Room 304, Diety Hall

Author: Yukimi2 yukimi2@yahoo.com

Dedication: Miyabi fans

Comment: OK. Spring Quarter, and this is some weeks after Shinya left. This quarter will be very fast, especially compared to the other two quarters. We want this to go faster now that Shinya’s not here at this time being, right?? ^^;

Episode 26: Miyabi

###

Dear Journal,

Today, I had to turn in my Chemistry lab Report, but Prof. Toshi refused to accept it. He said it was due 1:45 and I turned it in 1:50! That’s ridiculous! Kyo told me it’s better not to argue with the professor at this point in time because Toshi is stressed about some important cult project… I dunno what that’s all about. I’m still pissed though.

Die and Levin invited me to play Frisbee with them in the park, but I couldn’t because I had homework. Die has recovered a great deal since Shinya left. I remember when he came back from the train station; he was obviously devastated. I realized Shinya meant that much to him, especially the genuine tears he shed while he told me what happened. I never seen or heard Die cry until that day. Of course, I talked to him as a best friend should. Die cares so deeply about him. He wanted to tell Shinya the big ‘L’ word, but couldn’t do it. He was depressed for a while, but I reminded him of his promises. It makes me so happy that Die kept his word. Every other day, he takes Levin out to the park, and occasionally, they play video games and such.

Totchi and Hakuei are still at it, though now I can sense something amiss. I do not see both of them interact very much, but just from observing Totchi’s behavior, one can conclude a problem. Besides, having Totchi come back without a limp for long intervals is highly unusual.

Anyways, I shall be going to the coffee shop now.

####

The purple head shut his notebook and placed it in the drawer. He put his shoes on while the walk-in closet opened.

"Ne, Kao-kao. Does this look better with the blue shirt, or the light blue shirt?" Toshiya was wearing his new tight vinyl shorts. He held up two tank tops with each hand.

"Either way is fine, Totchi." Kaoru sighed. "By the way, I gotta go."

"Eh? Where are you going? You’re supposed to help me decide what to wear!"

"Coffee shop."

"Why?"

"I’m tired and I need to study, so coffee is essential to keep me conscious." Kaoru explained. "You want some too?"

Toshiya crossed his arms over his chest. "It’s already afternoon. You won’t be able to sleep tonight."

"Yes, I can."

"That is *so* unhealthy!"

"Look who’s talking. You smoke more than I do."

Toshiya pouted, then his cell phone rang. He rolled his eyes. "Moshi moshi?"

Kaoru chuckled. He knew it was Morita. Ever since Die gave him Toshiya’s number, he’d been calling repeatedly, sometimes leaving an average of 5 messages a day.

"Er, sorry Morita-kun, but I’ve got plans tonight. Well,…gomen. I have to go… I SAID I *really* have to go!" With that, he hung up and stuck his tongue out. "That guy is suffocating me! I’m gonna kill whoever gave him my number!" Apparently, he didn’t know it was Die that gave Morita the number.

Kaoru laughed. "At least he doesn’t know where you live."

"Thank God!" Toshiya glared. "You find this funny, don’t you?"

"Of course!"

*pout*

"Hmm…. Why don’t you tell him you’re already taken?"

"Because, Morita will instigate a fight for sure! You know I hate fights!"

"Yeah, but Hakuei will surely win, you know.." Kaoru swung the door open. "Anyway, I’m going now. Ja."

Toshiya pouted. "ja."

*****

Kaoru reached the coffee shop in no time. He wanted to sit on the counter, but all the seats were filled. He looked around. All the tables where occupied too… except one seat. And luckily, Kaoru knew the person on the other chair on the same table.

"Miyabi-kun." He called out.

"Ah. Kaoru-kun." Miyabi beamed.

"Is this seat taken?"

"No, no. Not at all." Miyabi offered the chair.

Kaoru sat comfortably. "So, what brings you here?"

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking." Miyabi looked out the window.

"Thinking?"

"Yes. Thinking." He gave a tiny, sincere smile.

The young man was obviously thinking about Hakuei. At least, it seemed obvious to the purplehead sicne he knew the circumstances. It felt strange to talk to the boy. He was calm, polite, and reserved; and yet, her resembled Toshiya so much, who would definitely scream, cry, or throw a tantrum at any Hakuei predicament. Kaoru chuckled at the thought.

