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 Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 6:37 pm
This was not only demeaning, but absolutely absurd. Katsuo repeated the mantra to himself for the longest time before actually opening up his cell phone. There was only about five minutes until the limo made it to the unfamiliar mansion -to be known from then on as his own personal hell. There were a few rings before the woman on the other side answered with her still-cheery voice. "Almost there, Tsu-kun?" He didn't know how it was possible, but even through the phone lines, he could see her innocent, naive little smile. He sighed rather loudly, positive that the driver could hear him just as well as his mother.
"If this is some sort of sick joke, now would be a great time to tell me. Please?" He added hopefully to the end. There was no reply, other than a cheerful giggle from the other side. "Yeah, I thought so." He mumbled, downtrotten. So much for getting out of this situation alive. He'd managed to postpone his parents' rash decision, but it seemed as though they hadn't given up. Which was to be suspected from his father. Of all the people he knew, that man was definitely the most firm when it came to his ideas.
He wasn't sure how they would take his appearance. Maybe if he gave a bad enough impression, they'd fire him before he even got the chance to get inside the house. yeah. Definitely a good plan. The only real question was whether or not it would work. Probably not -doubtless that one or more of the adults had seen through his plans and already had set up a blockade to stop him from escaping.
The long black vehicle stopped abruptly, yet still slowly enough so that he didn't lurch forward much. The driver rolled down the window that had been separating them, handing back a short note. "What's this?" He reached out for the small sheet of paper, asking a question he could assume the answer of already. "A note from your father. He requested I give it to you just before you went in, Katsuo-sama." He began to read, but it didn't take long to finish; there were only a few short symbols written on the small white sheet.
'Be on your best behavior. Or else.'
The most frightening threat he'd ever received.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 7:00 am
Absurd, indeed.
Vanessa Roberts had gone into a state of mute shock when her parents had mentioned this...arrangement to her. Not that she minded having a slave...um servant to do some chores, and to make things a delight, a student from her school, it was just that she had never expected her parents to do such a thing. So her father was involved in a triad, but really. She distanced herself from such barbaric weapons, partly to be the lady her mother wanted her to be (Her father didn't seem to think a girl could be a gangster anyway) and that she preferred inflicting emotional cruelty behind a sweet smile.
It made her think of a certain brunette and she smiled softly at the thought. Kitty. How long was it since she had seen the girl?
Oh yes, this would be quite fun indeed. The blonde had dressed up primly in a white cardigan and a sunshine yellow dress, her neat hair falling loosely to her shoulders. A teacup in hand, she sat cross-legged in the garden under a shady umbrella, eying the gates with a hint of a smile. "Ah. He's here." A slight tilt of the head made the bodyguard by her side nod and opened the gate with a click of a button.
"Welcome, Katsuo-san."
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:06 pm
Katsuo stepped out of the car steadily, holding his door open. The driver wouldn't dare pull away without doublechecking all the doors were properly closed -he probably couldn't afford to reimburse the family if they happened to get scraped somehow. "Will you be all right, Katsuo-sama?" The man in the front seat asked, rolling down his tinted window quickly. "No. But I'm guessing you're not supposed to listen to my requests today, right?" The limosine driver had refrained from adjusting his course even when Katsuo had tried to take a longer detour to waste some of his time.
There was a pause, assumedly while the driver thought about whether or not he should tell the truth. "That is correct." He finally replied. Looking down, the grey-eyed boy saw a rather expensive bag in the passenger's seat. Not out of the ordinary, of course, but considering how this day was going, he asked his question anyway. "What's in the bag?" The man smiled apologetically at him. "Your uniform." He replied simply, handing it to the teenager. Katsuo almost snatched it from him in surprise. "You're kidding."
When he looked inside, however, it was just as he'd been told. He shut his door angrily before stomping away. "Good luck, Katsuo-sama..." The window rolled back up and the black limo took off, rolling carefully but quickly out of the gate and back toward the road.
He took a deep breath before walking into the garden, bag in hand. This day truly depended on this 'Vanessa' he was to be working for. If she wanted to be good... Whatever he was supposed to call her. 'Mistress' was definitely going too far. "A pleasure to meet you, Vanessa-sama." He very nearly choked on the words before they got out of his throat.
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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:04 pm
A uniform, yes.
