quickie

So sorry for the long absence!

Some updates:
- The book is finished and I did manage to trim it down to approximately 25,000 words
- Partly the reason for the edit was that I submitted the book to a publisher to be considered for publication
- However, I've been asked to change a few things that have resulted in the story morphing into something different; this is supposed to be a trilogy of books, one each for Ana, Kaye, and Tessa, but I seriously wonder if I don't have enough on my plate at the moment
- So in the end, I decided to post the original in it's entirety for purposes of posterity
- I'll try to post the whole thing soon! Only 2 more chapters to go!

hugs and thanks for your patience! Keep reading The Japayuki Chronicles

xoxoxo

Leave it up to fate: Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“That was some renegotiation.” Jon commented as he sipped champagne beside me. “When I saw you last, you guys weren’t even talking and now you’re engaged!”

I sighed. It didn't seem real to me either. The past two weeks had been a whirlwind. Everything seemed constantly on fast-forward … dinner with my parents, Takashi’s press release, the ensuing media interview, and finally, tonight. I almost laughed aloud. I was standing in the middle of a private function room at the ANA hotel—our engagement party was ongoing, people were congratulating us left and right, and yet I still couldn't believe this was actually happening.

Someone please pinch me. I actually said that aloud and Jon had complied. My side smarted from where he had over-enthusiastically squeezed.

“Ana?”

I glanced to see who had called and saw Dan standing nearby. As I smiled and greeted him, Jon politely excused himself.

“So I guess this means you aren’t coming to Texas with me, huh?” Dan asked.

I shook my head. “I’m really sorry Dan, the research sounds fascinating but…”

“I understand. You don't have to be sorry Ana. Science will always be here for you, but people …” He glanced at Ken, who was introducing my mom to someone. “Sometimes you have to hold on to people.” He smiled wryly. “I’m just sad I wasn’t able to hold on to you.”

Lordy, that was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard Dan say. But why wasn’t I hyperventilating? Instead I smiled sadly at him. He smiled back, shook my hand, and then left.

“What did wonder-Dan want?” Kaye asked, sidling up to me.

“Nothing, he just said goodbye. He’s leaving for Texas soon.”

Kaye was silent for a minute. “It never would have worked Ana. You were never really yourself with him. Whereas with Ken…” she grimaced, “I’m not saying it’s a match made in heaven, but I’m glad you can be your usual cranky self with him. At least he knows what he’s getting.”

I gaped. “Does this mean you approve?”

“Does it matter if Kaye approves or not when you and Ken are so obviously in love with each other?” Tessa asked as she, Jon, and Yoshi joined us.

I stared at Tessa, “Oh, but we aren’t!”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “We aren’t blind. Ken adores you! Even Kaye agrees.”

“I’m not disagreeing.” Kaye clarified.

“You of all people should know that this is all just an act.” I protested.

Yoshi shook his head. “I hate to say this Ana-chan, but Ken isn’t that good an actor.”

“And that rock on your finger certainly doesn't look fake.” Jon commented. In unison, we all looked at the 2-karat solitaire diamond ring that glinted on the fourth finger of my left hand.

“It’s just a ring.” I said though I cradled it protectively.

“Oi oi, we spent half a day picking that out!” Yoshi reminded. At my mulish expression, he sighed. “Ma ne, I think you’ve gotten too used to version 2.0 these past few months.”

“Version 2.0?”

Yoshi nodded. “Sou sou, Ken-chan version 1.0 scowls and grunts, gives monosyllabic answers, freezes people with a look, and walks around with a haughty look on his face.” He paused and took a sip of champagne. “Ken-chan version 2.0 smiles and laughs more, he’s more patient with people, and for the past few weeks, when he’s in the company of a certain someone, he walks around with a stupid grin on his face.”

I started shaking my head.

“Dyosko Ana, you’re not usually this obtuse.” Kaye complained.

“Ano ba, the guy loves you!” Tessa hissed, rolling her eyes.

