Chapter 6

The day following Laine’s concert was hot, humid and perfectly sunny. A summer-loving person would enjoy sweating a bit in the hot outdoors, but other people would prefer to stay inside a cool home. Keitaro was in that second group of people. He never liked overly bright and warm days and he was used to sleeping in during those times. Excessive sunlight irritated his eyes, but then that’s what he woke up to.

“Rise and shine, honey!” Laine woke him up in the same bright, cheery voice. She opened the curtains in his room to let in some warmth from outside.

“Ugggh…” Keitaro tumbled in his bed. “Why is it so bright? What time is it?”

Laine sat at the side of his bed and tossed his tousled hair. “It’s nine-thirty. I made breakfast.” She lovingly whispered as Keitaro turned into a prone lying position.

Keitaro spoke with his head buried in the mattress. “I have a headache.” He mumbled. “Please give me another hour or two.”

Laine strongly lifted his head and shoulders to make him lean on her lap. She pressed her fingers gently on his forehead and began to massage it. “That’s just hangover, Keith. You drank too much last night. Have breakfast with me and take some meds.”

He grunted his way back to sleep, somehow unaware that the comfort he felt was from Laine massaging his forehead. “Feeling better now, honey?” Laine asked in a low voice. She lowered herself towards Keitaro and kissed his face.

With that kiss, Keitaro came back to his senses. Keitaro noticed that Laine smelled like fresh flowers. Actually she smelled like the whole flora of a mountain spring and her long hair was even damp and cool to add to the effect. The boy jumped from her lap when he realized something. His girlfriend just came from the shower and was half-naked. She was wearing a short bathrobe that showcased her flawless legs and fair neckline. Keitaro could tell the lady wore nothing underneath the robe but she was comfortable sitting on his bed. Perhaps growing up in Europe had instilled that kind of liberalism on Laine.

Two pictures sat on the bedside table. One was placed in a pink plastic frame and the other was just a new photo plainly by itself. The photo in the frame was of an adolescent girl with straight black hair cut above the shoulders, bright eyes and a cute, almost childlike face cupped in her hands. The girl in the picture looked a lot like the present Aya, still childlike and still having her photograph taken with such cute poses. The other picture was a more recent one; showing a present-day Keitaro and Laine in a close-up shot. Keitaro, a simple guy wearing spectacles looked serious and silent while Laine smiled her brightest and most beautiful. Though their personalities seemed contrasting; their pretty faces, fair flawless skin and elite demeanor matched perfectly. The way the pictures were placed in Keitaro’s nightstand was, somehow, telling a story.

“You still didn’t put our picture on a frame?” Laine asked as she saw the pictures on the bedside table.

Keitaro slapped the side of his head and sat up on the bed. “Just take the other frame.” He said sleepily in his hungover state.

Laine reacted in shock. “I can’t do that! Aya gave this to you, right?”

“Yeah.” He merely mumbled his answers. Keitaro was a shaved, decent, well-mannered man but he only proved that all men looked the same with a hangover. His neat haircut was messed up, his eyeglass marks were showing and his eyes were droopy. It was a surprise his beautiful girlfriend didn’t mind the disheveled appearance.

“Oh,she looks so cute in here! When was this taken?”

“A summer outing with her junior high classmates.” He answered flatly.

Despite the headache, memories came rushing back again in Keitaro’s mind. It was hot during the summer and he hated being outside. He sat impatiently in the car and turned up the AC to its coolest setting. Why did he even bother to drive out into the hundred-degree outdoors? He looked at his cell phone to find the answer to that question.

And the answer… the answer wasn’t picking up her phone. Keitaro’s impatience quickly turned into annoyance.

He hopped out of his car and replaced his glasses with dark shades. That was how much he averted the sunlight. He left the parking lot to enter what looked like some kind of mini-hotel or country club and asked the receptionist where district’s local junior high school outing was. He was told that the teenagers were renting the huge outdoor pool. Keitaro rushed to the said location and found Aya dressed in her flower-print swimsuit, bobbing up and down at the pool’s edge.

“Why aren’t you picking up your phone?” Keitaro scolded the girl discreetly at the poolside just as she emerged from the water again.

Inspite of Keitaro’s efforts to go unnoticed, his older presence attracted the attention of the other high schoolers; especially the girls who were easily swayed by such college men. The young girls were suddenly sharing giddy laughs while the boys looked at Keitaro in a weird way, as if wishing they’d grow as manly as him already so the girls would notice them instead. Keitaro didn’t mind the odd stares. He grabbed Aya’s wet wrist and forcibly dragged her out of the pool.

“Oniichan, you’re mean!” The girl whined and fought his grip.

Keitaro dragged her further into the seats. He threw a towel at her. “Cover yourself up and get your things. I’m taking you home.”

Aya rushed to her bags and slipped on a short cover-up dress. “Oniichan… we were just having fun…” She pleaded but she followed his instructions anyway.

Keitaro looked mad even as his eyes were covered with dark sunglasses. He grabbed her bags violently and walked out of the location, with the girl running after him. “Please don’t be mad, niichan!” She said as they arrived at his car in the parking lot.

Keitaro got into his car silently but his harsh movements showed his anger. Aya sat in the front passenger seat shivering. Her hair was still wet and Keitaro didn’t bother to readjust the cold airconditioning. “That’s what you get when you don’t cover yourself up.” Keitaro whispered sternly then turned the AC into a warmer setting.

