Dreaming of Akina

Chapter Thirty Six

Detaching himself from Midori proved to be a lot harder than he had imagined and if it hadn't been because she and her father had left just before the start of the graduation ceremony, for some sort of business appointment, Bunta feared that he would have had her hanging from his arm throughout the whole morning.

So, thankfully, he found himself at the school's gym, sitting with his classmates in front of the stage where the principal was about to start his end-of-the-year traditional speech with all the relatives comfortably seated along both sides of the huge room.

'I think that Midori girl fancies you,' Yuuichi whispered to him just as the old man had started speaking.

'No, you really think so?' Bunta whispered back, managing to convey a high level of sarcasm in his tone.

'You should go out with her,' Yuuichi muttered, both ignoring Bunta's tone and looking oblivious to the fact that, not too far from there, one of their teachers had already noticed their chatter.

'No way,' Bunta replied.

'Why not?' Yuuichi insisted.

'Look,' Bunta said, still trying to keep his voice as low as possible, 'she's the daughter of who is potentially going to be my boss…'

'So?'

Yuuichi never got Bunta's reply to that question for, right at that moment, their Math teacher, a rather nasty looking old man whose glaring eyes managed to scare everyone students and fellow teachers alike, came up to them, readying himself to tell them off.

After this, both friends decided to remain silent, ignoring Miyazaki and Mitsui's chuckles and preparing their revenge against their classmates for whenever the ceremony would be over. Fifteen minutes later, Yuuichi had to get up from his chair so that he could climb the short flight of wooden stairs which led to the small podium where, placing himself in front of a mike, he started speaking.

Observing him carefully, Bunta decided that Yuuichi seemed to be reasonably calm, and that was very odd, considering that in a few hours his girlfriend would be leaving for Osaka.

'How did I do?' Yuuichi asked him the second he retook his seat and while the principal started handing the diplomas to each and every one of the third years. Bunta eyed the Math's teacher who, thankfully, looked to be busy observing the proceedings, almost as though as if the old man wanted to make sure he would lose sight of them. Bunta turned to Yuuichi to reply when he heard Miyazaki say:

'You were great: you almost made Mitsui cry.'

'I did not cry!' Mitsui protested making all three of his now ex-classmates burst out laughing.

'Anyway,' Miyazaki said looking at Bunta, 'is it true what Tachibana's told us?'

'It depends,' Bunta replied, throwing a quick glance at his best friend, 'what has he told you?'

'He said you're about to test for a racing team, a proper one,' Mitsui replied.

'Ah, that…'

'Oh my…' Mitsui started only to be interrupted, once more, by Miyazaki, who seemed to be even more hyperactive than usual.

'IT'S TRUE!' he shouted.

'Hey,' Yuuichi protested, 'I've never lied to any of you two, have I?'

'No,' Mitsui admitted, 'it's just that…'

'You've got to tell us everything!' Miyazaki interrupted him again.

'I would,' Bunta said, 'but I've got to go right after this finishes.'

'Yeah, we both have to go,' Yuuichi exclaimed happily.

'You are?' Bunta asked him, 'since when?'

'Er…' Yuuichi hesitated, 'well, I thought…I thought it was a given…I mean…'

'Hey,' Bunta interrupted him, 'it's not like I don't want you to come with us but, I just thought you…well…'

'I can go and celebrate this with Fuka tonight,' Yuuichi replied.

'Tonight?' Bunta asked him, looking as horribly confused as he felt, 'but…I…'

'Bunta,' Yuuichi started, now giving his best friend a concerned frown, 'what's wrong with you?'

'Er…'

Bunta hesitated while trying to find a way to inform his best friend about what it was now more than obvious Yuuichi didn't know.

'Fujiwara,' Miyazaki started, 'I think the principal's just called your name.'

That saved Bunta temporarily buying him some of the precious time he needed to come up with a way to get out of that mess. One thing was clear to him: Fuka had not told Yuuichi that she was leaving.

With that very unnerving thought in his mind, Bunta almost missed a step and it was only his exceptionally fast reflexes which saved him from falling flat on his face. He then rushed to get the cylinder containing the piece of paper which freed him from his student years and started making his way back to his seat.

