White Violets - Chapter 4 Two days passed without a hitch. Life resumed as per normal for everyone to the extent that it could literally be described as boring. However, this was merely the peace before the storm; to events that were to take place later. Little did anyone realise that their lives at Shohoku High would never be the same again after her arrival. For some, it might be a blessing but for others, it was simply the beginning of a nightmare. In the background, someone was crooning a catchy song. "... We could live in a world so free Be true to your heart And let love just take you there…” Haruko’s class “Does anyone know where the new girl is?” The History Sensei asked the particularly vocal class today as he peered into the class record book. “She dropped into the toilet bowl?” A boy at the far end of the classroom volunteered. “She lost her way?” Another remarked and promptly did a poor imitation of a gawky student asking around for directions, sending the class into fits of laughter as Haruko eyed the empty seat beside her, wondering what had happened to her. Not at all appreciating the ridiculous impersonation, the History Sensei ordered the boy back to his seat and resumed the lesson. Class 1-10 A bell rang continuously in the far distance, signaling the end of another torture. Math lessons were finally over for the day. “Please prepare this section by tomorrow’s lesson. Will someone kindly remind Rukawa about this?” An annoyed Math Sensei glanced at the unmoving figure dozing away at the back of the homeroom class, “And him remind to see the discipline mistress in the staff office now.” Smitten expressions written all over their faces, a group of girls sitting near the handsome basketball ace immediately chorused “Hai!” In the midst of this, he roused from his slumber. Sleepily, he packed all his crumpled books and dog-eared papers into his bag until something familiar caught his eye. Outside staff office Riiiiiiiinnnng!! On her way to the cafeteria, Haruko came upon a peculiar scene along the corridor outside the staff office. Some students had their ears glued to the door of the office, their ears red from the effort to hear the ongoings in it. No doubt they were waiting for something, but what? Haruko walked past them but not before spotting a redhead amongst them. “Sakuragi-kun? What are you doing here?” Youhei answered on his behalf, “Listening.” Arching her eyebrows in surprise, she wondered again, “To what?” “Shhh…” Someone put a finger to his lips to ask her to keep quiet. “How dare you ‘sshhhh’ her like…” Sakuragi raged at him, preparing to say something more than that when Haruko apologised to him. “Here, read this, you’ll understand.” With that, Youhei thrust something into her hands, leaning towards the door again, in time to hear the Sensei’s high-pitched voice slicing through the huge wooden door, saying to the head of the journalism team, 'You’d have consulted me on this; don’t you know the policy...' In the staff office, a seated red-faced discipline mistress was making an utmost effort to rein her temper. It would not do to lash out at anyone now. Her image had to be maintained in front of the exchange student. Really, these half-baked children! Taking things into their own hands as if they knew everything… “Mdm, please don’t blame him. It’s my fault. I asked him to do it. Please, it’s my fault,” Faith came to the Head’s rescue. Upon hearing that, the Sensei turned towards Faith and addressed her, “You’re new to our environment, therefore I do not blame you for not understanding our social values. What applies over there in America may not be suitable here. Perhaps your teachers might have even encouraged it, but we don’t support it here. It’s very easy for students this age to be misled, so we can’t allow such things to be published.” “Contrary to what you think, I’ve no intention of misleading anyone and have taken utmost precaution to avoid any misconception. I’ve also asked for students to write in with their views on the matter. In fact, I think we can take this opportunity to understand what ideas the pupils in school have about such issues too. Mdm, I don’t see what’s wrong with that. And with my article.” Faith had completed her speech in one breath at a speed anyone would be stupefied by but she herself was not at all aware of, for this was how she always spoke when she got carried away. And from this point on, it was Faith versus the discipline mistress while the head of the journalism team only served as a backdrop to them. In the cafeteria “Wow, she actually wrote that?” exclaimed an astonished but impressed Akagi. No one had ever proposed such a bold editorial before during his two years at Shohoku High; pretty lucky of him to read it during his last year; finally an author with her own view at last. “I see she’s inserted a write-up with a perception different from hers below her article but I’m sure the discipline mistress won’t take notice of it. What do you think she’d do to her?” Kogure was still skimming through its contents; the bright glaring headline, he had to admit, was a good gimmick to attract people’s focus to her article. When he was done with it, he placed it on the table. “What can she do?” Not at all perturbed, Akagi shrugged his shoulders, “Judging from the report, I’d say the girl’s nothing to fear. She can out-talk the discipline mistress anytime. “I only requested for a week off… a week…” groaned Kogure, shaking his head in resignation. Blazing yellow headlines screamed, as if in agony, at him as he picked up the magazine and read it again. You will see a lot of things