumoto would constantly make schemes to try to get us gigs. So, Wakaba Academy, my old school, is obsessed with sports, right?"
"If you say so?"
"Yeah, so it's the start of the fall school term and Takanashi goes to the boxing club with a deal: let us play our music at your games and Hibari, as in, me, will fight in any game you want during the season."
"Why you?"
"Their manager has been trying to get me to join ever since I beat their star player—her now boyfriend, funnily enough—in a fight to make him stop flirting with me."
Kousaku would find that hard to believe if he hadn't already seen how strong she was.
"A lot of clubs wanted me for reasons like that. I threw a volleyball just a little too hard at the girl's team captain and next thing I knew she was trying to get me to join." She shrugs. "I had to keep telling her I wasn't planning on doing sports at the time and she wouldn't back off until I won a match against her."
She's amazing... Kousaku thinks. "So, uh, what ended up happening with the boxing club?"
"Right. So, what Takanashi didn't realize is that the school boxing club isn't allowed to just have some band play their own music during their matches... so the scheme failed."
"Oh. That's... very anticlimactic."
"Indeed. Still, it was a lot of fun to be involved in stuff like that... I miss her a lot.... I miss all of them."
Kousaku finds himself unsure how to respond to the sudden, melancholy shift in tone. It feels like he's intruding on something more personal than he meant to pry into, and that's the last thing he wants to do. He's about to ask her if she's okay, but she speaks again before he does.
"Sorry, it's just... it's an adjustment, being here instead of there. Ibari deciding to send me here was sudden, to say the least."
Kousaku chooses to stay silent at that admission, steadfastly resisting any urge to pry. Still, he can't help but wonder. Why was such a major shift sudden? Was there a fight of some sort, bad enough that her father would send her away?
He wants to know more. He wants to understand exactly what led to this girl appearing in his life.
The two of them sit in silence for the next few minutes. It's not exactly uncomfortable, but Kousaku doesn't find it quite as comfortable as he likes. It feels very awkward to just sit there without saying anything, especially without anything to do but stare at her. He feels even weirder about the thought of doing that.
To his fortune, Hibari finishes unpacking pretty quickly, emptying out most of the luggage and only leaving in clothes that seemed a bit inappropriate for the weather. She stands up and stretches out yet again, then grabs her sweater from the bottom and pulls it off, revealing a black tank top.
She turns her head to look at him, that teasing smile adorning her lips yet again. If she notices he's been staring at her shoulders, she doesn't comment. "I think I'm going to have to kick you out for the night. I want to change and get ready for bed. As I said before, it's been a tiring day."
He nodes and gets off the bed. "Okay. Uh, good night?"
"Good night."
Kousaku walks out of her room and into his own. A quick glance at his alarm clock indicates that it's getting quite late, though not as late as he often sleeps during breaks. He quickly changes into his pajamas, brushes his teeth in the bathroom, pops into his mothers room to wish her a good night, and ultimately decides to sit in bed and read for a little while.
About half an hour later, he hears a light knocking at his door.
"Come in?"
To his slight surprise, it's Hibari. She'd changed into her own pajamas—a white set with cute pink hearts all over— and had cleaned off her makeup... not that it made her any less pretty.
"I was just wondering when you're planning on heading out tomorrow." She rubs her eyes, betraying her tiredness, and yawns. "I was about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't set my alarm yet."
"Well, I was supposed to meet Daisuke, the friend I mentioned, to study around... two o' clock? If I'm gonna show you around town beforehand, we're probably gonna want to leave around noon."
The girl nods lightly, then moves to leave the room again. She smiles at him again, this one being a softer, more fatigued smile that looks especially cute with the way her eyes lid in weariness. She speaks, "Okay, then. See you in the morning, Kou-sa-ku~", and walks out.
"See you..." he says at the empty space she had occupied. He undeniably feels a little warmer than he had a few moments ago. A quick glance at his mirror confirmed his very visible flush.
Kousaku spends the next 15 minutes attempting to read, his thoughts wandering every few words or so. Eventually, he decides to turn out the lights and try to sleep.
It takes a while for Kousaku to fall asleep that night, the blond on his thoughts as his dreams takes him. He remembers absolutely none of his book.