Every Little Detail

One

I walk to the subway station keeping up with the crowd, my head down. Just like I'm used to there is a suffocating number of people out and about. But today everything has the hushed sounds of a rainy day. Slow, cold rain drops out of the sky, and the vehicles on the streets build up the swishing sounds of water being picked up and dropped down again as they fly by. Everybody has their heads down, hurrying faster than normal to where they need to go. Rain or shine Tokyo was always fast, everybody always needs to get somewhere in a rush.

Setsuko isn't with me today. Normally she comes with me, she just lives a few blocks away, although our homes look completely different for how short a distance they are from each other. Setsuko's family is probably considered middle class just hovering below upper class. Mine was definitely lower class. Setsuko stayed behind at school waiting to talk to Kaito. She is a changed person ever since she came back from Korea and LA. She had gotten plastic surgery in Korea over our hiatus from school. She also went to LA and came back ignoring every rule and all the Japanese etiquette she had ever been taught. This was bizarre to me and a lot of my classmates. There were some of my classmates that had been to Western countries before and they had never come back like this. Japanese etiquette was taught to us ever since we were very young and taken very seriously. Just because Setsuko had been to the US should not mean that she should come back with scandalous behavior, like how she sometimes didn't bother to bow.

I step onto the subway and squeeze past people, and sit down in an empty seat. I pull out one of my school books from my bag and opened it up. The ride is not long but I use every minute I have to study and do my schoolwork. A boy about the age of seven or eight takes a seat next to me. He is unaccompanied, no adult escort in sight, he glances at me a second longer than normal. Probably noticing my foreign face or pretty face or pretty foreign face. I turn back to my schoolbook and begin reading.

Somebody comes and sits on the other side of me. I glance up and see Yua, Kaito's sister. Kaito is in my class and Setsuko has been trying to get his attention all school year. I am assuming this because he's rich and well-known around school. His father is the CEO of a big engineering company. Yua is one year above us, and she gets bullied at school by a group of girls. Because she's "fat" and "ugly." Neither of these is true at all. Yua has a long diamond face shape with prominent cheekbones. Her eyebrows are thin and only started to arch and at the very end, slim double eyelid almond shaped eyes, and full lips. She had wavy dark brown hair that had a slight hint of red that went down to her waist. Her body couldn't be described as fat, sure she didn't have the slim legs that a lot of Japanese girls wished for but she wasn't fat. She had a very toned body and was quite tall. She looked like a captivating regal queen. Her personality didn't match what she looked like at all though.

I say, "Konnichiwa," bowing.

She bows in response, her hair dark brown hair falling in front of her and mutteres, "Konnichiwa."

After a few minutes into the ride, Yua says, "Sakura?" in a quiet voice.

"What is it?" I ask looking up.

"Your friend . . ." She starts and trails off as if she doesn't know where to go next.

"Setsuko?"

"Yes. She is always trying to get Kaito's attention all the time. She's very manipulative and he is not interested in her at all. She's just wasting his time. He already has a bunch of stuff to deal with and your friend is just making it worse. I would appreciate it if you could try to make her stop." She finished looking up at me with a worried expression whether for her brother or because she didn't like talking much I was not sure.