Golden Renegade- Chapter 10-

 CHAPTER TEN

KEN MORIMOTO STOOD IN front of his house, staring at his roof and scratching his head. A huge branch had somehow landed on top of it and he wasn’t in the mood to fetch a ladder and get it off.
“Ken, what’re you standin’ there for? Get that thing off the roof!” his wife screamed from inside the house.
He let out an annoyed sigh and wandered into his backyard to search for his ladder. Leaves and splintered tree limbs were strewn everywhere and he looked around in puzzlement. His house was beside the woods but he couldn’t understand how his yard became such a mess. Then the bushes rustled and a little girl walked out.
“Oh, why hello there,” he said in Japanese. “Where did you come from?”
She stared at him and made a squealing sound in her throat.
“You don’t speak Japanese?” he asked. He looked at her long amber brown hair and round brown eyes. She wore a tattered brown and tan checkered robe and something shiny was hanging around her neck.
“Wow! That’s a beautiful necklace,” Ken said in English. “Where did you get it?”
The girl shielded her eyes from the sunlight with one arm and backed away from him. He stepped forward. “Where are you going?”
She said something in a foreign language and turned to run away but Ken grabbed her by the wrist and picked her up. “Sorry, little lady, but you’re coming with me.”
He put her in his truck and drove her to the police station. The woman at the front desk looked at the girl, stared at her computer screen, then got up to ask her boss a question. When she returned she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Morimoto, but no one has filed a missing child’s report describing this girl. She looks foreign. You said she walked out of the woods?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m sorry…no one is even missing in the area where you live. Maybe you should check that locket around her neck.”
“That’s a locket?” Ken asked.
The woman nodded. “A beautiful one too. Looks like real silver.”
Ken knelt down, took the girl’s locket into his hands, and opened it. “There’s a picture in here of her with two people. Looks like her parents.”
The woman peered over the desk to take a look. “Hmm, yes… she looks like them. But I haven’t seen anyone like them come in here and report a missing child. That’s strange…”
“What is?” Ken asked.
“The girl’s hair in the picture is a different color. So are her eyes.”
“Yes, that is strange,” Ken said looking at the picture. “I have to do something. I am the one who found her.”
He drove home with the girl sitting next to him in his truck and his mind wouldn’t stop spinning. She glanced at him every once in a while, with curiosity in her wide eyes and he kept wondering who could have just abandoned such an adorable little child in the woods. When he got home, he argued with his wife, Ryoko, for an hour about what to do with the girl, and finally, she agreed to adopt her.
“Since she’s such a beautiful child, we’ll name her Miyo,” Ken said. “Miyo Morimoto.”
Thus the girl became a part of the Morimoto family and was introduced to her older sister, Chinatsu, and her older brother, Daisuke. Miyo was extremely shy and preferred to be alone all the time. Since she didn’t speak Japanese or English, it was very difficult to communicate and at first they had to use sign language for a time. Ryoko noticed the brown dye in Miyo’s hair and stripped it with chemicals so that it turned blonde again.
“Such a beautiful hair color shouldn’t be dyed,” she said. “And those eyes! They’re so stunning. One green, and one blue. Who would try to hide them behind brown contacts?”
Miyo was home schooled until she finally learned Japanese, then went to a public middle school and studied English in school and at home.
“It’s important to learn more than one language,” Ken would tell her. “Especially English. It’s used the most by travelers and for business dealings.”
Her family was very kind and she lived in a well-kept home, but Miyo still felt left out. She didn’t resemble or act at all like her family and would often sit in her room, looking at the picture inside her locket. The two people she was with in the picture were obviously her real parents, but she couldn’t remember them at all. She figured if they really had wanted her, they wouldn’t have left her and an empty pit would form in her stomach until she could do nothing but cry herself to sleep almost every night. Then as time passed, the feelings of loneliness, confusion, and misery intensified into anger, and she decided to forget trying to remember who her parents were and who she was and began create her own unique persona…one that her family didn’t like.
It started in the second year of high school when Miyo and her family moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and she enrolled into Kais International School. She dyed streaks of her long hair pink and began to wear thick jet black eyeliner around her eyes. While all the girls wore navy blue or grey skirts with white blouses or sailor shirts, Miyo wore black skirts with little silver chains hanging from her waist, with black socks pulled up almost to her knees and black penny loafers. She wore black studded bracelets on her wrists and silver bangles practically up to her elbows with a thick silver and black necklace around her neck that looked like a dog collar. She had a least three or four piercings in each ear and last of all, along with the dog collar, she always wore the silver heart necklace that held the picture of her with her parents.
Most of the teachers and students at Kais International School spoke English and a lot of the teachers were from Europe and America. Therefore, Miyo’s unique way of dressing was more accepted than before, though the teachers did lecture her about it a couple times. But because she was such a good student, she managed to gain their favor and slide by. Her father didn’t find this amusing but Miyo did and didn’t care.
Ten years had passed since Ken had found Miyo abandoned behind his house and she was now sixteen. There was a mirror stuck to the inside of the door of her locker at the back of her homeroom and in between classes she would look at herself. A lot had changed since she was six years old; her baby face had sharpened around the chin and cheekbones and her eyes took on a more almond shape. Her nose had grown larger and her lips poutier and she was always thinking they were both too big for her face, though Ken and Ryoko told her they were fine. Her breasts had grown along with her rear end and she found some of her skirts and blouses splitting at the seams. Then there was that pesky time of the month when she would get horrible cramps and wear pads that felt like diapers. Ryoko said it was all part of being a woman; beauty was pain and that she would get used to it. Miyo knew one thing she wouldn’t be able to get used to…that awful nagging feeling of worthlessness that gnawed at her inside every time she woke up in the morning.
It was a month into her second year of high school and Miyo walked through the city to school with her friends Hana and Izumi as usual. They stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to turn green.
“So, Miyo,”said Hana above the buzzing traffic. “Are you going to that party at Hoshi’s house this weekend? I heard he’s decoratin’ his house in a Hawaiian theme. We can actually go in bikinis and grass skirts and not look like hookers.”
“Hoshi is stupid,” Miyo said. “All he does is stare at our legs and drool. And I hate his corny pick up lines.”
“Yeah, but there’s gonna be all these cute guys there,” Izumi said. “We can hang out and give ‘em our celly numbers.”
“I’m not that desperate,” Miyo replied. “You can give ‘em your number but I’ll go just for the free food.”
“Oh my god, Miyo,” Hana said. “Just ‘cuz those other guys treated you like crap doesn’t mean the next one will.”
“I’ll believe that when it happens,” Miyo said. “But right now, guys just make me sick.”
The light turned green and they crossed the street.
“Besides,” Miyo said. “Dad ain’t gonna let me go that easy. He’s gonna ask me all these stupid questions.”
“You can tell him you’re goin’ out for ice cream with us,” Izumi said.
“Then after the party you can get the ice cream and it wouldn’t be a lie,” Hana said.
“He ain’t that stupid,” Miyo said. “He knows what’s up, I swear.”
Once they reached their school, they went to their cubbies and donned their school slippers then went to homeroom. After the students took attendance and made announcements, Ms. Bell, one of their teachers, stood in front of the room.
“I’d like your attention,” she said. “We have a new student. He’s supposed to be here any minute so I want you to be polite and welcome him-“
The door to the classroom suddenly opened and a tall spiky-haired blonde boy walked in. Miyo heard all the girls gasp.
“Why, hello there!” Ms. Bell said. “We were expecting you…um…sorry, what’s your name?”
“Akira Tanaka,” the boy answered and all the girls gasped again. Miyo rolled her eyes. He had a lilting British accent and the girls were already swooning in their seats.
“Okay, Akira,” Ms. Bell said. “Tell us a little about yourself.”
Akira faced the class with his backpack slung over his shoulder. “My name is Akira and I come from England. I’ve never been to Tokyo before and my favorite subject is English. Is there anything else anyone wants to know?”
“Yeah! Do you got a girlfriend?” one of the girls called out from the back.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Ms. Bell said. “You can take the seat in the third row, Akira.”
Akira walked down the aisle and took his seat, which happened to be next to Miyo’s. She glanced at him and snapped her bubble gum while Hana looked over at her and winked. Ms. Bell then told them to open their history books and the class sighed. Miyo hated history. She found it boring and useless and had just opened her spiral notebook to doodle anime when out of the corner of her eye she saw Akira looking at her. It wasn’t a curious gaze but more like an astonished one, as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. She began to feel self-conscious and slid her notebook to the other side of her desk. When the bell rang and Ms. Bell moved onto her next class, Akira finally looked away and Miyo felt relieved. Then Mr. Lee came in with a cheery smile.
“Hey-lo, class,” he said. “Everybody ready for literature?”
They opened their literature books and took turns reading Romeo and Juliet while tossing notes at each other when Mr. Lee wasn’t looking. Hana threw one at Miyo and it bounced off her forehead and fell onto her desk. She unfolded it and read:
Omg he keeps starin’ @ u n he’s gorjus! He’s kinda fierce lookin n pretty boi at the same time u kno? n he’s got gr8 lips 4 a guy! U like?

Miyo wrote back:

No cuz guys r dogs n I’m nobodies sweetie pie. Peach out.

