Summary: when you mess things up real bad and it involves a woman, you better work quickly before everything goes downhill.
Word count: 9200
Chapter Theme: Inochi no Namae (From Spirited Away)
Chapter 7: A Gentleman's Duty
When Kagami got in front of Hirose's residence, the only source of light was the luminous snow clouds gathered at the northern sky. Their position felt so otherworldly that even to the dullest person it would seem that the sun was setting in the north sky—it was a kind of afternoon that the play of chiaroscuro would seem a little unnerving to a sensitive person.
With shaking hands Kagami rang the bell, as the tote bag slung in his fist with the groceries he shopped in the early morning. If it wasn't winter, the veggies would have wilted and his meal prep will have gone down the drain. The pity was, despite his success at shopping, he barely did anything today—so goodbye to this week's meal prep. He will have to sustain on rice and miso soup alone.
Mrs. Hirose opened the door quite promptly, but it took her a few moments to recognize Kagami. However, he was grateful that he didn't have to initiate because she recalled the conversation on the phone she had with him earlier.
"Oh, Kagami-kun... come in, come in." She graciously invited him in. The wafting aroma of curry reached Kagami's nose and filled him with a stinging regret that he missed his meal prep. She made Kagami sit down in the drawing-room but he refused.
"It's okay Mrs. Hirose-san, I can't stay." Kagami said, "If you would just give Class rep—I mean Hirose-san her bag!"
"Ara... what's so hurry? Are you sure you won't meet Ren-chan? She would be grateful of you-" Mrs. Hirose interjected.
"I am pretty sure she won't be-" Kagami said with a demure voice, "please tell her that... you know what—never mind!" Kagami stood up almost immediately on his feet, not even daring to stay for tea, "thank you for having me. Now if you'll excuse me-"
Growl
The very audible churn in Kagami's stomach was embarrassingly loud. The last time he ate was 10:30 in the morning—although the mound of rice with yesterday's leftover soup and the curry was enough to feed the half of the Seirin Team, it was half-a-day's worth for him. On top of that, he had undergone so much of stress that his body responded with a very audible hunger. Mrs. Hirose smiled a little and Kagami was grateful that it wasn't in front of Hirose.
"Kagami-kun, would you like to stay for dinner?" she politely invited, but Kagami broke into a fit of embarrassment and blushed brilliantly purple.
"No Mrs. Hirose-san—I am quite fine—I-I'll just go—please it's such a hassle-" he tried to reason with whatever pieces of self-esteem he's got left off after that loud tummy growl. But Mrs. Hirose was not having it, "I am making Katsudon and Chasu Pork... it'll take quite some time, so why don't you wait for it hm?"
"Mrs. Hirose-san...Please, I will just-"
"Stay for dinner Kagami-kun, it's an order-" Mrs. Hirose said firmly despite her honey-sweet smile. Kagami could not argue against that, not anymore. Mrs. Hirose, after sensing his compliance softened up again "I can call your mother so that she doesn't make extra food for you—"
"—not it's okay..." Kagami abruptly blurted out, "you don't have to take so much in..."
Mrs. Hirose smiled fully with warmth "You are such a well-mannered boy!" Mrs. Hirose complemented Kagami. Those words startled him a little bit because he was not very used to those kinds of compliments. In the US, he was complimented for his body or athletic ability, and people never really commented on his appearance because of his resting face. It felt unfamiliar to be complemented with something associated with refinement of character.
"What's wrong Kagami-kun, did I say something wrong?" Mrs. Hirose's smile faded a little bit.
"No... Not at all, it's just-" Kagami stuttered, "I am never been called good-mannered—rather the opposite really."
Mrs. Hirose cast a warm affectionate glance and patted Kagami gently at the back "didn't anyone told you that you are supposed to be inflated when you get compliments? Anyway—stop talking to this old woman and why don't you meet Rei-chan in the meantime? Come with me-" Mrs. Hirose asked Kagami to follow her upstairs to her daughter's room.
The time Kagami visited the house with Riko and others, he didn't move an inch from the sofa spot he was sitting, thus it was of no surprise that he found it rather uncomfortable to venture in a more private part of the house. The second floor looked smaller and less spacious than the first and Mrs. Hirose knocked on the door to the left, named "Queen Mab". Kagami had to adjust his head around the fact that all three rooms were named something weird; one was called "Oberon" and the other was called "Ariel".
"That's my husband's doing-" Mrs. Hirose sighed a little, perhaps with a bit of cringe, "he got 'inspired' by the Highclere Castle's naming plans and he did this to all of the rooms of the house—apparently the English nobles named the rooms of their houses! Everyone who comes in the house gets a free laugh-"
"I didn't mean to laugh-" Kagami blushed.
"It's okay... it's been embarrassing me for years—but I can't bear to have them removed, Rei-chan will freak out" She smiled and knocked the door sonorously, "Rei-chan, open the door-" there was a sense of alarming firmness in Mrs. Hirose's voice. A small sound of footfall followed after from the inside.
"Go away ma, I don't want tea-" the girl opened her door, with two purple eye patches under the eyes, hair tied in a bun, and in a thick dressing gown. She stopped on her tracks wide-eyed to see Kagami right beside her mother and almost immediately tried to slam the door shut. But her mother was quicker than her and intervened with the feet in the threshold.
"Kagami-kun just came here to tell you something—thought you want to hear him in person" Mrs. Hirose's voice had a very authoritative tone in it. She sounded like she was suggesting, but in real life, she was ordering her daughter to thank her benefactor. Hirose glanced at Kagami severely, who just stood there like a blanked out idiot.
