Chapter Twenty-One
I'd thought tonight would be fun, but no. It was a mistake coming here instead of some other restaurant.
As Class A and I arrived at our tables, I spotted Kinnosuke and Kotoko. Those two were always together. He reached over and brushed something off of her face. For what was she always letting him touch her like that? There was no reason unless she liked him too.
The image gnawed at me, so I looked away. My back and shoulders formed a mess of twisted knots. I had no idea why I was so angry, but I didn't want to stand around watching this.
Kotoko pulled away from him as she saw me.
"Irie…" She said. Kinnosuke whipped his head around so fast he must've made himself dizzy. I could see in that moment how much he truly hated my guts.
Class A and I took our seats at our tables, and I made sure I was as far away from those two as I could be. Class F threw a fit, though particularly Kinnosuke. They stopped eating and glared at us as we sat.
Their eating picked back up. Kinnosuke whined quite a bit more, and then his irritating voice was amplified by a microphone.
"Now, Class F would like to call up their teacher to make a speech!" He yelled. The teacher would have been able to hear him well enough without the microphone.
It was the most quiet I'd ever seen Class F as their teacher came to the microphone. Our teacher laughed to himself. The hatred going from Class A to Class F went all ways. Even the teachers despised each other.
"Congratulations on your graduation, Class F. There may have been people who looked down on you, but you never let it get you down and you've made it." He said. A few shed tears. My teacher stood and strutted to the front of the room. He would never have let this fly without getting a few words in. Their teacher continued.
"Three years I have fought with you, and I am proud of all of you."
My teacher intervened.
"For three years, I have been the teacher of the most intelligent batch of students I have known. I consider myself lucky." He said. All of Class F was silent and they turned to stare at who was disrupting their party.
"Waseda, Keioh, Jyochi, and so many more of you have made their way into prestigious schools, and for that I am proud to call myself your teacher."
"But the reason we could get into such good schools was because we had such an amazing teacher." Hikari said, clearly trying to also pluck some nerves over in Class F's dinner.
"You are good with compliments, Hikari. Thank you." Class F fired back.
"Okay, now I will say this loud and clear!" Their teacher said. I hadn't noticed before, but he was just as loud as they were, "Life is not all about studying, and you are young! You should be living your life as you want! Academic performance is not the only way to measure a person!" Class F cheered, agreeing with their teacher and shooting Class A some awful looks. My teacher wouldn't take it.
"Students who have low scores have a hard time getting into college, and in turn have a hard time succeeding in life and finding a job. I am so glad you don't have to suffer like that." Class A applauded, but I didn't feel the need. I crossed my arms, waiting for this night to just be over.
"Who do you think you are?" Class F's teacher said to mine, "Just because you're a little smarter, you have the right to come in here like that?"
"What? I never said anything about you or Class F. Did my speech pinch some nerves?" Class A laughed, but I wasn't entertained by this. I wanted to leave.
"People on these low levels are always so paranoid." Kobayakawa said. She gave a disgusted look over to Class F.
Kinnosuke marched over to our side and slammed his fist on the wall.
"What the hell did you say?" His face turned crimson. He was boiling over.
"And they always turn to violence." Kobayakawa continued.
"What? I'm not the one who's done anything here!" He said, flaring up.
"What else could they do?" I said, "The only way Class F can even try to fight us is with their muscles." I looked over to him. He gawked at me and I could see how badly he wished he could kill me. Kotoko gave me a disgusted look, seemingly hurt. I looked away from them.
Whatever. I thought.
Kinnosuke stormed from the room.
"Kin-chan, wait!" Kotoko called as she ran after him, "Hold on! Where are you going?"
Of course she's going after him again.
For a moment after they were gone and the fight sizzled down, I contemplated how crushed she'd looked and I regretted what I'd said. Maybe I should have stayed out of it, but I was so bothered by Kinnosuke that I couldn't find it in me to stay quiet.
Watanabe found me then, "That was insane." He said.
"I suppose."
"They seemed pretty upset. Don't you think someone should make sure they're okay?"
"They'll be fine." I said. Watanabe pondered over me, the way he'd been doing all month, all week, and all day.
"You're sure you don't want to check on her?" He said.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Well, you… never mind." He looked awkward, like he wanted to disappear.
"I what?"
