A Decline in Faith: Chapter 2 – The Widening of Eyes

Disclaimer: Initial D does not belong to fita, nor does HMV, the cars, and all the other things I really wish did belong to me…

Chapter 2 – The Widening of Eyes
-_-_-_


The sunny Sunday morning sun found Kyoko lying on her bed half-asleep and staring at the photo of her darling on her bedside table. Her eyes fluttered as she reached up to rub the morning dust off her eyes. Reaching for her small black cat alarm, which she had violently slammed on when it dared to meow, she realized she had, once again, slept in. Stretching her arms over her head, she yawned and headed for the bathroom.

Minutes later, a different cat watched its master leave her room to find a meal her dear mother had prepared for her earlier in the morning. Accompanying the fried egg, fish, soup, and rice was a small note written in her mom’s ever-patient hand. “Kyoko,” She read, “your father and I will be out for the rest of the day. Don’t bother waiting up for us later, we may go out and watch a movie.”

The receiver of the note and meal smiled to herself. Typical of her parents to leave a note, why her parents seemed to treat “unnecessary” items of technology with disdain, simply escaped her. She could imagine her parents riding a carriage to work, if it were available, very vividly. Either way, she only found that trait made her old-fashioned parents dearer to her.

Another thing that she really found endearing about her parents, her mother particularly, was that she insisted on her daughter eating a full meal, at the very least on Sundays. Although, quite honestly, I don’t see why you are dieting in the first place, fine, worry about your figure. That seems to be what all the kids your age are doing, but you have to feel filled at least once in a while, or you won't even be happy, regardless of your weight. When I was your age, your father courted me, regardless of what I looked like. Now look where we are today… Her mother, the accountant, seemed to love talking about how fiery her relationship with her husband was when they were Kyoko’s age.

Her father was just as close to her heart as her mom was, but only in a different way. If her mother only, seriously, shut up, it was because of her work. Her father, on the other hand, only seemed to speak up when he was at work. He worked in an engineering firm; more appropriately, owned and headed it. At home, he usually just sat down and read the remaining parts of the newspaper he hadn't finished earlier in the day. Her dad was the type of person who would only attempt something if no one else could succeed in it. So, he usually was the one who ended up cheering up his daughter when his wife couldn’t do so. This trait also explained why his firm was so successful.

So, she still lived with her parents, all the while envying their successes in life. She envied the fact that they married whom they loved. She envied the fact that they both knew what they wanted in life, and had acquired it. She envied the fact that they were happy.

Setting down her now empty teacup, Kyoko started cleaning up the table. After piling what she had eaten from in the sink, she picked up the small black following her and pressed her nose against the back of Miko’s fluffy head. After listening to the pleased purring from her cat of more than four years, she set the said cat back down then started on the dishes, but not before glancing at the kitchen wall clock behind her. It was almost eleven o’clock; she had about an hour before she met with her friend to accompany her with her shopping. She paused a minute when she remembered why her friend was so insistent on the help.

“Darling…”

~~~

Kyoko pressed on the brakes gently; trying to copy the delicate handling her Darling showed her only a couple of days ago. Her eyes were focused ahead on the intersection, as she concentrated on how she would control her accelerator and brakes, just waiting (as if daring it) for the light to turn green. She could practice on the touge, she knew that, but she believed that it was better if she tried practicing on normal streets at normal (in the normal sense of normal drivers) speeds.

She sighed when she felt the distinct forces pushing against her as she shifted gears. Her foot was being to heavy against the pedals, even though she started at a pathetically slow pace for her FD. Maybe she was going too fast…? But it was not based on speed, was it? Keisuke was speeding up Mount Akagi, but whole thing felt so smooth, as if they were drifting on silk and at the same time it was as if they were on a roller coaster, where every move was planned out and secure. It was as if street racing was nothing but a calculated risk to him.

“I don’t get it…” She murmured as she went back to her normal pace for public streets. Kyoko decided that it was unlikely that she’d just “stumble” upon how she could achieve that sort of level; that was probably something achieved through constant practice and thinking. While thinking this through, she continued to cruise along the streets, and before she knew it, she was already lining up at the entrance of the parking lot right next to the Gunma mall they agreed to meet at, for whatever strange reason. Taking the ticket, finding a parking space, and doing the actual parking took about more or less five minutes. And in the next minute she was heading towards the bright commercial palace with surprises aplenty.

Taking her time to walk over to the entrance, she let her arms brush against her pants’ pocket then she realized that she had once again forgotten her precious silver cell phone, turning back to retrieve the silver gadget, a certain being just happened to glance her way. The result: a widening of eyes.

