Hehe thanks to all the people who reviewed my earlier
chapters...Please! Continue reviewing...I really appreciate it!
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Her eyes grew dark as she became more and more ashamed of herself. She scolded herself for thinking such a thought. Despite being sick, her conscience could still strike her pretty deep. Her hands shook as she held the Rolex in her slightly large hands. The diamond numbers winked at her attractively. She started to get up to run after the duo, but then she hesitated. And then she paused. And then she changed her mind. She slipped the watch into her pocket.
From somewhere outside the store, Soujiro started to grumble.
"Hey, hey, Hanazawa! What are we doing here waiting and doing nothing? Lets get away from that trash can, it stinks...Rui! Hey, lets go! Akira and Tsukasa are probably in one of their drinking games already..."
Rui stopped staring at whatever he had been looking at and followed Soujiro out of the mall. In the club, they entered the 70's style disco and easily spotted the F2. They knew that the table with the most girls would be the table where their friends were. And they weren't wrong. They picked their way through the crowd, and plopped down the empty seats reserved for them.
"What took you guys so long?" Tsukasa asked clearly annoyed. His tempers were famous around the school. He got angry at almost every single small thing.
"Rui here visited the poor working class virgin," Soujiro grumbled, sharing the same sentiments exactly. "Hey, waiter, bring us some wine."
The waiter, a short man who looked like he was still in college, narrowed his eyes, trying to see in the dim lighting of the club.
"Aren't you little too young-" his eyes adjusted and he recognized the F4. The waiter schooled at Eirin academy, but even in another prestigious school, the F4's reputation had managed to crawl around the students. Pictures and stories of the famous F4 from Eitoku had been heard and seen, and many groups had tried to imitate the dynamic foursome.
"Yes, right away!" The waiter said, and he left hurriedly.
"What did you say to her?" Tsukasa asked suspiciously. Rui looked far off.
"He didn't say anything to her," Soujiro snickered. "The weirdo just stood there looking at the store. Hey, Akira, see that girl over there? Bet you by midnight I'll be coming over to her house."
Akira snickered. "Tsukasa, she looks like she's fifteen. That proves you don't know anything about flattery."
Soujiro chuckled. He lowered his voice. The two playboys laughed conspiratorially. "Really, first you have to look rich," Soujiro laughed. He looked back at the F3. "Okay! You, Tsukasa, can I borrow that gold chain of yours? Akira, let me borrow one of your rings, and Rui...Rui, where's your Rolex? I want to borrow it."
Rui was quiet, his eyes dark as he watched his surroundings. "I'm tired. I'm going home."
Tsukasa laughed. "You're always tired, you overgrown choir boy! Stay with us a while."
Rui still stood up. He had been thoughtful since he had left the mall with Soujiro, but now, the noise was threatening to make him go crazy. Soujiro stood up.
"Okay fine, just leave me your Rolex. And let's trade jackets, too. That one looks like the latest one from Versace."
Rui didn't tell him that it was from Versace, and yes, it was the latest from Paris.
"I don't have my Rolex right now," he said. He didn't even start taking off his jacket. He made a hasty exit.
"What's up with him?" Akira asked, his delicate face showing signs of concern. Soujiro muttered something about Rui acting like a spoiled kid, and Tsukasa was saying that that was how Rui acted all the time anyway.
*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~
Tsukasa looked at the two SP's standing before him. They were in the selected group of spies of his mother's special units, especially used to look into business matters of both local and foreign investors. Tsukasa ordered their services without telling his haughty mother, Kaede Doumyouji. She would jump to conclusions way too quickly.
"Doumyouji-sama," said SP #1. "The bank check you gave her has not yet been drawn out from Nippon Life."
Tsukasa nodded. He stood comfortable in the lounge, on the sofa, while the SPs stood to give their report. He had ordered them to immediately return in six hours after he had first assigned them to their assignment.
"What's that stupid girl stalling for?" he asked himself.
