Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Twenty Two

The race itself had been such a disaster that everyone in the team was only too happy to pack up and leave the circuit.

To begin with, the Race Director had to start the race twice. The first time, one of the cars had stalled in the grid and the one immediately behind had crashed against it. It took the race marshals some good ten minutes to clear the mess away so they could proceed with the second start.

Then, the second time, Keisuke was behind the wheel and, because of yet another accident, he was forced to pass between the impossibly narrow path the two crashed cars had left him. He scratched the car in the process and, as he drove over the debris, one of the tyres got a puncture so Keisuke had to drive the first lap at a very low speed so he could get back into the boxes to change the tyre.

With that, the rest of the race was just an uphill battle. The only consolation, if one could call it such, was that they didn't cross the finish line last. The race's multiple incidents meant that the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team finished the race in 4th position in the GT300 category. Not even a podium finish.

For this reason, the atmosphere wasn't the best as the team got everything packed into the vans and prepared themselves to head back home. Takumi's mood was even darker than the rest of the team's but, since they had just found out about his split, they all thought it was pretty normal for him to be even more depressed than usual.

No one, of course, was aware of what had happened the previous day with Mina-chan and Takumi was very grateful for he was definitely not going to tell anyone about that. He had never been any more desperate to get back home so he could lock himself in his room and isolate himself for a while.

The team arrived at their base at the test circuit and, before disbanding, Ryosuke said:

'I'll take a couple of days to analyze the data and after that I'll call you all to talk about the race. Take these two days to rest, okay?'

Everyone was extremely pleased to comply with this order.

Bunta and Takumi climbed into the Impreza and, while his father drove them back home, Takumi stared out of the window.

'Takumi,' Bunta said, breaking the silence.

Takumi turned his head to face his father and said:

'Uh-huh?'

'If you wanna talk about Mika…'

'No offence Dad, but I really don't want to talk about it,' Takumi said interrupting his father thinking that, even if he wanted to speak about his break up, his father would probably be the last person he would do so with.

'Fair enough,' Bunta said and turned his attention back on the road ahead.

They spent the rest of the trip in complete silence and, as Takumi was heading upstairs to go to his room, his father said:

'Remember you've got the deliveries tomorrow morning.'

'Yeah, I know,' Takumi said.

He then locked himself in his room and, lying on his bed still fully clothed, he fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later with his forehead soaked in cold sweat and even if he couldn't remember what it had been about, it was obvious that he had had a horrible nightmare.

In any case, he felt way too restless to be able to fall back asleep so, even though there were still a good two hours before four o'clock, he decided to get up and have a shower. After that, he went downstairs and found his father watching TV as he waited for the tofu to be ready to be cut.

'Can't sleep?' Bunta said looking genuinely surprised for, usually, Takumi could sleep through an earthquake.

Takumi shook his head as he walked towards the kitchen to make himself some tea. He went back into the living room, sat down at the table and drank his tea as he watched TV with his father.

Then, for the first time in ages, Takumi helped his father with the tofu. Together they loaded it into the car.

'Dad, tonight's the Impreza…' Takumi said as he saw his father walking towards the 86.

'Nah, I'll let you drive your car. I think you need it,' Bunta said and Takumi was silently grateful for that.

Once onboard the 86, Takumi drove off towards Mt Akina where, as usual, Takumi was able to gather up all his thoughts so he could put them in order.

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi's, Kyoko and Keisuke were lying on the latter's bed both unable to fall asleep.

'What's up?' Kyoko asked her boyfriend seeing his troubled expression.

'I'm worried…'

'About the race?' Kyoko asked.

'No, about Takumi,' he replied.

'Yeah, it was horrible of Mika to dump him like that…' Kyoko commented.

'Yes, and think that he said no to that Mina-chan girl because of her,' Keisuke said.

'Oh gosh, I had completely forgotten about that!' Kyoko said suddenly sitting up on the bed.

'Lucky you, I can't forget I was the one who insisted he had to stay faithful to Mika…' Keisuke said.

'Keisuke, this is so not your fault,' Kyoko protested as Keisuke too sat up on the bed with his legs crossed in front of him.

'I should have stayed out of it and let him make the decision,' Keisuke insisted, 'at least I wouldn't feel guilty now.'

'You couldn't know she was going to break up with him,' Kyoko reminded him.

'I know,' Keisuke said, still looking rather miserable.

'Come here, I'll give you a massage,' Kyoko said walking on the bed with her knees and getting behind Keisuke.

'If you insist,' Keisuke said laughing softly and, meanwhile Kyoko kneaded his muscles with her hands, Keisuke allowed himself to relax so his brain could start working on some sort of plan to help his team mate out.

The next morning, Bunta woke his son up telling him he had a phone call.

Still half asleep and with the tiredness typical of whenever one didn't sleep properly, Takumi picked the phone up.

'What's up?' he grunted.

'YOU BASTARD!' Itsuki shouted on the phone.

Good morning to you too, Takumi thought sarcastically. Alright, Itsuki had found out about his split from Mika and was now angry about it.

'Look, I was going to tell you,' Takumi started.

'Tell me what? That you've become suddenly single or that you've made Mina-chan cry?' Itsuki asked angrily.

This made Takumi wake up at once.