~~~

Takahashi Ryousuke, the brilliant doctor-to-be and team leader of the powerhouse team, Project.D, was not one to forget things easily, especially things that had at least some significance to him or his dear little brother, “What is she doing here in (1)Ota?”

“Aniki!” Takahashi Keisuke shouted, albeit softly when compared to his standard, “Where’s the shop again?”

Ryousuke’s eyes remained pensive as he turned to reply to his Otouto, “Let’s go, Keisuke.”

The look was enough to trigger the thinking clogs of Keisuke’s mind as they walked to the nearest escalator and down into the basement.

~~~

Looking up, Kyoko felt some sort of light tingle go up her spine, just as it did whenever something – something – unexpected happened. Holding the phone in her hand, the FD racer headed back over to the entrance where her best friend was heading to – from the inside of – those automatic sliding doors. Mayumi smiled in combination with a raised hand, this served as her cursory greeting as they approached each other.

“So,” Kyoko began, watching the older girl’s expression, “Have you eaten yet?” Her friend raised an eyebrow at her curiously, “It’s just like you looked a bit…”

Mayumi interrupted her quickly, “Never mind that.” She said as she hurriedly waved her hand in front of her face. “We should hurry to the stores during lunch hours, it’s usually less crowded then.” She said nonchalantly, taking her friend’s wrist and practically dragging her to the elevator before the racer could suggest anything else.

“Hey, hey.” Kyoko said, freeing her wrist from her friend’s grip, “What are you shopping for anyway?”

Mayumi stopped and let her back face her friend. It was one of those rare moments when the normally loud one became oddly silent. “Well, you see…” When she turned around, it could be seen that she had turned bright red.

Kyoko’s friend told her story as they strode to the section of the mall they were heading to. The swimsuit department. “You see, Kyoko, we kinda agreed on going out on a special date this summer, I know you know that much. The thing is…” She took a moment to twiddle her thumbs trying to figure out how to break the news to her best friend. “I really want to ‘impress’ him then, but you kinda are aware that my figure is hardly something to be proud of, so apart from having to cut back a bit, I want your help on that by the way.” She said flashing a somehow cheeky grin at her friend, “I also want a bit of advice on something.”

“Advice?”

“Uh, yeah…”

“On what…?”

They stared at each other apprehensively before Mayumi turned away and directed her gaze at the floor instead.

~~~

Minutes later, the two ladies were browsing through the racks swimsuits, while going through their usual discussions. The boutique’s dim spotlights shining down on the mannequins posing on small podiums in the middle of the store, along the wood-paneled walls, appropriately placed mirrors hung. They had a couple of weeks to plan for Mayumi’s date; wasting a weekend was not an option for the louder one of the duo.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to help you there much…” Kyoko said as she flicked through the selection, “Hey, I think this looks kinda nice…”

Mayumi turned her attention away from the piece she had in her hands to peer at her friend’s suggestion. Blinking a few times, the girl gazed at it, scrutinizing it carefully. “It is very cute, but really, a bikini? I may seem confident when I talk and stuff, but I'm not totally confident about my figure, as I’ve told you over and over…” She said pouting a bit and ignoring the look she was getting from the saleslady a few meters away. The racer sighed at put it back on the rack, “Anyway, why not?”

Kyoko looked at her then realized what she was talking about, “Ah… Well, when you asked me to give you some tips to relate to guys more closely, I don’t think I can give you anything there… I’m only close to guys because I, well, ‘associate’ with them a lot. So, it kinda grows from that.” Her friend’s expression fell, just a bit, “But either way, I think just talking to him frankly will help.”

“Right… Talking with him frankly…” Mayumi sighed and resigned to browsing the available choices.

