Simple Pleasures
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Post by Mizukami Ayumu on Oct 22, 2010 22:46:43 GMT -6
Ayumu looked around.
The festival was positively milling with people. The Mizukami didn't exactly appreciate crowds, but at the very least these large groups of people weren't raucous; they may talk a lot, but in a sense, they weren't noisy, their speech having the spice of fascination. Events like these were good because they housed attractions... attractions that one didn't see everyday... and some of those that one saw everyday, but the mood adds a certain mystique.
The lad, yet without companions, strode, pleased. He could waste his time watching the stands and the people intrigued and participating in the stands... but for now, he had properly evacuated from the booths, and had gone to a less active... though no less joyful... part of the place. By active Ayumu did not consider the munching and the talk, whilst dining with friends; he was now at the area where the vendors predominatly sell edibles. Ayumu, admittedly, can be a glutton sometimes, and this was a respite from the strolling around.
He checked the time on his watch; he still had enough for a bit of a snack, a little sightseeing, and then he would have to rendezvous with his family.
The boy approached a vendor selling takoyaki. "How much?" he asked politely. The octopus-snack was one of the few foods Ayumu had managed to yet understand amongst the usual festival fare... he still sometimes felt like a foreigner to Japanese festivals. The people were more polite, more organized, and had... different things to do. Different things to see. Different.
His contemplative smile was illuminated by the lanterns that hung from above.
After hearing the vendor's answer, he asked for two servings, counted the money needed, and proceeded with the transaction.
Food in hand, Ayumu observed his immediate surroundings. He wondered if he would see a familiar face in these crowds. Thoughtfully, he bit some of the tasty morsel, chewing it with relish.
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Retired Staff
Student Council President
In-Character Posts: 121
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Post by Sakagami Tomoyo on Nov 5, 2010 14:23:33 GMT -6
Sakagami Tomoyo______________________________________________________ Was it the excited chatter? The games? Food? Or was it just the fact that festivals like this didn’t roll around every day? Whatever it was, something about the Fall Festival put Tomoyo in an especially good mood. She could hardly imagine all the hard work that had been put into making the festival such a huge success. The sheer amount of dedication she observed was, to put it simply, admirable.
Sakagami Tomoyo and her family had been floating about the booths for a while now. Every so often, money would be passed between hands in exchange for small trinkets. The silver-haired girl, dressed in a traditional blue yukata for the festival, would often grin and laugh at her younger brother’s humorous comments on the various wares they saw at each stand. Her mother and father walked with them, planning out a verbal list of more fun activities that needed to be done. Tomoyo treasured moments like these. A couple of years ago, life was nothing like this.
It was when Takafumi was busily devouring a bun he had purchased from one of the vendors that Tomoyo stopped and contemplated over a familiar-looking face. There, seemingly enjoying a piece of takoyaki, stood a young man who looked around her age. She thought she recognized him, but from where did she know him? He probably attended the same high school as her. Hikarizaka High was one of the few high schools around here, after all.
Tomoyo quickly told her brother she’d be back in a moment. She wanted to talk with the boy for a bit, just to confirm if he also went to Hikarizaka High School, and if he did, she would ask how the festival was going for him. Basically, the point was that she wanted to chat a little. It wasn’t that much of a coincidence to see somebody faintly familiar around a relatively small town, though.
“Excuse me, do I know you?” she strode up and greeted the gray-haired teen with a diplomatic smile on her face. The boy was a little on the short side for a male, she noticed. He was roughly her height. Now that she thought about it, she had probably seen him a few times in the hallways at school. Tomoyo reasoned he was probably a second-year student like herself. What was the point in asking, then? Now she was almost certain they attended the same school. Tch, what a useless question it was…
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Post by Mizukami Ayumu on Nov 7, 2010 16:48:45 GMT -6
Ayumu jerked a bit at the sound of the voice. People didn't 'know' him; he believed there was no reason for a stranger to come looking for him. It was a female's; and it didn't sound like any of his female acquaintances, though he had to admit that he had heard the voice before. The surprise was, happily, not so disastrous; the boy kept his food in his hand, and at the very least, besides the little jolt, he didn't seem to be so disturbed. Well, certain things were in the eye of the beholder... he hoped he didn't appear to be startled... and if he did appear so, that this encounter would not be so badly affected by that perception.
He looked up. He had one hand free; in a move that wasn't exactly that hygienic, he wiped his face with the back of his hand, a little too hastily. It was with the same haste that his eyes perked at the direction of the voice, a little like a hamster's. The face of a girl about her age greeted him; the face was pleasant, pretty, even, although the eyes had a steely straightforwardness, a strength that was a little daunting. Her hair was long, and of a similar color to his, gray, or probably silver in hue. Her build was lithe... an athlete or something?
