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Can You Help Me?
by Natty
Hello everyone! This is another new story of mine! I hope you all like it! If I have any wrong with the traditions, or just, anything wrong with translations, then please tell me! Please enjoy!
Chapter One: Her Vicious Cycle, and His Problem
Rina Kaigi wasn't a very social person. She may have been a little hyper at times with her friends, but in public she never really spoke up. This has made her life very boring indeed, and that was effecting her in many ways.
"Good Morning Kaigi-san!" A boy called out to her before homeroom started. He sat down behind her, and smiled brightly upon her. She turned around slowly, and looked back on him.
"Good Morning Maro-san... so did it work?" She asked quietly. He nodded delightfully, and ruffled her hair happily.
"You were exactly right. Taking her the the cherry orchard and asking her there. She loved it!" He said. Rina nodded her head slightly, and smiled back at him.
'If only it was me who had been the one taken there...' She thought. He stood up from the seat, and walked back to his friends, but he looked back at her once more, and smiled at her. She didn't want to smile back, but she felt herself bare a smile back at him. She didn't like these situations...
First, she would fall for a guy so easily because he talked to her so nicely. Then out of nowhere, they'd always talk about another girl in front of her. She couldn't help but to give them advice, and then in the end, the boy always got the girl, and she would get nothing in return but sadness. It was a mad cycle that could never stop.
"You WHAT?!" Haruka yelled at her.
"Maro and Kisa are together now... because I helped Maro-san..." Rina said so low, it was almost a whisper. Haruka sighed heavily with a grumble. They were walking home together from school, and were almost at Rina's house.
"I can't believe you did it AGAIN. One every year... Rina, we're going into highschool next year, and you expect yourself to have some kind of romance when you're doing THIS to yourself!? You're a cooky little girl, you know that?" Haruka said.
Haruka was Rina's best friend, and her 'pyschologist' in some cases. In this situation, she played the role of both. Haruka spoke her mind to the public, and didn't care what most thought of her. She was well known around the school already, and Rina was the girl who hid behind her when in big crowds.
"I don't mean to do this... it just...-"
"It just happens! I can't resist helping them, I mean, if I didn't, I wouldn't know what to think of myself!" Haruka mocked her in a very feminine voice, and fluttering her eyes like a innocent little girl. She slumped down from the act, and looked at Rina again. "I know the story. You need a new one." She pointed at Rina, and spread her hands apart like she was representing a banner in front of Rina, "Rina the boy charmer! Every boy likes her, every girl wants to be like her!"
"Hah, boy charmer. You sound really stupid sometimes Haruka." Rina said, tilting her head away from Haruka so she wouldn't get hit. But Haruka didn't this time.
"Well, I hate always trying to get guys to talk to you. Same old same old, 'Hey So-and-So! You should really meet my friend Rina! She's shy and quiet and all, but she's really a kind, sweet girl if you just talked to her!' And then you do this to them!" Haruka said. Rina grumbled.
"Agh... enough of this talk... We're almost to your house anyway." Haruka said. Rina nodded quietly.
"Can you believe it though?" Rina asked quietly.
"What?"
"Just two more weeks, and we'll have summer break, and we'll go into highschool. It's really amazing, ya know." She said, looking up at the sky in a dazed manner. Haruka smiled, and looked up also.
"Yeah, I guess we're both just growing up."
"...I can't believe they built those trashy apartments across the street from our neighbor hood, Rina. Do you know how many deliquents will be roaming around now that it's opened?" Rina's mother bickered at her, while Rina was typing away on her laptop, and didn't give an opinion.
"I mean, look at that family. The boy looks like he should belong in a juvenile school! And his mother looks just as bad..." She continued on, rambling on, staring out of the window in the living room, having a perfect view of the new apartments. Rina didn't bother to listen. It was a bad habit, her mother's, for judging other people behind their backs. She didn't like it, but she dealed with it for years.
"Whatever you say, Mom..." She mumbled, still looking at the screen mindlessly. Her mother gave a humph, and faced Rina with her hands on her hips.
"Still chatting on that stupid machine? I swear, I should've told your dad to not have bought that for you..." She said, annoyed of the clicking noises of the keyboard already. Rina kept typing, thinking that she was still talking about the new apartments.
