“I’ve been here before.”

Kyoko looked at Noriko. Ueno park. They all had been.

“At this café I mean,” Noriko said. “Had a talk with Principal Nakagawa,” she added.

“When?”

“Just after the nightmare began,” Noriko muttered.

Kareyoshi, of course. “The pig!”

“Principal Nakagawa is a pig?” Jeniferu asked over her coffee.

Kyoko giggled. “No, Nakagawa-sensei is decent. I just guessed he spoke with Noriko about the pig.”

“The pig?”

“How dense can you be girl?” Hitomi glared at Jeniferu. “Kareyoshi!”

Across the table Tomasu looked as if he was about to grab Jeniferu and protect her from the verbal onslaught, but just as he reached for her something in his eyes clouded over and he dropped his hands and stared down at the table. Something was off.

Kyoko let her her eyes wander to Jeniferu. She looked both hurt and relieved. Yes, something was definitely off.

“We’re here,” Noriko said, and Kyoko saw her stare at Jeniferu with murder in her eyes, “to talk about just that.”

Why would she be angry with Jeniferu?

“Thomas, I want to, but I can’t. Not right now.”

Kyoko looked at Jeniferu, and as she did so she saw Hitomi’s dark glance. That the beauty had cast off her image as an airhead was no longer news to Kyoko, but her face expressed an understanding that made Kyoko feel left out of the loop. What’s going on?

Kyoko sipped some of her tea and waited for someone to let her in. She wouldn’t have been asked to postpone her date with Yukio for no reason.

The sound of a mug clacking on the table told her the time had come. It was Noriko’s mug.

“Kyoko, please don’t hate me, but could you tell Jeniferu what happened to you?”

Kyoko frowned. “What happened...” Ah, the nightmare! “You mean the attacks?”

Noriko nodded.

“The attacks?” both Hitomi and Jeniferu asked in unison. Tomasu just stared at her.

She had an inkling where this was going. “Jeniferu. First I need you to tell me what’s going on. I don’t want to hurt you with my ignorance.”

For the first time Jeniferu looked like a broken girl and only Noriko’s hands on her shoulders kept her in her chair.

“I’ve been so scared. Ever since...”

So her brash attitude towards anyone who asked had been a show after all.

“But Tomasu...” Kyoko began.

Jeniferu looked like she was about to start wailing, but she grabbed the edge of the table with her hands and stopped the tears. “I’m scared of him.”

What?

“I’m so sorry Thomas. I love you, but you scare me, and you’ve done nothing wrong.”

Gods! Understanding finally hit Kyoko. “Noriko, I can’t.”

“Why?”

Kyoko heard her own words blurt out. “I was attacked, but I wasn’t violated that way. I tried to protect Yukio both times, and it was all so quick, and I never lived through the kind of nightmare that would make me afraid of his touch.”

“Both times?” Something in Jeniferu’s voice told Kyoko curiosity won over misery.

“I heard you were assaulted, but both times? Hitomi added.

Maybe I can, after all.

Kyoko told them. About the attack aborted by her father and the one that wasn’t. She told them about how she could never have children and about the hate she felt for the man who stabbed her. She didn’t, however, tell them she suspected Urufu knew something bad had happened to him, and she didn’t tell them about her and Yukio’s hope for the future.

In the end, amidst a lot of blushing and half sentences, she did tell them a little about what she experienced together with Yukio, and how that made her feel safe and whole. How he made her feel safe and whole. Maybe that, if nothing else, would turn Jeniferu’s feelings for Tomasu in a more hopeful direction.

“But you’re kids! How the hell...” Tomasu began after Kyoko was finished.

Together with Noriko she shot him down with angry glares. A freshman speaking about kids with Hitomi present was bad. But for Urufu behaving like an idiot at the start of the new year Jeniferu shouldn’t have known either.

Hitomi shook her head. “Keep your secrets. I don’t mind.”

“Secrets?” Kyoko tried.

“Look,” Hitomi said. “Four westerners pop up in school. Sometimes they behave like really old people and it’s like they’re a magnet to awful things happening.” She smirked. “I’m not blind you know.”

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She got it wrong about Jeniferu, even though the girl did behave above her years from time to time, but Hitomi was close enough for Kyoko to feel something akin to fear rising in her. If Hitomi suspected something, then how many more in the club?

Then Kyoko surprised herself. “Another day, but not today. Today is for Jeniferu.” Kyoko glanced at Tomasu. It really was for him as well, but she hoped he would understand and forgive her.

He nodded approval, and when Kyoko looked, so did Hitomi.

“You never felt dirty?” Jeniferu asked.

Kyoko bit her lower lip. This was the hardest part. “I did. I’ve never told Yukio, but when I found out I was barren I wondered if he wanted a soiled woman.”

Noriko shot her a shocked stare. “You never told me.”

“I know.” Kyoko admitted the truth. “It’s my parents. I know they love me in their own way, but sometimes they hurt me being the way they are.” Then she turned her attention to Jeniferu. “But I’ve never ever been afraid of having Yukio close to me. I can’t even begin to understand that feeling.”

“But you jut did!” A glimmer of hope glowed in Jeniferu’s eyes. “My dad, and your parents. I think I get it.”

Kyoko shook her head. “I don’t.”

“Dad would get angry. Dad got angry.” This time Jeniferu shook her head. “That’s not right. He got angry with me as well, or at least I’m afraid he did.”

