More Than
Friends
chapter 4
Manille
While inside the classroom later in the day, Yusuke caught his best friend among his fellow guys, Kuwabara Kazuma, staring outside, where pools of rainwater collected in little sidewalk pits. Yusuke rolled his eyes, smiled mischievously, and walked towards him…
Suddenly…
"YUKINA!!!"
"AAH! WHAT? WHERE’S YUKINA???"
"Ha-ha-ha!"
Kuwabara turned around to see Yusuke rolling on the floor, laughing his heart out.
"Urameshi no baka!" Kuwabara shouted at him. "What’s your problem?"
Still laughing, Yusuke stood up and brushed his green long-sleeved uniform with his hand. "Oh, boy. I really think you need the girl. What’s the matter? I don’t see you picking fights anymore."
Kuwabara shook his head. "You’re just lucky because you have Yukimura Keiko by your side everytime. Unlike my Yukina…" His eyes had that faraway look again.
"As if Yukina likes someone with hair that looks like a lump of stale bread."
"SHUT UP, URAMESHI!" Kuwabara growled as he ran a hand through his curly brown hair. "It’s not the looks that counts. It’s the character. Unlike you—you certainly look like a hunk, but it just about ends there."
"Whatever." Yusuke smiled playfully. "The way you miss the girl is so weird."
"You just don’t know how it feels," Kuwabara muttered, looking outside once more.
Yusuke’s smile widened. He knew that Kuwabara had a reputation of being a gentleman—among girls, that is—but his last words made him want to barf. "Don’t know how it feels"? So when did Kuwabara become an expert on feelings?
"Oftentimes, Urameshi, it is absence that makes the heart grow fonder," Kuwabara explained, as if hearing Yusuke’s thoughts.
"I know that," Yusuke replied, rolling his eyes once more.
"Well, you should learn to understand that. On second thought," Kuwabara added, "I’m not so sure if ever the time will come when Keiko will leave your pathetic self."
Yusuke chuckled. "No way. I’ll never leave her, and she won’t leave me."
"Oh?"
"You’d better believe it."
"I probably won’t."
"Fine, if you want it that way."
Kuwabara stared ahead of him thoughtfully. "No, erase, erase," he said, waving a hand before his face. "I really think that eventually, the time will come when you’ll have to say goodbye to her. Her heart will break, and so will yours."
Yusuke scratched the back of his head. "Okay, so you’ve proven that your spiritual powers includes the power to predict the future. Now stop already. It’s not as if Keiko and I are…a couple…"
Kuwabara averted his eyes from the window and trained them on his friend. Yusuke had to hide his face from Kuwabara. He knew that he was blushing.
It was Kuwabara’s turn to laugh. "Urameshi, from the very beginning, since you came back to life again, we’ve all established that Keiko likes you and you like her as well."
Yusuke looked at him warningly. "Now, Kuwabara. We’re not here to discuss about Keiko, okay? I like her because she’s my friend and that’s that. Now stop it."
"Right, so how would you explain the way you got so worried over her when you fought Suzaku, the guy with the flute? Those zombies were chasing her and Botan, and when she screamed—"
"It’s natural for someone to worry over a friend, Kuwabara!" Yusuke said, his face reddening even more. Darn! I’m being transparent here! Keiko and I are just friends! "When I thought you died during the tournament, I didn’t forgive myself because of guilt."
"Oh, boy. I’m so touched."
As Kuwabara said this, Yusuke saw Keiko heading towards him. He tugged at the collar of his uniform and cleared his throat. Kuwabara gave him a meaningful look.
"Konnichi wa, Keiko," Kuwabara greeted the girl.
"Hello too, Kuwabara." Keiko smiled, then looked at Yusuke. "Hi, Yusuke."
"Hi." To Yusuke’s amazement, his voice came out as a croak. He cleared his throat once more. "Hi."
Keiko raised an eyebrow.
"We were just talking about sensitive stuff before you came," Kuwabara explained, glancing at Yusuke. "That’s the reason for his acting weird lately."
Keiko nodded, although a bit suspiciously. "Oh. How sensitive?"
Yusuke laughed nervously. "Men’s talk, Keiko-san. It’s that sensitive."
Keiko smiled slyly. Yusuke mimicked her and smiled as slyly.
"Ah…better go now, Urameshi," Kuwabara told him, grinning devilishly as well. "Sayonara."
Yusuke grunted in response.
"Yusuke, you…" Keiko wagged a finger before Yusuke’s nose. " ‘Men’s talk’? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were talking about me."
Yusuke grinned frivolously. We were talking about you, but not in the way we’re both thinking of right now… "Are you kidding?" he told her. "Would I do that to my best friend? I’d never think about you amorously if it would save my life."
"I’m glad."
Inside, Yusuke had to shake himself to rid of the mixed-up feelings brought about by his recent conversation with Kuwabara.
He knew that Keiko loved him. He heard her say it herself when he was a spirit floating around, watching her. Besides, she kissed him on the lips. Keiko had been denying it, but in his heart, Yusuke knew better.
Nai, he told himself. Keiko is just a good friend of mine.
Keiko held a thick novel on her hand, which she tapped with her fingers every now and then. It was written in English, he saw. Being curious, Yusuke asked, "So what’s your new book?"
"This?" Keiko held the book up. "It’s entitled Pride and Prejudice. I’ve read the first chapter, and I must say, I had a hard time translating some of the English words in Nihongo."
"How could you have the patience to read a book like that, an English one for that matter?"
"It has a nice story in it," Keiko debated. "It’s a love story—"
"I know, I know," Yusuke interrupted. "It happens this way: guy meets girl. They become friends. Then guy loses girl. Finally, both realize their feelings and they live happily ever after." Yusuke smirked. "It always happen that way."
