Life is only simple when you’re dead.
Current IC time is: Sat Aug 17 15:15:49 2002
Beach
The beach of Kamakura is the largest landmark and attraction of this otherwise unremarkable suburban town, but one is really more than enough - it stretches for almost the entire horison, a beautiful area of perfect yellow sand and shallow water, naturally blue and perfectly clean despite the proximity to the industrialised Tokyo Bay. A tall concrete wall separates the city, raised like on a plateu, from the beach area, doubtlessly a means to protect it from the sea in times of it’s rage.
Beachside industry thrives in Kamakura, and there’s more than a dozen stands which sell everything one would want on a beach, from shaved ice to lifesavers.
It’s scalding hot. ‘bright and sunny’ is now a thing of the past, and people abandon all clothing their station allows them and gravitate towards shadows and water.
Rika
This girl fits the textbook definition of ‘cute redhead’, and while she’s unmistakably asian, her relatively pale skin and dark green eyes, coupled with flaming red hair cut in a pageboy style make it easy to forget about it, especially since there’s no sign of hair dye. She does seem to wear some makeup on her face, still posessed of soft, childlike features, but it’s hard to trace just what did she do with it - there isn’t much. Overally, she resembles a fox - lithe and slim, and generally small, since she’s rather short.
She is wearing very little, which is hardly surprising in this weather, a simple blood-red two-piece swimsuit, rather skimpy and frivolous but still somehow managing to mantain the air of decency - mostly through the virtue of being a simplistic tasteful design, though it certainly can’t conceal her impressive figure.
Eileen
Modesty was always a big issue with the shy young exchange student, so it’s unsurprising for Eileen to have chosen to wear the most modest thing she could find. Her young, athletic, curvy figure can’t be hidden by any swimsuit though, so her shy demeanor is even more pronounced than usual. The English-featured girl is clad in an unassuming one piece forest green swimsuit with a white blouse tied around her waist. Her brown hair is braided into a rope-like ponytail which drags along the ground a little, while her bangs falls cutely over her face, completely obscuring one of her dark green eyes. Unlike almost everyon else at the beach, Eileen’s complexion is very fair, and unlike many girls, she doesn’t seem to wear much makeup if at all.
Eileen has her towel wrapped around her like a shawl as they make their way from the changing rooms. Sentaku is with her as always, perched upon her shoulder, dressed in a store-bought swimsuit Eileen must have decided was pretty enough to not need her to make it from scratch. “….haaa…there are so many people here, rika…..” Even quieter than normal her voice is barely audible. She’s been blushing since she put on the swimsuit, and it doesn’t look like she’s gonna stop either.
Rika looks rather silly in a swimsuit with a school bookbag in her hand, but either she doesn’t notice this or deliberately ignores. “Actually, a little less than average for the season.” she comments, turning around and snapping off a picture of Eileen hiding in the towel, “Do you plan to soak this towel too?” she asks curiously.
Eileen blushes a bit mor, just in time for the picture. “…a-ano…iie. i-i’ll just run into the water quickly…i can’t believe you talked me into this…” Well, Rika’s not the only one carrying stuff. Eileen has a smaller duffle bag with her, which likely contains a much more modest change of clothes and another towel. “…a-ano…can we find a spot that’s…you know, kind of away from everyone else…?” She tries to hide her silliness by continuing, “…it’s better to be alone with you, ne?” She giggles nervously.
Rika giggles. “Silly, you’ll have to get out of water eventually…” she says. “…and your swimsuit will be all wet and clingy then…” she adds as an afterthought. Putting her hand above the eyes she scans the horison, looking for a spot with lesser population. “I don’t think we can expect a place further than three or four meters from the nearest person around here.” she says. “Not until the sunset at least.”
Eileen nods softly, and takes a deep breath. “…a-ano, ok, that will be alright I guess.” She attempts to walk straighter now, trying to gather her dignity with the promise of at least some refuge. She can’t help but glance around though, as if to make sure nobody’s stealing a glance at her suit. Of course no one is, there’s the lovely Rika to look at, and many other Japanese beauties in skimpy outfits frollicking on the beach.
