Destined to be - Chapter 6 The next few days in school for Hontokoi were horrible. Those boys wouldn’t stop disturbing her. There were many times when she found insects in her briefcase. That nearly made her freak out, but she didn’t scream and tried to act normally when she saw big spiders or cockroaches hidden in her briefcase. At the end of her class, she quickly took her briefcase out and cleaned away all the insects. Whenever she opened her case to take her books out, there would sure to be something to frighten her. One good thing was Hontokoi wasn’t afraid of crawling insects. Actually she wasn’t afraid of anything. Worst of all, there was once a rat hidden in her briefcase. It jumped right out from her briefcase when she opened her case to get her book. That made all the girls scream in terror when the rat roamed around the class. Some girls stood on the chairs, some sat on the table with their legs pulled up. The only girl that was still on her seat was, well you guess it, Hontokoi. She stared at that rat in horror. It actually came out from her briefcase. Rukawa had noticed that too but just kept quiet. The boys in class tried to catch it. Hontokoi clutched her hands into fists as she stared down at the table. Behind her, Rukawa watched her shaking back. She was so angry until she was shivering. Quickly she took a deep breath to stop herself from shaking. Nobody knew that the rat came out from Hontokoi’s briefcase so the teacher just took that the rat came into the class as an accident and the whole incident was forgotten. Hontokoi wondered why Rukawa didn’t mention anything for she knew that he definitely was able to see that rat jumping out from her bag. But since Rukawa barely said anything in class, she knew that Rukawa wouldn't tell on her anyway. Another that had seen the rat jumping out of her case was Yuko and of course Yuko wouldn’t do such a thing. “Why was that rat in your case?” Yuko asked when they were alone in the class during break. “I saw it jumping right out your briefcase right in front of your face and you didn’t even scream!” “It was a lucky thing I didn’t scream,” Hontokoi said shutting her face with both her hands. “Just imagine if I did and it would sure draw attention and everyone would know that the rat came from my briefcase.” “What is going on?” Yuko asked. “These few days I keep seeing you clean out your briefcase during break. You seem to have spiders and cockroaches in you briefcase and stuff. How did they get there?” “Yusagi!” Hontokoi said. “Those secondary one gangster boys that can’t seem to leave me alone this few days.” “Are you sure they are the ones?” “Of course, Yuko!” Hontokoi said hotly. “Who else would it be? You tell me.” Again outside the door, Rukawa heard Hontokoi’s angry voice and wondered wthether he should help her out. This was not like him, to be willing to help others, especially girls but he wanted to help Hontokoi. He didn’t know why. He just felt something for this girl and was just willing to do anything for her. This was the first time ever that he felt something for a girl and this feeling was so strange to him. So he tried to ignore it. Hontokoi sat under the tree in the school garden, her favourite spot in school. It was lunch break and Yuko had to do something for her swimming club so she went around alone. She was playing the usual song with her flute when suddenly the boys came up to her. She lowered her flute slowly. “So, alone today?” Yusagi sneered. “Want company?” “What do you want?” Hontokoi asked slowly. “I realize that you are not afraid of insects, right?” “Does that concern you?” Hontokoi asked standing up. “I realize that whether I am or not is no business of yours.” “Really?!” Yusagi’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at the flute Hontokoi was holding in her hand. “Maybe you would be afraid of something.” “And what would that be?” Hontokoi asked with a tiny smile. Yusagi snatched her flute away from her. Her eyes widened with surprise and shock to see the last present she had from her mother was in the hands of her enemy and he might do anything to it. “Yusagi!” Hontokoi said trying not to sound frightened. “That is not funny. Give my flute back! I mean it.” “What if I don’t?” Yusagi grinned wickedly. “So, this flute really means a lot to you. Enough to make you so jumpy.” “Yusagi, please!” Hontokoi said reaching for her flute but he moved away from her had threw it to another person. “Nooo! Be careful with it.” They laughed and ran away with it into the school. Hontokoi quickly ran after them but when she got inside she only found her flute broken into half on the floor and the boys were no where in sight. She sank to the floor on her knees and slowly picked her flute up with shaking hands, her first and last present from her mother. Even though she was extremely upset, there were no tears in her eyes. She placed the broken flute on her heart and bowed her head. Suddenly a pair of feet stood before her. She looked up slowly and found herself staring at Rukawa who looked down at her without reaction. She frowned, at that moment she hated the sight of every male being. She quickly stood up and ran off down the corridor. Rukawa looked after her. Did he see hatred in her eyes? Rukawa had actually seen what happened at the garden and what Yusagi did to her flute. He wondered why the flute was so important to her. Slowly he went down the corridor where Hontokoi had disappeared. He knew that it was time to teach those boys a lesson. At home when Hontokoi was doing her homework her mind kept returning to her flute. She looked over to her broken flute on her desk and bit down her lower lip. The one and only present she got from her mother and it was broken into two. 