AGAINST THE WIND THAT GOES [Chap 3]

CHAPTER 3: MAD AT EACH OTHER !!

The second week.

"Hey how are you? Is everything okay?"

Rena let out a sigh, "I guess I was wrong, Churi."

"What's up, Rena?", Takayanagi Akane smiled.

"Before we come here, I was pretty sure that Jurina wouldn't let things be easier at all. And now I have to take back my words. She's doing great. Much better than me."

"Wow. This is gonna be surprise. How does it change?"

"I don't know how to describe it. She told me this was the first role which touched her so bad and she want to do her best with this role. We have to practice everyday except Sunday. Truthly said, she’s getting better on showing her character’s psychology. Hadachi-sensei praised her a lot.”

”How about you? Is there something wrong with you role?

“I’m fine. But I can tell you, sometimes it really makes me uncomfortable.”

“Well… Rena, if you don’t mind… Can you tell me what exactly you and Jurina are doing there?”

Rena didn’t say anything for awhile.

“Rena-chan!”

“I… We learn to show our characters’ psychology… Sort of…”

“I know. But I want to know what happened between you guys.”

Once again, Rena couldn’t say anything for awhile, “So sorry, Churi! Sensei doesn’t allow us to tell anyone about this. It just…”

“Rena!”, Akane cut her word, “Don’t be so harsh to yourself. I know Hadachi-sensei is such a stern person. So if you have to follow the rules, follow the rules. You don’t need to explain to me or anyone else, okay?”

Somehow, hearing those words made Rena feels comfortable. Talking to Akane always that comfortable. Team KII’s leader always be patient in most of things. She also respect members’ right to personal liberty.

“Nevermind. Just stay focus on what you’re doing. Gonna call ya back later.”

Rena put her phone back to her pocket and went out of the room to the entertaining  room, surely Jurina was there. They’ve just finished their morning practise and Robert was calling the producer discuss about studio’s works so their rest time last longer than usual. Jurina was playing Plant Vs Zombie, a popular Popcap’s game on TV.

“Wanna play?”, Jurina asked. Her eyes didn’t leave the TV’s scene for a second.

“Nah. Haven’t you boring yet? You’ve played this all the time since the day we came here.”

“I’m just relaxing.”

“Well?”, Rena curioused. Is shooting zombies makes can make you improve your acting?

“Duh! I have to find something do to to relax so I chose what suited me the most. Or gaming or billards. But I have to focus a lot when I play billards so gaming is definitely the best choice.”

“Why don’t you just take a nap, Jurina?”

“No no no noooooooo!”, she squealed when a zombie beat the potato, “I will have random thoughts if I do that. Thinking too much isn’t good for your health you know.”

“I guess we should walk along the beach after we finished our daily exercises.”

“I’ve already done that.”

“Eh? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Rena, we stick together EVERYDAY, if you don’t wanna say that we almost devoured each other's saliva. I didn't mean anything, but I don’t want to stick with you once we finished practising.”

Rena suddenly felt her chest tightened. She didn’t know Jurina felt that when she was with her. Somehow, those words made Rena hurt. But Jurina seemed fine all the time so Rena thought everything was normal.

"I didn't know that...", Rena lowed her voice.

"What? Don't tell me you're not sick seeing my face?"

So you were sick seeing my face? "Ano... It just... I didn't think I annoyed you that much."

Jurina finally turned off the game and turned around to look at the older girl who was sitting on the sofa behind her, "I didn't say you annoyed me. I mean, it's more comfortable if we have our own time to stay away those exercises. Because there're two of us practising together on this island so you are my work."

That time, Rena realized there was no reason for her to get mad at Jurina. What she said was true. However, Rena didn't know why she had such an overreaction when she heard that from Jurina.

"Okay. I agree. If I stay here for a few mintues to hear you keep complaining, I'll be sick, for real.", Rena stood up and went away after finishing her last word.

"Rena! Rena-chan!", Jurina called Rena but she'd already left.

oOo

They didn’t talk to each other for a whole day. Still, until the end of the day, they were still pretending like there was nothing happened.

Robert didn’t tell them to kiss anymore. May be he was thinking about letting Rena and Jurina find their emotion back. They didn’t really understand but he said something about the feelings which people can only experience while getting physical with each other. If he thought that they couldn’t square enough of what he wanted, he would instruct them to connect with each other. Although it sounded weird, the old man’s theory seemed worked since it made their acting became more natural.

When the girls came in the room, Robert was reading the script. He frowned when he found out some details which he didn’t satisfied. He wrote something on the script before putting it down to look at the girls.

“I hope you two took a rest.”

Robert frowned, he realized there was something between them. He could see how bad they were. These girls… Don’t tell me you’re fighting again. You two are even not lovers. He thought. Suddenly, an idea popped up in his mind. If they don’t want to cooperate, he’ll have the way to make them back to normal.

“Hey, do you know waltz?”, he asked but they shook their heads “Then start.”

“You want us to dance?”, Jurina asked.

