InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Up top, Robocop."

Hitsugi (blackemperor) wrote,
@ 2008-05-04 21:57:00

Current mood:	lonely
Current music:	CROW - 四月一日

where do I belong?
I don't know, I really don't.

I'm homesick and lonely. And I really miss my Bao-yu.

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	the_mockingbird 2008-05-05 10:54 am UTC (link)
	Having strong roots in a place does that... I still miss England from time to time. I'm Karen, by the way. Karen Mok. Struggling writer and um...trashy romance novelist editor. -_-;; (Reply to this) (Thread)

blackemperor
2008-05-05 11:06 am UTC (link)

Mitsuo Ikari, but mostly I go by Hitsugi.

Yeah, I guess I've got a pretty strong attachment to Tokyo still. It's funny, I came to this country because it was supposed to be this amazing opportunity to see new things and that I'd have to be crazy to pass it up. Tuition paid, stipend for books, food, and housing, paid travel to/from Tokyo for long holidays. And it's a good school system.

But I really miss Tokyo. I miss my friends, I miss the scenes - the industrial scene, the VK scene, weekends in Harajuku - I miss feeling like I had a place where I belonged, where people knew me and wanted to know me. Funny how it's here where I feel like just a cog in the machine, when Tokyo is the one with the huge population. LA's big, too, but it's not the same. And yet it's somehow worse, too.

... and I've just rambled your ear off. Sorry about that. ^^

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	chichichichiaki 2008-05-05 02:32 pm UTC (link)
	If you get too homesick and want to venture out, give me a call and we'll hit Little Tokyo. [cell number] (Reply to this) (Thread)

blackemperor
2008-05-05 07:01 pm UTC (link)

Hitsugi wasn't sure that this was wise ... but he was desperate and lonely and tired of staring at the inside of his dorm room or the inside of the library. And if he did any more studying, he was certain his brain was going to melt out his ears and he'd start forgetting what he was supposed to have learned.

Nothing worth having was ever achieved without some measure of risk, he told himself, pushing himself to dial Chiaki's number.

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chichichichiaki
2008-05-05 07:32 pm UTC (link)

Chiaki didn't bother checking her caller ID before answering. She was prone to giving out her cell phone number, as opposed to her home phone number, so half the time she didn't recognize the numbers that showed up, anyway. Besides she'd just given her number to that... well, not new, exactly, but so far relatively unknown? something... guy in the online community.

Putting the phone to her ear as she paused the video she was watching, she answered, "Hello?" English was the safer way to answer, living in LA, without checking the ID first.

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	blackemperor 2008-05-05 09:25 pm UTC (link)
	"Um, hello ... Chiaki ...-san?" That sounded so strange when he was speaking in English, but he couldn't think of a English way of conveying the same sense of ... respectful distance? He might have looked like a thug to some people, but he wasn't. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

chichichichiaki
2008-05-05 09:33 pm UTC (link)

Chiaki smiled to herself at the unfamiliar voice. So she had been right in guessing it might be.... what had he said his name was? oh yes... Hitsugi. He sounded a bit uncomfortable with English, and, well, he HAD said he was homesick, so she switched to flawless Japanese... her mother's influence on their upbringing.

"Please, just Chiaki is fine, Hitsugi-san. Save the formalities for the old folks." She hoped her smile would carry through the phone. One could never really be sure, could they?

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blackemperor
2008-05-05 10:38 pm UTC (link)

Hearing the familiar cadence and flow - so different from the girls he sometimes helped, with their stilted accents and uncertain formalities - was like releasing a pressure valve.

"Thank you, Chiaki-san," he replied, a smile of his own in his voice, "but I couldn't be so familiar on a first phone call.

"So, um ... about that offer to visit Little Tokyo? If it's not a bad time, that is. I wouldn't want to intrude on something...."

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chichichichiaki
2008-05-06 06:35 am UTC (link)

"Fair enough," Chiaki conceded. Growing up in LA (and not to even mention the stalker incident a couple of months before), she was accustomed to the familiarities Americans took for granted. It was a refreshing change.

"It's no intrusion at all," she hurried to assure him. "I offered, after all. I have classes until one every day, so we could meet on campus once you finish up tomorrow, and take my car from there, if you want, and then just lose ourselves in Little Tokyo?"