"Did Kagami-kun tell you what business he does have with me? Because I don't remember anything that he has to say-" she added sarcastically.
"Why don't you ask him yourself, hm?" Mrs. Hirose added, the obligatory polite smile was gone off her face, "And please, try not to be rude okay—I don't wanna waste the dinner tonight"
The threat was straightforward. One misbehavior and Hirose Ren goes to bed without dinner. Hirose softened her face forcefully and perhaps to keep with her mask of politeness she rolled off her eyes and tried to reason with her mother. "You should have told me that before you decided to dump him on me—at least let me change first-" Hirose attempted to shut the door on her mother.
"Of course...I'm sorry dear, should have informed you earlier. Kagami-Kun, feel free to wait here and if she doesn't open within five minutes, just give me a call okay?" Mrs. Hirose made herself downstairs, humming a tune, leaving Kagami on the threshold.
Kagami's state was obvious: he stood there like a complete idiot which was a common state he felt whenever Hirose was around. Moreover, her mother for some reason brought a boy on her daughter's doorsteps and he really didn't know how to deal with it. Why he was standing there in the first place? He didn't want to be thanked by Hirose in person (although it would have been quite nice), so why couldn't he just sit in the drawing-room like a normal person, eat dinner and go home? The most he could do was to offer Mrs. Hirose to cut up some vegetables.
The door opened quite suddenly and it startled him a little. Hirose was standing in front of her door, now looking decent with jeans and a sweater on. But for some reason, she didn't get rid of those under-eye patches and the monk bun that slumped on the top of her head. It wasn't exactly the poised and prim figure of Hirose that Kagami was used to see, and it made him a little anxious. It felt invasive as if he lifted the veil of privacy and committed something indecent.
"Come in..." she mumbled and walked towards her room. Kagami followed in sheepishly because he could feel that she wasn't doing it exactly of her free will. There was an air of reluctance in her stance and that made Kagami guiltier than before.
"Ojamashimasu..." Kagami uttered with uncharacteristic politeness. As Hirose turned on the lights of her room, Kagami stopped for a moment to assess the surroundings. The only time he entered a girl's room under totally different circumstances was Riko's room, when he was cramming for the selection test, so he had very little reference to compare. It was neat and tidy like Hirose herself but much smaller than Riko's. The color schemes seemed more masculine in Kagami's eyes who always thought a girl's room must be decked with pinks and purples. It was mostly grayish and greenish and brown, Kagami was almost reminded of those mint-chocolate chip ice-creams he used to have in LA.
"Sit there-" Hirose pointed out at the kotatsu and slumped on the floor quite reluctantly.
"Class rep, what's wrong with your eyes?" Kagami asked with concern, upon Hirose's translucent face, the purple under-eye patched looked odd. Hirose looked at him dismissively, "what does it look like idiot?—my eyes are swollen and blotchy and that's why I put on the eye masks-"
"Why would your eyes end up all swollen and blotchy?" Kagami asked again, his mind still plagued about the morning conflict and how he made a scene on the road, "don't tell me-" His tone alarmed Hirose greatly. She swiftly turned her head towards Kagami with widened and flabbergasted eyes staring at him as if committed some offenses, "w-what do you mean?"
"You... you didn't cry, did you?" Kagami asked tentatively. Hirose's face blanched and she slid back defensively from her position "—why would I waste my t-tears on someone like y-you-"
"Oh my God, I did make you-" Kagami slapped his face in regret, "Class rep, I really didn't mean to do that—man this sucks!" the last bit has worn off as a regretful mumble. The painful and awkward memory of being lectured by the entire team that time when Momoi ended up in the gym drenched and in tears, plagued him like crazy. Even though Hirose wasn't even close to the tearing mess and gentle Momoi Satsuki, Kagami felt really bad. The words Kuroko said that time stabbed him in the ears:
You lack delicacy
True, he didn't only lack delicacy but also decorum; he insulted a girl in the middle of a street! The problem that he made Hirose cry was a thing of the past, it happened and there was nothing he could do. The problem was how would he make up to her? By the way, how Kuroko did it... didn't he pat Momoi in the head and comforted saying everything would be fine? Should he try to do that? No no... he never touched a girl in his whole life and if he pulled what Kuroko did back there, Hirose would not only be super mad but might bury him in the backyard... Kagami felt a pang of pain in his chest—poor class rep, she ended up in tears and might have ended up walking home and buried herself in the futon, crying her eyes out-
"I am sorry-" the gravelike silence of the room was finally broken by the mumble of the most hated person in Hirose's life. She startled with his tone and turned immediately towards him, perhaps to scrutinize his intention.
"I shouldn't have called you a hag..." Kagami mumbled again, scratching the back of his neck, trying to scramble his words with his utmost sincerity "I know you think me as a nuisance because I literally barged on to you, but I had no way to apologize other than that—I even brought your bag you..." he hesitated to spell it out "left at the cafe-"
Hirose's face started to contort with confusion and astonishment, "my bag? What are you talking about?"
Kagami briefed everything that happened after the 'incident' as articulately as he could. With every word, Hirose's expression changed from alarm to aghast. She looked at Kagami with the most incredible expression and in this process doubted her every sense.
"But that was hours ago... where did you-"
"I sat at the police station all day and waited for Mrs. Hirose to call me that you went home safely—I couldn't just let it leave! I mean it was your bag, it had money and everything and your house are like—three stations away! I was worried about you." Kagami mumbled with a slight sweep of red in his cheeks.
"That was really idiotic!" Hirose flared up, "of course I didn't walk out without money! Only an idiot puts all the money and cards in their purse and swings it around like a fool for the purse-snatcher to get it... of course, I had money, how dare you!" she spoke up with agitation.
