C&C is welcomed with open arms! If you read, please send me a
comment or two. E-mail me at matt2518@gladstone.uoregon.edu
Feel free to go to http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~matt2518/
There, you'll find episodes of this and my other series, the well-
received "Boku No Marie: Music-Box Angel".
NOTE: Translated comments in the story are held in <brackets> like
so. Usually, they're translated from English.
------------------------------------------------------------------
When he arrived at the airport, Satoru sprinted into the main
waiting area, scanning the weary faces. None were hers.
"Kaori!" Satoru shouted with all the power his lungs could
muster. "Kaori Akazawa!" He only hoped she could hear him.
"Satoru," Kaori's voice seemed to exhale its thankfulness.
Satoru whipped his body around to see her standing beside him,
with one suitcase and an exhausted smile on her face.
"Are you okay? You sounded like you were in trouble."
"I'm sorry, Satoru. I didn't mean... to upset you." Kaori
looked at the floor as Satoru picked up her suitcase.
It was a dark night in November when Satoru Nobata received the
phone call that would change his life. Kaori was back from
America, and waiting for *him*.
But something was not right about her return.
And finding out what brought Kaori back will either bring them
together as one, or create a rift between them too wide to ever
close...
------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * *
O K A E R I, K A O R I - C H A N !
Episode 02
Kaori's Return: "So Sorry To Disturb You..."
* *
"Okaeri, Kaori-chan!" (c) 1998 Matthew Johnston.
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters
to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
* * * *
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Moved by desire and fear,
Breaking delicate wings."
--John Myung, "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream"
Wednesday, November 5, 1997
9:47 AM.
"Can I come in yet?"
"Just a second," Kaori called from inside Satoru's room.
Satoru stood in the hall, hoping nobody would notice that he was
in his pajamas. He knocked on the door again.
"C'mon, Kaori. I'm freezing out here." It wasn't entirely a
lie. He looked down the hall again, and cringed. The one person
he didn't want to see turned around and smiled.
"Hey, Nobata!"
Satoru nodded half-heartedly and tried desperately to act
cool. "Hi, Ishiki."
"Going to class in your underwear, eh? I respect a man who
can live out his dreams, you know?" Masao Ishiki's smile widened.
Satoru felt his ears heat up. "Well, don't forget to take notes."
Satoru hung his head. "Why me?"
He felt his world fall out from behind him. When he hit the
ground, he saw Kaori, dressed in trousers and a tee-shirt, looking
down on him.
"Leaning against the door? You pervert."
Satoru instinctively covered his eyes. "Nonono! I
wasn't..." He took a peek from between tense fingers. "Oh.
You're dressed." Pulling himself up to his knees, he frowned. "I
wasn't leaning. I was stepping backwards. Now, wait outside.
*I* need to get dressed."
Kaori nodded, grinning maliciously. "Yes, sir. You can
count on me, sir. I won't let you down, sir." She turned to him
just outside the doorway. "Don't open the door too quickly
though. You might catch me peeking." She stuck out her tongue
and shut the door behind her.
Satoru could feel the heat in his ears flow fiercely across
the rest of his face. He could just see Kaori deriving as much
enjoyment from seeing him blush as Masao had. He tossed off his
pajamas and dressed hurriedly. As he yanked the door open, he
half-hoped he could actually catch her unaware. But Kaori didn't
fall in on him.
In fact, he didn't see Kaori at all.
"Kaori?" Satoru mumbled to the air. He poked his head out
the doorway. No Kaori to the left. "Kaori," he repeated. No
Kaori to the right, either. "Kaooooori! Where are you?" He
didn't say it too loud as he stepped out of his room into the
hallway.
Satoru locked the door to his room and stepped cautiously
towards the front door of the dorm. He didn't dare let his guard
down. He knew she was planning something. "But, if she's outside
already," he mused. "I'd look pretty stupid creeping out like..."
"Gotcha!"
"Aaaaarrgh!" Satoru felt hands grabbing him by the
shoulders. He whipped around. "Why you little..." He growled
and looked down at Kaori. She was smiling.
Honestly smiling.
"You fall for that *every* time! You really need to work on
your peripheral vision." She giggled and trotted past him to the
front door. "Well, are you coming or not?"
Satoru hadn't seen Kaori smile since she left for college.
