Chapter six, 2017, Christmas carols, segment two

That evening, over a week earlier, in the Stockholm Haven Café still filled Christina with embarrassed happiness.

Ryu had long since ceased to just be a beautiful boy she didn’t mind taking to her bed. That he had become a man she could envision spending years with still surprised her.

While Ulf would never entirely leave her mind, finding a man who wasn’t merely second best was more than she deserved. She knew that, and she was grateful.

Still, the man she had come to love was just a seventeen year old kid. A seventeen year old boy who was thoroughly irritated at the moment.

The results of their final exams were plastered over the billboard, and Ryu had found himself at place 35. That wasn’t, Christina knew, what he was irritated about.

Ulf they found at third place, something that entrenched his status as a miracle man, but this also wasn’t what fuelled Ryu’s ire.

Christina gazed at his almost perfect profile looking slightly upwards. Perfect according to Japanese standards of male beauty. He even had the hairdo that announced a young man both of the world as well the world of books. Now rather than a year earlier he fully filled the shoes of the Prince of Himekaizen.

She could have spent their entire lunch break looking at him but for the irritation seething from his every pore.

At the very top of the list Noriko had finally toppled the former ace from his throne. The impossible student was relegated to second place, and this was why Ryu pouted, smirked and pouted again.

“She deserved it,” Christina said in an attempt to placate Ryu. She refrained from putting a hand on his shoulder or he would have blown up in her face.

Christina once said Ulf was the brightest man she ever met in her life. That was, she admitted to herself, both correct and sexist. Ulf wasn’t the brightest person she had ever met in her life. Noriko probably was.

This also wasn’t the reason for Ryu’s sulkiness. He was proud of his sister, and rightly so.

“Well, it’s sis after all. She always had it in her,” he said, “but...” he continued and suddenly his voice took one a whining quality.

“But what?” Christina interrupted him. “Noriko produced those results. She did it herself.”

And this was the reason Ryu was so angry. Because they both knew the lie in those words. They both knew Ryu had no hand in Noriko’s achievement, but they also understood how Ulf’s stubborn refusal to abandon his theories about learning finally paid off.

They knew, because now, half a year later, the Irishima High club members caused an uproar in their school, and the rumours carried all the way to Himekaizen. Or rather, the vice principal of Irishima High gleefully spread them to anyone willing to listen.

A ten percent average jump in results in just about six months made more than a few willing to do just that.

Ulf had become a hero in both schools, and Kareyoshi looked like an ass. Ulf had become the person who knew better than the headship what produced results. Ulf was the power behind the throne who suddenly made universities a full tier above what had seemed possible suddenly fall into the reach of three dozen students.

Each and every one of them a member of the club Kareyoshi forcefully disbanded.

Ryu took Christina’s hand in his and pulled.

You need to let go. “Can’t you see it’s good for her?” Christina said as she was led inside the cafeteria.

He muttered something she couldn’t hear, but Christina was certain it didn’t belong in a civilised conversation.

“Look, Ryu,” she began and stopped him before they entered the line of students waiting to be served what passed for food in the cafeteria. “She’s your sister. Your first priority should be what’s good for her, not what’s good for you.”

“But she could at least think about our family’s reputation,” he protested.

Christina ripped her hand from his. “Do you want me to break up with you?”

“What?”

“I’ll never, ever, hear that kind of disgusting crap leave your mouth again. Never!”

“But...”

“Do you want me to call your mother? I have her number you know.”

His eyes widened, and Christina knew exactly what he was thinking. “What does my mother...”

“I’m extremely interested in listening to her opinion about that family honour you just mentioned.” This idiocy ends here. It didn’t matter how much she loved Ryu. This was a deal breaker. He either changed or she would have to leave his side.

Watching how his features darkened Christina kept her silence. This wasn’t something she could talk him into. Him knowing he had done something wrong was enough. What it was, and what he needed to do was something he had to find out for himself.

In silence they bought their food, in silence they walked the stairs to their corridor and in silence they parted ways and entered their respective classrooms.

I know I’m inflexible, Christina thought as she slowly ate her tasteless lunch. There were parts of Sweden she didn’t care all that much for, but there were also parts that were so ingrained in her she refused to budge at all.

She finished the last of her food and looked out the windows. Clouds, grey and cold, covered the skies, but somehow they made her calm down. In the end her ultimatum was the right one. She’d never be able to look herself in a mirror if she accepted the kind of different rules for boys and girls Ryu had suggested. If she did, what had she fought so hard for in her previous life?