Chapter 20Saya left Ms. w.a.n.g"s cla.s.s feeling a little crestfallen. Although the outcome she expected happened she was still saddened that she couldn"t do much for her. Ms. w.a.n.g exhibited cla.s.sic signs of an abuse victim and reacted accordingly when Saya tried to confront her about it. Saya was hopeful that Ms. w.a.n.g would reach out for help in the future before it was too late.
The rest of the day went by in a blur of whispers and stares for Saya. She was still the star in the students" drama fueled gossip and darn it if they didn"t do their very best to vilify her to no end. Saya spent her day ignoring shrewd whispers of "s.l.u.t", "mental", and whatever other offensive t.i.tles the NSU students could throw at her. She ignored all of it and most of the boring lessons she already learned by the time she was ten. The school part came easy for Saya, it was going to be the people part that was going to be a problem.
Saya walked to the place Haru"s driver parked in the morning to find Haru talking in hushed tones with a familiar old man. Haru"s back was turned to Saya so he didn"t see her. She abruptly halted, not wanting to disrupt the two but she was too late and was discovered by the old man. With a beaming smile, the old man said loudly, "OH hey there young lady. We meet again!"
Saya recognized the old man as the kind janitor who pointed out the washroom after her emotional encounter with Haru. Although Saya was emotionally exhausted and sobbing rivers of tears during their first encounter, she thought then that there was more to the old man than he let on. And she was right. "Saya meet our ill.u.s.trious princ.i.p.al, old man Tenzin," Haru said.
"Grandpa Tenzin, or grandpa Yuuto, or just grandpa my dear Saya. I have been trying to get Haru here to call me grandpa since he could speak but ah this dear boy started calling me old man Tenzin from the very start. He doesn"t even call me by my first name like I ask him to!" he grumbled.
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Saya smiled awkwardly at the all too friendly old man and replied softly, "I don"t think I can call on you so informally Princ.i.p.al Tenzin."
"Tsk, not you too! My dear Saya your basically family. I have been friends with Haru"s grandpa for decades. My sister even married him. So when you marry into the Hayashi family I"ll be your grandpa too," Yuuto said cheerfully. His words left Saya speechless. She was unable to respond to his baseless a.s.sertion. Saya wanted to deny his claims but her mind and mouth seem to have been disconnected due to overwhelming disbelief. When her mind had fully processed his words she was discontent with the information regarding Haru"s family because it showed how little Haru has told her about his family.
Besides the basic information that most of the public knew, Saya realized she knew too little about Haru"s family background. She knew they were wealthy and his grandfather was the Police Chief Commissioner of their country. But beyond that, she knew nothing about his family. Not that she didn"t try to find out but whenever she asked about his grandfather in the past, Haru would nonchalantly change the subject. She figured out quickly that it was a sensitive topic so she didn"t pry.
Saya cleared her throat, in an attempt to dislodge the invincible hold her realizations had brought. She gave Tenzin a small sardonic smile and clarified his statement. "So your sister is married to Haru"s grandfather?"
"Yup! I didn"t like it one bit. But my dear sister is stubborn and how was I supposed to say no to my best friend."
"That is so interesting Princ.i.p.al Tenzin. I didn"t even know Haru knew you let alone the fact that his grandfather was married to your sister. Haru always knew how I wanted to attend North Star University and you being the princ.i.p.al and all, I would have thought he would at least mention it to me even once," she sneered in mocking disbelief.
Yuuto smiled awkwardly regretting his earlier words. He felt like he shouldn"t have said anything in the first place because it seemed to have opened up a can of worms. The old man shuffled slowly away from the couple and turn his wrist to his eye level. "Oh look at the time. I have some princ.i.p.al things to do. Very important princ.i.p.al things to do. Yes, yes. It was nice to see you again dear Saya. Haru please tell your grandpa I said h.e.l.lo. Goodbye, my young ones!"
Saya and Haru followed Yuuto"s b.u.mbling movements as he made his escape. Unable to hold back Saya yelled, "You"re not even wearing a watch Princ.i.p.al Tenzin!", causing the old man to trip slightly. Haru"s chest rumbled and a low laugh escaped his lips. It was a joyous sound that was not often heard. It startled Saya, it felt like forever since she last heard Haru"s laughter. She forgot how his laughter made her feel warm and tingly. Like lying on the gra.s.s during a warm summer day, that was how his laughter always made her feel.
"Only you and that old fool could ever make me laugh," he said gently whilst wrapping his strong arms around Saya. She felt the warmth of his arms spread throughout her entire body and her feeble attempts to escape him melted away. Saya sighed in surrender, wondering how she could be so weak towards him.
Feeling Saya give in to his embrace, Haru tightened his hold and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"About how weak I am," Saya mumbled softly.
"You"d never been weak. You are the strongest person I know. Nothing phases you. Not the things you have seen due to your parent"s work or the things you"d experienced because you were with me. Because I hold the name Hayashi you were constantly bullied and criticized. You said it never bothered you and you never once asked for my help. But it bothered me. I would throw away my name and status in a heartbeat for you Saya. But I knew you would never let me do that. You didn"t need me to do that because you are strong Saya. And sometimes I wished you weren"t. Sometimes I wished you were just a little weak so you could need my help. I just want you to need me like I need you."