Not since she had...
"Satoru!" When Satoru shook his head back into the real
world, he saw Kaori. She wasn't smiling anymore. "Let's go! You
said the cafeteria closes at ten."
"Right! Sorry!" He jogged up to her. "I was just
thinking..."
"This isn't a time to think," Kaori stated as she opened the
front door. "This is a time to eat." She motioned to the bright,
crisp outside. "Shall we?"
"Breakfast at one college cafeteria is the same as breakfast
at any other college cafeteria, if you think about it."
This was the lesson Kaori set out to teach Satoru. She
expounded about the starchy, flour-covered similarities that lay
hidden in even the most indigenous meals. For as much as each
society claimed to be unique in their culinary presentations, all
the ingredients were essentially the same, coming from the same
warehouse somewhere in the Pacific.
"At least," she finished while chewing. "That's what I heard
on the radio." She reached for a glass of juice, but her hand
wasn't open wide enough, and she knocked it over instead.
"Ack!" Kaori gasped as the contents flowed from the glass to
the table. "I'll be right back!" And she ran off to find as many
napkins as possible.
Satoru could think of no other words. "Weird," he murmured.
"Simply weird." To say that he had heard the majority of what she
had just said, let alone understood that much would have been an
exaggeration. At the moment, however, Satoru's mind was wandering
beyond the spilt juice and conspiracy theories.
He remembered fifth grade well. Lunch time in fifth grade
wasn't easy for any of the kids. Rumors about the origins of the
food and the people who served it abounded. And eating it was no
picnic, either. But his thoughts didn't linger on the food for
very long; he later thanked himself for that.
He remembered seeing Kaori running across the grassy play
field after school. She wasn't on the track that surrounded the
field; she had run on it often enough before to make this incident
seem unusual. So, Satoru stopped to take a quick look. "Just a
little glance to see what's going on," he had justified in a
whisper. She didn't know he was watching, and he supposed that
was a good thing.
She was just trying to run, not anything else special. Just
run. But she tripped. Satoru assumed that it was a rock or maybe
a dirt clod that caught her foot. She got up, dusted off her bare
knees, and continued. This time, she ran harder than before,
leaning forward for an imaginary finish line.
She tripped again. This time, Satoru saw that there was no
rock or dirt clod. She didn't really fall all the way to the
ground; she caught herself with her hands and sprang back up. And
she was running again. Her arms pumped in time with her legs,
faster, faster. He could hear a distant growl, light from
distance, and too familiar to be anybody else's. Her cry caught
in her throat, and she tripped again.
Satoru turned and walked the long way home around the other
side of the school. He didn't see her that evening. When he did
see her the next day, he didn't mention what he saw. He never
mentioned it to her. He eventually realized, after *those*
classes on *that* subject, that it probably had something to do
with her growth spurt; she was taller than him that year. But he
never really bothered to keep the memory in the front of his mind.
He did notice that she didn't play much on the field that year.
But the next year, she was playing as well as she ever had.
The memory felt both out of place and perfectly appropriate,
resurfacing after so many years. There it was, floating before
him like so many sparkles of nothing. When he focused his eyes
away, he saw Kaori approaching, carrying more napkins than he had
previously seen associated with any one person.
Satoru tried to look busy helping with the spill.
"There!" Kaori dumped the two gargantuan handfuls of napkins
on the creeping orange mess. "That should do it." After a few
moments of fervent soaking, she took the sopping napkins to a
nearby trash can.
"I think we've done all the damage we can do here," Satoru
mumbled. "Why don't we head back."
Kaori lowered her gaze to her tray. "You're probably right."
Her voice fell softly to the ground. Satoru hoped she wasn't
crawling back into whatever shell she had been in at the airport.
He turned and started walking towards the tray deposit.
"We'll do something fun this afternoon. How's that sound?"
Kaori didn't say anything. Since she was behind him, he
could only imagine that she had nodded or hadn't heard him or...
His mind, awakened by his recent and more distant memories, raced
with less hopeful thoughts.
He could see how they must have looked; him leading the way,
and Kaori following two steps behind, head low, taking the small,
obedient steps of someone wilted and vacant.
"Like what?" The response came so long after the question,
it took a few moments for Satoru to figure out what she meant. He
put his tray on the blue conveyor belt that eventually disappeared
behind a wood-paneled wall.