He stood there for a while, breaded octopus in one hand, his mouth covered with the other, letting out a pause. He had a bad habit with these pauses.
"M-" he meant to start, and then he realized he was still covering his lips, and so the sound was muffled. He took off the hand, and hoped he didn't seem so... scruffy. Those eyes made him feel a little conscious. He struggled to recollect where he could have seen this girl before... he had a feeling it was something... important. "I think I know you." You knowing me, however...might be a different matter. He wondered a bit why this... special person, he just couldn't recall what made her special... had wanted to talk to him out of the blue.
Maybe it was the festival mood; and then again, it was always a little comforting to see a face in the crowd.
Ayumu went right to the point. "I just can't remember..." he said. "Hikarizaka High?" He couldn't help but feel a little awkward. Women were women, and this woman, though she may not be particularly conscious about it, had a presence that can be felt. Rather different from Furukawa-senpai...
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Retired Staff
Student Council President
In-Character Posts: 121
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Post by Sakagami Tomoyo on Nov 9, 2010 16:23:52 GMT -6
Sakagami Tomoyo______________________________________________________ Had she surprised him? Tomoyo had seen the young man twitch, but she didn’t read into it any more than that. The seemingly hurried movement he made to clean his mouth made more of an impression than that little jolt from before. Although it made the boy look a little messy, Tomoyo appreciated the fact that he cared about looking decent in front of others. First impressions… well, they really weren’t all that fair, and so the girl tried to push away the presumptions already beginning to form in her mind.
The brief pause that settled in was a little awkward. Perhaps she caught him at the wrong time, Tomoyo thought. He had just started to eat, after all. If that was the case, it was polite of him to have stopped to chat. Or maybe this guy was just one of those people who needed more time to gather their thoughts before speaking. She knew a few people like that. Either way was perfectly understandable. She hoped it was the latter, though; she would feel less intrusive if that was the case.
Regardless, he ended up speaking. As it turned out, yes, he knew her, but it wasn’t that he really knew her. Had they seen each other around town on a few occasions, or did they know each other from school? The boy seemed to be more in the dark about it than she did. When the name of her high school was finally uttered, Tomoyo knew for certain that they had seen each other around school. That was what she thought all along, but now it was as good as confirmed. However, that was as far as their knowledge of one another’s existence went.
Yep, that’s what I thought,” Tomoyo affirmed the fact with a brisk nod of her head, all the while briefly appraising the white-haired boy’s character in her own mind. He seemed to be a reserved, good-natured kind of guy from what she could tell. There weren’t many delinquents in their high school besides for an infamous pair and several other individuals, so she felt it was safe to assume that this boy wasn’t a delinquent himself. “I’m Sakagami Tomoyo of class 2-B.” Her right hand went up to her chest as she gestured toward herself. “We’ve really never talked before, have we?” Now that same hand was held out for a ritualistic handshake.
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Post by Mizukami Ayumu on Nov 11, 2010 2:38:39 GMT -6
Sakagami Tomoyo? Hering the name rang a bell in Ayumu's mind, and even if he was a bit slow in certain things, 'slow' was still much different from 'never getting there'. She was... if he remembered correctly, she was rather popular, and she was a transfer student... she noted her saying 2-B; well, he hadn't really been that aware that she was the same age as he, although in hindsight, he did see the white-haired girl once in a while in the corridors near their classroom.
He sorted his thoughts with a little haste; Tomoyo had been two people in his mind, the white-haired girl who passed by him during breaks (and now that he did recall, she always seemed to have a gaggle of fans, or otherwise people who seemed to be from the athletic clubs...) and Sakagami Tomoyo... what was it again? the girl who kicks so fast you never even see her skirt flutter?
"2-D..." he started, even as he had been processing his thoughts, and midsentence he changed what he was saying. "You're Tomoyo-san?" Oooh... legends. The young man's curiosity was piqued; he wondered if he would be able to see that sort of spectacle; then again, rumors have a way of being... fallacious, but they often had a grain of truth in them, blown out of proportion like popcorn. Still, it would be rude, even if he felt like it, to ask such a random question like 'can you really kick that fast' to somebody he had just met... and who had even taken the time to meet him, in any case, even if on a whim. Speaking of rudeness... "Ah- I'm sorry, Sakagami-san." I didn't mean to use her first name so directly... the Mizukami thought. Besides, there are more to people than kickspeeds... I'm not really that good with people... The boy didn't realize that his reaction seemed a little starstruck, though the mild expression on his face made a strange contrast.