“No. I want you to dance waltz.”, he clapped his hand, “Now move to the center of the floor.”

“But we don’t know how to dance waltz”, Rena said.

“You’re dancers. So there’s no way you two can’t follow this. Come here, I’ll teach you.”

Robert was standing in front of them, he starts dancing, slowly and gently like gliding in the air. After Robert taught them basic steps, he stepped a side. “Not too hard right? All you have to do is repeat these steps. I want you two to dance. Just dance. One more, you two have to keep looking at each other's eyes, talk about your childhood and everything which the other one don’t know.”

They looked at each other. Rena rolled her eyes and Jurina shrugged.

“I’ll let a CD here. It’s classic music. But…”, he took out a camera, put it on the table and moved it to where he could see their moves, “Don’t think that I’ll pass your today exercise.”

“Begin!”, he said and left the room.

Jurina and Rena were still standing there, staring at the door.

“So… Do it or he’ll kill us”, Jurina said.

Rena wasn’t in the mood to fight with Jurina but work is work, Rena won’t let her personal problems confused in her work. She held Jurina’s hand and did as Robert had said before. They started dancing. Rena looked at Jurina’s eyes but no one said a single word.

“When I was a kid, I used to dig worms and then I crushed them with my mother’s tweezers. After that, I put it back to my mother’s makeup box.”, Jurina started first.

Rena raised her head a little bit and her shoulders started shaking.

“Are you laughing me?”, Jurina screamed when the older girl stopped dancing,

Rena was standing there until her voice back to normal and they started dancing again.

“Your turn.”, Jurina said.

“My mom once told me that when I was two, I used to chew gum all the time. So she scared me that I’d be constipated if I kept chewing gum.”

Jurina smirked while imagining about little toothless Rena with a cranky face.

They didn’t say anything for awhile before Jurina speaks first, “I’m sorry.”

Rena widened her eyes, “What?”

“I’m an idiot.”

“Yeah…”

“I always say stupid thing.”

“Yeah…”

“What the...! Why don’t you write the word ‘EVIL’ on my forehead?!”, Jurina raised her voice. The younger girl seemed angry.

“So you want it?”

“No! I mean… I apologize for saying that. If I said it more carefully, you wouldn’t be that mad.”

Rena sighed, “It’s not your fault. I think we were both wrong this time. So… I’m sorry.”

“Yeah? Then what should we do now?”

Rena bit her lower lip, “Why don’t we act more mature. If you want to be alone, just tell me. I didn’t know how tired it was until you said it. So from now on, if there is anything happen, tell me. I’ll do that to you too. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Anyway… How long do we have to dance?”

“I’m okay with this. This is our easiest exercise from the day we came here. Why don’t we keep doing this so he can’t give us another exercise?”

“Yeah. But did you really crush those worms? Poor your mom… I bet you, if she found out, she would die of scaring. Did you tell her?”, Rena laughed.

“No way. I won’t ever tell her. As you said, she would die of scaring.”

Rena laughed louder.

“It’s not my fault! How do I know how terrible they are at that the age of three?!”

“Oh my… SKE’s center could have been a scientist since three years old”.

“Duh! I’m smart ya know! I would be at the Robocon if I wasn’t an idol.”

“You’ve just said you’re an idiot a couple of minutes ago. The different between ‘genius’ and ‘idiot’ is really big. You know that?”, Rena kept teasing her.

Jurina made a cranky fance but then she laughed, “Yup. Just like a clew. I can buy it. Piece of cake!”

“You’re really good at speeching, Jurina.”, Rena smiled

After that, the curt of Rena’s lips becomce a smile while hearing Jurina’s genius brain. After all, this is the Jurina that she knows: full of confidence and always does her best. Being by her side for a long time, she must be understand that there's something not just stop at seeing and hearing. You have to feel it by heart. Jurina didn't want to make her sad. She just didn't how to speak out her thoughts in a right way.

"I don't know but... Well... This is great. I mean, our last real conservation..."

"It's been a long time.", Rena cut her word.

jurina nodded and thought about their first days in SKE, they were just trainees at that time.

“A!” 

"Yes?"

"I've just remembered. Sensei's novel!"

Rena knew away what Jurina want to tell her without thinking too much.

"You read it?"

The older girl nodded, "Un, I read that."

"Everytime when Alice feels down, she relives her childhood with Maya. That's the only way Alice keeps her mind awake and not becomes a killer as her enemies want her to be."

"It's just like what we're doing - relive our childhood. Well... It worked then. We're both calmed down now. See?"

Jurina nodded, "That old man... He's always so harsh to us and makes us go crazy. But... Erm... Well. He's a great old man!"

"The Waltz is such an elegant dance which makes us relax so much..."

"So... I'll keep dancing with you, Rena-chan.", Jurina tightened her arms around Rena's waist.

At that time, Jurina looked like a gentle man leading the dance in the Ball. All we could have heard was the laughs filled the room.