"I..." He almost said that he didn't know, but he bit his
tongue. "It's a surprise." He smiled and winked at Kaori, who
frowned skeptically.
"Okay," she sighed as she finally relented a smile. "But it
had better be good."
* * * *
There was a message on Satoru's machine when he and Kaori
returned to his room. It was from Ichiro:
"Hey, Satoru! How was last night?" There was a short burst
of giggling from the background and a sharp, tight 'smack.'
Ichiro continued. "Ouch! Anyway, Yumiko and I got invited to a
party tonight. We figured that maybe you and Kaori would like to
come as well. You two must be tired of being cooped up in that
room all alone with nobody to stop you from..." Another pause for
giggling and another 'smack.' "Ouch! Stop that! Anyway, if you
two want to go, give Yumiko a call, okay? See ya."
"Well, Kaori, what do you think? Maybe a nice party?"
Satoru looked to Kaori; she was lying on his bed, her face to the
wall. "Kaori?"
"That sounds good to me." The voice floated listlessly
around the room.
"We don't have to go. We can stay here tonight. But I can't
promise anything exciting. Just TV or something..."
"No, that's okay. I want to go. It'll be fun." Kaori
rolled over to face Satoru. She flashed a limp V-sign. Satoru's
expression didn't change; Kaori's hand descended to the bed
slowly. "What?"
Satoru shook his head. "Nothing." He smiled gently. "You
get some sleep. You look tired."
"But how will you live without me awake to entertain you?"
The limpness of her body had overtaken her mouth, making the grin
she attempted seem like a chore.
"I'll think of something. Anyway, I just skipped my lecture
class today, so I might as well do some reading on it. I'll put
some music on if you want."
"That sounds good. There's a CD in my suitcase. Can you put
that one on?"
"Sure..." Satoru reached opened the beige suitcase and pulled
out the CD. The title was in English, and the band wasn't any he
had heard of before. "What is this?"
"Floater. They're a band from the university. Give it a try
-- you'll like it."
Satoru opened the case and placed the CD in his stereo. The
speakers poured a strange mix of samples and keyboard sounds
across the room. Kaori snuggled closer to the wall.
"Can you put it on track six please? Thanks."
Satoru complied.
Though he couldn't understand what was being sung, the
tortured vocals and heavy guitars suggested something less than
relaxing.
<He's dead!>
"I thought you liked jazz," Satoru wondered aloud.
<I was alive, I was alive, I was alive, I was alive...>
"Well, I like this too," Kaori replied tersely.
<...I was alive, I was alive, I was alive, I was alive...>
"Why?" Satoru was glad Kaori couldn't see his visible
shudder. "You never used to like *this* stuff."
<...Now I'm dead!>
A long pause, then, "I don't know. I just do now."
<Something inside keeps telling me I have died...>
"Don't worry," Kaori continued. "There are other songs on
this CD you'd like. Just keep it on, please?"
<...Something below keeps pulling me through my soul.>
Again, Satoru complied.
<Something inside keeps telling me I have died...>
"Umm, Kaori?"
<...Something I know, it makes me numb even though.>
"Do you know what the lyrics are saying?"
<Oh God! I'm dead!>
Kaori waited a long while to answer.
<Oh no! It makes me numb even though!>
"No." Her voice caught on the word. "No, I don't."
<I was alive, I was alive, I was alive, I was alive...>
Satoru turned the music down until he could also hear Kaori
breathing. Once her breathing slowed and smoothed, he wrote a
note, left it by the pillow, and left for Ichiro's. The note by
the pillow read:
Kaori,
I'm at Ichiro's. The number is at the bottom of this note.
Call me when you wake up.
I'm very sorry. I didn't want to wake you.
--Satoru
"Where's Kaori?" Ichiro met Satoru at the front door of his
dorm building. Satoru had called from the phone just outside the
front door. The weather was still crisp, the sky still clear,
though not as bright as before. Ichiro wore his leather jacket;
Satoru wasn't wearing a coat.
"She's still asleep." Satoru started walking, his eyes
blank. Ichiro caught up with a couple of brisk steps and walked
beside his friend.
"So, do you want to go to the party?" Ichiro's voice was
still light, but it was beginning to tarnish with concern.
