White Violets - Chapter 5 The sleeping kitten was snuggled against its master contentedly, reveling in the warmth of the broad expanse of his chest. Tick tock, tick tock, went the clock sitting by the ledge of the bed. The hands of it struck half past seven. At this juncture, the kitten’s eyes opened wide, its brilliant green eyes surveying the room warily as if it had detected something. It could feel the ‘bed’ below it moving and leapt off it at once. The sudden decrease in temperature from the comfortable ‘bed’ to the icy cold floor did not sit very well with the poor kitten and it expressed its discomfort by mewing loudly. Meanwhile, its master had sat up on his bed and was stretching his muscles lazily. He then rubbed both of his cold hands together, blowing on them occasionally to keep warm. He got off his bed and began walking in the direction of the bathroom. In the dark (since the curtains were not drawn), he could not see the kitten on the floor and accidentally stepped on its tail, upon which it retaliated by hissing loudly and slapping its paw against his legs. Angrily, it jumped onto his bed where it began to nurse its injured tail. Murmuring an apology, he made his way back to the bed and began to soothe its tail, which it rejected with a haughty tilt of its head upwards and leapt off the bed and out of the room. “Hey, I said sorry already, haven’t I?” He called out after the kitten. After changing into fresh attire, Rukawa proceeded to the living room where the first thing he did was to play the messages on the answering machine that came in yesterday while he was not at home. There were only two messages. His sister’s merry voice was heard, calling his name, before subsequently plunging into endless chatter. Bored, he listened to her day’s happenings. His sister had been transferred to Kyoto on a last minute request to ease the shortage of nurses and had departed yesterday. Halfway through her prattle, the machine cut her off and she had to call again, this time, reminding him of the appointment later this afternoon. During the time the tape was being played, the raven-haired dude served the kitten with extra milk, in addition to the cat food on its plate for its breakfast as an act of apology to his friend for treading on its tail. Sensing his sincerity in wanting to make up with it, the kitten lapped the milk a few times and ate a bit of the food so as to display its willingness to forgive him for his earlier mistake. Softly, it purred and rubbed itself tenderly against his legs. He picked up the kitten from the floor onto his lap and ruffled its fur affectionately with one hand while eating his sandwich with the other. As the kitten preoccupied itself with a ball of wool, Rukawa did his homework, packed all the books needed for the tomorrow’s lessons and tidied up the house. Casting a look at the kitten, which was having all the fun in the world playing with its toy, he wondered what it was with wool that appeared to have found so much popularity among cats. There were lots of pictures in books and magazines depicting cats playing with balls of wool, so he bought one on his way home one day for his little friend to keep it company when it was alone at home. And it had become quite attached to it ever since. Soon he completed everything he set out to do. Not wanting to disturb his engrossed companion, Rukawa mouthed a silent goodbye to it and closed the door quietly behind him as he left the house for the basketball court. For the fifth time that afternoon, the doorbell sounded but no answer came from the house. It was possible it had slipped the mistress’s mind that Faith was supposed to move in today. No longer could Faith stay in her previous apartment for the landlord wanted it back for his son, who was coming home from overseas next week, so she had to search for a new residence. Faith had liked this apartment the moment the mistress showed her it and she had asked immediately to rent the place. So here she was, all ready to move in but no one was at home. As the idea of sitting on her suitcase alone in the corridor did not appeal to her very much; Faith decided to take a stroll at a nearby park. Camera in hand and a suitcase behind her, she stood in the middle of the street, looking to her left, then her right, resembling a tourist, who had lost her way on the streets of Japan. She took a picture of a tree, located further down the road. The green leaves were gently swaying in the cool breeze, pulling the branches along, giving the impression that the whole tree was dancing to some invisible tune, undetected to the human ears. It was a charming picture. A backdrop to the scenic atmosphere, some faint tuneful musical notes sounded in the far distance. “This is the time when we open our eyes And love again We can become what we most prize If we love again…” Due to it being a weekend, Faith noticed an extraordinary number of couples holding hands and cuddling each other in the park or sitting on the benches, whispering, what she concluded must be, sweet nothings into each other’s ears. Secretly, she took some snapshots of them. Of course she did not harbour any plans of publishing them but she took them anyhow. For some reason, they gave off an aura of happiness about them that never ceased to lift Faith’s spirits every time she