"RINA! Listen to me for God's sake! Get off that stupid computer! You're wasting your life away on that...that thing!" Her mother continued, tightening her fists in anger. Rina whipped her head at her with shock.
"Oh... sorry Mother... I'll get off..." She mumbled. She pressed the small button in the back, and it shutted off. Her mother nodded in approval.
"Good, now please help me prepare dinner..." Her mother sighed, and started to walk to the kitchen. Rina bowed her head, and gave a small sigh under her breath so her mother wouldn't hear, and she rose up from her seat, and attended her mother in the kitchen. Then a few thuds came down the steps, and a little boy waved his hands in the air in happiness.
"Dinner time! Dinner time! What's for dinner, Mommy?" He asked, tugging at his mother's long orange skirt. He looked at the age of six, and his light brown hair was flipped everywhere in a messy fashion, same as his father's. But he, who's name was Takeo, and Rina were the only ones with light brown hair in the family, while their parents had dark brown, almost black hair.
"Well, I don't know honey, what do you want to eat?" She said, smiling down at him, showing her small wrinkles that aged with time. The boy gave her a thoughtful look, and stared at her. And then he smiled again.
"I dunno Mommy, anything you want!" He said.
"Mmmm, what do you think of an Oden dish?" She asked. The two siblings agreed. She opened up the cabinets, and looked for ingrediants, and knocked on the door of a cabinet.
"Shoot, we need some things... Rina, could you go shopping for me really quick? We need leek, and cabbage." She asked. Rina nodded.
"Sure, Mother." She agreed. She was handed money, and decided to take her little brother with her.
"C'mon Takeo... Let's go, grab my hand..." Rina said quietly, her hand reaching out to him, and he gently took it. They walked out of the house, and toward the street, heading for the new apartments. Takeo stopped before crossing the street.
"Mommy said we shouldn't be hanging around here..." He said, putting his thumb in his mouth.
"It's ok. We have to go this way. We're only passing by it..." Rina reassured him, and she tugged his hand. He followed by her side obediantly, and they crossed the street toward the apartments. When they reached the sidewalk, they passed along the fence, and heard a door shut violently. Rina jumped, and she tugged at her brother's hand, telling him to hurry. So they quickened their pace, and got past the apartments.
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When they bought their food, they walked back, still hand in hand, down the street back to their house. The hairs on Rina's arms rose at the thought of going back to those apartments, scared that something might happen to her, or her own brother. As she thought about this, the hand she held onto slipped from hers, and Takeo ran ahead.
"Hi there Mister! Whatcha doing?" He asked a young man. He was sitting up on a post that was attached to the fence, among others. The wind then blew a slight bit revealing his eyes, and Rina saw him looking at her. She gulped, and a shock went up her spine. Then the young man looked down at Takeo.
"I'm just sitting here. Go back to you're mother over there..." He grumbled. Rina jogged up to Takeo, with her bag of groceries hanging on her arm, and she bent down to be at the Takeo's eye level.
"Takeo! You shouldn't go up to strangers...!" She whispered to him. She looked up at the boy. He was still looking at her. She then stood up to address him.
"Um... I... I'm not his mother, actually... I'm his sister... I'm sorry that he bothered you, Sir... We'll...be going now." She said, anxious to get back home quickly. The young man looked at her, and brushed his hair away from his eyes, and revealed a small smile.
"Cute kid, though. He's got guts to come up to a stranger." He said, jumping down from the post. Rina jumped back, and pulled Takeo close to her. The young boy bent down to Takeo's eye-level, and ruffled his hair.
"So what's your name, kid?" He asked. Rina pulled Takeo closer to her.
"Kaigi, Takeo! I'm six years old!" He said proudly, showing his six fingers. The young man rose up, and looked at Rina.
"Well, I'm sure we'll meet again, then, since you live just across the street over there." He said, pointing at her neighborhood.
"Yeah!" Takeo said. Rina was shocked.
"H-How did you know we live there??" She asked him.
"I saw you two walking out of there, and cross the street." He replied. Takeo looked up at him, with a smile.
"What's your name, mister?" He asked the young man. The young man looked down at him.