"Hirose-san, please calm down-"
"—and you waited all day..." at the end of the sentence, her voice shook a little, "—to deliver a goddamn purse-"
"—It was YOUR GODDAMN PURSE, CLASS REP-" Kagami protested.
The abrupt shout rendered Hirose speechless. She didn't know how to react. She could only sit in her place. Her angular teal eyes widened with astonishment, a trace of moistness shining under the silvery indoor light. Even in that irrevocable stillness, she felt like a stone statue, a statue left for the sun and rain for so long, a statue whose outer layers were chipping off like onion skin. She stood up slowly, with her face hung on her chest—as if she was being possessed and moved by some ventriloquist.
"C-class rep?" Kagami panicked as he looked upwards only to notice the shadow cast on her eyes by the lowered head. Perhaps the overreacted shout was a bit too much.
"Wait here..." Hirose said as she walked towards the door. She huddled her way to the door, slamming it shut after her then she thundered down the wooden stairs. Not after matters of minutes, she climbed upstairs. She kicked the door open like some movie villain. She was cradling a bunch of packets, fruits, jellies in her arms.
"Class rep? What are those?" Kagami asked sheepishly.
Hirose stomped towards the Kotatsu and unlocked her arms. The packets rained all over the marble top of the Kotatsu, some even landed on Kagami's head, "these are called snacks you dummy-" Hirose said with a sense of obvious annoyance, "and these are just appetizers—you are staying for dinner, I have informed downstairs-"
"—but Class Rep, I cannot-"
"You literally gulp down half a dozen of Maji hamburgers in the middle of the day, I am sure these are just pre-dinner peckish bites-"
"—Class rep, could you just listen-"
"—Besides, I am just doing my mother a favor because if you eat those, she might not have to serve you the dinner for the entire Japanese Army-"
"—Class rep, just for a minute-"
"I have already ordered your dinner, you stayed all day out for my purse—that's the nicest thing I can do-"
"CLASS REP..." Kagami screamed to interrupt the flow of Hirose's ordering speech.
"WHAT?" Hirose replied with an equally loud scream.
"Mrs. Hirose already invited me to dinner... truth be told, she ordered me to stay for dinner" Kagami added sheepishly and was greatly taken back when Hirose almost busted out of an embarrassing fit of fury.
"And you are telling this now? Honestly, I just wasted my breath on some good-for-nothing topic—this just proves how extraordinarily slow you are... hell, there are rocks thinner than your skull." Hirose retorted.
"How am I to blame here... you wouldn't stop about how I eat the whole meal for the Japanese Army—there should be a line on food shaming for a person who is simply famished-" Kagami retorted.
"Then stop your whining and just eat already..." Hirose breathed, "mattaku this numbskull idiot-" she turned away and sat on the chair on the writing-table.
Kagami chose not to bother her anymore. She brought him food after hearing that he has spent all day outside the home without a drop of water. She might not be the person who bursts out in tears with gratefulness—oh! She must be of those kinds, like Midorima. No matter what she did, she portrayed her thankfulness silently without much drama. Kagami felt quite comforted. In fact, it was better than getting vocally thanked by Hirose.
The silence in the room was convenient when Kagami was about to eat. He opened a small packet of jelly and extended his arm towards the chair on which Hirose was sitting.
"Class rep, want one-?" Kagami offered with his gruff and embarrassed voice, and Hirose quite wordlessly snatched it from his hand, "yes, but don't offer me anymore—ma will murder me if I eat anything before dinner-"
"Only if you tell her-" Kagami suggested casually, plopping the cherry jelly into his mouth.
"You plan to tell on me?" Hirose retorted almost immediately, she was evidently threatening Kagami with a chilling voice
"Gosh no—why would I even do that? Why must fight with every living thing on the planet—chill for a second okay!" Kagami said and gulped the jelly pops almost instantly.
As he chewed, he started to pay attention to his surroundings. The box window across the door was a cozy-looking reading nook, and the sides of the window were framed with narrow bookcases. The bed looked like it was made of antique teakwood, which even had a reading light on so that one could read in bed. Hirose scribbled furiously at the background as Kagami's eyes moved further to the down-right. A folded room divider with exquisite black and gold work upon, stood abjectly at the corner, where the thick dressing gown Hirose wore earlier slung casually. However, the thing that caught most of Kagami's attention was a range of thick looking books peaking from an antique looking bookshelf.
"What are you looking at?" Kagami was startled by Hirose's voice and stared at her with a stupefied expression. She was looking at him with a boring look.
"C-Class Rep... How long you've been-"
"I wondered why the chewing sound stopped-" Hirose said with a bored voice, "just checked it in case you did something funny-" Hirose's eyes fixed upon Kagami's idiotic expression, "and... what are you looking at?" she enquired with her face resting on the top of her palm.
"N-No... I was just looking at this bookshelf-" Kagami said nervously, "it looks like something out of a museum-"
"Of course it is—everything in this room is antique-" Hirose said with a mild pride, "This furniture were the only things left after the Second world war." She unceremoniously pointed at the bookshelf "this one I believe was my grandfather's back in the '40s. When the old family house was sold, papa brought a lot of furniture, books, and antiques from there—I believe there are a buffet and a dressing table in Oberon which belonged to papa's Grandmama"
"Are they all yours?" Kagami said to steer the conversation forward and to avoid her condescending look. The dazed inquisition annoyed Hirose a little who, until now wasn't paying a lot of attention to her guest, "that's a little presumptuous to assume all of those things belong to me when my parents are alive and I am only a minor-"
"No... The books, there-" Kagami pointed at the bookshelves "are they all yours-?" he soon came out of a daze. Hirose took a moment to reply properly because she had yet to understand the intention behind his statement.
