Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:53:41 +1100
From: Sakura Kangen <sakurakangen@gmail.com>
Subject: Finding You Chapter 9 of many (gay/college)

Hi all!

Thank you to allll the people that wrote. I love you all!

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Please note, this copyright notice is retroactive to all stories I have
previously posted on Nifty. They are distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License,
Copyright (C) 2008.

DISCLAIMER

This story involves relationships between males aged 17-19. If you do not
approve of this, why the hell are you even reading it now? If you are a
parent reading through the Internet logs of your young child, do not
punish your child for reading these stories. He/she clearly has some
questions about his development, and it is YOUR responsibility to answer
those questions truthfully and honestly. If this material is illegal in
your area, leave now. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. You know the drill.
If you aren't supposed to be reading this, Don't (although some flames
would be lovely to publicly dissect :)).

FEEDBACK

I absolutely love feedback. Please submit your feedback, good or bad,
lengthy or brief, in Japanese or in English, (although preferably English)
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Doumo arigatou gozaimasu.

And now, without further adieu.....

=========================================================================
FINDING YOU: CHAPTER NINE - CONFESSIONS
=========================================================================

We were in my new room at the back of Tarou's house. It was a lovely
house (I guess I'm sounding repetitive, but it really was lovely). The
rain was coming down hard outside - looked like the heavy rain season had
begun. That would be a cool experience, a daifun in Japan in a traditional
house.

  "Hey, what does this question say?" Chris asked.

  "Dude, it's a maths question. You don't need me to translate it for
you."

  "Then, what does that squiggly line mean?" he asked.

  I stopped for a moment. This was wierd. Chris was good at maths, surely
he'd know what an integral sign was.

  "You did well in maths, right?" I asked.

  Chris shrugged, "Not really, only eighty five percent in my last exam.
Besides, I know perfectly well what the question means."

  I laughed, "Dude.. eighty five percent is good.. and.. if you know what
it means, then why ask me?"

  He smiled and said nothing for a while.

  We studied for several hours, until the rain had eased off a bit and the
night had set in. We were both getting pretty tired.

  Chris stood up and packed his books into his carrybag, "Well, I'm going
to call it a day, you too?"

  I yawned and said "Yeah, might get some sleep." as I packed my books
away.

  "Okay, goodnight - oh, let me use one of the phrases Hayaka-san taught
me - sukidesu."

  I put my books down on the desk again and said, "What? That means 'I
like you' not 'goodnight'."

  He grinned, "It does? Oh, then, how do you say 'Goodnight' again? I must
have gotten confused."

  "Well, you say 'oyasuminasai' to someone going to bed."

  Chris nodded, "Gotcha, oyasuminasai!" and left the room hurriedly.

  I lay down on my futon and listened to the soft pattering sound of the
rain against the roof. It had been six weeks already, of Chris learning
and working with Hayaka, and me studying and sweeping at Tarou's house.
My parents were probably worried sick about me.

That led me on to worry about something else - Chris was beginning to act
very unusually. Whenever he looked at me, his eyes betrayed an internal
conflict that he was strangely reticent about.

I figured I wouldn't be getting much sleep that night, so I got up to
resume my study when I noticed Chris had left a book behind - his beloved
sketchbook.

Many times, when we were in school, he would draw funny pictures in that
sketchbook, but he never let me just browse through it. He was very
particular about it, sort of like his little brother Callum is about
everything - carefully selecting the page to show me, and then closing it
again. When we were in school he kept a little padlock on it, so only he
could open it.

I picked up the book. I didn't open it, even though the padlock was gone,
and I placed it in my carrybag. Hopefully I would run into him tomorrow
and be able to give it back to him.

---

  "Moshimoshi, Rio desu."

  "Hello, is this Leo?"

  "Hai.. er.. yes, it is. Who is speaking?"

  "This is Janice, William's mother."

  "Oh, Hello! I haven't spoken to you for a while. How are things?" He
sounded nervous.

  "Not good, as you well know. My son is still over there looking for
you, and this is the first time we've been able to get through to you
since the first time we called."

  "Yes, well, I'm afraid I don't know what I can do. I'm coming back to
Australia in 3 days."

Janice was getting frustrated, "Don't you have any idea where he is? You
are his boyfriend, for crying out loud.. Surely you'd know.."

  "I'm not his boyfriend." the reply was cold as steel.

  "Y..You're not?"

