Koi no Kisetsu (Season of Love)

Koi no Kisetsu 恋の季節

Wish #2

"YUYA!"

It was just right at this minute that the door leading into the convenience store burst open and hit the aloof guy squarely on the face. He stumbled backwards from the impact, grabbing a spot on his nose, eyeing forth with squinted eyes. I leapt forward without much hesitation and caught him by the arm, deep inside amazed that the same spate of events seemed to be recurring.

"... Thanks," Shyly, the guy muttered, before he withdrew his hand away from mine, and I nodded back at him, releasing his arm, staring at the mysterious new guy who had just entered. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, wearing huge, dark sunglasses as well, racked with pants. He bent over, huffing and puffing as he tried to regain his breath to speak.

"Massu!" I heard the guy exclaim in delight, before he squatted in front of the guy. I glanced to the side, noticing that the shop assistant seemed really interested in the din that was caused in the shop today, most likely because it was none of the ordinary. Indeed, it must have been an interesting show for her, since there was rarely any customers at this time of the day. Everyone just seemed to pass by the shop without even giving a peek inside, most likely because they were all heading home and had no business in the shop whatsoever.

Looking a little concerned for the guy who had just barged in all of a sudden, the lady by the counter asked, "Are you okay?"

The guy lifted his head and nodded, smiling at both her and the other guy- presumedly Yuya like he had just addressed earlier on. Then, sensing my presence- finally, he gave a curious, fleeting glance at me, and I led out a soft, incoherent chuckle, before I dug my hands into my pockets and pulled out a packet of tissue and handed it to him, "Uhh... Do you want it?" I asked him.

He seemed to falter for a second, but he grinned thereafter and took the packet of tissue into his hands with an audible note of thanks.

"Yuya, what are you doing here? Are we still going to the amusement park?" he nudged at Yuya, who stooped his shoulders and shook his head. "I was hiding from them." Yuya murmured, looking a little dejected, his hands still covering his nose.

"They really don't give up sometimes. They just want the shots, do you think we should let them have their way? Ah, Tego, is that... Are you bleeding?!" Suddenly, the guy shot up as he rushed beside Yuya who had just removed his hand from his nose to reveal hands stained with blood. My eyes bulged at the sight of his reddish hands, and immediately removed a piece of tissue off the tissue packet to dab at his wound. Yuya seemed to squirm uneasily when he realized that I was there to assist him again.

I stared directly out of the store and noticed a vacant wooden bench.

"Let's go outside, there's a bench, you should sit down first." I instructed nervously, and they both nodded, before Yuya was led outside to the bench, where he took his seat and he attended to his cut on his own. The other guy poured him with profuse apologies, looking mortified at the sight of his injured friend. I rummaged my bag and then brought out a bottle of antiseptic that my Mother had repeatedly instructed for me to bring around me no matter where I went. I always thought it was plain dumb, but this was the first time it ever proved to come in handy.

"Use this," I said, passing them the bottle, and both guys gave me a shocked expression, and I could read their thoughts easily- they have got to be wondering why this weird stranger would actually carry a bottle of antiseptic around unless she was a nurse or a some medical officer. Now, you should direct this very awesome question to my Mother, but in any case, they should be more than glad that this bottle is actually around.

"Haha! Thank you! Might you be a nurse?" The other guy asked as he removed the lid from the bottle and gently dabbed the tissue with the antiseptic, before he reached out for Yuya's nose. I shook my head, laughing, "My Mother made me bring it. I was always baffled as to when I'd actually be able to use it, and today has got to be the first time it ever proved to be of use."

He joined in the laughter. "I'm Masuda Takahisa," he introduced, looking at me in the eye, and I nodded, repeating the name under my breath. He pointed to the guy next to him, and told me, "He's Tegoshi Yuya. Nice to meet you! And what's your name?"

Tegoshi seemed alarmed by this question and quickly gripped Masuda's hand, as if trying to warn him of something, but Masuda, seemingly fathoming his worries, shook his head gently and nodded reassuringly at him. Tegoshi's grip on him loosened gradually as he fell behind, appearing to be wary of me. Seconds later, he lifted his head and revealed a seraphic smile. "Hi there!"