"Yes... they are all mine—borrowed, bought, presented, inherited, but all mine" Hirose looked at the bookcase with a boring look. Kagami's eyes were slowly moving on the trophies on the top shelf and on the top of the writing-table, "and those too-" Hirose said as if she was used to with these kinds of statements.
"How many are there?"
"16 trophies and 300 books-"
"300 books!" Kagami said with an astonished gaze. There was no one in his acquaintance that owned that much book, let alone a person of his age. The books in the bookshelf were not only the only books in the room, but there were also some stacked alongside the reading nook and on the funny-looking writing table "that's incredible! You read all those?"
"Cover to Cover 65%, the rest in parts as references-" Hirose said boredly as if it was no big deal.
"Sugei..." Kagami exclaimed softly, "I too like to read, but only basketball magazines-" Kagami smiled nervously, "I lack the patience to read anything as heavy as that." He almost regretted saying that because he knew how Hirose felt about anything lesser-than-intellectual.
Hirose sat silently, looking firmly at the bookshelf, perhaps pretending not to have listened to the silly remark of Kagami's. She hated when people didn't understand the importance of good books and compared them with anything less dignified. She wondered if she angered the god of misfortune in some way to be bombarded with such mishaps within a span of two weeks. She turned again on her writing table and Kagami resumed his eating.
After some moments, Kagami felt rather uncomfortable. It wouldn't have been so if they didn't have the conversation earlier. Now that he knows how to converse with Hirose, the silence felt empty. "What are you doing?" Kagami said while stuffing his face like a squirrel with kelp-favored potato chips. Hirose turned her head to Kagami with some papers already opened at the writing-table, "I am doing some homework for tomorrow-"
The packet of chips fell from Kagami's hand. His mouth gaped in panic "Oh shit... we had homework? But there was nothing on the blackboard on Saturday... I checked it twice-"
Kagami's sudden stupefied alarm almost made Hirose laugh. But she restrained herself the best she could, while facing Kagami away, fighting the impulse of pulling a prank on him "no... It's my homework for the drama. I am writing some direction points for Takao-kun so that he can supervise the script without me jumping at people's throat at every three seconds—besides, I don't wanna see you pigging out on snacks before dinner, I'll barf!"
The after statement retorts almost got tolerable with Kagami. Instead of retorting back, he focused on his food and looked at the bizarre situation he was being treated in Hirose's house as a guest. She was rude as hell as a host but he too, sort of intruded in without her free will.
The munching sound of Kagami's snacks almost synchronized with the crisp and sharp sound of a pen scrawling through the paper. About half an hour passed without any words. After gobbling up nearly a quarter kilo of food alone, Kagami paid attention to the figure of Hirose, sitting straight and scribbling like a maniac.
The tiny modern table clock tick-tocked away the time. The scribbles softened down slightly as Hirose put down her pen and shook her stiffened right hand to ease up her fingers.
"I am done eating..." Kagami said, taking the moment's chance.
"So?" Hirose commented, resuming her scribbling.
"You can face me now-" Kagami stated plainly.
Hirose huffed with a slight annoyance "Is it compulsory?—I am working on the Porter scene for the next read-through" Hirose answered dispassionately, "and if you read your script properly, you would know, you open the scene. I am doing you a favor here; writing instructions for your pea-brain—so don't bombard me."
"Can't you lay off the work for one second and turn this way!" Kagami complained "I am feeling bloody uneasy when you are not looking at me-" Kagami blurted out thoughtlessly.
Hirose didn't turn from her work but cocked her neck with an expression that seems to judge Kagami quite hard for his thoughtless works of audacity. Kagami, being the slowpoke at human conversation, just realized what he just said.
"I-I don't mean that like that, it's just uncomfortable to stare at the books and stuff and chewing like a bloody idiot-"
the flustered face of Kagami made Hirose's eye roll at the back of her head, she felt like it was some gender-bend shoujo manga where instead of the girl, the buff looking hero says 'zutto isshoni itai' (I wanna be with you forever) with heart and sparkles filters at the background. How cheap, Hirose thought and replied with her usual disinterested haughtiness '"We don't have any kind of relationship that would make me mistake for anything like that"
Those words tasted harsher than she imagined, even the bad-ass Kagami looked like all the air has been pumped out of him. After all, Kagami was her guest and the most decent thing she could do was to comply with it. She rotated her sitting chair towards the Kotatsu where Kagami sat "and here—I have just turned, happy? Hope you don't feel like a 'bloody idiot'." She snatched the script from the writing table and put it on her knees to write down as if nothing happened.
"Why do you have to write down instructions for Takao?" Kagami enquired, which obviously interrupted Hirose's peace: "I thought directing a film or drama was very—deliberate! You just have to show up and shout at people like you did with Koganei-senpai that day-"
Hirose cocked her eyebrows at his audacity and almost wanted to mouth a few profanities which would definitely terrify her refined father, but she restrained herself. She took a deep breath as if to swallow the annoyance and realized Kagami wasn't entirely at the wrong.
"No Kagami-kun, directing a drama or anything in the world is not deliberate, at least not for me—" she answered calmly "a director need to have a clear vision for every scene and every act. Some people draw storyboards, in fact, my father likes it that way, but I find writing along with the script way more convenient-"
"Your father is a director too?" Kagami interrupted with an awestruck voice.
