Chapter 176: Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 4
After a lingering kiss Kyoko slid open the doors to 5:1. They had to get rid of the chairs after all. She dropped hers by the desks closest to the door and pushed them under their respective desk.
Two members of the literary club were busy cleaning the classroom, and nothing here told of the book store it had been for two days.
"Good festival?" Kyoko asked more out of politeness than any real want to know.
"Superb," one of the girls said and turned her head. She ceased wiping the blackboard for a moment. "We sold out."
'Eight thousand guests simultaneously. Fifteen thousand in total. You'd better be sold out.' "Good to hear," Kyoko said and headed for the door.
Yukio dropped his chairs just inside the sliding doors and followed her to their clubroom.
Inside she saw how Midori-chan and Sango-chan had dismantled the walkie talkie stations and were busy packing everything up in the boxes they had arrived in.
Kenshin-sempai, and the three festival committee members she'd never bothered learning their names, were still there as well. Kyoko guessed they'd gotten used to sitting in their clubroom, and there really was no point in relocating for the clean-up.
With tired steps she shuffled away to the fridge and grabbed a can of soda. Just before popping it open she recalled Yukio following her into the room, and she peeped inside again.
'Lemon squash. He likes the sour stuff.' She stretched an arm inside and took the can. "Yukio, want one?" she asked and waved the can above her head.
"Sure, and one for Hiroyuki-kun as well."
Kyoko looked at the sofa where Hiroyuki-kun sat waving at her. 'Fine, guess you deserve one as well.' She took out a second can and beelined for the armchair closest to the fridge.
"Lemon squash for Yukio and Hiroyuki-kun, here you are," she said.
"Thanks," both boys answered simultaneously.
She barely had time to sink down in the armchair before she heard the dull clicks of two cans opening and the sizzling sound of pressurised air leaving the containers, allowing bubbles to form and rise. Seconds later both boys sucked foam from their cans.
'Kids!' Kyoko thought, broke open her can and tilted it to her mouth. The first sip was the best.
A quarter of an hour she spent in that chair. A quarter of an hour in blissful silence, when she allowed aching muscles to rest. A quarter of an hour before she began worrying about how Kuri-chan felt right now.
After that more and more club members left the room and headed for the gym. Clubs were of different sizes, most cultural ones too small for having a proper celebration, and for that reason the main evening activities centred on class and school. Clubs only gathered for a short time between cleaning up and ending ceremony.
When Yukio made company with the members recently transferred from Red Rose, she joined him together with Noriko and Ryu.
'Too easy, too easy to forget there are more former Red Rose students than those in 9:1.' The thought scared her a little. The thought and the secret she had been let in on. Most of her fellow students didn't know Urufu had been assaulted in the first place, and almost no-one knew Red Rose high school students were the perpetrators.
'How are you keeping it together, Kuri-chan?' Kyoko scowled and admitted to herself that she didn't even know where Kuri-chan was keeping things together. Principal Nakagawa somehow arranged for one of the helicopters suddenly arriving over the school to take Kuri-chan to whatever hospital Urufu had been brought to.
"Thank you," Kyoko whispered to Yukio when she felt his fingers tighten around hers. 'Are you as worried as I am?'
When they arrived at the gym she had to let go of his hand as they joined their respective classes. With Kuri-chan absent Kyoko gravitated towards the Wakayama twins, and she exchanged worried glances with Noriko before they lined up.
Ryu kept up his stupid antics and got told off by their class rep twice before a scowl from Noriko finally calmed him down.
'They're afraid both of them. Just show it in different ways.' Kyoko suspected Ryu only knew how to be hyperactive whenever he needed to process something beyond his control.
Around them students she didn't even know smiled and showed her all kinds of approving hand signs. 'It feels strange, being a part of the admired group. Kuri-chan, you could have told me how to respond.' Thinking of her friend had Kyoko's stomach in a tight knot again, but she forced herself to plaster a false smile to her face.
She noticed how a wave of sudden apprehension went through the crowd, and then the student council president entered the stage. Rie-sempai, or more properly Tamura-san for anyone outside the club, grabbed a microphone and served them all what Noriko would have called canned clichés. Kyoko even looked over her shoulder to catch Noriko's smirk.
A second serving of empty words rolled over them delivered by Principal Nakagawa, but in his case Kyoko knew it was all an act. She had no doubts who had called in helicopters and trucks after their frantic attempts at keeping the festival afloat failed, and the entire event cracked and broke apart around them.
When the last words fell silent, the student council president once more took the microphone and congratulated everyone. The entire gym erupted in cheers before the congregated students left for the soccer field, where the traditional bonfire folk dance was being prepared.
'So it's been kept a secret after all,' Kyoko thought. The jubilation had been too honest for anything else. Maybe it was the smart thing to do. Most certainly it was how Urufu would have handled it, had he been in charge. Still it left her with a bitter taste in her mouth.
Listlessly she followed Noriko to the field, and in the falling darkness Kyoko finally let go of her false smile. She'd save smiling for when she found Yukio again.
