Programmed Lives – Second Stage
Chapter Ten
He was still facing the wall when he heard someone entering the waiting room. Thinking it was Kyoko, Keisuke stayed still waiting for her to say something.
'Where's Kyoko?' he heard his brother asking instead.
Turning round, Keisuke tried to hide the emotional turmoil within him with a mask of indifference.
'I don't know…'
'What's going on Keisuke?' Ryosuke asked, now looking quite concerned.
'I think you're going to need to find another babysitter,' Keisuke said not being able to conceal the bitterness in his voice.
'Why? What did you do?' Ryosuke said.
'Why does it have to be me doing something wrong?' Keisuke asked sounding more hurt than offended.
Ryosuke simply looked at him with that know-it-all air that Keisuke had always admired but that, right at this moment, he hated.
'Alright, we argued. But it was her fault,' Keisuke admitted.
'What did she do?' Ryosuke asked and his tone suggested that he didn't even remotely think it was possible for Kyoko to do anything wrong.
'She disrespected me,' Keisuke said angrily hoping that his brother, being a man, would get the point.
Instead, Keisuke was shocked to hear that his brother just laughed at this.
'What are you laughing at?' Keisuke asked now getting annoyed at his brother too.
'She disrespected you. Do you have any idea how childish that sounds?' Ryosuke said, regaining his serious look.
'What the hell do you know about how I feel?' Keisuke said and was about to walk away when Ryosuke, raising his voice just a little bit, he said with an icy tone:
'Do you really think I don't know what being insulted feels like?'
Keisuke looked at him conveying in his gaze his incredulity over the fact that his brother had ever been insulted by anyone in any way.
'Let me illuminate you Keisuke: father has never taken in consideration my wishes, in all these years he's done nothing but completely disregard the way I wanted to live my life. I know very well what it means to be disrespected so, don't you go and tell me that Kyoko has done anything as bad as that because I will simply not believe you.'
Keisuke spent several moments trying to come up with an appropriate response then, giving up, he said:
'She didn't consult me before offering herself to baby-sit Kyo-chan.'
'So what? Do you know the amount of things Akiko does without telling me first? With all the time we spend separated, if she didn't take the initiative regarding certain things, we wouldn't get anything done.'
'Yes, but she always checks with you for the important things,' Keisuke insisted, fearing that he wasn't getting his point across his brother either.
'Like asking father to train her to run the Arakawa's hospitals? Like when she bargained with both our father and hers so I could carry on with our racing team?' Ryosuke said almost sarcastically.
'Yes well, but she always did it with your best interests in her mind,' Keisuke said getting desperate because he was clearly losing ground.
'Yes, that's true. But, so does Kyoko. It's awfully good of her to look after Kyosuke for us. By doing that, Akiko will be able to have the peace of mind she'll need to work with father, something that it's essential if I am to carry on with the team, the team which you, Keisuke, race for. So, if you follow the line, you see that she only offered herself to look after Kyo-chan so you could carry on racing.'
Keisuke sat down.
'Oh my God,' he muttered putting his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees.
'I take you didn't see it quite that way, did you?' Ryosuke asked rhetorically but Keisuke shook his head nonetheless.
'I was horrible to her,' he said, still staring at the floor.
'Why don't you go and talk to her?' Ryosuke said.
'Because it's too late, I saw the way her eyes were. I turned round so I didn't see I was hurting her.'
'Can't you take back what you said?' Ryosuke asked and Keisuke shook his head again.
'No. Aniki, I really think I've screwed up this time. I already broke her heart once and she forgave me. I don't think she'll forgive me again…'
'Never underestimate the forgiving capability of a woman. Especially if said woman is in love with you,' Ryosuke said.
'Do you think so?' Keisuke said finally looking up to his brother.
'I know so. Goodness knows how many times Akiko has forgiven me when I've messed up.'
'Yeah, that's right,' Keisuke said.
'Besides, where are you going to find another woman who's so clearly made for you?' Ryosuke asked.
'And who can cope with me the way she does,' Keisuke added miserably.
'Keisuke, you're a fighter, always have been. You need to fight your way back into her heart. Now, go home, sleep on it and tomorrow morning, first thing, I want you to go and talk to her, beg for her forgiveness if needed. Understood?'
'Alright, Aniki,' Keisuke said.
'Good,' Ryosuke said sounding pretty much satisfied.
'What are you going to do?' Keisuke asked.
'I'm staying here with my wife. Kyo-chan's been taken into the hospital's nursery so he can sleep there while the nurses keep an eye on him.'
The next day, a few minutes after dawn, Keisuke got up from bed without having actually fallen asleep. He had just been turning round on it torn between following Aniki's advice or calling her in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, reason had prevailed and he had decided to wait till the morning, only that he could no longer wait: he picked his phone from his bedside table and dialled Kyoko's mobile phone number.
Unsurprisingly, it was turned off.
Not giving up, Keisuke dialled then her home's phone number. After three rings, the answer machine clicked itself on.
Not wanting to leave a message, without having had breakfast and wearing the same clothes he had been wearing all night long, he decided to just go to her place. Maybe if he just showed up, she'd throw herself in his arms, they'd kiss and both would be able to put their silly argument behind.
This thought proved itself entirely too optimistic for, when Keisuke arrived at the building that housed Kyoko's apartment, he saw that something was missing. Her FD wasn't parked where she usually left it.
