Having just posted all the stuff in the last chapter I don't really have anything else to say except that I own nothing but Kamiko, and even then not all the time.
It is well known amongst the very rich that having a good public image is far more effective than trying to fight a bad one. It is also generally understood that the best way to gain and maintain such a thing is to be seen helping those who are less fortunate but considered to be deserving.
This can be achieved by contributing to charities, altering employment strategies to favour commoners (at least on paper) or establishing a scholarship fund. There are other ways but those three offered the highest reward for the least trouble. But the most important factor is to be seen to be doing something. That was why all three Ootori sons and their partners had to be present for their father awarding scholarships for Tokyo University.
Yoshio was one of their biggest contributors and so it only made sense for him to be asked to do this. And he was always on the lookout for positive press and so it was natural that he would accept.
Haruhi entered the atrium next to Mori. She was certain that she could have asked any one of the former hosts (with the obvious exception), or even someone from her classes, but she felt comfortable next to the stoic man. She could be certain that he, at least, would not do anything to embarrass her.
It had sort of been last minute. She had utterly forgotten that Kyouya had pressured her to apply for this Law Scholarship, and it wasn't until a week ago when she had received an invitation to this event that she had remembered it.
She was even more surprised that she had been awarded it, as generous as it was. Kyouya had told her, in a circumspect manner, that his father had pull with the committee and that the Ootori Zaibatsu always employed people who had received this scholarship for their legal team. She was certain that Yoshio Ootori would have exerted his influence to distance his family from her. Maybe the decision had been made before Kyouya had left her?
When they walked into the main room, she kept her eyes fixed ahead, determined not to see the person that she knew would be there.
Kyouya, standing last in the line of his siblings (his perpetual position as the youngest) had just finished shaking hands with yet another professor from the university. They could always be detected in a crowd like this because of their slightly shabby, two-season-behind suits and their general look of discomfort with the rich surrounding. Well, either discomfort or a particular brand of acquisitiveness only seen in those who have climbed into opulence rather than been born to it.
Takumi Nobu, head of the English linguistics department, if Kyouya remembered the face book he had studied earlier. Not a bad man all told, but clean, honest and valueless to them. After a few pleasantries and a shadow-king smile, Kyouya looked up and fixed eyes with Haruhi.
She had clearly been trying not to look at anything, a harder feat than one might think, and the eye contact had been entirely accidental. But that did not stop her from quickly turning to her tall partner with every show of attention.
Since her partner was Mori, Kyouya somehow doubted that it was something he had said. He smiled a secret and far more genuine smile and both hoped and dreaded that Kamiko would see Haruhi. This was going to be very interesting.
Several minutes had passed before his sister's voice pierced his concentration. "Kyou-chan, isn't that your friend Morinozuka from high school. And with Haru-chan too. You must be a gentleman and go say hi to them."
Were it not for the evidence to the contrary, Kyouya could have sworn that Fuyumi had been secretly adopted out of the Shou family. She was oblivious enough for it. Either that or she really was a pure-blooded Ootori and this was her way of punishing him for some sin he was unaware of her discovering.
"I am not sure that I should leave the line just yet." Okay, yes, it was a cheap tactic for buying time. He knew that he would eventually have to greet the people that the world thought of as a close school friend and an amicable ex-girlfriend. Rather than a distant friend at best and a secret obsession who had been shafted in exchange for the Vera Wang clad woman speaking to a wealthy alumnus just out of earshot. Thank whatever gods were still willing to listen to him.
"Of course you should." She disengaged one are from her husbands and gave him a 'gentle' push on the back.
By this time Haruhi's eyes had irreversibly located Kyouya, and so she saw him leave the queue he had been standing in. When it became clear that he was walking in her direction, she turned to Mori and muttered something vague about 'going to check the food' and 'wait for me here' and fled.
The rest of the night was something of a cat and mouse game. With Kyouya, finally giving up, following her from place to place and her staying just out of his reach. Usually she did this by talking to even the most remote of acquaintances or, at one time, by literally hiding under the stairs until he had given up on spotting her and returned to the hall.
Kamiko saw all of this and it made her seethe in a quiet way. Clearly the Fujioka-bitch had not learned to keep away before.
I am on a role, so I am going to start working on the next chapter. Maybe you will get three tonight you lucky people.
