Little Tiger

The robe

It was spring. The staff in the main estate gradually opened up every window to let the cool breeze air out the house after the long, stuffy winter. I did not consent to this idea originally (I didn't like it when the staff came into my room when I was not there) but now that I was lying on my bed, the breeze brushing against my legs and the birds singing in the distance, I did not mind it. I was fortunate enough to have a sakura tree right outside my window. I watched the flowers shake from the tree branch and fall somewhere on the ground below my window. A few of them found their way to the floor of my bedroom, bunching up around my feet. I left them there, feeling that it would be rude of me to dispose of something so beautiful. I remembered what I had learned about sakura trees in school; they were a symbol of fleeting beauty. The idea of my own "fleeting beauty" swept through my mind and I let it linger for a moment until I tossed it away and tried to think of something else. I was not beautiful, not by my terms. But, I thought, maybe that just means my beauty is coming. I'm only sixteen, after all. Then again, my mother looked her prettiest when she was my age, which means I have probably already missed my chance. 

There were boxes being moved out into the hallway, courtesy of Hatori. Ayame and Shigure would pack their things later. The three of them had only just begun to pack up their rooms before they started their next semester at university. I had been watching Hatori stow his things in cardboard boxes a few moments earlier, but it did not keep my interest for long. I thought about what my life would be like by the end of this day; that dreadful walk back to the estate after seeing them off at school, the long night ahead of me, filled with emptiness. Now that they were leaving again, it would only be Kureno, Akito, and I inhabiting the bedrooms of the main estate. It was so quiet without them here. I perished those thoughts. I knew better than to think about things that only made me angry. The reason it made me so angry is because I was not the one who chose to live in the main estate, it was Akito's doing. Akito wanted all of the older Zodiacs to live in the main estate so we could bond together, the younger Zodiacs would do the same as soon as they graduated high school. I was the exception to this rule because I did not have a home of my own anymore now that my mother was dead and my father left me. I planned to run away the night that Akito proposed that I live in the main estate but it was futile as I had nowhere to go. Besides, the boys were already here which gave me the strength to follow Akito's request. But I failed to realize that they would be leaving me in the spring to live at the university. The first year that they were away was not all that bad but I certainly did not want to relive it. My only saving grace was going to school which I was not fond of. It was the all girls school at the end of town, surrounded by trees and a big fence that made me feel like I was going to jail rather than receiving an education. 

A polite knock on my open door. "Ko?" I rolled onto my stomach to see who it was. "Help me carry these boxes to the car." It was Hatori. He had a headband on to keep the hair out of his face. 

I stood up from my bed and stepped into my slippers to meet him at the doorway. I took the box from him. His face was rather flushed after packing all of his things away, which was always shocking to see. Hatori rarely looked weathered by anything, sometimes I thought of him as more of a robot than a human being. 

"What?" he snapped. "Oh, this?" he asked, pointing to the headband."Listen, I know it's yours so stop looking at me like that. I'll give it back."

I shook my head, wrapping my arms tighter around the box so that it wouldn't slip. "I didn't even realize it was mine. I was just looking at how sweaty you are." The words came out wrong. I tried to correct it but Hatori cut me off. 

"I'm sorry that it bothers you so much," he retorted, bending down to pick up two boxes stacked on top of each other. 

"That's not what I meant," I mumbled but he was too far down the hallway to hear me. I chased after him, trying to keep up. "Where's Ayame and Shigure?" I called, peering into their vacant rooms. Their things were still scattered about their rooms, which reassured me that they had not left yet.