=Longer than expected; always good, I suppose. No schedule--well, not true. The schedule is... inspiration. Dress in drag and do the hula!=
Recompense for Treachery
Chapter 3, "Monkeys!"
"I was friends with you! Even though what Doumyouji did was unforgivable... but what does that say about you?! You say things about justice... but you're the only villain here!"
"How can you understand my feelings?!"
"I can't! But you could at least go to Doumyouji and have a fair fight! But instead, you're resorting to this!"
Unforgivable. She had been his friend, and he had only repaid her with violence and betrayal. If only it hadn't been the one man he wanted dead so badly, if only it hadn't been the one man he hated with all his being, things with her would have been so different. He wouldn't have made her cry, the way both he and Doumyouji did.
"About Eitoku princesses... there's nothing that scares me a bit."
She was no princess.
Junpei pressed his head into his pillow and let out a resigned sigh as he shifted, attempting to find a position comfortable enough that he would finally be able to drift off to sleep. But he had no such luck; unconsciousness avoided him like the plague, so he was left alone with his thoughts in the darkness of his room.
When Junpei wasn't thinking about the best way to discover Doumyouji's true feelings for Tsukushi, he genuinely had a good time with her. He basked in her bright spirit, strong personality, and upstanding nature, constantly marveling at how she took the world by storm and didn't let a thing stand in her way, not even a rich snot like Doumyouji Tsukasa.
So he supposed that it was to be expected that he might come to care for her as more than just a friend. He really had wanted her to understand... but she was too in love, his temper was too volatile, and his emotions had finally bubbled over into one torrent of senseless brutality. He knew that any chance of repairing his relationship with her was crushed when she had stood between him and Doumyouji at the hospital. When she felt the need to protect an injured man from him, he knew he didn't have any options left.
But now, he thought, maybe now he had a chance to make things right again. Even if they could only be casual acquaintances--perhaps even friends--it would be enough for him, as long as he knew every day that she wasn't suffering over him or Doumyouji. Just seeing Tsukushi walking through the halls only days later with a short, mutilated haircut had been a heavy blow to him, but his strong instinct of self-preservation stopped him from approaching her before he transferred out of Eitoku.
No one noticed him when he wore a disguise; he was just another normal in the crowd that hadn't even realized his existence until his identity as supermodel Oribe Junpei was revealed. But Tsukushi had seen him as more than that from the beginning, and her acceptance and critical thinking even after he had taken her to the photo shoot had boosted his spirit into the heavens. A person's wealth, job, or social status didn't matter to her; she could see inside anyone, past the exterior and the masks and into what really mattered.
Maybe that was why when he saw that hurt twist of her lips and the tears of betrayal in her eyes, he had to pull himself back so roughly from hugging her to him when she tried so desperately to do anything to him, even if all she could do was uselessly beat her head against his chest. It was so painful when she took a blow for Doumyouji, so painful when she bit into his lips, so painful to leave that hospital...
But now, he had a chance to make things right again, even if he could never repair the damage he had done to her. And make things right he would, for if anyone deserved it, it was Makino Tsukushi.
Junpei sat up in bed and pressed his pillow down as he moved to stand up. He fumbled across the room, tripping over a few pieces of scattered clothing as he found his laundry basket. Fumbling through it he felt the fabric of his pants from that day and hastily pulled the small card from the pocket, finding an empty place on the desk with his hand, where he set it down amongst the clutter. Feeling as if a large weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Junpei stumbled back to bed, reading two in the morning on his nearby alarm clock, and upon finding the warmth of his blankets he fell into a deep sleep.
***
"Rui! Over here!" Rui glanced up, smiling when he saw Tsukushi standing against a nearby pillar. The shopping center was alive that morning with activity, crowds pressing urgently into small boutiques, tea shops and department stores. He pushed his way through the mass of people toward where the brown-haired girl stood beside a large, gaudy, fake plant. He quickly enveloped her in a hug, smiling when she enthusiastically reciprocated the gesture. He supposed she had finally gotten used to his rather sudden displays of affection.
"I don't even know where to start," Tsukushi admitted as they started off aimlessly toward the main shops, which were indoors, but still a decent walk away.
"Did you have any ideas of what you wanted to get them?" Rui asked, brushing some of his more grown out light brown hair off his face.
"Nothing within my budget," she replied dismally. "That's why I wanted to make something; I barely make enough money to buy my dinner, you know that."
Rui smiled then, ruffling her hair lightly with one hand. "As your super-shopper escort, I claim all rights to funding."
"Pardon me?"
"You name it and it's yours. Today's my treat, and since Tsukushi is a princess, she gets to be treated like one."
"I can't believe those words just came out of your mouth. How long did you sleep last night?"
Rui's face lit up. "Fifteen hours!"
"That explains a lot of things." Tsukushi sighed and shook her head. "Fine, but it's not going to be anything big. I need to find something that has meaning. They're going to get so many big fancy things that they won't look twice unless its special."
"What about that funny little toy that you could use to write stuff with?"
"Rui..."
"You're right, that's not a good memory, is it?"
"No." Tsukushi paused briefly as they passed a small day calendar shop. As she peered into the display window Rui leaned over her shoulder, raising his eyebrows at the stationary pad she was observing. "It has to be something we can all think of fondly."
The pad was decorated with small monkeys, which all had large eyes and danced wildly about the paper outline, grappling one another's tails with a few tripping on each other as they went. The paper itself was little to behold, but the pattern seemed to give the rather bland item some character. Tsukushi glanced at Rui, who gave her a knowing nod, and she smiled widely.