“The question is do you love him?”

“Jon!”

“Honey, someone had to ask.” Jon replied.

“Yeah, otherwise you’d be skirting the question until the next millennium.” Kaye snorted.

“Ne, ne, so do you?” Yoshi asked.

I gulped. Yoshi, Jon, Kaye, and Tessa stared at me expectantly. Muttering something about needing to visit the lavatory, I turned away. As I fled, I thought I heard the four of them sigh in unison.

+++

“Oi, gaijin.”

I thought had the lavatory to myself when I heard someone address me. Hardly anyone ever called me a foreigner—at least not to my face—the Japanese were too polite for that. It was clearly meant as an insult and I turned around to see who had delivered it. I was surprised to see Ai, the woman from the concert after-party standing behind me. It wasn’t hard to recognize her—her clothes were just as skanky as the last time.

“Nan de? What are you doing here? This is a private party.” I told her as I turned to leave.

“Baka! He doesn’t really love you, gaijin.” She sneered.

“And I suppose he’s in love with you?” I asked derisively.

She laughed bitterly. “He’s still in love with Sakamoto-san. She’s back in town you know, that’s the only reason for this charade. He’s hoping she’ll be jealous and come back to him. I hope you won’t cry too much when he finally dumps you.”

“What I’m hoping for is that you’ll shut up.” I swear it took all my patience to leave without slapping her silly.

However, I felt my composure crack slightly as I walked back to the party. I’d almost forgotten about the issue of Erina. Ken never talked about her and I was too afraid to ask.

“Ah, Ana-san, Ken has been looking for you.” I looked up and saw Takashi heading towards me. No one had been more surprised to learn about our engagement than Takashi. Yoshi had joked that although Takashi was a good agent, he had the emotional range of a teaspoon (which kind of explained why he was still single).

I smiled and allowed him to escort me back to the party. Just before we were to enter, I stopped him. “Ano, Takashi-san, may I ask you something?” He looked at me questioningly. “Why did Ken and Erina break up?”

I could see that I had made him uneasy. He started mopping at nonexistent sweat on his forehead. “Etooo… I really don’t know Ana-san. Why don’t you ask Ken?”

“How long were they together?”

“Around 4 years maybe.” He scratched his head. “But he, Yoshi, and Erina were very good friends, so it may have been longer… Anooo, maybe we should go in now …”

I preceded Takashi back into the room, trying to hide how taken aback I was at his revelations. So Ken and Erina had been friends. They had been together for quite some time. And he did plan to ask her to marry him. That is, before she dumped him because she thought he had been getting it on with me. Were things really that simple? What had really happened? He couldn’t have forgotten her that easily, could he?

I rubbed my temples. Lordy. Did I really want to have ghosts in my bed even before I was even married?

Nearing the end!

Go to Chapter 29!

Leave it up to fate: Chapter 27 EDIT

“Damn, damn, damn!” Kaye cursed, “Why did I have to go to the grocery just then?”

“Sou, sou!” Yoshi seconded. “Chikusho! I was only downstairs having a smoke, why didn’t I come up earlier?”

Tessa giggled. “Too bad, it was really something to see! Don’t worry,” she tried to console them, “Jon doesn’t even know about it yet.”

They stopped and turned when Ken and I walked back into the apartment. We had just seen my parents off in a cab. I nodded curtly to them, grabbed Ken’s hand and dragged him to my room.

Tessa, Kaye, and Yoshi looked at each other and smiled when I closed the door after us.

“C’mon guys,” I heard Tessa say, “Let’s give the newly engaged couple some privacy.”

+++

“Why?” At Ken’s raised brow, I said impatiently, “You know what I mean. Why did you go along with it?”

“Why did you say we were engaged in the first place?” He countered.

“I don’t know. It seemed the right thing to say at the moment.” I rounded on him, “But why did you go along with it?”

“It seemed the right thing to say,” Ken echoed, smiling maddeningly. “I thought you’d want me to back you up.”