“Can you feel the passion Shakespeare wrote with?” Mr. Lee suddenly said. “It burns the very pages of the book. Why do you think Shakespeare chose two young people from two opposing families to fall in love? Anyone got any ideas? What do you think, Miyo?”
Miyo looked up in surprise. “Me?”
“Yes, do you understand the question?”
“Yeah…I think he did that just to make the story more interesting. It’s not realistic though.”
“Why do you say that?”
“’Cuz nobody talks like this Romeo dude. Most guys are too stupid to be that romantic.”
“Aha!” Mr. Lee said. “An honest opinion from the female mind. I like it.”
“Hey, I can be romantic,” Hoshi said from the other side of the room.
“Shut up, Hoshi,” Miyo said.
“Does anybody else have any ideas?” Mr. Lee asked.
There was a silence then Akira raised his hand.
“Yes, Akira?”
“I think Shakespeare cherished emotions,” Akira said. “He seemed to strongly feel that they are very precious and should be expressed no matter what the situation the two people involved with each other are in.”
“Very good,” Mr. Lee said. “Any response to that, Miyo?”
“Yeah, I think that’s a bunch of crap,” Miyo said. “If any guy values emotions it pretty much means he’s gay. Oh sorry…I meant homosexual. No offense to anyone.”
“Whoa, this is getting too personal,” Mr. Lee said. “Let’s move on before we have a dispute. Actually…this calls for a project. What do ya say? All of you will pair up, boys and girls, and you can both write your ideas on why Shakespeare chose two people from two families that hated each other to fall in love and make it into a report that reflects different opinions from different perspectives. The first pair to work together is Akira and Miyo...”
After math class the students went to lunch and Hana and Izumi sat with Miyo, who looked irritated enough to stab someone with her fork.
“What’s wrong?” Izumi asked.
“I don’t wanna work with that moron Akira,” Miyo said. “Did you hear what he said? Blah, blah, blah, Shakespeare cherished emotions…bull! I’ll tell him, ‘Dude, you’re faker than my aunt’s boobs!’”
“Aw, you just can’t handle the fact that he’s right,” Hana said, sticking her spoon into her mashed potatoes.
“Yeah, in a fake world,” Miyo mumbled. “What the heck are we supposed to write about anyway? I hate when teachers ask you to write something about nothing.”
“Excuse me, can I sit here?” someone said from behind them. They looked to see Akira standing next to their table holding a tray.
“Oh my gosh, sure you can!” Izumi said jumping up and moving over a seat. “Here! You can sit next to Miyo.”
“No better yet, we’ll leave you two alone so you can talk about your project,” Hana said grabbing Izumi’s arm and moving to the next table. “See ya later!”
Akira sat down in front of Miyo who poked at her food with an annoyed expression on her face. He watched her for a long moment then opened his carton of milk.
“You don’t seem too happy about us working together,” he said.
“No, ‘cuz I don’t like guys who are liars,” Miyo said.
“What makes me a liar?”
“What you said. No guy thinks ‘emotions are precious and should be expressed.’ That’s just crazy talk.”
“No one else thought it was crazy,” Akira said taking a drink of his milk.
“I’m not just anyone,” Miyo said.
“Then who are you supposed to be?”
Miyo looked up directly into his face for the first time and froze. He was extremely good looking with a seemingly perfect face; she couldn’t find one flaw in it. His cheek bones were high and defined, his chin wasn’t too delicate or heavy, his eyebrows weren’t furry or thin, and his lips, like Hana said, actually were impressive for a guy. Last of all, his penetrating eyes had an exotic shape to them and were silver like a mirror. She nearly gave way to staring but caught herself and looked away, then said, “I’m someone who works alone.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said. “Are you supposed to be a punk rocker or something?”
“Yeah, and if you don’t like it, bite me.”
He smiled for the first time and looked so gorgeous, Miyo felt her cheeks flush. “I wanted to ask you if it’s okay if we can work on our project at your house.” he said.
“Um, sure,” Miyo said, chewing her gum furiously. “You can come over today after school if you want. Let me give you my address…”

Sure enough, at five o’clock sharp, the doorbell rang at her house and when she ran to get it, it was him and she nearly shrieked. He stood there filling up the doorway, wearing a black t-shirt and dark jeans with his grey eyes fixed on her and a literature book under his arm.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah sure,” she said, opening the door. He walked in to the genkan and took off his sneakers, then looked around. “Nice house.”
“Thanks,” Miyo said, closing the door “Um, my dad’s working and my mom went grocery shopping so…there’s kinda nobody here.”
He turned around. “You have no brothers or sisters?”
“Yeah, a brother and a sister but they moved out.”
He nodded and said, “Can we sit in the living room?”
She nodded. “Yeah… sure.”
He walked toward the living room while Miyo nearly tripped over her own feet and followed him. “Dang, you’re tall, Akira. How tall are you?”
“Six three,” he replied, looking at her family pictures hanging on the walls. “What about you?”
“Five feet, four and three quarter inches,” Miyo said, looking him up and down from behind. “Yesiree I am short.”
“Hm…” He turned and walked toward her. “You think so?”
She stared at him while he approached with her heart pounding her chest, and he smiled. “You’re not wearing black.”
She looked down at her white tank top and green cargo pants. “Yeah…I don’t always wear black you know.”
He walked past her and slowly knelt on one of the red cushions surrounding the wood table in the center of the room and put his literature book on top of it. “Tell me about yourself, Miyo.”
“Why? We’re here to do a project, not become friends.”
“It’ll help loosen you up.”
“What you mean ‘loosen me up’?”
“You’re nervous.”
“Am not! Why should I be nervous? Alright, fine! Talk about yourself.” She strolled over and knelt on the cushion across from him.
“What do you want to know?” Akira asked.
“Anything. Like, how can you be from England and have a Japanese name?”
“You make it sound as if such a thing were impossible. My parents could have been Japanese and moved to England.”
“So they were Japanese?”
“They kind of looked Japanese.”
“Were they Japanese or not?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“Because they abandoned me.”
“Oh,” Miyo said in surprise. “My real parents abandoned me too. I’m adopted.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Look…” She took off her heart necklace and handed it to him. He took it from her and opened the locket.
“That was you… when you were a kid?” he asked.
“Yup. Them two people are my biological parents. I don’t remember them or my past at all though. That’s poly a good thing since they dumped me in the woods and left.”
He looked at the picture for a long time then set it down on the table.
“So… what about you?” Miyo asked. “What did you do after your parents left you?”
“I lived alone for a long time,” he replied. “Then I started traveling.”
“To where?”
“All over the world. China, India, Russia, South Africa, France, Brazil, Mexico, America…you name it, I’ve been there.”
“Wow. You like traveling?”
“Sort of.”
“Just sort of? Then why did you go to all them places?”
“Because I’m looking for someone.”
“Who? Your mom or dad?”
“No…a friend.”
“Ooh, interesting,” Miyo said shifting around on her cushion. “What kind of friend?”
“Why do you ask?”
“’Cuz I’m nosey.”
“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh, okay. So…does it hurt being left all alone?”
“Sometimes. I should’ve known it was going to happen sooner or later.”
“Why?”
“Because… I just knew. What about you? Does it hurt you to be abandoned?”
Miyo drew in a deep breath, and Akira said, “You don’t have to say it. I know it does.”
“I just want to know why they left me. Why didn’t they didn’t want me.”
“Maybe they left you for a reason.”
“Yeah right! There’s no excuse for abandoning your kid, that’s for sure.”
He looked at her for a while and then said, “Why do you have a grudge against guys?”
“Oh, that’s a long story you poly don’t want to hear.”
“Try me.”
“Okay, well…” She nervously ran her fingers through her hair while her bracelets jingled. “I liked a few guys and they pretended to like me but they were only leading me on. They used me to just boost their ego.”
“So now you think they’re all the same.”
“Pretty much. I mean, it was like ‘Miyo, Miyo, you’re so hot, I wanna go out with you!’ But when it came to being there for me, they ran off to flirt and get with other girls. I’m serious about my feelings. It isn’t a game to me.”
“Do you think it’s possible for a guy to take you seriously?”
“Not anymore. Therefore! This Romeo dude? Totally fake.”
“I don’t think he was fake. I think he meant what he said to Juliet.”
“He can say plenty of things but like they say… actions speak louder than words.”
“He was from a rival family. Being with her was a risk that he was willing to take. That says a lot.”
“Yeah, guys will do whatever it takes to get the girl. Then they use her to wipe their butt crack, and leave. They don’t care about her. They just care about what they want.”
“Why are you so bitter?”
“I’m not bitter! I’m just right.”
“You should be putting this on paper then.”
“I’ll do it later. Why are you so bent on trying to make me think I’m wrong about guys?”
“I’m not trying to make you think anything. I just don’t understand why you’re hurting yourself.”
“Hurting myself?”
“Yes. You really don’t want to live out your life alone, do you?”
“No… do you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You keep talking about love and emotions and crap. Is the person you said you’re lookin’ for your soul mate?”
Akira seemed taken aback at this. “No. Not even close.” His gaze fell on Miyo’s locket sitting on the table. Miyo studied his face, trying hard to read him but was puzzled as to why he looked so contemplative while staring at her locket. She drew up her knees and hugged them.
“Okay,” she said. “What if you found the person you were looking for? What would you say to them?”
“I wouldn’t know where to start,” he replied. “What I really would like to know is what they would say to me.”
“Can you tell me who this person is already? I’m just curious you know, but I mean… you came to Tokyo for a reason, right? What if I know the person you’re looking for? What if they’re one of my friends? I could help you find them.”
Akira’s eyes lit up and he laughed. Miyo felt a smile creeping across her lips. Making him laugh made her feel good inside, especially with his striking looks.
“Thank you, Miyo,” he said. “But I should go now. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”



“I still can’t believe you had the perfect opportunity to turn your charm on Akira and you didn’t,” Hana said as they walked to school the next morning.
“What charm? I don’t have any charm.” Miyo said. “I just really wanna know what his real story is. He talks all chivalrous and asks stuff about me but when I ask stuff about him, he gets secretive. And I really wanna know who this person he’s lookin’ for is.”
“Mysterious man,” Izumi said. “Sounds irresistible already.”
Four boys wearing long black coats and shades with baseball caps stood across the street, watching them nonchalantly and pretending to be chatting and reading newspapers. Miyo glanced their way. They all were a different height, standing shortest to tallest like the reception bars on a cell phone and she looked at them for a moment before turning her attention back to her conversation with her friends.
“Which one is it?” the shortest boy muttered. The second boy, who was slightly taller, peered over the top of his newspaper. “It’s the one with the pink and blonde hair.”
“Are you sure it’s not one of the other two?” the third one asked.
“No, the other two are Japanese, genius,” the second one said.
“Well, how am I supposed to remember? I only saw her once,” said the third one.
“Who’s gonna do it?” the fourth and tallest boy asked.
“I will,” the second boy said, closing his newspaper and tossing it at the shortest boy, who caught it. “I’ve got the skills for this one. I’m gonna need a heck of a lot of self control though. What’s the drinking age for this country anyway?”
“I dunno but we’ll find out,” the shortest one said.
“Alright. Shadow me,” the second one said. He began to walk down the street, taking off his trench coat, baseball cap and shades, and throwing them in a nearby trash can while the other three followed, trying not to appear suspicious.
“Why did he throw his stuff away?” the shortest boy asked. “Them clothes were cool.”
“Let’s stop walking then. If we follow him across the street it’ll look weird,” the fourth and tallest boy said. They stopped and crowded around the trash can, opening their newspapers again and pretending to read them.
“Look at those guys over there in them trench coats,” Miyo said quietly to her friends. “They look wicked suspicious.”
“Hey ya’ll little ladies!” someone said and put their arm around Miyo’s shoulder. Miyo gasped and looked up to see a boy with brown hair pulled back in a pony tail and grey-blue eyes pulling her close to him.
“What the heck? Who are you? And don’t touch me!” she snapped.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” the boy said appearing surprised. “I thought you were someone else. My, my, my, but aren’t you pretty! What’s your name?”
“No way am I tellin’ you,” Miyo said walking away. “Let’s go girls.”
“Nice meeting you!” the boy called after them. His companions slowly walked up to him.
“Did you get her?” the tallest asked. The other boy nodded. “Yeah, I got her.”