"I don't know. I do, I mean, I think Kaori would do well to
get out a little. But I don't think she wants to go."
"Well, we could..."
"...I mean, she's changed so much. I don't know if I even
know her anymore. She smiled once earlier, an actual smile. You
know all those smiles you saw before?"
"You mean the one time?" Ichiro quipped.
"They weren't real. It's like she's... This is nuts! Why
did she come back? And why isn't she at her parents? I can't
keep her in my room forever! Somebody's going to wise up sooner
or later. Even though it *is* a coed dorm, there are rules
against this, and the way she's acting, she may sleep all term for
all I know. And the music she's listening to now! The stuff's
downright disturbing, and I don't even know the words! What's
going on with her?"
Ichiro blinked three times and stopped at the corner. "You,
my friend, need to get that girl out and about." He shrugged as
if it was all so simple. "She's depressed, and she came back here
to forget about whatever it is that's depressing her. And you,"
he pointed an index finger to Satoru's chest. "You are her way of
forgetting. You're her solution. So start solving, already!"
Satoru took a long moment to absorb the statements, then
nodded with determination. "You're right. She needs to get out.
We'll go to that party. So, where is it?"
"That's a surprise." Ichiro winked as he grinned, which made
Satoru all the more wary..
"Okay then, can you at least tell me *when* it is? Or is
that top-secret too?"
"It'll start around seven, and will probably go for a while.
I'll provide the ride if you provide pizza afterwards."
Satoru nodded. "That is an acceptable solution," he stated
officiously.
Ichiro saluted his friend. "Sir, you won't be disappointed,
sir." With that, he started walking back to his dorm. Satoru
checked the time, then headed back to his own room. If he was
lucky, he could get back home before Kaori woke up and tear up the
note.
* * * *
Wednesday, 6:43 PM.
"It'll be fun. I *promise*," Satoru reassured Kaori for the
third time in as many minutes. "You need to get out, anyway.
Being cooped up in my room is no way to spend your evening..."
"And mingling with a bunch of drunk, dirty-minded boys is a
*good* way to spend my evening?"
"Nobody's getting drunk." Satoru hoped he was right.
"Ichiro's usually pretty good about the parties he chooses."
Satoru flipped through all the times that statement had turned out
to be true. Both of them.
"Two out of five isn't *that* bad," he rationalized under his
breath. He decided not to count all the stories Ichiro had told
him.
As they waited outside Satoru's dorm, the wind brushed frozen
air past their cheeks. Kaori shivered in her coat. She was still
in her trousers and tee-shirt, despite Satoru's protests. She had
packed a dress, but when Satoru pointed it out, she refused to
wear it.
"You'll stick with me, okay?" Kaori sounded more like a
parent than a friend.
"I will." He rubbed his nose with gloved hands. "Don't
worry."
"I'm not worried about *me*." She smiled and turned in time
to see Satoru drop his jaw.
"Yeah, right, like anybody will go for me right now!
Especially with you right next to me!"
"You saying I'd scare 'em off?"
"I'm not saying anything anymore," he smirked as Ichiro's car
pulled up. Satoru opened the rear door and motioned dramatically.
He could see Kaori's giggle on the frigid air, but he was unable
to hear it.
After a rather winding drive along narrow roads, the car came
upon a house. A very large and equally familiar house. Satoru
felt the little confidence he still had in his previous claims
crash into the floor of the car with a dull 'thud.'
"The party's *here*?!?" Satoru banged his head against the
chilly window a couple of times and cursed.
"I'll explain later," Ichiro felt Satoru's icy stare drill
deep into the back of his skull. He hoped Satoru wouldn't kill
him before he had a chance to park the car.
"I always wanted to go to a party here!" Satoru exclaimed
after a desperate silence. Ichiro looked at Yumiko in confusion.
Yumiko returned the look.
"But you said you hated..."
"Ichiro," Satoru gritted.
"...Masao, but you two must have reconciled! I'm so happy!
This is truly a wondrous day! And what better place to celebrate
than at his parents' mansion? I love happy endings!"
"Don't overact *too* much," Yumiko whispered.
"Sorry."
The party as a whole was subdued compared to some of the
experiences Ichiro felt compelled to talk about on occasion. The
guests as individuals were mostly stationary, maybe swaying a
little, maybe talking some, mostly eating, and definitely
drinking. Drinking a lot and drinking it often.