She had stated that she would feel uncomfortable against ordering a fellow schoolmate around. Even though it was truly to the contrary, it was her image she had to keep up around her family, around everyone else. The dark evils that lurked in her shadow were only of knowledge to herself. The uniform removed all doubts she had of having a schoolmate as a servant. At least, in front of her parents.
The blonde set her cup down on the saucer delicately and gave the male a smile. "We don't need such formalities, Katsuo-san. After all, we're from the same school." She hadn't exactly paid attention to those not in her class. Vanessa was always reading a book, and hiding herself from the others. But that quiet life was over. She was getting bored, and sick of this pretending, without doing anything to manipulate others.
She gave a sigh, and then shot him with a curious gaze. "If you don't mind me asking...why?" It was followed by a decent blush and she averted her blue eyes away from the male. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude into your private family affairs." Oh yes, she was good. Very good at acting.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:17 pm
Katsuo's own choice of clothing had been much more casual than a... uniform. As if what his parents had made him wear for years and the clothes required by the school weren't bad enough. "Of course." He said as politely as he could, still sounding rather displeased that he was forced to be there. "Excuse me while I go change." He barely waited for a response before taking off.
He returned shortly, even though he had taken his dear sweet time changing. His casual clothes laid folded (to waste a bit more time) in the bag, switched out with the uniform he now wore. As usually, his tie was loosened almost to the point of coming undone. Even if he was stuck there, he wasn't going to be stuck there without being able to breathe. But it couldn't be that hard, could it?
She seemed like a nice enough girl. He knew that someone had requested he wear the uniform, but it might not have even been her. And there was always that reassuring air to her, that regally calm demeanor she seemed to have. Maybe this wouldn't be as painful as he thought, after all. Just answer the question, Katsuo. It's not even that intrusive at all. "I don't really mind." It was just a white lie. "My parents were less than happy about my attitude, at home and in school. They thought this might... How do I put this... Straighten me out?" A little harsh, but for the moment, it was all he could think of.
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Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 3:17 am
Maybe.
Maybe he wouldn't even see her evil side, if she discovered a proper use for him. That, and the fact remained that he was a classmate. Perhaps it might not be so painful to him now, but one day. The day would come when she put her knowledge of him to use.
Not now though. All she knew was his name, Katsuo Arata, involved in the music industry, and he was in Ouran. No matter, no matter. She would find out more on her own. Some people trusted her too easily. What a laugh.
"I...see." She tilted her head to the side and nodded. It had been rather...well...interesting to note that a rich and influential family would actually do such a demeaning thing to their son. The Arata family must be very strict. Not unlike Father. The tea cup and saucer were place on the table and she stood up. "Well then, we might as well get this done and over with." She indicated for him to follow her and made her way to her room.
The room was neat and rather tidy. Besides the many bookshelves around the room, if Katsuo looked carefully, there was something of interest. The larger photograph set on the small drawers was that of a cheerleading team, the captain and vice-captain in the middle. The vice-captain was Vanessa....and the captain was the heir of the Sagawa fashion industry.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:58 pm
She was definitely going to go easy on him. At least today. He sighed in relief, glad to have his concerns calmed by the young lady he was supposed to work for until his parents (or hers, or pretty much anyone other than him) decided that he had learned his lesson. ...Whatever that was supposed to be.
"Thank you." Even he wasn't exactly sure what for -but he supposed to was mostly a thanks in advance for being kind enough to actually give him a break. This was hard enough as it was. He stayed quiet as she escorted him toward her room. He assumed that he wasn't to speak unless spoken to, and the quiet walk was yet another relief for him. The silence was almost serene in a way.
When they finally reached her room, he surveyed it from near the doorway. From there, he really didn't get the best look at it, but he could see enough to realize that it was almost completely clean as it was. What would he help her with, then? His thoughts, however, were interrupted by a certain photograph atop a few drawers.
From a distance, he couldn't be sure of what he saw, so he walked the few feet to the photo and bent down to look at it. He had enough sense not to pick it up without permission. At least for now. But what he saw still clarified what he thought he'd seen -"Minori-san?" He seemingly asked the picture tself to explain what was going on.
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Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:18 am
Vanessa both liked and disliked silence.
For one, it was peaceful and she could think clearly this way. Then again, silence was awkward. Talking meant she would know more about others. For now though, she had to tolerate with the facade she was putting up for him.
