Life and Soul Reunited

by CypherCA

Well everyone. Here’s chapter five. I didn’t expect it to be out this soon, but sometimes, you just got to stop what you’re doing an take a break from the real world. *shudder* Also, I noticed that for my first four chapters and the epilogue, I misspelled Ro’s name. I spelled it Rowan, not Rowen. From no one, it will be spelled correctly as Rowen. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: The Letter

<The second week at school and still no sign of Ro. It’s amazing how he seems to miss every picture day. Maybe I should write him a letter. That never fails. I can even sneak it through the school mail to hurry its delivery.> Richard continued to plot how he would get a hold of his brother. In fourth period study hall, he wrote a letter, addressed the envelope, and sealed it. During sixth period office assistance, he snuck the letter in the back-to-school letters.

“Mail call!” Ryo yelled so that the neighbor, three miles away, could hear him. He then proceeded to distribute the envelopes. “Kento, two letters from your sisters. Cye, a letter from Mom. Sage, about half a dozen letters from fans. And Rowen, a letter from....” Ryo trailed off. The return address was the same as the sending address. “...from here apparently. Why are you sending letters to yourself?”

“I’m not. But my........pen-pal. from the US sometimes does that to make sure it arrives here. It always seems to work.” Rowen took the envelope to the library where he could read it in peace. <Maybe this will explain his absences at school.> He began reading it.

Ro-

Long time no write (sorry, bad pun). I’m going to cut to the chase.
I’ve gone to Han a High for over a week now and I haven’t seen hide nor
hair of you. I’ve given up finding you at school, so I’m going to ask you
to meet me for brunch this Saturday at Max’s Opera Cafe in town. Around
eleven. I’ll be there ahead of you, so you can just ask to be shown where
the table is. Don’t worry about the bill-it’s on me. Hope to see you there.
-Rich

<I’ll have to make up a good excuse to the guys, but I should be able to make it. Now, if Saturday would just hurry up and get here.>

Rowen threw the irritating alarm clock across the room. <Who set that thing on a Saturday?!> He suddenly woke up fully as he remembered why he had set the alarm. He got up and gingerly put the alarm back on the side table and headed for the shower. <I have a little time to think up a reasonable lie to the guys.>

Five people and one tiger looked up as they heard the shower turn on.

“Rowen’s up early,” Mia commented. “It’s still four hours before noon.”

“Ever since he got that letter from his pen-pal. he couldn’t wait for today to come,” Sage stated. They continued eating breakfast, think over what Sage had said. The shower turned off and everyone looked up again as they heard the pitter-patter of not-so-little feet run from the bedroom to the bathroom and vise-versa.

“Maybe his pen-pal’s visiting and he wants to meet him in person,” Cye thought out loud, as they hear Rowen calmly descend the stairs.

Rowen was worried. He hadn’t been able to think up a decent fib to tell his friends. As he descended the stairs, he heard Cye’s voice float through the kitchen door.

“Maybe his pen-pal’s visiting and he wants to meet him in person.”

<Thanks Cye. That’s a great cover story.> As Rowen entered the kitchen, all gazes fell upon him. He pretended not to notice as he got a drink of water.

“Morning Ro,” Sage offered unsure of how to ask what was going on. Fortunately, Cye saved him the trouble.

“Have any plans today?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just wondering why you’re up so early on a Saturday. May I ask what they are?”

“Sure.” Rowen stood there starring at them. Finally Ryo cracked.

“Well?!!”

“Well what,” Rowen answered innocently.

“What are your plans for today?!” <Why is Ro being so obnoxious?>

“I just have and engagement that I made during the week for today.”

“With whom?” Kento asked.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but my pen-pal is visiting this weekend and I want to show him around town.” <Please buy this.>

“Oh,” Kento said, resuming to stuff his face.

“Do you want any of us to come with you?” Cye inquired.

“NO! I mean no, thank you. He’s kind of shy, and if I’m going to meet him on time, I need to go now.” Rowen headed for the exit.

“Hold it!” Ryo ordered.

<Don’t tell me he saw through the facade.>

“When will you be back?”

<Whew.> “Nine or ten tonight. May I go now?”

“See you tonight.” Rowen hastily exited the house and headed for the city.

Well, I’m through with Chapter 5. Now, to conquer that Chemistry paper! Before I go, I would like to thank Tyria Darklighter, BlizzardBlaze, Tenkusuiko, and the rest of the RWML for commenting on my fic. Thank you and I hope you like the rest of the story when it is developed.