Thanks for reading, and again, comments are appreciated.
_______________________
Walking by Linnsa's room, Genzo could make out the sounds of her quietly crying into a pillow. "Linnsa-sama," he knocked. "Are you alright?"
The crying stopped, followed by a few attempts to calm her breathing. "How did you know I was crying?" she asked sheepishly through the door.
"Our senses are enhanced by the infection," he reminded her.
"Oh yeah...I forgot." She sniffed a few times but said nothing else.
"Do you wish to talk?" He strained to hear her response as she'd become very quiet. Finally after a long silence, she spoke up.
"No, but thank you."
Her voice sounded so small. "If you change your mind, I will be outside."
"Thanks, Genzo. I appreciate it."
Walking into the living room, he pulled out his graphic tablet and began to do some sketches. He was engrossed in a particularly good drawing when he heard the haunting strains of a violin fill the apartment. It was melancholy, but filled with passion. He didn't realize until a minute had passed that he had been holding his breath as he was listening. It went on for about fifteen minutes before it finally stopped. Knocking on her door again, he tentatively called, "Linnsa-sama?"
She opened the door, violin in hand. "Sorry, Genzo, was it too loud?"
"No, it was...beautiful." He looked down at the tiny girl in wonder, "Where did you learn to play like that?"
She smiled at his compliment. "I've been taking lessons since I was five. I find playing the violin is very soothing when I'm stressed out or upset."
"You have a great talent," he said with admiration.
Gently laying her instrument back in its case, she smiled again. "Thank you. That's very kind."
There was something very fragile and delicate about her that invoked his protective side. "When were you to be married?"
She looked down at her left hand where the engagement ring still was. "In a few months."
"I am sorry if I am being rude by asking," he interrupted himself with a frown. "It was not my place to ask. Please forgive me"
Sitting on her bed, she looked at the ring for a moment and then slid it off her finger. Placing it in one of the compartments in her violin case, she shook her head. "No, it's not rude."
"May I come in?" He looked at her hesitantly.
Putting her hand to her forehead, she gave an embarrassed laugh. "Oh, now who's being rude? Of course you can come in. There's no reason you should be standing in the doorway." As there was only a bed in the room, Genzo sat in front of her on the floor, crossing his legs under him. She gave him another faint smile. "You sit like a samurai would."
"I am not samurai, I am -- "
"[Shinobi]. I know. Unnie told me."
Genzo looked at her curiously. "Why do you call her that?"
She looked puzzled. "Call her what?"
"By her formal title. You do not use her name?"
She thought about his question for a moment. "Well, wouldn't you call your older sibling by their title?"
"My situation is slightly different," he replied. "In the first place, I was born in Japan. Secondly, I am over three hundred years old, so I was raised to speak that way. According to your sister, the two of you were born in America."
Linnsa shrugged. "I don't know. For me, that IS her name. It would be weird for me to call her by her first name. My parents were just uber traditional I guess. I never really gave it much thought." She tilted her head to one side and looked at him. "Do you have any family?"
"I did...once."
"What happened?" When she saw his face darken, she put up her hands and added, "You don't have to tell me if it's too private."
"No, it is fine." He looked up and was a little surprised to see that she had freckles as well, but while her sister's skin was slightly darker, hers was fairer in tone. It reminded him of porcelain. "Do you know anything about Japanese history?"
"Only as it relates to Koreans," she answered.
Thinking back to his past experiences, he felt a pang of regret for the history their two countries shared. "In the period before the Meiji Restoration, many Japanese clans were at war with each other. Despite the fact that Toyotomi Hideyoshi managed to subjugate many of the [daimyo], and Tokugawa Ieyasu afterwards, the shogunate grew weaker with every progressive generation and the feudal wars continued. My village was composed entirely of shinobi, involved in a blood feud with another ninja clan. I had three brothers, and I was the youngest. One day, the rival shinobi clan attacked our village and everyone was killed."
Her eyes widened at the awful story. "And you survived because of Noboru?"
"Yes, if not for his aide, I would have been dead many years ago."
His story saddened her. "Is that why you're so devoted to him?"
"Hai."
"I'm so sorry, Genzo."
She felt genuine sympathy for him, which he hadn't expected. In fact, he was shocked to find that her sadness for her own situation was pushed out of her mind and she felt mostly for him at that moment. "It was a long time ago," he said indifferently.
"Do you think about it a lot?"
It sounded like a simple enough question but for some reason, he'd never thought about it. When he tried to assess if he had, he saw for the first time in over two centuries that he hadn't thought about it much at all. After he'd healed, he simply immersed himself in serving Noboru, not realizing that it had served to distract him from mourning the loss of his family. "I...suppose I have not."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." She hadn't meant to rehash a past that he had kept hidden away.
"No. It is alright." He paused and looked at her thoughtfully. "You and your sister ask very interesting questions. Is that a family trait?"
She laughed -- a real laugh. "I don't know. No one's ever said that to me before."
He smiled at hearing her laughter and then became serious again. "May I ask you about your situation?"
"Why not?" Sighing, she tucked a strand of hair behind her hears and Genzo noticed how tiny her hands were, almost the size of a child's. His own hand could easily conceal hers. "So I started dating this guy in college. He was actually the resident assistant in the dorm where I lived. We went out for a long time and then we started talking about, you know, long term plans. I'd never had a boyfriend before him and I was his first girlfriend. So I thought everything was great. We had to do long distance for a while and that was hard. I took a job at a hospital out in California so that we could be in the same city for when we were married."
"And what happened then?"
She looked as if she would burst into tears at any moment. "I'd been there for a year and we were looking to buy a house, planning the wedding. I was working like eighty hours a week so I didn't see him much and when I did I was so tired. He was a little distant, but I thought that was because I was so overworked. I'd been really bogged down with work for the last two months and I was just wrapping up and he just...called off the engagement."
How awful for her. He couldn't imagine being discarded in such a callous manner. "Why?"
"That's the worst part," she admitted miserably. "I don't even know why. He just called it off and said that his heart wasn't in it." She attempted to wipe her tears as casually as she could. "He did it over the phone, too."
