Unrest 2
“I have a surprise for you, KiNa,” ChiMei told him as she tugged on his arm, leading him into a more secluded area. Away from the base and into the tree-lined luv glade.
That was the name that they gave the place. Now that most of them were teens, or budding teens, there had to be a designated date-place, away from the eyes of everyone else. Even though Master SoYa knew about it, he was polite enough to give them room as long as they followed basic rules of decency.
Rules that ChiMei tended to try and overstep. She was a cute girl, KiNa thought. But she was romance-starved, which made her act a bit touched in the head sometimes. When he wanted to sit around and casually chat about his next great project, or the cool new discovery he made, all that was floating around in her head were thoughts of romance and how good she must smell that afternoon.
When she led them to the perfect spot, the girl stopped walking and turned to grin at KiNa excitedly. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, but he couldn’t understand why.
Uh oh… what does that mean?
“Okay, now I want you to close your eyes,” Chi instructed, not even trying to keep the mirth from her voice.
KiNa took a deep breath and did as he was instructed. Closing his eyes, all of his other senses came alive.
He could feel the way her fingertips tingled against his. He could hear the sound of her breath as she seemed to lean closer. He could sense the excited flutter of her heartbeat. Then he felt her lips, smooshed against his in a somewhat sloppy pillow-practiced first kiss.
Too fast! Too fast!
Maybe he shouldn’t have panicked. A mind mage, after all, should always be in control. But his first instinct was one of frantic flight. Chi didn’t seem to notice or care. She latched on to him, arms wrapped around his shoulders and pressed onward with what she must have thought was the most romantic kiss in history.
When KiNa found he couldn’t squirm out of her grasp, his only course of action was to break the kiss by turning his head. Only, that led to her proceeding to kiss his cheek instead.
“What are you doing?!” his voice was high-pitched with shock.
Finally, Chi backed off a little, refusing to let him go. Love sparkled in her eyes, she couldn’t see the panic in his. “Taking our relationship to the next level, KiNa.”
“Next level? What level is that?” he grit his teeth.
“We’ve been dating for exactly one month, three weeks, four days, sixteen hours and thirty two minutes,” she informed him. “Don’t you think it’s time to do something more than just hold hands?”
“What’s wrong with holding hands?” he asked innocently.
“KiNa,” Chi said in an accusing voice. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” he told her.
The transformation was sudden and complete. Chi’s face fell and KiNa almost fell, too, as she let go of him. There was so much heartache there that one might think they had been bonded for years. “You don’t really love me, do you?”
“Wha?” KiNa’s expression spoke his surprise. “Love you? We’re just dating, Chi.”
“You don’t date someone you don’t love, KiNa,” the girl told him, looking about ready to break into tears right there.
“Well, sometimes you do,” he tried to explain. “When you think someone is really neat and you want to get to know them better, then sometimes you ask them to–”
Her voice cut him off sharply, “I don’t date someone that I don’t love.”
KiNa froze, having no answer to that.
Chi’s expression just deteriorated right there, heaping guilt on his shoulders. Her voice broke into a whimper that turned into almost a wail, “That was my first kiss! You stole it from me and you don’t even love me!”
“What?” he took a step back from the crying girl, dumbfounded at how quickly her moods changed. “Look, Chi… this isn’t the end or anything, we can–”
There was a resounding crack that echoed through the glade, followed by a stinging pain along his cheek. The girl had smacked him. “This is the end.”
KiNa just stood there, face throbbing, staring at the girl.
She’s a nutcase!
“I tried to change your mind, but all you can do is think of that… that… other girl!” Chi sobbed. “I don’t ever want to talk to you…or…. or… see you again!”
With that, she turned on her heel and stormed off, not even trying to hide her streaming tears.
KiNa remained standing there in shock. He just got dumped.
What other girl? Who? Was it SaToKi? We called that off three months ago!
He peered around at the luv glade, that a short time ago seemed so full of promise, now with a hint of bitterness. Afterall, this was going to tarnish his image. He was the one who broke up with girls, not the other way around.
It’s fine. She was getting a little freaky anyhow.
KiNa kicked a stone, shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out of the glade. He didn’t know where he was walking. Only that he needed to get away from that place.
Why do girls have to be so complicated?
Time after time, he tried to date different girls. But it just never worked out for one reason or another. Girls that he thought would be interesting turned out to have so little in common with him that they just didn’t mesh. Girls he thought were irritating, but may be salvageable, only led to heartache in the end. The longest he’d ever maintained a relationship was a turn and a few months.
Master SoYa would comfort him each time and remind him that KiNa was still young and there were still many chances at finding the right person. Then he would stress that the boy should be true to himself.
I try… I do. I think I like these girls, but why does it always feel so shallow?
As KiNa crested a foresty hill, he felt eyes on his back. He stopped, then turned around to see nothing there. Peering for a long moment, his senses returned nothing but silence. Lowering his brows, he turned to continue in his original direction only to find his path barred.
He jumped back, startled.
ShiKon stood there, her arms crossed and a frown plastered across her face.
Great… now what…
“You out here getting yourself lost or something?” she asked, eyeing him.
“Of course not,” he grumbled. “Why would you think that?”
“Chi came back without you. She looked really upset,” ShiKon informed him. Then she pointed to her cheek, “What happened there?”
He realized the mark that Chi left was still stinging and probably apparent. He quickly fibbed, “Tree branches get dangerous this time of year.”
