Harumi remembers the first time the meijin brings his son to the go salon. He is 3 and she remembers thinking that he is pretty like a little china dolls as he shyly clings to his father’s hand. Then he smiles at her and she falls in love.
Akira keeps coming. Almost every day, year after year he hands in his perfect, gleaming bag and sits very still, playing with people many times his own age and winning. It is something untouchable about him. He smiles and bows and speaks politely and as Harumi watches him he seems out of this would, like reality cannot touch him. She watches him grow up but there is a stillness about him that she has never seen in any other child.
“Don’t you want to go out and play with other children?” she asks him once and he smiles at her politely. “I want to play go,” he says.
His mother buys him a new bag every year, but in truth that isn’t necessary. His clothes are perfectly ironed; his bag is perfectly shiny and always looks new. Akira does not crinkle or yell or get messy. Sometimes she wants to ruffle his hair or pull his sweater askew but somehow she doesn’t think that would matter. Akira will not ruffle or get messed up. He is an untouchable child.
He rarely speaks to children his own age and when he does he forgets them immediately. He does not understand their world and they do not understand his. He always looks very small and very lonely as he sits in front of his go board. Harumi brings him juice. He never spills it.
The first time she sees him lose his composure she stares at the bleached haired kid that apparently caused all these emotions and tries to understand.
Akira keeps coming to the salon, but suddenly he is not perfectly put together. He is caught up in the mystery that is Shindou Hikaru and suddenly his cheeks are getting color.
When Touya Akira is 15 he hands in his bag and it is all scratched up. It looks terrible. Harumi looks at it in horror. In all the years Akira has come to the go salon his bag has never had as much as a speck of imperfection.
“What happened to your bag?!” she asks.
“Shindou threw it in a bush!” Akira says, like he cannot believe this has actually happened. “He just, we were talking about his last game and he threw it in a bush .”
Harumi has seen enough of Akira and Shindou together to know that “talking” undoubtedly means “arguing” and she can imagine a wide range of things Akira could have said that would prompt Shindou to start throwing his things in bushes.
She looks at Akira. His cheeks are flushed; his eyes are wide in outrage. There is, she notice, mud on his pants. He does not look like a china doll. He looks like an angry 15 year old boy who cannot believe that his friend just vandalized his property.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Touya Akira
Date: 2013-04-18 03:45 am (UTC)Harumi remembers the first time the meijin brings his son to the go salon. He is 3 and she remembers thinking that he is pretty like a little china dolls as he shyly clings to his father’s hand. Then he smiles at her and she falls in love.
Akira keeps coming. Almost every day, year after year he hands in his perfect, gleaming bag and sits very still, playing with people many times his own age and winning. It is something untouchable about him. He smiles and bows and speaks politely and as Harumi watches him he seems out of this would, like reality cannot touch him. She watches him grow up but there is a stillness about him that she has never seen in any other child.
“Don’t you want to go out and play with other children?” she asks him once and he smiles at her politely.
“I want to play go,” he says.
His mother buys him a new bag every year, but in truth that isn’t necessary. His clothes are perfectly ironed; his bag is perfectly shiny and always looks new. Akira does not crinkle or yell or get messy. Sometimes she wants to ruffle his hair or pull his sweater askew but somehow she doesn’t think that would matter. Akira will not ruffle or get messed up. He is an untouchable child.
He rarely speaks to children his own age and when he does he forgets them immediately. He does not understand their world and they do not understand his. He always looks very small and very lonely as he sits in front of his go board. Harumi brings him juice. He never spills it.
The first time she sees him lose his composure she stares at the bleached haired kid that apparently caused all these emotions and tries to understand.
Akira keeps coming to the salon, but suddenly he is not perfectly put together. He is caught up in the mystery that is Shindou Hikaru and suddenly his cheeks are getting color.
When Touya Akira is 15 he hands in his bag and it is all scratched up. It looks terrible. Harumi looks at it in horror. In all the years Akira has come to the go salon his bag has never had as much as a speck of imperfection.
“What happened to your bag?!” she asks.
“Shindou threw it in a bush!” Akira says, like he cannot believe this has actually happened. “He just, we were talking about his last game and he threw it in a bush .”
Harumi has seen enough of Akira and Shindou together to know that “talking” undoubtedly means “arguing” and she can imagine a wide range of things Akira could have said that would prompt Shindou to start throwing his things in bushes.
She looks at Akira. His cheeks are flushed; his eyes are wide in outrage. There is, she notice, mud on his pants. He does not look like a china doll. He looks like an angry 15 year old boy who cannot believe that his friend just vandalized his property.
Harumi cannot stop smiling the entire day.