looked at them. Usually she would keep all these photos in a photo album Rachel had given her on her last birthday. In her leisure time, she would flip through them. In her heart, she believed each picture possessed a story behind it; a character distinctively theirs and theirs alone. Naïve as it may sound, she felt truly fortunate to have the privilege to catch a glimpse of it. Soon she discovered she had strayed out of the park to a basketball court, where repeated thudding noises could be heard. Someone was busy practising away and was not aware of her presence at all. As his face was turned away from her view, Faith could not really make out who he was, not that it mattered very much to her. At this time, he was dribbling a basketball across the court. Without warning, he lifted himself in the air. He was suspended in the air with his arms slightly arched after throwing the ball. Coupled with muscles that rippled with intensity and beads of perspiration on his neck, which glistened like miniature pearls. Not to forget the setting sun, which had dyed the normally fluffy clouds around it orange red, in the background; it was a classic portrait, at least that was what Faith thought. To her eyes, it was akin to a warrior catapulting his hands in the air in victory after a successful, hard-fought battle. Without further ado, she snapped with her camera at the stunning scene. When the boy landed on his feet and turned around, she realised it was Rukawa, at least that was what the discipline mistress called him that day. The hard, brooding features were unmistakable. Though the way he carried himself now was one of a fiery creature, inflamed with a vision in life, a passion; a great contrast to the sleepy, bleary-eyed dude Faith had encountered in the office. Could it be playing basketball that brought it out of him? She took some more photographs of him, of whatever pose you could think of while he was playing basketball. But the more she clicked away at the camera, the more she noticed that his countenance never altered once, forever grave and serious. Nonetheless, merely watching him indulge in basketball was so hypnotic that Faith began to forget she was supposed to be hiding behind the bushes instead of revealing herself openly in the court. When he did a reverse dunk, a feat she was rather impressed by; she made the mistake of clapping her hands loudly. The clapping traveled rapidly to Rukawa’s ears and he looked up, where upon he saw a girl on the court with a camera slung around her neck. “I was just passing by.” Bouncing the ball repeatedly with his right hand, he did not say anything. The last thing he wanted was another mindless cheerleading squad here. Instead he looked at the camera hanging from Faith’s neck in front of her chest, which she observed right away of course. Slowly but carefully, she slid it away from his view. “I thought you played really well,” Faith continued speaking, hoping to avert his attention from her camera by her talking. Silence. “Erm…” “You’re disturbing me,” came his swift rebuff as he aimed another shot at the net. “Sorry.” After studying in the library for several hours, Kogure decided to return home and boarded the very same bus. Once on it, he observed Faith sitting at the back of the bus, a lone figure apart from the other passengers, head bent down in concentration. Quietly, he took a seat near her. Beside her was a camera, which Kogure presumed, belonged to her. A rectangular suitcase lay at her feet. He could hear the faint caustic remnants of the music emitting from her earphones while she worked hard on, what he thought was a crossword puzzle. His curiosity was piqued as to where she was going with her luggage. What seemed like ten minutes later, she looked up from the paper she was holding and glanced out of the window, giving an alarmed start, as if she had missed her stop. Immediately, she pressed the bell and alighted, leaving the camera on the seat in her haste. It was drizzling. Yet she was not bothered by it. The sight before her was simply too picturesque; she released her hold on her suitcase and rushed forward. Her long hair swirling in the breeze while both her hands were spread out high above her, Faith danced lightly on the pavement, feeling all the small, soft cheery blossoms the sky seemed to be showering on her. A small pink petal landed on her silk shirt, which she delicately picked off her shirt. Following that, she held it high in the air, against the backdrop of the flying blossoms, dark sky and the illumination by the street lamps. Then she placed it in the palm of her hand and blew it gently away. Assisted by the cool breeze, more blossoms fell from the trees that lined along the street. The image it presented was akin to the falling leaves during autumn. Tilting her head upward to feel them caressing her face, she caught some of the dancing blossoms in her outstretched hands. Some more dainty cherry blossoms were floating her way... “Look out!” Someone warned. “Ouch!” Too late, she had knocked into the street lamp in front of her. He grinned as he walked towards her briskly to check if it was serious, “It’s quite a bump you’ve got there. Daijoubu?” “Yeah, I guess,” muttered Faith as she rubbed the bruise on her head ruefully with her palm, and then as if seeing him for the first