When Miyo and her friends arrived at school, everyone was talking about Akira:
“Did you know he benched three hundred in the weight room for like an hour?”
“Yeah! And his biceps are as big as my head!”
“He’s got a cute accent and he’s so tall and gorgeous!”
“He must be single. I pray that he is.”
In class, Akira never looked Miyo’s way even once and she began to feel a bit despondent. But toward the end of the day he got up to sharpen his pencil and slid a note onto her desk. She opened it up and read:

I’ll be at your house at five. - Akira

After school, while Hana and Izumi stayed to meet with the volleyball club, Miyo ran home in anticipation with her blonde and pink hair flailing behind her. Her heart was beating in rhythm with her feet pounding the pavement and she kept thinking about what outfit to put on when she got home. Of course, she ended up spending more time than she realized on fixing her hair and redoing her makeup so that when the doorbell rang at five o’clock, Ryoko answered the door.
“Oh hello,” Miyo heard her say. “Can I help you?”
“Hi, Akira!” Miyo said racing down the stairs and skipping up to him. “Mom, this is Akira. He’s my partner on a literary project. Come on, Akira. We can go to my room for privacy.”
“Your room?” Ryoko said, as Akira slipped off his sneakers. “What’s wrong with the living room?”
“Privacy, Mom!” Miyo said grabbing Akira’s arm and pulling him up the stairs.
When they got to her room, Miyo shut the door and sat on her futon. “Okay, now we can talk. Did you know you’re popular in school already? The guys think you’re cool and the girls are in love with you. My friends are so jealous that I’m working with you, and is it true you can bench three hundred?”
Akira didn’t answer her. He circled the room, looking at the pictures of her when she was younger with a strange expression on his face. Then he went to her closet door, opened it, and began searching through her clothes.
“Um, excuse me,” Miyo said. “If you wanna borrow some clothes, just ask…”
He then went to her dresser, opened the drawers and moved the clothes around before pulling out a tattered robe. “What’s this?”
“Oh, that’s what I was wearing when my dad found me,” Miyo said. “My adopted father I mean.”
He threw the robe on the floor, walked back to the closet and grabbed a pair of shoes. “And these?”
“Those are the shoes I was wearing when Dad found me,” Miyo said staring at him. “Why do you ask?”
He shook his head and dropped the shoes. “Nothing. Just unusual, that’s all.”
“Hey, can you stop messin’ up my stuff and talk?” Miyo said.
“About?”
“About you, man! You’re the talk of the school. I hope you don’t plan on movin’ soon ‘cuz you’re makin’ me quite popular too.”
He looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“You know… I’m the girl who argued in class with you and ends up being your partner. If we pretend to hate each other and come up with an explosive report on Romeo and Juliet, it’ll make us the talk of the school.”
“I thought you didn’t care about what people thought of you, Miyo.”
“I don’t. But I’ve always wondered how it felt for everyone to know my name.”
“It’s the person behind the name that matters,” Akira said, standing in front of her. “But about Romeo and Juliet… you know they both die at the end, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Everybody knows that ‘cuz they always skip the middle and read the end. Duh.”
“If they both lived to see each other again, what do you think they would say to each other?”
“Well…I know! Let’s role play. I’m Juliet and you’re Romeo. Oh Romeo, Romeo, you stupid desperate piece of crap, Romeo! Why did you have to have to go and kill yourself?”
“I thought you were dead, Juliet,” Akira said, pushing a tuft of blonde hair out of his face. “I couldn’t imagine life without you.”
“Oh please. Weren’t you in love with some Rosaline girl a few days ago? And I bet you know a bunch of other girls who wouldn’t mind you climbin’ up their balcony.”
“You don’t understand. You’re the only girl I want.”
Miyo swallowed and said, “Well, you’re a fool for committing suicide. Even though you’re dumb, I still like you and when you died, I was so sad that I shoved a dagger through myself. It wasn’t exactly pleasant.”
“Can you forgive me for causing you so much pain?”
“I’m not sure. Let me think about it…nah, sorry. You’re too sappy and emo. I’ll marry the next cute guy I meet at a party. The end.”
Akira made a puzzled face. “Why did you just say that you only like me? Juliet didn’t just like Romeo. She loved him.”
“Cuz I don’t like sayin’ the word love. The end.”
“It’s not a love story unless you use the word love.”
“Not sayin’ it. The end.”
“But why don’t-“
“The end!”
Akira gazed at her for a moment then sat down on the other end of her futon. Miyo peered over her shoulder at him. “What are you always thinking about? When you zone out you get this far off look in your eyes.”
“Nothing important.”
“Right. I bet you’re thinkin’ ‘bout that missing friend of yours.”
“Not just that. I think about a lot of things.”
“Like?”
“Like how you came to be such an angry person.”
“I’m not an angry person. I’m just realistic. Girls always have their heads in the clouds. They dream about the ‘perfect guy’ treatin’ them like a queen and ‘livin’ happily ever after’. I know that crap doesn’t exist. You can’t trust people. They’ll always let you down sooner or later, no matter who they are.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
“Yeah, and they use that as an excuse to hurt you and desert you.”
“What about your friends? Aren’t they there for you?”
“Friends are only your friends if they can get something outta you. Every guy I’ve liked used me to get close to my friends and my friends always end up going out with them. My friends don’t care. They just use me to get guys.”
“They’re not true friends then.”
“But I have no one else.”
“What about your family?”
“They’re not my real family. They don’t know anythin’ about me and they’ll never understand me.”
“It’s no wonder you’re always angry. You’re so negative about people that you push them away and don’t even try to connect with anyone.”
“What’s up with you?” Miyo said. “Are you my shrink? Every time we talk, you’re always tryin’ to get inside my head.”
“I just want to know what kind of person you are.”
“Why?”
“Why would I sit here and do a project with you and not try to find out who you are? First time I stepped into class, you were the only girl who wasn’t staring at me with desire in your eyes. Instead you looked angry and apathetic. I wanted to know why. Now that I’ve gotten the chance to get to know you, I feel like we understand each other. Isn’t that what you want? Someone to talk to who is hurting inside just like you?”
Miyo turned around. “Just because you’ve talked to me a couple times doesn’t mean you know me.” She got up with a frown on her face and grabbed a brush off her dresser. “It sounds like you’re tryin’ to get on my good side,” she said, running it through her hair. “You’re pretending to care about me so that I’ll start to like you. This time it ain’t gonna work.”
Akira stood up and she could see him watching her in the mirror. “I’ll write the report tonight,” he said finally. “See you tomorrow, Miyo.”



“Every conversation I have with him is so confusing,” Miyo said to Hana and Izumi the next morning. “When we talk, I don’t know what I’m saying, I don’t know what he’s saying… and then I can’t help thinkin’ about it for the rest of the day.”
“Sounds like you have a crush on him, Miyo,” Izumi said. “Are you gonna ask him out?”
“Miyo doesn’t have the guts,” Hana said with a chuckle. “I can do it for you though, Miyo, if you want.”
“Heck no! I told you I don’t like him like that. Don’t start anythin’.”
“Fine,” Hana said tossing her long black hair aside. “If you don’t ask him out, somebody else will. Probably one of the seniors I bet.”
“If they do, I don’t care,” Miyo told them, “’Cuz I don’t like him. Period.”
In Literature class, Mr. Lee cried out, “A plus for Akira and Miyo on their report! It was written with such passionate enthusiasm and fervent pessimism, I was completely mesmerized by it! Well done!” He tacked it up to the bulletin board. “Now the rest of you did pretty good, though your answers were a bit too blasé for me. Good effort was put into them however, and that deserves praise. Alright, moving on…”
At the end of the day while the students cleaned the school, Miyo swept her homeroom then went to her locker in the rear of the room to stare at her reflection in the mirror. While running her fingers through her hair she felt a presence behind her and turned around. Akira stood watching her and she smiled. “Thanks for writing the report.”
“You’re welcome,” he answered.
“What exactly did you write in it anyway?” she asked.
“Everything I said and everything you said, with a sugar coating.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
“I should be thanking you for making it so interesting.”
“I guess this means you won’t be comin’ over to analyze me anymore,” Miyo said jokingly. “I hope I wasn’t too mean to you last night.”
“I didn’t think you would care if you were. There isn’t anything you could say that would hurt me anyways.”
She folded her arms. “Even if I called you a player you wouldn’t defend yourself?”
“You wouldn’t call me that because you know I’m not.”
“Ha! You haven’t proved me wrong on that yet, pretty boy.”
Akira stepped in closer to her, reached over her head, and threw her locker door shut. “Go ahead. Tell me what kind of person you think I am since you think you know me so well.”
“I swear you must be studyin’ to be a psychotherapist-”
“Miyo,” Akira said sharply in a solemn voice. “Look at me.”
She averted her eyes away from him in defiance and he suddenly moved forward until he had her back up against the locker. She finally looked up into his face in anger and said, “Get away from me.”
“Try to leave then,” he said. His silver eyes were locked on hers with such intensity, she didn’t dare move.
“I gave you the benefit of the doubt when I first met you, even though at first sight you made up your mind to hate me,” he said. “You may act tough but I know inside you’re not and you hate the fact that it wasn’t that hard for me to figure you out.”
“You think you can figure anybody out, don’t you?” Miyo said giving him a hard stare. “And now you think you have me figured out? Please! What I wanna know is why you’re playin’ these mind games with me. Why not try some other girl who would love for you to get inside her head? Some other girl who actually likes you.” She gave him a shove, which only moved him a couple inches. He paused, seeming to ponder something for a moment, then moved out of her way to let her pass. Though she wanted to walk out the door and leave, her legs were frozen and her shoes felt glued to the tiled floor. Her stomach tingled as if she had swallowed needles and she finally clenched her fists at her sides and looked up at him.
“What do you want from me?” she asked.
Akira gazed at her face, wearing no expression at all and slid his hands into his pockets. “Nothing, Miyo.”
He turned and left the room.