“Well, I did but … but … but did you have to go so far as to arrange a wedding date?”

“We didn’t exactly decide on a date …”

“That’s beside the point!” I shrieked, “My mom is practically planning the wedding already.”

“Efficient woman, your mom.” Ken chuckled, “I like her already.”

“Oooh! We’ve got to do something,” I cried, “Have you got any ideas?” I buried my face in my hands. “Maybe we can just pretend to get married at the local city hall…”

“Baka. Your parents would see through that in a minute.”

“If we broke up …”

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s out of the question.”

I fell silent. He was right, if we broke up he’d be left in the same position he’d been in when we first met. Plus, it’d been my fault and I did promise to see it through. But damn, I had never envisioned things to get so tangled.

“Would being married to me be all that bad?” He asked.

Hmm, it actually wouldn’t be bad at all.

No, no, no! It would be a disaster! Gaga. Why am I even considering this?! I looked at Ken. “It just wouldn’t seem right. Marriage is sacred, but … you don’t … we’re not even …” I took a deep breath. “Well, it’s not as if we’ve suddenly fallen madly in love with each other.”

Or have we? The unspoken question seemed to float in the air between us.

“Do you still love Sato?”

I looked at Ken blankly, for a minute I had trouble remembering who Dan was. Ken patiently repeated his question.

“I-I don’t know.” I finally said.

“Then what’s stopping us from getting married?”

“A hundred things!” I cried. “And anyway, why would you want to marry me?”

Ken smiled mysteriously, “I have my reasons.”

After a few seconds, I prodded, “Well? What are they?”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.” At my exasperated expression, he chuckled. “Don’t you want to get married sometime?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then why not to me?”

Yeah, why not? No, no, I had to be the adult here. “No Ken, we can’t do this.”

“Fine,” he said, “Call your parents and tell them that dinner tomorrow is cancelled and that you lied.”

I glared at him. Catch 22. That was something I wasn’t willing to do. I know that this is the 21^st century and that I’d just told my parents I was an adult with a life of my own, but if they found out, they’d drag me on a plane back home and chain me to the house until I turned 90.

“But Ken, you wouldn’t want to marry me!” I whined, sitting down on the bed.

“Why not?”

“Well… you’re you… and I’m … me.” I grimaced. Lordy, that line was trite, even to my ears.

“That seems to have worked out for us so far.” Ken sat down beside me and surprised me by pulling me onto his lap. “If we got married, it’d get your parents off your back and you could stay in Japan for as long as you wanted. And we do get along quite well…”

“What? We argue all the time!”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” He grinned. I actually had to bite my lip to keep myself from grinning back. “Plus…”

“Plus?” I asked; distracted by the way he was looking at me.

“Plus, we seem to turn each other on.”

“Oh.” There was that.

“So is it on?” He asked huskily.

Tao lang po. Lordy, I was not immune to the soulful stare that had snared many a heart onscreen. The logical part of my brain was screaming no, but the hormone-driven sex-starved part won and I nodded.

Ken smiled. Then he stood up so fast I thought I’d land on the floor. He gave me a quick kiss and checked his watch. “I’ve got to go Ana. I’ve got some shopping to do.”

And then he was gone. I must’ve stood where he left me for a good 10 minutes before I crumpled to the floor.

Lordy, what just happened?

commercial break

Heehee.

I know I was supposed to post the last remaining chapters of Ana and Ken's story. I'm really sorry (I'm not flaking) but since the dawn of the new year, I've been swamped with work (which is not necessarily a bad thing, right?), and I just haven't had time.

Here's what I've been busy with.

Anyway, enough of me. I've decided to try and trim the whole thing down to 25,000 words --- no mean feat when I've got around 80,000+ to edit. Wahaha! It's been cathartic editing my own work; sometimes there are things that I would have written differently, or deleted altogether, there are also times when I mentally scream at myself to just shut up and get to the point. But I guess that's what editing is for, right?