"Sorry?"
"What else?" he asked abruptly.
"Oh! And Makino Tsukushi is sick." SP #2 said. Tsukasa nodded. It was taken care of. She was going to get well with the one million yen he had so generously given her. He didn't say anything as the report continued.
"It seems she has a lot of problems to take care of," SP #1 said. Tsukasa was unworried. Yes, he thought irritably. She has many problems. Like first, how to look pretty, second, how to grow a chest, third. How to give up gracefully to the F4, how to-
"Doumyouji-sama, her medicine costs around nine hundred fifty thousand yen," SP #1 said in an uncomfortable tone of voice. Tsukasas attention picked up. That was strange. He had expected her medicine to cost no more than three hundred thousand yen, and the rest, he expected her to keep for herself. He shook his head. It was taken care of, the one million yen. But he frowned.
"What exactly is wrong with her?" He asked.
When the explanation was finished in full detail, Tsukasa was feeling sick to his stomach (^_^@). Could lead to cancer...? The SP continued hurriedly, wanting to finish his report.
"Sir, the medicine is unpaid for. The shipment arrives in two days, and if she doesn't pay before tomorrow, the medicine wont be sent at all."
Tsukasa felt a headache coming on. What was the stupid girl waiting for? Why wasn't she paying using the one million yen?
"And our sources told us as well that you gave her a check for one million. That should have covered up her medicine cost," said SP #1.
"Yes, I know that," Tsukasa snapped.
"The problem is," SP #2 continued, getting a hanker chief to wipe his forehead. "she's not going to use the money for her sickness."
"What?! What could possibly be more important than saving her own life?!"
SP #1 and SP #2 winced at the tone of their master's voice. They knew Kaede Doumyouji well, and were adjusted to fit her cunning personality, but Tsukasa didn't hide any of his feelings, instead voiced them out loudly. His displeasure was obvious. The SPs nudged one another to give the explanation. Finally, one of them rushed in.
"Uhm, she's going to use your one million and her friend Kazuya's donation to pay for her parent's hospital bills."
Tsukasa stood up. "She would never ask a donation!" he spat at them. "She would rather die than give herself up for charity..."
Unless it was for someone else. And now, it was for her parents.
SP #1 blabbered through an explanation of the car accident. Tsukasa stood up, and went out the house.
*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
Mrs. Fukagawa said in the dango shop. She was holding the Rolex Tsukushi asked her to examine.
"This...This is really worth a lot, Makino. The diamonds alone...The numbers and border is encrusted in diamonds, the face of the watch is pearl, and the rest of the watch is gold...Plus, this is a Rolex...Hm...What's this name over here...?"
Makino grabbed the watch right away, red in the face. Mrs. Fukagawa's eyebrows shot up in alarm.
"Tsukushi, don't tell me you-"
Tsukushi shook her head violently. "I didn't steal it! Honestly, I didn't...Mrs. Fukagawa, how much do you think this is worth?"
The oldish woman thought a moment. "That's about eight hundred to nine hundred thousand yen, at the most."
Tsukushi's breath caught in her throat. She nodded thankfully. She mumbled a thanks, and then went out of the store, holding the watch with a shaking hand. Her conscience was bothering her greatly. She knew that the right thing was to give the watch back to Rui. She laughed scornfully. Yes, she was dying, and she worried about morals.
But this was the only way she could pay for both her parents and herself. Before she could stop herself, she sped off towards the nearest pawnshop and sold it for eight hundred fifty yen, then thanked the gods that there was extra money from Kazuya's additional money that he had given her that morning. She looked at the title of the shop: "mlhuiller."
She went in, and saw a kind looking man in his early twenties standing behind the counter. She was too much in a hurry to care whether he was wearing a working uniform or not. She gave him the watch, and he gave her a check. Her heart lightened. Everything was going to work out, even if she did feel completely guilty. Then she took Doumyouji's check, and the cash amount she had withdrawn from the ATMs and she sped off to the hospital. She went to visit her parents before she payed the debt.
