His Twin

Just one look was all that it took for me to realize that something has changed in me on that one ordinary day... ― Florence Joyce

xxxxxx

[Rinako]

I regained consciousness around late afternoon. I saw myself in an unfamiliar room--that eventually, I realized that it was the clinic near the medical office of the university. I couldn't believe that this would welcome me on my first day here. Talk about being unlucky. I couldn't help feeling angry when I recalled the incident earlier. I never even noticed that my face was making such weird and angry expressions just thinking about it. If I saw that guy again, I would give his face a serious injury. I don't care if he was handsome! I won't give a damn care about it!

Great. I couldn't even hide my fury just thinking about that jerk.

The next day, it wasn't a wonder that I still feel angry. Especially when I hadn't even seen that guy who gave me this head injury. But for now, I needed to go to school and copy some of the notes from the classes I never got to attend yesterday. When I entered the room, I saw Mayu approaching me with a worried look on her face.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay? Does it still hurt somewhere? Just say it so that I can accompany you to go home if you can't handle it," Mayu said while trying not to freak out which only made me smile.

I wanted to laugh because of that but I stopped myself and tried my best not to show that to Mayu. At least, her worries helped me dissipate my irritation. "I'm fine, so don't worry about me. Besides, since when did I complain too much just because I fell down the stairs?"

Mayu just looked at me with wide eyes. "Listen here, Fukuizumi Rinako-san! You're really out of your mind, aren't you? If you only knew how I panicked yesterday while Setsuji-kun was carrying you to go to the clinic while you were unconscious. My goodness! I almost had a heart attack, you know that?"

I just laughed and decided not to pay attention to the suddenly fast beating of my heart when I heard the name she mentioned. "You're still young to have a heart attack, Mayu. And since when did you panic just because I lost consciousness, huh?"

"Stop being philosophical on me if you don't want me to add another injury to your head."

I chose to keep quiet after that. Mayu remained with me as she sat on the seat just beside me. She handed me some of her notebooks where the notes were written from the subjects I didn't get to attend yesterday because of the accident. I was supposed to start writing down those notes in my notebook when I saw someone standing in front of me and coughed just to get my attention. When I raised my head and looked at that person, I could only frown for some reason.

"Who are you?" I started. Wait... I knew I've seen this guy from somewhere. But that wasn't possible. We just met today. Thought I had to admit, he does resemble someone. At least at the point, I was so sure.

"Before you get confused because you could see that he resembles someone, let me make a proper introduction, okay?" Mayu interjected, breaking that weird silence between us. "This is Mitsuta Seiho, and he's Setsuji-kun's fraternal twin brother."

I eyed my cousin when I heard that and frowned even more. "Twin brother?" Mayu nodded. Then I looked at the guy in front of me. "You mean, it was your twin brother who collided with me and pinned me to the ground yesterday?"

Seiho chuckled first before nodding. "Yeah. We're sorry about that. He was being chased, that's why he was running fast. And he got somewhat distracted, that's why he lost his balance and collided with you."

So he was the twin brother. That explained the weird feeling and the resemblance. "Wait, why are you the one saying that to me? Isn't it suppose to be your brother who should do that? Where's your jerk of a twin brother, anyway?"

Seiho was still smiling even when he shook his head. "Setsuji's over there talking with some of our classmates." And then he gazed towards the direction where the person I was looking for was standing.

I just followed the direction where Seiho's gaze landed. I could see Setsuji laughing with the other students. It was acting as if nothing bad had happened to him yesterday. But looking at the guy smiling like that, I knew he was the guy I was looking for. There was the familiar beating of my heart. It was what proved to me that that guy was the one who pinned me down yesterday. But I chose not to pay attention to that particular issue for now. I chose to give more thought and attention to the anger that was starting to build up within me because he looked like he doesn't even give a damn care about what happened yesterday. Seiho was right; I could easily see the proof of the fact that he and that Setsuji guy were twins. Fraternal twins, I should add. Maybe if these two were born identical, it would be truly hard for me to differentiate who was who.

'No, you wouldn't. It will be easy for you to determine who is Setsuji and who is Seiho if indeed those two were born identical,' that tiny thought in my mind suddenly said.

What exactly do you mean by that, mind telling me?

'Your heartbeat. When it beats crazy, then you'll easily know it's Setsuji. Right?'

Heartbeat? What a joke!

I just shrugged that thought off of my mind and sighed before facing Seiho. "I'm sorry for acting the way I did a while back. It's just that I was pissed off with your twin brother since yesterday." You could also add the fact that I've been thinking of him since yesterday and I've been trying to figure out the reason why until now.

"It's okay. I understand." Seiho stretched out his one hand in front of me. "I know Mayu told you my name a while back but I still want to properly introduce myself. My name's Mitsuta Seiho. You can just call me Seiho."

"Fukuizumi Rinako. Just call me Rinako." After that, I held his hand-laid in front of me. Oh, well. At least I made a friend with someone who turned out to be the twin of the guy that gave me a head injury on my first day of class. And with the thought of that heck of a guy who completely ruined my day and her mood, I stood up from my seat and approached Brent.

"I don't think this will turn out good," I still heard Mayu saying. But I chose to ignore it.