"Oh yes... He is Head of the Drama Department at Tokyo University. In fact, I acted several times in his dramas—in minor roles though!" Hirose added disappointedly, perhaps she was accusing her father in silence "Anyway... it seems my 'deliberate' ways are taken as Nazism by many so I thought why I don't use an insider as my interpreter. I am practically chained with you and in that way, I can direct the way I want without offending anyone's pants off."
"Sounds like you want Takao to be your spy-"
A sudden smirk carved Hirose's lips "That's so political Kagami-kun...see when you speak to the right people, your brain starts to work on its own-" she was very pleased with herself, like a Catholic Nun who just converted a non-Christian in a single sitting "yes... but I would like to call him a double agent, or an ambassador, or an envoy—I don't know. I hope it works this time—I don't wanna lose my chair over you people."
Several moments of silence passed between them. As much he liked that he was finally having a conversation with Hirose, Kagami felt it was sometimes hard to do so because she either gives an answer too quickly or directly or puts a dampener over the flow of conversation. Her complete disinterest in other people's lives and her conceited demeanor sometimes felt quite hurting to Kagami.
"Class rep, may I ask you a question?" Kagami pushed, despite his converser's disinterest.
"My my, a question... sure!" Hirose added sarcastically without lifting her head off the script she was beta-ing.
"Why do you hate us so much?" Kagami asked.
For several moments, Hirose did not speak at all. She closed the manuscript, putting the pen exactly on the page she was working on, and folded her legs. The purple eye patches seemed to peel off as she crinkled her eyes.
"Why do you ask?" Hirose asked calmly, sliding her elbow further towards the writing-table.
"To understand why do you hate us so much?" Kagami answered straightforwardly. He tried to keep his eye contact with Hirose as well as possible. He instinctively looked at people's eyes when he spoke, even the Anti-Christ Akashi Seijuro—but whenever he tried it with Hirose; he felt his eyes burn and water.
"It's pretty simple, isn't it? You guys took our thunder" Hirose justified without a hitch, cocking her jaw slightly to the side.
Kagami swiftly broke eye contact, a prick of guilt stuck near his throat even though he knew he did nothing wrong "We didn't exactly mean to-"
"But you did... and you cannot help it really!" Hirose looked away with a dry smile, her teal eyes matted with cynicism, "It's the world's order: the Macrocosm and the Microcosm—the king is meant to rule and anyone who challenged the king unlawfully ends up in the gutter." She huffed slowly and deeply, expelling the vapors of the dissatisfaction of the polluted reality "Take me as an example" Hirose looked at Kagami with a sour look, making him exceedingly uncomfortable "no matter how many trophies I bring to my school or how many credit points I bring to my class, I am bound to be overshadowed by a bunch of sweaty players because of some unwritten rule that sportspeople are on top of the high school food chain—even my ever-supporting Ono-sensei brought me into a task to remind me how I am supposed to be beneath you." She pointed her left finger at Kagami's face "and yet you expect me to like you?"
That was it; there was nothing to argue about it now. Kagami could never find any counter whenever she spoke. She was always so articulate when she puts someone down or argues. As if she organizes every petty little flaw of people and their facts in her head in alphabetical order and fetches it right away when the time arises. Just exactly how resentful a person can be to have to hold every single negative emotion inside them? Kagami could never understand how someone endures so much and stays in the same place which makes them miserable.
"If you are so fed up with the system, why don't you break it down?" Kagami enquired, trying his hardest to understand something he would otherwise never invest his time in "Why keep participating in the system that chokes you to death... if you hate us so much why you agreed to help at all?"
Hirose did not look at Kagami, like someone doing a misdeed by abiding the orders from upstairs "It was helping you or losing my chair in the Student's Cabinet? Which one would have picked Kagami-kun?" she glanced at Kagami.
The eye patches slid off a little as their moistures were wearing off. Perhaps for that reason, Hirose's eyes looked weary. Kagami was quite startled to see her eyes like this—as if he was looking at a work-worn middle-aged woman who saw much of life than him. Even though he was simple when it came to the approaching his life, he knew those weren't the eyes of a normal teenager.
"It's just a high-school Student's union chair-"
"What if I tell you 'it was just a Winter-Cup', how would you feel?" Hirose crossed promptly, and perhaps to her expectations, Kagami hadn't a word to say. Indeed, what would have happened if someone came and said that his defeat by Touou's hands in inter-high was just for a stupid championship? He would turn livid and smack that person right at that place. His dilemma reflected on his face instantly, causing a sadistic delight in Hirose's eyes "See?" she said with a know-it-all manner and leaned on her chair, "Kagami-kun, some people are just born leaders, and some people have to work their way up. You unceremoniously became the Royalty of the school and a person like me who wants the position and works hard for it doesn't—and I can't stand it!"
"I just don't get it-" Kagami said frustratedly, "what does it have to do with your chair—seriously I don't understand a thing!"
"It has everything to do with my chair—JUST PAY ATTENTION-" Hirose screamed in annoyance. She was fuming for some reason "If stay the way I am in a school that has the least use of my talents, I will just be another nerd! I don't want that... I want power, I enjoy being in charge, is that so much to ask?"
"Why choose a school that has the least use of your talents? Go find some school that appreciates you, there is no point staying here—what are you trying to prove here?" Kagami stated heatedly, seriously she sounded like she was playing the victim and it irked Kagami quite heavily. He hated this type of people, who always blame someone else... he was a fool that he thought Hirose was someone else. She was just another angry victim, blaming the world for her flaws.
