Programmed Lives - First Stage
Chapter Twelve
Keisuke had just come back from one of his drives around Mt Akagi when he realised that there was something there that, given the time of the day, should have not been there: Ryosuke's white FC.
For this reason, he found himself walking towards his brother's room.
'Aniki, are you there?' he asked through the door.
Not getting a reply, he opened it and found his brother sitting at his desk, sleeping with his head lying on top of his arms which were crossed on top of an opened book.
Okay, this had to stop, Keisuke thought. His brother had been behaving strangely for almost a week, ever since the evening of their last meeting. Now, he was found sleeping on his desk, having worn a shirt for over two days and the stubble on his face looked more or less as old as that.
Even his bed was unmade and, whereas for Keisuke a room like this still looked remarkably clean, according to his older brother's standards, things had definitely gone to the dogs.
'Hey Aniki! Wake up!' he said shaking his brother by his shoulder.
'What?' he asked rather gruffly.
'Aren't you supposed to pick Tsugumi up from school?' Keisuke asked.
'Oh bugger! What time is it?' Ryosuke said rubbing the sleep off his eyes with his fists.
'You've got five minutes to get there,' Keisuke said sounding slightly exasperated.
'Bugger!' Ryosuke repeated while trying to straighten up his hair and tuck his shirt in his trousers. He still looked as though as he had been run over by a truck but Keisuke was sensitive enough not to point that out.
'Aniki…' he started.
'Not now Keisuke. I'll talk to you later, I promise,' he said dashing out of the room.
Keisuke realised that he had left his FC's key on the desk and picked it up to go after him. He didn't even need to take one step because Ryosuke got back into his room at that precise moment.
'There you go,' Keisuke said handing the key to him.
'Thanks,' Ryosuke mumbled leaving once more.
Keisuke shook his head. Maybe he wasn't as intelligent as his brother but he could clearly see that the cause of all this chaos was none other than that Akiko girl. Having observed the nervous wreck his brother had become ever since that girl had entered his life made Keisuke's conviction grow even stronger: women could mess a man's minds way too much, he was much better off without them.
Meanwhile, Ryosuke did something else he usually never did breaking the speed limits in a non-race situation. Tsugumi was going to kill him: this was the third time in a row that he was late picking her up.
'I'm so sorry, I…' he said the minute he got to the school's entrance where, of course, his cousin was very patiently waiting for him.
'Ryosuke, stop the car. We need to talk,' Tsugumi said climbing into her cousin's car.
'But…'
'No buts. Now, I've been patient enough, I know something's happened with Akiko and I thought you'd ask me for advice but you haven't and now I want to know what's going on.'
Ryosuke very briefly considered lying to her, telling her that he was tired from studying, preparing the races and filling up the medical reports for his father but seeing the determination in his cousin's eyes, he knew that any excuse he could make would immediately be rejected.
'I'm a mess,' he started.
'That much is clear Ryosuke,' she said completely merciless.
'I just don't know what to do and you know how rarely that happens,' he said. He realised that he could never speak like this to anybody but Tsugumi.
'Okay, tell me what you've done,' she said.
'Me? Why do you think I'm the one who's messed up?' he asked slightly offended. Tsugumi limited herself to lift her eyebrows and giving him a knowing look.
'Alright, I kissed her and I don't think she appreciated that,' he finally said.
'Why? Did she slap you?' she asked her voice full of concern.
'No. She seemed to be enjoying the kiss but then she pushed me away from her and, well, she went home leaving me there standing like an idiot,' he confessed.
'Ah, I see…' she said.
'What do you see? Because I don't get it, I no longer know what to think. I'm not even sure why I like her so much, she's definitely not what I thought it was my type. Nothing makes any sense anymore…' Ryosuke said sounding every bit as desperate as he felt.
Tsugumi smiled in an almost patronising manner.
'Oh Ryosuke!' she said shaking her pretty head, 'you know, when it comes to cars and school subjects, you're the best but, I think that when it comes to feelings, you're totally clueless,' she said starting to laugh.
'Explain yourself,' he begged her not truly appreciating the way his beloved cousin was talking to him.
'Love makes no sense. It's the most irrational thing in the world, Ryosuke. The thing is that when you like someone, most of the time you can't explain why you do and, even if you can, the explanation will make no sense whatsoever. That's why love is such a powerful feeling…'
'I'm not in love with her…' he started saying.
'Not yet, but you're almost there, just give yourself time,' she said very sure of herself.
'In any case, I've blown it. She said she would call me and it's been almost a week since then and she hasn't called,' Ryosuke said.
'Why haven't you called her?' Tsugumi asked him now sounding a bit alarmed.
'Because I wanted to give her some room…'
'Oh gosh! That's the last thing you need to do now. Call her. Tell her you like her and that you aren't giving up,' Tsugumi said, then she added, 'and try to be careful, she probably feels very insecure right now…'
'Why?' he asked Tsugumi.
