While studying alone together with Noriko would have been a pleasure Ulf still declined her suggestion. Christina’s earlier stunt drew the attention of both media and police, and police arresting people from the media drew even more attention from the media.

Journalists from the US and western Europe were very different from their potty-trained Japanese counterparts. Freedom of press was a calling and not something best forgotten lest you discomfort people in power. It also meant western journalists never let go of their grip unless you clubbed them from behind.

So Ulf made himself scarce and dragged Noriko to the Haven rather than going home. Yukio and Kyoko would arrive there as well, and their armed body guards should be able to keep prying eyes from getting, well, too prying.

As it turned out he was correct. Ulf barely managed to pull his girlfriend inside before both body guards intercepted a couple of men with cameras growing like twigs from a poorly pruned bonsai. With a sigh of relief he opened the door to the inner room, nodded to James’ silent question and stepped inside.

“I wanted you for myself,” Noriko sulked behind him.

Ulf smirked. “At your place? With Ryu climbing all over my back because he dislikes us being a couple?”

When Noriko declined to answer Ulf turned and faced her. She was sulking.

“We can’t go home to me. There’s just no space for you staying the night there, and I’m not sending you home alone on a taxi. Not after what happened.”

There was enough space, but Ulf wasn’t about to go there, and he very much doubted Amaya would approve.

The inner room was all but empty. It was, after all, in the middle of the day, and but for the suspensions all students were supposed to attend class now. All but empty however wasn’t empty. A few Irishima High students as well as their vice principal sat there.

Guess it doesn’t count as skipping if your teacher is with you. It didn’t really matter that Satoru Noguchi probably wasn’t a teacher at all.

“Cramming?” Ulf asked.

He only received a few grunts and nods as answers.

“Why are you here?” Satoru said.

Ulf smiled at the older man. “At this time of the day?”

Satoru nodded and gave him a broken smile in return.

Ulf explained.

“Is he daft?” was the concluding response, and Ulf could only agree.

Behind them the door opened and James arrived with Ulf’s order. The tray he carried contained a little for Noriko as well, and Ulf shot him what he hoped was a grateful smile.

“Noriko, up for some serious cramming?”

She smiled at him. “Define serious!”

Ulf grinned. “James, when do you close shop?” Let’s see if that’s serious enough for you, Noriko.

“Eleven pm,” came the answer.

“Ramen for dinner?” Noriko asked, and Ulf had his answer. Then she emptied her bag on the table.

Taxi home after all I guess. He’d escort her home and continue to his own flat after he made sure she was safely inside. I hate this. Why? Ulf searched his thoughts. Because I’m afraid. He’d been threatened before, but it was different when people around him were in danger. He wished that made him some kind of knight in shining armour, but what he really hated was not being in control.

“Urufu?” Noriko had taken a chair, and now she sat staring at him.

“Sorry, sure, ramen is fine,” Ulf belatedly said and grabbed a chair for himself. “Math first?” Not that he really needed to study math at high school level, but it allowed himself to solve problems while going through what was really important at the same time.

With a shake of her head Noriko declined, and Ulf caught himself staring at her hair fanning out like a skirt around her face.

“Japanese?” he suggested instead.

This time he received a nod in return.

They crammed Japanese style. No thinking, just memorising whatever they believed would pop up on the exam, and within a couple of hours Ulf was dead tired from sheer boredom. He rolled his head to loosen up sore muscles and slid his hand across the table.

“Hungry?” he asked and took Noriko’s hand in his. Her fingers were smaller than Christina’s, just like everything with her was smaller than Christina. Ulf knew he shouldn’t compare, but he was a lot less physical with Noriko than he had been with Christina, so those thoughts still came unbidden to his mind.

Noriko looked up from her notebook and met his eyes. “Uhum,” she said. “Appetiser first?”

“Huh?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She pulled his hand to herself and leaned over the table. Ulf stared at her in surprise when her eyes were suddenly very close, and then he felt her softness on his lips.

“Tastes great,” she said when she let him go. “Ramen?”

Satoru’s cough reminded Ulf there weren’t alone in the room, and when he let his eyes wander behind Noriko he saw the trio of Irishima High students smirk.

“Ramen it is.” Am I running a fever? Ah, no, I’m blushing. “Should we go?”

Rather than answering him Noriko simply rose and went for the door.

Ulf shrugged and followed her, but it was impossible for him to stop a wide grin from spreading on his face. Thank you for being here. He swallowed his grin and joined her outside the café.

The ramen shop was close by but still far enough off for him to take her hand and enjoy a short moment of feeling her close to him. It feels good with your hand in mine, Ulf thought and intertwined his fingers with hers.

Noriko squeezed back.