Tsukushi approached the door, and was paralyzed when she saw several doctors in clean white gowns gathered around the door. She couldn't breathe for a while, and then she broke out of her shock and ran straight to the room, pushing the doctors.
"What happened?" she asked desperately to an old doctor who refused to let her pass to go in the room. "They're my parents! What happened!?!"
The old doctor's face softened and he let her through. Tsukushi burst in the room with lightning fast speed, expecting the very worst. But there on the bed...
"Tsukushi! Come have a drink of this expensive medicinal herb. Its from the Philippines," her mother said from the bed. Tsukushi looked around. The room had two private nurses, and lots and lots of fruits and food. Her father looked healthier than he did even before the accident, and he was gobbling up the porkchop on a plate before him.
But the real shock came when Tsukushi's eyes landed on the figure sitting on the couch, his hands behind his head. It was Tsukasa Doumyouji.
"D-Doumyouji..." she said. He looked at her.
"Yo." He said.
"He paid for those doctors outside," her mother said cheerfully. Five of them are for me, five of them are for your father, oh, and ten of them are for you."
"Doumyouji! Idiot! How do you...how do you expect our family to pay for all this?!"
Tsukasa laughed at the expression on her face. He laughed arrogantly.
"I paid for everything! You troublesome annoying poor girl, I paid for all this! And your medicine...It's arriving tonight, by Doumyouji's private jet plane."
Tsukushi couldn't find her voice. Tsukasa looked at her smugly, obviously expecting some words of praise and gratitude. Tsukushi opened her mouth, but she found that she couldn't make any normal sounding syllables.
"Idontknowwhyyoudidthisbutthankyou"
Tsukasa frowned.
"Say it again, but this time try moving your mouth," he said. Tsukushi went to him and grabbed him, and dragged him to the bathroom. She locked the door behind her.
"Tsukasa Doumyouji," she said. "I never thought I'd do this, but... "
Tsukushi didn't know what other way to express her gratitude. He would know how much her next action showed her thanks. She got down on her knees and was about to kneel when a hand hit her on the head.
"Idiot! I know you better than that! Don't lower your pride!"
Tsukushi was speechless. She got up and nodded.
"How can I thank you?" she asked in a soft voice. Tsukasa thought a while
"Don't change who you are," he said. "This might seem a great deal for you, but for me, it's just a small amount of money I can afford to waste."
Tsukushi blinked. 'I can afford to waste.' She shook her head but smiled inwardly. The idiot didn't know that half the things he said were complete insults. He just said that her whole family was considered a waste.
As if suddenly remembering, she pulled out the check for one million yen he had given her before.
"Keep it," he said indifferently. "Your poor family needs it anyway."
Tsukushi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He had said that she shouldn't change the way she was. She gathered her courage and crumpled the check.
"I don't need your charity money!" she said angrily. "We're not charity cases that you need to pity!"
Somehow, it felt so right acting that way again. She was the old Tsukushi, somehow. Everything was going to be okay. For some twisted reason or the other, Tsukasa Doumyouji had come into her personal life. She didn't even want to know how he found out about everything. A sudden thought hit her mind.
She dashed out before he could reply and was running full speed to the train station. She heard Tsukasa calling to her several times, but all she could think about was now getting Rui's watch back. She regretted with all her heart pawning it. She felt like a thief.
Tsukushi reached the pawn shop, but she didn't find the man that she had sold the watch to. She asked the woman at the counter.
"Hey, where's the guy that was here earlier? Around an hour ago?"
The woman looked at Tsukushi with a confused expression.
"No one works here but me," she said.
Tsukushi felt her face whiten.
"You're joking," she said. "That watch..."
She pulled out the check that the man had given her, and handed it over to the woman. She frowned.
"This store has no Henry Takada as an employee. That's not even the name of the owner.