"Even here, you people get the advantage—being good at Sports opens the door for so many good schools. People come to scout you and take you away on the red carpet, but not for us-" Hirose said, "there is no mercy for a person like me—you get judged for your potential, we are judged for what we can prove, and unfortunately that time I slipped from my pedestal" Hirose said bitterly and reluctantly. She didn't want to bring up her past to someone as unfeeling as Kagami and at the same time, she didn't want to lose her argument "even now, I am shoveling crap for you because I am forced to feel I owe you something—if you don't do good, it will be on me... it's all work no reward—and you still feel I am playing the victim?"
"Class rep... I didn't mean-" Kagami startled at Hirose's exact choice of phrasing as if she heard his words firing inside his head a moment ago.
"It's okay..." Hirose turned towards her work station, "everything for the chair. As long as I have the chair, I have some power—it's okay." The last bit came out as chanting of a mantra as if she needed to remind herself why she is doing it.
"That's not true..." Kagami said, "class rep, that's not true at all! You don't need a chair to control power-" his voice was bubbling with excitement. However, his enthusiasm was met with a cynical look from Hirose, who just started working on a new page.
"I don't need a chair to control power?" Hirose repeated Kagami's words with cold sarcasm, "what do I need Kagami-kun? The power of friendship-"
"Class rep...I am serious!" Kagami frowned, his voice dropped slightly "Class rep, I don't know what happened to you in the past, if you want to stay in the power now, you don't essentially need your chair—it may be handy, but it's not the endgame—"
"And what is that pray?" Hirose's sarcasm hasn't yet faded away, instead, a questioning look suspended on her face
"The way you are now no matter what you do, no one will stop questioning you." Kagami executed his speech very slowly and patiently, "they don't know your story, they don't know you and if you stay this way—you will not see any improvement to your situation at all." Kagami exclaimed, "people don't like you Hirose-san...I am sorry to say it, but people just don't like you. You may be a topper or good with drama and stuff but behind your back, people talk shit about you, all the damn time!"
"I don't care about being liked-" Hirose interrupted "I always do the right things-"
Kagami threw his palm in the air in a preventive manner, lowering his eyes slightly to justify that he was not arguing, but pointing out mistakes to prevent a friend from making mistake "That's where you are wrong—personally, I would have agreed with you if it were last year, but I have seen people." Kagami's slit eyes suddenly hazed up, recalling his first meeting with Akashi Seijuro "People who are so terrifying that they can make people bow without raising their voice, and they don't even need to berate other people-" he complemented Akashi almost unknowingly.
Hirose looked at Kagami as if she understood that she is being compared with someone and it didn't settle well with her "Are you making an attack on me?-" she asked imperatively.
Kagami felt the nervous pang returning again, he shook his head defensively "No... Absolutely not—I know the feeling, I used to berate Kuroko all the time when I first met him. But later I realized how stupid it was because even in basketball where strength is everything, he was excellent without it. Class Rep, you don't need to intimidate people, you just make them convinced that they like you." He said as softly as he could. He hadn't Kuroko's delicacy or sense of diplomacy. He wondered how he even managed this far, conversing with Hirose, so he trusted his gut and spoke again "People don't like you not because you are an academic, they don't because they think you are putting them down all the time-" Kagami smiled slightly "The old kings are dead Class Rep... You need to be liked by the people."
Kagami paused after speaking for so long to check on the reason behind Hirose's long and retort free silence. He almost expected another dirty look but instead, his class representative smirked smugly "Are you sure you didn't memorize it off, Machiavelli?"
"What's that? Some TV shows like the Game of Thrones-" Kagami reacted almost instantly.
"Something like that" Hirose said mysteriously, knowing perfectly that it would not get through Kagami's brain even if she tried to explain it properly. But she couldn't resist the temptation entirely "you can say it's the daddy of Game of Thrones and everything political in this world-anyway, with that kind of speech, do you have some suggestions for me?" she enquired with a manner as if she was humoring him.
"Suggestions for what?" Kagami asked with a straightforward voice.
Hirose rolled her eyes at his antics "How I am going to be the best leader, even without a chair?" she asserted.
"How am I supposed to know that? I am not interested in leading-" Kagami said nonchalantly.
The blatant anti-climatic response to an otherwise impressive speech made Hirose tick. Her usual displeasure with the general population of Kagami's kind returned and Kagami being the representative had to face the berating as a consequence. "That is why you are a complete idiot," Hirose remarked sharply "you preach about proving what you want and now you cannot even support your claim with a solution. This is why you shouldn't open your goddamn mouth in the first place and should have done what it does best: chewing" She shook her head with disappointment and prevented Kagami's attempt to speak with a single index finger pointing in the air "Do you know what separates a preacher from a leader? The motions and the processes to actualize the vision—when I thought that you have an ounce of gray matter in your head, you open your damn mouth"
Kagami slapped the top of Kotatsu irritably, unable to hold his frustration "There you go again-" he bellowed "you and your damn nitpicking nature. Just because you were raised all fancy, doesn't mean everyone has—" he stopped and gave Hirose a very exasperated look "that's why people can't stand you."
"You little-"
Before the argument could escalate, the door opened with a slam "Dinner is ready-" Mrs. Hirose called and looked at the children, who were nearly upon each other's throat "Ara, did I interrupted something-?" she added mischievously, hiding her smirking face behind the huge ladle she was carrying in a manner of a Heian-era coy court lady.
"Chigaimasu-" a uniform uncomfortably voiced complaint was bellowed from both of the boy and the girl.
Mrs. Hirose's mischievous smile disappeared instantly. With a very imperative voice, she called "Just come down to dinner already... I don't wanna serve you cold pork-"
...