Miyabi looked at him. "what’s so funny?"

Kaoru cleared his throat. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking."

"Very funny, kaoru-kun."

"Ne," Kaoru started. "You’re thinking about Hakuei, arent’ you?"

"I assume your roommate told you, huh?"

"No. Just been hanging around Takeo too much. I’m beginning to get better at observing people."

"It’s obvious I’m thinking about it, isn’t it?"

"Not to the average person. Since I know the situation, I can conclude from what I know."

Miyabi nodded quietly and stared out the window. It was a beautiful spring scene; the flower petals swayed with the warm wind and lovers walked past hand in hand. Spring. The season when love booms. Miyabi’s eyes darkened with sadness and Kaoru noticed.

Being the overly-nice guy, he asked, "Is something wrong?"

Miyabi turned to him and blinked.

"You know, Miyabi-kun. You don’t really know anyobody in this school. I understand totally. When I was new, I knew nobody, but I had Totchi to show me around and meet people. The only person you know that knows students here is Hakuei. But Hakuei never had the courtesy to show you around. May I ask why?"

Miyabi stared at the coffee cup in his hands. "Yeah. Might as well." He smiled to the purple head. "You’re the first person to actually care about my feelings…"

"I dunno. I tend to do that when someone is troubled. I can’t help it.

Miyabi nodded. "I’m not insulting you. I’m praising you. You hardly know me. Despite that, you care about my happiness. You are a good person."

"I’m sure you are too, Miyabi-kun."

"You say that because you don’t know me well."

Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Miyabi sighed. "Are you sure you want to hear about my problems? I could burden you with too much details. It wouldn’t be beneficial to you, especially since Toshiya is your roommate."

"I don’t tell anyone their problems to others. Believe me, I hold all of Totchi’s secrets that even Hakuei doesn’t know them."

Miyabi chuckled. "That’s Hakuei for you. It takes a while to warm up to him."

"So you know Hakuei pretty well, I take it?"

Miyabi nodded.

"How long?"

"Since we were kids. We both lived in the same area of the city, and our mothers were good friends. We used to play out in the streets together, you know? Didn’t care about the crowd, the street cars, and the cops that flew by." He sighed. "Anyways, we were best friends. When he started high school, I was still in junior high, but that was when things began to change."

"Change?"

"Yep. We started to have feelings for each other. I couldn’t understand at first; and he was equally confused. But a friend of ours matchmade us and we eventually went out. We were real sweet on each other, y’know? Who’d ever thought we would end up dating for 2 years?"

Kaoru was impressed. "Not many couples that young last long."

"True, but we never lasted is the point. I was a sophomore; he was a junior. Things started to change… again. I guess that’s what’s so advantageous and disadvantageous in the big city everything is too fast. Hakuei started to become more concerned about his image. You know, the bad-ass tough guy image he tries to project to everyone. Of course, a lot of people thought it was sexy but me. because of going out with me, he felt too soft. So around people, he would act so cold and so tough. I began to worry, but let it go because he still took care of me and I didn’t care just as long as he cared about me.

"All too soon, he joined a gang; the second largest neighborhood gang around. I knew about it, and I did try hard to stop him. Of course, he didn’t listen to me. I grew so angry. It was dangerous; the two largest city hangs were known for their constant fights and turf wars; but everybody knew the gang Hakuei joined was always the underdog. Obviously, I worried. I tried discussing the issue with him; I told him if he was involved, he could get hurt, I could get hurt, and his mother would definitely be hurt. We had a fight.

"The next day, I heard gossip flying around the school that the two gangs were having a fight that night at the subway station." Miyabi shook his head sadly. "You can go ahead and call me stupid, but I went by myself. I just couldn’t stay home and wait for my childhood friend to be hurt. So I watched. Do you know what gang fights are like?"

Kaoru shook his head. "Nope."

"Lucky." Miyabi said. "Well, at least in these gangs, they had an emphasis for honor. Ridiculous, isn’t it? They usually form a ring around two people, who were chosen to fight the duel. Nobody’s allowed to intervene."

"That is interesting."