time, “Kiminobu-kun? She pressed the doorbell and continued doing so without releasing her finger. It buzzed incessantly in her ears, breaking the dead silence of the late evening. No one answered. Faith returned her gaze to the piece of paper she was holding in her hand, the numbers matched. She pressed the doorbell again. Soon she heard someone stumbling his way towards the door and fumbling with the latch. A minute later, the door opened. “Hi, I’m the new tenant.” Faith introduced herself once the door opened slightly. Then it opened fully to reveal a wet, soapy Rukawa, who was covered only from waist down with a maroon towel. It was evident he was in the shower. Abashed, Faith turned away from him such that her back was facing him instead, confused as to why it was he who answered the door instead of the lady, who had showed her the flat a few days before. As if reading her mind, he had said sister. One word. Short and sweet. With that piece of puzzle pretty much cleared up, he left the door open and went back to the bathroom. The morning was bright and windy, an excellent weather for playing basketball. The raven-haired boy stepped out of his bedroom, only to find the entire living room dark. The curtains were not drawn and that would explain the inky blackness in the house. A moving ray of light in the living room caught his attention. The first idea that popped into his head was that a prowler might be in the apartment. Slowly but stealthily, he moved towards the ray of light. He could hear noises of frustration, obviously whatever the prowler was looking for in the living room was nowhere in sight. Just then, a knock against an object was heard, followed by a light ‘ouch’ and a mild expletive. He stepped into the living room. Suddenly a female voice cried out, “Stay there! Don’t move!” Of course, what the person meant was not to step into the living room but Rukawa had no idea. Not that it made a jot of difference to her anyway for the deed was already done and she pounced on him at once. “I told you to stay there, didn’t I? Look at what you’ve done to my contacts,” she shone the torch light into his eyes, blinding him for an instant before he recovered his temporary loss of sight, “You’ve stepped on them! Do you know how long I’ve to work to be able to buy…” With his trademark cold demeanor, Rukawa disregarded her and left the house. The bespectacled boy spotted Faith in front of him amongst the other students. Jogging up to her, he called her name. The elation at seeing her changed to that of mirth and amazement when she turned around to face him. Could not help but burst into laughter, he remarked he was not used to seeing Faith with such old-fashioned spectacles like this, therefore this rude behaviour, which he apologised for. Undisturbed, she waited for him to collect himself again. “I forgot to thank you yesterday for returning my camera. Thank you.” “Don’t mention it,” enunciated Kogure, then his face brightened and he continued, “Oh yeah, the school mag. Any improvements you think should be made on it?” “Aren’t you afraid I’d get all of you into more trouble?” “Why should we? It does make a better read now. Besides I’ve seen less magazines in the wastepaper basket these days.” “Hmm… okay. How about an advisory column where students can write in for guidance in solving their problems? We’d invite some teachers to render recommendations…” Out of the corner of his eye, Kogure saw Rukawa, eyes closed as usual, cycling towards Faith. There was no time to warn her. Acting on his feet, he pulled her into his arms, to avoid a collision with Rukawa. When he realised what he had done, he flushed with embarrassment and released her immediately. “Daijoubu?” “I’m fine...” As flustered as Kogure was, Faith managed to utter. “That’s so much like Rukawa-san. Always not looking where he’s cycling,” Kogure remarked as he picked up her fallen glasses from the ground and inspected them, “It’s damaged.” Sighing, Faith replied, “It’s all right; I’d get another pair later after school.” It was physical education lesson now and Haruko’s class was having a mixed friendly soccer match against Rukawa’s class. With disinterest, Rukawa dashed across the field towards the rival’s penalty area, where he scored his brilliant fourth goal for the day. Although his team mates high-fived one another in jubilation, he did not feel elated at all. The game was boring and unchallenging; he would very much prefer to work on his basketball techniques instead. Right now, his class was in the lead by five goals. A substitution was made for the rival team. A girl. Twirling a lock of hair around her index finger, she hopped jauntily across the field towards the players on the field. When she discerned her comrades, her hands shot up into the air in excitement and she waved to them. Upon her appearance, the rival team, who had been nothing but a disastrous shamble all day, perked up instantly. The effect she had on her team was so visible that the dark-haired boy could not help but notice her. Oddly enough, she reminded him of the greenhorn, Sakuragi. Great, now Shohoku High had both the male and female versions of Sakuragi. In short, another do’aho! The ball underneath her foot, the substitute jested, “Yo, young rookie sensation makes her debut kick…” The substitute started