“She is the youngest daughter. She has an elder sister, but is a handicap. If you marry her, we can connect with her father's business and one day, her father’s empire will become yours. So, you better stop seeing those pretty models.”
Maki Shinichi looked at the photo. A pretty Japanese woman wearing kimono, but Maki didn't show any interest in her. He closed the white coloured file, which had shiny purple words printed across the cover ‘MATSUMI AKIKO’ and threw it on dinning table. “It's fine with me. Just fix a date with her.”
“I knew you won't disappoint me, Shinichi. Too bad your father is already dead, or else I'm sure he will be very happy to hear this.” His mother took out her handkerchief and wiped her tears.
“Okaa-san,” Maki leaned over the table and held his mother's hand. His father had died from a heart attack 3 years ago. Since then, Maki took over his father’s business and expanded it. He's already 30 and his mother wanted him to settle down so that she could carry her grandchildren.
His mother smiled and patted his hand. “I'm okay. You better go for your work.” Maki nodded and rose. He walked to his mother’s left side and kissed her on her cheek.
When he was outside the house, his chauffeur opened the back door of his navy coloured Mercedes Benz for him. “I will drive today.” His chauffeur nodded his head and closed the door. Maki walked around the car and slid into the driver seat. He put on his sunglasses and accelerated the car down the driveway to the streets.
Actually he didn't like the matchmaking made by his mother, but he didn’t dare to break her heart. Maki lowered down the car window and let the wind blew on his face. He's getting tired of his stressful working life. The only time when he could relax was playing basketball or watching NBA matches. Maybe he should went back to his high school and watched how they’re going after work.
Suddenly, a young shorthaired lady dashed to middle of the road, trying to stop his car. “What the . . .” He immediately stepped the brake and was lucky that he didn’t run down the lady. “Shit! What's that woman thinking about?!” He opened the door and got out of his car. He got an important meeting to attend and he didn't want to be late.
When he walked to the woman, he noticed that there was a little boy in her arms whose forehead was bleeding constantly. Without saying any word, he immediately took the little boy from her arms. The lady quickly ran before him and opened his back car door. Maki laid the little boy carefully on the back seat. He turned around and saw the young lady was standing beside him, looking very surprised at him. Somehow, she looked familiar to him, but he didn’t care and said. “Get in the car.” The woman recovered from her shock and nodded her head.
Maki got behind the steering wheel and drove the car to the nearest hospital. During the drive, he looked at the rear mirror of their images and asked. “Is he alright?” But the young woman didn’t reply or looked up at him. She continued hugging the little boy as if he was her precious treasure. Only then, Maki knew that she was deaf.
After the nurses took the little boy into the emergency room, the young woman took out a note pad and a pen from her Winnie the Pooh pinafore pocket and began to write something on it. She's a mute too. Maki thought. She tore the paper and passed it to him. He looked at it and read. “Sumimasen. I tried to stop the cars that were passing by the school, but they wouldn’t. So I suddenly ran to the front of your car, hoping you would stop.”
Maki looked back at her smiling face and again, she wrote on the notepad and showed him. “Arigatou.” Then she clapped her both hands together in front of her face and made a little bow to him. Maki smiled and said. “You don’t have to thank me. Oh, do you know lips-reading?” The young woman smiled back to him and nodded.
“Then are you the little boy's mother?” Maki asked. The lady was shocked and immediately shook her head. While she wrote on the notepad again, Maki didn’t know why he let out a sign of relief when he heard that.
When she finished writing, Maki looked at the notepad. “Can you please call this number to Kazuya’s parents?” Assuming Kazumi was the name of the little boy, Maki nodded his head and did what she said. He took out his NOKIA 8850 mobile phone from his black business coat pocket and dialed the numbers she had given to him. Next, he made another call to his secretary, telling her that he would be late and told his staff to start the meeting without him.