For the rest of the week Miyo snuck glances of Akira during class, but not once did he look at her or speak to her. She passed the time by staring out the window at the frail trees swaying in the wind while the teachers jabbered on their lessons. Izumi and Hana noticed Akira being distant toward Miyo and asked her about it but she simply shrugged her shoulders and changed the subject. Finally the weekend came and Miyo began to get ready for Hoshi’s Hawaiian party. She put on a lime green bikini and had just started to tie palm leaves to it when Ryoko walked into her room.
“Well, well, well,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “I hope there are chaperones for this party.”
“There are, Mom,” Miyo said. “Hoshi’s parents will be there.”
“You’re father still doesn’t want you to go but I told him you’d be back by nine thirty so you better get your butt here by then or he’ll have a fit. And cover up your belly more. You don’t want the boys gawking at you.”
Miyo pinned some gardenias in her hair and set out walking down the street in her leafy bikini and flip flops. Hoshi’s house was only a few blocks away and her friends were supposed to meet her there. When she reached his house, she heard laughter coming from the backyard and the front door slid open before she even rang the doorbell.
“Hey, Miyo!” Hoshi practically screamed and dragged her inside. “C’mon! The party’s already started!” He pulled her into the living room where music was blaring loud enough to rattle the walls of the house and a blinding strobe light flashed repeatedly while a large group of people danced the hula. All of them were from school and Miyo looked around for her friends as Hoshi pulled her by the arm over to the punch bowl set up on a table in the corner of the room.
“Where’s your parents?” Miyo shouted over the music.
“Oh, they’re on vacation,” Hoshi shouted back. “My bro Ichiro is watchin’ over us. No worries! Have some punch.”
He poured her a cup and ran off into the dancing crowd, leaving Miyo by herself. She sipped at her punch, trying not to appear nervous. Parties weren’t exactly her thing; they always made her feel awkward, especially when her friends would grab her arm and try to drag her onto the dance floor. She didn’t know how to dance the hula anyway, though obviously the people there didn’t know either. It was hard to tell if they were actually dancing or having epileptic seizures and she couldn’t help snickering to herself. Since they were making fools of themselves, her nerves began to settle down. She swayed to the music a bit and checked if the flower blossoms in her hair had come loose, then noticed that torches were lit outside on the deck beside the in-ground pool.
“Cool,” she muttered to herself and sipped at her punch again. The doorbell suddenly rang and Hoshi danced over to open the door. Izumi walked in, followed by Hana, who walked in with Akira holding her hand. Miyo felt her arm go numb from shock and almost dropped her punch. She quickly turned around to face the wall and took in a deep breath.
“Hi Miyo!” Izumi shrieked behind her. “Ain’t this a great party?”
Miyo turned around and feigned a smile. “Yeah...” She looked at Hana uneasily and asked, “Why are you with Akira?”
“Oh, he asked me out,” Hana said smirking. “He’s so sweet! I couldn’t turn him down, Miyo.”
Akira, who wasn’t paying any attention to their conversation until then, turned and looked at Miyo square in the face. Her lower lip trembled and she said, “That’s great, Hana. I’m happy for you.”
She gulped down the rest of her punch, threw the cup on the floor, then opened the glass sliding door and went out on the deck. A few people were outside, talking quietly and giggling, but Miyo ignored them and went down by the side of pool. Its water was as blue as a tropical ocean and clear enough to see all the way to the bottom. She hugged herself and stared at the water angrily, feeling a tear trickle out of the corner of her eye. She had no idea why she was so emotional like a five year old pouting for no reason at all.
“Why are you out here?”
Miyo glanced behind her and turned her head quickly. “The music in there is too loud.”
She heard footsteps near her. “I don’t think you’re out here because of the music,” Akira’s voice said.
Miyo wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand. “What do you want, Akira?”
“I noticed you seemed a little disappointed when you saw me with Hana so I came to check on you.”
She turned and looked at him. “Check on me for what? I’m fine. Go back to your girlfriend.”
“Miyo, I can see right through you.”
Her eyes widened and she covered her chest with her hands. “Oh my gosh, are my boobs fallin’ out of my bikini top?”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
She frowned. “Then what’re you talkin’ about? Oh wait… don’t tell me you’re tryin’ to read my mind again.”
“You wanted me to like you, didn’t you? After all that stuff you said about guys, you still wanted me to like you.”
“It didn’t mean I wanted to go out with you,” Miyo snapped. “It would just make me feel better about myself if a cute popular guy like you liked me, that’s all.”
“You don’t like yourself.”
“I’m fine with myself. Go away.”
He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her toward him so he could see her face. “Miyo, I don’t want you to like me. I want you to hate me.”
“Why?”
“It’s for your own good.”
“What’re you talkin’ about?”
“I’m saying that it’s better if you didn’t get attached to me in any way.”
“Well, that’ll be easy since you asked one of my friends out after I told you how they are.”
“I’m sorry, but you’re just… not my type.”
Miyo looked down, kicked off her flip flops and nodded. “Yeah, I’m not anybody’s type.” She sat by the side of the pool and dangled her feet in to the cold water, causing wavering ripples that broke her reflection apart. Akira watched her for a long moment before slowly going back inside the house.
The trees rustled nearby and a brown-haired boy with a long braid peering through a pair of sleek binoculars poked his head out.
“Man oh man, this keeps gettin’ better and better,” he murmured. Another boy with gray eyes popped up beside him, eating a glazed doughnut.
“Did you see that?” he said. “I just saw somebody go back inside.”
“I didn’t see anybody,” the other boy replied. “I was busy crawlin’ through the bushes and I got thorns in my pants. Dang, she’s pretty. Why is she sittin’ outside all by herself? Ain’t this a party? There should be guys swarmin’ all over this chick.”
“I told you somebody just went inside. I only saw ‘em from behind but they were tall and pretty ripped, wearin’ a red shirt and jeans.”
“I don’t give a crap about whoever went inside. I’m watchin’ her, man.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be watchin’ other people besides her?”
“Yeah, but from what I can see...she should be our main concern.”
“What are you lookin’ at with those binoculars anyway? I hope you’re focusing on her face.”
The other boy chuckled. “You know me, my friend…”
“Do we gotta sit here all night? I’m gettin’ bored.”
“We’ll stay here until she leaves.”
“I don’t get what we’re accomplishing by doin’ this.”
“We’re lookin’ for the right time to converse with her and right now seems pretty good. That’s why I got all dressed up.” He struck a modeling pose for his friend. “Ya like it?” He was wearing a short sleeved black silk shirt that had buttons running down the front and khaki pants with a belt that had a square-shaped silver buckle.
The gray eyed boy took another bite of his doughnut. “You’re supposed to be wearin’ Hawaiian clothes.”
“Shut up! I’m goin’ in.”
“Be careful. There’s some people walkin’ around-“
“Finish that doughnut, will ya?”
The brunette boy leapt out of the bushes and brushed himself off. He walked by the deck, making sure no one inside the house saw him and approached Miyo from behind. “You’re much too pretty to be sittin’ alone, little lady.” he said smoothly.
Miyo turned around and grimaced. “Oh no…you’re that perv on the street that was with that black trench coat gang!”
“I’m not a perv,” the boy said walking closer. “I just mistook you for someone else, that’s all. And I don’t know any black trench coat gang.”
“Yeah right, stalker!”
“Oh come on! Just let me introduce my fair self so we can become friends and put the past behind us, eh?”
Miyo glowered at him. “Fine. What’s your name?”
“I’m Goro. And you, sweet lady?”
“Miyo.”
“Miyo, that’s a pretty name,” he said sitting down beside her. “Why are you out here all by yourself?”
“I just don’t feel like partying.”
“Yeah, it does seem pretty noisy in there.”
Miyo stared at him. “You mean you haven’t been inside yet? Are you even invited to this party?”
“Of course! I just cut through the front yard first…to get back here.”
“And you’re talkin’ to me just ‘cuz I’m sittin’ back here by myself in a bikini?”
“No, not at all-“
Miyo got up and slipped her flip flops back on. “Jerk!” She ran through the bushes and disappeared.
“Aw, come on!” Goro called after her. “I’m a nice guy, honest!” His companion peered out from behind a tree and laughed. “So much for that. Looks like she doesn’t like you.”
“It’s alright,” Goro said with a smirk. “We know every move she makes anyway.”



Miyo walked home sluggishly, pulling the palm leaves off her bikini and dragging her feet. The night had gone all wrong and she felt like a complete fool. Why would someone like Akira be attracted to her? It was her own fault for allowing her mind to dwell on him for two whole days, even though he annoyed her and always left her perplexed. He had a gentle and mysterious aura about him that she found intriguing and actually made her want to argue with him about every trivial thing they disagreed upon, like two little children playing in a sandbox. As she kept walking, she realized she knew almost nothing about him and he had somehow squeezed out of her certain things about herself that she kept locked inside her heart. This made her feel so vulnerable, her chest began to ache.
She heard a bicycle bell ring and a bike skidded to a halt beside her. On it sat a handsome boy taller than even Akira with hair as black as the night and dark brown eyes.
“Excuse me, Ma’dame,” he said with an accent. “I couldn’t help notice your interesting attire. Do you happen to be from another country?”
“No,” Miyo said. “I just came from a party.”
“Oh,” he said nodding. “Very beautiful. You live around here?”
“Um… She hesitated from telling a complete stranger where she lived. “I’m sorry but I don’t know you.”
He held out his hand. “My name is Hiroto.”
She stared at his hand then gave him a little bow. “I’m Miyo. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh I’m sorry,” he said. “Westerners say hello with a handshake. I thought you may have been from the west.”
“It’s alright,” Miyo replied, pulling another palm leaf off her waist. “I know I don’t look Japanese.”
“Yes…but you are beautiful.”
Miyo smiled then began walking again and he rolled alongside her on his bike.
“So…why are you walking home from a party so early, Miyo? It’s only eight o’clock and I still hear music.”
“I just want to go home. I don’t feel like bein’ around people.”
“That’s understandable. People can be irritating. Sometimes it’s wise to take some time for yourself.”
“Yeah. People are backstabbers.”
“You should stay away from such people. They can make you miserable. You are much too pretty for that.”
“Why are you tryin’ to flatter me so much? You just met me.”
“I can’t help it. You are very beautiful.”
“The sun is beautiful too, but if you touch it you’ll get burned.”
Hiroto stopped. “Okay, I got your hint. Good bye, Miyo.” He rode away into the night.
When Miyo got home, she stripped off her bikini, took a long shower then sat in her room by the light of her lamp and wrote in her purple velvet diary before falling asleep.