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blackemperor
2008-05-06 08:19 am UTC (link)

Tomorrow. Yes, of course, it would have to be tomorrow. Hitsugi swallowed a sigh as he stared at his dorm room wall. He'd cancel his tutoring session - the term was almost over and he needed this more than ... well, okay, that girl needed all the help she could get, but this would help him more than he could help her. Yes.

"That sounds great. Meet by the library?"

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chichichichiaki
2008-05-06 08:37 am UTC (link)

Chiaki didn't miss the almost imperceptible (and vaguely disappointed?) pause. She glanced at the clock before replying. She was still at work, not that it'd been that busy which was why she'd been watching files of some of her past competitions on her laptop. It was nearly closing time, anyway.

"Sounds perfect. Or..." she hesitated a moment, then pushed ahead, "if tomorrow's no good, we could go this evening, if you'd prefer? Grab a bite to eat, and see everything all lit up and whatnot." The only reason she hadn't offered that to begin with was because they hadn't officially met in person yet, and she knew some people were wary about giving out their addresses to people they didn't know.

[D: I'm going on the assumption/post & comment dates that, although he made the post Sunday evening, she didn't see it and reply until she was at work Monday afternoon, which is partly why she offered 'tomorrow' (aka Tuesday) first, since she's off Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But she's flexible. ^^]

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	blackemperor 2008-05-06 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	"Tomorrow's fine, really," Hitsugi hurried to say. He even meant it. "Although ... it'd be nice to see the lights, too." Ah crap, he hadn't meant to say that out loud. Shit. He was supposed to be accommodating to her schedule, not the other way around. Dammit. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

chichichichiaki
2008-05-07 04:34 am UTC (link)

Well, that decided that. Another glance at the clock, and Chiaki began the now-familiar routine of closing up the gallery as she talked.

"Tonight it is, then," she decided firmly. "Where should I pick you up?" She vaguely recalled him mentionining that he lived in the dorms on campus during the conversation they'd had in his previous post, but if he'd rather meet up elsewhere, that was fine with her, too.

As an afterthought, in case he was worried about it, she added, "And don't worry. It's no bother. I didn't have any plans for the evening, anyway." She's just call Anna and let her know she was going to be late, and maybe pick up dinner or something for the other girl. Not that they were in a relationship or anything, but Chiaki knew her roommate tended to worry over her ever since the stalker incident, and no sense causing her to worry needlessly.

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blackemperor
2008-05-07 10:42 pm UTC (link)

"You don't have to do that," Hitsugi rushed to say, even though it was pretty much what he wanted. Reflex, maybe, years of conditioning in Japanese manners and etiquette. But if she was going to insist - and American girls had a habit of that, he'd noticed - well, then....

"Um, I'm in [dorm] Hall, if you know where that is? I could meet you in the lobby." He'd even be easy to find, what with his somewhat distinctive array pf piercings.

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chichichichiaki
2008-05-08 08:59 am UTC (link)

"It's not a problem, really," Chiaki assured him as she finished locking up the gallery. "Beats spending the evening with Ben and Jerry and boring my roommate... again... with playbacks of my competitions." Which wasn't ENTIRELY true.. she knew Anna didn't mind watching the tapes with her and picking apart her performances, but, well, she WAS supposed to be taking the month off, and he sounded like he could use the outing more than she needed to do that.

"I know exactly where that is. One of my study partners is in [room]. We've met up there a few times. Give me-" she glanced at her watch, calculating driving time as she got into her car, "-about 30 minutes? I'll be the one in blue shirt and jeans, and looking totally out of place in the dorms."

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	blackemperor 2008-05-09 01:43 am UTC (link)
	"Considering who all else lives here, I have a hard time picturing anyone looking out of place. Short of being an obvious space alien. Three heads or something." Or maybe really, really old. But she didn't sound like any obaachan he'd ever met, so he wasn't worried about that, either. "All right, I'll be ready. Half an hour, in the lobby." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

chichichichiaki
2008-05-09 08:33 am UTC (link)

"I'll be there shortly, then," Chiaki replied before ending the call, starting the car and pulling out.

Traffic was on her side, for once. Arriving well within the half hour she'd allowed herself, she parked and made her way to the lobby of the dorm. She supposed he had a point about people not looking out of place after scanning the variety of people coming and going... and a few hanging out... in the lobby trying to spot the person she was meeting. Even so, she always felt out of place visiting the dorms, having never stayed in them herself, and was sure it showed in both her face and demeanor.

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