Kankei: Gray Skies, Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Saiyo

Skies are gray...
knowing you will never come my way..
please tell me, should I stay...
in love with you my fantasy..

That's the song she wrote about me during my long...absence. When I say 'she', I don't mean just anybody. I mean my most important thing in the world. Her name was Kay.


My younger brother and I own and operate a resturaunt. An authentic Japanese resturaunt, reflecting our heritage. It did well and business had been running smoothly for about six years. A local businessman of sorts gave us the proposition to franchise it as the backer. To finalize the business dealings and sign the necessary paperwork, we agreed to meet at a local coffee shop. My brother Sung and I showed up at the shop on the planned day and time, but 'Mr. Douglas' didn't show.


"D'you think this was a scam or something?" My brother asked on the second 'meeting'.
"I don't know." I said wearily. I got up from the small table. "I'll be back, I'm getting some coffee." Sung looked up at me. "You hate coffee."

I didn't reply. I sighed and shuffled over to the counter. "What can I get you?" The cashier asked. I read her nametag. Molly.
"Uh..." I looked at the menu behind her. I didn't know there were so many different types of coffee... I didn't really want any, I just--
"Sir? Did you want to order something?" The cashier snapped. It was a little unexpected.
"Molly." Said a voice. "Shut the hell up." I noticed a woman leaning on a counter beside me. She had a mop of curly, brown, highlighted hair framing her gentle face. Her eyes were brown, almond shaped and bright. She stood up to her full height of about 5'8". Molly glared at her. "Not a coffee drinker?" The woman asked conversationally. "Nah.." I laughed. "Excuse me for asking such a random question, but how tall are you?" She asked, looking me up and down. I think normally, people get offended by that question. But maybe it's because I'm not exactly stereotypical. I lifted a hand from my jeans pocket and idly pushed my hair back. A wasted movement since it was pulled back. "About 6'3." "Yeah..." She murmured. She stared at me for another second, then turned and cleared her throat. "So. What do you suggest?" I gestured to the menu. "Oh. Well...you look a little tired. Something to wake you up?"
"Please."
"Molly, give him the Herbal Cappiccino Slam." She looked back at me with a grin. "Sounds cheesy, but it's not, I promise."


Molly went off to make the drink as the lady and I stood in silence. Molly returned with a frothy green drink and I payed for it. "Thanks." I said to the lady before walking back over to my brother. "No problem," she said with the ghost of a smile.


"So. Douglas show up yet?" I asked, sitting across from Sung. He stared at me strangely.
"Who was that?" He demanded.
I shrugged. "Did Douglas call?"
He continued to look at me suspiciously.
"What?"
"You don't talk to random people. Hell, you don't talk, usually."


He waited for me to say something. I sipped my coffee. Interesting. It was surprisingly good for a caffinated drink. Was that... green tea? I really liked green tea. There's a stereotype for you. I took a much longer sip and set the cup down. "Try that, it's good."


He looked at the cup blankly. I'm really bad at changing the subject. Obviously.
"Saiyo--"
"I don't know! Why does it matter?" I laughed. He picked up the cup and took a sip.
"Well, that guy isn't coming, let's leave." Sung muttered getting up. He took another sip of the coffee and took it with him. "Oh, and you might want to get another one of these." We headed for the door. I stopped at the counter and ordered another Herbal Cappiccino Slam. The lady was gone. When I'd paid for the drink, we walked out into the parking lot. I stepped over a spilled coffee on the ground. I looked up in time enough to avoid bumping into the woman who ordered my drink. She was staring at something.


"Wow..." Sung murmured.
What used to be a brand new Toyota Scion tc was now a slightly used, slightly wrecked Toyota Scion tc. The woman put her head in her hands and took deep steadying breaths. In an attempt to be funny, Sung broke the silence.


"I guess it wasn't like that before, huh?"
She looked up and glared. Sung became silent
again. I slowly approached the car, assesing the damage. Someone had managed to dent the passenger door shut. It would be incapable of opening, due to the angle of the destruction. I had seen this before, done on purpose actually. The woman's car only had 2 doors, and the dent was well placed. In addition, the parking lot's arrangment made it impossible for one of the cars around her to have done this mistakenly.


"This really dosen't look like an accident you know..." Sung murmured, reading my mind.
"Could I suggest something?" I asked slowly. I crouched down, closer to the door.
She sighed from somewhere behind me. "Yeah, but hold on a sec."