The following Monday Miyo took a different route to school to avoid Hana and Izumi. She felt like such an outsider walking alone, watching the humming cars and trucks whiz by and she passed a noodle vendor where people lined up for a bowl of steaming noodles in salty broth. Every voice she heard made her turn her head and look around worriedly. She didn’t want Hana and Izumi to see her at all; if they did, they would walk with her and ask her why she ditched them the night before and Miyo wasn’t ready to give them an explanation. Not yet, at least.
As she neared her school, she peered around the corner of a building and saw them…Izumi and Hana walking across the street to school. Her heart jumped in her chest. Akira was waiting at the school entrance and Hana ran up and wrapped her arms around him. Miyo bit her bottom lip and pulled her head out of view. She heard the sudden ring of a bicycle bell and Hiroto rode his bike right up beside her.
“Hello, Miyo,” he said. “How are you?”
“Why do you have to ring that stupid bell and scare the crap outta me?” she snapped at him. He was wearing a school uniform of a white dress shirt with black slacks and Miyo said with dread, “Don’t tell me you go to my school too…”
“No, but I saw you walking and I wanted to say hi,” he said getting off his bike. “What are you staring at?” He looked around the corner. “Ah…were you looking at that blonde guy over there?”
“Maybe.”
His eyes hardened and his jovial smile disappeared. “What’s his name?”
“Akira,” Miyo said puzzled. “Do you know him?”
Hiroto didn’t seem to hear her; he went on staring at Akira with a hateful scowl on his face until she cleared her throat exaggeratedly. He blinked and looked at her. “Hm? What did you say?”
“I asked you if you knew him.”
“No…no, of course not. Why would I?”
“I dunno, maybe ‘cuz you’re givin’ him a wicked dirty look.”
“You’re just imagining things. You should go, Miyo, or you’ll be late to school.”
“Like you care,” she said in annoyance. “Good bye, Hiroto, you freak.” She began to walk toward her school and after a few yards, stopped, and glanced over her shoulder. Hiroto still stood in the same spot, watching her with a smile. At this Miyo broke into a run and raced toward the school entrance. She stopped midway to rest and saw Akira standing in front of the school doors with his hands in his pockets, looking right at her as if he were waiting for her. She narrowed her eyes and turned around to go in the opposite direction.
“Miyo… wait,” he said. Miyo hesitated and he slowly came up to her then stopped with his eyes fixed on something behind her.
“What do you want?” she said to him.
“Who were you just talking to?” he asked, still looking past her.
“None of your business.”
“I’m asking nicely.”
“I don’t care. It’s none of your business.”
“He’s still there,” Akira said.
“He is? I swear he’s a stalker.”
“Are you with him?”
Miyo made a disgusted face. “What? Of course n-” Here she stopped herself. Why would Akira care if she was with someone? It sounded almost as if it bothered him. Could she get him back for what he did to her? She grinned.
“Yeah…I’m with him. His name is Hiroto and he loves ridin’ that bike around. You got a problem with that?”
“Miyo,” he said in a stern voice. “You must stay away from him.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do, pretty boy? Go run to your little darling Hana.”
He stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “You don’t understand. You have to stay away from him, Miyo. He’s very, very dangerous.”
She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I like dangerous. Get lost.” She pushed past him and went into the school.



It had been a pain to avoid Hana and Izumi all day and when Miyo walked home from school, she was exhausted. Instead of going to the cafeteria to eat lunch, she stayed in class eating a banana and drinking a carton of milk. Now she could smell someone cooking rice and vegetables nearby and her stomach let out an enormous growl. Her backpack began to feel heavy and she took it off to drag it behind her on the pavement. Then she heard a bicycle bell ring and froze.
“Hey!” Hiroto called riding past her. “Want to race?”
“You’re on a bike, you idiot!” she shouted after him. “Of course you’re gonna win!”
He made a U-turn into the street and rode toward her. “You could’ve tried at least.”
“What are you doing? Get out of the street!”
At the same moment these words left her mouth, a car rounded the corner and sped toward him. Miyo had no time to even scream and the car’s tires screeched as it struck him and she saw his mangled bike as it was tossed through the air and crashed onto the sidewalk in pieces.
“Hiroto!” she screamed covering her face with her hands. If he was lying in the road in a bloody heap, she didn’t want to see it. She couldn’t handle seeing dismembered dead bodies; even when they showed them on tv, she would always have nightmares for several days afterwards. Someone tapped her arm.
“Miyo...”
She looked up to see Hiroto standing in front of her, completely unscathed. “How did you-“
“Do you have a cell phone?” he asked. “You might want to call an ambulance for the people in the car.”
She looked at the car that had hit him. It was on the opposite side of the street surrounded by shattered glass and she could hear someone crying for help. Her hands shook as she pulled out her cell phone.
“Are you sure you’re okay,Hiroto?”
“Yes. While you call, I’m going to go help them.” He calmly walked across the street to the flattened car, yanked the door off and threw it like a crumpled piece of paper to the ground. Miyo’s mouth fell open and she watched as he pulled the two passengers out of the car, a young couple apparently, and carefully laid them on the sidewalk. Then, when he thought she wasn’t looking, he gave the crushed car a shove with his foot and it slid several yards out of the way of incoming traffic.
“Miyo,” he called to her. “I’m going to get out of here. Will you be okay?”
Miyo nodded, for she was so shocked, she couldn’t speak.
“Good,” he said and winked at her. “See you around.”
After Miyo called the ambulance, she had no idea what to do with herself. What would she tell them when they arrived? That someone she knew got hit by a car and walked away unharmed while the car lay in the street totaled? She panicked and began to run home hyperventilating, not noticing Goro, who stood watching her from a distance.
“Not good,” he said to himself. “Not good at all.” He swiftly jogged down the street after her until he was practically walking on her heels. She was so distraught that she didn’t notice him at all.
“Hey, Miyo.” he said at last.
She gasped and spun around. “Not you again!”
“Yes, it’s me again. Do you know what just happened with that car back there?”
“Oh my gosh, yes…it was an accident…the car hit somebody…”
“Yeah, and the car is wrecked and I saw that ‘somebody’ walk away whistling. Do you know who it was?”
“H-his name is Hiroto. That’s all I know.”
“Hiroto, huh? Thanks for the info.”
“Why? What do you care?”
“Oh, you know…I saw the whole thing and wanted to report it, that’s all. I figured you wouldn’t be able to ‘cuz you look too freaked out.” He pulled out his cell phone and began dialing a number.
“I already called an ambulance,” Miyo said breathlessly.
“Then why are you runnin’ away? Shouldn’t you stay there ‘til they come?”
“What am I supposed to do? The guy that got hit… I don’t know how he didn’t get hurt. I mean…look at the car…it’s totally wasted…”
“Mm hmm,” Goro said, dialing on his cell phone again. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“What?”
“Stay here,” he said putting the phone to his ear. After a moment, he said, “Hey. We got a problem. Search the surrounding area for a tall guy…about six foot six. He should answer by the name of Hiroto. What? No, no…it’s not him. That’s what worries me. Call me back.” He flipped his phone shut.
“What are you?” Miyo asked him. “An undercover detective?”
“That’s confidential,” he replied with a smile.
“You look kind of young to be a secret agent.”
“Age ain’t nothin’ but a number.”
“Is Hiroto some kind of criminal? No wonder Akira told me he was dangerous…”
“Akira?” Goro said with sudden interest. “Who’s Akira?”
“He’s a guy from my school. He told me to stay away from Hiroto.”
“Really? Tell me more about this Akira.”
“Why?”
“It could be important.”
“He’s new at school and he just moved to Tokyo from England.”
“What does he look like?”
“He’s tall and blonde with gray eyes.”
“Have you talked to him at all?”
“Yeah…we worked on a project together.”
“And? What was he like?”
“He was really secretive.”
Goro dialed on his phone again and waited. “Hey. Look for some tall, blonde gray-eyed kid named Akira. A reliable source just told me this ‘Akira’ knew Hiroto. It could be him. Call me as soon as you get a visual.”
“What is goin’ on?” Miyo asked him. “Why are you lookin’ for Akira and Hiroto? They’re not killers, are they? I know Akira wouldn’t kill anybody…”
“How do you know that?” said Goro, putting his cell phone back into his pocket. “Do you really know him that well?”
“Actually no, I don’t.”
“Well then? Anythin’s possible. Listen, I wish I could explain all of this to you, kiddo, but I don’t really know if it’s the right time yet.”
“You keep followin’ me around and now you’re followin’ Hiroto and Akira. Somethin’s goin’ on and I wanna know what it is.”
“Like I said, I would tell you I just don’t think you’d be able to handle it.”
“I can handle anything! Just tell me already!”
“I’ll tell you a little bit of info if you tell me more ‘bout Akira.”
“What more can I tell you about him? That’s all I know.”
“I don’t think so. There’s somethin’ missing here. I need you to be more detailed about him.”
“All I know is that he traveled all over the world lookin’ for some friend that he didn’t want to talk about and just came from England. He’s got a British accent and seems to like Romeo and Juliet a lot, and every time I talked to him, he would ask me all these questions to try and figure me out…sayin’ he wanted to know what kind of person I am. Then all of a sudden he starts goin’ out with my friend Hana.”
Goro began to laugh and shake his head while Miyo stared at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Ah, nothin’ cutie. Don’t mind me.”
“Now you gotta tell me what’s goin’ on.”
“Alright, fair enough. Both Akira and Hiroto are wanted.”
“For what?”
“That’s confidential.”
“Are they…are they murderers?”
“Well…”
“Oh god! I almost had a crush on a killer?”
Goro looked at her. “You liked one of them?”
“No, I said I almost liked them.”
“Both of them or just one?”
“Just one.”
He tipped his head to the side and smirked at her. “Was it Akira?”
“Yeah.”
Goro nodded to himself and chuckled. “Now it makes sense.”
“What makes sense?”
“Everything.” He reached into his pocket and flipped his cell phone open. “Do you mind if I assign you a body guard?”
“What? Why?”
“Unfortunately you’ve become a target, my dear.”
“Are you saying someone is tryin’ to kill me?”
“Yes and no.”
“Which one is it for goodness’ sakes?”
“Ah, let’s just leave that for you to figure out.”
“Are you crazy? What police department are you from?”
“I’m not from the local PD.”
“Then what? Interpol? Are you carryin’ a gun I can shoot you with, you stupid jerk?”
“Hey! I’m tryin’ to protect you here. Don’t bite the hand that watches your back, woman.”
“I’m goin’ home.” She shoved him out of her way and began walking down the sidewalk.
Goro dialed another number on his phone. “Hey, she’s walkin’ home. Can you try and intercept her? It ain’t safe for her to be alone. Yeah… and when you find her, make her remember.”