So what's everybody busy with? ;-)

Leave it up to fate: Chapter Twenty-seven

CHAPTER 27

“We have to talk.”

Ken glanced down at Ana’s softly uttered request. They were standing side by side at the foyer of Ana’s apartment building, waving Ana’s parents off. Ana’s father had belatedly remembered that one of his Japanese business associates had invited them over for dinner, and so dinner with Ken had been postponed until the following evening.

Ken followed Ana back into her apartment. Excited voices were issuing from the living room, where Tessa was regaling Kaye and Yoshi with the events of the past hour.

“Damn, damn, damn!” Kaye cursed, “Why did I have to go to the grocery just then?”

“Chikusho!” Yoshi cursed at the same time. “I was only downstairs having a smoke, why didn’t I come up earlier?”

Tessa giggled. “Too bad, it was really something to see! Don’t worry,” she tried to console them, “Jon doesn’t even know about it yet.”

They all stopped and turned when Ana and Ken walked in, but the look on their faces held back the barrage of questions that seemed to burn on their lips. Nodding to them, Ana went into her room. Ken followed and closed the door.

Tessa, Kaye, and Yoshi looked at each other and smiled.

“C’mon guys,” Tessa said, “Let’s give the newly engaged couple some privacy.” Kaye and Yoshi followed her, albeit reluctantly, out the door.

+++

Ken glanced about Ana’s room. It was much smaller than his, but it was tastefully and simply decorated in tones of white, blue, and brown. It contained a bed and a desk. Cabinet doors lined one wall. Ana motioned for Ken to sit on the bed and he did so, expecting her to sit beside him or on the chair, but she started pacing about the room. Ken kept silent as he watched her. He couldn’t be more pleased with how things turned out. Ana, however, seemed not to share his opinion. She looked like she wanted to start tearing her hair out. That thought made him chuckle.

Ana glared at him, “It isn’t funny.”

“C’mon,” Ken cajoled, “it’s a bit funny.”

Ana continued to scowl at him. After a few more minutes of pacing, she sat in the chair and faced him. “Why, Ken?” She asked. At his raised brow, she said impatiently, “You know what I mean. Why did you go along with the engagement?”

“Why did you say we were engaged in the first place?” He countered.

“I don’t know,” she said, “It seemed the right thing to say at the moment.” Then she rounded on him, “But why did you go along with it?”

“It seemed the right thing to say,” Ken echoed, smiling maddeningly. “And I thought you’d want me to back you up.”

“Well, I did but … but … but did you have to go so far as to arrange a wedding date?”

“We didn’t exactly decide on a date …”

“That’s besides the point!” Ana shrieked, “My mom is practically planning the wedding already.”

“Efficient woman, your mom.” Ken chuckled, “I like her already.”

“Oooh! We’ve got to do something,” she cried, “Have you got any ideas?”

When Ken simply smiled at her, she buried her face in her hands, “Maybe we can just pretend to get married at the local city hall to get them off our backs …”

“Baka. Your parents would see through that in a minute.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “If we broke up …”

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s out of the question,” Ken told her.

Ana slumped in her seat and fell silent. He was right, she mused, if they broke up, he’d be left in the same position he’d been in when they first met. Ken’s career was important to him. And she had promised to see it through. But damn, she had never envisioned it to get tangled so.

Ken stared at her, “Would being married to me be all that bad?”

Ana stared back at him and considered the question. It actually wouldn’t be bad at all. In fact, a little voice inside of her kept urging her to jump at the opportunity. But she tamped down the giddy feelings that were threatening to burst forth.

“It’s just that it wouldn’t seem right. Marriage is something sacred, but you’re not … you don’t … we’re not even …” Ana gave a hollow laugh, “Well, it’s not as if we’ve suddenly fallen madly in love with each other.”

Or have they? The unspoken question resonated in Ana’s mind.

“Do you still love Sato?”

Ana looked at Ken blankly, as if she had trouble remembering who Dan was. Ken pulled her chair nearer, cradled her hands in his, and repeated his question.

