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Home is where the heart is (1/?)
A Koko wa Greenwood fanfic by Jop
Characters belong to Yukie Nasu and in no way belong to me. So please don't sue. No money, no money. :)
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~ Interlude ~
The room is empty.
So very empty.
Not empty as in devoid of things “empty”, but rather the kind of emptiness and numbness that fills a place when the owner of the abode has suddenly just abandoned the place and left. There is a sudden lack, a sudden loss that defies all explanation.
Which is strange of course, considering that I, the owner of that abode am still here.
But my roommate, the co-owner of Room 211 is gone. Where? No one knows. Just upped and left one day without word or explanation. He hasn’t been seen in school nor been back here for days. At first, I had initially passed it off as one of his nightly excursions and his morning absence with some important business he had to do in school. Even mealtimes could be explained given how the teachers had been running him ragged with various subject Olympiad competitions such that he only had time for a quick snack in between odd hours. After all, I had seen him often enough in recent days rummaging through our food storage during the night to know that he had missed a meal in between school.
In my busyness, it didn’t strike me back then that he did not call to inform me concerning his whereabouts as he was wont to. At least not until the two days later when Tachikawa-sensei, Shinobu’s form teacher came looking for me after the third period enquiring the health of Ryokuto’s star pupil. He was supposed to have met sensei to show him a draft of his inter-school presentation regarding the politics of the Meiji period but had not appeared. It was then that I found out that my roommate had not appeared in class for the last two days either.
That was three days ago. Three days since we conducted a massive school search for Shinobu and came up short. Five days since we last saw him. Fuse has consistently wandered around Greenwood and Ryokuto, even foregoing the recent two days of public holiday to search for any clues regarding his beloved sempai’s disappearance. I appreciate his dedication and worry, but I know he’s causing Suka to seriously consider throwing him out of Greenwood with the kind of remarks that he’s spewing in his concern. It was only good fortune that Shun’s better judgment (and arms) exerted itself and stopped Suka before all chaos broke loose.
No, Shinobu did not leave because of us. Did he seriously think we would not worried sick when he just chose to disappear the way he did? When he left without even leaving a word to even his best friend, me?
But in some odd sense of the word, it was good that the scuffle in Room 211 took place because it was then as I backed up against Shinobu’s table, that some of his books fell down onto the floor. It tumbled from the bookshelf to reveal a nondescript bound book tucked right at the back and stuffed in between Statistics and Japanese Wards. I had seen my roommate write inside often enough to know it for its true worth.
Shinobu’s journal. It was Shinobu’s journal. Argument forgotten, I plucked it from its hiding place and shooed everybody out to read its contents. My conscience gave a little struggle but quikcly subsided under the reminder of the number of days that had passed. Flipping it open, I started reading.
And that was when I found out the truth.
Was it a subconscious cry for help? This leaving of his journal in hopes that we might stumble upon it? It doesn’t strike me that he would just simply forget to take it. Or was it some muted explanation and apology? I know now it’s not my fault but then again, I won’t exonerate myself because I knew a lot of things about him that only he told me. I could have done something about it.
I never saw him with his problems so I thought he coped with them. Just like everything else that he did. With Greenwood. With Nagisa. With the student presidency. With his friends. He seemed invincible really; given how he juggled being top student in Ryokuto, being the former student president, and the betting pools without even a bead of sweat. Everybody in Ryokuto Academy knew whose side to stand on at all times, who to bet on, and who to count on in a crisis.
Everybody thought him as almost near inhuman, especially given the coolly capable front that had seemed to come so naturally to him. The feats that he accomplished, no mere mortal could possibly have done it especially with the speed, the efficiency and the complete lack of emotion with which he completed it.
But I knew better.
Sometimes I just wished that he told me.
Or maybe he did, but I just wasn’t listening.
It’s just so easy to be blind to what you see everyday.
****
~ Three weeks ago ~
“Hey, look what I got in the mail! Nitta Mieko’s back in town for the weekend and sent me front-row tickets for her sold-out concert!”
Mitsuru waved a pair of passes at his friends excitedly as he weaved his way through the cafetaria towards them and pulled up a seat besides Shinobu. “And one of you will be the lucky one who will accompany me to go and watch it!" His eyes wandered from friend to friend. "So who will it be? Suka?”