the match by unleashing a spectacular, long cross-field lob to Toya (Haruko’s class), who stopped the ball with his chest. Efficiently, he dodged past two rival defenders before passing it to an unguarded Enomoto (Haruko’s class) waiting near the penalty area. Whooosh! Goal number one! The coordination and timing among the three players so perfect that it awed everyone watching from the spectators’ stand and they broke into a thunderous applause. “Immaculate teamwork wins the day!” The substitute yelled. With a whoop of joy, she jumped up and down on the field, at the same time thrusting her hands in the air. Then she beamed brightly at Enomoto, who slapped palms with her. A surprised Rukawa looked at the elated girl, thinking what appeared on the surface might not reflect what was beneath it. Of course, he should have understood that philosophy by now, especially after Sakuragi’s match with Akagi. But then again, it might also been pure luck, that’s all. Now the substitute was breaking into a song, “I’ll be at your side, there’s no need to worry…” Toya joined in the chorus, “…together we’ll survive, through the haste and hurry…” The substitute, who had gained control of the ball, raised her index finger in the air and sent a looping ball across the field to her teammate. Unfortunately, that particular teammate had not had the reflexes needed to counter the shot and an alert Rukawa intercepted the pass right away. Swiveling past Enomoto and another defender, he dribbled the ball across the field to his opponents’ penalty area swiftly and was about to kick it into the net when the substitute materialised before him. As it had happened too fast for him to retract his swinging foot, he kicked the ball into her legs and was deflected off. In recognition of his superb skills, the substitute flashed a thumbs-up sign at Rukawa, who could not understand how she could have appeared before him without him detecting it. Rukawa eyed the patch of bruise that was forming on her leg. By this time, her team members had run over to her and seen it. “Do you want to take a rest?” One voiced worriedly. None too pleased for he thought Rukawa had done it on purpose, Toya pulled him by his shirt, voice tainted with aggressiveness, “Why do you do that? If you want a fight, we do it man-to-man, leave her out of this! You sore loser!” “Hey! Hey! He didn’t want this to happen either…” The substitute interjected. “Yeah, right!” Another countered sarcastically. “Please… do you rather believe what I say or what you speculate? Come on, let’s continue on with the game. There are only a few minutes left.” With that, she pushed everyone away to take their positions and limped a little after them. Throughout this entire exchange, the raven-haired boy was watching the substitute very closely. Although she was small in terms of built, he was struck by how everyone listened to her with a profound respect. Sensing his eyes on her, the substitute turned in his direction and offered him a mischievous smile, which he pretended not to see and went off to join his team. From that moment on, he kept a very tight watch on the substitute. Despite the slight limp she showed while running, he was not going to take any chances with her. In his opinion, she was good and if left unguarded, she was dangerous. While Rukawa would eye her attentively, determined not to let her out of his sight, she would flash him a cheeky wink instead. The game went on more smoothly for Haruko’s class after the substitute’s arrival. Now they were merely trailing Rukawa’s class by a point. Five seconds before the game ended, someone from Rukawa’s team tackled the substitute hard, sending her crashing like a plane nose-diving into the ground. A penalty was awarded to Haruko’s class. Rukawa watched intently as she prepared to take the penalty without exhibiting any sign of nervousness or tension, if anything she appeared to be having fun. That was what he felt when he was guarding her during the match. She was literally playing. Weird substitute. At the sound of the whistle, she kicked the ball with all her might… ummm… it went wide. Very wide. Very, very wide. Off the mark completely. Strangely enough, he was disappointed when he saw that. “Faith Chester! You idiot!” Everyone, including some spectators, who knew her, groaned at the missed opportunity to equalise. Hands on her head, she stuck out the tip of her tongue at her teammates, singing, albeit too cheerfully, “Fate has a way of changing, just when you don’t want it to!” “Baka!” Enomoto threw a towel over her head. Wiping his face dry of perspiration, the raven-haired dude cast a glance at the contrite looking girl. Their eyes met, which upon Faith broke into a pleasant smile, waved before Haruko pulled her away for a drink. In the meantime, two guys were sitting at the spectators’ stand, talking to each other. “Isn’t that the girl Miyuki-san’s so pissed off with?” “Hmm…” “Mitsui?” “Nani?” “Why did you let the Chesy girl off the other day?” Innocently, Mitsui asked, “Who?” Knowing he was feigning ignorance, the other guy merely smiled; an action that distorted the features of his normally stern, grim face such that he looked like he was crying. A group of rugged-looking boys stood further down the street but too preoccupied was Faith with something else more fascinating