“These kids…”, Robert smiled when he heard their laughes echoed in the corridor. “Matsui Rena and Matsui Jurina?”, he giggled, “Their names sounds rhyme with each other.”

oOo

The third week...

“Alice, my dear, look at the mirror and wake the monster inside you. Revenge for your pains which you have to bear in the past. Kill that girl. Kill the one who betrayed you, the one who let you die under the ocean!”

“Ew! I would die of shocking if this man was my dad!”, Jurina said when they were reading Robert’s novel.

“My gosh. I’m really curious where he got his inspiration to write all of these!”

“These kind of stories make me happy when I’m a normal person.”, Jurina put the novel down.

Rena stood up, “Their parents is so mercy! How could they do that to their children! They make their own children become their aim’s weapon!”

“Anyway, Robert showed us an assassin’s life. This book makes me think about things happening in our country.”

“I’m pretty sure we don’t want to know that.”, Rena moved to the door, “Well… Goodnight, Juchan.”

“Yeah. See ya tomorrow!”

Rena left Jurina’s room to go back to her room. Such a hard day. And every Saturday night, Robert arrestes them to read book to each other for an hour before sleeping. Both of them started to get use to the schedule but they still couldn’t avoid feeling exhausted. With his guidance, her acting improved really much. Robert recorded all of their exercises. He said those tapes would show them their improvement. Robert also said he hoped that after the training finished, those tapes will be destroyed for their own good.

Rena changed her clothes, put the book down and went to sleep. Being exhausted, she fell into the sleep right after that.

“Maya! Maya! Wake up! It’s morning!”

She openned her eyes and the fear suddenly came to her but it went away as soon as she realize the worry face of her little sister. They are still safe but she knew there are two reasons for that: or the organization hasn’t found out yet or they haven’t caught them up yet.

“The rain was so heavy last night. We were so busy looking around without noticing our footsteps on the ground. Let me go erasing them and find something to eat on my way back. You stay here waiting for me. Okay?”, Alice said gently.

“I won’t ever let you go out there alone! Don’t you see how dangerous it is?!”, she raised her voice.

“Hey, don’t yell. I want you to go with me but your leg is hurt.”, Alice looked down her elder sister’s leg, “Listen. It’s fine, Maya. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“Alice!”, she held back her sister when she was about to standing up, “Why don’t you stay here and wait until my leg is less hurter? I’ll go with you when my wound healed.”

“Maya, listen. If I was the one who got injured, you would do that to me. Am I right?”, Alice looked into her sister’s eyes and smiled, “Both of us knew that we’re important to each other, so I won’t let anything happen to me. I promise. Trust me.”, Alice said. After finishing the last word, she ran away as fast as she could so that Maya could not say anything else.

Waiting alone in the cave took away all her energy. It’s been hours since Alice left the cave and she hasn’t been back yet. Maya tried to crawl outside. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a gunfire and the sound of the helicopter somewhere.

Did they catch Alice?

Thinking about that, Maya suddenly forgot her wound. She caught a wood branches near her and slowly followed the sound. No sooner than that, she saw an armed group with dogs were trying to catch something. She was right. They got Alice.

“Hey! I’m here! Go catch me!”, she screamed out loud to get their attention, “Come on! Go catch me!”. As expected, they shot her. But Maya quickly hid away.

Maya left her shelter when she was sure they were fooled. Maya heard their footsteps behind her. She was so scared but Maya knew she would do everything to have Alice be safe.

Not until she almost fell down, she knew she was at the edge. There was no choice left. Or they get her and she will be killed, or she jumps down and she will die under the sea for sure. But Maya would rather die than being caught.

At the moment between life and death, Maya felt her body was pulled by someone.

“Stay there, Maya!”

Maya immediately realized the owner of that voice. But before she can say anything, that person stopped her by kissing her and bring her a new vitality. After that, Maya felt the lips moved down to her neck. She stared at the girl and realized the familiar of her.

Jurina? Wait! Jurina?! Why...? How did she...? The dream...

"Jurina! S... Stop! Stay away from me! NOW !!"

Rena waked up. She sat alone in the corner with the darkness around her, trying to calm down.

oOo

"What happened to you this morning?"

Rena pretended like she didn't hear what Jurina said. She just went through the younger girl to go straight to the kitchen.

"Did you stay up late last night to read the novel? But sensei said we couldn't read unless he allowed us.

Rena didn't say anything. She just sat there and had her breakfast. She was not in the mood to talkto her. Truthly said, she was wishing Jurina to mad at her and let her alone.

"Rena! Did you swallow your tongue?!"

Rena still didn't say anything. She was afraid that if she spoke to Jurina, she would know what was happening to Rena and she won't ever look at her face again.

"Fine! Whatever!", Jurina seemed to get mad. "I guess we shouldn't be together today."

Rena let out a sigh when Jurina left. She wouldn't mind if she and Jurina sticked together all day but Jurina obviously thought different.

Since that day, they didn't meet each other after the practise as usual.

oOo

END CHAPTER 3.