Take Four: Pandora's Box


I.

The next day, Yuuki was back in her uniform at work but Soujirou didn't come by.
She heard from Tsukushi, who heard from Akira-kun (at Eitou), that Soujirou remained by Sakurako's side all throughout last night at the club they always went to.
He had not turned up for the first two classes of the day, and showed up with a bit of a hang-over.

'YUUKI-SAN!'
Yuuki flinched but relaxed when she realised that the voice belonged to Akira and not Soujirou.
'Akira-kun, how are you?' she asked him.
He loved the sweets almost as much as he loved being fussed over by the boss-lady, although he wouldn't admit it.
She always felt safe around him because of his fascination with older women, and plus-- he was the pussycat out of F4 she thought.

'Hungry,' he said, and his stomach growled.
Son of a Yakuza boss, even his stomach dared not oppose him... on second thought, maybe he wasn't such a pussycat after all.
She helped him make a choice even though she knew he secretly knew every combination and passed him the container.

'So...' he said, sitting down one of the three tables in the small shop, You want to get drunk?'
'Excuse me?' her eyes widened.
'I'm assuming you know about him and Sanjo Sakurako?'

There were two ways she could go about this, Yuuki thought.
She could draw it out and pretend she didn't know who the "him" she was talking about was, or she could bluff her way out of it.
'Really Akira, it's not the first time that he's dating another girl. What am I saying,' Yuuki corrected self-derisively, 'he's never dated me-- so "another girl" isn't really right is it?'
'You know,' Akira said, chewing thoughtfully, 'you're stronger than you think.'

'Aaah,' she tried to laugh it off, 'you'll make me blush Akira-kun.'
She busied herself, keeping her back to him, and closing her eyes momentarily.

When had she gotten so tired of pretending everything was alright?

She had to do it with Tsukushi, who supported her all the way but still wondered if she was right to not give up on Soujirou.
She had to do it with Soujirou himself, because she knew that he would feel awkward if she were to play the victim-- and not seeing him at all would be a lot worse than what was happening now...
And she also had to do it with the rest of F4, though thankfully Tsukasa was so dense (or self-centred) that he did not think about much else except for keeping Tsukushi away from Rui-kun.

'Do you want to go and spy on them maybe?' Akira suggested.
Yuuki whirled around and looked him in the eye, 'Akira-kun, don't even suggest it-- its bad enough without being a stalker too.'
'But don't you want to see... aren't you even a bit worried that maybe this time it's different? I saw him last night you know-- usually he has two or three girls around him... but he never stayed far from her side. I've never seen him look that way before.'

I don't care.

I don't care, she repeated again and again but what she said out loud was, 'He's a big boy now, he can do whatever he wants.'
'And you're growing up too aren't you Yuuki-san,' she didn't know when it was Akira had gotten up from his seat and leaned against the counter to watch her closely.
'We all have to... eventually.'

'Here's something to think about,' Akira put a piece of paper face down on the counter, 'thanks for the food,' he said before sauntering out into the street.
It was a picture of the night before.

II.

She was shaken.
Truly.
She never thought that she could see such a lovestruck expression on Soujirou's face.
She'd seen him look, calm, cold, angry, happy, flirtatious-- but never such devotion, if she didn't know better she would think he was in love with Sakurako.

It was hours later, her shift almost ending and still she had not gotten over the picture.
She cursed Akira in intervals, for letting her open a Pandora's Box without even knowing it.
Now her mind was flooded with thoughts that could not be healthy for her-- they brought her heart rate up, her blood pressure... she'd made mistakes in orders and nearly cut her finger off with a knife when she was making a flower-shaped fruit.

'YUUUUUUUUUUKKKIIIIII!'
Her heart jumped and promptly fell even just by looking at him and her eyes prickled with tears.
'Nishikado-san, what are you doing here?'
'Is that the way to greet your favourite guy in the universe?' he teased lightly, 'I thought I'd come by and tell you about--.'
'No, I don't want to know.'

'Huh?' he looked at her as though he thought she was joking, 'Come on Yuuki, I've been dying to tell someone.'
'Tell someone else,' she snapped at him.

There was a silence.
She'd never spoken so harshly to him before.

'Yuuki are you alright?' he asked gently, 'did something happen?'
'Nothing happened, I'm just not in the mood to talk to you,' she said stiffly, 'Just go away.'

Just go away.
The moment the words left her mouth she wanted to call them back.
A fear that he might go away forever hit her so hard she couldn't speak.
And when he turned and walked out the door, the lump in her throat hardened painfully.

He was drifting away from her so fast, and she had no one to blame but herself.

Author's Note: I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up, but now that exams are finished I hope to update every couple of days. Leave a line if you have the time!! -Kei