At the pleading look on Tsukushi's face, the woman got the check and ran through a process with the cash register. She returned to Tsukushi, her face blank.
"I'm sorry, that account number doesn't exist, either. You've been duped."
Tsukushi swallowed and thanked the woman, and went out. How was she going to confess to Rui? Surely, he could afford to buy a new watch at the blink of an eye, but that wasn't the problem at hand.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~~**~~*~**~*~*~*~~*~*~**~*~
Tsukushi took a deep breath. The door to the emergency stairs was in front of her. Now, all she needed was the guts to open the door. She had gone there first thing in the morning, wanting to find Rui. She didn't like the thought of talking to him for a prolonged period of time, but she owed it to him to tell him about the watch.
She opened the door. Sure enough, there was Hanazawa Rui. And Tsukasa. And Akira. And Soujiro. She felt her face redden. They had been on their way up the stairs.
"What bad timing," Tsukushi thought to herself. She was about to retreat, hoping that none of them had seen her, but that was just wishful thinking. Tsukasa said: "Makino! What are you doing here? Your classroom is all the way on the other side of the building!"
Inwardly, Tsukasa was thinking that she had come to look for him. Tsukushi froze. She might as well get it over with. she ignored Tsukasa and turned to Rui.
"Hanazawa Rui," she said. She almost stopped at the cold look in his eyes. "I have something to say to you...It's about your..."
Rui's eyes began to close. He lifted his arms above his head, as if stretching himself, and the cuff of his long sleeved shirt fell below his wrist...revealing the Rolex that Tsukushi had pawned away two days before. The two of them knew that it was only for her benefit so that she could see.
"You knew all along," Tsukushi said softly. "Wait! Rui, let me explain!"
Rui turned his back to her coldly.
"I misjudged you, Makino," he said icily. He went down the stairs.
That day, during recess, Tsukushi went to her locker and opened it to put in her school slippers. A long forgotten nightmare scene replayed itself in her mind.
A red tag hung in her locker.
~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~*~
Her eyes grew dark as she became more and more ashamed of herself. She scolded herself for thinking such a thought. Despite being sick, her conscience could still strike her pretty deep. Her hands shook as she held the Rolex in her slightly large hands. The diamond numbers winked at her attractively. She started to get up to run after the duo, but then she hesitated. And then she paused. And then she changed her mind. She slipped the watch into her pocket.
From somewhere outside the store, Soujiro started to grumble.
"Hey, hey, Hanazawa! What are we doing here waiting and doing nothing? Lets get away from that trash can, it stinks...Rui! Hey, lets go! Akira and Tsukasa are probably in one of their drinking games already..."
Rui stopped staring at whatever he had been looking at and followed Soujiro out of the mall. In the club, they entered the 70's style disco and easily spotted the F2. They knew that the table with the most girls would be the table where their friends were. And they weren't wrong. They picked their way through the crowd, and plopped down the empty seats reserved for them.
"What took you guys so long?" Tsukasa asked clearly annoyed. His tempers were famous around the school. He got angry at almost every single small thing.
"Rui here visited the poor working class virgin," Soujiro grumbled, sharing the same sentiments exactly. "Hey, waiter, bring us some wine."
The waiter, a short man who looked like he was still in college, narrowed his eyes, trying to see in the dim lighting of the club.
"Aren't you little too young-" his eyes adjusted and he recognized the F4. The waiter schooled at Eirin academy, but even in another prestigious school, the F4's reputation had managed to crawl around the students. Pictures and stories of the famous F4 from Eitoku had been heard and seen, and many groups had tried to imitate the dynamic foursome.
"Yes, right away!" The waiter said, and he left hurriedly.
"What did you say to her?" Tsukasa asked suspiciously. Rui looked far off.
"He didn't say anything to her," Soujiro snickered. "The weirdo just stood there looking at the store. Hey, Akira, see that girl over there? Bet you by midnight I'll be coming over to her house."