“I-I don’t know.” Ana finally said.

Ken let out the breath that he had been holding and smiled, “Then what is stopping us from getting married?”

“A hundred things!” Ana cried, thinking of Erina, the buxom girl, and the fact that Ken didn’t love her. “And anyway, why would you want to marry me?”

Ken smiled mysteriously, “I have my reasons.”

After a few seconds, Ana prodded, “Well? What is it?”

Ken shook his head, “If you have to ask, then you’re sure as hell not ready for the answer. You’ll have to try and figure it out for yourself.”

He stood up and checked his watch. “I’ve got to go Ana,” he said, pulling her up for quick kiss, “I’ve got some shopping to do.”

+++

As Yoshi and Ken were mostly silent as they drove to Aoyama. A secret smile played on Ken’s lips as he thought about the events of the day. First, his best friend had walked in on him and the woman he loved while they were in bed. Then he had taken her home, met her parents, and then they had become engaged. Not bad at all.

Not even Ana’s admonition that they should probably keep everything quiet for now could manage to dim his enthusiasm.

He was engaged to marry Ana. Damn if that didn’t feel good.

And he didn’t believe that she was still in love with Sato. As Ken came to find out, when it came to love, it’s either you are or you aren’t. Moreover, Ana wouldn’t kiss him back the way she had if she’d been in love with someone else. No, Ana loved him, he was sure of it. He was going to make sure of it.

Yoshi, noticing how happy Ken was, tried to be tactful, but he couldn’t resist a dig, “So did you have a nice day?” he asked innocently.

Ken gave him an exasperated look, but broke into a smile. “The best,” he answered. They drove in companionable silence for a while, then Ken suddenly asked, “Have you ever been in love, Yoshi?”

The car swerved dangerously before Yoshi righted it. “Are we having a real conversation here?”

Ken rolled his eyes, “Seriously, have you ever been in love?”

“I thought I was once…”

“Who was it?” Ken had never expected Yoshi to reply in the affirmative.

Yoshi shrugged, “Some girl from the past.”

Ken looked at him incredulously, “I never knew you were serious about anyone.”

“Are we really having this conversation?”

“What happened?”

Yoshi was silent for a couple of minutes more. Then he shrugged, “I … I guess I never realized what I had in front of me. I wanted different things … so she left.”

Ken was mentally trying to sift through all the girlfriends Yoshi had been rumored to have in the past years. Stumped, he asked, “Did you go after her?”

“I tried. As soon as I realized my mistake, I tried. But it was too late.”

“Do you still think about her?”

“Sometimes.” Yoshi answered offhandedly. He didn’t add that he thought of her every time he saw her eyes in her brother’s face. Every time he looked at his best friend. Every time he looked at Ken, he remembered Yuki.

They were both silent Then Ken, wanting to change to topic, smiled and said, “Yuki’s coming home for a vacation soon. I can’t wait for her to meet Ana.”

Yoshi almost grimaced. So it was that time of the year again. The time of the year when he invented a reason to avoid Ken for a month. A reason to avoid running into Yuki. “So is she bringing another one of her European toy boys back this time?” He asked.

Ken snorted, “She never did say,“ he still remembered the last ass she had brought home, Francois something or the other, and almost shuddered. ”So where are you running off to this time?” at Yoshi’s startled expression, Ken grinned. “Don’t think I don’t know that you and Yuki can’t stand each other. It was pretty obvious the last few times you met up.” Ken turned into his driveway, “I don’t understand it, how could you hate each other so much?”

Because I broke her heart, Yoshi thought. But to Ken he said, “Maybe she thinks I’m a bad influence on you?”

Ken snorted as he turned the ignition off. He glanced at his friend, “I’ll find out about it soon you know,” he said as he got out of the jeep.

Yoshi glanced at his best friend's back as Ken pushed open the door of a shop. He fervently hoped Ken hadn't seen the alarm on his face.