'Who wouldn't? Ryosuke, you're gorgeous, you're intelligent and you're very popular. For pity's sake, you would make Miss Universe feel insecure!' Tsugumi exclaimed looking positively irritated at her cousin's inability to come up with that conclusion by himself.
Ryouske didn't say anything for he knew that Tsugumi was, once again, probably right.
'Do you have your mobile phone with you?' she asked.
'Yes, why?' he replied.
'Call her,' she said in what looked more like an order.
'What? Now?'
'Yup, I want to see for myself how you get yourself out of this mess,' she said smiling as though as she was enjoying this immensely.
'You're too cruel…' he said miserably.
'Says the man who gives me even more homework than my own teachers,' she commented and then added, 'come on, call her or I'll do it for you.'
Still unsure of himself, he took his phone out of his pocket and dialled Akiko's phone number.
'Hello?' Akiko's voice said just as Ryosuke had started praying so that he wouldn't get an answer.
'Hello, this is Ryosuke,' he said and then, not giving her time to either hang up nor reply, he added, 'look, I know you probably don't want to see me right now but I do. Can we please meet up tonight? I really need to talk to you.'
Then he held his breath while he waited for an answer.
'Alright,' she said.
'Eight o'clock, your place?' he suggested trying to make his voice as normal as possible so his eagerness wouldn't be too obvious.
'Okay,' she said and, something in her voice made him think that she was actually happy about this.
'Good, see you there,' he said and with this, he pressed the button to finish the call.
'See? It wasn't so difficult now, was it?' Tsugumi said triumphantly.
'No, it wasn't,' Ryosuke agreed.
'No homework for me tonight, right?' Tsugumi asked hopeful.
'Only in your dreams Tsugumi,' he said smiling.
'Slave driver,' she mumbled crossing her arms on her chest with an only half-felt annoyance.
Ryosuke was so happy about that night's meeting with Akiko he completely forgot to ask Tsugumi about that boyfriend of hers. He made himself a mental note to ask her some other time. Now he needed to clean himself up a bit.
At eight o'clock sharp, he found himself ringing the bell of the Arakawa's residence in Maebashi. The house itself was just a bit bigger than that of the Takahashi's, the only distinctive thing was the beautifully kept garden at the front of the house.
'Good evening, sir,' the butler, man in his late sixties, said opening the door.
'Good evening, I'm Takahashi Ryosuke, I'm here to see Doctor Arakawa's daughter,' he said.
'Yes, Akiko-sama told me you'd be here. She's waiting for you at the sitting room. I'm to accompany you there, sir,' the butler said.
As he followed the man through an elegantly decorated corridor, he thought this was the first time he entered this house for, when he had picked her up to go to Ibaraki the six days before, she had already been waiting for him down the lane with her car.
They stepped into the sitting room where Ryosuke saw Akiko sitting on one of the dark velvet settees. Seeing him, she got up and Ryosuke took the chance to notice that she was wearing a mid length dark brown skirt and a soft looking cream coloured cashmere top. She seemed to be dressed to go out.
'Akiko-sama, Takahashi-sama is here to see you,' the butler said.
'Thank you, I won't need anything else tonight, so you and the rest of the staff may retire for the day,' she said.
'Alright, have a nice evening,' he replied before leaving the room.
'Where is your father?' Ryosuke asked.
'He's out for a business dinner,' she explained, 'please take a seat.'
He did, hating the formality with which she was addressing at him.
'You look like you were going out,' he commented.
'I was. I am. I've got to go and pick James up from Narita in an hour,' she explained.
'Ah, I see. So we don't have too long, do we?' he said.
'No, we don't, so what is it you wanted to talk to me about?' she asked, looking as tense as ever. That caused Ryosuke's composure to falter.
'Look, Akiko, I've come here today to tell you that I've made a decision regarding us two.'
'Ah,' she simply said.
'We don't have too long,' he said.
'Yes, I know that,' she said, her poise also giving up.
'No, what I meant to say is that because of my stupidity we've wasted six days out of the ten your father gave me to make my decision and now we don't have too long.'
'What do you mean?' Akiko said obviously confused. Ryosuke realised that she probably didn't know anything about his and her father's agreement.
'Your father gave me ten days to manage to convince you to marry me,' Ryosuke knew that those weren't exactly the terms of the agreement but Akiko didn't need to know that.
'What?' she shouted getting up from the settee.
He got up too, only to sink down onto his knee and take her hand startling her in the process.
'Akiko, I know that this isn't the most conventional way of phrasing this but, I like you and I think that with time this feeling will grow to become something more. Your father isn't giving us the time we need to see if that's true but, I'd like to find out nonetheless so, if you think you might like me too, will you please marry me?'
To be continued…
