Programmed Lives – Third Stage
Chapter Seven
When she found out about the whole thing Akiko felt almost sorry that she hadn't been there to witness first hand what had happened.
From one side, the boys were absolutely horrified seeing the five women standing near the living room's door. Takumi, in particular seemed to be completely petrified as he waited for Minami to explode and even Keisuke, usually the bravest of all of them, was bracing himself in preparation for his wife's equally violent reaction.
'Er…we'll just go then,' one of the strippers said breaking the silence.
Itsuki accompanied both women happy to have an excuse to get out of the room. He was definitely lucky for not being married or attached in any way to any of the five furious looking women.
'Er…we gan eshphlain epheryshing…' Iketani slurred while hoping his wife wouldn't make the gigantic scene he knew he deserved.
Instead, and against all odds, Mako started laughing.
'What the…' Sayuki said looking at her best friend as if the poor woman had lost her marbles. Then, strangely enough, Minami started laughing too.
'Oh my gosh,' the singer said with tears of laughter in her beautiful eyes.
Takumi simply did not understand anything anymore.
'This is just so lame,' Kyoko said starting to laugh too.
'Yeah, could you be anymore predictable?' Mariko said disdainfully.
The men were, at that point, at a loss as to what to say.
'Kyoko…' Keisuke said trying to sound a lot more sober than what he was failing miserably.
'Don't worry, we'll just head back home now, you...just sleep it off, alright?' Kyoko said still smiling in a very patronising manner.
'Yeah, and clean up tomorrow morning. I don't want Mum to see the living room in such a state,' Minami said to Takumi who just nodded.
'That's it?' Sayuki said, clearly not happy with the way her friends had handled the situation.
'Yes, that's it Sayuki. Tomorrow morning they're going to be so hangover that that'll be punishment enough for me,' Mako said and Iketani didn't know whether to be happy about his wife's statement or not.
With this, Kyoko turned round to head back outside the house with the other four girls following her.
'What's going on?' Ryosuke said as he finally woke up.
Everyone looked at him and, for the first time ever, they all ignored their Team Manager.
When the girls got back home and explained the whole thing to Akiko, she couldn't repress an 'I've told you so' look.
'Yeah, you're lucky, Ryosuke was sleeping like a baby on the couch,' Kyoko said remembering the whole episode as they walked back to their table in the beautiful marquee where the reception for Takumi and Minami's wedding was being held. It was impressive they had managed to organise everything so well in less than two weeks.
'Yes, I'm lucky I have such a sensible husband,' Akiko said looking up at a very smug looking Ryosuke.
'Aniki, sometimes I…' Keisuke said interrupting himself at mid-sentence not finding the right words to describe how he felt when it came to his brother's seeming inability to do anything wrong.
Meanwhile, Kenji was sitting on a chair on his own looking pretty miserable.
'She's still angry at you?' Takumi asked him sitting next to his old friend.
'Yep. She's only conceded me a ceasefire for your wedding,' Kenji said frowning.
'Oh, come on, even Minami's forgiven me,' Takumi said and he was forever grateful for if she hadn't, he wouldn't have seen how extraordinarily beautiful she looked in her wedding dress. He looked across the room where she was talking to Mariko just so he could observe her for a bit.
'Yeah, but Sayuki's got such a bad temper,' Kenji said.
'She'll forgive you,' Iketani said having approached the two friends and Takumi nodded briefly before saying:
'If you'll excuse me, I'll go and dance with my wife.'
He got up and left.
'That sounds just creepy,' Kenji commented.
'What does?' Iketani said.
'Takumi referring to someone as his wife,' Kenji explained.
'Yeah, that's true, who would have thought that air-head Takumi would end up being married before you,' Iketani said making Kenji's expression go back to being completely miserable, 'Sorry, I didn't…'
'No, you're right, unless I somehow manage to convince Sayuki to forgive me, I don't think we'll ever get married.'
'I didn't know you wanted to get married,' Iketani said raising his eyebrows in astonishment.
'I do. I even proposed to her but Sayuki said she's not ready for that kind of commitment yet.'
'Wow, man…that's bad,.' Iketani said.
'Yeah, of all women in the universe I get the only one who's not dying to say 'I do',' Kenji complained.
'Oh well, the only thing I can say is that you shouldn't give up,' Iketani said patting his best friend's shoulder.
'Yeah, I'm a Speed Stars. We never give up, do we?' Kenji said looking a bit more cheerful.
'Never,' Iketani agreed, 'now, what do you say if we ask our ladies to dance with us?'