"Nothing. I'll talk to you later. The teacher wanted to talk to me about something." He said and ran off.
Bored so far, from the events of tonight, I decided to find a bathroom to kill some time. I slipped through the door, going unnoticed by my classmates, and started down the long hall. Up ahead, bickering echoed through the halls. Finding a bathroom became the lesser objective.
"... don't know why you do these things! The room is fine!" I heard Kotoko say. I came closer to the source.
"I just wanted everyone to have a good night. Those guys ruined it." Kinnosuke said.
"Ignore them." Was the last thing I heard before both of them quieted down. I wondered what was going on ahead of me now.
I rounded a corner. What I found stunned me. From the angle I was at, it sure looked like it, but there was no way they were…
Kissing?
I stopped dead in my tracks. Anger pulled at every last one of my muscles. Maybe I had been wrong. Maybe she was dating him. The center of my forehead pounded.
Her eye caught me from far away and she shoved Kinnosuke away. Given the way she looked at me, it must've been what it had looked like.
"I'll see you when you get back." She said and dashed by me to go back to the rooms.
"What do you want?" Kinnosuke said. He looked so smuck, "Did you come here to find out what's been going on between me and Kotoko?" So, there had been something going on between them. I continued past him, again on the lookout for a bathroom.
"Are you jealous? Hey, why so silent? Wait a sec." He caught up with me and grabbed my shoulder. If he dared to touch me one more time, I swore I could have just about torn his arm from its socket.
"While you're slacking at college, I'm going to be out doing things you can't do. I promised Kotoko."
"It's cool if someone who could go to college says that, but that you couldn't just sounds like sour grapes." I said. It seemed to strike a nerve.
"That's not all. Tonight, I am going to kiss Kotoko." Kinnosuke said. But if they hadn't already, then what was that I saw?
"You should only dream when you are sleeping." I tried to leave again, only to be stopped. I shot him a warning glare and he snatched his hand away from my shoulder.
"Don't be so sure about that. She is the one who asked me here today. At the end of high school, she's finally realizing who cares about her the most. It's too late for you to be jealous, Mr. Genius." Kinnosuke left me in the hall, waves of dread washing over me. I was paralyzed, shocked.
And then I snapped out of it. If she was over me, it was a good thing. This was what I'd been wanting to happen all this time, wasn't it? My life could start going back to the way it was. No more disastrous occurrences and cursed charms. But there was something about the thought of it that didn't hold well with me.
I found my way to the bathroom to cool down before going back. Inside the cool, dimly lit bathroom, I rubbed my forehead and rested my eyes for a moment. I took a deep breath and left to back to the rooms.
Once back at the room, there was a lot of commotion. I entered to find that both parties of Class A and F had been moved together, Kotoko in the middle of it all. She giggled raucously with everyone.
That was at least until Ayo said something to her.
"You sure are happy, aren't you? Considering this all went the way you wanted it to. Thanks to you, Irie-kun didn't go to Tokyo University. Because you're stupid, you disturbed a smart person's life." Didn't anyone think I was capable of making my own decisions? Or was it possible for them to mind their own business. Kotoko's face fell from upbeat to downtrodden.
"It wasn't her fault," I said. Ayo looked scandalized, "Why would I give up Tokyo University for this idiot?" It was actually a question I'd been asking myself a lot. Why would I? I had no clue.
Kotoko gave me her meanest look, "Idiot?"
"That's right," My teacher said, "Someone as smart as Irie wouldn't ruin his life for one measly girl."
"I'm a measly girl?" She said, becoming angry. But it wasn't a scary kind of angry. It was more like when a puppy growls.
"Now that I think about it, there's no way he would like someone as hopeless as her. What a waste of time to believe those rumors." Ayo said.
"I am not a hopeless girl!" Kotoko said, having had enough, "I think you're all very rude. It's true that I had some help from Irie… and may have caused him a little trouble along the way…"
"A little?" I said. Because causing rumors to spread about me, almost causing me to fail exams, and blackmailing me was just 'a little' trouble.
She bit her lip, "I mean a lot. But just the way you said it… you're so cold."
"Cold or not, you're still in love with me, aren't you?" I said. Kotoko scowled and cringed.
"But it was all Aihara's power of love," Watanabe said, "They're destined to be together." I could finally figure it out, all those looks he'd been fixing me with. It was over this.