“Ah. Funny I’ve never seen a tree branch leave the shape of a hand before,” she wasn’t convinced in any way.
KiNa decided to run with it anyhow. Not much to lose. “What, you’ve never heard of a palm tree?”
“Very funny,” her look was droll. But not angry, at least.
After an awkward moment of silence, KiNa said, “I’ll be back at the base in a little while. I just needed a walk.”
“Fine. I was just making sure you knew how to get back,” her words were teasing, but they covered up the fact that she actually had something she wanted to say.
He rocked back a bit, putting his weight on one leg as he peered at her. “That’s not why you’re here.”
“I was trying to let you off the hook,” ShiKon pursed her lips.
“When do you ever do that?” he asked with mild surprise.
“You seem to have had a bad enough day already,” the girl tapped her cheek again.
“Yeah. That,” KiNa grumbled. “I guess I deserved it.”
“You probably did,” she agreed, then she turned, with her hands on her hips and began walking next to him casually. Working herself up, she finally asked, “What are you doing, KiNa?”
“I told you, I’m taking a walk,” he evaded her question. It didn’t work.
“You know what I mean. What are you doing going from girl to girl to girl? Don’t you know that you’re just going to keep hurting people’s feelings,” ShiKon’s eyes seemed softer and greener than he’d ever seen when she turned to look at him. Maybe it was a trick of the forest light.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess I’m just looking for the right one.”
She didn’t say anything for a long time. When she did, her response surprised him, “Master SoYa was right, then.”
“What?” KiNa asked her. When she didn’t reply, he gave a huffy sound, “Why is he talking about my love life with you?”
“Because he’s our Master and he’s worried about you,” she kicked a stone along the trail and watched it land far off into the brush.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I have it all under control,” he frowned.
“Famous last words,” ShiKon pointed out. Then she turned the conversation inside out, “Just who are you trying to impress by doing this, anyway?”
“No one!” he protested.
“If you’re dating girls just to get attention, you should stop. It’s not right to do. You’re just hurting them and yourself,” she told him, surprisingly level-headed. She sounded like Master SoYa, and that annoyed him.
“That’s not what I’m doing at all,” KiNa snapped. “You don’t even have a clue.”
“Then tell me what are you doing?”
“That’s none of your business!”
“You won’t because you know I’m right,” the girl pointed out.
He didn’t like where this conversation was going. Even at the cost of making her angry, he needed to end it.
“You know, that’s your problem,” KiNa started the rant to end all rants. “You come in here thinking you know it all and you’re something special. That you’re so hot and you turn all the heads. But the truth is, you don’t follow orders, you take stupid risks and you ruin all the sensible plans. In fact, I’m putting in a transfer request so I can get away from you. Now you come here, and try to tell me what to do with my love life… and insinuate what?”
“I didn’t insinuate anything,” she replied, completely calm. Not a word he said had ruffled her an inch. Nor had it made her give up the talk and storm away as he hoped.
Instead, ShiKon did something completely unexpected. She reached out and gently touched his hand, just lightly, with her fingertips. That, coupled with the sincere look of concern in her eyes, sent him reeling. Instantly, KiNa felt weak in the knees, his heart rate racing, pounding in his ears with a stirring feeling he’d never experienced before.
Or, rather, that he never let himself experience before, when looking at ShiKon.
She knew it. She could read his face like a book. He was spilling everything in front of her, wordlessly, so easily. All because of one touch.
Okay… okay… so she is good.
And now that the realization hit him, that he was absolutely sure of what he was feeling, KiNa was at a complete loss of what to do. He stared at her frantically, realizing he was now at her mercy.
“So it’s true,” ShiKon said. She didn’t seem to know how to respond, either.
Maybe that’s good. Maybe that means I have a chance. That I… Wait! What am I thinking? I don’t want to…
“Are you going to keep fighting your feelings like this?” she turned away awkwardly.
“What should I do? Throw them out in the dirt for you to walk all over?” he grumbled.
ShiKon lifted her head but didn’t look at him, “Do you think I’d do that?”
“Yes, I do,” KiNa frowned. “You’re miss cool. And I’m just a nerd.”
That’s when she laughed bitterly and turned around, “Me? Cool? You’re the one that has a constant rotation of girlfriends. While I just stood by and watched you walk off with one ditz after another.”
When she stopped talking, she realized she said too much.
“Wait,” he took a step closer, “What’s that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” her brows lowered, warning him.
“It bothered you. You just said it,” KiNa pointed at her.
“Yeah, because I saw how much of a jerk you were being to those girls,” ShiKon shook her head. “Because I knew that when we were alone and on missions together, you didn’t really act that way. It didn’t make sense.”
When he didn’t say anything, she stumbled forward.
“I mean, sometimes you were really pretty cool… you know… for a nerd.”
Stunned, he found himself stammering, “And you’re pretty hot… for a…”
He didn’t get to finish. ShiKon quickly leaned over and placed a shy peck on his cheek. Right on top of the hand mark. Somehow, it didn’t feel so bad anymore.
It wasn’t what KiNa expected. The way the girl did that hip-thing… the way she teased and taunted the boys… he expected a full-on passionate escapade. Instead, she peered at him with school-girl eyes, hands folded behind her back for a moment. Then, giving a tiny half smile, ShiKon turned and walked away, leaving him to piece out the puzzle that was the female persuasion.