Saya"s heart fluttered wildly at Haru"s words and her cheeks heated with a deep blush. She didn"t know what to say and she didn"t know if she could believe his words. That part of her that died two years ago was saying not to be fooled by his flowery words but the tugging in her heart just won"t stop. In the far corner of her mind was a logical voice reminding her to move past the pain of what happened two years ago so she could fully process the truths from the lies. It was telling her to trust her guts about Haru. Was she too hasty in her decision two years ago? Was she fueled by anger and hurt? Was she really too emotional back then to understand and see everything clearly? Deep, deep, down, Saya knew the answer.
Saya bit her lip in frustration and a tentative finger gently rub across it. "Stop doing that. You"ll hurt yourself."
"Haru why did you never talk about your family when we were together?"
Haru"s demeanor changed and Saya felt a slight tremble appear on the arm holding her.
"My family and their circ.u.mstances don"t matter Saya. Only you matter, remember that."
Haru grabbed a handful of Saya"s hair in a gentle grip and continued, "When my grandfather first found out about you he wasn"t happy. As the future heir of my family, the only heir, certain expectations were placed upon me. I didn"t mind and I never questioned them. That is until I met you. My grandfather betrothed me to his army friend"s granddaughter when I was born. I was told about it when I was five years old. I"ve never loved her. I"d only seen her as an older sister. When I fell in love with you I told my grandfather that I would never be with anyone else but you. He wasn"t happy. He threatened to disown me and I urged him too. In the end, my grandmother had to step in and my grandfather dropped it. But I knew he would never accept you and would do his best to tear us apart. I didn"t want to tell you because I didn"t want you blaming yourself. My relationship with my grandfather has never been great, to begin with."
Saya took a deep breath and untangled herself from Haru"s warm embrace. She believed what he said and understood that Haru was trying to protect her feelings. It didn"t feel good to know that the family of the person you loved didn"t approve of the relationship and to make it worse was actively trying to tear your relationship apart. But she still wished he confided in her from the very start then maybe it could have saved them some heartache. Too bad they can"t change the past, what"s done is done.
"Say-
"I get it Haru. I get why you did what you did. You were trying to spare my feelings. If I"d known back then that I was the reason for your family troubles, I"d blame myself. You didn"t want me getting hurt, I get that, I really do. But sparing me that emotional hurt had led to even more pain! Maybe if I had known what I know now back then I wouldn"t have reacted so hastily! I wouldn"t have-------AHHHHH!"
Saya screamed brutally, feeling too emotional to finish her sentence. She swallowed a few painful sobs as tears flowed down to her chin. "Saya…", Haru said softly, reaching out a hand towards her.
"Don"t touch me!"
"Saya, please," Haru cried.
With her eyes shut tight, Saya shook her head, and stifled her crying with her hands, until her m.u.f.fled sobs became a whimper. It broke Haru"s heart and he tried to reach for her again but she evaded his embrace.
"No, don"t, Haru...I...need a moment...to myself...please," Saya said in between cries.
"Saya!," Haru screamed helplessly.
But Saya didn"t reply. She turned her back to Haru, wiping the never-ending tears away. Haru didn"t want to leave her but he knew he needed to respect her wishes if he was ever going to get to the bottom of things. Unable to contain his helplessness and anger he made a succession of punches to a nearby tree. The sounds of wood and Haru"s fists tearing made Saya flinch but she didn"t turn around.
Breathing heavily Haru sobbed weakly, "I"ll be in the car."
....
Author"s note:
I tried to add this to the author"s note section but I couldn"t fit everything I wanted to say. We"re now at chapter 20 yay! I wanted to talk about a few things about the storyline. Some of you might be wondering why the setting is in a fictional world/country. Well, you see this story was supposed to be Book 2 of a 3 book series I thought up. The series actually have different storylines and are only connected by the main character(s) being introduced in 1 book then having their own book.
So She Will Be Mine was actually supposed to come after another story I thought up. Book 1 was supposed to be a magical/fantasy set in modern times. It had supernatural creatures living among humans and I outline the characters and world it was set it. I had planned to introduce Saya"s character in the first book then have her own story in book 2. But when I sat down and wrote the outlines and my in-depth characters for the stories, for some reason I was more inspired to write Saya"s story first. I had all these ideas I was jotting down for She Will Be Mine. So in a turn of events, I decided to write Saya"s story first. I wanted the stories to still be in the same world because I do plan to write the other fantasy-based story in the future.
In other news for those who are still with me, I said before that I have a lot of things going on in my life that prevents me from writing as much as I want to. That"s still sorta true. However, my part-time job did fall through (I was really sad about it). But I did win a scholarship so I can continue college! It"s been a roller coaster of bad news, good news for me. I"m an older student (in my late 20s) and due to medical reasons, I wasn"t able to complete my degree. Now that things in my life are starting to settle down a bit I decided to go back and finish my degree. I wasn"t sure how I was going to do it because college is expensive so I"m very thankful that I received a scholarship.
For my first semester, I decided to take it easy and focus on school and have decided to halt my job finding for a bit, until I can get into the rhythm of school again. So I know I said I"ll try to write more in August and I will still try to do that. But I hope you faithful readers will understand that at times that might not be possible.