Girl Next Door

Chapter One

Kyosuke Matsumaru was walking down a sidewalk with his friend Takeru Sakurai at about four in the afternoon. They were on their way home from a baseball game. The boys were tired, and after a long day of pitching and batting and home runs, deserved an afternoon's rest.

"That was one hell of a game eh, Kyosuke?" Takeru asked Kyosuke. The boys were about fifteen years in age, Kyosuke older by a month than Takeru.

"Yeah it was," Kyosuke replied, chuckling. "You think they have a baseball team at Yoshiba High?"

"Of course they do," said Takeru. "There's only two reasons I wanted to go there after I graduated junior high: baseball and chicks. Hot chicks." He smirked and clenched his fist.

"You're still such a pervert," said Kyosuke, casually striking the back of Takeru's head with the palm of his hand. "You always get me in trouble with your antics."

The boys enjoyed a laugh. They've had fun memories with each other back in junior high. It is nearing the end of spring break, and they are about to enter the doors of high school.

"Kyosuke," said Takeru after a minute's silence.

"Hm?" replied Kyosuke, looking at him.

"This is it, huh?" said Takeru with a modest smile.

"Yeah," said Kyosuke, and the same smile crept across his face. "Starting next week, we're high school students."

"Yeah," said Takeru, pushing his orange spiky hair back. "Good luck to us both surviving in that hellhole." The two casually bumped fists.

After a short pause Takeru said, "Too bad you never saw Risa-chan again."

At those words Kyosuke stopped walking, his mouth half-agape, his face a mixture of shocking realization and regret and longing. He had remembered someone very dear to him.

"Oh," Takeru said after seeing Kyosuke's depressed look, "sorry I had to bring that up, man."

"It's fine," said Kyosuke, his face now firm, trying to hold back his emotions. "How long has she been gone? Two, three years? It's been a while since she left for America, but it feels like an eternity. Is she ever coming back? I wonder what she's doing now." He then gazed up at the sky as if trying to spot an airplane from the distance.

A moment's silence, and Takeru spoke, "Um, my house is this way so..." He points with his thumb to the street to his right, "...I guess I'll be seeing you."

"Yeah, sure," Kyosuke replied, waving. "Later."

Takeru tossed a baseball glove to Kyosuke. "You hold on on to that for me," he said, smiling.

"You got it," Kyosuke said, trying to smile back. Then the two parted ways.

Kyosuke walked home alone, thinking of the friend that he lost three years earlier, Risa. He couldn't help but think that he let her slip away when they were at the peak of their friendship. The last time he saw her was at the airport, crying. "Risa," he thought to himself, "will we ever see each other again...?"

When Kyosuke reached his house, he still felt very hopeless. He slowly walked towards the front door, looking at the ground as he rang the doorbell.

A few seconds later, Kyosuke's mother Matsuko opened the door. She was a single mother in her early forties, with dark blue shoulder-length hair. She was overjoyed when she welcomed her son, her eyes wide with excitement, her lips in a wide gaping smile. Indeed Kyosuke was surprised. Quickly, she hugged her son as tightly as she can.

"Oh, Kyosuke," said Matsuko in an ecstatic voice, "I'm so happy you're home!"

"What's going on, Mom?" asked Kyosuke as his mother lets him go.

"Have I got a surprise for you!"

"What is it?" asked Kyosuke, getting curious.

Matsuko looked the other way trying to make Kyosuke guess, then said, "Guess who's back from America."

The moment after his mother said the word "America", Kyosuke's eyes widened and so did his agape, smiling mouth. He raced as fast as he can past his mother and into the house.

He ran through the house and sped to the living room, where he hoped he would find the surprise he's been waiting three years for. Has his dear Risa returned? He had no time to think that as he darted through his home.

At last he reached the living room. And this is what he saw.

A beautiful girl, about sixteen, was sitting on the couch reading Kyosuke's younger sister's collection of magazines. Her flowing, wavy auburn hair reached below her waist and she had fairer skin than any girl Kyosuke had ever seen. Her eyes were green and she had a smile on her face that could make any boy fall for her. She was so entrancingly beautiful that Kyosuke found it difficult to believe that this girl in front of him was his long-time childhood friend, Risa. He spoke her name.

"R-Risa..?"