"You eat so well Kagami-kun—you must be so easy to raise-" Mrs. Hirose said fondly, serving Kagami a fourth helping of curry, with a content smile on her face. Unlike her daughter she wasn't least bit bothered with Kagami's appetite: he was truly every mother's dream. On her kind response, Kagami hastily gulped and moved his left hand in front of his face as a polite Japanese gesture of formal denial "Oh... it's not like that Hirose-baa-san-"
Hirose was nibbling the ends of her chopsticks, casting a disapproving look on both of them. After her mother's fond gesture, she smiled quite sarcastically, which obviously did not miss her mother's keen eyes.
"What is it? Is there anything funny Ren-chan?" Mrs. Hirose asked casually enough not to disturb the dinner and imperative enough to instruct her daughter to check up on her impertinence. "Nothing-" Hirose commented and scooped a big lump of rice from her bowl. "Is that so?" Mrs. Hirose dismissed the matter then and there and turned to her guest "how you like the food Kagami-kun?" she asked rather eagerly
"I have no words to describe it-" Kagami replied with equal eagerness and awkwardness. It was obvious that he wasn't used to all the attention he is getting on this table.
"—isn't that the truth-" Hirose mumbled.
Her words didn't reach anyone's ears at the dinner table and Kagami seemed to be bubbling with excitement "the curry tastes so different—the smoked paprika is simply delicious. And the Katsudon tastes like Quiche Lorainne-"
Hirose was quite flabbergasted with Kagami's sincere description, but she didn't let her face belie her emotions, "that's quite a big word for you don't you think-?" Despite her snide remark her mother did not reprimand her and was basking with the compliment she received "My my, Kagami-kun, you're quite sharp! I am serving this to my husband and daughter for years but none of them found out-you understand quite a lot about food—your mom must be so relieved to have you nearby-" Mrs. Hirose flattered with a single breath.
Kagami's face faltered a little bit with discomfort "—I don't have a mother—" he replied sombrely. His statement brought a sudden silence across the table. Mrs. Hirose's smile faded considerably and with a serious tone she hushed "Oh my lord, Kagami-kun I am so sorry—I didn't know-"
Kagami stiffened up instantly, realizing that his words came up rather abrupt "It's not a big deal actually-My father single-handedly brought me up... I really never knew my mother, not ever. Me and my old man used to live in LA until I decided to come here to Japan. I currently live solo in my dad's old condo-" he spoke in one breath.
Mrs. Hirose courteously smiled and for a few moments, the table was silent except for the ticking-tocking of chopsticks on the ceramic bowl. After several bites, Hirose excused herself off the dinner table politely, putting down her half-eaten pork cutlet on the side-plate.
"Rei-chan?" Mrs. Hirose asked if she was alright. Kagami's head also turned towards Hirose, who was trying to get to the top shelf.
"Yes, I am fine... I will manage this on my own-" she replied and opened the larder. She stretched her height to the fullest to reach something on the top shelf, but with little avail. Her fingertips were barely touching the shelf. Kagami swiftly rose from his seat and brought down a greenish looking jar, and they assumed their seats like nothing happened.
"Thanks-" Hirose mumbled with a small nod across the table as she scooped out a considerable amount of green paste on her bowl and started to dip her pork cutlet on it like it was another dipping sauce. The pungent smell of the green substance made Kagami's nose burn and Mrs. Hirose alarmed and disapproving.
"I swear to God, Rei-chan, I am going to throw that rotten thing away from the kitchen if you keep this up!" Mrs. Hirose looked indignantly at her daughter's pork, slathered with Wasabi sauce "at this rate you'll either get indigestion or you'll end up in the hospitals one day with an ulcer in your stomach"
"Ma... did you forget we have a guest present in the table-" Hirose said with a mischievous smile, "you might not put him off his unwavering appetite-"
"Don't act smart with me now-" Mrs. Hirose said with a mild warning and crinkled her nose again "Dear lord, you ruined my Tonkastu with that ghastly thing!"
"Ma please, you know how stress makes me crave spicy stuff-" Hirose said defensively, while chewing her cutlet, delicately wiping the leftover sauce with the next piece with utmost dedication. "If going out for a coffee gives you stresses then you need an attitude adjustment already-" Mrs. Hirose retorted swiftly.
Kagami who was used to the LA side of food and the very traditional side of Japanese cuisine marveled at the nasal sensation that burned through his sinuses and entered into his brain, like some 100 proof spirit cleaner "Class rep, are you sure you can eat that?" his twitched his nose so that he would not sneeze all over the dining table "Isn't that too much?"
"Worry about your own food, Harpoon-" Hirose answered nonchalantly
"That must be the reason you speak like you're breathing fire-" Kagami answered with a sarcastic jab.
Hirose put down her chopsticks and looked at his face "At least I don't cause world hunger."
"Means nothing when you are North Korea level nuclear threat-" he replied with a sharp jab.
Mrs. Hirose chewed on her Chasu Pork, enjoying the tennis match of two hot-heads' retorts. The meal turned out to be better than she expected.
...
"Thank you for the dinner—I will take my leave then-" Kagami bowed gratefully after putting on his shoes at the porch. The night cold of January was setting in so Mrs. Hirose didn't press on with any sort of polite filler of further greetings. However as he was turning to leave, her face changed as if she remembered something.
