[Ryunosuke Sasaki POV]
23 years ago
"Hehehe, Ryuu! Ryuu!" A nostalgic troublesome voice cackled as they brought in the mail. In it they carried a letter that was addressed to themselves.
"What is it, Gen?" I asked the boy, he was so young back then, so full of life.
"It's here!" He pulled out from the envelope an official government addressed form that confirmed his sudden and rash decision. "My confirmation mail that proves my name has officially been changed!"
"Oh right, and what did you change it to? You refused to tell anyone other than Kaori."
"Heh, well Ryunosuke Sasaki, from this day forth you may address me as Gen Saruyama!" He declared with the pride that he was always too comfortable exhibiting.
"Saruyama?" I questioned wondering if he knew what he had just done
"Yep! Isn't it awesome!" He did not
"You do realize you basically just changed your name to monkey right?" He stared at me, his greedless golden eyes blinked at me before they shrunk as he realized that I was right.
"FUCK!!" He screamed out as he realized he just named himself, with the characters for Monkey. He was certainly out of bad luck now.
***
May 7th
Monday
[4:10] PM
As for why Ryunosuke was thinking back on this specific memory, it had everything to do with the, not so handsome, child that stood before him. The boy had just been introduced by the young master of his house, Kenichi Saruyama.
"Ryuu you okay?" Raku Ichijo asked the tattoo-covered man. The man was basically a bodyguard for Raku and his dad. Though his dad definitely didn't need one. Raku had known Ryuu since he was young the only time they had been apart was when Raku was a kid and went over to the states with his father. "Ryuu?" Raku repeated his name and it seemed to do the trick, his black eyes regained their energy and he was back.
"Oh, yeah I'm good. Thanks so much for worrying about me, young master!" Ryuu smiled with his body and gave Raku what could only be described as a sweat covered bear hug.
"Is it always like this?" Kenichi quietly asked the boy next to him, Shu Maiko, who had decided to join the two of them for the night.
"Yeah, pretty much." Shuu shrugged and walked forward towards Raku's room. He didn't want to potentially get caught up in his own bear hug. Even though the chances were very unlikely.
"Wait, are we leaving him like that?" Kenichi asked, looking back at Raku whose intestines looked to be suffering.
"Ryuu will let him go…eventually." Shu said with a sadistic smile as he caught the struggle in the corner of his glasses reflection. He wasn't a sadist, or at least that's what he told himself, but he did occasionally like watching Raku be put in uncomfortable situations. It was why he was so in on Momioka's plan, it seemed like Raku wasn't. "Ryuu wont hurt him, don't worry."
"Ok, if you say so." Kenichi accepted the words and chose not to question them.
"R-Ryuu, let me go…please." Raku squeezed out in between the bear hug and his life flashing before his eyes.
"Okayyyyy, young master." Ryuu complained like a child would but still put him down and let him head to his room to get with his friends.
"Thank you." Ryuu watched as Raku walked off toward his room with a smile, a smile that faded as soon as the door to raku's room was closed. With a stoic face, that was pretty uncommon on him, he walked deeper into the mansion, taking a few lefts and rights until he reached a room that looked like any other. Without even a knock he gently opened the door and quietly closed it.
The room was dusty, no one had been in this room for 9 years, no one had cleaned it for longer. Ryuu stepped into the room, he could still picture the days of old, the days where things seemed so simple, so easy. Before everything got complicated, though to be fair, with Gen Saruyama nothing was simple.
"Let's see…" Ryuu walked on the dust covered tatami floors toward a shelf that rested underneath the window seat. The window was now basically useless, they had expanded years ago, leaving the once sun loved window to gather dust on its blinds and for the room to go unused. Not that he or the boss minded, this was Gen's room, not his, not anyone else's, just Gen's.
Ryuu searched inside the shield until he found what he was looking for, a yearbook dating back 25 years. He flipped through the pages until he reached the person he was looking for.
Gen Saruyama. Gen was easy to describe, beautiful. For a boy at least he couldn't hold a candle to his girlfriend, but he was certainly described as pretty when they were in high school. He certainly grew into his looks, and looked a lot better by the time he was 20. But as Ryuu looked at the picture he couldn't see it, he couldn't see the resemblance between Gen and the boy named Kenichi. Certainly Gen at 17 and 20 were basically two different people but the picture here was Gen at 17, and the boy looked nothing like him.
"Guess I was wrong." Ryuu said a little disappointed, he knew Gen had named his child Kenichi so he had hoped, but it was a fool's hope. Ryuu began to close the yearbook, the pages flipped like they themselves were begging to be closed, like their secrets didn't want to be let out. But all secrets come to light, eventually. Ryuu stopped closing the book, he was on the last few pages and in the back of the book was a photo taken from his second year sports festival. It was of a girl, a girl with beautiful, somewhat, curly purple hair that ran with the wind. Her ocean blue eyes were barely in frame, it was a side profile, she was running in the baton race when this picture was taken. It was a miracle a running person came out so beautifully in a moment, but if anyone could do it was her.
Kaori Arima or as she would be known as later in life, Kaori Saruyama. Ryuu looked at the girl in the picture and smiled, a nostalgic smile, a smile of past choices. And then he closed the book. Having confirmed his theory, Kenichi Saruyama was in no way related to either Gen or Kaori Saruyama, they were both too beautiful to be related to someone so average.