Shaking her head slightly, “Hey, you're the one who asked…”

“I know, I know, you don’t have to remind me.” Then taking a one-piece and holding it in front of her, while facing a mirror and admiring how it might look on her, she continued, “I’m not like you. You have a common interest with guys that’s why talking ‘frankly’ with them works with you, but you know very well that like when you doze off when I talk about lovey-dovey stuff, I doze off when you talk about your cars and stuff.” She crossed her right arm over her stretched left after she put the suit back.

Kyoko looked up and said, “You’ve kinda got a point there… But do you really need another way to ‘bring you two closer’?” Mayumi looked away and to the mannequin posing lifelessly, this went on for a few seconds before Kyoko started waving her hand in front of her friend’s face, “Mayumi? Earth to Mayumi?” Snapping out of her reverie, the racer’s friend brought her attention back to her friend. Kyoko laughed affably, “And you said that I was the one who’s always day dreaming.”

Sticking her tongue out, Mayumi replied whiney-ly, “Well, friends supposedly ‘share’ some of their traits because they spend so much time together.”

Kyoko laughed, “Touché.”

This made her friend laugh as well. “Anyway… As I was supposed to be saying, I want us to be able to talk more freely. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got a whole lot in common, so occasionally, we run out of things to talk to…

“Uh-huh…” If Kyoko could, she would've raised her eyebrow, but it just happened that she was one of those people who didn’t have full control of her eyebrows. “Well, what’s wrong with that?”

“Well, yeah, that’d be a great question to answer, but I can’t quite answer it. It just feels that… It’d be better if there were a continuous flow of things to talk about. I can understand that it’s natural for us to run out of things to talk about, and sometimes it’s kinda romantic. Sometimes it’s just plain awkward…”

“Right…” Watching her friend thoughtfully, Kyoko scratched her cheek before she decided on speaking again. “Well, then I suppose that’d be nice to share some more interests with him… What are the things he’s into anyway?”

Giggling slightly, the slightly older girl answered, “(2)The normal guy stuff! Cars and gadgets that kind of stuff.”

“Wow… Cars and gadgets…” Pausing a moment to think it over, Kyoko continued, “Well, then, what brought you two together in the first place?”

Mayumi beamed brightly, “Well, let’s say that I just bumped into him. Anyway…” The sunny expression on her face set as she continued, “I’ve already told you this story…”

Kyoko’s face took a surprised expression as she pointed to herself, “Eh?” She tried to make the wheels in her head spin as much as her FD’s do while racing, “You bumped into each other while in (3)HMV!” Pausing once again, “Right?”

The slightly older gild stared at her friend silently, taking up a few more moments than necessary, as if to scare her, “Well, you got that right.” Once again she let her smile shine, “At least you were listening at that point.”

The racer looked pleased for a while before her mind process something, “Hey… If I remember this right, weren't you saying that you two end up talking for, like… Three hours? On a regular basis.”

“Yeah… I know I said that. And it’s true! We do end up talking that long, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. I feel that it is partly my responsibility to keep our relationship…” She snapped her fingers as if searching for that invisible word.