"Father wants me to move my books to the library." She sighed, indicating the many bookshelves. "He says I coop myself up in here too much." This annoyed her father greatly, who told her she should be out for exercise, or even interacting with her classmates.
What fun was interacting if you couldn't manipulate them? They were from rich, influential families, and handling things in their world was a very delicate issue, something she hadn't bothered to sink her hands into yet.
...Though something Katsuo just said made her change her mind.
She narrowed her eyes in his direction. Kitty? "You mean Marie?" That Japanese name, she had heard it before. How though?
How did he know her?
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 12:23 pm
Katsuo was pleased that she didn't have anything more physically draining to offer him. Moving books wouldn't be too bad, so long as they weren't atlases of the world or something. Somehow he doubted that many people, regardless of wealth, had even a shelf full of large atlases just waiting to be totted around by unknowing temporary servants.
"All right. That sounds easy enough." He smiled to her, not making any comment about the second part. It wasn't any of his business to judge how she lived. He didn't know her.
He was naively unaware of what was going through Vanessa's mind. All he knew was that it seemed she somehow knew Minori, even if it was just from... Cheerleading? He wasn't aware that Minori had done cheerleading before. She definitely seemed coordinated enough for it, though.
"Marie? No, we must be thinking of different people. I guess they just look alike, that's all. Sorry." He bowed slightly, though mumbled under his breath, "she does look like Minori-san, though... I wonder why."
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:00 am
Not atlases, but Vanessa had quite many interesting books. Some in English, some in Japanese, of different genres. Horror, fiction, history...some of her favorite that were quite repetitive, if you looked closely.
"I thank you in advance then, Katsuo-san." She bowed her head slightly. Respectful. She was always so respectful to everyone, it seemed. When in fact, the only ones she could respect were those who thought of themselves first.
Why bother even looking out for others, unless you could profit from them? It was useless.
"There's no such thing as coincidence in this world, Katsuo-san." She said, an almost angry expression clouding over her face. Why...hadn't she noticed the girl? Why? "Unless you're telling me you've seen Marie's evil twin."
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:35 pm
Katsuo peeked at a few of the books. Most of them were completely alien to him, and thus, he didn't pay much attention to what he was about to tote to the library.
"It's no problem, Miss. It's why I'm here, after all." Best behavior. Best behavior. He constantly flashed that idea through his mind so that he wouldn't forget his father's threat.
He was confused, to say the least. The girl looked so much like Minori-san. As much as he wanted to drop the subject entirely, he couldn't help but be slightly curious as to why her doppelganger appeared in one of Vanessa's photographs. "Evil twin?" He echoed quietly. That would make sense, but he'd never heard of evil twins actually showing up in real life. That type of thing was fiction, part of some plot twist for a tv sitcom. "Well, what's Marie's last name? They might be sisters, or cousins or something of that sort." Maybe if they shared more than appearance.
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Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:22 pm
"I was joking, Katsuo-san." She smiled hesitantly, twirling one of her blond strands around a finger. The idea of an evil twin was entirely ridiculous of course. Such things happened only in dramas. And many times, had the girl mentioned that she was an only child. There was no reason for her to lie.
"She lived with her aunt and uncle at that time." Vanessa replied. "I heard she took on their surname. Her aunt was her mother's twin though...I believe, Setsuko Akane?" The Akanes were an influential family in the shipping business and was related to the Sagawas through Minori's mother.
"But...I think they're the same person. Cousins wouldn't look that alike." She knew, of course. It would be too fast to reveal all that she knew. There was still enough time to play dumb for a while and lead him on.
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Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:49 am
"Still, a lookalike would be an acceptable reason for why they seem to be the same person. Supposedly, everyone has a twin out there somewhere." Or so he'd heard, at least. ...Oops, disagreeing with her was off-limits, wasn't it? Too bad. She wouldn't take his opinion personally, he was sure.
"I believe I've heard the name before, but unless she changed her surname again, that's not it."
Katsuo was completely unaware that the girl he was talking to already knew about the situation. He thought of it as some sort of challenge, a mystery, even. He didn't know much about Minori, really, but it seemed as though he would eventually learn a lot. "I suppose it's not my place to even wonder why the same person could have two different names." It wasn't his place, but he wondered regardless.
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