Suka shuddered. “That crazy obsessive fainting pop star? No thanks, she scares me,” he replied, hastily continuing before Mitsuru could protest. “Anyway, I have a date with Miya so no matter what tricks you pull sempai, I will not go!”
Mitsuru laughed and looked at the boy’s roommate. “Shun?”
Shun bobbed his head. “I would love to go sempai!” the boy replied enthusiastically, “but I also have a date over the weekend,” he smiled.
A date? Mitsuru’s eyebrows raised and smile lifted. Shun hadn’t been able to get a date in a long while given his looks. “Congratulations! Who’s the lucky girl? Not Aki, I hope!”
Shun waved his hands hastily. “No, no, not her,” he grimaced as he remembered how Aki had appeared in front of Greenwood and their school for weeks following the aftermath between Ririko and Mitsuru until she finally got the hint that in no way Shun was going to go out with her. He smiled beatifically. “It’s this girl I met the other day when I went with Suka-chan to the hairdresser.”
Suka sweatdropped. “You haven’t seen her, sempai. She’s got long PINK hair too.”
Shun bobbed his head enthusiastically. “And it’s such kawaii hair too!!” he gushed, ignoring the sweatdrops that appeared on the faces of his friends. “As good as mine! But the gist of it,” he concluded, “is that as much as I’d love to see the concert, I can’t. Sorry, sempai.”
Mitsuru’s gaze swiveled left and right. Suka and Shun were out, so that left…
“Shinobu-sempai!” he sang out artfully, increasing the wattage of his smile. “I don’t suppose you – “
“No.”
“But – “
His roommate stared at him. “Firstly, you know full well that I don’t follow pop singers and so it would be wasted on me – “
“It’s about time you got out to appreciate the finer things in life!” Mitsuru interjected.
“ – and secondly, I’ve got some things that I have to take care of as well. Like a test the following Monday. Besides,” Shinobu eyed his roommate. “Didn’t you promise to go and buy the items for the dorm lady’s surprise birthday party?”
Mitsuru’s eyes bugged out and he promptly choked on his drink. “I totally forgot about that!!” In his brain, images of duty, responsibility warred with fun and the chance of meeting an old friend again. He eyed the tickets longingly for a long moment before finally reluctantly sliding it back into its paper casing with a sigh. Front row tickets! He had tried to keep his voice even, but the disappointment was obvious. “I guess I’ll just give her a ring and tell her we can’t go.”
Shun patted his shoulder sympathetically but said nothing as the gang of four started on their meal. It was a muted conversation that afternoon, what with the upperclassman not having that much of a heart to steal Suka’s food but Shun and Shinobu more than made up for it by helping themselves to bigger portions at Suka's expense, causing the dorm president to yelp in surprise. Mitsuru laughed at poor Suka but for once, did not join in the fun.
They were walking back to their room when finally a soft mellow voice broke the silence.
“You really want to see the concert, do you?” Mitsuru swiveled around to glance at his roommate who had been mostly silent throughout the afternoon. The boy opened his mouth to deliver some blithe reply but didn’t get further as he found the envelope he was holding plucked from his fingers and exposed to reveal the passes inside. As if in symbolic gesture, Mitsuru found his own tickets being pressed into his own hands.
“Go, I’ll help you buy the party arrangements.”
Mitsuru looked at his best friend. “Shinobu, it’s alright, really, I – “
“Just go. I’ll handle everything.”
~ tsu du ku ~
Notes:
(1) Additional characters are incidental characters that appear in the Greenwood manga. If you want to know more about them or where they appear, I suggest you check out Imo-girl’s website for more dirt on them lest the notes become more extensive than the fic itself!!
(2) Fuse-kun is Shinobu’s “hanger-on”, so to speak. Same year as Suka and Shun, he was sent to dig some dirt on Shinobu but ended up being so impressed by the latter that he ends up being Shinobu’s disciple. Whatever Shinobu wants, if he tells Fuse, Fuse-kun will do. Even if it means playing the part of the girl which no one else wanted. He’s even warned Mitsuru once to act properly in the play so as not to disappoint Shinobu-sempai! :P But really, despite his role in the fic, Fuse-kun is really quite a decent person. He’s just worried for Shinobu. :)
(3) Nitta Mieko is a fainting pop rockstar that Mitsuru and gang meet on occasion who is very fond of Mitsuru.
(4) Aki and Ririko appear in “The Tragedy of S”.
(5) Kawaii - cute