Staring at her friend, Kyoko realized that Mayumi was trying her very best to make her romantic venture successful. “All right!” When Mayumi looked at Kyoko curiously, the relatively young racer finished her statement, “I think we should be getting back to business!”

~~~

Almost an hour later, the two girls sat down by the fountain in the center of the surprisingly scarcely populated mall, sipping their take-out iced tea, with the drink to quench their parched-from-talking throats, they could sit there for hours, or for as long as they could without getting into trouble, talking.

Unnoticed by the ladies, two eyes were watching them closely. Quietly, the shadowed figure inched in their direction from across the area. Suddenly, the figure dashed forward, and when the girls noticed his proximity to them, he had already snatched Mayumi’s purse and Kyoko’s phone, which was placed between them, away. The younger girl’s reflexes made her grab on to his sleeve and call out for help, but before anyone could go fort and help them, he had already broken free of her grasp and sprinted away.

As the adrenaline rushed through them, Panic took hold of them till a powerful grip held on to the thief’s wrist and sent the crook forward then back, (4)in accordance with Newton’s Law for Inertia. And lo and behold who took the stolen items back from the thief’s hold and sent the still-unknown man to the ground, it was the (5)Rotary Prince.

He glared at the man who had just been pushed down, “Get out of here already! Scram!” He growled. And when the man got up, in much hurry, Takahashi Keisuke watched him go then faced the victims of the theft. His pulse skipped a few beats when he saw just whom he was about to face. Keisuke glanced at his brother quickly before moving towards the girls. No help from his currently expressionless brother.

The yellow FD driver stretched out his arm to reach out the little white purse to its owner. A word of thanks came from the mouth of the older female, before she turned to her stilled friend. The atmosphere was solemnly silent as she moved away only to stare again at her friend then nudge her a little in the direction of the waiting blond.

Blushing terribly, Kyoko moved forward coyly to take the phone Keisuke was offering wordlessly. Turning her head away, she thought, there has to be some meaning to Darling returning my phone to me two times in a row. The two observers watched as the female rotary racer reached out to her taller counterpart, all as in if in slow motion. As soon as the silver gadget was back in her hands, Kyoko turned it over in her fingers as her habit dictated when she was nervous. “Thank you, Da-,” She blushed once more as she stopped herself, “Keisuke-san…”

He ran his hand through his spiky hair and nodded, “Maybe you should start taking care of that cell phone of yours…” He then looked down, smiled, and turned around to face his Aniki, who just nodded; and so the Takahashi kyoudai walked off to wherever they were heading.

Once that wonderfully momentous, Kyoko’s hands were shaking as she stared after her Darling longingly.

“Kyoko… Was that him…?” A nod to the floor was all that came from the young female racer till she arrived home.

~~~

When that particular racer arrived home, she slipped her sandals off hastily then pushed it in the direction of where they were meant to be, easily noting that her parents were yet to arrive home. She then rushed to her room, clamping tightly to her phone, which suddenly had much more meaning to her emotional heart. Getting to her room, Kyoko dropped off her wallet on her desk and paused when her eye caught the picture by her bed. She moved much slower when she placed her phone delicately by the photo, fingers lingering where she imagined her Darling held it.

“Darling…” Closing her eyes she spoke, envisioning Keisuke standing before her, “Do you think there’s a chance…? After Project.D, that is…” Holding her hands close to her chest, feeling her heartbeat hastening within her.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the entrance of quiet noise from beyond her room. As she moved towards her door and pressed her ear against it, she heard the hushed voices of parents discussing something of severe importance, this she could discern from the tone their voices were in and from simple female intuition. A few moments after the hushed voices were hushed, her hand gripped the door knob and turned it slowly, begging the slightly creaky object to, for once, be silent, to no prevail.

Stepping out, Kyoko felt apprehension heaving against her, as if pushing her back to the privacy of her room to never come out, unless Keisuke himself knocked on her door. Her steady forward motion, commonly labeled as walking, soon brought her to her parents. Mrs. Iwase was sitting on the light colored easy chair by the window, with her husband by her side supportively holding her hands in his.

“Kyoko, dear,” Her mother began in her characteristic gentle voice, “We’ve got something to… tell you…”


Anyway, I don’t think that Kyoko’s really from a rich family, but it’s part of the plot I’m trying to form, so a bit of a modification there. And, I’d have to say, I’m having second thoughts about pairing Kyoko up again, with another guy nonetheless, but either way, the story must go on. We’ll just see where this takes us. :D

Footnotes:
1. Ota is a city in the western part of Gunma, not too far from Takasaki, where the Takahashi live, actually…
2. I’m kinda generalizing this from what I can see anyway. I’m not too close to the guys either so I can only second-guess this kind of stuff.
3. HMV is a music store I found in Hong Kong. It’s awesome, much better than the music stores here in the Philippines anyway. The selection there was amazing, C-Pop, C-Rock, J-Pop, J-Rock, and of course “normal” American music as well. There was loads of anime OSTs there as well, not to mention anime DVDs.
4. I have to apologize for this bit… We just studied Newton’s Laws of Motion when I wrote this…
5. Apparently, this is one of Shigeno’s titles for Keisuke…