Chapter 177: Chapter four, 2016, the long, long night: 5
With the dance over, and most of the school empty of students, Yukio did a last round to their club room. It had to be a quick one as he'd left Kyoko waiting by the gates.
Karaoke bars all around Himekaizen were filling up with celebrating students, and both Ryu and Noriko promised to organise the club's outing this evening.
He and Kyoko had other plans though.
They failed to pressure Principal Nakagawa into disclosing which hospital Urufu had been sent to, but Rie-sempai was easier to convince, and she soon buckled under the verbal assault from Ryu and Noriko. Maybe he had helped a little himself when he gave her puppy eyes to the best of his ability. Good enough to have Kyoko frown at him at least.
Yukio opened the doors to their club room, went inside and retrieved the cell phone he'd left recharging there. With his phone in his pocket he quickly ran down the stairs, switched to loafers and sprinted across the gravel in the darkness, until he saw Kyoko's shadow under the lamplight by the gates.
"Hi," Yukio said and waved to her.
She waved back, and with a step her dark silhouette broke loose from the gate post, and he could see her features when the street light gained access to her face.
'She's beautiful, and she's all mine.' Surprised at his own possessiveness, Yukio wiped off the thin smile that had begun to spread over his face.
"Shall we?" he asked.
"Uhum. Tell the guys in Haven?"
Yukio thought about it. "Why not. It's on the way anyway." Urufu would growl at him if he learned Yukio hadn't dropped a last 'good work' and 'I love working with you guys' before the evening ended.
Thinking of Urufu washed away the last remnants of his smile from earlier.
"Good," Kyoko said. "Do we tell them?"
Yukio didn't need her to specify what they would tell or not tell. Neither of them had any business dropping by the Haven café and continuing towards the station. That was in the opposite direction from their homes.
"We have to. Not all of it and not all of it the truth." The thought of lying to the club members didn't sit too well with him.
"Call it an accident?"
He looked at Kyoko. Her suggestion sounded more callous than anything he had expected.
For a while he bit on his lower lip as he listened to the sounds of their footsteps and the occasional car passing.
"Yukio?" Kyoko said when he didn't answer.
He tugged his blazer tighter around himself and silently cursed his stupidity for not bringing a coat. "Yeah, accident sounds good," he finally said. Accident was probably as good a lie as any other.
"Without Noriko we can't call it a mishap," Kyoko added.
'A mishap. Yeah, that would be Noriko.' "Think he'll make it?" Yukio asked the night.
"He has to," Kyoko answered. "Kuri-chan will break if he doesn't." She fell silent but he could see her lips moving again. "As will you, and I don't want that," she murmured.
Yukio suspected he wasn't meant to have heard that and refrained from commenting. "Yeah, he'll be fine," he said instead. "It's Urufu we're talking about."
"Yes?"
"He's indestructible. All that training just to avoid tripping over his own feet. Guy sure knows how to take a fall. Trust me on this one." Yukio knew he was rambling, but spewing words was better than handling the silence.
"Our kiddie siblings," Kyoko agreed and showed him two rows of grinning teeth.
Yukio silently thanked her for playing along. He kept up his rambling, but from how Kyoko answered his hand with her own fingers, he understood she knew the real questions that were tumbling around in his head.
All too soon they arrived at the Haven café, and Yukio opened the door to the tinkling of the bell. A few heads turned in his direction, and a couple of arms waved for him to enter.
"Soz, guys, we have to go," Yukio shouted at no one in particular.
"Visiting Urufu?"
'A, yeah, they know he's hurt.' "Yeah, gotta see what happened to him," Yukio said. He waved at James behind the counter.
"Happened to him?"
'OK, not all of them know.' "He had an accident. That's why he left during the afternoon. We're on our way to visit him." 'And if you buy that you've got bean paste for brains.'
"At this time in the..."
"Sure, give him my regards." The last interrupting words came from Hiroyuki-kun, who didn't look fooled at all.
Yukio nodded a silent 'thank you' to him, shouted a few celebratory curses and left the café with Kyoko. 'Guess not many people go visiting hospitals late evenings.' He'd thank Hiroyuki-kun properly later for covering up his mistake.
"Think anyone believed us?" Kyoko asked.
Yukio stared up at the lamplights ahead and nodded. "Half of them I guess. Doesn't matter. As long as they don't try to tag along it's fine."
Kyoko nodded. He could see in her face how she imagined what would happen if a dozen of them suddenly showed up at the hospital at this hour.
The temperature continued dropping, and when they arrived at the station Yukio sighed in relief at coming indoors, even if only for a while.
They would have to change trains once, and after that it was a matter of either walking for twenty minutes or waiting for a bus. Given the hour Yukio suspected walking.
"You fine with this?" he asked Kyoko. They wouldn't be allowed to see Urufu, but Kuri sat waiting at the hospital as well, and Yukio didn't know in what shape she was.
"Yes, I'll be fine. If anything she needs me right now."
'I always forget she's as close to Kuri as I am to Urufu.' "OK, let's do this then," he said and led her to the platform.
Kyoko held onto his hand, and he could see her hair flying when they ran down the stairs. The next train would arrive in mere minutes.
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