When Miyo got to her empty house, she ran up the stairs to her room, dropped her backpack on the floor, and threw herself face-down on her futon. Her heart hurt as if it was caving in and she felt like a panic-stricken nervous wreck. She rolled over onto her back, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand when she saw a shadow move across the ceiling and sat up quickly. A tall boy stood in her room, wearing a long black trench coat with a baseball cap and shades. Miyo gasped in shock and fell off the futon, desperately clawing her way across the carpet toward the door. She felt the boy grab her arm and he pulled her to her feet.
“Hey, calm down,” he said. “Goro sent me to be your bodyguard.”
“How the heck did you get into my room?”
“The window was unlocked.”
“This is crazy! I wanna see some proof of authority! Where’s your badge?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Then I’m gonna call the police and have you arrested. You people are a bunch of freaks!”
“The police won’t be able to arrest me and they won’t be able to protect you.”
Miyo grabbed at her own hair with both hands and began to pull. “I am so frustrated and confused right now, I am going to scream if someone doesn’t tell me what is goin’ on.”
“If you sit down, we can talk,” he said. Miyo sat on her futon slowly, eyeing him with a scowl. He put his hands in his pockets and looked at her for a long while. “You call yourself Miyo, correct?”
“That’s correct. Who do you and your friends work for?”
“We don’t work for anyone.”
“Then why were you guys followin’ me and my friends when we were walkin’ to school?”
“We were focused on you, not your friends. When Goro went up to you and put his arm around you, he stuck a tracer onto the back of your neck.”
Miyo began to feel around her neck. “I don’t feel anything…”
“That’s because it’s tiny like a microchip.”
“Why in the world did you guys want to trace me?”
“Because we had a feeling you were in danger. There are people searching for you as we speak.”
“Who? And why are they lookin’ for me?”
His cell phone suddenly beeped and he reached into his pocket and opened it. After a moment he closed it and looked at her. “Miyo, I’m going to do something right now and it might hurt. It would be better if you stood up.”
She remained where she was, staring at him coldly. “What are you going to do?”
“Trust me,” he said.
She stood up tentatively and he took her by the hands to pull her closer and hugged her. Miyo was so bewildered by this that she drew in a sharp breath and choked on her own saliva. She coughed into his trench coat and he patted her on the back. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” she said coughing. “Sorry.”
He slid his hands up her shoulder blades to the back of her neck. “Are you ready?”
“I guess.”
Miyo felt a sudden cold shock in her neck that ran all the way up into her head, causing a migraine so horrible that her vision faded and her knees gave out. She felt herself falling and being caught, then darkness and silence.
When she woke up, she was lying on her futon and her head throbbed as if it were being squeezed in a vice. The boy wearing the trench coat was sitting in the corner like a quiet shadow, with his knees drawn up and his dark eyes gazing at the screen of his cell phone. He looked at her when she began to move and stood up. “You alright?”
Miyo pinched her eyes shut. “Yeah. My head is killin’ me though.”
“Let’s test your memory now then. Who are you and where do you come from?” he asked.
“I’m…Venus,” she answered. “Zeta Venus Eridani. Princess of Sahami.”
He opened his cell phone and began to dial while she rubbed her head. “It worked, Gemini…” he said into the phone. “She remembers.”
Venus squinted at him. “Gemini?”
He snapped his phone shut and walked toward her. “Yes,” he said, kneeling beside her bed. “Goro is Gemini, Venus.”
“Then…who are you?”
He slowly took off his baseball cap and shades. Venus peered at him for a moment before gasping. “Shen-li?”
“Yes. You remember me?”
“Of course…you’re the one that helped us out.” Her eyes suddenly widened and she grabbed the front of his trench coat. “Shen-li, what happened on Sidon? What happened to my parents?”
“After they sent you away, a war between Zeito’s army and Zeiniko’s army broke out,” he said. “Zeito wanted you and your father dead while Zeiniko wanted to keep only you alive. They went on a massive search for you and your family and Gemini hid your parents while I tried my best to protect them, but the armies were just too strong. The Vecsyans fought back against being enslaved again but lost in the end.”
“And Kaiyan? Did he destroy the Saiteimians?”
“No. He refused to kill anyone. Your parents were captured and I never saw them again.”
“Maybe they went back home…maybe they went back to Saihami.”
Shen-li shook his head with sadness in his black eyes. “No, Venus…your home was destroyed. I’m sorry.”
She sat in absolute shock for a while, feeling her body go numb and her hands began to tremble uncontrollably. “But why? Kaiyan was supposed to…supposed to protect them. That was the whole point…he was supposed to be the hero and all that wasn’t supposed to happen and we were supposed to go back home…”
“I’m sorry, Venus.”
“Did they…did they die? Do you know?”
“I don’t. I never got to find out.”
She covered her face with her hands and began to cry. All these years she had felt so lost and abandoned, suffering and wondering when all the questions in her head would be answered. Now that she could finally remember her past, it seemed that nothing was left of it, not even the people closest to her. They all had been wiped away like rain drops on glass and the pain crashed down on her like a massive tidal wave. Nothing mattered anymore; now she was truly alone.
At length Venus finally looked at Shen-li with tears streaming down her face. “Where is Kaiyan now?”
He seemed to regret her asking this question and his face became etched with worry. “That’s what I have to talk to you about. Venus…Akira is Kaiyan.”





 CHAPTER ELEVEN

IF VENUS HAD TO MAKE a list of the worst moments of her entire life, when Shen-li said those words would have been one of them. Not only had she just learned that her parents may have been dead and lost forever to her, to find out that Akira was Kaiyan, the boy responsible for the tragedy that befell them, sent her into such a profound state of shock, she had to lay down right then for it felt like a boulder was sitting on her chest and she could hardly breathe. Shen-li called her name over and over but she couldn’t respond to him. All she could do was hold the heart locket around her neck tightly in her hand and not let go.
“It can’t be him,” she said at last. “He laughs and smiles... why is he pretending to be someone else? Why is he going to my school? Why did he ask me so many questions?”
“Gemini called me while you were asleep and explained what he thinks is happening,” Shen-li replied. “The war on Sidon ended three years ago, leaving the planet practically uninhabitable. Everyone deserted it, either trying to escape the Saiteimians or to search for a new place to live. Kaiyan left and came directly here to Earth. The person he’s been searching for all this time is you, Venus. Queen Capella doesn’t control him anymore. It seems she has recently given that responsibility to you. Once she passed that power to you, you began to let off an energy that Kaiyan could sense and he came straight here to Tokyo. Gemini assumes he went to England first to learn English and that’s how he picked up the British accent. Now that he’s found you, it’s not clear what he plans to do but what we do know is that you’re controlling him and don’t even know it.”
“How am I controlling him? He seems to be his own person.”
“According to what you told Gemini, he still has light hair and eyes.”
“So?”
“He reflects you on the inside. Everything he does is what you want him to do. When you became interested in him, he pushed you away. That’s exactly what you wanted him to do.”
She stopped and thought for a moment. When she reached deep inside herself and squeezed, her heart confessed that this was the truth. She bit her bottom lip in shame and frowned. “I guess he proves how screwed up I am.”
“I wouldn’t call it that. I would say you’re interesting in a strange way to pretend you want one thing and actually want another. Anyways, that’s what Gemini has told me so far and it seems as if he’s right, as usual.”
Venus sat up. “What do I do now? I’m going to see Kaiyan again tomorrow.”
“If he told you this ‘Hiroto’ guy is dangerous, he’s telling the truth. We don’t know if any Saiteimians besides Kaiyan came to Earth, Venus. If they have, they’re most likely to try to kill you for what you and your family did and to release the power you have over Kaiyan. They need a new leader and they’re probably looking for him to be the new Emperor.”
“I’m not lettin’ those monsters rebuild their empire. They’ll have to kill me first.”
“Don’t jinx yourself. That’s the last thing we need.”
There was a silence and Venus asked, “Where is Gemini anyway?”
“He’s at our apartment a few blocks away.”
Are you goin’ to stay here with me?”
“I have to.”
“When my parents get home, they won’t like findin’ a big tall guy in my room.”
“Don’t worry. They won’t know I’m here.”
“But I kind of want to be alone…”
Shen-li’s cell phone suddenly rang and he flipped it open, then closed it and slid it into his coat pocket. “Venus, I gotta leave for a little while. Gemini wants to meet me somewhere. Jarron and Dominic are keeping an eye on your house so you’ll be safe. I’ll be back.” He opened the window and jumped out. Venus laid back on her futon and closed her eyes.
Gemini was waiting for Shen-li in front of a seafood restaurant wearing shades that glinted in the sunlight. Shen-li nonchalantly strolled up to him and Gemini gave him a brisk nod.
“How she doin’?” he asked.
“Fine,” Shen-li replied. “Tough girl. Doesn’t seem too shaken up. Probably because of all that she’s been through.”
“Yeah… all that and more.”
“What do you mean?”
“I did some research on her and her family and found out somethin’ interestin’,” Gemini said. “Six months ago, Mr. and Mrs. Morimoto filed a statutory rape charge against a man named Daiki. Unfortunately, this Daiki guy disappeared and was never prosecuted.”
“Venus was the victim?”
“Yep.”
“Crap.”
“I know.”
“She must be devastated.”
“Even if she was, which I’m sure she is, the whole thing smells fishy like this nasty restaurant here. She doesn’t seem at all like the type to put herself out there like that and the guy disappearing makes it even more suspicious. I want you to ask her ‘bout it.”
“She won’t wanna talk about it, Gemini.”
“Make her talk ‘bout it, man. Be sensitive and caring. Women like that stuff.”
“It’s not something I want to know about and she’s gonna wonder how I found out in the first place. I think you should be the one to talk to her about it.”
“Heck no. I hate hearin’ depressing stories. Plus I gotta leave ‘cuz I gotta dig up more dirt on this Hiroto guy and Kaiyan. I’ll call you later.” He hurried down the street.
Shen-li walked back to Venus’ house feeling as if he were carrying heavy weights on his shoulders. He snuck into Venus’ room to find her asleep on her futon and her face streaked with tears.

In the morning Venus walked to school wearily while Shen-li followed several yards behind her. It felt like a guard dog was tracking her and every four or five steps she took, she would glance over her shoulder at him.
“If you keep looking at me, you’ll make it obvious that we know each other,” he said after a couple blocks.
“I can’t help it,” she said yawning. “I hate when people walk behind me.”
“Focus on what’s in front of you.”
“There’s nothin’ in front of me. Nothin’ but sidewalk.”
“And if you’re not careful, you can trip on the sidewalk.”
“You really think I’m that clumsy?”
“Possibly.”
Venus let out a snort and began to walk faster, which was just what he wanted. When she reached the school, she hesitated at the entrance doors. Shen-li stood on the street corner, watching her through his shades to make sure she was safe while pretending to be a pedestrian and Venus suddenly felt a strange prickly sensation creep up her spine and into her neck. Someone whistled merrily and she turned to see Hiroto strolling towards her.
“Hey,” he said with a grin. “How you feeling today?”
She slowly backed away from him. “I’m fine. I’m gonna be late to class.”
He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “You’re actually early. Class doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes.”
“Well, I’d rather be inside than stand out here talkin’ to you.”
“Oh, I see. That’s how it’s gonna be, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how it’s gonna be.” She turned and walked toward the school’s doors.
“Do you remember Daiki?”
Venus spun around. “What?”
“Your boyfriend Daiki.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!”
“But you do remember him.”
“What do you care?”
Hiroto smiled. “He’s watching you.”
His smirk was oddly familiar and her memory struggled to produce an image of who he reminded her of. The dark aura he gave off was sickening, and she ran into the school to escape.