“That’s because I was swimming, niichan!” She answered back with a little anger over his protectiveness.

The girl was starltled when her oniichan aggressively turned the steering wheel as they hit a corner. He was mad and it was clear he wasn’t trying to hide it. Even though he hadn’t stared at her long enough, he noticed she was wearing a swimsuit that had a huge hole for the stomach and bellybutton and the back was cut up to just above the buttocks. Her outfit showed off her curves that Keitaro hadn’t seen before and with that, she looked less like a child. With eyes fixed on the road, Keitaro spoke. “Your tummy was hanging out! There’s a difference between swimwear made for swimming and swimwear made for flirting!”

“Oniichan! You’re too unreasonable! All the girls wore this kind of suit!”

Keitaro took another sharp turn that made Aya grab on to her seatbelt. “You’re fourteen. I don’t care if they wear the same thing. Next time, dress in something decent and covered up.”

“Sometimes I really don’t understand you, niichan. You don’t want me to have any fun! I hate you!” She yelled at him and buried her face in her hands.

Keitaro remained silent all throughout the drive home. When they reached Aya’s house, she moved to quickly get out of her seat. The boy knew that his little sister was mad at him but all he did was speak in a flat, unsympathetic tone. “You asked me to pick you up at two in the afternoon. It was four o’clock and you didn’t even bother to call.”

As she grabbed her things from the back seat, Aya was hit with the realization of how Keitaro disliked the summer. He had been waiting in his car for two hours.

“Keith? Are you okay? Is it your headache?” Laine asked worriedly as she saw Keitaro come out of a daze.

“Nothing, I’m fine.” He replied while rubbing his forehead again. He was surprised to find Laine still sitting in his bed with just a bathrobe on, as if she wasn’t planning to get dressed anytime soon. As much as he wanted to force her to cover up like he did to Aya years ago, Laine was different. She was a London-raised lady, and she was his girlfriend.

“I was saying about the picture… didn’t Aya give this to you when you were mad at each other?” She inquired while still cradling the photo of teenage Aya in her hands.

“Yeah.” He answered with disinterest while trying to get out of bed.

“I understand now.” Laine said calmly while putting back the picture on the table. “It just takes one random good deed to stop you both from hating each other.”

“Huh?” Keitaro almost tripped while trying to put on his pants. He could swear he heard the doorbell ringing.

The doorbell rang repeatedly, and it annoyed Keitaro a lot. It was quiet and cozy in his condo at night and the ringing ruined his evening after an equally horrible day with his sister. He approached the intercom and spoke lazily into it. “Who is it?”

“Onii… chan.”

Without saying another word, Keitaro opened his door to find Aya standing shyly in the hallway. She looked like a child again, wearing a jumper and her hair already dry. He proceeded back inside and left his door open. He left her to decide whether she’d swallow her pride and get in or not. Just as he predicted, the girl slowly went inside and shut the door. “Oniichan…” She whispered childishly. She held a square item in her hands and looked at it fixatedly to avoid looking at her brother.

“I’ll get you some decent swimwear tomorrow.” Keitaro simply stated as he got to his dinner waiting at the dining table.

“Oniichan!” Aya exclaimed in delight and ran to her oniichan at the table. She hugged him so tight that he felt like choking on his meal.

“I’m eating!” Keitaro scolded her and tried to remove her monkey-like arms clinging onto his shoulders.

Aya let go of him and returned to standing shyly on the side. “I have smoething for you, niichan.” She handed him a pink plastic frame with her recent photo in it. “That’s me during the outing. I realized you don’t have a picture of me yet. So…”

Keitaro looked at the picture and couldn’t help but giggle. Aya was surprised at his sudden mood change. “You looked just the same when you were four,” he explained.

“See, oniichan? Whenever I do something to make you mad, just look at my picture and you’ll laugh!” Aya said with hands clasped.

Keitaro placed the frame on top of his dining table and continued eating while trying to suppress a smile. He noticed Aya kneel beside him and then suddenly felt her arms around his waist. “I’m sorry, niichan.” She spoke softly. “I forgot that you were waiting for me and I didn’t notice the time.” She said, as she recalled her fault of not answering the phone and forgetting the time she asked her oniichan to pick her up.

Keitaro placed his hand at the top of her head to comfort her. He continued chewing his food and didn’t respond as Aya tightened her embrace. “I’m so sorry, oniichan. I’m so sorry…” Her voice cracked in between tears.

Having lost attention towards Laine in his room, he remembered how he let her weep in his bosom without uttering a single word. He knew Aya was a crybaby and that she’d weep endlessly even though they stopped fighting already. That was what bothered Keitaro the most. Maybe Aya had been crying since the day they fought at the restaurant.

Or maybe… Aya was not a crybaby anymore.

Author's note: I just noticed that incidentally, I have been updating every five days. Cool. Anyway, thank you again. Thanks especially to new reader Ukitsu who reminded me of something I honestly totally forgot: characters' physical traits! That's just the problem with me... sometimes I'm overly descriptive (e.g. 10 Days) but then sometimes I become totally absorbed into the emotions of the characters that I forget to write what they even look like! Haha. I hope it's not too late though. I'm not really sure how to describe Keitaro except for him wearing glasses. Lol. Please bear with me then. Enjoy!