I was once again mesmerized with his smile. Blinking for a few seconds that I had been blinded momentarily, I remembered that I still have yet to answer his query, and quickly chirped in, "My name's P... I mean, Michiyo. Fujiwara Michiyo. Nice to meet you!" I did feel degraded to lie about my name to my newfound acquaintances, but it wasn't like we were going to go any further than this. I supposed it was fine to lie that I actually resided in Japan. I supposed.

After a couple of minutes of treatment, it was deemed that Tegoshi was fine and his bleeding had ended. Masuda returned the bottle of antiseptic back to me, and I slotted it back into my sling bag. We all lifted our heads to look at the darkening sky, and Masuda took a look at his watch.

"Hey, I'd treat both of you to ice-cream. Wait here for me." All of a sudden, Masuda rose to his feet, excusing himself before I could even refuse his offer. He went off on his own, leaving the two of us sheepishly shifting our seats from time to time, devoid of a common topic that we could talk about. I knew that my selfish little wish had just been answered- my wish to know his name, but really, I had no idea that things would cruise in this manner. Now, I seemed to have known those two closer.

"Do you visit the convenience stores often?"

Surprised, I turned my head around sharply, jerking as I did. "A-Ah... Y-Yea, I often do." This was not much of a lie, I do have plans to visit this place every single day during my stay, because of my obsession with tidbits. A deep silence receded once again once Tegoshi's question have been answered, and I frantically cracked my brains for another topic. Just as I did, his handphone started to ring shrilly.

"I'm sorry," he apologized meekly, fishing out his handphone from his pockets and he had answered it at once.

"Massu? Where are you now?" he quipped, and I realized it was a call from Masuda. It was curt of me to eavesdrop like this, but I supposed it was not a really private conversation so I listened in, curious about what happened to make Masuda call back.

"What? All right... Where are you now? All right... See you." With that, Tegoshi ended the call with a click and he slotted his handphone back into his pockets and he sighed as he gave me a laugh, "He said he has found a spot to watch the sunset. He wants all of us to watch it together. We should hurry over, it's not very far away from here..." We both stood up in unison, and I nodded, following after him. We briskly walked past a few alleys, and made a few turns here and there, but somehow, after minutes of walking, Tegoshi and I only felt more lost and desperate than ever.

"Ah," Finally, Tegoshi blurted, looking behind at me with a troubled smile, "I... think we are lost."

AH. WE ARE IN DEEP TROUBLE.

"Try calling Masuda again," I suggested, and he brought out his handphone and called for Masuda. But, seconds later, he brought down his phone, shaking his head, "... My... phone is out of battery. Do you have a phone?"

I stiffened on the spot, recalling that I had left it at the dormitory. "I... didn't bring it..." I muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear it, because it was really shameful. An adult, not bringing her handphone with her. Tegoshi seemed perplexed as he started looking around, trying to confirm his exact location. However, he only kept shaking his head, unable to deduce where we actually were now.

"Give me some clues," I said, patting him on the shoulder, trying to help him compose himself when I realized how wrecked up he was- on tenterhooks, "Like how does it look like, and what sort of shops I should look out for. Or anything I should look out for."

He looked up at me, with furrowed eyebrows, stil looking fraught with. I managed my most radiant smile, hoping it would pacify him, "We'd be all right. Wait here for me, I'd go around looking for it. Don't worry, I'd be back."

Tegoshi straightened up. "B-But...! I should go with you."

I laughed. "No... I don't want to lead you around aimlessly. I'd be back in a tiffy."

Tegoshi bit on his lip, looking like he had a million things to say, but he swallowed those words all back in. "All right. You'd... be back right?"

I smiled in return, letting out my little finger in front of him, "I would. I promise. Haha!" He chuckled amiably as he hooked onto my finger, and we sealed the promise. He leant behind onto the wall, urging me to go off once he had briefly explained what sort of buildings to look out for. I ran off at once, knowing I had to find the spot fast, if not Masuda would just be equally concerned over what had occured to us.

Images whizzed past in a blur as I bolted in front. When I spotted a ice-cream parlour, I stopped in my tracks, thinking that Masuda might have patronized this store to get us our ice-creams. Taking a bet, I went over, and indeed- Masuda was leaning by the side, waiting impatiently for us with his arms crossed.

"Ah! Masuda!" I called out, and he spun around. "Oh... Michiyo! Where's Tegoshi?" he asked when he noticed that his peer was not beside me. I shook my head, laughing as I told him that we were both lost, and I had just managed to locate him. Masuda pointed behind at the lake and a setting sun. "Quickly bring him over, the sun is setting!"