'Bunta,' Eikichi said, making him stop half way through where his friends were.

'Yes?' Bunta asked.

'We've got to meet up with Itachi and his daughter in about an hour,' Eikichi said, 'so don't you waste too much time celebrating with your friends, okay?'

'Don't worry, I won't,' Bunta reassured him.

'Good,' Eikichi said then, glancing at the black cylinder, he added, 'and congratulations. I'm very proud of you.'

Bunta felt the usual knot of whenever his uncle said something nice to him and, after choking a 'thanks' to him, he almost literally ran back to Yuuichi. The minute he got there, and ignoring the fact that his friend hadn't gone to pick his diploma up, he said:

'We need to talk.'

'Wait…I've got to…'

'I know,' Bunta said, 'this is important though.'

'More than my high school diploma?' Yuuichi asked him in disbelief.

'Yes,' Bunta replied and, it was probably his deadpan voice and his extremely grave expression which convinced Yuuichi to follow Bunta to one of the corners of the gym, taking the chance that everyone was busy congratulating those students who had already had their certificates given to them.

'What's wrong?' a very concerned Yuuichi asked him.

'Look,' Bunta started after clearing his throat twice, ''I'm not even sure I should be the one telling you this but…'

'Bunta…'

'Don't interrupt me,' Bunta ordered him, cutting him off for he feared that he would lack the guts he needed in order to break his friend's heart the way he was about to do, 'Fuka hasn't told you anything yet, has she?'

'Told me?' Yuuichi asked him, 'what did she need to tell me?'

He stopped himself and, as though as he was a human light bulb, his face lit up in realisation.

'Oh no…' he muttered, 'Bunta…not Fuka…you and…'

'NO!' Bunta exclaimed finally understanding that his friend had got to the wrong conclusion, 'it's not like that…'

'What is it like then?' an increasingly furious looking Yuuichi asked.

'Yuuichi,' Bunta said, realising that the only way to get out of this mess was to be as direct as possible, 'Fuka's leaving town.'

Those three words were met with a sepulchral silence which was only disturbed by the ambient noise coming from not too far from there. Seeing that made Bunta open his mouth so that he could explain things further when Yuuichi, taking a couple of steps backwards, leant onto the gym's white wall, probably feeling to weak to stand up by himself.

'Yuuichi…'

'Can you say that again?'

'She's leaving,' Bunta replied, 'she's leaving to go to her aunt's in Osaka.'

He had never hated himself more than right at that moment, seeing the pained expression on Yuuichi's usually cheerful one was proving to be even more disturbing than he had ever thought possible.

'I'm sorry…'

'When is she leaving?' Yuuichi managed to ask.

'This morning,' Bunta replied, 'she had an open ticket for today so, I guess she'll be leaving with the first train after ten.'

Yuuichi stole a quick glance at his wristwatch before saying:

'I've got less than half an hour.'

The two friends stared at each other for a few moments before Bunta's brain started, at long last, to come up with some sort of action plan. He looked across the room to see that his uncle was busy chatting with one of the teachers, probably some old friend of his…

'I'll drive you there,' he said.

'But…'

'What?' Bunta asked him.

'Your test,' Yuuichi replied, 'you're supposed to have your test this morning.'

Bunta was, once more, astounded to see just how very selfless his best friend was. He shook his head a couple of times and said:

'We're meeting Itachi-san and his daughter in an hour. I've got plenty of time to get you to the station.'

Hearing this managed to convince Yuuichi who, forgetting all about his high school diploma and about the fact that both of his parents were there and, not even bothering to check whether Bunta was following him or not, he started making his way towards the gym's large doors, pushing one of them open and startling a couple of people who were standing nearby in the process.

'Sorry…' Bunta muttered as he too dashed past them.

Five minutes later, the two friends were onboard the 2000GT on their way to Shibukawa's train station when, breaking the silence which had fallen upon them, Yuuichi said:

'I never asked you how you knew about this. Did she tell you?'

