This is only a rough draft, so forgive me on my grammatical mistakes
since I'm sure there are plenty.  Also, please tell me if I had any
continuity errors like I did in #1.  Oh yeah, comments and criticisms
about the story are welcome too :).


Bile Studio's
KOR: 24 Caprices:
Caprice #2
by Jang Choe

     I stared outside my van window.  The heavy downpour and dark
clouds shaded the moon's light away from us.  All I could see outside
was my own reflection.
     My family, Hikaru, and Ayukawa has been in this van for several
hours.  It was time for summer vacation again, and my father was
offered a job to photograph the landscapes of England.  Dad asked me
to ask Hikaru and Ayukawa against if they wanted to go because he
wanted to take pictures of us again.
     Of course, this wasn't going to be a free trip for them, but
luckily, Ayukawa and Hikaru had enough money and time to come with us.
I am especially glad that Ayukawa came because of her English skills.
My dad studied some English so he can prepare, and us, well, we were
given a crash course in English from Ayukawa.  I was suppose to help,
but I'm not doing so well in English in school, ha ha.
     My dad's boss wanted pictures of rural part of England for some
reason I forget, and they gave us the address for a special boarding
house for us to stay.  Of course, being in a foreign land and all, we
got lost quite a number of times, but that didn't matter, as long as I
was close to Ayukawa.
     As of now, it was back to more English lessons from Ayukawa,
sheesh, I was learning more here than at school.
     "Yes Kurumi, that's how would you say if you needed to go to the
bathroom."  Ayukawa said.
     "So it's 'wear iisu da batsuruum'?  Cool!"  Kurumi said.
          
          (*author's note:  Yep, the 'English' is in Romanji)

     "Remember that one Kurumi, you might need it."  My dad said
behind the wheel.
     "Hey Madoka!"  Hikaru exclaimed. "How do you say, 'I love you,
Kasuga' in English?  So I can show England how much I love darling!"
     "Hmmm, don't you already know this one, Hikaru?"
     "Nope, all they taught me in school was boring sentences like,
'this is a pen' and stuff."
     "Hmmmm... it's... 'ai lobuu yuu, Kasuga.'"
     "Wow, how did it go again?"
     "Ai lobuu yuu, Kasuga..."  She whispered.
     From the darkness, I thought I could see Ayukawa blushing.  It
could also be my imagination; Ayukawa is too strong to show her
feelings... but I'm certain that she was showing her softer side.
     "Ai lobuu yuu, Kasuga." She said again.
     Even though it was in a foreign language, I can sense something
about her when she said that- kinda like she meant it...  For that
moment, I loved hearing that....
     "Ai lobuu yuu, Kasuga."  Hikaru said.
     Hmmm, that was a surprise, although it was nice, it wasn't nice
as Ayukawa's.
     After a few more minutes of driving, my dad stopped the car.
"Okay everyone, we're finally here."  Dad said as he opened the trunk
and took our luggage out.
     We opened the sliding door to our van and hopped out.  The first
thing we did was stretch our legs.  Surprisingly, the raining has
stopped and the clouds has cleared, the full moon illuminated very
much to help us figure out where we were.
     The place where we were staying was pretty big for a country
cottage.  Well, I'm sure to the English, house is pretty small, but to
us, it looked like a castle.
     My dad knocked on the door, and an elderly couple came out.  Dad
gave them the details and they welcomed us in.  Luckily for us, they
knew Japanese!  No wonder my dad's boss told us to stay here.  I could
hear my dad and the old couple conversing.
     "Yeah, I used to be in the army."  The old man said.  "I was
stationed in Japan, and after I got out of the army, I married and
moved to Japan a while, teaching English.  You people sure have a
beautiful country.  Of course, my wife knows quite a bit of Japanese
herself, I taught her you know."
     "And you probably did a wonderful job."  My dad said.
     "Oh, it's getting late."  The old woman said.  "I bet you kids
are tired, I'll show you to your rooms."
     She led us up the wooden stairs and to our rooms. "You get two
rooms, one for the females and the other for males.  This one, since
there are only two of you are for you two men.  I'll show you girls
your room."
     We went into our room as girls followed her.  The room was pretty
bare except for one twin sized bed- far too small for both of us to
sleep in.  Luckily, we brought extra sheets so I could sleep on the
floor.  
     After a few minutes of settling in, the girls came to our room.  
     "Wow!  Your room is so small compared to ours, I wish me and
darling can have this room to ourselves, right, darling?"  Hikaru said
grabbing onto my arm.
     "Uh,"
     "Okay girls," dad said coming to the rescue.  "It's getting late,
so unpack just this things we need and go to bed.  We have a big day
tomorrow."
     "Aw geeze, and I wanted to look around this place."  Kurumi said
as she started to leave.
     I noticed Ayukawa from the corner of my eye.  I sensed that
something was wrong.  She looked pale and sad.  I went up to her,
"what's wrong, Ayukawa?"
     "Oh, she must be afraid of the ghost."  Hikaru said bubbily.
     "Ghost?"  I said.
     "Yeah, the old woman told us that her pet animal died in our
room.  And she said it's spirit has been living in that room ever
since!"
     Heh, no wonder, this is one side of Ayukawa that I'm always
surprised about.  This reminded me how soft Ayukawa is inside her
tough exterior.
     "Okay, I think we need to go to bed now."  Dad said.
     "Okay, Mr. Kasuga!  Byeeeee darrling!"  She said as she hugged me
tight.
     I looked at Ayukawa's expression as they left.  She did seem
disappointed when Hikaru hugged me tight, but her expression changed
to fear quickly.  It's mean, but I can't help it smile at this for
some reason.

