“Urufu
and Tomasu got suspended?”
Yukio
nodded. “Those boys got pretty badly hurt after all.”
Noriko
shook her head. Something wasn’t right. Eight boys sent to hospital
but not a single rumour about anyone missing from school.
“But...”
she started.
“I
know,” Yukio interrupted
her. He stared across the seats under the great sails and Noriko saw
how he fixed his gaze at the gymnasium. “Urufu taught me how to
peel pieces of information from a whole.”
She
followed his stare and waited for him to continue.
Wind
gathered between the wings, swirled, caught specks of dust and blew
it towards the gym. Cooler
now, she noted. Soon the school yard would turn into a temporary
festival area, and with that what had happened would turn into
partially forgotten memories when arranging the cultural festival
stole all attention. But not for two girls. They’d never forget.
They…
“Sorry,”
Noriko said when she realised Yukio had already started talking
again.
“I
was saying those guys probably aren’t students here,” he
repeated.
She
had already guessed as much. “Think it’s like when Kuri was
assaulted?”
Yukio
nodded. Then he turned his head, and as his arm rose Noriko saw Kyoko
leave the cafeteria with a tray of food in her hands. Yukio waved her
to join them, and Noriko lifted her hand to do the same. A feeling of
uneasiness spread through her and she hesitated and dropped her arm
into her lap. Instead of welcoming her friend Noriko turned and
stared at her feet.
I’m
so stupid. But she couldn’t help it. She was jealous of how the
couple avoided getting caught up in the madness, which was unfair.
She knew that. Last year both Yukio and Kyoko had been sent to
hospital.
Kyoko
arrived, and from the corner of her eye Noriko saw her sit down and
give Yukio a short peck of a kiss before she turned her attention to
her lunch.
“Yukio,
father asked some friends.”
Noriko
looked up. Kyoko’s father was some kind of public servant with a
network of his own. He’d used it to look into Kareyoshi’s
background earlier.
Yukio
took a sip of tea from a bottle. “Uhum?” he said and dug into his
lunch with chop sticks in one hand. The other returned the bottle to
the small space between him and Kyoko. Noriko stared at it. Between
them. A shared space. It made her miss Urufu again.
“Did
he find out anything,” she asked. This time she had to face Kyoko
properly.
“I’m
sorry Noriko,” Kyoko said. “There are rumours about expulsions.”
Noriko
shook her head. “Urufu said the arrivals pretty much were
untouchable.”
Kyoko
met Noriko’s eyes, but she stayed silent. There was something
pained in her expression.
“Kyoko,
what is it?” Noriko said when Kyoko remained silent.
“Urufu
and Tomasu are safe. It’s about Jeniferu and that other girl.”
“What?”
Noriko blinked and stared at her friend.
“The
two of them might be expelled. Unless they drop the charges they
could be kicked out of school. At least that’s what father said.”
Kyoko fell silent again, but just as Noriko was about to scream with
rage Kyoko’s voice cut through the short distance between them.
“I’ve never seen him so angry. Not even after I was stabbed.”
At
last what Kyoko had said registered in Noriko’s mind. Her throat
went dry all of a sudden, and without asking she grabbed Yukio’s
bottle and emptied half of it in four long gulps. But they were
raped! How? Noriko stared blindly ahead of her. Yukio’s shape
was there, but only when he grabbed the bottle she held out did she
know for sure that he was really there and not just a shadow.
“He’s
going down,” Noriko said.
Kyoko
nodded. “But not for this. Father doesn’t think Kareyoshi’s
behind it.”
“But
expulsions?”
“Kareyoshi’s
the principal here. He doesn’t want to stain his reputation, so
he’ll do anything to hush it up, but father still believes someone
else pulled the strings.”
“The
PTA,” a voice said from behind Noriko’s back.
She
turned and met her brother’s glare. “PTA?”
Ryu
nodded, and the way he looked at her Noriko understood the glare
wasn’t directed at her. With a sigh he found a seat for himself and
sat down with his tray in his lap.
“You
know how Kareyoshi got himself an obedient PTA after the old one put
up a fight?”
“Uhum,”
Yukio nodded. “And?” he added between bites.
“He
should have thought a little more about why they were so
obedient.”
“I
don’t understand,” Kyoko said.
Noriko
did. Time spent with her parents built a set of rough tools, and a
year with Urufu had honed them to a sharpness that bordered on
cynicism.
“Sis,
if you will?”
“It’s
Red Rose Hell all over again. Kareyoshi filled the PTA with the same
kind of lunatics we had at our old school.”
“But...”
Yukio started.
“They
share the same world,” Noriko interrupted him. Rage competed with
shame, because she had been so occupied with thoughts about Jeniferu
that she forgot there was a second girl as well. “Yukio, you know
some first years. Could you please as about her background?” Shame
won. Noriko didn’t even know her name. “Discreetly please.”
“Why?”
“Because
I believe she got targetted because she’s Korean or Chinese.”
“Sure.
I’ll ask.”
“Yukio?”
Noriko
looked at Kyoko who stared at how her boyfriend’s face suddenly
turned all grim and dark. You and Kuri went to a decent place. You
wouldn’t understand.
“Red
Rose Hell, Kyoko. I told you about it last year, at the fireworks,
remember?”
Kyoko’s
gaze turned inwards, but then Noriko saw how she must have remembered
whatever memory she’d been searching for. “Be careful.”
“I
promise,” Yukio said. “But I won’t stand watching and do
nothing this time. Never again.”
Another
gust of wind seeped the little warmth Noriko’s clothes offered away
from her, and she felt a desperate longing for Urufu.
