DEADLY DATE

•Chapter 1•

Osaka, Japan
July,8th 2011

It's finally summer break, and I went out with my friend Yui to swim. Though the sky is cloudy, it didn't stop us from swimming to enjoy our summer holiday.

I've been living in Osaka all my life in a middle class neighborhood with my parents, and I happened to be the only daughter. I'm Sayuri Matsumoto, 17 years old and currently still in high school.

The public pool where we are swimming consists of two different pools. The first one is for adults, no rides and the depth is around 2 to 3 m. while the second pool is for children, it's quite small and not so deep. The color of the pool is sapphire blue.

Yui and I put our swimsuits on and jumped into the adult pool. Many people were having a good time with their friends or family members.

Yui and I acted like children where we would splash water on each other constantly while laughing, but that ended abruptly once Yui spotted a little girl sitting on the pool stairs by herself in the kids pool.

The little girl ducked her head. She seemed lonely and felt blue.

"She looks sad.." Yui pointed her index finger at her.

"I'm sure she's with her family or friends here"

"Let's have fun with her" Yui said to me. she loved children very much that she wanted to be kindergarten teacher in the future.

I squinted my eyes and said,"Why?do you know who she is?"

Yui shook her head, "Let's be her friend and put a smile on her face"

"You're ridiculous. why should we?"

"Because I said so.." Yui is swimming away from me. She insisted that we had to play with the little girl.

Rather than swimming by myself like a weirdo, I decided to join Yui, albeit I'm quite upset due to her persistence.

The two of us left the adult pool and made our way into the kids pool, and swim there.

"Konnichiwa.."  (Hello) Yui greeted her affably as both of us approached her.

She turned her head up to see us, and she seemed a bit agitated.

"Don't worry, we're here to be your friend" Yui stated.

"No namae wa nan desu ka?" (What's your name?) Yui asked her.

"Harue.." She replied with a frail voice.

"I'm Yui and this is Sayuri." Yui introduced herself and me with a smile plastered on her face. The frown on the little girl's face slowly faded as a smile crept across her face.

Not long after that, Harue and Yui became quick friends, and they're busy with each other. I was instantly excluded from their conversation.

Fuck this, I thought to myself.

15 minutes later

"I'll introduce you to my brother.." Harue told us.

"You're with your brother here? How old is he?" Yui asked in curiosity.

"He's 19 and working" Harue replied in a jovial manner.

I became curious about her brother, considering I've been single for the past 10 months.

"Where is he?" Yui asked again.

"Follow me"

The three of us left the kids pool and made our way to the pool cafeteria. Harue pointed her index finger at her brother, who's sitting by himself, eating spicy noodles in a cup with a chopstick.

I was stunned when I first saw him. This is what I would describe as 'Ikemen' because he caught my eye.

(Ikemen= This term has been used to reference good looking men featured in Japanese pop culture.)