Well, it's obvious isn't it! Thanks to the many that reviewed, I love each and every single one of you.
x
Chapter 8
I guess it was a mistake when I chose to talk to Ru about his dad.
"Ru!" I followed him to the room, quickening my pace in case he slammed the door in my face. "Look, I'm sorry, but I really need to know more about your dad.I know you don't like it-"
To my horror Ru was drawing a travel bag out of the closet.
"What are you doing?" I screeched.
He started to shove clothes into the bag and I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation.
"Look, Ru. You got to control your temper! You're always flaring up, you should be more understanding - at least hear me out! I know you're bothered about your dad and stuff, but there's no reason not to hear what I have to say!"
Ru glared, "My father abandoned us when I was ten, Toki. You think it's easy to brush that fact across?"
"I thought you said he was involved in an accident—"
"He was," Ru snapped, "but which ten-year-old would accept that excuse of a reason for parental absence?"
"Ru," I pleaded, "Listen to me."
"I'll give you a choice. Either you don't talk about it, or I leave your place right now."
I put up my hands and waved the white flag, and only then did Ru put down his bag.
x
There were two questions sounding their unnerving drums in my head as I tossed around that night.
One.
Why did Ru not say his father's name when my mom asked if he was Mazzy's son? He just said no, he was not related to Mazzy. The loophole here is that we don't know Ru's dad at all, nor his name.
Two.
If Mom and Mazzy said that they'll each name their firstborns Kaede, then why is Ru, being younger than Tadashi, having the name 'Kaede'? Ru couldn't have been the firstborn if Tadashi's older. What's the reason of this glitch in logic?
I sighed, put my hands on my tummy and tried to make my breathing hypnotize me to sleep.
x
"Morning," I yawned to Sayaka as I took my seat behind her. She raised her eyebrows and whispered, "Did you get wasted last night? You know it's illegal."
I shook my mane of entangled hair away from my shoulders and glared at her. My eyes hurt from the effort, but I was valiant in my attempt to intimidate my classmate.
Operative word being 'attempt'.
I shut my eyes and sighed, "I couldn't sleep last night."
"Yeah, we all can see that," Sendoh chimed as he took the seat beside me and winked at Sayaka, who smiled warmly back. I blinked at their display and squawked, "Did I miss anything? Hmmm?"
When they both smiled dreamy, knowing grins at each other I made a face and went, "Oh, ew."
Sendoh laughed and clapped me on the back. "You have so much to learn, young'un."
"Oh, shut up," I closed my eyes and lay on my folded arms, a plan suddenly forming in my head.
x
"Hey, young'un," I grinned and tweaked Ru's nose as I ambushed him. His eyebrows shot up in surprise – even the Icecube couldn't conceal shock when it came to me making an appearance in Shohoku.
"What are you doing here?" he mumbled, shifting his basketball bag to his other shoulder.
"I needed to speak to you urgently," I laughed. "On the way to the gym, aren't you? For practice?"
"Yeah."
"You still pissed at me?"
"No."
"Good. Will I be murdered by any females if I walk you to the gym?"
"Don't be stupid."
I laughed and socked his arm. "Listen. You hate Tadashi?"
Ru frowned and shook his head. "Don't even know him."
"Exactly. So, I need you to help me. I need you to provide me access to classified information."
"What are you talking about, Toki?" Ru stopped and stared at me like I was nuts. "Are you role-playing for some new manga plot? What are you writing about? Kindaichi-influenced material?"
I laughed. "Trust me on this. I have a gut feeling."
"You had a gut feeling that I was going to die six months ago because I ate expired rice pudding."
Giving him a mock punch, I sighed and said, "Okay, call me crazy, but… I really do suspect that you're Tadashi's brother."
x
"Hel-lo, uh…" I started, unable to think of a proper address.
"Aunt Chizuru would be fine," Rukawa's mom embarrassedly tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, perched awkwardly on the couch. She was fingering the hem of her over-sized T-shirt.
"Your eldest son brought his siblings to the playground," I grinned. "We can chat to our hearts content."
The petite frame of Aunt Chizuru rocked slightly at she giggled, raising her thin hands to her mouth. Then, she adjusted her position on the couch sat up straight, clutching her knees and bowing shyly, as if she were younger than me.
"Aunt Chizuru," I took her hand, "why are you so nervous?"
Aunt Chizuru gave me a tiny smile. "It's just difficult not to be. You helped Kaede so much, I feel so… so indebted to you. And you're so young, so capable—"
I held her hand tighter and shook my head. "I'm not like that, please. And please don't cry. It's just my duty to help a friend in need. Furthermore, I was his mentor. I had a responsibility for him, even though it was merely a slight one."
She held my gaze and looked, again, on the brink of tears.
"No, no, Aunt Chizuru. Don't cry. If it makes you feel better, I'm a year older than he is. I have to take care of him. He's like my little brother."
