Disclaimer: I don't own the original story
"Come on, Mai. Tell us who it is," Ayako says beseechingly.
Remaining cool and composed, Mai shakes her head and says, "I'm not telling," If I did, I'd probably have more trouble on my hands, she adds mentally.
"Don't think you're leaving here without telling us," Monk threatens.
She rolls her eyes. He just had to bring it up at dinner! She thinks, looking across the table to catch a glimpse of the smug looking monk. Everyone had seen her haircut,(1) but they hadn't asked because they knew that it wasn't any of their business, but Monk had had the gall to bring it up at the dinner table and made it their business when he mentioned that there was something that Mai hadn't "reported." After a moment of silence, probably for dramatic effect, he'd let the bomb (That she had, in fact, cut her hair because she'd been rejected) drop. His meddling started this siege of questions and, somehow, the subject hadn't burnt itself out yet.
Despite her premeditated answer, Mai had expected the truth to come out quickly, what with so many people discussing it and the culprit sitting amongst them, but that had not been the case. How the result happened still confused her, but she was relieved to find that in the midst of all the attacks, there was one thing she no longer had to worry about: No one was going to press her any further about Naru being the one who'd rejected her—not that they hadn't tried.
After her initial refusal to answer, Bou-san had opened up the subject for debate to the whole room. The first person to take a swing at answering it had been Masako, and the obvious first guess was Naru, but before anyone else had a chance to comment on it, Bou-san, himself, rejected the idea. A handful of looks were cast his way and he proceeded to lay out his reasoning as to why. The way Bou-san presented his facts and added it together for the group made it seem like Naru was in love with Mai—earning Naru several wide-eyed looks and comments throughout the explanation.
At the end of the explanation, when he was pressed, the only comment Naru had offered was, "No matter what I say, you'll believe what you want." And so, by some twist of fate, Bou-san had gotten the group to believe that Naru wouldn't have turned her down—at least it seemed that way since no one brought up Naru's possible involvement again after that.
Mai found Bou-san's logic, and the fact that everyone seemed to believe it readily, baffling since she hadn't seen even half of what Bou-san claimed to be the truth about Naru's affection towards her, and none of it changed the fact that he had already rejected her. With what the monk proclaimed in such opposition to the past, Mai couldn't find it in herself to believe any of the facts he'd presented and so she threw all hope that Naru might like her out of her mind completely.
A chuckle brings Mai out of her reverie and she scans the faces surrounding the table, her eyes first falling on the grinning Monk across from her. Next to him, Taka is talking animatedly about something that sounds like it could be a guess as to why Mai might have been rejected. Beside her, at the head of the table, is Naru. He's eating, looking completely detached from what's being said. To his left, obviously paying attention, is Lin. From her view of his profile, Mai can see one corner of his mouth curved up at the edge. He's smiling, she observes.
A movement out of the corner of her eye catches her attention and she turns to see Masako, now hiding her mouth behind her kimono sleeve, glee dancing in her eyes. And Masako is smiling too...either that or she was the one who had been laughing earlier, Mai acknowledges, starting to feel embarrassment creeping into her cheeks. Looking away from the kimono clad teen, Mai's eyes fall on John-san, who looks conflicted between humor and concern.
Ayako stands up next to Mai and slaps her hands down on the table, cutting off yet another of Taka's remarks, her face obviously not amused and her voice raised at Taka. "Like she'd do that. Besides, no matter what scenario you come up with, trying to guess the reason why she was rejected won't help us figure out who did it!"
"She's right," Bou-san says turning in his seat to look at the brown hair girl on his left. "We can look into why she was rejected later."
As everyone's attention is drawn back to her, Mai puts her head in her hand, finding that she wants nothing more than to leave the room, the nature of these debates wearing on her mind. But Bou-san probably won't let me leave, she reasons, resigning herself to herself to stay seated, but hoping that they'll allow her to leave soon.
Pulling her hand away from her face, she lets out a long breath and glances around the crowd once more. This scene would probably be funny, Mai admits to herself, if it wasn't for the fact that my love life is the topic of debate.
Taka starts, "Okay. well then, what about that Yasu—"
Her comment immediately earns her a, unanimous "Not possible," from both Ayako and Bou-san before she can even get the whole of the question out.
"He also likes Mai-san," John says with an apologetic smile.
"But," Taka says looking from John to Bou-san in confusion, "I thought he liked Norio."
At the comment, Bou-san shivers noticeably, his eyes shut tight in obvious repulsion while Ayako covers her mouth, laughing jovially,(2) and falls back into her seat.
At Taka's confused look, John explains, "Even though it's sometimes hard to tell when he's joking, Yasuhara-san is straight."