Again, Bunta chose to tell his friend the truth and, taking a couple of deep breaths, he explained to Yuuichi the way he'd found out about Fuka's imminent departure.

'I see…' Yuuichi commented letting out a very bitter sounding chuckle.

'I'm really sorry,' Bunta said.

'Yeah well,' Yuuichi said, 'it's not like I wasn't expecting for something like that to happen.'

'You were?' Bunta asked him.

'Yeah,' Yuuichi replied then, out of the corner of his left eye, Bunta saw as his best friend took something out of his pocket, 'I was going to give this to her this evening.'

Bunta stared quickly at the object which was now on top of Yuuichi's right palm and what he saw made him feel so shocked that it took him all of his driving skills to keep the car on the road.

'Yuuichi…'

'I know,' his friend said, 'I told myself numerous times that it was too early to propose but…hey, I thought that now that I have finished school…you know…we could make plans and…'

He never finished the sentence for his voice broke down into sobs as he started crying. Bunta's distress reached an all-time high and, for the first time in his life, he truly didn't know what to do. Again, he had never had to deal with a situation such as this one.

'Yuuichi,' he tired, 'come on man.'

'S-sorry,' Yuuichi sobbed, 'just ignore me, I'm being stupid.'

Despite the fact that Bunta knew that his friend was definitely not being stupid, he decided to comply with Yuuichi's order and, focusing his attention onto the road ahead of him, Bunta just drove to the station as fast as he could.

Because of that, they got there just a couple of minutes later and, parking the car at the small car park, Bunta said:

'Come on, I'm sure we'll find her'.

Yuuichi wiped his face using the sleeves of his school uniform and, probably not trusting his voice to speak; he got out of the car and stuffed the tiny black box inside the pocket where he'd kept it all this time. Once again, Bunta took charge of the situation and, going to the small station's ticket booth, he asked after the trains leaving for Osaka to a nice looking lady who was sitting behind the safety glass.

'Are you sure about this?'

'Of course I am,' the lady replied, 'the train for Takasaki left just five minutes ago.'

'But there's another one, right?' Bunta asked, now whispering so that Yuuichi could not hear him.

'Of course,' the lady replied, 'but you said your friend was going to Osaka, didn't you?'

'Yes,' Bunta replied.

'Then she's probably onboard the one which has just left,' she explained, 'otherwise she will miss the connection with the Shinkansen.'

'I see…'

Bunta felt like his heart had just dropped onto the entrance of this stomach, settling itself there, feeling as heavy as a cold stone. Mumbling a quick 'thanks' to the lady, he turned round and, looking at Yuuichi, he said:

'Okay, let's not panic.'

'Panic?' Yuuichi asked him sarcastically, 'who is panicking? I mean, she's left.'

Ignoring him, Bunta ran to the panel which had the train's timetable on display and, running his finger across it, he found what he was looking for and, smiling triumphantly, he said:

'Let's go, we can still see her.'

'What are you talking about?' Yuuichi asked him.

'Listen,' Bunta replied, 'if we hurry up, we can catch up with her at the Takasaki station. Then you'll be able to go and look for her before she gets onto the Shinkansen.'

'Bunta…'

'Come on, we don't have time to waste arguing about this.'

'But…'

'Do you want to see her or not?' Bunta insisted.

'Er…'

'Then let's go.'

Knowing better than to try and reason with Bunta when he was this much stubborn, Yuuichi just ran after his friend, climbing back into the 2000GT just as it was starting to move. Only while Bunta stopped at the car park's exit, looking both sides for any incoming traffic, he allowed himself to talk:

'Bunta, you'll be late for your test if…'

'I know,' Bunta interrupted him, 'but I can't let you lose Fuka the way I lost Seiko. Sometimes I wonder whether I should have gone after her.'

Yuuichi stared at his friend, looking startled by the sudden and rare burst of honesty coming from him. It wasn't very common to hear Bunta use such a sincere tone of voice and it was probably that which persuaded Yuuichi to leave all the decision-making to Bunta.

'Just so you know…'

'I know,' Bunta interrupted him.