I nodded, and ran all the way back to Tegoshi.

"Tegoshi! Tegoshi!" I chanted, flailing my arms wildly in the air, "I found Masuda! He asked us to hurry along, the sun is setting!"
Tegoshi turned his head in my direction, with a warm, sweet smile hanging from his lips.

"You are back."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The setting sun had been a picturesque view. We sat at the grass patch in front of the lake and stared ahead as the sun descended and slowly disappeared down the horizon, attracting darkness to the orange-tinted skies. In our hands held the cones of ice-creams that Masuda had kindly bought for us. A few minutes later, Tegoshi turned mischievous and suddenly stuck the ice-cream at Masuda's face, leaving bits of the cream on his cheek.

"Tego!" Masuda hollered, wiping at the spot before he unhesitantly brought down the entire ice cream onto Tegoshi's face mercilessly. Tegoshi struggled to escape, but Masuda proved too fast for him, and his face got stained with the white cream. He wiped furiously at his both cheeks, watching as Masuda started breaking into uncontrollable from a side, before he started to laugh himself. Masuda teasingly brought the ice-cream close to my face, and I backed away instinctively, warning him not to if not I'd definitely buy more ice-cream to do my revenge.

Tegoshi brought his fingers together to form a picture frame, as he adjusted it to fit the setting sun into the 'frame' as he marvelled, "It's really beautiful, neh, Michiyo?" Shocked that he actually called my name instead of Masuda's, I jerked exaggeratedly once again and nodded, "Y-Y-Yea...!" That was when I noticed that there were still some slight stains on his face.

"Tegoshi, on your face," I told him, pointing to my own cheeks, hoping he would catch the spot I was referring to and wipe those ice-cream off. However, he fiddled around his entire face, and still did not wipe it off. "Where?" he asked, still mopping around trying to find the spot. I leant in, closer to him.

"Here," I said, brushing my thumb past the spot and bringing the contents along with it. I looked up into his eyes with a smile, not expecting to see the expression that he was having. He seemed a little flustered, with his cheeks burning red as his lips gaped and his eyes entirely fixed on me. Rattled by his queer expression, I immediately diverted my eyes away from him and onto Masuda who was just sitting nearby, oblivious to what had just happened.

"Tego!" Out of nowhere, Masuda yelled, "I have more ice-cream!" he jumped to his feet and started darting over for Tegoshi, who, sensing something amiss, immediately rose as well and started racing away. Not knowing what to do, I decided to run after those two childish grown-ups who looked like they were having a whale of their time playing 'tag'.

We continued running for a few minutes, before finally, something happened.

While we were bolting past an eatery shop like three rowdy and reckless children, Masuda spotted one of the shop owners trying to carry a tray of dirty plates back into the shop for them to be cleaned, and when he shouted for both the attention of the shop owner and Tegoshi who was running in front but with his eyes fixed behind, it appeared that his yell had only came at the eleventh hour. When Tegoshi had turned around and desperately tried to stop, he bumped into the shop owner and they both tumbled to the floor, with the plates crashing and breaking up into smithereens on the floor.

I gasped, halting, and so did Masuda, who immediately ran over to help both of them up. Surrounding customers looked appalled, and seemed to be sending fractious stares at the two of them, and some started squinting their eyes, as if trying to figure out their identities. They seemed indignant that the three of us had been running about like little children when we are all in our twenties, and reprimanded that we were all 'immature brats'. With heads hung low, all three of us apologized.

The shop owner only laughed and patted Tegoshi on the shoulder as he tried to clear up the mess.

"It's okay, the two of you are...!" he paused, looking around, before he hindered them from cleaning up further. "It's okay, it's okay, I was careless too."

Tegoshi and Masuda shook their heads, apologizing and offering to wash his dishes for him as a sign of their remorse. The shop owner agreed reluctantly, leading all three of us to the back of the shop, where we had to wash the dishes in big pails of water.

I started to clean first without muttering anything, diligently absorbed in doing my work, for, after all, I was in the wrong too for not stopping them from running on. I said nothing much, for I thought there was nothing much to be conversed between us, and given my quiet personality, I could barely have enough courage to start a topic now. I rubbed at the plates and rinsed them in the pails of water provided, totally engrossed in my work to bother about the two other guys sitting in front of me.