Akira snickered. "Tsukasa, she looks like she's fifteen. That proves you don't know anything about flattery."
Soujiro chuckled. He lowered his voice. The two playboys laughed conspiratorially. "Really, first you have to look rich," Soujiro laughed. He looked back at the F3. "Okay! You, Tsukasa, can I borrow that gold chain of yours? Akira, let me borrow one of your rings, and Rui...Rui, where's your Rolex? I want to borrow it."
Rui was quiet, his eyes dark as he watched his surroundings. "I'm tired. I'm going home."
Tsukasa laughed. "You're always tired, you overgrown choir boy! Stay with us a while."
Rui still stood up. He had been thoughtful since he had left the mall with Soujiro, but now, the noise was threatening to make him go crazy. Soujiro stood up.
"Okay fine, just leave me your Rolex. And let's trade jackets, too. That one looks like the latest one from Versace."
Rui didn't tell him that it was from Versace, and yes, it was the latest from Paris.
"I don't have my Rolex right now," he said. He didn't even start taking off his jacket. He made a hasty exit.
"What's up with him?" Akira asked, his delicate face showing signs of concern. Soujiro muttered something about Rui acting like a spoiled kid, and Tsukasa was saying that that was how Rui acted all the time anyway.
*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~
Tsukasa looked at the two SP's standing before him. They were in the selected group of spies of his mother's special units, especially used to look into business matters of both local and foreign investors. Tsukasa ordered their services without telling his haughty mother, Kaede Doumyouji. She would jump to conclusions way too quickly.
"Doumyouji-sama," said SP #1. "The bank check you gave her has not yet been drawn out from Nippon Life."
Tsukasa nodded. He stood comfortable in the lounge, on the sofa, while the SPs stood to give their report. He had ordered them to immediately return in six hours after he had first assigned them to their assignment.
"What's that stupid girl stalling for?" he asked himself.
"Sorry?"
"What else?" he asked abruptly.
"Oh! And Makino Tsukushi is sick." SP #2 said. Tsukasa nodded. It was taken care of. She was going to get well with the one million yen he had so generously given her. He didn't say anything as the report continued.
"It seems she has a lot of problems to take care of," SP #1 said. Tsukasa was unworried. Yes, he thought irritably. She has many problems. Like first, how to look pretty, second, how to grow a chest, third. How to give up gracefully to the F4, how to-
"Doumyouji-sama, her medicine costs around nine hundred fifty thousand yen," SP #1 said in an uncomfortable tone of voice. Tsukasas attention picked up. That was strange. He had expected her medicine to cost no more than three hundred thousand yen, and the rest, he expected her to keep for herself. He shook his head. It was taken care of, the one million yen. But he frowned.
"What exactly is wrong with her?" He asked.
When the explanation was finished in full detail, Tsukasa was feeling sick to his stomach (^_^@). Could lead to cancer...? The SP continued hurriedly, wanting to finish his report.
"Sir, the medicine is unpaid for. The shipment arrives in two days, and if she doesn't pay before tomorrow, the medicine wont be sent at all."
Tsukasa felt a headache coming on. What was the stupid girl waiting for? Why wasn't she paying using the one million yen?
"And our sources told us as well that you gave her a check for one million. That should have covered up her medicine cost," said SP #1.
"Yes, I know that," Tsukasa snapped.
"The problem is," SP #2 continued, getting a hanker chief to wipe his forehead. "she's not going to use the money for her sickness."
"What?! What could possibly be more important than saving her own life?!"
SP #1 and SP #2 winced at the tone of their master's voice. They knew Kaede Doumyouji well, and were adjusted to fit her cunning personality, but Tsukasa didn't hide any of his feelings, instead voiced them out loudly. His displeasure was obvious. The SPs nudged one another to give the explanation. Finally, one of them rushed in.