As the girl extended her hand for a handshake, the boy noticed that the hand that should be used for the handshake... was holding the container of his food. He switched the small platter to his other hand, and reached with the approrpiate hand. He'd never really met that many people who introduced themselves with a handshake... and he definitely wasn't one of them, but he wanted to reciprocate the greeting, at the very least.
"2-D... Mizukami Ayumu." he answered. His name probably wouldn't inspire anything in any person... but fame wasn't something that Ayumu thought he wanted to handle. He wondered how such a famous person handled such attention... and what she could do... wanted to do with it. She seems like a nice enough person...
"I never really talk that much." he said, smiling. Unless somebody talks to me, that is... usually... The girl's hand was warm... maybe he could ask Furukawa-senpai for a handshake, just to compare how it would feel.
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Retired Staff
Student Council President
In-Character Posts: 121
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Post by Sakagami Tomoyo on Nov 22, 2010 20:01:47 GMT -6
Sakagami Tomoyo______________________________________________________ Was this guy a foreigner or something? Tomoyo found it odd that he had called her by her first name. They had just met, after all… Regardless, she did her best to avoid making an apprehensive face. Even though he quickly apologized for it, that puzzled feeling didn’t fully leave her. When the girl thought about it, him saying, “You’re Tomoyo-san?” seemed strange and out of place, as if the young man in front of her had heard her name before and was now just meeting her, which really was the case. It didn’t seem so strange to her once that realization crossed her mind. After all, she wasn’t in the dark about all the things, some true and some not, that were said about her.
“Nice to meet you, Mizukami-san,” Tomoyo said. She couldn’t say that she had ever heard the name before. She held the handshake briefly, and then released her grip. The handshake felt slightly awkward and she was worried that it was her own fault for using such a western greeting with someone who was obviously Japanese; but then again, Tomoyo always preferred handshakes, even if they were rather western. She felt that they said a lot more about a person. Weak handshakes, firm handshakes… one could get a good idea of a person’s personality through a handshake. As for Mizukami-san…
He was a quiet person. The silver-haired boy said so himself. Tomoyo shrugged in response. “That’s okay,” she said simply. Yes, she had been able to figure that out already, but she decided to leave that detail out. The world probably needed more people like him though, so his quietness was in no way a bad thing.
“So, have you been enjoying the festival?” she decided to change the topic of conversation and ask. Tomoyo’s expression then took on a look of concern, as if she had suddenly thought of something. “Or… am I bothering you right now? You looked like you were really savoring your food before, so I’m sorry if I interrupted you,” she laughed sheepishly, running her hand through her long hair.
[/size] ooc; Ahh, sorry for the slowness and short post. :/
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Post by Mizukami Ayumu on Nov 28, 2010 1:23:50 GMT -6
He did one of his sheepish smiles, as if in reply... "I've been enjoying it, so far..." he said, though perhaps his idea of enjoyment was a little more laidback than the usual perception. He had gotten a look of almost all the places in the festival besides those really jampacked because of popularity... though, of course, Ayumu being Ayumu, he hadn't really gone or interacted with the booths yet.
He liked to take his time. "You aren't. Bothering me, that is." he answered, to the girl's inquiry. It was an inquiry more out of politeness rather than concern, thought the Mizukami, or perhaps he was just making too much a comparison between Furukawa-senpai and Sakagami-san. Furukawa-senpai always seemed to mean what she said, wholeheartedly, while Sakagami-san had an aloofness, a silent confidence. Then again, he was somewhat aloof too, though that wasn't exactly confidence...
Still, with her like this, she seemed... more approachable, than the times he had seen her in school, her posture somewhat telling everybody that this lady was very much sure of herself, and that she knew what she was doing... and you better know what you were doing, too. Talking extracted certain traits out of a person, that's why quiet people were often regarded secretive... Ayumu thoughtfully, gingerly, continued his eating, just to finish the current ball that he had been biting into.
He finished his chewing before he started talking again; perhaps Sakagami-san was a person who had a unique presence, more than that he was used to, but she seemed chatty enough... and he was feeling a little talkative tonight. After all, festivals were for things that weren't always done...
"I guess I just take things a little slower." he commented on himself. "So, how about you?" he said, returning the question. "How do you find the festival?"