But they will mean nothing to you If you lose sight of what you love (Quoted from ‘At first sight’) At the rooftop “You know her?” The redhead asked, munching off a huge portion of the tuna sandwich. Nodding her head absentmindedly, Haruko inquired whether Sakuragi had read Faith’s work. “Mmm… yea… mmm… wattfer posse her toff… righ tat?” Tickled by the sight of the cream at the corners of his mouth, she giggled girlishly. While Sakuragi was busy gobbling down the lunch he had brought, her mouth slowly widened to form a big ‘0’ as she ran her eyes down the article. ‘-- reports of an older woman-younger man relationship and they were met with great hostility, anger and loathing. The detractors have literally assumed, in every situation, the young ignorant boy is a gullible quarry and the aged lady a vicious predator. But is this the case every time? It would be most unfair to the couple to base our conclusions on a superficial glance without understanding the circumstances and factors leading to their union. For love is abstract --’ “I wonder how Faith-chan’s doing,” a worried Haruko muttered, “I’d better go see if I’d help her.” Turning her head in the redhead’s direction, she smiled, “Thanks for the great lunch, Sakuragi-kun. I’ve got to go. Ja ne!” “But you haven’t touched a single bit of your lunch yet…” He called out mournfully after her as she sped out of the door and disappeared from his view. ‘-- the most important thing is that we have mustered the courage to trust and love another, even if it is only for a little while. It would be far more desirable compared to those who are secretly in love with their counterparts from afar and yet never work up enough courage to profess their love and finally die with a whole truckful of regrets. Which appears better – dying with regrets or dying without regrets? True love knows no bounds. Why allow the perimeters of social norms as well as age stop you from attaining it? Throughout these centuries, people have been searching for what they call the highest level of ‘enlightenment’ -- true love, but some failed while others succeeded. We have witnessed a success story in reality today, why not give them our blessings --’ In the Staff Office “Do you think the students would actually read this junk magazine? I’ve seen so many students throwing it away the moment it reaches their hands. What makes you think they’d read it anyway?” The discipline mistress scoffed, albeit spitefully, an act which she would later come to regret dreadfully. “Since nobody’s reading it, it wouldn’t matter what I’m going to write in it.” Faith was obstinately refusing to budge an inch. The discipline mistress must have realised the impossibility to maneuver the stubborn lass to her bidding too for she banged her fist on the table, viciously wishing it was Faith’s head under her fist instead of the table as she contemplated over the next possible course of action. At this juncture, a careless knock on the door was heard, which the discipline mistress gratefully welcomed. She could make use of the distraction to compose herself once again. Inwardly, she groaned as Rukawa entered the room. Today seemed to be a day for dealing with problem kids. First the verbal kind and now an action type, she really must review her horoscope for today. Another thing to add about the discipline mistress was that she was a firm believer of the weekly horoscopes in the papers. Faith recognised him the minute he stepped into the room. He was the one who had ran over her flowers… whom she had vomited on… and from what Haruko told her, saved her too. She pondered if he could remember her but he showed no signs of it as he shuffled his feet heavily across the room towards the Sensei’s table. Maybe he had forgotten the entire affair though anyhow she thought it was pretty gallant of him to save her from the bullies the other day, especially after the telling-off she had given him. Listening on as the discipline mistress slammed a detention on him for fighting on the rooftop with four other guys, she watched him accept the verdict with no visible emotion, as if it was a very common occurrence for him. Four guys… but with his built; Faith had no doubt he could handle single-handedly more than that number of guys if he wanted to. After sending Rukawa out of the room, the discipline mistress appeared to have no more energy left to deal with Faith and ended the whole affair by ordering her to show her all her articles before they were to be published on the school magazine. Following that, she waved both Faith and The Head out of the office. Once outside the dreary, highly uncomfortable office, Faith apologised to The Head for getting him scolded as well, to which he accepted. Then she expelled a deep sigh of relief. Was it that controversial? She really did not think so. Maybe they were not prepared for such stuff yet. As she was walking past the toilet, she felt a firm grip on her wrist, pulling her roughly into the toilet. Before she could fathom what was happening, she felt a chill on her cheek. From the mirror facing her, she could tell it was a Swiss knife. A streak of fear shot through her spine. The possessor of it was glowering at her in deep hatred. Somehow Faith had an inkling she should know her but she could not place her anywhere in her memory… “That’s a very, VERY lousy way of getting back at me, dearie, digging up others’ past…” She pressed the treacherous instrument with more force now until a drip of blood fell from Faith’s cheek onto her fingers. “I’m not directing it at anyone in particular…” Faith wished she could shift to a