"Uhm, she's going to use your one million and her friend Kazuya's donation to pay for her parent's hospital bills."
Tsukasa stood up. "She would never ask a donation!" he spat at them. "She would rather die than give herself up for charity..."
Unless it was for someone else. And now, it was for her parents.
SP #1 blabbered through an explanation of the car accident. Tsukasa stood up, and went out the house.
*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
Mrs. Fukagawa said in the dango shop. She was holding the Rolex Tsukushi asked her to examine.
"This...This is really worth a lot, Makino. The diamonds alone...The numbers and border is encrusted in diamonds, the face of the watch is pearl, and the rest of the watch is gold...Plus, this is a Rolex...Hm...What's this name over here...?"
Makino grabbed the watch right away, red in the face. Mrs. Fukagawa's eyebrows shot up in alarm.
"Tsukushi, don't tell me you-"
Tsukushi shook her head violently. "I didn't steal it! Honestly, I didn't...Mrs. Fukagawa, how much do you think this is worth?"
The oldish woman thought a moment. "That's about eight hundred to nine hundred thousand yen, at the most."
Tsukushi's breath caught in her throat. She nodded thankfully. She mumbled a thanks, and then went out of the store, holding the watch with a shaking hand. Her conscience was bothering her greatly. She knew that the right thing was to give the watch back to Rui. She laughed scornfully. Yes, she was dying, and she worried about morals.
But this was the only way she could pay for both her parents and herself. Before she could stop herself, she sped off towards the nearest pawnshop and sold it for eight hundred fifty yen, then thanked the gods that there was extra money from Kazuya's additional money that he had given her that morning. She looked at the title of the shop: "mlhuiller."
She went in, and saw a kind looking man in his early twenties standing behind the counter. She was too much in a hurry to care whether he was wearing a working uniform or not. She gave him the watch, and he gave her a check. Her heart lightened. Everything was going to work out, even if she did feel completely guilty. Then she took Doumyouji's check, and the cash amount she had withdrawn from the ATMs and she sped off to the hospital. She went to visit her parents before she payed the debt.
Tsukushi approached the door, and was paralyzed when she saw several doctors in clean white gowns gathered around the door. She couldn't breathe for a while, and then she broke out of her shock and ran straight to the room, pushing the doctors.
"What happened?" she asked desperately to an old doctor who refused to let her pass to go in the room. "They're my parents! What happened!?!"
The old doctor's face softened and he let her through. Tsukushi burst in the room with lightning fast speed, expecting the very worst. But there on the bed...
"Tsukushi! Come have a drink of this expensive medicinal herb. Its from the Philippines," her mother said from the bed. Tsukushi looked around. The room had two private nurses, and lots and lots of fruits and food. Her father looked healthier than he did even before the accident, and he was gobbling up the porkchop on a plate before him.
But the real shock came when Tsukushi's eyes landed on the figure sitting on the couch, his hands behind his head. It was Tsukasa Doumyouji.
"D-Doumyouji..." she said. He looked at her.
"Yo." He said.
"He paid for those doctors outside," her mother said cheerfully. Five of them are for me, five of them are for your father, oh, and ten of them are for you."
"Doumyouji! Idiot! How do you...how do you expect our family to pay for all this?!"
Tsukasa laughed at the expression on her face. He laughed arrogantly.
"I paid for everything! You troublesome annoying poor girl, I paid for all this! And your medicine...It's arriving tonight, by Doumyouji's private jet plane."
Tsukushi couldn't find her voice. Tsukasa looked at her smugly, obviously expecting some words of praise and gratitude. Tsukushi opened her mouth, but she found that she couldn't make any normal sounding syllables.
"Idontknowwhyyoudidthisbutthankyou"
Tsukasa frowned.
"Say it again, but this time try moving your mouth," he said. Tsukushi went to him and grabbed him, and dragged him to the bathroom. She locked the door behind her.