'I shouldn’t have brought it to school,' she thought but how did she know that something like this would happen. Then suddenly she remembered when she was picking up her broken flute Rukawa came by as well and wondered whether he had seen what happened. If he did, she wondered why didn’t he help her out. She frowned, what a cold person. She had not liked him ever since she got to know him when they had practices and wondered why the other girls liked him so much. She looked down at her homework again. She didn’t have the heart to even concentrate on her work so she flung her pen down and left her room. She decided to go out for a walk to cool down. Maybe after a walk she would be able to continue with her homework again. She quickly put on her jacket over her black T-shirt before she stepped out into the cold winter. When she passed the usual park where Rukawa always went for his morning practice, she heard a commotion inside. Slowly she went inside hiding behind a bush. She peeped over the edge of the bush and saw Yusagi and his company. They were with another very tall boy. Immediately Hontokoi could recognize that the tall boy was Rukawa. He had his back on her but when he turned slightly around his head was bleeding. Hontokoi gasped a little too loudly for Yusagi and his friends turned to her direction and she quickly ducked back behind the bush. “Who’s there?” Yusagi asked. “You better come out or you will come out worst if we find you ourselves.” Hontokoi straightened up and pushed her hands into her the pockets of her jacket. Then she slowly stepped out from behind the bush calmly. Everyone was surprised to see her. Yusagi quickly get over his shock and smile. “So, it is Hontokoi,” Yusagi said. “Your lover boy was about to get the worst but you came just in the nick of time, anyway.” “Lover Boy?” Hontokoi laughed. “I hope that I heard that wrongly. Leave him alone. Besides, the battle is between us, not him.” “All right, I will.” Yusagi walked up to her. "Under one condition.” “What?” Hontokoi narrowed her eyes. “We play a one on one basketball match,” Yusagi said and one of his group members threw a ball over to him. “What do you say? If you win, I’ll leave him alone and you too.” “All right.” Hontokoi nodded with a smile. “So what are the rules.” “Simple.” Yusagi smiled. “Anything goes, but no dirty tricks.” “That is good,” Hontokoi said not believing her ears a. “You may start.” When the game just started, Hontokoi went easy on him. After he shot in the first ball, that was when Hontokoi really put her heart into it and played basketball. For the first time, Rukawa actually saw Hontokoi play. During practices, Hontokoi only coached, she didn’t play with them. Her lay-ups were very good. In fact, she could shoot the ball into the basket from every angle. The way she marked her opponent was also very tight. Yusagi couldn’t even charge pass her. She managed to steal the ball from Yusagi and shot in a three-pointed that nearly made Rukawa’s eyes drop off his head. Hontokoi had won the match. “You...” Yusagi couldn’t continue his sentence and his voice trail off. “Never mind. Come on boys, let’s go.” Hontokoi smiled and turned to Rukawa. Her smile faded away immediately when she saw a deep wound on his forehead; blood was still flowing. Her face was filled with concerned then. She wondered how Rukawa had gotten himself into this mess with those boys. They never bothered to even touch him before. So why today? Hontokoi did not know that Rukawa actually got himself into trouble because of her and somehow at the end she was the one that got herself out of trouble and also helped Rukawa in a way too. “Are you all right, Rukawa?” Hontokoi asked. “That wound looks horrible.” “It’s only a small thing.” Rukawa replied softly and touched his wound with his fingers. “You don’t have to bother.” “Wait!” Hontokoi cried taking out a handkerchief. “Don’t do that it would make it worst.” Hontokoi tip-toed up and pressed the handkerchief on his forehead, which took Rukawa by surprise. Then she held Rukawa’s hand up and placed it on the handkerchief. When Rukawa was holding the handkerchief himself, she put her hands down with a soft smile on her face. Nobody could stop staring at the way Hontokoi smile and it was no different to Rukawa as well. He had already liked the way she smile the first time he saw her and couldn't stop himself at staring at her that moment. “That would stop the blood from flowing,” Hontokoi said. “Just remember to clean that wound when you get back home. I have to go now.” Hontokoi turned away and was about to walk away Rukawa called her. “Hontokoi?” She turned her head back slightly to look at him. “Thank you.” “Your welcome,” Hontokoi smiled and walked away out of the park. On her way home Rukawa kept following her behind. She turned back several times and he didn’t stop. She looked at him strangely. Why was he following her? Without giving much thought about it she made her way home until she reached her house and that was when she couldn’t stand it anymore she turned to Rukawa. “Why are you following me?” Hontokoi asked a little exasperatedly. “You have been tailing me all the way till my home.” “I wasn’t,” Rukawa said in his carefree voice. “My house is over there.” Rukawa pointed over to the house with the closed up window at the side, next to her house opposite the road. Hontokoi stared at the house and then back to him. She pointed to the house and then at him. “You...” Hontokoi looked at him in surprise. “That’s your house?” He nodded and Hontokoi smiled. “I didn’t know you lived so near my house.” “I know,” Rukawa answered indifferently. Hontokoi turned to him curiously. “I saw you on that balcony playing your flute a few nights ago.” Hontokoi’s face immediately changed when he mentioned her flute. Rukawa regretted mentioning about her flute then. But almost immediately Hontokoi smiled again and Rukawa felt a little relieved but he didn’t show any reaction what so ever. “I have to get back in,” Hontokoi finally said after a long silence. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Hontokoi opened the gate and turned back to look at Rukawa who was making his way to his house opposite the road. Rukawa turned back to see Hontokoi when he was at the gate. Hotokoi held up her hand to wave before she went back inside the house. To be Continued... **Previous ** Next**