Without exchanging a further word, they got into the motorway where Bunta floored the accelerator, finally allowing the car to demonstrate the reason why it was Japan's number one sports car. At such high speed, it didn't take them too long before they got to Takasaki where, hopefully, they would find Fuka.

'There,' Yuuichi said pointing out a JR sign which indicated the Japanese Railways.

Bunta turned towards the right and, for the umpteenth time, he felt immensely grateful that there was no traffic at this time of the morning, they had probably just missed the rush hour.

At any rate, he found himself parking the 2000GT at yet another train station's car park, this time a significantly larger one and, just as they had done before, they locked the two doors up before rushing towards the station's main building.

Checking the timetable's board, they saw that the Shinkansen for Osaka was leaving in less than half an hour from the platform number four.

'Come on,' Bunta said, continuing his sprint.

The two friends spent the next five minutes looking around the platform when they heard through the station's speaker system that the train from Shibukawa was arriving at the platform number six.

'Bingo,' Yuuichi exclaimed happily, 'stay here, I'll go and see if I can spot her.'

'Okay,' Bunta replied and, only when his best friend disappeared down the stairs of the underpass which led to the other platforms, he allowed himself to look at the station's clock, 'shit,' he muttered. There was no way he would make it on time.

'Bunta!'

Hearing his name being called out made him lower his head and, just there, standing a few metres away from him and with a heavy looking suitcase with her, he saw a very confused looking Fuka staring at him.

'Thank god!' he exclaimed.

'What are you doing here?' Fuka asked him, now going from appearing confused to sport a very worried look on her pretty face, 'is Yuuichi with you?'

'What do you think?' Bunta asked her then, not giving her the time to reply, he frowned and said, 'no, let me rephrase that: you weren't thinking, obviously enough.'

'Bunta, I…'

'How could you even think of leaving without telling him?'

Fuka was saved the trouble to answer to that question by the sudden arrival of a nearly short of breath Yuuichi who, seeing her there, went from looking absurdly happy to utterly miserable within just a handful of seconds.

'Yuuichi,' Bunta stared.

'You better go,' Yuuichi interrupted him, 'or you'll never make it on time.'

'Are you sure?' Bunta asked his friend.

'Yes,' Yuuichi replied, sounding every bit as serious as he looked.

'How are you going to go back home?'

'I'll get myself a train back home, don't worry,' Yuuichi replied and Bunta noticed then that he had never removed his gaze from his girlfriend, 'now go, please. You've done more than enough already.'

'Okay then,' Bunta replied and, casting one last quick look at the couple, he ran back to the stairs and out of the station, literally jumping into his Toyota. He had less than five minutes to cover the nearly thirty kilometres which separated him from Shibukawa.

He could do it, no, he HAD to do it.

Otherwise, his professional career would end even before it had started.

This thought made his foot step onto the accelerator so hard that, at some point, Bunta feared that it would end up making a whole onto the floor of his beloved car and, while he cruised along the motorway going over two hundred kilometres an hour, he felt infinitely grateful that they had removed the car's speed limiter.

Bunta only allowed himself to steal a glance at the small clock inset onto the 2000GT's dashboard when he saw the sign indicating the exit for Shibukawa. One minute. He had one more minute till eleven o'clock.

Letting out a rather shaky breath, he continued pushing the car to its limits even after leaving the relative safety of the motorway, entirely ignoring other cars, and common sense for that matter, as he sped across the small town where he now lived.

'Oh no,' Bunta muttered seeing a van right in front of him, going so painfully slow that it almost made him feel like crying. He was just a few blocks away from the school but, at the current speed he was going, it would take him about five more minutes to get there. 'Fuck it,' he finally said while pulling over to the side of the road, parking his car at the first free spot he saw.

Jumping out of it, he lost a few moments to lock it up and then, running as fast as he could, he decided to cover what was left of the distance on foot, arriving at the school's entrance only to find that his uncle was there, standing near it, all by himself.

'Where have you been?' Eikichi asked him looking rather upset.

'Er…'

'You're ten minutes late,' his uncle said pointing at the school's clock and using such a final tone of voice that it made Bunta fear for the worst.

To be continued…