"Okay, so Ichiro was wrong. It's been known to happen."
Satoru looked sheepishly at Kaori, who was making a rather large
point of not smiling. "From time to time."
"Hey, baby, you ain't got nothing back there!" A random hand
flew at Kaori from behind and landed firmly below the belt. "You
must be into tennis. Or maybe you're a track girl?" She grabbed
the hand with a grip that produced a small cry from the its owner.
"I do not yet know how I am going to take my revenge on you,
Nobata," the girl snarled as she squeezed, and the owner's cry
grew. "But mark my words..." The person connected to the now
purple hand tried to pull it away, but failed. Kaori's grip
tightened. "...I will take it slowly, and I will savor every
moment of it."
"I'm sorry! Pleeeease, let me go! I'll never do it again!"
The voice was turning heads, and the heads began to snicker.
Kaori lowered her gaze and grinned.
"No. You won't."
Satoru could only blink as Kaori passed him on her way to the
hour d' erves. "Are you okay?" was the only thing he could say,
despite knowing that it was a somewhat understated question.
Kaori smiled as she reached for the offerings of a random
platter. "Never better!" Her voice sugared to the point of
excess. Satoru felt a wince growing in his shoulders. "I'm in a
crowded room with a bunch of rich perverts, listening to music my
little sister wouldn't like, hoping to God these crab cakes are
good..." She took a bite. "Well, at least this party isn't a
*complete* waste," she grumbled.
"Look, I think you just need to relax and mingle a little.
These people," he glanced across the room and realized he was
about to lie. "They're not bad people, once you get to know them.
They're just a little... loose at the moment."
Kaori shrugged. "Whatever," she waved him away as she would
a mosquito. "Have fun, or whatever you call this. I'll be
against the wall, guarding my nothing."
"Okay, just let me find Ichiro, and we'll get out of here."
Satoru craned his neck and scanned the room. Given his height,
the boy shouldn't have been hard to spot. Unfortunately, Satoru
found that a number of the richer families had unusually tall
children. He reasoned it wasn't genetic, rather it was just what
was required to make his job as hard as humanly possible.
"The first time I actually find somebody I *want* to easily,"
he gnarled. "I'll build a shrine to that person then and there."
Aside from the lightest of conversations with the various
drunk party-goers, Satoru said nothing more at the party for a
good amount of time. Three songs flew by as he pushed his way
past the ever-growing number of guests, in search of Ichiro, or
Yumiko, or, towards the end, even Kaori. This worried him. He
knew she wasn't about to take his advice, nor would she leave
without him. Unless that was her revenge.
"It's rather poetic, now that I think about it," he noted
bitterly under the stiff dance beat. "I suffer here for eternity
while she escapes to anywhere. Clever girl."
Two songs later, he realized that, as tempting as it must
have been, she was still at the party, albeit coming from an
unexpected corner. Yumiko was nowhere to be seen, but Ichiro was
about three or four people behind Kaori; Ichiro and Satoru made
eye contact, and Satoru tapped his watch. As he pushed through
the crowd to the front door, Ichiro revealed a huddling Yumiko
standing in front of him, practically riding on his shoes.
"You three are a pleasant sight." Satoru opened the door,
which allowed four more people to enter.
"Well," Ichiro beamed. "Now that we've been replaced, shall
we be off?"
"Yes!" All three announced emphatically. And thus they were
off.
* * * *
Wednesday, 10:21 PM.
"...And when he finally woke up, he asks me, 'Did I just do
*that* in the kitchen? And of course I couldn't keep a straight
face, but I was able to fool him into thinking he had! hahaha...
haha... ah... hahaha... ha?" Ichiro frowned. "I guess you had to
be there."
"I'm glad I wasn't," Kaori returned quickly. She sipped on
her lemonade while Satoru chuckled in agreement.
"How true, how true." Ichiro finally smiled.
"Thanks for the pizza," Yumiko spoke softly, but her smile
compensated.
"You're quite welcome," both Kaori and Satoru spoke
simultaneously.
"Oh no you don't," Satoru fumed. "I'm picking up this
check."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am..."
Kaori produced a yellow receipt and waved it triumphantly in
front of Satoru. "No. You're. Not."