The woman still said nothing. For a second, we were all silent. She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket, pressed a button and pressed the phone to her ear. She waited for an answer. Then she closed the phone and slipped it back into her pocket abruptly. She stared at me for a second.
"What."
"Well, I've wanted to do a commercial for my auto garage--"
"Our auto garage." Sung interupted.
"--right, and your car would be perfect for a before and after. I'll fix this, free of charge, if you'll let us use it in the commerical." I stood up and turned to her. She stared blankly for a second.
"Really?"
I grinned. "You don't sound like you believe me. I'll call my tow truck right now and get it to the garage." I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, flipped it, dialed a number, and put it to my ear. It rang once.
"Hello, Asian Autos, habla espanol?"
"Hey Hector, I need a tow from the coffee shop on seventh. How soon?"
"Well I'm not doing anything now. I can be there in about 10 minutes."
"Great, okay. We're right in the parking lot, you can't miss us."
"Okay."
I closed the phone. "Give him 5 minutes."
And that's how it started. That's how we met. No big deal really.



Kayanna
I thought it was a joke. Or a trick. But he was serious. For good reason, random acts of kindness still surprise me. Within 5 minutes, the tow truck arrived and hauled my car and I to Asian Autos Garage. I think I was expecting some kind of rinky-dink place. I was plesantly surprised. Asian Autos had set up shop in an old loft style warehouse. It encompassed 2 floors: The ground floor was where all the auto work was done. The second floor held 2 custom equipped sports cars on display made for local celebrities, and worked as a showcase for performance parts. It also included a waiting room and an office or two. It was huge.
The brothers from the coffee shop and I stood beside my car. Hector, the guy from the tow truck was kneeling, pointing something out to the oldest and tallest brother, who knelt beside him.
"We'll need a whole new door.." Hector murmured.
"Yeah, but this model is so new we'll have to hunt one down..." Saiyo pushed a bit of his jet black hair out of his face idly.
I think I was staring at him.


"What's your name?" I blurted out. He turned and looked up at me, grinning. Then he stood up to face me.


"Sorry." He held out his hand. "I'm Saiyo." I shook it, keeping eye contact. "I'm Kayanna. But just call me Kay. Thanks, Saiyo, I really appriciate this."


"It's no problem. You're doing me a favor too. Thank you." His eyes were this light brown, almost hazel shade. I internally struggled to stop staring at them. I hate guys with nice eyes. Those are usually the ones with enough cockiness for a football team. A guy ran over to us, donning a black jumpsuit--what I guessed was the official uniform of Asian Autos.


"Sir, the camera guy's scheduled to be here any minute now. He's bringing his own equipment and stuff. He said he's only available to film the second part of the commerical a week from now."
Saiyo shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded approvingly. "Kay, would you mind if we held you car until next week? I'll arrange a rental car for you to use."


I thought about it for a second. If this is a trick, it's working. The guy just offered to steal my car. But, if this was legitimate.... I battled with faith in the human race and my normal skepticism. I chose faith. If the universe is really trying to screw me over for something I've done in the past, then I guess I deserve it. Especially being screwed over by a guy I was beginning to be attracted to. Sort of. Maybe.
"Yeah, okay." I finally replied.


"Alright." Saiyo turned to the errand boy. "I need you to do three things: Go ahead and schedule the second part of the commercial. Arrange a rental car for 2 weeks, starting right now, and find me a passenger door for a Toyota Scion tc, this year, in black if possible. Thank you."


The guy nodded and ran off. Saiyo demanded simple authority around his shop. So simple, I couldn't help worrying about the strange coincedince at the coffee shop. Could it have been planned? Someone randomly wrecks my car and the owner of a local auto garage volunteers to fix it for free? It was strange, and I wasn't ready to fully trust any of them yet. I stayed skeptical.


"Hector, where's Shawn?" Saiyo asked.
"Uh.." Hector looked around the sprawling space. "Is that him over there? HEY SHAWN!" He bellowed across the incredible distance.
A man's head turned. He noticed Hector, Saiyo, and Sung, and began walking over.
"Hey, what's up bossman?" He joked, smiling easily.
"Something new. What're you working on right now?" Saiyo asked.
"Ah, I'm prepping a Mitsubishi Evo for a new full body kit. We ordered the kit, but it hasn't come in yet." Shawn replied coolly. "Why, what'cha got for me?"
"I need this door off. When can you do it?"
"Right now if you want."
"I need."
"Well it's done then. I just need to take it around back." As I pulled the keys from my pocket, Shawn winked at me. "We'll have it lookin' as good as you in no time." He took the keys. I hoped he didn't use lame lines like that on everybody. As the keys fell into his outstretched hand, the skeptic in my head yelled, IF THIS IS A SCAM, YOU JUST PUT THE ICING ON THE CAKE! I sighed as quietly as possible. I wasn't going to pass up a possible honest, and kind gesture. I hoped that's what it was.


"Alright, Sung, I need you to get Kay a contractual reciept while I check with Justin on that door." Saiyo said, leaving me with his younger brother.
"Okay, follow me." Sung started up a staircase.
"So. You're name's Sung, right?" I tried conversation.
"Yep."
"Isn't that a Korean name?"
"Yep. How'd you know?"
"Asian Studies was my minor in college. Your brother dosen't..."
"Look Korean?"
"Not really." I laughed.