that she did not notice them. They espied her observe the mother and son with interest. While waiting for the traffic lights to turn red, the mother took out a handkerchief from her bag and began to wipe her son’s mouth clean of the chocolate ice cream he was savouring. Happily, Faith snapped away at the heartwarming scene with her camera. At this juncture, the ‘green man’ came on and the woman and child crossed the road, not suspecting for a moment that their picture had been taken. “There’s something in this world called privacy.” A bemused voice spoke, interrupting Faith’s attention on the family. Tearing her eyes away from the family, she wheeled around to find a couple of guys sniggering at her. Although she did not know the rest of them, she did recognise two of them. They were the ones who had so much terrified her fellow journalists the other day. She gave them a half smile. “That’s a truly original pair of specs you’re wearing,” the boy with the shoulder length hair chortled with laughter, “Where can I get those?” His pals joined in the laughter, “That’s a cool one, Mitsui.” “Have a bicycle run over your glasses. Then tape it together with scotch tape. That’ll do the trick.” Lifting the camera with her hands, Faith answered promptly. Ignoring the underlying sarcasm in her tone, he drawled,. “You want to take a picture of us?” “Would you mind giving me a minute?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned away from them, raised the camera level with her eyes. She adjusted the focus control ring to get a better emphasis. Casting a sidelong glance in the direction Faith was facing, he saw what her attention was so arrested by. Across the road was an old man sitting near the entrance of a shop. He was wearing a traditional Japanese kimono and keeping himself cool with a fan. Every time a passerby walked past him, he would nod his head as a form of greeting. Mitsui scoured the young photographer before him. Features set in concentration, her long auburn hair was drawn into two plaits and tiny wisps of hair fell over the sides of her forehead. He discerned her Asian look and guessed she must be of mixed parentage. He pondered over how he could have missed that in the room that day. Standing posed with her camera, she was waiting for the right moment to take the picture. Until yesterday, Mitsui had only known her to be Faith Chester, the journalist, who appeared to be too liberal for her own good. This morning showed that she was a soccer player, though a very lousy shooter. Now she was involved in photography as well. Who knows, she might even kick others’ ass next. Oh no, he corrected, she could not do that. Had Miyuki and Ray not hit her senseless on her first day of school? Come to think of it, it was impossible she did not fight back that day. From what he had seen this morning and what his spies had informed him about the incident in the staff office between Faith and the Sensei, it did seem out of the ordinary. Soon his thoughts returned to the request she had made earlier. Never had anyone dared to ask him to wait for him or her; especially with his reputation, only he had the privilege to make others wait. For him. But then of course, no one had asked him in such a polite, yet matter-of-fact manner. Either they were too cocky or too intimidated by him. Anyhow, the girl did not seem to know the danger she was putting herself in by doing that. If it were someone else, she would have been pummeled to death straight away. It was her luck she had met him. The corners of his mouth began to twitch. Ironical. He, who had meted out violence on anyone who had either disrespected him or he disliked, was actually saying, she was fortunate to have met him. By this time, the slightly tanned girl had lowered her camera and a tinge of red was working its way slowly up her cheeks. An astonished Mitsui followed the direction she was watching, curious as to what could have made her blush. The sight made him want to laugh out loud. Apparently, the old man had realised that his picture was being taken. However, he did not look offended by it. In fact, he was waving his hand at her and giving her a broad toothy smile, showing off all his perfect white teeth, amazing, considering his age. And an embarrassed Faith was waving back awkwardly. “Aha! Caught in the act!” Mitsui gloated mercilessly as he struggled to keep a straight face. Blankly, she turned towards the gang, their existence long banished from her mind. “Why not take our picture instead?” He leered suggestively, “We’ll be more than happy to oblige.” Amid the snickerings by his pals, Faith replied, “Not now, I think.” He repeated her words first before he taunted her, “Why not? Afraid of us?” The American girl shook her head. As if wanting to verify her words, he took a menacing step forward, in her direction but she stood her ground. “Isn’t she a dare-devil?” Turning to face his friends, he commented in a mocking tone, “Don’t we JUST love making friends with such people?” They released that horrible, hoarse guffaw again, their hands in the air, high-fiving each other, as though they had just succeeded in making the best joke of the century. Noting the change in traffic lights to red, she looked at Mitsui and smiled, “I’ve to go. See you around." To be Continued... **Previous ** Next **