Tegoshi and Masuda exchanged glances, before Tegoshi began, softly, with his soothing voice, "... M-Michiyo... Are you... Angry at us?"

I stopped, looking up at them with a dazed look. "Nope, I'm not." I answered, smiling back at them.

"We are sorry..." they apologized, "Sorry that we pulled you down with us..."

Tegoshi pouted. "Massu, I told you to stop..." he muttered, and Masuda slumped his shoulders and looked penitent. "I-I'm sorry. Michiyo, I'm really sorry! Don't be angry, all right?" he apologized again, and I started to chuckle.

"I'm not angry. I'm responsible for all these too! Besides, I can't possibly leave my new friends to do all these alone while I stand by the side and shake my leg, right?" I joked, and they laughed as they nodded.

Tegoshi turnedto Masuda. "I hope this doesn't stir up too much attention..." he muttered. Masuda agreed, "It'd be really detrimental to Michiyo too."

I raised a brow. "How come?"

They seemed surprised. "Uhh... We are not like the rest of the people, you know it right?"

Not like the rest of the people? Do they mean that they are rich people? Hmm... Oh, that might explain why everyone was staring at them like that.

I smiled. "Oh, yup, but I think everyone in this world is the same. Haha, so don't think about it too much! Everything would be fine!"

Both the guys gazed at me for a moment, before they concurred with my statement.

Minutes later, Masuda turned cheeky once again. He dived his hand into the soapy water that smelled of faint jasmine, and scooped up the water from within, before he splashed them across, at both Tegoshi and me. Tegoshi froze for a second, before he scooped into the water and started to splash at Masuda as well. I just sat there, laughing, ignoring the two of them, my shirt dripping of water.

Masuda noticed that Tegoshi had left me out, so he in turn started to splash fervently at my shirt.

"M-M-Masuda!" I yelled in glee, trying to run away from the basin, with an arm outstretched in front of my face, trying to defend any incoming blows of water away from myself. Masuda was relentless and continued spraying water all over me, and seemed to be enjoying it. I yelped in distress, and eventually went to hide behind Tegoshi, but he ducked instantly and I got drenched from bottom down.

"Ah! Ahahaha!" I only started to laugh, not showing any signs of infuriation. Tegoshi and Masuda started to laugh, while trying to wring some excess water off themselves.

"Don't catch a cold, okay?" I remined, still laughing at our comical selves.

Masuda narrowed his eyes, smiling softly at me. "You are kind, aren't you, Michiyo?"

I met him in the eye. We seemed to be sending love sparks at each other through our eyes, but afterwards, we laughed it off, and I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.

I made a short glance at both guys. They still wore their sunglasses, and how I wished I could see how they looked like beneath their glasses. Could I perhaps take a photo of them? I felt my sling bag, remembering I did bring along my digital camera. Exhilarated, I brought it out, and gazed longingly at the camera for a few seconds, before Tegoshi and Masuda leant towards me, wondering what I wanted to do.

"What's wrong... Michiyo...?" They must have thought of me as a freak too. Couldn't blame them.

My heart thumped. I did not have enough courage to ask for a photo together.

I bit my lip, squirming a bit, opening and closing my mouth, fighting for the words to come out of my lips.

"Michiyo...?"

I gulped. "C-Can... Both of you... Take a photograph with me?" There. I finally said it.

The guys stared at each other, before they nodded. "Sure!"

I was ebullient. "Really? Thank you! Thank you!" I thanked them profusely, and they shook their hands. "This is nothing." And then, after carefully looking to their sides, they took off their glasses to reveal their faces to me for the first time.

Tegoshi looked attractive, and a little feminine. His golden fringe was styled by the side, and his eyes looked cheerful, kind and angellic. He looked really pretty for a guy, and I figured I might have mistook him for a girl somehow if I was anymore dumber. Masuda on the other hand, appealed to be a little kid, with a chubby, adorable face. He was just one word- cute.

I found myself lost in watching their faces for a few seconds, before I snap myself out of it and huriedly positioned the camera in front of the three of us, who squeezed in together and wrapped our arms around each other's necks affectionately, posing for the shot.

"1." I was counting.

"2."

"3." My fingers trembled as it felt the tip of the button.

"CHEESE!"

We all went, giving our best grins as the camera clicked and flashed.

If only this day lasted forever.