Chapter 1: Moving Again

8 Years Ago🌸

I looked back at the house that was moving farther away from our sight. My sister was unusually very silent today. She had her head bent with her phone on her lap. Was she texting? I didn't know. Not like I care either. The house was now becoming a white dot with a red cap. And it disappeared when we took a turn to the left passing the familiar neighborhood.

For an 18 year old average girl moving away from her house would be a disaster but I was far from average so I was pretty unaffected by it. It didn't feel so bad as it was described in novels and mangas. In those the girl would cry her heart out hugging her friends, throw tantrums saying she won't leave or runaway from home and stay at a friend's house complaining her parents. Well that's what my sister exactly did.

The moment they informed us of dad's sudden transfer which he had to accept due to unavoidable reasons, that's what they always say for an excuse, she was furious. She has always been the stubborn one at home, the black sheep of the family. She stamped the floor pretty hard after every word she spoke. Poor house! The last thing it got from her was a good hell of a beating. And that night she packed her stuff and left saying she'd stay at her friend's but it was a done deal. God she had a lot packed for a runaway but we still had to move.

I, on the other hand, was still being the usual me. It was not like we had another choice. I was silent the whole dinner, accepting whatever mom said without questioning her back. I was like a noble gas. I had no bond with the neighbors, no friends to cry with, no debts to pay, no boyfriends unlike my sister. No one even knew I existed. Just like a gas, invisible.

I was the observant one in the family, just like my dad. My sister inherited her bad temper and sharp tongue from mom, no doubt about it. If needed, at times, I would give my opinion but mostly stayed silent allowing mom and her disciple to solve the problem. My brother was an idiot smiling like a baby at everything whether they were laughing or fighting. Then again he was a baby. He had just turned 2.

That's how it all happened and now here we are moving away from our house, which was home for us for a very long 3 years. We were moving to Kai, a city in the central Yamanashi prefecture. Well it's not very far away from Tokyo though (where we lived till now), only a 2 and a half hour ride by train. Yet it was way too less populated than Tokyo. But according to mom we had everything a highschooler would ever need over there.

My father was provided with a lorry to help with the moving. He drove fast towards our new home, which I didn't know what it looked like or whether I'd fit in. I looked forward, made myself comfortable on my seat taking my eyes from searching for the house that had already disappeared. Mom was breastfeeding Ruka in the passenger seat. Dad looked really excited and I guess something about the new house makes him happy. Mom was emotionless but I could say she was stressed and worried. I felt a small feeling of regret takeover my heart throbbing it. I was almost getting used to it there!!

My phone buzzed and the screen showed Fumino's name on it. I looked at her to see her glaring at me and then turned her head looking out of the glass shutter at the passing buildings. What's her problem? Can't she just say what she has to say when I'm sitting right next to her!? Such a bother. I opened my inbox and it said, 'You. Loser. Sucks'

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It was around 10 am when we reached our new home. Fumino wanted the biggest room in the house so she ran upstairs taking two steps at a time to choose her room. What a swing of moods! Just few seconds ago she was glaring and tearing type with her eyes digging wholes on my skin and now she was all excited and happy. I really can't figure her out and the last thing I did was try.

A chill ran through my spine as I entered the empty hall of the house. The lorry with our furniture and other stuff was yet to arrive. Mom started tidying the kitchen and I helped dad with our luggage. The house was not much of a big deal. Just like any other it was tall, wide and still. But there was this aura coming from the house making me feel homely. The wooden fence around the house was painted white and looked new. Maybe the previous owner did us a favor before leaving. The trees in the front yard was trimmed and taken care of well too. Lavenders were growing well around the fence near the gate. It was a lovely sight to feast on early in the morning. Lavenders were my favorite,after Sakura that is. Strangely enough the house felt so very welcoming.

The garden was bigger than I expected. It even had a backyard. There was a storage room and dad decided to use it as his studio. It was dusty and needed a lot of repairing. I liked helping my dad because we are very much alike. So I helped him with moving his cameras, flashlights and other stuff into that small room. Dad rarely asked for help from Fumino, and that was only if he desperately needed help. She's always careless and forgetful and ended up breaking dad's favorite Video Cam and PC sometime back.

It took us quite a while to hear mom calling us. The lorry had arrived and so were the helpers from the moving center dad had requested. He wanted help with cleaning and assembling the furniture since he couldn't do it with the help of just 2 females. Fumino wouldn't help with hard labour even if she could so it was only mom and me but mom had to look after Ruka who had a new found amusement of sticking and burring his head in piled up boxes.

Fumino has found the biggest room for herself and mom had chosen Ruka's future room which was the one in the farthest corner of the hallway. There was only one room left for me. It was a small room with a small balcony which opens to a well grown Sakura tree. I walked out to the balcony and leaned on to the handrail to touch the wide spread branches of it. I couldn't say to which house it belonged, since it was planted on the margin of the two lands. It must be our neighbors'. But I found myself looking forward for spring to see a pink carpet laid over my garden.