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Retired Staff
Student Council President
In-Character Posts: 121
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Post by Sakagami Tomoyo on Nov 29, 2010 18:25:04 GMT -6
Sakagami Tomoyo______________________________________________________ Good, good. If Mizukami-san hadn’t been enjoying the festival, Tomoyo would have asked why. She was also relieved to know she wasn’t dampening his fun. “Okay, I’m glad.” Tomoyo said simply with a smile. She wouldn’t have been hurt if he said that she was, however. The girl would just have understood and returned to her family to continue enjoying the festival, leaving the guy to his own enjoyment.
… Okay, so maybe she would have been offended if he had outright said “Yes, you’re bothering me,” but from what Tomoyo could tell from the little time she spent with the silver-haired boy, she knew he wouldn’t say something so bluntly.
But now that she knew she wasn’t bothering him, Tomoyo wondered how much time she should spend talking to them. After all, she did tell Takafumi that she’d “be back in a moment.” The idea of making her family wait on her made her feel a little guilty. Now that she was thinking about her brother, Tomoyo wondered if Mizukami-san also came to the festival with his family. How appropriate it would be to attend a festival alone? That seemed like a lonely situation, almost like going to a buffet by oneself.
”How do you find the festival?” he had asked. She replied without hesitation. “It’s very fun,” Tomoyo said. It was a general statement. What did she find so fun about it? Really, she just enjoyed spending time with her brother and her parents. The booths and games were merely nice bonuses to the fun.
The only bad part about the festival was the lines at some of the booths. Tomoyo always hated waiting in long lines. She felt that a wait was only worth it if the time was spent building up anticipation, which wasn’t always the case. Most of the time, waiting in line lessened one’s excitement. A “Can we please get this over with?” attitude often resulted instead.
“I’ve mostly enjoyed just being with my family, but yeah, the festival itself is a lot of fun.” Tomoyo explained. After all… she’d missed out on so much before just three years ago. Events like this fall festival seemed to make up for those cold times. “Speaking of which, I told my brother to wait for me… I probably need to get back to him soon. Are you alone today, Mizukami-san?”
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Post by Mizukami Ayumu on Dec 7, 2010 0:21:55 GMT -6
Ayumu nodded. "I'm by myself..." he declared nonchalantly, looking over his food for a moment, as if deciding which takoyaki was the best candidate to enter his mouth next.
He felt a little need to explain himself. "There're perks to being alone once in a while." he mentioned. True, he appreciated the company of other people, his family, his friends, and specially Furukawa-senpai; but silence and solace, companions who you could only be with whilst when you were without anybody else, had their virtues. Being alone allowed him to venture about and weave through the thickets and throngs of this festival, and it allowed him to think things over, and over. Later he would know where to bring Joanna for getting goldfishes.
He looked a little bemused as Sakagami-san referenced her family; it seemed her family was important to her; that was good, in the boy's opinion. He remembered his own family, his father, his sister, and his grandparents which he'd only been able to meet when they had come to Japan. His grandfather often said that when worst comes to worst, the only people you could trust was your family. For a while, when he had been younger, it was only family that he could talk to... though he was getting better at making friends.
She mentioned about needing to get back to her brother; so she had one. He wondered a bit what kind of person he would be like... but he guessed he would ask that question a different time. He had an inkling that Sakagami-san's family were the group with the boy in the wheelchair a small distance away from his spot, from where the silverhaired girl came from a while ago.
"I'm sorry if I've kept you." he said, meaning it; of course he was still a little befuddled on why Sakagami Tomoyo would suddenly approach him, though whims were whims... and Mizukami Ayumu knew that he wasn't the only one who followed them. "My sister and my folks would probably come after a while..." he stated, "...so I probably won't be alone for much longer." He grinned.
He sensed that this little encounter with the popular Sakagami-san would end soon... at least he had reconciled the image with the name. He wasn't sure if he could be considered a friend of this woman, who, though only about her age seemed so different. Still, he was acquainted with her, and that might prove to be of some worth in the future. He just wondered if he would be capable of talking to her with her fangirls tagging along.
"Thank you very much for your time, Sakagami-san. I'll see you at school... maybe you shouldn't keep your brother waiting too long." He bowed; he hoped he didn't come across as too impolite or too meddlesome with those words.
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And so it was that Mizukami Ayumu's encounter with Sakagami Tomoyo closed. He watched as she trotted off to her brother. He hoped he had made a good enough impression... Sakagami-san wasn't somebody she wanted to be on the wrong side of. No, that wasn't because of her kicks... well, maybe partly...
He finished his food, and disposed of the container. He would still have to rendezvous with his family... he hoped he had made, truly, a friend.
He still wasn't really good at this.
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