  "I don't know where you got that idea. I was his best friend, sure, but
we were never boyfriends."

  "B..but he said that.."

  "Whatever he said, he must have gotten the wrong idea. Now, if he
arrived in Narita.."

  "He did, it says on the flight record."

  "..right. So seeing as he arrived in Narita, the only person he would
have a hope of finding would be insurance bigshot Tarou Urashima. We
became friends when we went on the holiday here, but he seems to have
moved house. I don't know where he is now. Sorry I can't give you any more
information."

  "That's alright, that's more information than we had before. Thanks
alot."

  Janice put down the phone. Still looking a little stunned.

  "What did he say?" Jacob asked.

  "He says he wasn't Will's boyfriend."

  Jacob snorted, "Bullshit."

---

  "Hey Jacob."

  That was new. Callum actually said something when he came to the table.

  "Hey, you're talkative today, what's up?" Jacob asked.

  "Nothing is 'up', except some mouldy ceiling and a bunch of pollutant
filled atmosphere." Callum smiled. Jacob smiled back. Callum began to
panic. Jacob stopped smiling.

  "Dude, is anything wrong?"

  Callum was starting to shake, "I want to show you something. Please
don't get mad."

  He pushed his hand deep into his bag and pulled out a sheet of paper.
Handing it to him face down.

  Jacob turned it over, and widened his eyes. It was a beautiful pencil
sketch. An immaculate drawing of two boys, in their school uniform no
less, kissing each other, with their arms around each other's waist.

  "Wow!" Jacob exclaimed, trying to ignore the fact that one of the boys
in the picture looked alot like him, and the other looked alot like
Callum, "Did you draw this?"

  Callum blushed. "No, I'm not very good at drawing. That was one of
Chris's sketches."

  "Oh, I see.." Jacob said, pointing to one of the boys in the sketch,
"So, this would be Chris?"

  Callum nodded.

  Jacob looked at the drawing a little longer, then said, "So.. that
means, the other boy is.."

  "William, yes."

  "Oh my.. I thought Chris went to Japan with Will because they were
friends, not lovers."

  Callum hesitated for a moment, then said, "They are friends, but Chris
wishes it were otherwise."

  "Oh, I see.. does William know?"

  Callum shook his head, "No. And I think Chris is really stupid for not
simply telling him. That's why I drew this picture, too." He reached into
his bag and pulled out a little scrap of paper.

  Jacob looked at it. It was two stick figures in the same pose Chris had
artfully sketched on the other paper. One was labelled, 'Callum', and the
other, 'Jacob'. It said in big letters at the bottom:

I LOVE YOU

  Callum blushed. "Sorry, I'm not much of an artist."

  Jacob looked even more shocked. "So.. does this mean what.." he began.

  Callum nodded.

  "So, you love.."

  Callum nodded again.

  Jacob looked up at Callum, whose eyes were already welling up with
tears.

  "I never thought it would be difficult for me to say this, Cal, but,
well, I'm straight. I'm really really sorry."

  Callum was really crying in earnest now. Jacob got up and went around
to his seat, sat down and held him. He didn't care if anyone was
watching. Fuck 'em and the horse they rode in on. Well.. better to leave
out the bestiality part. He chuckled lightly.

  "What's so funny?" Callum sniffed.

  "I was just thinking that those guys over there," he nodded towards the
jerks who were laughing and jeering at them for hugging each other, "would
make an excellent living as professional horse rapists."

  Callum laughed - good sign. "Do I even want to know?"

  He wasn't crying, at least.

---

Well, I never thought I'd use the term "professional horse rapists" in my
stories, but there you go.

And that's all for this chapter. I will try and update around once a week.
Promise!

JAPANESE PHRASES USED IN THIS CHAPTER (which did not have inline english)

Moshimoshi - A phrase used like "hello" when answering the telephone.
Rio desu   - It's Leo.
Hai        - Yes
Sukidesu   - An uncommon phrase that means "I like/love you" and is
             rarely spoken even by married couples in Japan. Generally it
             is only used in confessions of love for someone.


---

I absolutely love feedback. Please submit your feedback, good or bad,
lengthy or brief, in Japanese or in English, (although preferably English)
to:

sakurakangen@gmail.com

You may also add me on Google Talk at the same address.
I love talking to you.

Doumo arigatou gozaimashita.

-SK
(written in vi improved 7.2.. beats emacs any day)