"How did you...?"
"Remember when I had to depart for a few moments?"
"Why you sneaky..."
"Well, I *did* have to go, but I figured, while I was
there..."
"You really need to pay for things, don't you, Satoru?"
Ichiro interjected happily.
"He doesn't feel manly unless he pays for everything I eat or
drink. Oh, and he hates it when I order for him." She added with
a mischievous lilt.
"I see you let him order for you tonight."
"I'm being nice to him. Calm before the storm. I'm not
happy with him at the moment."
"Why?" Yumiko was still smiling, but her eyes were fiendish;
Satoru could see she was only egging Kaori on.
"Well, *he* dragged me to that party."
"True, true." Ichiro's grin grew a little guilty, but he
took no blame. "So, what're you going to do to him?" Yumiko
elbowed Ichiro in the ribs. "As punishment, I mean."
"Oh, I dunno. I'll think of something. Unless you have a
particularly good idea."
"Well, I've always been partial to the water tortures. Maybe
something along those lines? You know, maybe a good ten-hour
forehead dripping, or perhaps a nice warm-water nocturnal
manicure?"
"You're evil." Satoru noted bluntly.
"Hrm... that's a thought." Kaori rubbed her chin.
Satoru shook his head. "Look, I'm sure you're all are having
a great time discussing my impending doom, but I have class
tomorrow. And so do you, Ichiro."
"Yes, mommy." Ichiro sighed as he slid out of the booth. "I
can't complain, though. You did deliver on the pizza. So to
speak."
"Oh, ha ha. I'm alight with mirth. Let's go."
As soon as Ichiro dropped Satoru and Kaori off, he turned
immediately to Yumiko, who was looking thoughtfully at her hands.
"Did you see what I saw?" His voice was excited, but there was no
happiness there.
"You mean at the party?"
"Yeah."
"I did."
Ichiro and Yumiko were in front of the former's dorm before
he spoke again. "What are we going to tell Satoru?"
Yumiko stopped suddenly. Ichiro took two steps to react and
turned around as she began speaking.
"We'll tell him the truth."
"What do you'll think he'll do?"
"I don't know." Yumiko shrugged. "Neither of us do, and
that's the scary thing. We don't know Satoru that well. We've
been friends with him for a few weeks, but that's nothing compared
to the history he and Kaori have. I don't even know if he'll
believe us."
"I hope he does." Ichiro murmured.
"Me too." Yumiko paused, then said plainly, "I hope he kicks
Masao's ass."
Ichiro blinked a few times. "Me too," he finally agreed.
The boy turned back towards his dorm. "You know, you're really
cute when you're bloodthirsty."
"Thank you."
"Good night."
"Good night."
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Sorry for the lateness of the chapter (I'm getting too used to
saying that); I hope the wait was worth it for you. The story's
beginning to really pick up. Expect some big happenings in the
next few episodes. Hope you're all surprised by the end!
I'd like to once again thank my pre-readers, the Mokonators:
Eimii, Ben Williamson, T.H. Tiger, and Jim Nutley. Also, a big
thank-you to Erin Ellis for sending the letter that tossed me out
of my slump and into the final 1300 words of the story.
Lifting Shadows Off A Dream: One of my favorite songs from Dream
Theater's "Awake" album (from 1995). I recommend you check it out
if you like the heavier stuff along old-school Metallica.
He's Dead!: Yes, it's a real song (called "Dead" off of Floater's
1995 album, "Glyph," another good album). Yes, those are the real
lyrics. And yes, it's as disturbing set to music as it seems. I
won't apologize for the direct lyrical quote, but I will say that
it's not gratuitous.
Floater: Because Floater permeates Eugene's culture to the bone,
most people there know that Floater exists. Thus it isn't unusual
for Kaori to have access to the album (it's still in print, and at
all of the music stores in Eugene) or to know about the band.
Now that I've climbed over the "How Do I Get From Point 'A' To
Point 'B'?" speed bump, the story should flow from me a little
faster. I figure that I should be able to return to my schedule
without incident.
Once again, I thank you for reading, and implore that you take a
couple of seconds just to say that you've read the story. If you
want to include what you thought if, or even a little C&C, I'd
love it. I really would! ^_^
Next Episode: "Kaori's Sigh: Is There Something Wrong?"