That didn’t make any sense at all, but the hard stare Tomasu shot Jeniferu told Kyoko it had made sense at least to him.

“I should have been by your side when it happened. I’ll be there whenever you want me to,” he said.

It was a little bit of bravado and a lot of love. Kyoko hoped Jeniferu could come to trust the man she loved enough to give their relationship what it was worth. From what Kyoko had seen he was a thoroughly decent person.

“Don’t you have a date?” Noriko asked, and Kyoko understood her friend was about to tell the others about what had happened to herself. She must still believe Kyoko didn’t know.

There was no betrayal. Noriko would tell her when she was ready, or at least when she felt both of them were. Kyoko was certain they already were, but it didn’t matter.

***

“Thank you.”

Ryu looked at Kuri when she ended the call. Despite the thin tin-can quality to the sound he recognised his sister’s voice from the other end, but he hadn’t been able to listen in to her side of the conversation.

“Sis?” he asked for confirmation.

Kuri nodded and smiled. For once she looked small and vulnerable. “Noriko helped me, and I owe her an apology.”

Leaning into the sofa Ryu returned her smile. It was his first time here, which was kind of odd since officially they’d been a couple for half a year. It could have been a perfect love nest, apart from being big enough to run various sports tournaments in, or apart from being furnished in a way that had him wonder if all money ran out after they put up the building.

“There’s a lot of floor,” he said.

That bought him a smile from Kuri that showed a little teeth for the first time in days. At last a genuine smile. She flashed her prefect teeth whenever the camera demanded it, but it wasn’t the same thing.

“Never got round to make it my home.” Kuri grabbed a towel and went for her bedroom. “Shower’s long overdue. Just wait for me, will you?”

Of course her bedroom has an attached bathroom. “Sure.”

This was the kind of flat that serviced the really rich, but it contained almost nothing inside to prove it. For a moment Ryu wondered why Kuri didn’t care, but then he recalled the reason why Kuri had once moved here.

Urufu. They broke the two of you apart. But that wasn’t all of it, was it? They broke you as well, or did you do that to yourself? Whatever he did Ryu knew he could never force a wedge between Kuri and her memories, or he’d lose her. She needed a place for Urufu in her heart.

The smartphone on the table chimed and Ryu threw it a glance. Sunday, noon. Noriko should be home by now. She spent the night with friends, or at least he hoped she did. Just thinking of her spending the night with Urufu made him angry.

Thank you? I owe her an apology? No, Noriko hadn’t slept at Urufu’s place after all. Besides, even if she did Sato-sensei probably would put a stop to anything indecent.

He listened to the muffled sounds of Kuri showering. A little over a year earlier he’d be blushing to his ears or try peeking; or at least imagine what he’d see if he tried peeking.

Am I growing up?

But that was too easy an answer. He listened to some more watery sounds. Last time he had shared the shower with her. There really was no reason to go peeking. Ryu doubted she’d even as much as scold him if he walked in on her.

He sighed and sank down in the sofa. Maybe they could make use of some dating time to buy at least a little furniture for her flat. Enough to make it resemble a home. Maybe they could spend nights here rather than in the down town establishments for couples who didn’t want to bring the other home for one reason or another.

Another few minutes went by while Ryu dozed off, and in the end he felt Kuri’s hand on his shoulder shaking him awake.

“Afternoon date?”

Ryu nodded groggily and rose. He followed her to the hallway and like always when they found some time for a proper date she slipped into something with heels. Not too much of it, but enough to make it obvious she was the taller of the two.

“You know that’s bullying,” he said on their way down in the lift.

She grinned. “Yup.” Then the mirth fell off her face.

“Make it a short date? I believe you need to have a chat.” There were lots of areas where he couldn’t compete with Urufu, but reading the mood was not one of them. “We’ll grab a late lunch, and...” Wait, I’ve got a better idea. He told her.

Ryu waited outside the building waiting for Kuri to prepare better for his plans. Two phone calls later he felt like a much better person. When she returned she wore casuals and sneakers.

“You sure about this?”

“Yeah,” Ryu said. “I’ll hold on to this until the restaurant.”

He led Kuri’s bike with one hand and held hers in his other.

“Almost feels like my boyfriend wants me to cheat on him.”

Ryu smirked. That thought had crossed his mind. “This is one of those adult things. I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself involved in, and I probably wouldn’t understand it fully.”

“Continue.”

“I’m jealous enough to have preferred if you talked things over with Tomasu, but I’m also honest enough to admit that the one you need talking to is Urufu.”

He was rewarded with a shine of gratitude in Kuri’s eyes when he looked at her.

“Ryu, just so you know. You’re growing into a good man. I’m happy to have fallen in love with you.”

She didn’t use those words all that often, and whenever she did Ryu felt shivers of pleasure in his chest. Unfortunately they were always accompanied by him blushing like a child.

“It’s not really me trying to be a gentleman,” he said to relieve himself from some of the awkwardness. “I have ulterior motives you know. This is just my way of trying to get you into bed later.”

Kuri giggled. “Your mind’s in the gutter for sure. Well, I believe that could be arranged,” she added and laughed.

With a sigh of relief Ryu squeezed her hand. Bedding her was pleasant enough, but for now he thoroughly enjoyed finally having managed to dispel the dark thoughts that clung to her the last week. If it took a dirty joke to give her joy and peace of mind then he could spend the rest of the day chaining vulgarities one after another.

“I love you too,” he said. Those words came easy, because they were true.