And of course there had to be a second session where he was told how useless and wrong he was.

During the short break between fourth and fifth period Ryu sauntered inside Noriko’s classroom where he knew he’d find Urufu as well. Anything to prevent them from from behaving too familiar with each other in public.

To his surprise Ryu found Yukio, Kyoko and Hitomi there as well, and he suspected Kuri would have waited for him as well but for him making her angry in the cafeteria.

Both Noriko and Urufu stared at the extra guests with more than a little consternation in their eyes, and Noriko’s classmates gave the group a wide berth.

Just arriving was enough for Ryu to smell the bad mood in the air.

“Good, the main dish has arrived,” Yukio said. “Hitomi, you know what to do?”

She nodded, and Noriko shot her a surprised glance.

OK, whatever is going on sis and Urufu aren’t in on it. Ryu shortened the distance to Noriko’s desk and waited for what was coming.

“Urufu, Noriko, you’re not needed. Please leave!” Kyoko said, and Ryu shared a coughing fit with both Urufu and Noriko.

“Look, it’s my classroom, so why are you...”

“Kyoko and I have sex with each other,” Yukio said and cut Noriko short.

“So does Ryu and Kuri,” Kyoko filled in. Then she raised an eybrow and looked straight at Noriko. “One glance at you is enough to know you don’t. Leave adult talk to the adults!”

This time Ryu shared a gasp with the targetted couple and several of Noriko’s classmates.

Noriko rose from her chair, and Ryu saw tears forming in her eyes. “Kyoko! You pig!” With that she rushed out of her classroom.

“Hitomi,” Kyoko said and nodded in the direction of the door.

Hitomi rose and left the classroom. Ryu guessed she went in search of his sister.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Urufu said, and for once Ryu agreed with him.

“Shut up, man! Your presence isn’t needed. Go fetch!” Yukio responded without as much as blinking.

“Yukio, for...”

“He said shut up. What’s most important, arguing with Yukio or finding Noriko whom I just hurt?” Kyoko interrupted him.

What the hell is going on? Ryu stared at Kyoko. She’d grown out her hair and lost some weight to become cuter, but right now she wasn’t cute at all.

Urufu rose, still fuming, and Ryu watched him leaving the classroom, angry steps, angry backside and angry hands, until he vanished behind the door he closed with a loud slam.

But for Yukio and Kyoko everyone in the classroom jumped at the sound.

“Good, now you’re going to do a lot of listening and no talking at all,” Yukio began.

“Because Yukio is very good at keeping things to what’s important, and your input isn’t,” Kyoko continued.

“Do you think that I’m just...” Ryu tried.

“Shut the hell up! Got some fucking problem with your hearing?” And that was a Yukio Ryu had never seen before. Probably the Yukio who befriended Urufu when he was put in an institution for juvenile delinquents.

He doesn’t really have the presence to force me, but this is probably important if they make a scene like this. Ryu decided to stay. Besides, they’d made a pretty good scene. The classroom oozed of bad mood now, and Ryu admitted he’d got caught up in the feeling as well.

In the end he just nodded and waited for what Yukio and Kyoko had to say.

It was Kyoko who started. “As we said earlier, we have sex.”

“As often as possible, which isn’t often enough, at least not for me,” Yukio added.

Kyoko’s hand sought his, and Ryu saw Yukio place it in his lap and squeeze. “He’s suffering from the misconception girls don’t want sex. It’s not often enough for me neither.”

By now everyone in the classroom sat erect and listened to them in wonder.

“That’s not the important part,” Yukio started. “We’re not eighteen,”

he added and lobbed the verbal ball to Kyoko.

“So from that point of view what we’re doing is improper. Got that?”

Ryu nodded.

“Are you planning to interfere with our relationship?” Yukio asked.

By now Ryu understood where this was going, but he kept his silence and shook his head.

“You and Kuri have sex as well,” Kyoko said. “I doubt it’s not even close to often enough.”

That brought a smile to Ryu’s lips. Maybe once a month, when Kuri’s schedule allowed. No it wasn’t enough.

“Do you want me to interfere with what little love life you have?” Yukio asked.

Ryu shook his head. If he’d played along this far he could just as well see it through to he end.

“Urufu and Noriko doesn’t,” Kyoko said, and Ryu didn’t need an explanation as for what it was they didn’t. “You’re interfering with what they don’t even have.”

Nice try, but if you think you can… Ryu’s thoughts were interrupted when Yukio dropped the nuke.

“The Prince of Himekaizen is going to stop thinking shit and just listen,” Yukio said, “or we’re ending our friendship with you right here and now.”

“I think you can live with that, but we’ll bring in Sato-sensei and Sano-san on this,” Kyoko added, and this time Ryu sat up erect in shock. That was a very real threat, one he couldn’t just ignore.

“To make absolutely certain Noriko’s not going to pay for your fucking shit I’ll tell your parents about what kind of swine you’ve become.”