"Don't be ridiculous." I said crossly.
"Wait, look at it this way. Thanks to the charm she made you for the pre-test, you fell down the stairs. You missed your train, all your pencils were broken…"
"That's not the power of love, that's a curse." Waseda said.
"No, it's the reverse power of love. She gave him her love letter and it was rejected. And then her house collapsed."
Giggles decorated the air around us, "Amazing," Waseda said, "A woman who brings a storm."
"By the way, did she give you something on Valentine's Day?" Hikari asked.
"Yeah, a really dumb chocolate heart. And on New Year's, she gave me this bizarre head massager." More people laughed.
"That's so funny!"
"Weird taste."
"Well, she is a headache."
I read humiliation and seething anger on her as easy as it was to read pages of a book.
"Awesome! It's like a secret-revealing contest. Who's next?" Waseda shouted and everyone became involved from there. People started yelling secrets and pointing at each other. Kotoko stood there like her circuit had burned out.
"The secret-revealing contest is fun." She mumbled, coming back to life. She stared me dead in the face, "Well, if you're going that far, then you better be prepared for this."
"What is it?"
"You think you don't have any secrets?"
"That's right."
Kotoko cackled, thoroughly amused with herself, "Even geniuses have weaknesses, remember?"
It jolted me into silence.
"It can't be." There was no way she had another picture. She couldn't. She wouldn't actually go through with exposing this, would she?
And just like from the first week I knew her, she pulled that picture out of her pocket and dangled it before me like bait. Only there was nothing I could do about it with this sea of eyes on us.
"Ta-da!"
Her friends skidded forward and grabbed at the picture.
"What is this? Wait! Irie, this is you, isn't it?" One of them said.
"Yes, it is! He looks just like a girl!" The other exclaimed and then everyone else swarmed around the picture to see it. This had to be a nightmare.
The photo swam around, going from eye to eye until everyone had seen it.
"How did you get that?" I said to her disgustedly.
"Your mom gave me another one." She said with a fitting, devilish smile, "I treasured it in my train pass folder… a childhood picture of someone I love… but it turned me off, because this looks..." She snatched the picture back from the audience, "Like a girl." Everyone laughed. I wanted to hide. This was so humiliating. My mother would be lucky if I wanted anything to do with her after this, considering that she'd caused all this by putting this secret into hands which were unreliable to keep it.
"Now you know how it feels to be laughed at. Not fun, is it?" Kotoko giggled and waved the thing in my face. I tried to grab it, but it fell to the floor and was picked up by someone else to circulate the room. I opted to get out of this mess and I wasn't going alone.
I seized Kotoko's wrist, "Come with me." I said and dragged her from the room, amid the "aww"s that escaped everyone's mouth. I didn't even know what I was going to say to her when we were alone, but I was so furious that it didn't matter. I grinded my teeth, my veins popping and my shoulders tense.
Out in the hallway, my eyes landed on an escape landing at the other end. I pulled her toward it.
"Ow! Hey, where are you taking me?" Kotoko struggled. I threw the door open. We stepped outside and I shut it. She leaned against the rail.
"What is it?" Kotoko frowned at me.
"You had to cause such a big fuss in there, huh?"
"So what? You made fun of my feelings for you in front of everyone! Is it a joke to you?" She was absolutely disgusted with me, "You brought it on yourself by sharing that with them." She eyed me, so upset. I didn't know what to say.
"I quit. I know you so well that it disgusts me and all you ever are is cold, so I'm giving up on you." I looked down on her, searching for any kind of fallacy. There was none. Instead, there was that expression I recognized greatly… that determined one. It was that one that she had when she decided something. When she had that look, she got what she wanted to happen, just like when she wanted on the top 100 list.
She was serious.
"Really? So, you'll just forget about me?" I said, hoping the look would falter. Not even close.
"Yes, I will! I'll find someone else in college and forget you ever existed!" Her determination deepened.
"You go ahead and try, then."
I tilted her chin up and pressed my lips into hers. I was enveloped in warmth. Practically buzzing, I brought her closer. The blood rushed to my head.
When I pulled away, there were so many questions drawn into her eyes. Questions littered even my head.
"Serves you right."
She was still, her brain function seeming to be disrupted. I turned my back on her and returned to the party.