"Kagami-Kun, just wait-" she said and ran inside. After some moments she came out with a large steel container, the ones which are used for delivering lunches. She handed the container to Kagami and said with a hushed tone "here, these are some side dishes, keep them in the fridge and eat them slowly throughout the week-"
Kagami fumbled so bad that he couldn't string a decent reply "But these—Mrs. Hirose... I-"
"Just take it... think of it as a gift, don't skip meals and come whenever you crave homemade meals" Mrs. Hirose requested as she patted the hands of Kagami affectionately. After sensing the gentility of Mrs. Hirose, Kagami smiled briefly and took his leave. His footsteps on the crunchy snow disappeared shortly after the door was slammed shut. As Mrs. Hirose turned on her heels to enter the landing, her daughter was looking at her, leaning at the door panel of the drawing-room. Her teal eyes filled with annoyance and inquisition.
"Why didn't you tell me right away that he had brought my purse and you invited him to dinner?" she asked while peeling her eye masks.
"That's because I wanted you to invite him as a reward for what he did!" she said mysterious and patted her daughter's back.
She was going back to the kitchen to finish up the washing, but something caught her eyes, that was sitting on the coffee table of the drawing-room "eh, what are those green stalks in my drawing room-" she rushed in and picked up a supermarket plastic pack, that was filled with vegetables and some scallion stalks were peeking out of the translucent plastic pack "oh god, I think he left his groceries here—poor thing, and he lives alone too, must have spent most of his pocket money on it—Rei-chan, just run after him, I don't think he would've crossed the block"
Hirose whined at the future prospect of chasing Kagami, "Not again Ma... I had enough of him already-" she said with a visible reluctance "You always make me do unnecessary things all the time-" she complained. But eventually, she had to comply because she knew that her mother is not someone whom she can defy so easily.
"Fine... I'll go-" she said and grabbing a parka from upstairs, she dragged her feet outside with the almost wilting grocery swinging at her hand. Her mother was right, he wasn't far away. He was just near the end of the alley.
"Kagami... oi, Kagami! You forgot your groceries at our house" Hirose called loudly from behind to alert him. But it seemed that he didn't hear her at all. In fact, the whole scene looked very conspicuous. Despite having feet these long, how come he came such a short distance in such a considerable time. Hirose tensed up, what if something went wrong with that American stomach after dinner at her place—if something happened then it would be her household that will get the blame.
"Kagami..." she called carefully, "what's going on?" she walked to his side and observed the stiffened profile of Seirin's six-feet Ace, the mighty Kagami Taiga. With shaking hands, he pointed at the nearby streetlight, under which a black street-dog was glaring at him like he came to mug the neighborhood.
"What is the matter? That's just a dog-"
"That's it class rep-" Kagami said nervously "I can't do dogs-"
Hirose paused for a while. After the long silence where Kagami marinated in his cynophobia, Hirose broke out into unceremonial and rather rude laughter. The loud sound of her side bursting giggles was enough to send the unfortunate canine away from Kagami's path.
"Y-you..." Hirose pointed out; shaking with laughter, "y-you are a-afraid of d-dogs-?" she clutched her belly to keep herself from rolling on the road laughing, "The mighty Kagami Taiga... Basketball Prince of Seirin... is afraid of dogs?" Hirose said, "so this is thy might ye valiant herald of sportsmanry?"
"Ha.. ha... very funny!" Kagami glared, "—and you know an awful lot about someone whom you claim to hate!"
"I would hang myself before I do that..." Hirose instantly straightened up, "and besides I can't help but retain some of the information which is reluctantly pounded upon me by brain-dead fangirls of the basketball team-" she scoffed at her neighbor.
"Okay then..." Kagami said in a typical American sarcastic fashion to acknowledge the unconvincing piece of reply and looked at Hirose square in the eye. Hirose cocked her head back in a gesture that she was quite taken aback by that action.
"What's your deal now?" she asked.
"There is something different about your face-" Kagami observed closely, "did you do something with it?"
"What are you talking about?" Hirose asked with her guard on.
"No... it's just-" Kagami hesitated, "your cheeks kind of look like those ... hot fluffy sweet buns-" Kagami pointed out, "I have heard how laughter completely changes the face but I have never seen it like this before... Class Rep, you look quite cute when you laugh!" Kagami complemented unceremoniously and Hirose froze in her place.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hirose wrinkled her eyebrows, trying not to react too much with his statement, and looked down at her hand, "anyway—I originally came to give you this-" she shoved the grocery bag in his hand, "take this and get lost!" she started to pace back towards her home and suddenly a loud call stopped her at her tracks.
"Class Rep..." Kagami called and Hirose turned her head towards him with an annoyed expression.
"Do you still want to be powerful without a chair?" Kagami said quite loudly.
Hirose was pretty annoyed as it was, and the cold was permeating through the thick layers of her khaki parka. With cocked eyebrows, she asked, "why do you come up with that all of a sudden?"
"Because I have a great plan that I would like to suggest-" Kagami said with an optimistic voice and waited for Hirose's reply.
"How about you teach me how to be a good villain?"
If she was struck by a thunderbolt, she wouldn't be half surprised as she was right now. She marveled at the audacity of Kagami Taiga, standing in front of her, tall and flashing his typical American pearly white smile which annoyed the hell out of her. But at the same time, she felt that his claim has merits: the unforgiving Cabinet representative is kind enough to teach a dumb jock the greatness of Shakespeare—she will practically be held as Mother Teresa in the school for her merciful behavior. Moreover, if she did this right, she could push the Seirin Knight against the King of Shutoku. So clever! Why didn't she think that herself?
"Okay then-" Hirose smirked, "but mind you, I am quite strict-"
"Tell me something I don't know-" Kagami growled in confidence.
"If you say so-" Hirose folded her arms "Tomorrow at 3:30 in our classroom. Deal?"
"Done" Kagami raised his thumb in agreement.
Things seem to be smoothing out over those two. Let's hope things don't blow out of proportions before anything.