Miyabi shrugged. "I think it’s stupid. At that time, Hakuei and some guy were chosen to go. They fought and Hakuei’s nose was broken by the other guy. That was when I ran up and told them to stop. Everyone wondered who I was, then they asked if I was Hakuei’s ‘little bitch’. And you know what? Hakuei said he’d never seen me before, that I was some stranger on the street. You know how much that hurt me? He cared more about his gang than me. so I cried. What else could I do? The gang was suspicious, looking from me to Hakuei, but all I could see were Hakuei’s cold and angry eyes, as if he was angry that I have shamed his ‘toughness.’

"That was it for me. I turned my heel, ready go leave, but Hakuei’s gang leader grabbed me by the arm and started making advances at me. of course, I was petrified and I looked to Hakuei for help, but found none.

"That was when I gave up. Totally gave up on him. I didn’t care if he liked his ‘I-am-so-cool’ image to such extent, but if I am in danger, and he does *nothing* to protect me, the relationship is worth nothing anymore. I was so hurt, but pissed. So pissed that I knocked out that gang leader with one punch and stormed out of that place while everyone gawked."

Kaoru remembered when Shinya pushed him against the wall. He shuddered and made a mental note not to piss off any bishounen.

Miyabi blew a strand of his hair away. "Next day, I found out Hakuei dropped the gang for reasons unknown. I thought maybe it was because of me. we never talked about it. Hell, we stopped talking period. I felt a twinge of happiness to hear him out of the gang; and that was good enough for me.

"Soon, I discovered he was graduating early to go to college here. When I found out he was graduating soon, I felt devastated because, not only was I permanently going to lose my first love, but my one and only best friend. I knew then I could not part with him. He was the one. Well, he left for college and I heard he dropped out after a year to start his own recording studio. I graduated just recently and received a scholarship to come here, so I did. I like it here, really."

Kaoru nodded. "So you came here and found out Totchi and Hakuei were together."

"Hai. And I was so jealous. I heard about it, but never met your roommate at that time. I was obsessed with getting Hakuei back. I kept calling him and telling him to meet me at the coffee shop to spend time together and catch up on old times."

"Sou desu ka? I never would have thought you the obsessive-jealous ex-koi."

Miyabi blushed. "I’m not, but I guess it was in the heat of the moment…"

"Ah… but you’ve stopped going after him…"

Miyabi nodded. "When I was pushed off the stage by that over acting idiot, I ran out. I felt so embarrassed and so… I don’t know… devastated. I was surprised Hakuei went after me. I thought he’d never care. I was crying so hard at the time I didn’t even notice he was there until he said my performance was wonderful."

Kaoru scrunched his nose. "Hakuei said that???!"

Miyabi giggled. "Can you believe it? I was so stunned to hear that, that I didn’t respond." Miyabi sighed and his face grew serious. "suddenly, I heard him say: ‘i’m sorry’. "

"REALLY?"

"Hai. I felt so happy to hear those words. I knew they meant more than that. Anyways, that was when he dragged me to the auditorium again."

"I see. The incident caused you to stop going after him?"

"Yep. It sounds ridiculous, but , after I heard him say ‘I’m sorry’ I felt like a whole boulder was lifted off my shoulders. It’s as if….. I was never really in love with him… all I wanted to hear was an apology."

"That’s good to hear you’re feeling much better now."

"Arigatou gozai masu. I know Hakuei really likes your roommate ne. best wishes to both of them.

Kaoru merely pursed his lips. He wasn’t going to tell Miyabi about Hakuei and Toshiya’s fading situation. "I thought you didn’t like Totchi."

Miyabi laughed haughtily. "I’m not going to say I DO like him; I just have a problem when someone tries to be like me."

Kaoru: ^^;

"May I take your order?"

Kaoru and Miyabi turned to see Ayumi in her pink apron.

"I’ll have coffee." Kaoru requested.

Miyabi shook his head. "I already had mine."

Ayumi rolled her eyes. "You came here for 1 cup of coffee?"

Kaoru glared.

Ayumi took their menus disgustedly and walked away, but not before looking over her shoulder to stare at the pair.

CONTD @ Episode 27: Isn’t Revenge such Sweet Affliction?

Yk2: Hmm. I know this part wasn’t much, but at least you get some insight on the Hakuei and Miyabi relationship and where it comes from =)

to be continued~