Chapter 6: Seeking Guidance
Another story idea grew in my mind, but I don't think I can manage more than one story yet. Anyways...
Enjoy!
"Kasumi, do you plan on telling us where we're going?" Hitomi asked from the passenger seat of Kasumi's car. Ayane, Tina, and Leifang soon joined in with similar questions after they discovered that they weren't the only ones confused by Kasumi's actions. Kasumi's been ignoring the confused and worried stares from her friends and sister for the past thirty minutes. She stopped at a red light for a few seconds then continued before she made a left turn. She jumped when Hitomi placed a hand on her arm and repeated her question.
"We're going to our parents' house," Kasumi answered, glancing at Ayane from the rear view mirror. Ayane turned away from the window and stared at Kasumi.
"Really? Why?"
Kasumi gave her a small smile before she thought about why she decided to bring them along. Her smile faded and - in a sad tone - she replied, "I have to tell you all something. You'll find out what it's about when we get there."
Fortunately, none of the girls decided to argue, so Kasumi relaxed and kept driving. I'm ready to get this off my chest. Over the past two days, she's been thinking about everything that happened these past three weeks. She realized that her problems weren't going to fix themselves, so she's going to face them. Minutes later, she parked her car outside of her parents' house, stepped out, and walked to the door. She knocked on the brown door and took a few deep breaths.
Her eyes widened when the door opened to reveal her father, Shiden, who was staring at her with the same shocked expression. He let go of the door and stepped forward to give Kasumi a brief hug then did the same thing to Ayane. Shiden invited the girls into the house before he closed the door. "I should be used to these random visits, but I guess that'll never happen. Let's go to the kitchen, your mother was baking cookies."
Ayane gasped and led the group to the kitchen although Kasumi stayed behind to put her jacket on a small table. When she entered the kitchen, Kasumi saw her mother - Ayame - standing next to Ayane with a plate of chocolate chip cookies in her hands. Kasumi smiled and opened her arms for a hug while Ayame placed the cookies on the kitchen island. Both women met each other halfway across the kitchen and hugged before Ayame leaned back to look at Kasumi. Kasumi noticed that her mother's long brown hair was in a ponytail, briefly making her understand why people said that she resembles her mother.
"It's good to see you all! But I am curious, what made you stop by?" Ayame questioned, turning to see everyone.
"I need some advice," Kasumi stated. She knew there was no reason to keep her friends, sister, and mother in the dark anymore, so telling them now seemed better than not telling them at all. Like they say, now or never.
"This sounds like 'girl talk' to me, so I think I should leave for now. But some of these cookies have to come with me," Shiden declared. He placed some of the cookies in a bowl and kissed his wife before he left. Ayame shook her head and motioned for the girls to follow her into the living room.
"What can we help you with, Kasumi?" Ayame asked. Kasumi hummed while she thought about where she should start. There were many things they didn't know, so it might be for the best if she started from the beginning.
"Mom, three weeks ago there was an impromptu bachelorette party, and Tina - being the good friend that she is - hired a male stripper as entertainment," she began. There was a confused expression on Ayame's face, so Kasumi took a deep breath and continued. "I must have drank more than I should have, because I woke up in bed with the stripper the next morning. The only part of him I actually saw before he left was his back, which had a lot of scratches."
Seconds passed before her mother's expression changed from confusion to shock. Kasumi bit her lip when her mother tilted her head and asked another question. "You don't know who the man is, do you?"
"Kasumi, I still have the guy's number if you need to know who he is," Tina joined in.
"Please don't call him," she pleaded, shaking her head. Telling them this is already hard - the last thing she needed was him making it worse.
"Well, how are we supposed to figure out who this man is if you don't want her to call him?" Ayane questioned.
The other girls started saying similar things, and the only thing Kasumi could do was place her head in her hands. She was hurt by the fact that they all wanted to call him, especially since her mother didn't see anything wrong with that idea. Unable to deal with it anymore, Kasumi stood up and shouted, "I already know who the man is!"
Silence claimed the room as each girl took a moment to process what Kasumi said. It was broken by Hitomi a few minutes after Kasumi sat back down. "What's his name?"
"Remember Hayate's best friend who we met around two weeks ago?" she asked.
"I can't remember his name, but the artist?" Leifang implored. Kasumi stared down at her hands, but no one missed her nod in response. "Him?"
"No way, he's too adorable for that kind of life," Tina exclaimed. Kasumi turned to her with a look of disbelief before her attention was directed to the small photo album Ayame was going through.
"Here," she said, placing it on the table so everyone else can see it. She pointed to a picture that appeared to be a couple of years old. In it, Hayate had a cup in one hand while his other arm was around another man's shoulders - both of them with happy expressions. Ayame shifted her finger over to the other man and continued. "Just to make sure, this is the man you're talking about?"
"He's looks a little older now, but that's him," Kasumi confirmed. Tina gasped while Ayame closed the photo album.
"Ryu Hayabusa," Ayame said to herself. She stood up to put the photo album on the shelf and sat back down. "I haven't seen him since he and Hayate had graduated from college."
"Wow! If that's what he looked like years ago, he's an Adonis right now," Tina informed.
"Tina!" Kasumi called. She was blushing although she didn't know if it was from embarrassment or the image of Hayabusa that came to her mind when Tina spoke. "Now is not the time for that!"
"I'm sorry, Kasumi. Anyway, back to the problem. How did you find out?"
"When did you find out?" Ayame joined in.