"Well, friendship often ends in love, doesn’t it?"
Yusuke stopped smiling. He felt his heart skip a beat as Keiko said those words. Friendship often ends in love.
Keiko must have realized her fault, for she blushed fiercely and bit her lip. She looked down on the ground, shifting her feet.
Yusuke looked away, feeling embarrassed as well. Urameshi, you really are a baka, he thought. You’re standing here, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. What are you going to do now?
Wait, what am I so guilty about? he asked himself. Keiko’s a friend—just a friend. And she said that friendship often ends in love. Not always.
"Well…er…that’s not exactly applicable for both of us, huh?" Urameshi!!! How could you hint that?
"Um…n-no," Keiko stammered. Yusuke knew that Keiko was much more embarrassed than he was at that moment.
Neither Yusuke nor Keiko breathed a word as they walked home together that afternoon, unlike the day before when they were both as cozy as being in front of a fireplace in the middle of winter.
Keiko knew it was the topic about friendship and love that created an invisible barrier between them. Keiko, you shouldn’t have said that, she scolded herself. Yeah, right. Friendship often ends in love. As if Yusuke doesn’t know.
The thought of it made her heart beat faster. She knew that Yusuke understood her feelings towards him, although they didn’t acknowledge it to each other. She knew that for him, they were simply friends. And part of Keiko wanted them to be something more…
She wanted Yusuke to tell her that he loves her too.
But that was a random thought. Yusuke, fall in love with her? Not.
"AH!"
Keiko stopped abruptly at the sound of Yusuke’s shout. As she did, she heard a loud thump beside her.
"Yusuke!" she exclaimed, partly annoyed and partly overwhelmed. Yusuke had tripped while he was walking, and now, he was lying facedown on the sidewalk.
"Oww…." Yusuke mumbled in pain as he sat up. "That was painful!"
"It sure was," Keiko said. She didn’t know if she must scold Yusuke or be sorry for him. "What happened?"
"Maybe I tripped," said Yusuke sarcastically.
"Oh sure, maybe you did," Keiko said, imitating his banter. "Couldn’t you live one single day without hurting yourself—accidentally or intentionally?"
"I’m just accident-prone these days," Yusuke said. "Hai, that must be it." He bent his right leg joint and examined his ankle. "I think I’m sprained."
"Here, let me see." Keiko looked at Yusuke’s ankle closely. She gently rubbed it with her thumb in a circular motion. "Does that hurt?"
"Um, no, not much."
"Then you’re not sprained. It’s just a minor strain. What about your head, did you bump it pretty badly?"
"No."
"Can you stand up?"
"I don’t think so."
Sighing, Keiko lifted Yusuke’s right shoulder and put it across her shoulders. She pulled herself up and helped Yusuke stand on his own feet.
"Keiko…" she heard Yusuke say.
"Hmm?"
"Thank you. Arigatou gozaimasu, Keiko."
"It’s my duty to protect my friend, I guess," she said. Slightly blushing, she led Yusuke away.
They stopped at a nearby park, where a lot of people were already passing by, ready to call it a day. The two sat down beside each other on the edge of a marble sculpture that served as a fountain. On that day, however, the fountain was not flowing.
"Won’t your chichi-oya be mad at you?" Yusuke asked Keiko as he looked at their reflections on the still water. "I think I’m keeping you out here for too long. You should be helping him in the restaurant."
"No, he won’t be mad at me," Keiko assured him. "He’ll understand."
"That you’re always hanging out with me?"
"Well, partly. I mean, he knows that I have a lot of things to do besides helping him in the restaurant."
"Good." Yusuke smiled at her. "You’re lucky to have an understanding father."
Keiko smiled back. "Hai. But Atsuko-san is understanding as well, isn’t she? She loves you a lot. I mean, all mothers love their children."
"Of course she is." Yusuke paused for a while, keeping his lips tight. "I only wish that she’d pay attention to me more than to alcohol. I mean," Yusuke tossed his head back, "what are they for?"
Keiko didn’t know how to answer.
"I just want to say, ‘O-kaasan, I’m here and I’m ready to take the place of your wine,’" Yusuke continued. "You know?"
Keiko nodded. "I understand."
Despite Yusuke’s tough exterior, Keiko knew, after so many years of hanging out with him, that he was truly a very sensitive kind of person. He cares for the people he’s close with although he doesn’t say much about them. It’s in conversations like this when Yusuke finally opens up.
Yusuke chuckled bitterly. "Sometimes, I think lack of attention is what turned me into this kind of guy."
"Don’t say that, Yusuke," Keiko told him softly. "Your mother loves you, whatever you think. She brought you up and gave you everything to keep you alive, even if she had to do it alone. And…I like you just the way you are."
"I know. But I only wish that…" His voice trailed off. His gaze went back to the water.
Keiko sat closer to him. Yusuke didn’t talk about his mother very much, and now that he did, Keiko’s heart went out for him.
"I wish…I wish o-kaasan is here too."
Keiko’s mother. She didn’t know what she looked like, for she died while giving birth to her. Tears shot up in her eyes. "I wish someone’s there to help o-toosan with the housework. I didn’t…I never felt a mother’s love, Yusuke." She closed her hands on her lap into fists as she tried to keep her tears from falling down.
She felt the gentle touch of Yusuke’s hand cover her own. He squeezed it tenderly, to assure her.
Keiko looked at him and nodded thankfully.
"Thank you, too."
His kind brown eyes shimmered under the sunlight. The two gazed at each other as unknown people passed around them.