Chapter 7

Already tired, sore, and irritated, Saku Hana is infuriated to be greeted by these moving men at this time of night... She stomps her foot on the ground, "You are supposed to be here tomorrow!!"

The biggest moving man is the one who sspoke for all of them. He answers Saku coldly, "We got a call to come tonight... your landlord wants you out so we also got a call to get rid of all these..." He sweeps his around around the room, indicating to all the red tagged furniture.

Saku runs into the room, "You can't do this now!! I don't have anywhere else to go!!"

The man appears not to care at all, "It isn't our problem, now you mine as well pack up whatever you can and leave..."

"How can you be like this?!" Saku cries angrily.

"Its our job girly..." The man cooly replies and with that, he and the others get to work, moving out all of Saku's furniture.

Saku accepts defeat, knowing that she can do nothing to help herself... so she grabs a suitcase and begins to pack up whatever she can. Everything is calm and peaceful between the movers and Saku until one of the men bang into Saku's alter that holds her parent's picture and everything she uses to pray to them. Saku freaks out, "Can't you at least be careful?! That is a prayer stand so at least treat it like one d****t!!! You're moving out my things so at least take your time and do the job right!!"

The moving men eye her and begin to move out her things more carefully. Saku quickly takes care of her prayer stand before any more damage could be taken to it.

 

After she finished, Saku went outside to wait and watch as each piece of furniture was moved into a truck. She is sitting on her suitcase with her parent's picture cradled in her arms when the biggest moving man comes to see her. They have finished moving and were about to leave, but he stopped them. The others watched from a distance.

The man spoke to Saku first when she barely acknowledges his presence, "I do feel sorry for you..."

Saku huffs... no answer from her...

"It is hard, but... there is nothing we can help you with..."

Saku is silently crying; but, without letting her voice falter, she coldly replies to the man, "If there is nothing you can do for me... then get the hell away from me!! You don't need to take pity on me , so just go and stop causing me further pain!!" She hugs the picture frame tightly.

The man moves in front of her and sits on his knees as to be eye level with Saku, "I can however, offer you something... I thought about this when I found out we were taking things from a teenage girl who was having trouble supporting herself..."

Saku raises her eyes to meet the man's and whispers, "What could you possibly have?"

The man holds out a teddy bear... and then an envelope. He motions for Saku to take them.

Saku sniffles and hesitates, "I don't want to owe you..."

The man smiles, "Go ahead... and you should probably take the park gazibo as a place to stay..."

Saku takes the envelope and teddy bear. She stands up and nods to the man, "Thank you sir... for your consideration..." And with that, Saku heads in the direction of the park. The man waving after her.

 

At the park gazibo, Saku has set up a small place for herself to rest. She neatly set up her prayer stand with her parent's picture and lit an insense for them along with a candle. The only light in the dark night that she has is from the other candles that she lit aorund herself. She is now lying before her parent's picture, her tears falling freely... the moving man's teddy bear being hugged tightly against her chest, "Momma... papa... what should I do now? I lost everything!! I can't pay for your hopsital bills... or my recent one... I couldn't pay my rent... I can't pay for anything!! I lost my second job... my first job pays crap... and now I'm living in the park..."

As a light shower comes down, Saku gets up and paces around the area of the gazibo, "I have school tomorrow... but I should just skip... I need to settle some things..."

She pauses to look at the envelope that the moving man gave her, which lay unopened on the prayer stand. Saku walks over and picks it up. A surprised gasp escapes from her when she sees what is inside of the envelope: $200... with $100 of it split between a 50 two 10s four 5s and ten 1s...

She smiles and sighs, "He was so gracious..."

She sets the envelope down on the prayer stand and again, begins to pace around, "I need to sleep but I have to be careful too..."

When she becomes too tired to pace or think, Saku finally settles down to sleep for as long as she can...

 

Tsuyoi, who has no idea Saku is sleeping in a park gazibo, is sitting in his own home at his working desk. He is currently loking at a paper while rubbing his head... He seems confused and irritated. The paper is a college acceptance letter... a once in a lifetime opportunity that has been given to Tsuyoi... He sets the paper down onhis desk and his attention is brought to a picture frame that also sits on his desk... the picture frame holds a photo of Tsuyoi and Saku together with their tennis gear. He is not ready to go leaving her behind just yet, especially since he found out about the trouble that she caused for that guy at her school, Kim Ji-Hoon...

Tsuyoi is planning to meet Saku tomorrow to discuss the decision with her... but little does he know he is going to be greeted by an empty house...

Tsuyoi suddenly pulls out a drawer from his desk and takes out a box. Inside of the box is a cell phone, a necklace, and a $100 dollar bill just for Saku...

Author's Note

I promise to change the money from American dollers to Japanese yen when I can

Reviews

[Gretchen Clarke]

He's so generous, but it's unfortunate that he's too late. Poor Saku, being forced to live in a park...
Despite the sadness in this chapter, it's still amazingly well-written.
Keep up the amazing work!

[Japanese Cherry]

Don't worry, Tsuyoi is always there

[Gretchen Clarke]

Well at least she always has someone to go to. It's a little easier to deal with hardships when there's someone to go to.