Hi all!
Thank you to allll the people that wrote. I love you all!
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Please note, this copyright notice is retroactive to all stories I have previously posted on Nifty. They are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License, Copyright (C) 2008.
DISCLAIMER
This story involves relationships between males aged 17-19. If you do not approve of this, why the hell are you even reading it now? If you are a parent reading through the Internet logs of your young child, do not punish your child for reading these stories. He/she clearly has some questions about his development, and it is YOUR responsibility to answer those questions truthfully and honestly. If this material is illegal in your area, leave now. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. You know the drill. If you aren't supposed to be reading this, Don't (although some flames would be lovely to publicly dissect :)).
FEEDBACK
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Doumo arigatou gozaimasu.
And now, without further adieu.....
========================================================================= FINDING YOU: CHAPTER ELEVEN - Once in a moment =========================================================================
"Moshimoshi, Urashima desu."
"A.. um.. Moshie Moshie.. er, Watashi wa.."
"Uh, I also understand English."
"Oh thank God. Is this Tarou Urashima?"
"I am Tarou. Who is speaking?"
"My name is Janice, I am William's mother."
"Ah, William-kun's mother, ne? I would give him the phone, but he's gone out to the konbeni to get food with his friend."
"Chris is with him?"
"That's right. Didn't he tell you this when he left?"
"Actually, no, he didn't actually tell us anything at all, just stole our frequent flyer points and hopped on a flight, leaving a posthumous answering machine message."
"..Is that so? I was not aware of that development. If you would like, I can make arrangements for him to be sent home.."
Tarou heard her talking to someone in the background, but his English wasn't quite good enough and they were speaking too softly for him to hear.
"No, thank you, we won't ask you to do that. It was his choice to fly over there, so it should be his choice to return."
"Hm, an admirable sentiment."
"But please tell him this: Leo is returning to Australia on Tuesday on the JAL 11:15am flight from Narita, Tokyo."
"I will tell him."
"Okay, thank you very much. And tell him to give us a call once in a while!"
Tarou laughed, "Ha, I will do that. Thank you for the call. Goodbye."
The train was empty again. We weren't saying anything... again.
"I fucked up." Chris blurted out of the blue.
"What, you in the old people's seat again?"
He laughed, "Well, apart from that."
The train had just stopped, and a short old guy with a cane walked on, scowled at Chris, and walked off again, getting on the adjacent carriage instead.
We both looked at each other for a moment and burst out laughing.
"Well," I said, still giggling, "apart from that colossal mistake, what did you fuck up?"
"Us." He said, gesturing at the air between us, "It's weird now."
"Really? Well, what has really changed?"
"Well, remember when I said that we were going to Toudai together, like the manga 'Love Hina'?"
"Yeah, and I said that it was sort of like it but not."
"You said that it was like it, but that I was not an ill-tempered woman and you were not madly in love with me."
I remembered now, "Yeah, okay, so?"
"Well, when I said it was like 'Love Hina', I meant that I was the one who was madly in love with YOU, and that made you.."
I narrowed my eyes and raised my hand in a threatening motion, "..The ill tempered woman?"
He folded his arms triumphantly, "Case in point."
I opened my mouth to strike back with a witty retort, but I couldn't think of anything.
He smiled, "I win!"
I smiled, "You won that battle, but I won the war. There is nothing 'weird' between us, we just had a perfectly normal conversation."
Chris waved his hand, "Dammit, you win again."
The carpark behind the school was pretty empty today. Callum thought it was strange that his Dad's motorbike could not be seen.
Gradually children from the school pilfered down around the outskirts of the carpark, waiting for their family vehicle to come driving in to pick them up.
He waited around for a while, figuring his father must have gotten held up, when he felt a violent push against his back.
He fell face first against the asphalt. His nose really hurt and he was bleeding. Callum did what he usually did in these sort of situations, and began to dissassociate, trying to brace himself for the inevitable onslau- ght of kicks and punches that would most likely knock him out.
He hesitated for a moment, and then uncurled his body when he realised he wasn't getting beaten up. He heard the squealing of tires as a car came to a screeching halt right in front of where he had been standing, followed by the stench of burning rubber. His head began swimming. He wasn't sure if it was because he was injured or if it was because of the fumes.
"Oh my God, Dude!! I'm so sorry! I thought you were about to get run over, so I just.. pushed.." He heard a voice.
He tried to peer around himself, but he couldn't make anything out clearly.
"..what? Chris? Is that you?"
"Who's Chris? My name is Ricky, what's yours?"
Callum blacked out.
--
I knocked gently on Chris' sliding door towards the back of the house.
"Hai, doozo." he said.. in Japanese?
"E.. shitsureishimasu.. Is this a bad time?" I asked, as I slid open the door, peeking my head inside.
"Not at all, I am just doing some shukudai."
"Shukudai? How could you possibly have homework to do?"
"Hm, well, Hayaka-san is rather enthusiastic about being my sensei, so I have kyogasho," he said, pointing to his textbooks, "and shukudai."
"She went to all that trouble to get you textbooks? You should thank her."
"Why? Tarou-san is paying her to teach me Japanese, so it's just part of her job description." he muttered.
I widened my eyes and stepped fully into the room.
"Tarou-san is PAYING her? kusou..."
"Why is that bad?" Chris looked bewildered.
"Because," I said, exasperated, "now we have to find a way to repay him."
Chris held up a plastic bag, "Well, why don't we go and make dinner for us all then? I brought the food from the konbeni."
I made my best manga-like determined pose. "Yoshi! Let's go cook!"
I maintained the pose for a moment, before Chris decided to speak.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Well, in an anime, this woud skip to a montage scene around about now and in 5-10 seconds we'd have made a delicious bento or something."
Chris groaned and hit his head against the wall three times.
...
"Wait, so let me get this straight. You are asking me to teach you how to make Japanese food?" Tarou asked.
"Yes."
"..And, the reason for that is?"
"So that we can make you a bento to repay you at least a little bit for your financial generosity."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
Chris bowed low, "Hai, onegaishimasu!"
Tarou laughed loudly and then leaned in to look at Chris.
"Did it ever occur to you, my friend, that me teaching you how to cook Japanese food would put you further in my debt?"
Chris thought for a moment. "Soo.. two bento then?"
I nudged Chris with my elbow, "Chris, it doesn't work like that..."
"Congratulations, new household cook!" Tarou announced, while patting Chris on the head, his facial expression turning more sullen with each pat.
And that's all for this chapter. Only one strand furthered in this chapter. More on the other strands soon.
JAPANESE PHRASES USED IN THIS CHAPTER (which did not have inline english)
Hai, doozo - (Informal) Yes, go ahead.
Shukudai - Homework
Sensei - Teacher
Kyogasho - textbooks
Shitsureishimasu - A semi formal way of saying "Sorry for the
disturbance"
Kusou - Literally "shit"
Bento - A lunchbox
Hai, onegaishimasu - Yes, pretty please with sugar on top. (very
formal/polite way of saying Yes please)
Yoshi - An informal way to say "Alright!" as in
"Alright, Let's do it!". The corresponding
phrase when the goal is achieved is "Yatta!"
I absolutely love feedback. Please submit your feedback, good or bad, lengthy or brief, in Japanese or in English, (although preferably English) to:
sakurakangen@gmail.com
You may also add me on Google Talk at the same address. I love talking to you.
Doumo arigatou gozaimashita.
-SK (written in vi improved 7.2.. beats emacs any day)