'Maybe she hasn't come back home yet…' he said to himself as he was getting out of the car so he could go and wait outside her door for whenever she decided to come back.
After fifteen minutes there and as he was beginning to get impatient, he heard footsteps coming his way. He got up from the floor where he'd been sitting just to see that the footsteps belonged to some guy whose name Keisuke didn't remember but that he knew was a neighbour of Kyoko's.
'Hey there, are you waiting for Iwase-san?' the guy asked.
'Yeah,' Keisuke said with a tone of voice that suggested the guy to mind his own business.
'Well, you're waiting for nothing,' he said, clearly not caring about Keisuke's rudeness, 'she left awfully early this morning to go to her parents…'
'What? Did she tell you where that is?' Keisuke asked now sounding much more polite.
'Nope, sorry. Have a nice day,' the guy said getting into his house.
'Shit!' Keisuke said for, even though he knew her parents lived nearby, he hadn't the faintest idea of where their house was. Deciding he'd try her mobile phone until she answered it, he got back to his car, climbed into it, and drove quite furiously back to his brother's house.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Akiko's phone woke her up for she had been sleeping on a couch near her father's bed.
'Yes?' she answered hastily fearing that her father would wake up.
'Hi, did I wake you?' Kyoko asked.
'No! Don't worry,' she lied. Her husband had told her the previous night what had happened between Kyoko and Keisuke and, in all honesty, Akiko didn't know how to confront the issue with her.
'You've probably heard,' Kyoko said and in so doing, she saved Akiko from having to bring the topic up.
'Yes, I did. Kyoko, Keisuke was just upset. You know how he is like, he just doesn't think straight when he gets angry…' Akiko started.
'No, it wasn't that. I just can't stand the way he looked at me last night,' Kyoko said interrupting her and Akiko knew that her friend was making an inhuman effort to keep her voice steady.
'Baby, I swear, men don't mean half of the things they say, especially if they're angry,' Akiko said, trying to make her feel better.
'No, Keisuke did. He compared me to you Akiko,' she said and Akiko had to repress a gasp of surprise.
'Yeah, he probably said you're much better than his hysterical sister-in-law,' Akiko tried, and failed, to lighten up the mood.
'On the contrary: he pointed you as an example of what I should aim to be,' Kyoko said no longer bothering to contain her sobs.
'See what I mean? He was clearly out of his mind last night. He would never say that if he had had it all up there.'
'No. Look Akiko, no offence or anything but I really don't want to discuss this with you or anybody else. I've called you to tell you that, unfortunately I won't be able to keep my end of the deal and I will not be able to look after Kyo-chan.'
Akiko thought of her baby who was currently a guest in the nursery.
'Don't worry about that now,' Akiko said, 'Kyoko, why don't we meet up for lunch so we can talk about this?'
'No. I can't. I'm at my parents' now and I think I'll stay here for a while.'
'What about Keisuke?' Akiko said.
'What about him? Last night he made it remarkably clear that he wants nothing to do with me…'
'He loves you Kyoko, and you love him,' Akiko said.
'Love is not all you need,' Kyoko said.
'The Beatles disagree with you,' Akiko commented, in a last, desperate attempt at trying to make her laugh.
'They hadn't met Keisuke,' she said and, with this, she said a quick 'see you later' before hanging up.
As Akiko put the phone back on the table, Ryosuke came back into the room.
'You look better,' she said for Ryosuke had gone back home to take a quick shower and to get the things he needed for the team's work.
'I feel better. Keisuke's in a right state though,' he replied and, seeing that his father-in-law's condition hadn't changed, he didn't bother asking for an update.
'Have you seen him?' Akiko asked frowning.
'No, I've heard him. He's locked himself up in his apartment and he's playing the loudest music so we can't hear him cry…'
'He's crying?' Akiko asked disbelievingly.
'I bet he is. He should, if he loses Kyoko he's not going to find another girl who'll be such a good match for him ever again,' Ryosuke sentenced mercilessly.
'I think the same goes for Kyoko. Unfortunately, she really doesn't want to listen to any reasons. I think we should give them some time to realise that they're being stupid,' Akiko said.
'Yeah, I agree. Now, I've got to go but if you need me, call me, I'll have my phone with me at all times.'
'Okay. I love you,' she said getting up to give him a peck on the lips.
'Me too,' he replied kissing her back. Then he was gone again and Akiko reassumed her sitting position by her still sleeping father. In a few minutes she'd go to check on her son and then she'd have to start working.
A week later, Kyoko made it back to her apartment as quickly as she could. These days she feared going out because she was terrified she'd find Keisuke waiting for her somewhere. She knew that it was taking her a huge amount of willpower to stay resolute so she wouldn't give up and call him. If she saw him…well, she was sure her determination would just crumble miserably.
This morning, she was even more in a hurry for the little package she was carrying back from the Seven Eleven five blocks away. She'd gone to that one because she never went there and, after today, she'd never go there ever again.
Once in her apartment, she rushed to do everything as she hoped it was done and, after that, she went to her small living room to watch TV to kill some time.
Three minutes later, with her heart beating so hard and sounding so loudly in her ears that she could hardly hear the TV, she jumped off the sofa and ran back to her bathroom.
'What the hell?' she said looking at the thing in a hand that she couldn't stop shaking.
The stick was neither pink nor blue as it should have been.
Instead, it was green.
To be continued…
