STARLIGHT

3.Suzuki Saomi

Sitting in a corner, all alone, Suzuki Saomi, yes, that was her name, looked pensive as usual. Smart, intelligent and pretty, she had all it takes to be the most popular girl at school, if only she was the approachable type.

So, here she was, sitting all alone in a corner of the school campus, looking at the cherry blossoms before her.

'Uhhhhhhh...!!!' she sighed, looking at the other girls playing basketball; a few on the other side, laughing and chatting away; another group playing the guitar and singing and as soon as Saomi's eyes fell on them, she turned away quickly.

She couldn't stand the sound of music, she just couldn't. And the sight of people playing music.....don't get her started!

So, our girl, Saomi, got up and walked along the flower beds instead. At least, this was better than watching people play music.

'One, two, three, four, five...' Saomi counted her steps as she walked, looking at the pretty flowers by her side.

'Nine, ten, eleven, and twelve....'she continued, 'sixteen, seventeen, eighteen', she paused and stood staring at.....what was that? A flower? Indeed! A tiger lily, in full bloom, throwing its bright orange colour out for the world to see.

Saomi stared at it......just stared and did nothing else.

'Is this some kind of joke?' she thought to herself, 'And this appeared at what number? Uh.....eighteen!' her eyes widened, 'could it mean....?......No!' she thought.

'No!' she said aloud, firmly, 'Just....no!'

She started running ahead, mumbling no, no, no...to herself. In no time, Saomi found herself in tears, actually....crying bitterly.

It was then...at that very moment that she thought to herself that enough was enough. She couldn't take it anymore. She knew she needed help.

________________

I looked at my watch.

'Twelve-twenty. Okay, ten more minutes to go,' I said to myself.

Ten minutes passed, rather slowly, each minute crawling by. Those ten minutes, yes, those very ten minutes, were the most nerve-wracking ten minutes for me.

'Alright, twelve-twenty eight,' I mumbled, as I got up from the bench in the ground where I was sitting and started walking towards the building.

Going through a long passage, walking and walking, deep thoughts being processed in my mind with each step, I was so nervous; one could see that just looking at my face.

Finally, I stopped in front of a door and put my right hand on the handle of the door, the same time looking at my wristwatch on my left hand.

It had just struck twelve-thirty. So, yeah....I was also a very punctual person.

Opening the door slowly, I peeped into the room. It was empty.

'Ahem....' I heard a cough behind me.

I got so shocked, I jumped.

'Oh...Hirasawa Sensei, you're here. I thought...'I said on seeing her.

'Hi, Saomi. Come on, let's go in,' she said, gesturing for me to go in.

Seated in the comfortable sofa, I was now mentally preparing myself to speak out my mind.

'Should we start?' Sensei asked, looking at me with such soulful eyes.

I merely nodded.

'Alright. So Saomi, tell me, what's troubling you?' she asked.

'Yep. This is it,' I thought to myself, 'spill it all out.'