more comfortable position but she did not dare to for fear of aggravating the situation any further, “Look if you think I’m writing about you in any way, it’s not… I just thought it’s unfair to blame it all on the poor woman… the fact she’s slightly older doesn’t mean anything. It’s very hard to account why people fall in love... if the feeling’s there, it’s there. After all, love is a two-way traffic. The boy wouldn’t be with her if he doesn’t love…” During this time Faith was babbling away like an idiot, the older girl was gazing directly into her eyes, presumably searching for any signs of deceit. There was a fixed, reckless intensity in her gaze, plus something else Faith was unable to put a finger to. Unfortunately, this magical moment only lasted for a second for Faith did something unanticipated. “Miyuki?” The name popped out of nowhere in Faith’s speech. Although the sudden mention of her name seemed to startle the older girl, she regained her composure very quickly. For a moment there, Faith thought Miyuki was going to do something to her when the sound of approaching footsteps stopped her. Slipping the knife swiftly back into her pocket, she released Faith from her firm grip. Then as if nothing had happened, she sauntered out of the toilet at the same time someone else entered it. Gingerly, Faith touched the cut on her cheek with her finger as she watched the receding outline of the older girl. In the stadium There was still an hour to go before the actual training session. He dribbled the ball across the court before he halted abruptly in his steps, made an act as if he wanted to shoot past his imaginary opponent but shot an overhead instead. The ball circled round the rim once… twice… thrice… stopped in its tracks for a split second, as though hesitant which direction it should go. Finally it decided on its course and dropped dutifully into the net. Picking up a towel from his bag, he settled himself on the bench and proceeded to wipe himself dry of the perspiration. The much-talked about magazine lay beside his bag. He took it up and glanced again at the picture on the front page that had caught his attention the moment he laid his eyes on it. He must be reading too much into this. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Carelessly, he dumped it onto the bench and returned to his practice. In the journalism room “Minna-san, afternoon! How are you?” Faith greeted everyone in the room cheerfully. They did not seem at all fine because all the members on the team were signaling frantically with their eyes to Faith to keep her big mouth shut. It was then that she noticed the two strangers in the room. One of them, who looked like the leader of the two, was sitting on a chair. He was a muscular young man with shoulder length black hair as well as a mobile physiognomy that made him look older than his actual age, a description Faith did not give a care about for she was used to seeing guys like that back in the States. Was that why everyone was afraid of him? Faith wondered, because they were not used to such people? On the other hand, his partner, accompanied by a swarthy complexion, had hair slicked thick with greasy oil and his two hands, one overlapping the other, were placed in front of his stomach; a posture that emitted a rigid and dangerous air about him. “Faith Chester? The one who wrote ‘Bounded’?” The guy with shoulder length hair spoke, showing off clearly his missing front teeth. Upon seeking the confirmation he needed, the guy stood up from the seat and approached her slowly while the other remained where he was. Her teammates bit their lips nervously while watching the ‘slow-motion’ scene unfold before them. He continued walking towards her until he was just a step away from her and stayed there as Faith’s gaze was locked with his. Faith was not certain what it was he was searching for. She did not particularly enjoy the feeling his eyes were exuding. The unwavering look in them… it made her feel like she was being X-rayed, as if her bare self was exposed to him, all the imperfections clear as daylight, laid out open in front of him to reproach and denounce. Probably it was also this… the notion that he was probing into her innermost thoughts made her ill at ease. She was never subjected to such intense scrutinisation and therefore not accustomed to it. Nevertheless, her eyes never left his or even blinked once. Unexpectedly, he turned his head away and motioned with his index finger for his companion to follow him, after which he left the eerily silent but tensed room without a word. Once they were gone, one team member cried out in panic, “I told you not to publish that irrelevant commentary. See what trouble it’s brought us all!” “Do you have any idea who that guy is? Do you have any idea what trouble you’ve gotten us into? Do you have any idea…” “Yeah, you want to get yourself into trouble,” a third echoed, not in the least pleased, “That’s your business, don’t get us into any!” “All right, stop this nonsense right now! Have you all forgotten the objectives of this society?” Disgusted, the Head glared at his team, “We haven’t done any biased reports, we’ve presented the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ versions of the matter. Are we going to give up the true spirit of being a journalist and bend ourselves to the whim of anybody just because we’re afraid of trouble?!” “No.” Someone answered from the doorway. “Thank goodness, you’re back! It’s been such a hassle without you here!” A chorus of voices acknowledged his presence, “Kogure-sempai!” To be Continued... **Previous ** Next **