"I say we make a monkey collage."
The rest of the morning was spent finding anything from monkey stuffed animals to monkey t-shirts and monkey pens, which were all added in turn to a growing collection inside the box Rui was now hefting in one arm with practiced male prowess. By the time they had purchased one last furry monkey eraser cover, Rui was leaning against a wall and Tsukushi was panting the way one would after running a marathon.
"I say it's time to eat," she ground out, straightening herself and swiftly taking the box from Rui's slightly trembling arms. He nodded slowly and they left toward the closest cafe.
"What are you going to wear?" Tsukushi asked, sipping her water and squeezing a lime slice over the glass.
"Some tuxedo I found," Rui mumbled. He pushed his plate to one side and leaned against his palm. "What about you?"
"I don't have any formal dresses," she admitted, "so I'm going to see if the dress Tsubaki gave me still fits. If it doesn't, then I get to ask for an advance at work and buy one."
Rui raised his eyebrows. "You silly girl," he said affectionately, shaking his head. "I'm sure both Tsukasa and Shigeru will understand if you don't dress like a queen."
"It's a wedding!" Tsukushi cried, aghast. Numerous heads in the restaurant turned to stare at her and she blushed, lowering her voice as she continued. "You can't just wear anything to a wedding."
"Fine. Then I'll buy you one."
Tsukushi stared at him, open-mouthed, before her eyes narrowed and her cheeks turned a vibrant red. "Not another word, Hanazawa Rui. Somehow you managed to convince me to let you buy all this," she gestured to the overflowing box, "and now you want to buy me a dress. I can't let you do this all the time, I can pay for it myself."
"I told you this day was on me, didn't I?" Tsukushi nodded and opened her mouth to argue, but Rui interrupted her. "Just let me have this, okay?"
She raised one eyebrow in confusion and he let out a sigh. "You never let me do anything for you. For five years I've watched you agonize over Tsukasa with nothing to do but listen and try to help, but I never could do much to fix you. Do you know how hard that is?" Tsukushi shook her head, her eyes growing wider by the second. Rui's face was set in determination and seriousness, with his eyebrows drawn together and his arms tensing. "But now that your problems are something I can fix, I'm going to do it, no matter what you say. Times like these won't last forever and I want to spoil you as much as I can before they end."
To those words, Tsukushi knew she had no choice but to give in. It was going to be a long week.
***
What was this girl's name again? He could have sworn he knew it before they went on the date, for he had been intent only a week earlier on getting to know her and possibly dating her. But now, as they sat at dinner with--what was it, Minami?--chattering away without an end in sight, Junpei suddenly thought the entire endeavor useless, pointless, and a complete waste of his time. Not only was she not very pretty, but she had very little personality and seemed perfectly happy gossiping about the pathetic lives of all her little girlfriends. The high-pitched ring of her voice had become an obnoxious buzz in his ears.
He had sat at his desk only hours before, Tsukushi's card in hand, agonizing over whether or not to pick up the phone. In the end time had won out; he was unwilling to stand up a previously set date without notice, so he abandoned his efforts and left to pick up someone who he thought would be able to distract him for any amount of time.
But his attempts had failed. Instead, he had built a strong resolve to call Tsukushi the moment he stepped into his apartment, with the sole purpose of making plans with her as soon as possible. He had to see her again. There was no question in his mind, for once he could see her again, could feel her strong presence, her powerful allure, old feelings were revived and brought to the top in a flood that he had had no idea he was holding inside for so long.
Finally the waiter seemed to take pity on Junpei and brought the check. Without hesitation he had paid the bill and got up to leave, knowing that the girl--Minami, right?--would be right along beside him. As soon as he had taken off his glasses at university, hoping ignorantly that he would be taken seriously as more than just supermodel Oribe Jun, he was mobbed by shallow, beautiful women with very little motive behind their advances other than flaunting him like a big diamond ring.
Junpei's lip twitched nastily at the thought: just a prize to be won, was that all he was? He almost laughed aloud. Once, he remembered, he had seen the very same expression painted on Tsukushi's strong, stubborn features. With all the men fighting around her, she seemed to wonder--much like himself--if she was just some item that was tossed about, made fun of when her back was turned, and treated like some trophy. Junpei wondered briefly as he opened the car door for his date if that was the real reason she had walked away from Tsukasa that day; what if she was just someone the rich boy was using to free himself from his family? Junpei wouldn't have been surprised, despite the seemingly sincere confession of love he had witnessed.
No, that was never the case. Tsukushi wanted a simple life, left alone by the social elite and allowed to exist without the pressure of the rich and the problems associating with the F4 seemed to bring on. For her, Junpei would quit his modeling life forever and give her whatever life she wanted.
But Tsukushi had matured beyond his wildest dreams. It was true that she had been more mature than any of them before, but he wondered if he could ever get beyond acquaintances--maybe even friends--with her ever again.
There was so much to forget. Tsukushi didn't forget, but perhaps, she could forgive.
Before Junpei could register it, he had stepped into his apartment and closed the door soundly behind him, leaving him alone in the quiet darkness. It was still early--early enough to be making phone calls but late enough that even those working the late shift would be home--so he sat down on his chair and lifted the receiver. Putting it against his ear and taking the card off the desk, he quickly dialed the number and sat up straight, as if thinking that perhaps Tsukushi would be able to see his upright posture from across town. Besides, it would make his voice stronger.
"Hello, Makino residence."
"Makino-san? It's Junpei."