“Ninety eight point six. You have no fever,” the nurse said, cleaning the thermometer. “Did you eat breakfast?”
“Yes, and I seriously don’t feel good,” Venus told her. “I feel like I’m gonna die at any minute.”
“Maybe you’re having an anxiety attack,” the nurse said. “You should lie down.”
“I just want to go home,” Venus said. “Can I, please?”
“Lie down for half an hour first. If you still don’t feel well then you can go home.”
“Okay.” Venus stumbled over to one of the futons and lay down. She stared at the ceiling, feeling her head pound. A student would have to be dying from a massive heart attack to be sent home early by the school nurse. So many things were happening at once, it was as if her skull was splitting apart and all her worried and confused thoughts were spilling out onto the floor. The clock on the wall ticked seconds with an echo. Venus closed her eyes and when she opened them, forty five minutes had passed.
“Well?” she heard the nurse say. “Do you feel better?”
Venus shook her head and took her cell phone out of her backpack. “I’m going home, ma’am. I’ll call a friend to walk me to my house.”
Shen-li was waiting on the street corner outside the school just as she had expected when she walked out the front entrance, and she staggered up to him apprehensively. He took her by the arm. “Walk with me.”
“Did you see Hiroto?” Venus asked him.
His jaw tightened. “Venus, Hiroto is Seizion,”
“Seizion?”
“Yes. Do you remember him?”
“Kaiyan’s brother?”
“Half-brother.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. That’s why he wasn’t hurt when he got hit by that car.”
Venus stopped suddenly. “I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”
“I’m sorry. I must’ve stressed you out…try to breathe. And if you throw up, do it in the bushes.”
“Thanks. You’re a real gentleman.”
“Did you expect me to just let you vomit on me?”
“No…just stop talking. My head’s killin’ me.”
They walked in silence to her house to find it empty. Mr. Morimoto was still at work and Ryoko had left a note on the dining room table saying that she had gone to visit her sister and wouldn’t be back until late afternoon. Shen-li led Venus up the stairs to her room and she flopped onto her futon. “I can’t believe that guy was Seizion…”
“We have to talk,” Shen-li said brusquely. He sat down on the futon beside her with a stern face. “I heard him say something to you. He asked if you remember someone named Daiki. Who is Daiki?”
Venus shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me, Venus.”
“What’re you talkin’ ‘bout? I don’t know any Daiki.”
“Yes you do.”
“How are you gonna tell me-“
“I know what happened to you six months ago. You were with someone named Daiki.”
Venus sat up with her eyes as wide as an owl’s. “How did you know?”
“Gemini looked it up. Now tell me who he is.”
Venus drew in a sharp breath and let it out quickly. “I don’t know who Daiki really is. I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Seizion told you Daiki is watching you. You’re in danger. Please try to remember what this Daiki guy looked like.”
“I don’t know!” Venus snapped. “I don’t want to think about that jerk, alright? I just want to put it behind me.”
Shen-li gazed at her and said, “You don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“Nope,” Venus replied, and she felt her heart suddenly ache for her father and his reassuring smile. A tear squeezed out of her left green eye and Shen-li suddenly seemed uncomfortable for he kept fidgeting with his cell phone.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I have to call Gemini.” He got up and went down the stairs then carried a long muffled conversation on his phone. Venus laid on her futon, feeling as exposed as if Shen-li had seen her naked. She wanted no one to know about Daiki; he was the biggest mistake in her life and it tore her apart just hearing his name again. She had tried her hardest to erase him from her mind and heart but it seemed the past always returned to haunt her.
There was a thumping up the stairs and Shen-li came back into the room.
“Shen-li,” Venus said sitting up. “I want to know what’s really going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“From what I can tell, Gemini is the leader of your little gang of friends and he’s gathering info on people while you guys are out on a mission that you all had planned way before you got here.”
Shen-li got a sad look in his black eyes and a rut of concern appeared between his eyebrows. “I’m sorry…I haven’t really explained everything clearly to you yet.” He sat on the end of the futon dejectedly with his hands on his lap. “Years ago… after you left Sidon, it was a nightmare. We thought we were finally going to be freed that day, but because of Kaiyan, that was all ruined. Gemini, Dominic, Jarron, and I are orphans. Our families’ lives were taken away by the Saiteimians. Everyday that they forced us to work for them, we dreamed of getting revenge until it was all we could think about. You were kept safe inside the castle, but we lived a life of hell in the city. Then Gemini…the older he got, the smarter he got, and this old Vecsyan scientist named Mr. Ceti noticed him and called him a genius. They worked on the whole plan on sending a message to your father to call for help and all that. They worked so hard and suffered through so much. We all suffered together for years. Then when that day came and everything failed, it was like our hearts were ripped out. Your father told Gemini to send you here to Earth and you know Gemini…he always has a backup plan and he sent you here in a tiny spacecraft. But before you left, your father explained to Gemini how to revive your memory. As soon as you were sent off, soldiers came looking for you and your family and Gemini helped your mother and father escape. He hid them underground and moved them secretly from place to place. Eventually the soldiers found them and took them away. We put up a good fight but it wasn’t enough. While all this was happening, we hardly saw Kaiyan. He cut off all contact with us. Zeito and Zeiniko’s feud set off a confusing war against each other with the Vecsyans caught in the middle. No one trusted each other. Your home was destroyed, Sidon was torn up by the war and everyone who survived escaped as soon as they could. But we heard that some Saiteimians were heading for Earth and we were afraid that you were their target so we came here to find you. If we couldn’t save your parents, the least we could do was save you. But it seems like you’ve already run into some Saiteimians pretending to be humans…starting with Kaiyan and Seizion.”
“It’s no wonder…” Venus said in bewilderment. “Seizion saw Kaiyan yesterday before school started and he gave him the dirtiest look I’ve ever seen. I asked him if he knew Kaiyan and he said no but it was such an obvious lie.”
“Yeah, they aren’t very fond of each other since they’re rivals for the emperor’s throne.”
“But I don’t get why Kaiyan has been looking for me all this time. What does he want?”
“That is what we are trying to find out.”
“And another thing…how do you know Queen Capella passed to me the power to control Kaiyan?”
“You must know by now that she is a master at getting inside minds. She told Gemini in a dream. Of course…she did tell him other things but he said that’s the only part he remembers.”
Venus pondered for a moment, seeming overwhelmed. “All of this just blows my mind.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Who is Daiki?”
“I told you I don’t-“
“At least try to remember what he looked like.”
“He was tall…really tall, and he had long black hair and dark chocolate brown eyes.” She gasped suddenly. “No, it couldn’t have been…”
“Who?”
She let a scream and buried her face in her hands. “No! Why of all people did it have to be him?”
“Who, Venus?”
“Zeiniko! “
Shen-li gasped while she began to sob in despair. He was so stunned he couldn’t speak, until at length he finally came to his senses and touched her arm. “Venus…are you sure? Are you positive it was him?”
She nodded and threw herself face first onto her pillow, crying miserably. Shen-li nervously fumbled for his cell phone and dialed Gemini’s number.
Venus suddenly sat up with her blonde and pink hair stuck to her wet face. She snatched the phone out of his hand and began to shout into it. “Gemini, Daiki is Zeiniko! That monster tricked me! You know I would’ve never done such a stupid thing with someone…I swear he pretended to care about me and talked me into everything! I’m so sorry!” She threw the phone at the floor and jumped to her feet. “I feel disgusting…” She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. Moments later Shen-li heard the shower turn on. He slowly picked up his cell phone.
“I’ll call you later,” he said to Gemini.



It was true what people said about how stress could affect a person’s health. That same day Venus came down with what seemed like the flu and her face broke out with clusters of acne. She stayed home from school for the rest of the week, sitting on her futon and seething with self-hatred. In a matter of days, the world around her had changed before her eyes into an icy cold, cruel place and she began to wish she never regained her memory. Better to be left in the dark than suffer from knowing the truth, she thought gloomily. As much as she tried to shut everything out of her mind, she found herself always playing the same thoughts over and over again in her head until it was as tortuous as nails scraping across a blackboard. Her head would pulse in pain and she would fall asleep for a while, but every time she woke up reality was there staring her right in the face in the form of a boy named Shen-li.
The last thing Venus wanted to do was push him away but she couldn’t help acting like a frightened cat, hissing at him whenever he came near. His disposition was sweet and she knew his intentions were pure but at this point, she could care less. He didn’t leave or put her in her place but simply hung around with a preoccupied expression on his face and texted on his cell phone. Obviously he was texting Gemini and Venus was tempted to steal his phone when he wasn’t looking to see what they were chatting about but she didn’t even have the strength to get up from her futon. She began to wonder if he was bored of hanging around in her room all day and hiding in her closet when her mom brought up chicken noodle soup on a tray for her. At night she would hear him sigh and see him peering out the window. He hardly slept and when he did once in a while manage to fall asleep, he would mumble incoherently and toss and turn. Venus couldn’t help wondering if he had post traumatic stress and if he did…she didn’t want to know why.
Shen-li did leave for short periods of time while she was napping. Venus would hear the window close gently when he left. After she dozed off for a while, she would wake up to find him there and his presence would remind her that she wasn’t dreaming. Now she knew what it was like to have a bodyguard like celebrities, gangsters, and politicians did. It wasn’t as pleasant as she thought it would be. Having a guardian hover around her constantly almost made her break down and cry; sometimes all she wanted was to be left alone.
She could tell Shen-li sensed this with the way his melancholy black eyes stared off into nothingness. During the weekend he seemed more tired than usual and fell asleep at noontime with his head leaning against the wall. Venus sat up; this was her chance to steal his cell phone. She stretched halfway off the futon and slowly pulled it from his coat pocket. It was fancier than her phone and it took a minute for her to find the inbox where his text messages were stored. She flipped through each message when one caught her eye:

Gemini- Did u ask her exactly wat happened between her n Zeiniko?

Venus began reading the entire conversation:

Shen-li- No. I realy don’t want 2 kno. By her reaction, I think it’s pretty obvious.

Gemini- I bet he knew it was her.

Shen-li- Yes n 4 dat he should die.

Gemini- Zeiniko walkin around free wit humans is bad. We hav 2 find him ASAP.

Shen-li- None of us r strong enuf 2 take him down.

Gemini- Kaiyan is.