When Kazuya’s parents arrived, she talked to them by using hand-language. Maki suddenly wondered was she naturally born as a handicap or by an illness. “Thank you, sensei and Mr. Maki.” After the bow, Kazuya’s parents walked into the patient room and looked after their son.
“Want a lift?” Maki asked and she nodded. When they got into the car, she wrote the address to him. It was a school for mute and deaf where he had met her just outside on the road. When they arrived there, Maki understood that she was one of the teachers of that school.
“Wait!” Maki suddenly grabbed hold of her left wrist when she tried to get off from his car. Realising his rude behaviour, he redrew his hand quickly. He took out his wallet and gave her his name card. “I still haven’t know your name yet.” She gave him a smile and took out her notepad again. Maki read out softly while he watching her wrote her name. “Matsumi Suzume.” He looked back at her and smiled. “It's a beautiful name.” Like you.
Maki looked at the school before back to her and said. “Will we able to see each other again?” Suzume was shocked. When he saw her expression, he laughed. “I'm sorry. I don’t know what happened to me today. I wasn’t like this before.” Not until I met you. Maki extended his hand to her. “Friends?” Suzume looked at it before she gave him a smile and clasped his hand. Her hand was soft and he could feel the smooth texture of her fingers. It fitted perfectly into his big strong hand, or was he just imagining?
She drew back her hand so quickly that Maki blinked. She bowed her head slightly to avoid his eyes. “I’m sorry,” Maki shoved a hand through his hair. “I will come and visit Kazuya tomorrow. Bye.” After Suzume got off from his car, she stood there and watched his car turned into another street before she walked into the school.
The school ended. Suzume took off the Winnie the Pooh pinafore and hung it on the hook with the others famous cartoon character pinafore behind the office door. She went to her table and started packing her bag.
She still couldn't believe that she would meet Maki Shinichi again. She hasn't seen him in person for 13 years. She only could read on the articles about him in the newspapers or magazines, for being named the top 10 most successful business man in Japan or about how he changed his girlfriends like the clothes in his wardrobe.
Her female colleagues were excited and asked a lot of questions to her when one of them saw her coming out of a big expensive car outside the school. Luckily, her colleagues didn't see who was in the car with her, so she lied to them that it was one of her friends whom she met at the hospital.
When her colleges asked if she wants to leave with them in the staff room, she shook her head. She needs to be alone right now. She took the public bus and managed to find a seat beside the window. She would always lost in her own dreams or thoughts during the ride while sitting beside it. And this time, Maki Shinichi was the topic again.
She was still a little kid when she first saw him playing basketball in a park near his house. There was also a girl who was about her age, playing with him. No, at that time he was teaching her. While she was secretly watching them, she felt like she was playing together with them. She had no friends at that time as no one would wants to play with a deaf or mute. Since then, she had been secretly watching them by hiding behind the bushes.
3 years had passed away and the girl who had been his student didn't come together with him again. Suzume didn't know what had happened to the girl but when every time she saw Maki playing alone, she wanted to join him even though she knew very little about basketball.
Suzume broke her thoughts when she noticed that she had arrived her stop. She got off the bus and walked up the small slope up to her house. She stopped outside the Matsumi mansion and the servants opened the door for her. As usual, her stepsister, Akiko and her stepmother were wearing the latest fashion branded clothes while she just wore a simple soft and comfortable cotton white dress. They were sitting in the dinning room together with her father, waiting for the servants to bring their dinner out from the kitchen.
She walked into the dinning room and gave a kiss on her father's cheek. Her stepmother and stepsister didn't like her very much as her father adored her more than her stepsister. “Suzume, sit down. I got something to tell you.” She obeyed and sat down beside his father. His father took a drink of his wine before he spoke. “Akiko is going to matchmaking with the President of the Maki Electronic Components. Mrs. Maki just called and fixed a date with us to meet.”
No~! Not him~! Suzume tried to scream, but she couldn't let her family see her emotions. So she just nodded her head.
