A few days
earlier Kyoko turned on her heals when she saw Nao walk in on his
girlfriend chatting with Ryu and Ai-chan. Or rather Kyoko turned
because he walked in on the two girls chatting with each other while
Ryu pretended to laze around.
She hadn't been
far away enough to entirely avoid catching up on the topic which was
the real reason she decided not to join. Besides Noriko wanted some
time alone with Nao-sempai, and five of them would be even worse than
four.
Now Kyoko turned
on her heals when she walked in on Urufu and Kuri-chan quarrelling.
It wasn't the first time the pair were involved in verbal fencing,
but something in Urufu's voice betrayed an anger stronger than Kyoko
had experienced before. Even though both of them spoke in Swedish it
was clear to Kyoko that whatever they disagreed about had turned
vitriolic some time ago.
She almost made
it down the stairs before the heated discussion degenerated into
fully fledged shouting, and Kyoko ran the last steps down before she
was seen by any teacher arriving to defuse a possible fistfight.
With a heavy lump
in her stomach Kyoko tapped her phone alive and stared at the photo
delivered to her by an unknown sender. It showed Kuri-chan in a
revealing dress outside what had to be some kind of nightclub. Even
though the photo was shot in a cityscape and didn't reveal what time
of year it was taken Kyoko knew enough to realise it had been shot
last spring. Last spring when Kuri-chan still worked as a hostess.
Kyoko flipped
away the photo and dialled Yukio. Right now she needed someone to
share her worries with. Someone she could trust fully to stay by her
side.
They met at
Stockholm Haven café and when Kyoko entered Yukio already sat by a
table in a corner. From the inner room she heard voices telling her a
number of club-members had gathered after one of the spontaneous
walking talking sessions that had become more and more common during
Urufu's hospitalisation.
The main café
was filled with the usual crowd of Himekaizen students generously
sprinkled by Irishima high uniforms, but today for the first time Kyoko saw the red blazers signalling Red Rose Academy there as well.
The red and green
of Red Rose stood out against the black gakuran and navy blue sailor
uniforms from Irishima high. In contrast the muted, almost yellow,
beige on black trousers from Himekaizen looked drab. Still, it was
their café. Urufu had found it for them long before it became a
popular hangout among the students.
Kyoko waved to
Yukio, slipped inside the counter and into the narrow kitchen area.
There she quickly changed into her work clothes before re-entering
the café.
Working part time
here didn't pay as well as Urufu's stunts, but she got a lot more
hours here. Sometimes Noriko did hours here as well. Not because of
any need but to get the experience she said. Yukio and Ryu helped out
as well evenings that were especially busy.
Kyoko high fived
the waitress, a university students who worked full hours Saturdays
and Sundays, on her way out and started taking orders. James did all
the work on the inside of the counter while Kyoko delivered orders to
the tables and kept them clean of dishes.
She saw Yukio
catching up on some of the items for tomorrow's full scale waling
talking session while at the same time running a low voiced
conversation over Skype with someone from their sister club in
Sweden.
There was barely
time to sneak over to his table from time to time to share a brief
moment of hands touching or to playfully caress his hair when she
hoped no-one saw. Well, James did from his position behind the
counter, but he didn't seem to care as long as she kept up with her
work. He smirked and rolled his eyes dramatically, but Kyoko knew it
was all for show.
A couple of hours
after she arrived the café entered an evening lull and Kyoko got
James' permission to share Yukio's table for a short time. She showed
him the photo and explained the circumstances.
Yukio put his
tables aside and gave the photo a cursory look before he stared at
her. Seeing Kuri-chan in scant clothing wasn't anything new for any
of them. They had even been invited to a studio shoot earlier this
autumn.
“Why do you
have it?” Yukio asked.
“Someone sent
it to me. I've never seen the email address.”
Yukio palmed his
face and sighed. “Wrong question, sorry. Why do you have it.
Why wasn't it sent to Kuri?”
Maybe it was, but
Kyoko didn't know. The moment she decided not to intrude on
Kuri-chan's and Urufu's fight was also the moment when she lost her
chance to ask exactly that question.
“I don't know,”
Kyoko admitted. She swallowed a mouthful of lukewarm tea while the
thought about Yukio's question. Why had anyone bothered with
sending her that photo. A warning? A threat? It didn't make any
sense.
“OK, the
important thing right now is that someone has a photo of Kuri that
could be bad for her.”
“Bad. She could
be expelled,” Kyoko said.
“Unless they
can prove it was her job I don't think so. Besides Principal Nakagawa
is on our side.”
“What do you
think will happen if this blows up?”
Yukio screwed
together his face until it was wrinkled like an overripe fruit. Then
he sucked in some air and sighed again. “Don't know. Suspension for
breaking curfew maybe. I honestly don't know.”
“Think we
should tell them to stop spreading the rumours?”
Even though Kyoko
was the one asking that question she suspected she knew part of the
answer. Kuri-chan was her most important friend, but that also made
her more aware of Kuri-chan's shortcomings, fifty years old or
sixteen didn't matter when it came to those. Kuri-chan suffered from
an overblown self-confidence, and since she started modelling again
Kyoko had seen shadows of a personality she didn't care all that much
for. There was something vengeful about Kuri-chan, an ugly
resentfulness that made her keep jabbing at an opponent until she got
a killing blow.
Yukio rose from
his chair and went for the counter. “Why don't you ask her?” he
said and waved at the door through which Kuri-chan and Urufu entered.
No comments:
Post a Comment