The S.T.I.C.K.Y. Blog

“They were asking if… um…”

Maya’s eyes were searching for Ritsuki’s, Ritsuki was caught in the spur of the moment. and it seems as though he was having trouble speaking his mind.

“Hey! What’s the matter? cat got your tongue? Hehe, don’t be afraid Ritsuki, tell me…”

“Actually… um… they asked me if… I… er…”

“If… what?”

“They asked me if… I like you.” Ritsuki told Maya as his face turned red.

“… and what was your… answer?” Maya’s face turned red as well.

More giggles were heard from the background, and to avoid getting noticed, Nuriko and Mai would quickly hide beneath the chairs as they giggle to death.

“I told them… what if I did like you… would you care?” Maya was smiling, yet she was silent.

“… I think I like you Maya…” Maya then had a quick sigh smilingly, and the two barged in like crazy.

Mai and Nuriko were the ones who had been extremely excited. They entered the scene and asked more annoying questions but Ritsuki and Maya were still at shock, they were silent. Mai was telling something about what to do next.

“Hey you know what? I think Ritsuki would have to court Maya now. I mean, c’mon, don’t you think that it would be the right thing to do? now that Ritsuki confessed to Maya, he needs to prove his love for her by courtship. This is what guys do to girls they like, right?”

At that moment, the concept of courtship was new to Ritsuki. he didn’t even know that it was the next step. But does he really want to be Maya’s suitor? he told Maya that he has feelings for her, but is it for real? At that moment, he was convinced. He does like Maya after all.

The afternoon went on happily as the four continue on chatting on the churchyard. There still weren’t much people around so they were thinking on what step Ritsuki needed to do next. They were giving hints to Ritsuki for him to learn new things. Ritsuki was fond of liking girls but the thought of courtship never crossed is mind. he didn’t had interest on having a girlfriend. At that time they were all at 12 years of age. They were still so young at heart. Ritsuki knew that it was too early for him to have a girlfriend and to think that at such a young age, he was close to having one.

Ritsuki’s excitement came about the next day. It was a different day, he felt more at ease upon coming to class. Michiko and the rest of the group noticed the big change.

“Hey Ritsuki, you seem to be a bit more inspired today… whats up?” Jin asked.

“Nothing much, I feel like I could do something good today…”

Ritsuki’s day started with a smile and out of the blue he figured he could write a poem. Ritsuki was a writer at heart. he had writen extensive short stories, and poems but nobody other than himself had been able to read them. most of his work was written on recycled notebooks. Left-over pages from several used notebooks bound together to form a new one. His stories were composed of epics, adventure novels and fantasy short stories. But mostly, he had never finished a story a single time. He was used to write on a series format in which he figured out to be never-ending. Ritsuki had written quite a handful of recycled notebooks, however, Ritsuki had rarely written a poem for a girl… and so he wanted to write Maya one. He spent much time thinking of rhythmic words to form into lyric poetry. His vocabulary might have been elementary that time but his eagerness to write something for Maya had made him all the more inspired to write something good.

“Hmm… what’s making you serious today Ritsuki? must be that thing that happened yesterday eh? with Maya and all…” Marina began to lure Ritsuki into telling her what happened the day before.

“Huh? how the hell did you know?”

“I heard it from a reliable source Ritsuki, and you don’t need to worry. Your secret is safe with me. hehe”

“Er… that’s what I’m afraid of. A secret can never be safe with you Marina.”

“and what does that suppose to mean?”

Michiko was just at the background listening to the conversation. She was hearing stuff regarding Maya and Ritsuki too but she remained silent. what business does she have with Ritsuki? They were just seatmates to begin with, but Jin was all silent too. She was acting strangely that time.

“So… what really happened yesterday Ritsuki? what is Marina talking about?” Jin asked curiously

“Nothing really, Maya and I talked. that’s all…”

“Hey, c’mon, there’s gotta be something more than that! tell me, you know that I’m better at keeping secrets than Marina… hihi.”

“its not that I really want to keep it for myself but I just dont want to make any ruckus about it. I don’t want people talking about us all the time. I do trust you Jin but I think this is rather too personal to tell you. I think you would just have to figure it out for yourself.”

“Um… okay…” Jin was dejected at a moment.

Ritsuki finished the poem well and had planned on giving it to Maya after class. it was written in English, 6 4-liner stanzas written on yellow paper. his spontaneous composition had impressed Maya and had requested another version. She wanted to have one in Japanese and so he did. After much planning and writing Ritsuki managed to accomplish Maya’s request the day after. And so, It had been Ritsuki’s habit to write poetry for Maya in Japanese and he had been inspired for days. Banjo however knew what was happening to Ritsuki but he could never keep his mouth shut. Ritsuki was mocked in a regular basis that time. Banjo was the initiator. Michiko, as always, would be seen smiling at Banjos right. Michiko was a softspoken girl, she never told nonsense just to make a conversation. And though her 6th grade life revolved around that 2 half rows of elementary students, she was happy.

… end of Chapter 1