“There’s
something fishy about that story.”
Yukio nodded, and
Ryu gave him a long stare as they listened to Kuri’s reaction to
what Yukio just told hem. All in all Ryu agreed, but being in that
room when the old people told the story about the runner would have
been better. As it was he had to rely on what Yukio said.
“It’s too
easy,” Yukio said in agreement.
“Aren’t you
the one who tries to make everything easier?” Ryu retorted as they
passed across the great Shibuya intersection.
Kuri had some job
at 109, and being a Sunday the Himekaizen members of the club were
all together for the first time in months. They were joined by
Jeniferu who tagged along with Tomasu a bit further back. Always a
bit further back these days. Something had gone out of her eyes, even
though Ryu guessed he was one of the few who saw the feelings she
tried to hide.
After searching
for Jeniferu and Tomasu Ryu was grateful to find Kyoko together with
the pair, and less so for finding Noriko hand in hand with Urufu
halfway across the street.
“You know,”
Yukio said, and Ryu realised Yukio must have given the teasing retort
more thought than in was really worth, “I try to make things as
easy as possible while still keeping the important stuff there.”
Now it was Ryu’s
turn to give things a thought.
“Interesting,
please continue,” Kuri said.
Ryu looked at
her, because there had been a warmer tone to her voice than he had
expected. Her blue eyes hidden behind that golden halo were always
harder to read than those of other girl. If that was because he loved
her, or her being a foreigner or her real age hiding her true
feelings Ryu didn’t know.
“I guess making
things too easy means you have to lie,” Yukio said. “Not lying by
telling lies but lying by telling too little of the truth.”
“And?” Kuri
passed through a sliding door.
Yukio and Ryu
followed her, but Yukio waited with his answer until they were
indoors. “It’s just been a little more than a week, but there’s
something nagging at me.”
“About their
story?”
“Yeah. Ah, man,
I can’t explain, but it’s too easy.”
“So they’re
hiding something,” Kuri said and entered an escalator.
Ryu followed her
a couple of steps below, and Yukio quickly joined. Together the three
of them rode it a floor up with people around them staring at Kuri as
if they couldn’t believe there was a life sized version of the face
plastered to electronic bill boards all over Tokyo.
Smooth, really
smooth, Kuri, Ryu thought. Does the word discreet even exist
in the thesaurus you use? He shook his head and followed her up
the next escalator all the while Kuri’s body guards made a futile
attempt to keep the mob of fans from getting too close to her.
At the third
floor she signed her first autograph and at the fifth the twentieth. Ryu decided their earlier conversation had to wait.
“Kuri, aren’t
you even worried in the slightest?” he wondered during a brief
break in photos taken and her signing just about anything people
handed to her.
She smiled. “As
long as we’re moving my body guards should handle the rest,” Kuri
said silently.
“Aren’t you
afraid you’ll sign some dirty contract by mistake?”
Kuri’s
shoulders swivelled and suddenly Ryu had her face so close their
noses touched and her hair embraced him in golden velvet. She gave
him a wet kiss and he felt her arms around his neck.
Around them
people shouted, some voices in delighted surprise, but others carried
an annoyed tone to them. While not a Japanese style idol Kuri still
had her fans out there who expected her to live up to the impossible
ideal of a sexy virgin.
“I love you,”
she whispered when their lips parted. “I love how you care for me.
I’m happy I met you.”
Ryu grinned. He
felt equal parts elation and embarrassment running though him. “You
didn’t answer my question,” he said in an attempt to regain
control.
“Autographs,”
she said. “I have a legal document where the distinction between my
autograph and my signature is made explicit.”
The Billion
Dollar Empress. You’re my girlfriend, so I forget who you once
were. “I see,” Ryu said. He hoped he sounded calm, but inside
of him sensations of anxiety and outright fear quickly built and
burned. You’re my girlfriend, and you’re older than my mother.
The short seconds
it took for thoughts and feelings to run their course was enough for
Kuri to widen the distance between them, and Ryu felt her hand
pulling him toward the next escalator.
Behind him Yukio
followed. Ryu saw him mirrored in that glittering world of glass,
spotlights and cloth that was 109. Further behind Ryu knew the others
tried to catch up, but with the mob of fans gathering around Kuri
they were bound to be stuck a floor or more below him.
Kuri, I really
do love you, older and all, but right now you’re behaving more like
an elementary school kid than the seventeen you look. Ryu
growled, a satisfied growl he admitted, but a growl still.
He winked at
Yukio, turned and followed Kuri up another floor, and then another.
The crowd around
them thinned, and Ryu guessed Kuri’s body guards had finally
managed to take control of the situation, but then his world changed
from one of casual luxury to one of mad chaos.
“He’s got a
knife!”
Red Rose
uniforms?
“Ageruman-san,
watch out!”
But that
school is closed.
“Down
Ryu!”
Kuri?
“Down!”
Legs
so white he could hardly see where they ended and her panties began
flew above his head.
Golden
hair sailed across the escalator.
Yukio
roared.
Ryu’s
head connected with a red blazer.
Hurts!
He
fell.
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