At the top of the stairs, we crossed the waiting room and walked into a corner office. He sat behind the desk. I sat across from him.
"It's funny," he began easily. "He looks like our dad, who was Korean, but looks more Japanese, like our mother."
"Interesting combination." I commented.
"Yeah. Well. Okay." He began typing on the computer sitting at the desk. "What I'm doing is giving you a reciept, even though you aren't paying for anything. This way, if by some 'crazy' event, we don't fix your car or give it back, you can sue us." He said with a grin.
"Seems like you guys do honest work around here." Was that a lie? I wondered jokingly.
"We do, and we want to keep it that way. Your name?"
"Kayanna, K-A-Y-A-N-N-A, Li, L-I. How long have you two been in business?"
"About 5 years." He slid his chair over to a printer. A document came out and he glided back over to the desk with it. "Okay." He scribbled his signature and passed it to me. "There you go. Would you like to see if Saiyo's made any progress finding that door?"
"Sure." I folded up the reciept and put it in my pocket as I followed Sung.
"We try to keep our customers involved in the services and purchases as much as possible." Sung said.


When we got back down to the ground floor, I saw my car far in the back of the shop. A man with a camera walked around it, filming slowly. Sung led me over to a solitary office on the other side of the garage. We passed other mechanics fixing cars, doing oil changes, fixing brakes, installing performance parts, even restoring an old Chevrolet. Why hadn't I heard of this place by now?! I've lived here for the last 6 years, myself. I continued to look around the shop until Sung and I finally got over to the office. The door was ajar, so Sung pushed it all the way open, and we walked inside. The office was small and brightly lit. Three expensive looking computers sat side by side on a desk along a wall. Saiyo's message boy, Justin, sat at one computer typing away, intent on his work. Saiyo sat in a swivel chair beside him, talking on his cell phone. "How'd you get it?" He asked the person on the other end. He noticed Sung and I, and beckoned us in.


"Someone wanted to put suicide doors on a Scion? Hm. Anyway, I can send someone to pick it up tomorrow at...10:00 AM. Is that good for you? Alright, so how much did you want for it?"
In the small room, I distinctly heard the speaker reply, "$900." Saiyo didn't even blink. "Try that again." He waited a second, then said, "That's much better, thanks again." He closed his phone and focused on me. "Kayanna, did you want to be in the commercial?"
Why did remembering my name surprise me? Maybe I hadn't expected him to be so personal. "Oh, no, thanks anyway!" I laughed. Right. Me, in a commericial. Nobody else found that funny, but they didn't know me either.
"Okay then. The door will be picked up tomorrow from a place in Seattle. We'll get it painted and attached, have the second half of the commercial filmed, and be done this time next week. Sorry about having to hold your car. Is that going to be okay?"


Well, I'm still worried about you stealing my car, but with your brother's nice signature on this nice piece of paper in my pocket, I think we'll work it out, I wanted to say.
"Yeah, that's fine." I ended up saying.
"Well, thanks again Kay. I can't get you the rental car until tomorrow. Sorry about that, but I'll get it delivered to the address you gave Sung first thing in the morning. Let me get you a cab." He dialed more numbers on his phone. He put it up to his ear and glanced at his watch. "Sung, pay the filmographer for me." He pulled out a checkbook, ripped out a blank check, and handed it to Sung. "Hello? I need a cab to this address..."
************************************************


I rode home in comfortable silence, driven by a cabbie prepayed by Saiyo. As I stared out the window daydreaming, my cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kay."
I knew who it was but I couldn't fathom why he'd be calling me. Then a thought hit me.
"This really doesn't really look like an accident, you know..." Sung's voice echoed in my head.
"Derek. Hi! What's the occasion?" I asked conversationally.
"Just a friendly 'Hi'."
"Oh, how nice of you!" I gushed, struggling to mask my frustration.
"So how is that new car of yours?"
Stupid bastard, I thought. He gave himself away.
"It's great, thanks for asking! A funny thing happened today: when I walked out of the coffee shop, my passenger door was totally wrecked. Can you believe it?! Then this guy I was talking with in the shop offered to repair it for free! Can you believe that--how lucky?!"
I waited for him to say something. Silence. Finally he managed to say, "That's great! Uh, my phone--I had someone on the other line, I had to click over..." Right. Liar. "So, I'll talk to you another time." Click.
I let out a forced sigh and put my phone back in my pocket. Derek was what remained of a previous relationship that didn't work out. He was petty and jealous, and really insecure. And needy. I refused to deal with it anymore. Still not sure why I tried to in the first place but, hey, we all make mistakes, right?