Aunt Chizuru nodded and held back her tears.
"So," she tried her best to recover, "Kaede told me that you have questions about our family."
I nodded sheepishly. "I really hope you're not angry, me probing like this."
"Kaede," she smiled, the wrinkles in her eyes creasing her face, "You have done so much for my Kaede. I think it will be inappropriate for me to withhold anything from you that will help him."
Inhaling deeply, I took the first plunge. "Aunt Chizuru, would you please tell me the reason why you told Ru that his father's name is Rukawa Masayoshi?"
"Hm?" Aunt Chizuru was rather startled by the question. "What do you mean…"
"I know that your husband's name is not Rukawa Masayoshi. It's Kawasaki Matsu, isn't it?" I bent forward, my eyes searching her features for any hint of discomfort.
Aunt Chizuru took a deep breath and shakily asked, "How did you know that?"
Okay, so apparently Ru hadn't told her about the stuff Mom and Tadashi said. Darn that silly boy.
"So it's true," I sadly looked away, leaning back into the couch, folding my arms. "I know it's none of my business, but I believe another family is involved – I know a boy called Tadashi and his father looks very much like Ru so I'm concluding that their fathers are the same. What's more, Tadashi's surname is Kawasaki. If you put two and two together, plus what my mother told me, I don't think it's difficult to guess what the whole story is."
"Who…" Aunt Chizuru swallowed the crack in her voice, "Who is your mother?"
I smiled at her initiative to discuss the matter further and said, "You may know her as Erin. Erin Kadohata."
x
"I was Matsu's very first girlfriend and naturally, after high school he went off to university and promised to marry me. However, it was at that point in time, just when he graduated from high school, when his family's business went into major financial problems. That's when they moved away from that big house beside your mother's."
I nodded and urged Aunt Chizuru to continue.
She took a deep breath before cocking her head and frowning at the empty space opposite her, as if trying hard to remember.
"Matsu… Sorry I need to compose myself a little. Well, Matsu told me that his father was forcing him into marriage with an older woman who was from a incredibly rich family that could help him out of financial crisis. A few years older, of course, not too much, but still it was a forced marriage. We planned to elope to Okinawa the following night but his family put him under house arrest," Aunt Chizuru smiled as I held her hand. The tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes and I hurriedly passed her a tissue.
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to…" I furrowed my eyebrows and patted her hand.
"It's okay, dear. As you may have guessed, Matsu ended up marrying her. He vowed never to have children with her but a few months into the relationship she spiked his drink and she managed to conceive that night."
"That's despicable!" I gasped. "I mean, drugging your own husband-"
"Oh Kaede, we can't control what other people do," Aunt Chizuru shook her head sadly. "But that incident totally wrecked Matsu's trust in her and he never had children with her again. I believe she was very hurt by it because from what I heard from Matsu, her actions show that she is quite obsessed with him, to an extent that she's possessive."
I nodded slowly, and asked, "I'm sorry for being rude, Aunt Chizuru, but are the rest of your children also fathered by him?"
Aunt Chizuru nodded solemnly, "Yes. Matsu has always regarded me as his wife instead of that woman, and he would spend a few days with me, but never nights, when he came back from business trips overseas. I didn't mind being a kept woman, because Matsu regarded me as his wife. But those were the early years before Matsu gave up working in the family business."
I sighed and shook my head. It was hard to see Aunt Chizuru as a kept woman because she was so gentle and, well, kind. Normally the words 'kept woman' give you the impression of a made-up, red-lipped, miniskirt-donning chick wannabe who is over age, you know?
Oh man, that is so Mom.
x
I took a deep breath and stared at the weird device that was mounted upon the brick column the gate was attached to.
How do I work this? I wondered, staring at the myriad of buttons.
Why do they have so many buttons on a simple doorbell? I fretted, pressing a red one that was labeled with a '1'.
There was nothing going on, so I waited about a minute before I pressed it again.
I rolled my eyes at the slowness of everything and glanced at my watch in irritation. 08:52 PM. Great, I had been waiting for a wretched six minutes.
I was about to walk away when the faint hum of something familiar, yet not too familiar, reached my ears.
What's that sound…I mused, frowning in an attempt to remember. As it got closer, my eyes widened, the consequences of the darned red button turning the corner right in front of me.
"Oh, crap!" I hissed to myself, the fire engine looming closer and closer before halting to a stop in front of the Kawasaki mansion. "You guys have a direct-connect to the fire station?" I muttered under my breath towards the house.
A fireman hit another red button labeled '2' and the gates swung open. Apparently they had done it before.
What, the Akamiya estate is particularly susceptible to fire? I wondered as I glanced to the house opposite, which also had the same set of buttons on its gates.
The fire engine made its way past the gates as lights went on in the mansion. I realized that I had made a terrific blunder and in a panic, sprinted down the driveway to exit the estate.
