Programmed Lives - First Stage
Chapter Two
'He can't possibly think you'll marry her! There is no fucking way!' Keisuke shouted angrily.
'Keisuke, keep your voice down,' Ryosuke hissed, acutely aware that both of their parents were on their way to the dining room to join them for lunch. He started thinking that telling his younger brother about the whole sorry affair in order to warn him in advance had not been a great idea.
'How can you be so freaking calm?' he heard Keisuke asking him while making a huge effort to lower his tone of voice to a more reasonable level, 'if that old geezer did something like that to me, I'm as sure as hell I'd go completely ballistic.'
'I'm not exactly pleased about it, Keisuke,' he accepted, 'but I have a plan and I hope it'll work. We just have to see how events will unfold during tonight's dinner.'
Keisuke shook his head showing his profound disbelief.
'Whatever, I just hope you know what you're doing.'
'So do I,' muttered Ryosuke under his breath.
Thankfully, the arrival of their parents prevented Keisuke from hearing that last remark. Ryosuke noticed that his younger brother kept unusually quiet during their meal, throwing angry glances at his father whenever he was sure the doctor wasn't looking at him making Ryosuke grateful that no one went anywhere near the subject of the engagement or the dinner with the Arakawa for, he knew, short-fused Keisuke would simply explode.
A few hours later, at exactly seven o'clock sharp and keeping an admirable punctuality, Doctor Daichiro Arakawa and his daughter were welcomed into the Takahashi residence. The man was short with short greying black hair, dressed impeccably in a dark blue suit and, after briefly bowing at the lady of the house, he then moved to greet his lifelong friend and colleague.
'Takahashi,' he said with a flippant smile, 'it's been a long time since I last came to your place.'
'It's been long indeed, Arakawa,' Sousuke replied, 'you've already met with my oldest son Ryosuke during his job interview but you may not be able to recognise my youngest one, after all,' he added with the usual disapproving tone he used when speaking about him, 'Keisuke has changed quite a bit since the last time you saw him.'
'I've had the pleasure of meeting Ryosuke,' Daichiro confirmed, 'he's a really impressive young man. If he keeps working this hard, you'll have every reason to be proud of him.' When he said that, Ryosuke couldn't help both detecting a hint of jealousy in his voice and noticing the way his future boss had completely ignored Keisuke.
His younger brother helped the doctor to take notice of him by clearing his throat quite loudly.
'Ah, yes, Keisuke,' Doctor Arakawa finally said acknowledging him, he then took a look at Keisuke's bleached hair and, rather maliciously, he asked him, 'tell us, what is it that you study?'
'Keisuke is taking a break from his studies,' Ryosuke replied, relieving his brother from having to answer, 'he's carefully considering several options he has for his future occupation.'
'Ah, I see,' Doctor Arakawa said.
He then gave Keisuke a look that neither of the two Takahashi brothers liked.
The awkward silence which followed was diplomatically broken by their mother who said:
'This lovely lady must be your daughter.'
Kinue Takahashi took a step towards the young woman who, up to that moment, had been quietly standing a couple of steps behind her father. Ryosuke was surprised to see that he wasn't the only one who had forgotten all about her, even Akiko's father seemed a little taken aback before he said:
'Yes, this is her.'
Kinue exchanged a confused glance with her husband before she looked back at the girl.
'We're very pleased to see you again, Akiko-chan.'
'Likewise, Kinue-sama,' the girl replied politely, 'I'm also happy to be back in Japan after so long.'
This time, Ryosuke was surprised to hear such a firm and strong tone of voice coming from such a tiny woman. She was, in fact much smaller than he had expected. She was over twenty centimetres shorter than he was and her petite frame made her look even smaller. That said, she seemed to transmit an inner strength that left Ryosuke quite speechless. Akiko then turned to speak to him.
'It's also a pleasure to see you again, Ryosuke-san, even though I doubt you'll remember me.'
'I'll be honest,' Ryosuke said finding his voice, 'I didn't really recognise you at first but after my father mentioned it to me, I remembered how you used to come here to play when we were kids.'
'I did,' Akiko confirmed before offering Keisuke a smile and say, 'you used to cry all the time.'
'I've grown up since then,' Keisuke countered a tad on the aggressive side.
