When morning rose
over the Himekaizen cultural festival so did Yukio. He rose to the
smell of too many teenagers sleeping in a classroom, the sound of
snoring and the heat of Kyoko sleeping in his arms.
Shafts of
sunbeams ripped through the curtains and bathed the floor in an eerie
red. Drowsy with sleep he realised how the sudden dawn light had
forced him awake.
There were sounds
from the office area, sounds of someone sleeping over the benches and
someone working. Rhythmic clattering of laptop keys sang a well known
melody – only Urufu abused a keyboard that way.
Yukio leaned on
his elbows, torn between the want to help his friend and the need to
feel Kyoko close to him. In the end Kyoko won and he laid himself to
rest on her arm again.
Nuzzling his head
closer to her face he drank the smell of her hair and listened to her
breathing. Ever so gently her calmness rocked him to sleep again.
When he woke
again soothing dawn had given way to bedlam. Of his gentle Kyoko
there was not a trace. She sat shamelessly astride him, all sense of
propriety gone, daring any shocked onlookers to protest. Looking up
at her he watched the most beautiful woman in his life glaring at
students whispering and pointing at them.
His ears hurt,
mostly because she tugged at them with both hands, and so did his
balls.
Balls? Crap,
Kyoko you can't sit there!
She didn't just
sit but merrily bounced up and down. Yukio sincerely hoped she was
oblivious to what it looked like. Even more he wanted her to get off
him, because those parts were exactly as sensitive as his
recollection of the last time he made a spectacular save as
goalkeeper in a game of soccer.
Then a loud cough
called for his attention, and Kyoko had the good graces to cease
bouncing.
Behind her back
four chairs lined up with their four best friends straddling them
leaning their arms on the backrests. Noriko scowling, Urufu smirking,
Kuri rolling her eyes and Ryu grinning wildly.
“Love birds,
get a room or get real,” Urufu said in English.
Atop of him Kyoko
gasped and turned.
“Rehearsing the
racier parts of the play?” Kuri asked in the same language. “Want
to continue on stage?” She frowned and dug into her school bag
searching for something. After a while her frown made way for a
satisfied smile.
A camera?
Yukio wondered in panic, and Kyoko must have felt the same, because
she rolled beside him and covered herself with the blanket they had
shared the previous night.
“The four of us
need to have a talk,” Urufu said. It sounded as the start of a
sentence, but he was interrupted by Kuri.
“You
insensitive moron!” She threw him an angry glare. “Ko-chan and I
are going to have some girl talk.” And that sounded more like an
order than a suggestion. “You are going to dress down that
oversexed friend of yours.” A long finger protruded from her hand
and stabbed at Yukio through the distance, but Yukio knew the words
were directed at Urufu.
Still,
oversexed, me? I was asleep for most of it, so why is it my fault?
Urufu just
grinned and tapped Ryu on his shoulder. He had to reach behind Kuri
to do so.
What once began
as an open display of friendly rivalry from the Wakayama twins was an
established habit by now despite Noriko's dating Nao-sempai. Urufu
had her by his other side, so the Swedish couple were sandwiched in
the middle as always.
Yukio had a hard
time imagining them side by side in any other order than Noriko,
Urufu, Kuri and Ryu. Usually he and Kyoko trailed a few steps behind
whenever the six of them went out together.
“Ryu can you
get the patrols and play started? I really need to talk with the
moron on the futon,” Urufu said.
Ryu nodded in
return and headed for the office area. His chair screeched on the
floor as he dragged it behind him. The noise was enough to silence
the whispers around them that hadn't subsided until now.
“Noriko, get
the food market going. I'll help you after I've knocked some sense
into his head,” Urufu said and pointed a thumb at Yukio. “Yukio,
boys' locker room. Now!”
With the last
words Urufu rose from his chair and left the room.
Before Yukio even
had the chance to protest Kuri had already pulled Kyoko to her feet.
She did protest, but a shockingly well articulated sentence in
Japanese from Kuri silenced her.
“Ko-chan, you
absolutely must shower and change your underwear, wouldn't you
agree?”
Kyoko barely had
time to get her bag, and Yukio used that as a signal to rip open his
backpack and pull out one pouch with toiletry and another with fresh
underwear. After that he hurried after the girls on their way to the
locker room.
When he passed
the office area he saw Ryu handing Noriko an old style walkie talkie
which she clipped onto a belt. By the windows a dozen more stood
recharging.
His footsteps on
the stairs down to the first floor were unusually loud but neither
corridors nor stairwell were any less crowded than a usual school
day. Yukio attributed the sound of his footsteps to a guilty
conscience.
They passed the
vending machines and then he waved to Kyoko before she vanished into
the girls locker room. On the other side of the cafeteria Urufu stood
waiting by the door to the boys'. He rolled one of the security
armbands over a sleeve and opened the door.
“Security
patrol. Anyone not showering evacuate now!” After delivering that
lie Urufu beckoned for Yukio to follow him inside.
Yukio didn't see
how he could avoid the inevitable, and in the end he meekly obeyed.
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