Rika leads the way to a cleaner spot of sand and unceremoniously tosses her towel upon it in a gesture of claiming the territory as her own. Dropping her bag nearby, she catches and intercepts the glance of one of the neighbours, who indeed happens to stare at Eileen… or at the towel, at least. It’s pretty unusual for someone to walk around with a towel on here, so it takes Rika several moments to draw the glance off with her own visage. Satisfied with the result she looks back at her friend, “Drop that towel, you look silly.” she grins.
Eileen blushes a bit more, but finally takes another breath then sits down on the towel Rika’s tossed down. She removes the towel around her slowly, and very unintentionally the motion comes off almost as a strip tease. Once the towel’s off, she straightens out the blanket on the sand, and reaches into her bag, to produce some sunscreen. “…ano, would you like some?”
Rika chuckles. “Actually, no. I’m planning to swim first!” she responds, sitting onto the sand and fishing in her bag for a clear plastic box - apparently, a device to keep a digital camera dry in water, no less. No rest for the wicked! Fiddling with it, she comments, “The water’s best right before sunset, actually. It’s still warm from the day, and there’s a little less people…” So that’s why they got to the beach so late in the day, huh.
Eileen does look appreciative that there would be less people in the water when they do go into the ocean. “…ano, it is waterproof. i thought about that.” She smiles a little, and starts to apply the lotion on herself, making sure to dab some on her face too. “…haa, you’re going to bring your camera into the water too?” She giggles a bit. “I should have expected that.”
Rika grins, snapping the case up and responds, “If I could replace my eye with one that had a camera in it, I would do so in a blink of it.” she says seriously. “That won’t be feasible for another ten years or so, though.” she adds.
Eileen giggles. “…ano, rika, that’s pretty scary…” She finishes lathering the lotion on herself, and glances around again, before setting her angel inside her duffle bag, along with the lotion. “…haa, i hope oujirou-san isn’t at the beach today…” She glances around one more time, then says, “…i’m ready.” And she gets to her feet, ready to go to the water.
Rika hangs the camera onto her neck and asks, “Why?” she asks casually, treading towards the edge of the ocean, “What would happen if he were there?”
Eileen sighs a little. “…i think he likes me…he even looked disappointed when i told him i wouldn’t be interested in a date…and i even had to tell him already that i had someone. …he’s a nice guy, though, and he stood up for us at the park…i want to have him as a friend…” She follows along in Rika’s footsteps, and shivers a little at the water.
Rika smirks and abruptly falls into the water, quite deliberately producing a large splash, drenching Eileen. “You think that’s possible?” she says, giggling. snip goes the camera. “What if he wouldn’t want to have you as a friend?” she asks.
Eileen gahs and glubs. “…haaa!” She splutters for a few moments, then rubs the water out of her eyes. “….i’m hoping he’s ok with just friends! he’s such a good person…i don’t want to lose him as a friend….” She shakes her head trying to loose some of the water in her hair. “…what do you think i should do?”
Rika giggles, bobbing up and down in the water and slowly drifting further from the shore. “What if he isn’t okay with it, though? Because if he is okay with it then you don’t have anything to worry about it. What do you really want?”
Eileen nodsnods. “…i think he’s ok with it, but i don’t know…” She bobs in the water a bit, apparently forgetting for the moment her ‘indecent’ outfit. “…ano, what i really want?… i just want to be happy.” She giggles, then suddenly splashes her friend. “…you know what i want, silly.”
Rika splashes right back, not to be outdone. “Then why do you worry if you have already made your choice?” she smirks.
Eileen glubs once again. Not very good at this is she? Oh wait, that’s her ponytail dragging her into the water. “…because i don’t like hurting people’s feelings…” she smiles a little, only her chin above the water. Then she brings up both arms causing a huge splash! She giggles.