"Where did he tell you?" Leifang added.
"I found out the same day we met him. I went to the kitchen during the conversation to think about why he seemed familiar. You all left, but apparently Hayabusa didn't go since he came into the kitchen and told me that he let Hayate borrow his car. That sense of familiarity was bothering me, so I asked him if we've met before. He started acting weird before he kissed me."
"Wait," Ayane exclaimed, holding her hands up. "He kissed you?"
"Yes, but the worst part is that I didn't end the kiss until I realized what was happening. He told me about being the stripper after I demanded to know who he was. I told him to prove it and that's when he showed me his back," she paused, but forced herself to continue after a few seconds. "Those scratches were in same spots that I remembered and weren't completely healed."
"Does he know that you're engaged?" Tina asked, glancing at Kasumi's engagement ring.
"He does although it didn't really affect him. He even gave me his number and address in case I ever wanted him again."
"Oh my gosh," Hitomi mumbled. "Does Hayate know about this?"
"Screw whatever the hell Hayate knows," Ayane interrupted. "Does Rig know?"
Kasumi tried to take a deep breath, but it sounded like she was holding back sobs. "N-No! It's been three weeks since I've seen him, now it seems as if he disappeared off the face of the earth. I called and texted him. I also called his office, but the only thing his secretary tells me is that he's busy. This h-hurts, because I really need to tell him what I've done and there are some things about the wedding that we need to discuss. Everytime I look at this ring, I'm reminded of my mistake and how I failed him before we're even married. Oh my - what if Rig already knows? The wedding could be canceled right now and I wouldn't know!"
She didn't notice her tears until she finished speaking, and tried to wipe them away although they were replaced by more. Now that she's said everything aloud, Kasumi knew that it was going to take a lot of time and effort to fix her mistake once she tells Rig - if he's willing to give her another chance. Ayame moved to sit next to Kasumi then pulled her into a hug.
"Kasumi, I can't say that everything will be okay," she whispered, "but you should calm down. It's not over yet, because none of us know how Rig is going to react."
Kasumi wiped her eyes again then looked at her mother. "You're right, but there's another problem."
"You can tell us, Kasumi. We'll try our best to help you," Hitomi said, placing a hand on Kasumi's shoulder. The rest of the girls quickly agreed, waiting for Kasumi to tell them about the other problem.
"Last week, Hayate and I met up at a café to talk about what we've been doing lately. Later, he told me that Rig's name was mentioned in some suspicious documents. He said he couldn't explain what he saw, but he thinks I should ask Rig about it," Kasumi stated. "What should I do about all of this?"
"First, you need to shut everything down with Stripper of the Year," Tina suggested. She took a few seconds to look at everyone's confused and slightly amused expressions. "What?"
"Is that what we're going to call him?" Leifang asked, trying not to smile.
"That's a perfect name for him," she claimed before her attention returned to her possible solution. "Kasumi, you need to tell him that no matter what, you will not have sex with him again. He may be very attractive and the subject of a lot of dirty thoughts-"
"Tina," Kasumi called, rubbing her temples.
"Sorry again," she responded. "I'm sure you get my point."
Kasumi nodded and glanced at her engagement ring. "Okay. What about Rig?"
"Go to his job," Ayame stated as if it was that simple.
"Yeah," Ayane agreed. "I don't think a company like Donovan Industries can be that busy. He could be lying about whatever he's doing."
"And Kasumi," Ayame continued, "you know Hayate doesn't purposely dig up information on people. If you think those documents are something to worry about, maybe you should ask him about it."
The conversation was interrupted by Kasumi's phone. That's weird, she thought while she stared at the text message from Hayate that basically told her to put her phone on speaker when he called. She didn't understand his logic behind the message, but it's not like she had any time to think about it since her phone started ringing.
"Hello," she greeted after she answered the phone.
"Hey," Hayate greeted. He was quiet for a moment, and the girls could clearly hear someone cursing in the background. "Dad told me that you and the girls were with Mom, so I wanted to tell you all at the same time that-"
A loud noise suddenly came from the phone with more curses following it. Kasumi raised an eyebrow and spoke. "What is going on, Hayate?"
"I'm at Eliot's house with him, Jann Lee and...okay, Ryu was here, but I think he left after he found out what happened to his car. Anyway, Jann Lee needed our help with planning a bachelor party for Rig. After a lot of pointless arguing, I decided to call and tell you that none of us will be available for at least a week. I don't know what we're doing, but it shouldn't last longer than that."
"I hope none of you plan on doing anything dangerous or stupid," Ayame commented.
Hayate laughed although it sounded unusual because of the phone. "We won't, Mom. Eliot is coming with us, so he'll make sure things don't get out of control. I need to go pack, so I'll talk to you all in a week."
"Call one of us if you need anything," Kasumi replied. She ended the call after he agreed to her statement and placed the phone back in her pocket. She looked up at the group and sighed. "My plans are always getting postponed at some point."
"He didn't really say that Stripper of the Year was going with them, so you still might be able to talk to him," Hitomi noted. "If he does go, that will give you some time to think about what you want to say to him."
"Good point, Hitomi. I could also think about what I'll tell Rig. But right now, I don't want to stress myself out anymore today. I think it'll be good for us if we have a movie night," Kasumi declared. The others quickly agreed and went to prepare for their movie night.
...
I couldn't come up with a better way to end it, but this chapter is necessary for the next one. Thanks for reading! Reviews would be great.