"Oh." Taka says hesitantly and after a pause asks, "How about—"
"It's that idiot," Naru says all of the sudden, his tone matter-of-fact—silencing everyone by actually joining in on the conversation as well as drawing everyone's attention to him.
As Mai looks at him, their eyes meet and something about the look in his eyes and the tone he'd used reminds her of the conversation they'd had about Gene before they'd found his body. She drops her gaze first, already too lost in memories to deny the statement—leaving the rest of the group looking back and forth between the two.
Bou-san stands up, turning towards Naru in eagerness, and asks, "Who is he?"
From the end of the table, Naru's gaze remains fixed on Mai, his jaw clenching as he too gets to his feet. "Lin," he commands, ignoring the question directed at him and moving to leave. Lin follows suit and the two start on their way out.
Ayako gets up entreating Naru as he begins his move towards her and the door beyond, "Wait, Naru, who is it?" When he doesn't answer, she steps into his path.
Momentarily halted, he levels a cold look at her and she takes a step back towards the table, allowing him enough room to step past her. Defeated, she turns her appeal to Lin. "Do you know who it is?" Lin shakes his head in the negative.
Placing his hands on the table, Bou-san leans across the table towards the retreating pair. "Naru, tell us. You obviously know already," he says casting his right hand towards an unresponsive Mai, "so tell us."
Naru stops. "All this over a hair cut," he murmurs under his breath before turning to look over at Bou-san "Is it really any of your business?" Naru asks. He looks around the room for an answer. When no one responds, he opens the door. "Now, if you're done harassing Mai, there's still work to do downstairs," he says before walking out, Lin trailing after. When the door shuts behind the duo, silence reigns and a few guilty faces turn to look at the girl in question.
Mai continues to sit, her thoughts on Gene and their time together until the memories end abruptly with an undertone of depression and his last words: a vague sentence closing with, "Nevermind." He'd left it at that: he never returned, never uttered a goodbye; he'd just left. In a way, Naru is right. He did reject me by moving on...she concludes, letting the information sink in. So that means...I've been rejected by both brothers, she realizes.
Her focus returns to the present, her gaze returning to Naru's vacated chair. Looking around, she takes in the solemn faces in the group around her and the second vacated chair. Of the group, only John, a sad look on his face, can meet her eyes without shame. As she looks around, at the silent crowd, Mai's desire to escape returns in full force. Given the state nearly everyone is in, she knows that no one will stop her now.
Getting up, she excuses herself and turns to leave the room. As she heads to the door, John does a quick glance around the room and, after a moments hesitation, follows after her.
(1) Rosedream brought up a good point in her review...To me the significance of Mai cutting the hair was so "normal" that I didn't think it needed explaining, but obviously it does.
In Japan specifically, at least as I understand it, for women, long hair is considered a woman's greatest asset. And thus someone cutting a girl's hair is a major offence against the person—in bullying for example. If a person has their own hair cut then cutting it is a sacrifice or a release of power. It's is normally done to signify closure, growing up, or a new start. Though it isn't just girls, I think I've seen it used most after a girl's gone through extreme heartbreak.
Along with that, it's origin is probably from the Confucius belief that you shouldn't cut your hair because your body is the gift given by your parents and harming your body, even something like cutting hair and fingernails/toenail is considered disrespectful to your parents. As strange as that may sound, it's not just part of the Japanese culture, in fact many oriental cultures have some degree of Confucian beliefs, but it isn't solely a Confucius belief either. The Native American culture believes that cutting your hair is cutting your spirit. And, last but not least, it's also reflected in the bible: the story of Sampson and Dahlia.
(2) Ayako isn't being quiet and demure like Masako tries to appear. The Japanese tend to be self conscious of their teeth—which is why so many cover their mouths when they laugh.
Just to set the record straight, this is how they are sitting clockwise: Naru is at the head of the table, next are Lin, Mai, and Ayako, John is at the foot of the table and then it's Masako, Monk, and Taka.
And to anyone who caught it, Yes, I do realize that the only person who is actually in his proper seating order by Japanese custom is Naru. I apologize that I wasn't thinking about seating order properly when I wrote it not to mention it would take a long while to correct it tastefully.
For those who don't know the rule, the highest ranking person or most important guest is seated at the kamiza (the seat of honor and the place furthest from the door as in the head of the table). The further down the table you are placed from the kamiza, the lower your position until you reach the shimoza (the worst spot) which is at the foot of the table with your back to the door—This is just a guess, but it's probably the worst seat because if someone attacked with a sword, you'd be the first to die.
Anyhoo, Sorry for all the mistakes and odd wordings. Thanks for all of the reviews and thanks so much for following me and all the feed back about the footnotes. I like writing them. All throughout writing chapter 9 I was worried about putting them in and it did slow me down, but knowing that the majority of you like my footnotes has lightened my heart. I hope I can get the next chapter to you soon.