"Tsukasa Doumyouji," she said. "I never thought I'd do this, but... "
Tsukushi didn't know what other way to express her gratitude. He would know how much her next action showed her thanks. She got down on her knees and was about to kneel when a hand hit her on the head.
"Idiot! I know you better than that! Don't lower your pride!"
Tsukushi was speechless. She got up and nodded.
"How can I thank you?" she asked in a soft voice. Tsukasa thought a while
"Don't change who you are," he said. "This might seem a great deal for you, but for me, it's just a small amount of money I can afford to waste."
Tsukushi blinked. 'I can afford to waste.' She shook her head but smiled inwardly. The idiot didn't know that half the things he said were complete insults. He just said that her whole family was considered a waste.
As if suddenly remembering, she pulled out the check for one million yen he had given her before.
"Keep it," he said indifferently. "Your poor family needs it anyway."
Tsukushi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He had said that she shouldn't change the way she was. She gathered her courage and crumpled the check.
"I don't need your charity money!" she said angrily. "We're not charity cases that you need to pity!"
Somehow, it felt so right acting that way again. She was the old Tsukushi, somehow. Everything was going to be okay. For some twisted reason or the other, Tsukasa Doumyouji had come into her personal life. She didn't even want to know how he found out about everything. A sudden thought hit her mind.
She dashed out before he could reply and was running full speed to the train station. She heard Tsukasa calling to her several times, but all she could think about was now getting Rui's watch back. She regretted with all her heart pawning it. She felt like a thief.
Tsukushi reached the pawn shop, but she didn't find the man that she had sold the watch to. She asked the woman at the counter.
"Hey, where's the guy that was here earlier? Around an hour ago?"
The woman looked at Tsukushi with a confused expression.
"No one works here but me," she said.
Tsukushi felt her face whiten.
"You're joking," she said. "That watch..."
She pulled out the check that the man had given her, and handed it over to the woman. She frowned.
"This store has no Henry Takada as an employee. That's not even the name of the owner.
At the pleading look on Tsukushi's face, the woman got the check and ran through a process with the cash register. She returned to Tsukushi, her face blank.
"I'm sorry, that account number doesn't exist, either. You've been duped."
Tsukushi swallowed and thanked the woman, and went out. How was she going to confess to Rui? Surely, he could afford to buy a new watch at the blink of an eye, but that wasn't the problem at hand.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~~**~~*~**~*~*~*~~*~*~**~*~
Tsukushi took a deep breath. The door to the emergency stairs was in front of her. Now, all she needed was the guts to open the door. She had gone there first thing in the morning, wanting to find Rui. She didn't like the thought of talking to him for a prolonged period of time, but she owed it to him to tell him about the watch.
She opened the door. Sure enough, there was Hanazawa Rui. And Tsukasa. And Akira. And Soujiro. She felt her face redden. They had been on their way up the stairs.
"What bad timing," Tsukushi thought to herself. She was about to retreat, hoping that none of them had seen her, but that was just wishful thinking. Tsukasa said: "Makino! What are you doing here? Your classroom is all the way on the other side of the building!"
Inwardly, Tsukasa was thinking that she had come to look for him. Tsukushi froze. She might as well get it over with. she ignored Tsukasa and turned to Rui.
"Hanazawa Rui," she said. She almost stopped at the cold look in his eyes. "I have something to say to you...It's about your..."
Rui's eyes began to close. He lifted his arms above his head, as if stretching himself, and the cuff of his long sleeved shirt fell below his wrist...revealing the Rolex that Tsukushi had pawned away two days before. The two of them knew that it was only for her benefit so that she could see.
"You knew all along," Tsukushi said softly. "Wait! Rui, let me explain!"
Rui turned his back to her coldly.
"I misjudged you, Makino," he said icily. He went down the stairs.
That day, during recess, Tsukushi went to her locker and opened it to put in her school slippers. A long forgotten nightmare scene replayed itself in her mind.
A red tag hung in her locker.