I finished unpacking my luggage and hanged my clothes in the walk in closet. It was a small one and but looked big and spacious, almost empty, with my clothes in it. I didn't have a lot of fancy clothes like my sister. I only had clothes with which I could cover myself with. I didn't care for it's size, colour, or style. All I cared for was the price. The other reason for me to be the way I am was mom's rules, which Fumino broke with much pleasure. I couldn't be a rebel, me being the the eldest, and wasn't interested either.

By the time I had fully cleaned and organized my room I went straight to Fumino's to help her with her stuff. I knocked and knocked but a response never came so I pushed the door open to find a messy room without its owner. I got to know from mom that she went out exploring the neighborhood. For the first time I was jealous of her, jealous of the freedom she had. She had all the freedom she needed unlike me who didn't get any even if I wanted to. I envied her too for being the staightforward girl she is. Still I couldn't blame her because she deserved it and I didn't.

I locked myself up in my room and sat on my bedside window. It was thirty minutes past six in the evening but the moon had already risen. It was a full moon and the grayness of the night sky disappeared by the golden yellow of the moon. I released a sigh I didn't know I was holding. I was just 18 but exhausted by nonstop studying and stressed out by frequent exams that I was hoping for some time of my own, without a single thought of a book crossing my mind. Books, studying, crams, papers, marks, corrections were words known to me since childhood.

I might sound tough inside but I was rather fragile. I've had enough of the life I was leading. It was I was scared to face life which I was not. My parents often said they enjoyed their childhood to the maximum running around in the fields, playing, and even rarely studying! They were very much proud of their past. But wasn't it hypocritical of them to force me to study away my teen without sparing a fraction of a second to consider my feelings? I was already a genius the way I was so what more did they need from me? It was as if having fun was the worst thing to do!

I always didn't voice out. I didn't want to be a burden. My parents worried about me. I know they kept me caged to have me protected. But I've just had enough. That's when I had my fated encounter but that happened so suddenly in a way I have nothing to be proud of. It was utterly embarrassing. I heard some voices and looked towards the road to see a gang of guys smoking in a circle. They looked around my age, but were well built and muscular.

Urggg!! Disgusting!! I could smell the cigarettes even at this distance. Underage smoking is illegal, right? So how the hell did they get those? I scrunched up my nose and looked up to the sky trying invein to get avoid the scent from reaching me. I didn't want myself to be a secondary smoker.

"Some losers just don't get it when to stop smoking! Urggg that smell ruined my day"

I felt intense stares falling onto the side of my face. I looked down away from the moon to see the whole gang staring daggers at me. What!? What did I do wrong? Or was I that attractive? I gave them a blank stare. A guy with 'I'm the leader' type of aura stepped forward and leaned his elbow on the shoulder of another. I must admit, he looked damn hot and my heart skipped a beat. His blue eyes were twinkling with some unexplainable feeling. It look me a while to realize I was staring at him too much and I guess he did too because I noticed a smirk take over him.

"You have a problem with that?"he asked. I was taken by surprise. What was he talking about?

"With what?" I asked in a doubtful tone, and added "I don't think I know you "

"With us smoking " he raised an eyebrow at me.' Well actually I do' I felt like saying but I didn't want to risk a broken bone or two so I said "Oh no. Carry on. I'm good "

"You didn't sound like it when you called us 'losers' "he said making air quotations. That's when I realized I was thinking out loud. How loud was I for them to hear me from across the street!! Oh Sakura, you really know how to attract trouble! That's when I thought of the lamest excuse a person could come up with. I pointed at the moon. "I was just.. um.. I mean, the moon was just talking to you me.. and said he's got a.. um.. SIDS"

"SI what? " the friend next to him asked and he started laughing tugging at his stomach like a baby. Boy, the bad boys do laugh! But I was too embarrassed to say anything or to even look at them so I soon closed my window and drew the curtains trying to ignore the voices down the street. But couldn't. I kneeled down at the foot of the window resting my back on the frame of it.

"Dude what was that for? What was that SI something?"

"SIDS" he corrected."That's Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A cause due to secondary smoking". And like that the voices disappeared. I was stunned. The boy knew the meaning of it. The bad boy knew the meaning and even the cause of it. Was he really an ignorant bad boy?

I couldn't keep my mind away from him. So I quickly grabbed a book from my table and sank into the words of it but his smile kept haunting me. Not that I liked him or anything. Just attracted, or so I think. But one thing I knew for certain. I should not mess with the bad boy. He meant trouble.

But the one thing I didn't know was, I had myself already tangled up with him in a way I couldn't resist.

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