     I was walking through the empty beach alone.  The peaceful, night
air smelled wonderful as the sweet scent of the beach aromaed into my
nose.  Suddenly, I heard a knocking.  It was faint, but I could hear
it.  Then the knocking came louder.  A few more seconds later, it was
slightly louder still.  Was it the ghost that the woman talked about?
No, it was my door.  I awoke from my dream and got up. I blinked away
my sleepiness just enough to go to the door and open it.
     Behind it was Ayukawa, that woke me up all the way.
     "What are you doing here?"  I turned around to see if my Dad
awoke, he didn't.  "It's almost three in the morning."
     "I heard noises, Kyosuke."
     "It's probably you're imagination."
     "No, I heard it loud and clear.  A scratching noise."
     "Mouse?  Or another pest?"
     "No, I don't think so.  But please come and check it out for me,
please?"
     Wow, I was pretty surprised that Ayukawa would ask me for
protection... "Are you worried it's the ghost?"
     Ayukawa turned away.     
     I gave a small chuckle, "I'm sure it's a friendly ghost."
     "But... but still, would you please come and check it out for
me?"
     Even though it was extremely late, or early, who could refuse
Ayukawa?  Not me, especially how she looked so vulnerable.... Just
from that, I was persuaded by Ayukawa's sudden show of weakness.  I
followed her to her room.  As we walked towards her room, I noticed
how she was holding on to my pajama sleeve.  Even though it wasn't
full contact, I could almost feel the soft, warm flesh of Ayukawa.
     We tip toed to her room so no one would wake up and went inside.
All of the girls were asleep, considering the "noise" Ayukawa was
hearing.
     "See?"  I whispered. "There's no noise."
     "Just wait a few minutes in here, please."
     I did, we sat down at Ayukawa's bed.  She was still clutching my
sleeve like a small child would hold on to her mother.  After a few
moments, I almost forgot why I was in her room, then suddenly, I did
hear some soft moaning, and scratching sounds.
     "Did you hear it?"  Ayukawa softly exclaimed.  "Did you hear it,
Kasuga?"
     "Yea... Yeah."  I was pretty surprised, so it wasn't her
imagination.
     Suddenly, the sounds came again, this time, it sounded like a
frustrated growl with more scratching.  Now I was beginning to get
scared.  I clutched Ayukawa for a second but let go.  This... this was
my chance to show Ayukawa that I'm there for her, even thought I was
probably scared as she was.
     "Do... don't worry, I... I'm sure it was nothing.  Let us see
where the sound came from."
     I staggered up and tried to concentrate where the sound was
coming from, hopefully, it wasn't coming from the beyond.  I
     I almost jumped as the soft growling noise came again.  My legs
were shaking as I moved to where I thought I heard the noise.  From my
nervousness, I fell and landed on a body mass- it was Hikaru, who was
sleeping on the floor.
     "Hmmm?"  She said waking up and rubbing her eyes. "Who's this?"
Her eyes opened wide as soon as she saw me. "Darrrling!  You missed me
so much that you decided to sleep with me?!"
     She then wrapped her arms around me before I had a chance to say
anything.  This woke everyone else up.
     "Really brother,"  Kurumi said sleepily.  "couldn't you do this
in your room?"
     "No wait, this isn't what you think!"  I said.  "Ayukawa told me
to come here because she heard the ghost pet.  I heard it to, that's
