Shiroi

Chapter 1: Shiroi

Chapter 1: Shiroi

    Inexplicable, love is. Yet, only a few can sincerely proclaim that they have experienced passionate, genuine, pure love. I am one of them.

    The rain was pounding hard on the defenseless cold street. Tokyo's streets are usually extremely crowded, but that day the few that were left on them were walking at a fast pace home. Shopping bags stashed absentmindedly inside my left hand, the umbrella in my other, I was in a hurry to arrive at the train station before the light would desert the streets. I am just an ordinary Japanese girl. 1,63m, thin, with black, long hair and brown eyes. I never was physically strong, and the wind that day was too hard, so I decided to catch my breath under a tent for a minute or two. Suddenly my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Michiru, where are you?"

"I'm still in Tokyo, dad; I'll arrive at the train station in half an hour."

"Don't be late, Michiru. Your husband's family is arriving tonight, and I expect you to be on your best behavior and on time !"

"Yes..."   

He hung up...

I come from a wealthy family... Or I used to... Dad was a very successful businessman back then; however, along with the crisis came risks and flaws that his perfectionism couldn't accept nor comprehend... To ensure our family's wealth, he had arranged for me to marry the son of his wealthy friend, Mr. Akamura...

    Koji was a good guy, very polite and well mannered, but... he was not the guy to keep up with me...  Whereas I'm a romantic soul that thrives on Shakespeare and Harlequins, everything in his world is disciplined on narrow-minded finance and money. For him, the true meaning of family is a well-behaved wife and 3 or 4 children...

That wasn't my dream...

The mirage of that life was forced onto me 3 years ago and tore all my dreams into pieces that were thrown harshly inside the river of someone else's perfect view of life. I was waiting desperately for the time I'd reach the age of 18. I wanted to break free, but dad found a way to hold me back from those "childish" dreams once more... I guess I'm too selfish... Someone must sacrifice for the good of the family, after all...

    I sighed and kneeled to pick up the shopping bags. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice that my scarf was dangerously hanging from my neck. The wind exhaled with force against my body, and while being pushed back, my scarf took a leap of faith into the vortex and rushed onward, with me chasing behind it like a maniac.

"No!" I cried and ran faster, abandoning the shopping bags mid-air. My legs gave in after a couple of meters. I watched the scarf gracefully climb the walls of a bridge. I hurried up the stairs exhausted and looked around, trying hard to catch my long-gone breath. To my surprise, the scarf was somehow secured in the hand of a stranger.

Very tall, with shoulder-length white hair, the person that I, at first thought was a guy, was grinning at me gracefully, grasping firmly onto my scarf. I sighed in relief and walked towards her.

"Is this yours?" she asked in English.

"Eh?"

"I'm sorry," she replied in Japanese.

"I constantly have to remind myself I'm in Japan."

A gentle breeze raced by, the scarf brushed my cheek, and she made a step toward me.The stranger with perfectly white hair ... How mysterious and yet how intriguing you seemed back then ...