Ryu stared at Yukio.

“Now get the hell out of here,” Kyoko said in a voice as far from proper as was possible. “This is Noriko’s desk. Vermin like you doesn’t deserve to be close to it.”

***

“I’m scared.”

Yukio’s hand held hers in a firmer grip. Kyoko sent him a grateful thought for his concern.

“We’ll be known as the school perverts after this,” Kyoko said. “My parents are going to be so angry.”

“Then let them!” Yukio stopped her midway through the corridor connecting both wings. “I’m with you.”

Kyoko listened to the silence around them. Through the windows her eyes followed the great sails and the wires stringing them to the walls. From the second floor she saw the structure in the canvas, how torn they had become and where rust ate the wiring.

“Yukio, I’m trying to live my own life now, but it’s hard.”

He didn’t say anything, but from the tapping of his indoor shoes against the floor Kyoko guessed he was thinking furiously.

You always care for me, and whenever I feel bad you always try to turn it into a fault of yours. “Yukio, it’s my parents, not you. Besides, we agreed to do this together. They’re our friends.”

He shuddered. “I’m scared as well, you know.” A slight tug from his hand told her he wanted to be in time for next class, and Kyoko decided that the rest of the conversation had to wait until after school hours.

This was, she thought as they walked through the empty corridor bathed in a grey winter’s daylight, not the smartest way. But it was, probably she hoped, the fastest. Make Ryu angry enough to scare him. Shake him around until he understands that something has gone awfully wrong.

She hoped they got through to him before it was too late. Else their establishing the rumour as them being the school’s pervert pair would all be for naught.

They passed the stairwell and after that they headed for their classrooms. Kyoko waved at Yukio before she entered hers.

A lesson filled with classic Japanese went by in a flash and after that they had the last long home room session for the year. As usual what was foremost in the teacher’s mind concerned studies. It was as if breaks were something evil that disturbed the schooling of students.

She left school in a state of confusion. Yukio stood waiting for her by the gates. Any other day and they would have shared the stairs down to the shoe lockers, but after their amazingly public display the gates felt better. Fewer people would get to ask them questions that way.

In the car home she held his hand, and none of their body guards said anything. Kyoko guessed they felt a change in the air; how she and Yukio both were more subdued. She guessed they didn’t understand the reason, but adults were usually better at letting things go without the need to understand everything, and she was grateful for the silence.

This happened once before, Kyoko thought. Noriko that time, in a failed attempt to save at least something from the mess that had been Kuri-chan and Urufu. So much has happened since then.

They left the car, and Yukio followed her into her home. Her parents had accepted them being a couple, and if anything they pitied Yukio. She couldn’t bear any children to carry his name, as if continuing a name was the very reason to live.

“Do you think it’s enough?” he asked when they were alone in her room.

Kyoko looked at him. Her Yukio. How anyone could think he was plain was beyond her. His face, perhaps a little rounder than the ideal male beauty, soft eyes without the eyelashes to make other girls turn and look after him and thin lips that were prone to turn up in an honest smile whenever their eyes met. Her Yukio, her solid rock in the world.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “We did what we could. I hope he’s shaken enough to reflect a little.”

Yukio nodded, and then the smile she loved to see spread all the way from his lips to his eyes. “I’d like some tea,” he said when she began to feel embarrassed. “Should we go down and make some?”

Kyoko nodded and rose to open the door. Her mother would have wanted to prepare the snacks. It was a part of living her life as a proper wife, but Kyoko no longer wanted that kind of artificial proper.

Yukio’s presence followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. Kyoko didn’t have to look behind her to know he was there.

An opened cupboard and a kettle on the stove later hot water was ready to be turned into tea. She preferred it this way. A water boiler was faster, but it just wasn’t the same thing, especially when she shared the moments with Yukio. She also liked the taste of water that had never been brought to boiling poured over the leaves.

Yukio kept himself busy preparing a few sandwiches and a small assortment of pickles to go with them. A touch of fresh sour and salty to break the taste of bread. He knows his way around this kitchen. Kyoko quickly finished the teapot and returned to watching Yukio. Small details, small proof we belong with each other.

He’d stay the night. They didn’t need to be intimate now, or at least not in that way. On a whim she carried the tea to the living room. Just to fell what it would be like to live together.

Yukio followed her mutely with a tray in his hands.

I’m playing house with him in my second year of high school. Shouldn’t I feel more embarrassed? There was no answer to that question. Listening to her mother washing clothes in a rather transparent attempt to make herself reminded a thought suddenly struck Kyoko. Do you ever stop playing house?

Her entire life Kyoko had gotten used to the great game of living a proper life, but now she wondered it a game wasn’t all it was. Did mom have dreams of her own? Did she fulfil them? And that question was, perhaps, the reason Kyoko finally calmed down, sitting in the sofa, drinking tea with Yukio.

Whatever the answer was, Ryu had no right to take Noriko’s dreams away from her.