Rika giggles, twirling her head in the air and sending the short red hair flying, tossing water droplets around. “Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, and there’s that…” she smiles, “…you’re dwelling on it too much.” Somewhere below, the camera takes yet another picture, but there’s no way the beep can be heard above the water. “Whether he is hurt or not depends on what he wants, doesn’t it?”
Eileen nods softly, realizing that comment makes a lot of sense. “…it does…but i don’t want to aggravate the decision…you know?” She giggles and shields her face with her arms as the rain of droplets shower over her. Huh, that’s the same way Sentaku would block an incoming strike.
Rika responds, “But there’s no way you could know which way you might aggravate the decision anyway.” and suddenly disappears under the water. Reemerging quickly behind Eileen’s back, she whispers into her ear, “I don’t think even asking will help.”
Eileen leans her head closer to the whispering lips, and says to the air in front of her, “…i know…but still…i should try, ne?” She slips her hands into the water again, and when they can next be felt, they’re embracing Rika’s waist in a backwards hug.
The sky darkens as the sun disappears behind the buildings. The burning hues of the disappearing daylight reflect from windows.
Rika whispers, smiling, “Just… don’t expect much.” catching the palms of her friend’s hands in hers. “…did you show him the picture, by the way?” The picture of Yanagiba. A curious way to invalidate painful memories, that’s what it is.
Eileen shakes her head softly. “…iie, i-i couldn’t bring myself to, and it didn’t seem necessary. …i’ll use it if i have to, but i don’t want to lie to anyone if i can help it…ne?” And she just leans back a bit against her friend, much heavier due to all the water that’s been absorbed into her hair. How Eileen manages to keep her head straight is a mystery.
Rika fishes in the water for the end of the ponytail. “What do you expect to do if he agrees to be just friends only because he expects to win you over eventually?” she asks curiously.
Eileen sighs a bit. “…if he does that…i don’t know..” the ‘i don’t know’ is delivered petulantly, in the ‘i don’t know what to do, and i don’t want to have to deal with it’ tradition. “…i suppose that might be ok…because he’d never win me over, and so he’d just end up my friend…ne?”
Rika finally reaches the tip of the wet ponytail and tickles Eileen’s ear with the brushy end, giggling, “That depends.”
Eileen giggles a bit, despite the seriousness of the topic. She does manage a “…depends?” though.
Rika shrugs. “You never know. Love gets people to do amazing things. And for some, telling them ‘let’s just be friends’ means leading them on.”
Eileen whines a bit as she says, “…but i just want to be friends…i don’t want to lead him on…” She sulks a bit in her friend’s arms. “…why can’t it be easy…?”
Rika giggles, “Who ever told you it would be easy?”
Eileen sighs. “…no one…i just want it to be…life shouldn’t be so complex…i should be able to tell the truth, and have people believe me…”
Rika shakes her head firmly behind Eileen’s back, “Life is only simple when you’re dead. Then it just isn’t. That’s the only moment when life really is simple. All the other time, we’re just deluding ourselves if we think it is.”
Eileen sighs again. “…demo…but why can’t it be simple? it’s hard to stay happy when things get so complicated!”
Rika remarks seriously, “Why don’t you want to be happy because it’s complex? Life being complex means that you’re alive.”
Eileen shakes her head. “…it’s just easier to be happy when things are simple…don’t you ever feel that way?”
Rika shrugs, “When things are simple, there is only one best solution. When there is only one best solution, I feel that I am being controlled… and I hate that more than anything.”
Eileen thinks about that for a few moments, letting the water bob them both up and down. “…i guess you’re right…i never looked at the world like a series of problems that need to be solved though…” She giggles a bit. “…to me it’s always been smelling the roses along the way, and the feel of the wind in your hair.”
Rika smiles and whispers, “When I hear the wind, I can’t help but think who’s making it go.”
The last trace of sunlight fades from the sky, which is now brightly lit by the city’s night illumination.
Eileen nods softly, “…hai, sometimes i wonder about that too…” and then she’s silent, and just snuggling into her friend. …
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