why I accidentally fell."
     "Sure, make up excuses, brother."
     "Oh darling!  A ghost?  I'm so scared."  Hikaru put her head on
my chest and hugged me tight. "Please protect me...."
     I looked towards Ayukawa and saw that she was slowly getting
angry.  I wouldn't blame her, it seemed like everyone else was making
a mockery of her situation.
     Suddenly, the sound came again.
     "Wait!"  I said. "Listen."
     Everyone fell dead silent as the noise came again.  All of a
sudden, everyone looked so pale.
     "Uh, what was that sound?"  Manami asked.
     "Something's in here!"  Kurumi said as she ran towards her
suitcase. "I think I packed my baseball bat in case of such
emergencies like this!"
     Kurumi quickly unzipped a couple of her bags to find her bat.
Gee, sometimes I don't get Kurumi, wonder what she meant by
emergencies?  As soon as she opened another big bag of hears something
flew by and caused her to scream- followed by a chain reaction of
screams from all of us.
     Then that something jumped behind Ayukawa and caused her to jump
into my arms.  Boy, it was embarrassing, having Hikaru hold me as I
held Ayukawa in my arms.  I quickly let go, blushing with her. 
     Manami turned on the lights, and we blinked our eyes to adjust to
the bright light.  The figure was- a very upset Jingoro.  We all
sighed a sigh of either relief of disappointment.
     "No wonder Jingoro was angry, having to staying inside the cramp
bag with his size."  Manami smiled.  "But how did he get in here?"
     Kurumi said, "I guess I was in a little hurry, and didn't see him
as I was--"
     "--Packing right?"  I said.  I then went up to her and whispered,
"you were going to say you used your powers right?"
     "Yeah,"  She whispered back.
     "Well, since this is settled, I guess we can go back to bed?  Dad
did say we have a long day tomorrow."
     "Well Darling, I guess I have to wait to see you tomorrow.  Are
you sure that you don't want to sleep with me tonight in case the real
ghost haunts us?"
     "Uh, that's okay, Hikaru."  I said as I chucked.  I looked
towards Ayukawa, she seemed relieved, kinda.  "Ayukawa, are you okay?"
     "Yes, thank you, Kasuga."  She then gave me a smile.
     "Now what do we do with Jingoro?"  Kurumi said.
     Manami gave me a very frustrating looking Jingoro.  "I think you
should take him, Kyosuke, since there are only two of you in your
room.  We can't let him outside because he might wonder off."  
     "Uh, sure."
     "Oh no!"  Kurumi exclaimed.
     "What's wrong?!"
     "Jingoro you bad cat!  You scratched up the clothes in my bag!
Now I won't have anything to wear!"  Kurumi said holding up a several
shredded blouses.
     "I'll let you borrow some of my clothes, Kurumi, now lets get
some sleep."
     "Oh oh right.  But you're clothes are so boring."  Kurumi said
as she went back to her bed.
     After exchanging good-byes with Hikaru and Ayukawa, I carried
Jingoro back to my room.  As I carried him, it reminded me of that
slight second that Ayukawa was in my arms.  Heh, thanks, Jingoro.
     Jingoro's angry "merow" was his only reply.  I smiled as I
carried him into my room.

-FIN



Took me long enough to write #2 eh?  W  I don't know how long the next
Caprice is gonna take me but I'm eager to write it someday...
sooooomeday suhada ni kuchizukete douzo... sorry, couldn't help myself
:) Sigh, only 22 more to go.
comments and flames to: gt6786b@prism.gatech.edu