“Aren’t you going to congratulate me, dear sister? I'm going to marry the richest and the most handsome guy I have ever seen.” Akiko seated at the other side of the table with her mother, looked at her with her victory eyes and smile. Although she was only younger than her 3 years, she was always the beautiful one.
“Congratulations then. Dad, I wouldn’t have my dinner.” She signed to her father.
“Are you sick? Shall I call for a doctor?” Her father talked and signed at the same time. When her parents noticed she was a deaf and mute child, they took the sign language with her. But now, in her family, only her father and stepbrother were able to communicate with her with hand-lanuage.
“I'm alright. I'm just tired, that's all.” She hugged her father before she walked out of the dinning room.
“What did she say, Father?” Akiko immediately asked her father when Suzume ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Her father ignored her and continued watching his eldest daughter. She rarely showed her feelings, the hug she just gave him must be something sad happened to her.
Once Suzume closed her bedroom door, she threw her bag on the floor and laid her bed on her stomach before she turned her face into her pillow and cried. She couldn't believe that in less than a few hours' time, her dreams collapsed again. She thought she might be able to be together with Maki when she saw him today. But now, her father had just told her that he's going to marry her spoiled and selfish stepsister!
Suzume turned her head towards the drawer beside her bed. She sat up and wiped away her tears. She switched on the table lamp and opened the first drawer and took out a photo frame. It was a picture of Maki during his third year of high school life in the Inter-High tournament with Ryonan High School. It was also the last time she had seen him in 13 years ago.
She was 12 years old at that time, but she still remembered clearly the match in her heart. She remembered that she cried when Kainan won the match. She was so scared that if they lose, Maki might blame on himself for not being able to continue the Number 1 name in Kanagawa. Suzume kept cheering for him in her heart when he was having the hard time as he met the ace player of Ryonan who was almost at the same basketball level with him.
But when she thought he’s going to marry Akiko, she hugged the photo in her arms so close as she could. Why? Why I didn’t tell him who I am at the first place? When she was 10, she took up her courage to walk into the court where he was practising his basketball. When Maki sensed someone was out there, he turned around and saw her. This was the time when she noticed the little mole right beside his mouth. She was so nervous that she didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, he smiled and tipped his head at the net. “Do you want to play with me?” However, she ran out the court quickly after he finished his words. Since then, she had been secretly watching his training at his high school, not behind the bushes anymore. Until now, she still blamed on her stupidity.
Suzume quickly got her bag from the floor and searched. She found what she wanted and used her fingertips to feel his name on his name card. MAKI SHINICHI After that, she put it into her wallet and walked into her bathroom to wash her face. When she done, she looked up at the mirror, her face was filled with droplets of water and her eyes were so swollen~! Maki . . .Ooh . . .What am I going to do . . . She sat on the floor, pulled her kneels to her chest and sobbed.
“Onee-chan?” Matsumi Ryuji opened the door and saw the only light was coming out from her bathroom. He stopped at the doorway and saw the saddest thing he had ever seen. His lovely sister was crying at one corner like a lost child who got nobody cares for her.
Suzume looked up and saw her brother. Her mouth formed the words 'Ryu...ji...' and he immediately walked up to her and hugged. Suzume continued crying while her 18 year-old brother kept smoothing her hair to let her know he was there for her.
While Maki was driving back home at that night, Suzume's smiling face kept appearing in his mind. Somehow, there's something special about her that Maki couldn't get his mind off her. What worst was that during the meeting, he needed to ask his staff to repeat their questions as his mind was with Suzume. This was the first time he behaved towards a woman. No one had made him behave like this before, except her.
Was it because her sudden dash in front of his car that he admired, or was her two big eyes telling him to save the child in her arms? He smiled when he remembered she was wearing the Winnie the Pooh pinafore when he met her. It looked adorable on her that Maki wondered what was it like to hold her in his arms.
When the main gates of Maki mansion opened to let Maki's car in, he took out his mobile phone, dialed to the florist store and ordered a dozen of red roses.