During the Fall of the year in Japan the sun had already set. At Akino high school classes and club activities ended for the day, most students returned to their homes. However, at the back of the school in a mostly forgotten library building, sixteen year old Soichiro Koishikawa sat alone at a desk piled high with books.
A clock above him tick-tocked away the hours.
Soichiro continued to study. He was reading in the old library that was his oasis.
While other students flocked to the new state-of-the-art library on the other end of the school, this musty building was where Soichiro could read in peace and quiet unimpeded by the care of the rest of the world. Once or twice a week a wayward student would enter by mistake, and Soichiro would be required to put on his professional persona to politely give them directions. His demeanor being sufficient to circumvent any curiosity or interest in remaining by those who would be hanging out and making noise.
On the rarest of occasions when a group of giggling girls would appear before him inquiring about joining the book club he would: 1) order them to leave their cell phones in a locked box at the front desk. 2) Provide them with a ten page test on classical literature. 3) Require them to sign an oath stating they would enter the library in silence and would not giggle for at least the first hour of being there. When he realized the oath of silence was the most effective way to protect his peaceful study time, Soichiro then moved it to the first step in joining the book club. He hadn't had any more visitors for a month. He proudly remained the founder and sole member of the book club.
He had considered changing the name of the club to "study club" to attract like minded students who genuinely wanted some place to read in silence and could appreciate the quality architecture of the building and classic books it housed. However, the only time in Soichiro's life that he had flexed the power of his family's money and connections was to protect this library from being torn down when the new library had been completed and preserve the books others called "out dated." He didn't want to risk changes to the club that might force him to start using the new library. Also Soichiro figured like minded students would eventually find the place and so there was no point in active recruitment. Why waste his time and energy?
It was the same with his personality. He was very aware that others viewed him as frigid under the best of circumstances. He had no malicious intent, but he also didn't see the point in putting effort into smiling and trying to be warm and inviting. Others could choose to understand or not, but he'd remain as is. Live and let live.
The clock above neared 9pm and Soichiro was as happy and content as ever. He looked away from his books, stretched his arms above his head, and let out a yawn. 'Soichiro, even you need a break from time to time,' he thought to himself. Alone and doing what he loved, learning, his usually flat lined lips slightly turned up at the corners.
Soichiro then proceeded to take off his glasses to rub his eyes. He put the glasses down on the book open in front of him, ran his hands through his black hair. He was sure his usually neatly slicked back hair was a disheveled mess, but he shrugged that concern off since he was unlikely to be seen by anyone. His dark purple eyes were tired and starting to gain a glazed tinge to them.
When he put his glasses back on, he glanced across the table. His naturally narrow eyes rounded in surprise.
There, between the towers of books,staring back and grinning at him was a girl Soichiro had never seen before. Her shiny ruby colored eyes seemed to be smiling at him too, while being round with curiosity.
In shock, he jumped back, causing his chair to scrape across the floor. "Where'd you come from?" He inquired with more energy than his usually icey cool voice held, it made his own voice sound strange to Soichiro.
In his startled state, Soichiro's mind went blank. Frozen, he stared back at her.
She kept smiling and used her head to indicate the door behind her. "I came in when I saw the lights still on, what are you doing here so late?" Her long red hair had one ribbon tying the top part of her hair back, but otherwise hung loose and was free to sway with her every movement..
Soichiro scooted his chair back into place at the table. This time his hand went through his hair trying to return it into a semblance of order along with his thoughts. "I'm studying, what did it look like to you?" good, his voice had returned to its' dull tone.
"Oh! I thought you were hiding." The girl replied excitedly.
Just as he was about to go over the library rules, her reply derailed him. "What? Why would I do that?" He really hated the way his voice went up an octave on the first word.
She shrugged. "I don't know why you'd hide, I was just answering your question." She tilted her head in genuine consideration. "You could have been playing hide and seek."
"..." He had no response to that. Had he ever played hide in seek since pre-school?
"Say! What's this book about?" She reached over to pick up one of the books that laid open on the large table. "This must be a code book!" Her cheery voice exclaimed, and echoed in the once quiet building. She stared at the numbers in the math book, holding it first right side up and then turned it from side to side, as she struggled to make sense out of the numbers and symbols. "How does it work?" confusion and wonder now being reflected with every ounce of her being.
The exuberance in expressing her emotions and how quickly they changed left Soichiro dizzy.
Soichiro snatched the book back. His professional demeanor and icey voice that usually could scare away those that entered his domain firmly in place. "It's not a code book. This math book is helping me study, so I can go to Tokyo U." He knew trigonometry was a struggle for some, but had never met anyone that confused by it before.
The girl looked impressed. "Ooooh, Tokyo U…" her already large eyes somehow had become even larger as they formed perfect circles matching the rounding of her lips as she spoke. "Where's that?"
Soichiro's face fell to the floor. "Are you serious?! How can anyone not know about Tokyo University?" He'd failed to scare her off and could not seem to keep himself calm.
She just looked at him with a blank face as she blinked her naive jewel like eyes.
Soichiro heaved the deepest sigh he could recall giving in his life. He decided to do his best at explaining as if she were a first year middle school student, even though she looked to be his age. "Tokyo University, known also as Tokyo U, is the best collage in Japan. I'm going to study there. But it is really difficult to be accepted."
"Ah! It's always nice to meet someone who knows where they're going." Her face and voice perfectly reflected her genuine admiration.
A moment of silence descended on the pair. Soichiro took the opportunity to attempt a return to studying. However, the silence he embraced like a comforting blanket was repeatedly punctured by the girl's bright voice.
"Oh!"
"..."
"Ah, I see."
"..."
"Hmm..."
"..."
"Oh, my!" She gasped in shock and horror.
Unable to continue to ignore her, Soichiro looked up. She had remained seated across from him, but was turned sideways. The previous neat towers of books were reduced to scattered half hazard rubble that covered the table. Books were facing random directions and some of them were open faced down. The girl was holding one of his books carelessly as she flipped through it.
"What are you reading?" He finally asked.
"I don't know, but it has a lot of dirty pictures in it. " She looked up and wiggled her index finger at him. "You naughty boy!"
Indigent and confused he shouted, "What? Let me see-!" He took the book away from her inorder to look at the page she had left off on. There were pictures of female anatomy.
Soichiro's face quickly turned bright red as he tried to explain. "It... it's not what you think. This is a biology book, it's only talking about the woman's... uh... *cough* body functions from a scientific view point."
"Don't worry, I understand." She shrugged her shoulders as she stated matter of fact like, " Boys will be boys after all." She didn't bother to conceal the disappointment from her overly expressive face.
Soichiro didn't understand the sense of defensiveness that possessed him. He took a calming breath and returned to professional mode. "No, you clearly don't understand. I'm going to be a doctor, so I need to know about how bodies work...This is strictly a professional and medical perspective of the human body."
Her hands were folded placed on top of the table as she nodded her head as he said each word, but it was obvious she thought it was all a practiced excuse.
Frustrated Soichiro changed the subject. "What are you doing here and just who are you?"