Sheesh, I whipped out my phone. So much for trying to meet you face to face, I grumbled inwardly as I dialed Tadashi's number.
x
I sighed as Tadashi entered MOS Burger in his white and blue Ryonan tennis polo. He's just so utterly handsome, I sighed again.
Waving to beckon Tadashi to the booth, I thought how mad he looked when he was telling me about Ru.
What can I do to make this easy…? I frowned as he came nearer.
"Hey," he gave me a small, wary smile.
"Hey", I greeted back, slightly nervous.
"So… What did you mean when you said you know everything?" Tadashi propped his elbows on the table and folded his fingers as I sipped my milk tea.
"Uhhh… Don't take this too hard, okay?" I swallowed the sweet, cool liquid and chewed on my lower lip.
Tadashi brushed my hand lightly with his fingers and my skin tingled like the time I almost got electrocuted while helping to jump start the family car when it broke down in Scotland.
"Just tell me," he whispered earnestly from across the booth.
"Wait, we have to wait for somebody," I gave him a small, reassuring smile.
His eyes narrowed and before he could say anything, Ru entered the fast food joint.
x
"Right, boys, you guys got to get some facts clear. Kawasaki-kun, you have to listen first," I looked at both of them.
Tadashi glared at Ru, who shrugged back.
"Kawasaki-kun, I think you dislike Ru because you feel that his family came between your family and your father, right?" I quizzed, pointing a french fry at him. "You knew the truth earlier than any of us, even if it was only part of the truth."
Tadashi nodded sullenly.
"And Ru, you feel a large sense of animosity to your dad because you think he's not been there for your family these years."
Ru agreed by picking up a fry.
"Okay, Ru. Do you remember a teacher called Kawasaki Matsu in your junior high?"
Tadashi snorted and said, "He drooled his way through junior high."
Ru shrugged to show he didn't remember.
"Well," I sighed, "that figures. Your father was your Math teacher for 3 years and you spaced all the way?"
"I hated Math," Ru chose to speak.
"Okay you guys. You're not seeing the great love of a man for his sons! He became a teacher so that he could watch over you two, so that you two could come to acknowledge each other as brothers!" I threw up my hands in exasperation.
Tadashi snarled, "It doesn't work that way, Tokita-san. My father did not love me at all, he only loved this bastard."
Ru's eyes flashed and I held his hand to keep him from hitting anybody. I used to hold Matsu's – my brother Matsu – hand to keep him from hitting himself, and Ru was the next closest thing to a brother.
Tadashi couldn't see what was going on under the table because we were sitting in a booth, but it didn't stop him from going on about Ru.
"My father would engage me in private conversations on how my younger brother was a genius at art, how my younger brother could play basketball so well, how my younger brother this and that. He never cared when I topped the class, he never cared when I competed at national level for tennis. He only cared about my little brother," Tadashi spat.
"Tadashi," I called him aloud by his name for the first time, "I think your problem is that you're jealous of Ru. Completely and utterly jealous. It's understandable, really, but don't you think it's overboard?"
"I think my father was overboard, if you want my opinion!" Tadashi whispered fiercely in quiet, seething anger.
I shook my head in protest. "Your father still loves you. He may not love your mother, but he loves you. He didn't give you the name Kaede because he didn't regard your mother as his wife, and thus Ru ended up with the name because he regarded Ru as his first son, borne by the woman that he loves. But you are still his flesh and blood, and he named you Tadashi. Do you have any idea what that means? The significance of your name?"
Tadashi started to open his mouth to retort but realized what I was getting at.
"Only," Ru's calm voice entered the atmosphere. "Your name means that, if I'm not wrong about the kanji."
"Yes," I nodded earnestly, "only. Your father gave you that name because in that family of yours, you're the only one he loves truly."
"It was too hard on my mom," Tadashi was still angry but a little less, as he slumped into the soft cushioned backing of the booth.
Then, his eyes suddenly flew open in a new rage and he reiterated more strongly, "It was hell for my mom."
With that, he got up and I started to get up too but of course Ru was in my way and that stalled me. I chased after Tadashi - bursting out of MOS Burger I ran as fast as I could after that dark shadow in the dim evening light. He turned at the blind spot, and I did too. My stamina was giving way. He just kept running down the road and crossed the narrow gravel lane that led to the way to his estate - I followed. My feet left the sidewalk and I reached the middle of the lane, Ru was right behind me and would catch up very soon-
"Watch out!" I heard Ru's voice and saw a bright, yellow glare before I realized what was happening. I remember Tadashi shouting my name, too.
You know sometimes when you see deer caught in headlights? Impending danger but all it can do is stay rooted like it doesn't remember it can run?
That was how I was.
I did hear the screech of tires, which was rather reassuring, but I also heard a huge bang and it was at that very precise moment that I passed out.
