Ryu
hadn't heard anything as disgusting since the entrance ceremonies at
Red Rose Hell. At the other hand, in that school he heard it all
three years.
Principal
Kareyoshi was every bit the bigoted moron Urufu said he was. Less
than half the speech concerned welcoming the new students and warning
them to spend too much time not studying. That part was a given. The
rest, well the rest was all about Japanese purity and the dangers of
foreign influences diluting it. All in all a piece of first class
nationalistic drivel with racist undertones.
Ryu
looked at the faces around him during the speech. What he saw both
scared him and gave him hope. Most of the students stared at the
principal with disbelief in their eyes. Ryu sighed and afforded
himself a thin smile. Well, this isn't Red Rose. I don't
think the parents here are as easily bought.
After
the speech he walked to his classroom. Right wing, just like last
year, but on the second floor. To his displeasure he wouldn't have
any of his friends with him, but he chalked that down to poor luck
from his side.
During
lunch break he planned to complain to the rest of them, and then
laugh it all away as he usually did.
Come
lunch he didn't. Thoroughly
pissed off he marched off with Kuri glued to his arm. While he wasn't
entirely comfortable with her show-off, mostly because of the
murderous looks his sister sent him, he needed to vent his anger with
someone who could give him a more mature angle to the situation.
“What,
you're alone in your class as well?” he asked when they got away to
the soccer field and had some privacy.
Kuri
nodded. “Not too surprised. It's blatant enough to be the work of
an idiot. I wonder if the other students will stand for it.”
He
chewed her words mentally while enjoying the first promises of late
spring in the air. With sakura bathing the school in a shower of
peach-coloured dreams it was hard to stay angry for long. Then he
felt Kuri tug at his arm, and he realised he had stayed silent for
too long.
Ryu
grimaced. “You mean breaking apart the couples in school?” he
said, referring to what his sister had told them. “I wouldn't be
too sure. Relationships during high school are frowned upon more than
you think.”
“Your
loss. Well, mine as well, now that I live in Japan.”
He
looked at her face. This close he noticed for the first time how
Kuri’s eyes were just a little off from the typical European. Just
a reminder that her grandfather was from Japan, and one like her and
Urufu, something his parents tried to keep a secret and both Ryu and
Noriko pretended they didn’t know.
“Sweden's
different?” he said to
break the silence and give
himself an opportunity to look at the beauty who called herself his
girlfriend.
“Yeah,
at least when I was a school kid. Has to be now as well I guess. It's
just part of growing up after all.” Kuri’s face showed no signs
of mischief, which probably meant she truly thought of it as part of
everyday life.
“What about our
situation? I mean, it's not like the two of us would attend the same
class after all.” Just as the words left him Ryu regretted the way
he said that.
“You mean with
me being a liberal arts idiot and you a sciences star?”
He looked at her
to see if she had really become angry or not, but her face was blank,
and he couldn't read any emotions in it.
“I apologise. I
didn't mean it that way.”
Then she smiled.
“I know. Just be careful with what you say. People will
misunderstand, some even deliberately.” This time mischief did
glimmer in her eyes.
A sudden wind
blew life in her hair, and staring at the golden halo surrounding her
smiling face Ryu was once again reminded of her almost otherworldly
beauty. He looked down at his shoes. “Yeah, I didn't think.”
“We're second
years now. A lot of people know us, and the freshmen will look at
us.”
What do you
mean? Oh. “As a couple?”
The grin he got
in return was a little condescending, but also filled with support. “Dummy, yes, that as well. You're always so visible that you don't
really need me to be seen, and you know that.”
Ryu didn't get
what Kuri was after. If it wasn't the surprising new couple, then
what? “Enlighten me,” he said. He had wanted to talk
things over with an adult he could trust after all.
“This isn't
middle school. From what you've told me the second years are the most
visible, with the most famous seniors only some kind of distant
heroes.”
Ryu nodded. Not
that he really, knew, but that was the rumour.
“Well, it
wasn't true last year. We stole that place in the spotlight. Even Nao
chose to hang with us.”
OK, that makes
sense I guess.
“This year
there'll be third years who resent us. You're famous all over the
school. They'll be waiting for you to do a mistake, and me as well.”
“I don't care.
Let them!”
Kuri sighed.
“Look Ryu, you're cute and all, but sometimes you're just a kid.
Listen to me! Even if you get away with it, dirt's gonna stick to the
rest of us.” Then she lit up in a self-conscious smile. “Fine,
not on me. I'm just as famous, but to people I care for.”
Sure,
I'll be careful. “And about the part of us being a couple?”
“That part?”
She grimaced. “I guess we'll have to make a public show about it
one way or another. Don't worry, I'll play the evil bitch.” Then
she smirked. “Comes natural to me after all.”
Why are you
doing this to yourself? “I disagree,” Ryu said. Kuri
sacrificed one part of her life to keep another, and she had done so
knowing the results. Hardly a bitch. Then he realised he’d been
unclear about what which of her two statements he just replied to.
“I’m fine with the public show. I’ve been one for the last four
years anyway.”
She gave him an
approving look. “Sometimes you’re colder than you look, you know.
Doesn’t suit you.” She dug her fingers into her hair and let it
billow out in the wind. “I’m the cynical one of us. Hell, when I
was your age I still stared at the world with childish eyes and
believed life would be wonderful.”
Kuri’s eyes
looked right through him, into a far distance where Ryu couldn’t
follow. I wonder if Urufu can go with you there, Ryu thought.
Probably not, but maybe the older friend could understand what Kuri
saw in her mind. I don’t think that’s a world I can ever
touch, no matter how old I get. Ryu made up a resolve never to
stop Urufu and Kuri from sharing that world. Their memories, their
past lives.
Careful Ryu,
if you ever fall in love with her, you’ll still never be everything
in her life. A sobering thought, and another one that was beyond
his years. Growing up like this sucks, he thought and bowed to
his girlfriend.
“Thank you for
your advice. I’ll leave you to your part of the show,” he said
when he saw Kyoko coming for them with a small train of seniors
tailing her.
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