'What are you talking about?' Takumi asked thinking that there was absolutely no way on earth his best friend could have found out about his conversation with Mina-chan.

'It's all over the press this morning! Haven't you even read the paper this morning?' Itsuki said and from somewhere within himself, Takumi began to feel uncomfortably panicked.

'You haven't, have you?' Itsuki said with a much calmer tone of voice, finally registering that maybe, just maybe, his friend didn't have the foggiest about what was printed in the morning paper.

'No,' Takumi said making an effort to even speak, 'hold on…'

Letting the receiver hang freely off the phone, he walked towards where his father usually left the newspaper. He picked it up, turned it round and found the first page of the showbiz news. Right there, in a huge picture, he saw himself standing next to a crying Mina-chan. A huge headline read:

MINA-CHAN'S IN TEARS!

Under that, in a smaller typeset, Takumi read:

'Fujiwara Takumi, driver of the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team, makes the pop star cry.'

He didn't even need to read the rest of the article to figure out what it said.

'Shit!' he whispered dropping the paper.

'You've seen it then?' he heard his father ask coming through the door that connected with his shop.

Takumi nodded and then, remembering that his friend was still waiting for him, walked back to the phone and picking it up, he said:

'I can explain…'

'What did you do to her?' Itsuki asked still sounding very hurt.

Takumi spent the next ten minutes explaining everything that had gone on during the previous three weeks.

Itsuki, for the first time in his life, was rendered completely speechless.

'Itsuki, I've got another call now, I'll call you later, ok?' Takumi said hearing the characteristic beep on his phone.

'S-sure,' Itsuki stuttered, probably not having the strength to argue with Takumi.

As his friend hung up, Takumi took the other call.

'Fujiwara Tofu Shop,' he said.

'This is Ryosuke. I need you to come to my place as soon as you can.'

Takumi wondered in silence whether to ask his Team Manager if there was any specific reason to summon him when his now fully awake brain came up with the answer on its own.

'It's about the newspaper article, isn't it?'

'Yes,' Ryosuke replied.

'Alright, I'll be there in less than an hour,' Takumi said thankful that his voice still sounded quite steady.

He climbed the stairs, threw some clothes on him and went back downstairs not even bothering to comb his messy hair.

'Dad…'

'Son, this is one of the reasons why I hated racing in an official team,' Bunta said as his son crossed the shop on his way to the exit.

'How did they…'

'Takumi, they're journalists. It's their job to fish for news,' Bunta said. Takumi shook his head briefly and left his house.

He climbed into his 86 and made his way to Maebashi as fast as he could without breaking any traffic rule.

Not that he was in a rush to get to his Team Manager's house for Takumi was absolutely terrified of what Ryosuke-san would say about this.

When he did get to the house, he didn't even need to ring the bell because the door was already open: Ryosuke was there already waiting for him and, for the first time in his life, Takumi really wanted to run away as fast as he could.

'Come on in,' he said and Takumi forced himself to walk forward.

'I'm sorry I…'

'Let's talk about this calmly,' Ryosuke said and Takumi realised that Ryosuke wasn't angry or upset. If anything, his Team Manager sounded very concerned.

As he entered the Takahashi's large living room, Takumi saw Keisuke and Kyoko sitting there on one of the sofas. Ryosuke's wife wasn't there.

'Please take a seat,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi sat down on the free sofa as Ryosuke took a chair and sat in front of him.

'Now,' he started, 'I'm not interested about the details, that's your business and no one else's, however and since they printed our team's name in the paper, I expect to get some sort of reaction from our sponsors. I'm not talking only about Kirin, but also the companies who supply us with the tyres and the rest of the parts. I'm not sure they'll be happy to have their names associated with this kind of gossip…'

'I'm sorry,' Takumi said unable to say anything else.

'Okay, we need to come up with our version of…'

Ryosuke's phone in his pocket rang, interrupting him at mid-sentence.

'Ryosuke here,' he said.

'Really?' he added after having listened for a short while, 'I'll put it on now,' he said. He then got up and turned the TV on selecting the NHK1 channel.

All four of them watched as some journalist said something about an unexpected press conference then the camera switched to focus on a long table in what seemed some hotel's hall. Then they saw sitting there, with two big guys standing behind her, the pop star Mina-chan.

The journalists present at the press conference went quiet as she began to speak:

'Good morning and thanks for coming. I have received news of some article that's been published showing a picture of me and a driver from the Super GT300 Championship. In said picture, I appeared to be crying and, as usual, some of your less kind colleagues assumed that my tears were due to something the driver had done,' she then took a short breath.

Takumi's eyes were wide with shock and he realised that he wasn't blinking nor breathing while he listened to the pop star.

'I have called this press conference to explain that Takumi Fujiwara, from the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had nothing to do with the whole episode. We happen to be acquaintances and he was just listening to my ramblings…'

Then a journalist got up and said:

'Mina-chan, the article's sources say that you were asking him if he…'

Mina-chan interrupted the journalist and said:

'It's true that when I found out that he was single, I made the silly mistake of thinking that he might have been interested in going out with me. Fujiwara-san was very sorry to inform me that his time is entirely devoted to his team. I should add that the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team is very lucky to have such a professional person driving for them. That's all I have to say. Thank you.'

With this, she got up, bowed to the journalists and, without allowing any further questions, she left the hall.

To be continued…