'I can see that,' Akiko commented looking up at him.
While he observed the scene, Ryosuke remembered the picture of her that he still had in his room. The truly happy smile she had worn in that picture seemed to have been replaced with an obviously fake one and all the cheerfulness in her eyes was gone. Ryosuke highly intuitive nature told him that this arranged marriage was just the tip of the iceberg that was causing her unhappiness.
Just then, Kinue asked them to move on to the dining room and, while they made their way there, Akiko quietly handed her the small but posh looking bag that she'd been carrying in her left hand.
'I've just come back from Hokkaido,' she explained to her, 'I was there visiting some old friends and I got some of their traditional sweets, I thought you may like them.'
'Oh, that's very kind of you,' Kinue replied smiling at her, 'thank you.'
'You're most welcome,' Akiko said returning the smile.
A few moments later, they busied themselves taking their pre-assigned seats while the housemaids started the preparations to serve them their meal. Ryosuke noticed that his mother handed Akiko's bag to one of them muttering instructions regarding the exact moment in which to serve the sweets.
Then, the woman joined them at the table, taking her seat at the right side of the head of the table where her husband sat. Doctor Arakawa was seated right in front of her, at the left side of his fellow doctor, leaving Ryosuke and Akiko facing each other while Keisuke made sure he sat as far away from his father as possible.
During the meal, Ryosuke found out that Akiko was just two months younger than him. She was also a last year medical student who would start working at her father's hospital at soon as she graduated. He also found out that she had spent a very large part of her childhood at a boarding school in England and that she was fluent in French, Spanish and, of course, English.
In short, Akiko was your typical upper class girl with excellent education and exquisite manners. She had been brought up to be the perfect wife for the heir of a rich family such as the Takahashi.
Keisuke, who had been staring at both Akiko and at his brother alternatively listening to their conversation, finally decided to get involved in it by asking her the boldest question he dared to ask:
'Akiko-san, what do you think of street racing?'
Sousuke Takahashi threw a look full of disapproval at his youngest son.
Akiko, however, didn't even flinch.
'I don't know much about it,' she answered, 'I do enjoy watching the occasional rallying race.'
'Really?' Ryosuke asked, his surprise obvious in his tone of voice.
'Yes, I'm quite a fan of Sebastien Loeb...' she started saying, her face brightening up, then her father made some noise that made her stop speaking and lower her eyes down to the Irish linen table cloth.
If anyone found this odd, no one commented on it nor on the fact that father and daughter had not exchanged a single word during the whole time. In fact, Doctor Arakawa seemed to pretty much ignore his daughter, almost as if he wanted to pretend she didn't even exist. Once again, it was up to Kinue to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen upon her dinner table.
'Sousuke-san,' she said, 'do you think it's an appropriate time to give her that?'
'Yes, I think so,' her husband replied.
'Alright,' she said handing Ryosuke a small box, 'darling, give this to Akiko-chan.'
No one needed to guess what was in the box and if he felt himself getting paler, Ryosuke noticed that poor Akiko was getting rather white herself. He felt sorry for her since it was obvious that she was definitely not pleased by the whole deal either. Nevertheless, she took the box from him and more because she was forced by etiquette than anything else, she opened it to reveal a gold engagement ring with a huge diamond set on it.
'Oh my God,' was all she could manage to say.
Entirely disregarding her discomfort, her father smiled at Doctor Takahashi and said:
'The wedding planner I've hired says a month should do to organise the event, what do you think?'
'Yes, that's about the right amount of time,' Sousuke replied, 'the house should be ready by then.'
'House?' Ryosuke asked, his voice sounding of a slightly higher pitch than usual.
'Yes, of course,' his father replied looking a little amused, 'the house your mother and I have bought for you two. Surely you don't expect to be living here with us once you're married, do you?'
Ryosuke didn't know what to say. He just looked at Akiko, who was still staring at the ring, obviously too stunned to even allow herself to lift her eyes to look at anything else. Keisuke was the only one of the three who, as usual, reacted staying true to his feelings: swearing viciously, he got up and left the table without paying any attention to his mother's protests.
'I'll go and talk to him,' Ryosuke said rushing to go after him.
To be continued…
