Winter break ended and the short
third trimester began. For the second years it came with both a
period of enjoyment and a lot of worries. Exams were a lot more
important than they had been last year, but long before those the
last week of January promised a small adventure with friends.
One long week in
the Kansai area. Osaka and Kyoto were on the itinerary, which
probably meant a short visit to Kobe and Nara both. These weren’t
places unknown to Christina. She had visited both of the larger
cities several times during her previous life, and the hatsumode she
never got to spend with Ulf turned into a shoot in Kyoto.
She fidgeted as
she packed the last pieces of clothes into a large bag. Most of it
was empty, but the section with her clothes bulged in protest of
being abused. The empty sections were for new clothes and souvenirs.
Her fidgeting however wasn’t the result of a protest. While she had
visited the cities before she had never done so together with someone
she wanted to share the experience with, and that made her nervous.
Ryu might still
be a boy barely growing into manhood, but he was her boy. Lingering
feeling for Ulf didn’t change that she had fallen in love with the
prince charming of their school. Not because he was prince charming;
that was just a part of him, but because he’d been there caring for
her when she had no right to expect being cared for.
I always
thought I’d make this trip with Ulf. But she hadn’t. Not
really. They were falling apart before they even slept together. That
first summer when he broke down after watching a suicide held both
the beginning and end of that love. In the end she couldn’t compete
with the memories of the wife he lost to that other world.
I hope you
make the most of it, Christina thought and smirked. A little
jealousy always accompanied the moments she saw Noriko and Ulf share
together, but these days it was a healthy kind of jealousy, or at
least as healthy as was possible. Ulf’s first woman in this world
was doomed, and Christina had been that woman. The second only had to
compete with that first one.
Only. Damn,
Noriko, you make me proud of all strong women out there! Because
Christina knew perfectly well what kind of competition she
represented herself, and Noriko had bulldozed right through it with
all of her a metre and a half. Yeah, my kind of girl! Jealousy
be damned. If anyone deserved Ulf it was Noriko. The question was if
Ulf deserved her.
The smirk spread
into a thin smile, and after that a happy grin. Christina had long
since stopped fidgeting, and now she shouldered her bag and left her
luxury flat. A home these days. Another thing she had Ryu to thank
for. Occasionally they spent their nights here, and Ryu’s parents
both knew and accepted it. Ryu, however, didn’t accept that she
treated it like a hotel room, and piece by piece it took the form of
a home.
The lift dropped
her at the entrance floor, she waved at the uniformed guard sitting
behind the reception desk and left through sliding doors with her
personal body guard in tow. Outside the pair Vogue assigned to her
waited, as always, in a car, and the four of them rode, not to Tokyo
station, but to the Shin Yokohama one.
While an obvious
detour it was also a lot less obvious. She’d take the Shinkansen
from a station that was less likely to be swamped with journalists
who knew exactly when the Himekaizen second years departed for their
field trip east. That thought brought a growl to Christina’s face.
Journalists stalking thee students because of the sensational foreign
model was one thing.
Damn, if they
only stalked me. I’m used to it. Another six students were
shuttled to that station as well. The old gang plus Hitomi. Friends
of a girl raped didn’t make journalists drool. Friends of the raped
daughter of a US ambassador did. The backlash of that disgusting
story hadn’t died down. If anything it blew up again when Kareyoshi
was incarcerated.
She leaned back
in her seat and caught some sleep. Sleeping on the go was a superb
Japanese habit Christina had adapted to as quickly as possible.
Her body guard
tapped her shoulder when they had arrived, and she left the car and
grabbed her bag from the trunk. It hung from her shoulder as she
entered the station, not her body guard’s. He wouldn’t be of much
use if burdened by her luggage.
Inside the gang
waited. One person left it and met her. Ryu. Always Ryu who showed
how he cared. It warmed inside of her, and it told her she had been
right to move on when her heart broke from her own actions. Thank
you Ryu for loving me! Thank you Ulf for letting me go!
Ryu hugged her
and moved her bag to his own shoulder. He made it look like it just
happened to slide over to him, but she could feel how he snaked under
it when he hugged her.
In difference
from Ulf Ryu truly was a natural athlete. Christina wondered if he
had inherited it from his mother. She always seemed so much more
lively compared to his father. The thought of the serious man rolling
around on the ground like a cat made her giggle, and she shot Ryu an
apologetic smile when he gave her a nonplussed stare.
“What did I
do?” he asked.
“Oh, you
didn’t,” Christina said. “Maybe your father did.”
“Huh?”
She threw an arm
around him and followed him back to their friends. “Nothing. Just
forget it,” she said.
Ryu’s eyes
widened in slight annoyance, but she noticed how he decided not to
pursue the matter.
Christina grinned
and threw Hitomi a glance. “Isn’t it time we found you someone?”
she said in an attempt to get a reaction out of the always calm
beauty.
“I don’t
think so,” came the reply.
“How so,”
Christina said. If she had started it she could as well push the
provocation a little. Right now she felt an unexplained need to be a
little mean.
The girl lit up
in a stunning and surprisingly malicious grin. “I don’t think Ryu
would like it very much.”
Huh? What?
What!
