Last Dance With Shinobu-Chan.
By Project Pegasus
Chapter VI, Part IV: And then She Kissed Her, Her Only Love . . .
***
Later that afternoon, Shinobu sat in her room nursing her side. By that time, it had already begun to swell and discolor. After the incident with Motoko, Shinobu had written a brief letter to Keitaro asking him to come to her room. She realized that she had not even spoken to Keitaro these last few days. She was going to tell him that their date to the prom was off. Up until this point, she had not realized that her actions had hurt so many people. She was willing to admit defeat to all of her tormentors at school rather than be cruel to her true friends. There was a knock at her door.
"Keitaro?" Shinobu asked.
"It's me," Keitaro called out. The door slid open and Shinobu welcomed Keitaro in. "You said you wanted to see me?"
"Sempai," Shinobu said lowering her head, "I don't think we should go to the prom together." She paused and attempted to still her overpowering regret. "Sempai, I asked you to the prom because there were some kids at school who were teasing me about not having a date to the prom. I only said that you were my date so they wouldn't think that I was a little kid. I used you Sempai so I don't think that my dishonestly should be rewarded."
They were both silent for a moment. "Shinobu I don't think that you . . . "
"No sempai," Shinobu interrupted, "I've made up my decision. It's in everyone's best interest."
"No Shinobu," Keitaro said, "you can't make this decision on your own because I'm not going to have another traumatic experience come from a junior high school prom."
"Sempai," Shinobu said timidly, "what do you mean?"
"I've never told anybody else this story, Shinobu," Keitaro ruminated, "but when I was your age, the kids picked on me at school too. They all thought that I was a loser so I tried to prove them wrong by getting a date to the graduation prom. And not just any date either: Yoko Yokohama, one of the most popular girls in school. When I heard that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend, Makoto, a rugby player, I thought that was the break I needed. I was so nervous when I asked her out because I thought that I would be rejected for sure, but to my surprise, she agreed to go to the dance with me. I thought, 'For the first time in my life, I had a girlfriend!' You have no idea how excited I was, a social reject like me going to the dance with Yoko Yokohama. When the time came, we went to the school rugby game together before going to the prom. The first half of the prom was great. The whole time, we only danced the slow dances and when we weren't dancing, we sat down and she made the cutest faces at me. The whole time, though, she kept looking at her old boyfriend, Makoto. I was pretty glad that she was looking out for me. He looked pretty upset that Yoko had gotten over him so quickly."
Shinobu sat silent, not daring to disturb Keitaro's delusion.
Keitaro continued. "Luckily, Makoto left after Yoko and I really started getting affectionate. After that, I thought that Yoko and I would be able to enjoy each other's company without having to worry about him, but for some reason, she became very distant after that. It's like she didn't even remember that I was there. Anyway, a slow song began to play and I asked her if wanted to dance. She held her stomach and said she felt sick and needed to use the bathroom. As she was leaving, she said that if she didn't come back in a while, then don't worry and don't come looking for her. After she left, I waited there for a few hours, watching other couples dance or flirt or fight. The time came and passed away and she still hadn't returned. The disc jockey announced that the last dance would be played in a few minutes. I promised that I wouldn't go looking for her, but I had to have at least the last dance if nothing else. I asked my classmates if she was in the restroom and they said no. I searched up and down the halls and corridors with no luck. I could hear the D.J. say that the last song was being played. I had never heard the song before, but it was so intoxicating and hypnotic. Later, I learned from the D.J. that it was a song called Wild Horses from a British band The Sundays. Anyway, as the song was being played, I became more and more frantic. I needed that last dance. In a lonely corner of the building, I finally saw Yoko coming out of a broom closet with . . ." His voice trailed off.
"With Makoto?" Shinobu asked hesitantly.
"Well actually," Keitaro said sheepishly while scratching the back of his head, "with a goat."
"What?!" Shinobu screamed.
"No! No, you don't understand," Keitaro interjected quickly, "The mascot for our rugby team was a guy in a goat suit."
This still did not put Shinobu at ease.
"Well," Keitaro said, "I didn't know what to do in a situation like that. I don't really think anybody would know what to do, but for some reason I began to run towards her. She looked alarmed and began to run down the hall. Along the way, they knocked over trashcans and tables as they passed by them. I dodged them as best I could. I don't even know what I would have done if I had caught them, but I told myself that I just couldn't lose them. This whole time, Wild Horses was playing in the background like the sad soundtrack to my life. Finally, they got out of the building and they hopped into a small cart that the golf team used. They throttled it but when I grabbed the back of the bumper, they couldn't go anywhere. The guy in the goat suit began to panic and he picked up a golf club that was sitting in the back of the cart and began to bludgeon me mercilessly. I finally was knocked to the ground as they sped away. I think I lost consciousness because I don't remember seeing them make their escape down the road, but when I began to regain my bearings, I heard the final chords of Wild Horses being strummed. I picked myself up and walked home alone." Keitaro fell silent for a while.
"Sempai," Shinobu said almost maternally, "What did she say the next day?"
"Well," Keitaro went on, "The next day I didn't even feel like demanding an explanation, but she came up to me and said that she had found Kiyoshi, the guy in the goat suit, in the broom closet. Apparently, she said, the head of his goat suit had been knocked out of joint. As a result, he couldn't get the head off and it was suffocating him. That's why they took the golf cart, she said, because she needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible."
"Oh my," Shinobu said sympathetically, "Sempai, how did you cope with such a pack of lies?"
"What lies?" Keitaro replied with a perplexed look on his face.
"Oh nothing Sempai," Shinobu said quickly, "Please continue."
"Anyway, even though I was abandon for an honorable purpose, I still am disappointed that I didn't get to have that last dance." Keitaro looked to Shinobu. "Shinobu," Keitaro said with anxiety and longing in his eyes, "I need to make it right. Please help me."
"Sempai," Shinobu said quietly, "You know that I'd do anything for you."
A smile of gratitude played across Keitaro's face.
"After all, that's what friends do, right Sempai?" Shinobu said cheerfully.
"Right." Keitaro agreed, "And we are going to the prom as just friends in any case, right?"
"Of course Sempai, what else could we be going as?" Shinobu stuttered nervously.
Both were quiet and looked away for an awkward moment, a torrent of expression seething beneath their silence.
"Hey," Keitaro said, emphatically breaking the lull, "We should tell the others everything. You're side of the story, my side of the story . . . "
"Maybe," Shinobu interrupted politely, "Maybe we should only tell them my side of the story, that the kids were picking on me and that I called you my date out of anger."
"Why?" Keitaro asked.
"Ummm," Shinobu said searchingly, "Because your side of the story will be our little secret."
"A secret then," Keitaro said with a gentle smile.
***
Shinobu and Keitaro walked together to Naru's room and began to knock on her door. There was no answer.
"Neither of us has spoken to her for three days," Keitaro said grimly.
"Do you think that she's just ignoring us?" Shinobu anxiously asked.
Keitaro continued to knock. Suddenly, the door slid open and they came face-to-face with Naru.
"We have to speak with you, Narusegawa-sempai," Shinobu pleaded.
End of Chapter VI
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