"Maeda, Kiyoshi." He said.
"Well then, Maeda-san, we'll have to be going now, really, it's getting late..." Rina said, slowly stepping back, still holding Takeo.
"Alright, well, take care Kaigi-kun, Kaigi-san." Kiyoshi said, raising his hand to say goodbye. Takeo waved back, and smiled.
"Baiii Maeda-saan!!' He said, and Rina led him across the street. Kiyoshi put his hands in his pockets, and walked back into the apartments.
When the two reached their neighborhood, and were on their own street, Rina looked at her little brother.
"Takeo, don't say anything to Mother about our meeting with Maeda-san, alright?" She told him. Takeo nodded.
"Good."
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That night, Rina was ready for bed, after finishing some of her summer holiday homework, and already had taken a bath. She was in her pajamas, and her light brown hair was down, and folding over her shoulders, as strait and thin as it could be. She looked out her window for a brief moment, and saw the apartments in perfect view from the second floor.
She saw a dark figure in the street light's shadow. Then the figure stepped into the light, and she noticed who it was.
'It's Maeda-san! What is he doing outside at this time??' She asked herself. Then a few more shadows showed themselves in the light. They all dressed up like they were in a gang. Then they exited together, down toward the market, which was closed already for the night. Rina covered her mouth, and hoped that he wasn't what she thought he was.
So she stayed up, checking through the window every once in a while, to see if the group has come back yet. Then she'd go back to her desk, where her laptop was, and typed for a few minutes, and then checked back at the window.
Finally, at around 2 am, she noticed the group of dark shadows again, but now with torn clothes, and she saw blood on some of the boys' shirts and faces. She gasped in shock. Kiyoshi was part of a gang.
'I can't let Takeo hang out a boy like that! He'll be of great influence on him, and I can't allow that! Oh God, what'll I tell Takeo...' She thought. Then she gasped again, seeing Kiyoshi looking strait at her.
He had noticed her lights on, and saw her through the window. Not very clearly, but he knew that it was her, because after he had spot her, she ran from the window, and turned off her lights. He looked back at his friends.
"Well, Kiyoshi?" Haru, one of his friends, asked the dazed boy. Kiyoshi looked at him with a confused look.
"Hmm?" He hummed. Haru eyed him, and scratched his head in annoyance.
"That Kanaye guy. A real ass, huh?" he asked again.
"Oh, yeah, that guy? Yeah. Ran off with out his other members. That's disrespectful." Kiyoshi responded. Seiichi, another friend, flapped a wallet in his hand.
"At least we got some kind of benefit tonight, boys. Lets see what we got in here..." He said, opening up the flap, and looking in the wallet.
"I.D. card, a fake credit card, subway pass... Ah, here we go. 3000 yen. That'll be of some use." He said, taking out the money, and stashing it in his own pocket. Takai, Kiyoshi's best friend of the gang, wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder, and noogied him.
"What were you doing just a few minutes ago? I saw that girl in the window, you little slugger!" He said playfully. Kiyoshi looked at him and smiled.
"Just a girl I met today." He said. He looked back at her window again, and the lights were still out.
"Awww, our little baby is growing up, meeting girls! He'll be going to that nice school too, getting those hot, rich girls! You're a smart one, you are!" Takai laughed.
"I only got into that school because it's close to my new apartments, and I passed the exam for it. Now, I need to get inside. Mom's probably gonna be mad..." Kiyoshi said, unwrapping his friend's hand from his shoulders, and walked up to the apartment entrance.
"See you later, guys." He said, and he walked back in. He looked down at the apartment hall, and sighed.
"I don't want this anymore..." He told himself.
Translations:
Kaigi - Rina and Takeo's family name, meaning 'Doubt'.
Takeo - 'Strong as bamboo'
Kiyoshi - 'Quiet'
Hari - 'Born in the spring'
Seiichi - 'First born son of Sei'
Kanaye - 'Jealous one'
San - used after the family name to show respect to the person, like "Mr. or Mrs."
Kun - used after the family name of a younger boy.
Oden dish - A nabe dish prepared with various fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konyaku and kombu seaweed, boiled over many hours in a soya sauce based soup