The phone was suddenly grabbed away from her. Shen-li gave her a hard look and cleared his throat. “You’re a nosey kid, aren’t you?”
“…Sorry.”
He glanced at the phone’s screen and flipped it shut. “If you have a question, ask me. Don’t go looking through my stuff, got it?”
“It’s not fair that I have to sit here and not know what’s gonna happen while you guys are making plans. Do all of you even really know what you’re doing?”
“Of course we do. All we want is for every single Saiteimian to die. We’ll take them down one by one if we have to.”
“Then what?”
“We live out our lives here until we grown old and die. Listen…do you think you’ll be able to go to school tomorrow?”
“Probably.”
“Good. I need for you to lure Kaiyan behind your school at three thirty sharp.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you yet, but don’t tell him that you know who he really is. Just be yourself, and by that I mean be Miyo.”
“How am I supposed to ‘lure’ him there?”
“Think of something. You’re a smart attractive girl. Shouldn’t be too hard for you.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“Actually I’m not.”
Venus kept staring at him to determine whether he was joking or not, but one look at his face told her he wasn’t.
The following day at school the teachers welcomed her back then mercilessly piled on homework. Hana and Izumi completely ignored her with their noses high in the air. When everyone left to lunch, Venus stood in the classroom doorway with her brown lunch bag and saw her ex-friends chatting in the hallway. After a moment, a tall lean girl with silky black hair down to her waist and wearing a navy blue blazer with a matching pleated skirt came out of one of the classrooms and joined them. She didn’t look at all familiar; probably a new student. Venus envied her height and her long, perfectly shaped legs with navy blue socks pulled almost to the knees. She could’ve been a model for certain and the boys passing her were already beginning to stare. Grumbling to herself, Venus pulled an apple out of her lunch bag and bit into it with a loud crunch. The tall girl turned her head and Venus froze. She had totally forgotten that she packed a green sour apple for lunch that day and her face puckered up like an old woman’s. Hana whispered something into the tall girl’s ear and they burst out in laughter. Venus ran back into the classroom to spit in the wastebasket and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. As if she didn’t have enough stress in her life, now she was a reject at school.
When the bell finally rang at the end of the day and everyone began cleaning the classrooms, Venus poked her head out into the hall. No one was around except for a couple students taking out the trash from the bathrooms. She picked up her backpack and went out the front entrance to watch for ‘Akira’. The traffic was bustling as usual and a train was arriving at the train station nearby. People with normal lives walked the streets, stressing over paying their bills and sending their kids to college while Venus stood worrying that something inhuman had somehow escaped her. She heard the door behind her fall shut and when she looked, the tall attractive girl she had seen earlier was walking toward her.
“You’re Miyo, right?” she said.
“Yeah.”
“I’m Kaida,” she said with a little bow. “I’m new here.”
“Nice to meet you.” Venus said and looked away, feeling awkward. She could’ve sworn this was the same girl making fun of her earlier and now she was introducing herself with an eerie smile on her porcelain face.
“Are you waiting for a ride home?” Kaida asked.
“No, I’m…looking for someone,” Venus replied. One of the entrance doors opened and Kaiyan walked out with his backpack slung over his shoulder. He began to smile when he saw Venus then looked at Kaida and the color drained from his face as if the blood was pumped right out of his cheeks.
“Hi, Akira,” Kaida said with a suspicious grin. “How are you?”
“Fine,” he said coldly and looked at Miyo. “Were you looking for me?”
“No, she was waiting for her ride,” Kaida said before Venus could answer. “Why would she be waiting for you?”
“Excuse me?” Venus said in surprise.
Kaida took Kaiyan’s arm. “We’re going to walk home together so you can get lost, Miyo.”
Venus stared at her in shock. “Did you just tell me to get lost?”
“What? Are you deaf?”
“Oh, no you didn’t…” Venus dropped her backpack. “I don’t care if you’re a foot taller than me I can still knock your teeth out. Come on!”
“No,” Kaiyan said suddenly. “Stop. Miyo, go home.”
“Don’t tell me to go home! This wench just insulted me! And what the heck is this? Aren’t you with Hana?”
Kaida let out an obnoxious laugh that made Venus grit her teeth. “Don’t you know anything, little Miyo?” she said with a devious smile. “It’s all just a game.”
Venus could feel her blood practically boiling and building up pressure all the way up into her cranium, searching for a way out. Her ears began to hurt and she became dizzy for a moment but quickly regained her balance and pointed at Kaiyan.
“You’re a jerk.”
She picked up her backpack and stomped off. Once she passed the corner of the school building, she heard a voice say, “Did you forget something?”
Venus turned around. “Sorry, Shen-li, I couldn’t do it. You won’t believe what just happened.”
“I saw and I heard,” Shen-li said stepping into the sunlight. A group of students ran by them excitedly and Shen-li waited until they were out of earshot. “I thought you would be smarter than that, Venus.”
“What’re you talkin’ about?”
“You actually tried to pick a fight with someone almost twice your size.”
“So what? Did you hear what she said to me?”
“Yes, but here’s a bit of advice… find out as much as you can about a person before you come into conflict with them. You wouldn’t win a fight against that girl.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s Saiteimian.”
Venus frowned. “I’m getting really sick of this. Who is she?”
“Do you remember how royal Saiteimians had arranged marriages?”
“Not really.”
“That was one of their rules. The parents would choose who their kids would marry when they were very young, and that girl was who Zeito and Ila chose for Kaiyan. I guess you could call her his fiancée.”
A sudden pain jabbed her in the shoulder blade. “Fiancée? That’s insane... but why is she here? And why is she pretending to be a student at my school?”
“I don’t know. You’ve been running into quite a few Saiteimians lately. First Zeiniko, then Kaiyan, then Seizion and now Sephora. Do you think that’s all coincidence?”
“Sephora? That’s her name?”
“Yes. Were you paying attention to what I just said?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure what it all means. They’re all showing up at once and it’s like they’re trying to get into my life.”
“There are only three things they could be after: world dominance, you, or Kaiyan. Unfortunately it seems like they’re more interested in you.”
“Are you saying they came to this world, this country, and this city just to torture me?”
“You have something they want. We haven’t spoken to Kaiyan in years. That’s why we wanted you to get him alone with you so we could talk to him and find out what’s going on. He must know something we don’t.”
As soon as he said the words “get him alone with you” Venus became self-conscious and didn’t know where to point her eyes to appear neutral. She shifted her weight and scratched at her acne as if she were mulling everything over. Shen-li watched her through his mirror-like shades. “Go home, Venus. Or stay in school if you want. I need to have a chat with Gemini.”
She muttered something about going back to school, turned around and walked away. Kaiyan and Kaida had disappeared and Venus walked back into the school to her empty classroom and threw her backpack onto her desk. Mostly everyone had finished cleaning and gone home and it was quiet. Venus went to the lockers in the back of the room and opened hers. One of her gym sneakers fell out and she kicked it back in. Her reflection in the mirror hanging on the inside of the door began to shake when her hair was suddenly grabbed and her head was shoved forward and slammed into the mirror. It cracked and she slumped to the floor with shards in her hair. Someone stood over her.
“Go on and try to knock my teeth out, little girl,” they said. “Come on. Let’s see what you got!”
Venus recognized Sephora’s voice and when she opened her eyes, all she could see were a pair of long thin legs with navy blue socks and she crawled away from her across the room.
“Oh, please don’t run away!” Sephora said from behind her. “I’m just getting started.” Venus got to her feet and spun around to f ace her when she was hit again in the head and stumbled backward, nearly tripping over a desk.
“Not so tough now, are you?” Sephora said coming toward her with a smirk. She swiftly shoved Venus over the desk and she flipped backward and landed head-first onto the floor. Venus slowly opened her eyes while the ceiling spun. She had ended up in an awkward position with her legs tangled around the desk chair and flat on her sore back on the tiled floor and she could see that Sephora’s menacing grin hovering above her meant she was getting ready to deliver another punch. Just at that moment, a ballpoint pen fell out from inside the desk and bounced to the floor next to Venus’ head. Sephora took hold of her collar with one hand and drew back her other fist and without hesitation, Venus grabbed the pen and rammed it into Sephora’s arm as hard as she could.
Sephora began to laugh. Venus opened her sweaty palm to see the pen had broken into pieces and crumbled.
“Did you think that would even hurt?” Sephora said and slapped her across the face. Venus let out an angry cry and lifted her leg, pressing the bottom of her shoe up against Sephora’s chin. “What do you want from me?” she said through clenched teeth. Sephora reached down and wrapped her fingers around her neck.
“Poor little princess is far from home and all alone,” she said mockingly. “Your race is done. I’m going to be the next Empress and the only thing in my way is you. As long as you are alive, that little ‘curse’ you put on Kaiyan will never be broken. He's the next Emperor you know and is stronger than his own father. Imagine how sweet it would be if I was his Empress. Now do you see why I need to get rid of you? Don’t take it personally. It’s like Zeiniko says… if you’re going to execute someone, let the fun last while you can.” Her grip tightened. Venus grabbed her wrist and dug her nails into her skin until her fingers cramped but this didn’t stop Sephora from squeezing, smiling all the while like a beautiful China doll. Empress Ila’s pale face flashed in Venus’ mind; a horrible déjà vu from years before.
“What…makes you think…Kaiyan would want you?” she blurted out.
Sephora stopped. “What?”
They heard a strange creaking noise and the window in the room suddenly began to swell inward. Spider cracks raced across it until it finally shattered and the glass pieces floated like snowflakes for half a second before falling, tinkling like little bells. Shen-li stepped into view.
Sephora released Venus and narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Get off her,” Shen-li said with his hands in his coat pockets.
“Nobody tells me what to do,” Sephora said sarcastically. Shen-li swung his leg over the wall and climbed in the window. “Last warning. Leave her alone.”
Sephora stood up. “Make me.”
Shen-li approached her. The glass shards on the floor began to jump. He paused and frowned. “Sephora, just leave.”
She thrust out her arm to shove him but he caught it and twisted it behind her back. She jabbed her heel into his shin and he threw her onto a desk, which to Venus’ shock, collapsed like a cardboard box. Sephora’s eyes were burning with fury now and she rose in a graceful spin and kicked Shen-li’s stomach with perfect martial arts form. It looked like a blow that would hurt terribly, but he seemed to absorb the impact and grabbed her leg, pulling her toward him so that her face collided right into the point of his elbow. This made Venus wince and Sephora was knocked completely off her feet and fell on the floor so hard, the locker doors rattled. She looked up at Shen-li with the most hideous scowl Venus had ever seen and slowly stood up.
“This isn’t over,” she said angrily, then turned and leapt out the broken window and disappeared. Shen-li looked at Venus. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Venus said rubbing her back.
“Your nose is bleeding.”
“It is?” She wiped it on her wrist. “Aw, man.”
“We have to get out of here. Someone will come soon,” Shen-li said holding out his hand to help her to her feet. “I’ll walk you home.”
Venus smiled weakly. “Thanks.”