***

Christina had Thomas dropped off at his home, but when she asked Jennifer if she wanted to be driven home as well the girl just shook her head.

“Going with Thomas?”

Brown hair flew around Jennifer’s face once again.

“Girls’ talk,” Thomas offered from outside the car. “She doesn’t get those too often. See you tomorrow Jennifer.”

Christina looked after his back as he climbed the short stairs to his door and vanished inside.

“Where to?” her chauffeur said.

“Home. Have them prepare for a guest,” Christina said and shot Jennifer a quick glance to see if that was what she wanted.

This time Jennifer nodded.

Seriously contemplating quitting modelling the last summer was, Christina realised, the smartest thing she had done. It must have shown, because Vogue dropped more or less all of their draconian demands, which meant she could have friends visiting her.

So why is Jennifer the first? Because Ulf wasn’t, and Ko-chan would understand that, and Noriko still didn’t feel comfortable around her.

“You live on your own as well?” Christina asked.

Jennifer nodded. “Well, there’s a body guard now,” she added.

“Body guard?”

Another nod.

Christina decided to wait for the girl to continue the topic of her own. Something was wrong, but pushing the freshman into a corner could backfire as well.

They continued the drive in silence. Through the windows Christina saw how autumn truly had come to the city. Later here than in Sweden, by well over a month.

After an awkward silence they arrived at her home, and Christina spent the ride in the lift reading up on her next shoot. Talking could wait until they were inside her flat.

She opened the door and invited her guest inside.

“It’s huge!” were the first words here from a voice belonging to someone other than Christina’s or her staff.

Christina looked at Jennifer. Maybe it was. Ever since moving in she hadn’t really given it much of a thought. Her small and rundown flat held more good memories than this one, and years of living in luxury must have made her numb to excesses.

“I thought you were used to it, diplomat daughter and all,” Christina said in an attempt to get a conversation going.

Jennifer hung her jacket on a hanger and walked further inside. She was, Christina mused, in for a surprise. The living room might look huge, but it also opened up to another seven rooms, most of which were empty since there was absolutely no way Christina could have made any meaningful use of them.

Maybe I’d have spent money on furniture if they let me bring friends home. Maybe, but the time for maybes had gone, and living in a world of fashion you either got over mistakes immediately or your were out of a career.

The dining room, apart from her own sleeping room and the living room they had entered, the only one furnished had a dinner for two waiting for them on a grand table for a full dozen. This would be her second time eating here. Ever since that first night crying over a lonely snack in her new home she spent what few meals she had here in the kitchen.

The food was, Christina noted mutely, superb, and she waited for the famished freshman to fill her needs before trying to open up a conversation again.

In the end it was Jennifer who eventually broke the silence. She placed fork and knife on her plate in a way that told Christina volumes of a well to do middle class upbringing and pretended to wipe her mouth with a napkin.

“I’m afraid,” she said.

Body guards, Christina thought. So she’s just putting on a show after all. In ways Christina felt relieved. The girl was human in the end. “I’m listening,” because this would mostly be listening from her part.

“I’m afraid of turning Thomas away, but I can’t stand him touching me.”

Christina nodded, but she couldn’t prevent a grimace from spreading on her face. “Did he do anything?” But that wasn’t the question, was it? More than a few models around her during her first life had been forced to bed men in power, and a couple, Christina suspected, were outright assaulted.

“No, no he’s gentle.”

He would be. Withdrawn to the point that Christina almost didn’t see him as a man, but with something in his eyes that told her he fought with himself every day to behave like a model gentleman.

“It’s because of that?”

Jennifer smirked and looked down at her empty plate.

Apart from a genuine interest in fashion there was a reason Christina abandoned modelling and built her empire. She desperately sought the power to prevent that from happening in her own world, but in the end she hurt others instead.

“Should I call a couple of other friends here?” Christina said. She hadn’t experienced what Jennifer had. There was little she could do to help.

Jennifer’s face suddenly turned into an ugly grimace of fear and loathing. “No! I couldn’t stand you looking at me that way.”

I can’t do anything! I don’t understand. I… oh! “I could leave you with them. Or just one of them.”

“Why? I came to you.”

She needs professional help. I could hurt her, but Noriko, maybe if it was her. Christina combed her hair with her fingers while she thought of a decent way to force her suggestion. In the end only the truth came to her mind. She’d apologise to Noriko later. “You know Ryu?”

Jennifer nodded, and her panicked eyes slowly returned to normal.

“He told me. Noriko, his sister. She’d understand you better, and I trust her.”

Jennifer’s eyes opened wide.

And so I’ll hurt a friend, and I’ll hurt you as well Ulf. Gritting her teeth Christina decided that if she was to be a disgusting woman something good could as well come from it.