Kenji nodded and they both walked to where the Sileighty Duo was standing.
Nearby, Itsuki was also sitting by himself drinking from his glass of champagne when Mariko approached him.
'Do you want to dance? For old times' sake?'
Itsuki looked at her and said:
'Alright.'
He got up and followed the model to the dance floor.
'I think you've got taller,' he said complaining that he had to look up just to see her face.
'Don't be silly, I'm twenty four, I can't grow up anymore now,' the girl said.
'Then it's the heels,' he said pointing at the stilettos she was wearing.
'Yeah, that may be it,' she agreed.
'How have you been?' Itsuki asked conversationally.
'Lonely,' she replied a bit too honestly making Itsuki miss a step then, before he could say anything, she said, 'I haven't told anyone yet but, I'm leaving soon…'
'Leaving? Where to?' Itsuki said.
'The U.S.' she replied.
'What? Why?' Itsuki asked with his voice a bit higher pitched than usual.
'I got a very good offer from a make up company called Maybelline and they want me to move to New York,' Mariko said.
'Wow,' Itsuki said.
'I could stay though, if I had a good enough reason,' Mariko said with a tiny voice.
Itsuki looked at her and said:
'Mariko, you know that…'
'I know, it wouldn't work, you said the same when you broke up with me,' she said sadly.
'It wasn't your fault. Mariko, you really need someone much better than me,' Itsuki said speaking with all the frankness he could muster.
'That's not true,' Mariko said, 'I've always hated the way you always beat yourself down.'
'Well, it's not so difficult you know, I'm short, ugly, I haven't got any special talents.'
Mariko bent down and, with a kiss interrupted Itsuki's speech.
'You're a really good guy and that's very rare, remember that,' she said before leaving him standing in the middle of the dance floor feeling like a fool.
Two weeks later, and after having enjoyed a week at the Kanbayashi Onsen, Takumi could be found back behind the SE's wheel as he and his team prepared the car for the third round of the GT500 championship.
He had actually been happy that they had gone somewhere so close home. Since Minami was now almost three months pregnant, it wasn't a good idea for her to travel by plane and, knowing that in Kanbayashi they had their privacy guaranteed, it had been the obvious choice for the couple's honeymoon.
It had been simply fantastic to be able to spend a whole week by themselves and undisturbed. They had enjoyed the park's gorgeous scenery and had plenty of time to talk, mainly about the baby. Takumi was very grateful that their problems had been so brilliantly solved for he could now go back to enjoy Minami's company as she cheered him up in a way no one else could.
Takumi thought of how very lucky he'd been finding Minami as he was driving along their test track. Suddenly, he felt a strange vibration coming from the engine and, not wanting to risk it, he decided to get back to the box so the mechanics could check it out.
'Where's Keisuke?' he asked Matsumoto as Takumi got out of the car.
'He's gone to the hospital, Kyoko had her scan today,' the Chief Engineer explained.
'Ah, I remember, today she was going to know the baby's gender,' Takumi said recalling what Minami had told him the previous day.
'Yeah, I think so.'
'Oh well, the engine's doing something strange, it'd be a good idea to take a look at it,' Takumi said getting back to business.
While this was happening, Keisuke was indeed at the hospital waiting with his wife for their turn to do the scan.
'Takahashi-san?' a nurse said reading from a list.
'Yeah, that's us,' Keisuke said springing up from the chair startling Kyoko in the process.
'Geez, you're eager,' Kyoko complained getting up too.
Soon Kyoko was laying down on a stretcher with her increasingly swelling belly uncovered as Doctor Yamaguchi proceeded to warm up the gel that they would use for the scan.
'Kyoko, I take Akiko's told you that it may be a bit too soon for us to know the gender for sure,' the doctor who had taken care of the birth of both Akiko and Ryosuke's sons said.
'Yes, I know,' Kyoko replied for she knew that, albeit she was on her twentieth week, the result of this scan might not have been definite.
'Alright then, are you two prepared to see your baby?' she asked smiling sweetly at both future parents.
'Absolutely,' Keisuke said more than ready to see his child for he had been utterly disappointed during the last scan when all he had seen was an indefinite blotch on the ultrasound's monitor.
The doctor, very delicately, pressed the ultrasound's sensor over Kyoko's tummy and, after a while, she said:
'There, that's your baby,' she said pointing at the screen with her free hand.
Kyoko felt a wave of emotion go through her as she stared at the more than definite shape of the small human being that was growing inside her. She felt a knot tying her throat and she started feeling the tears coming up to her eyes.
Keisuke just stared at it enraptured by the image.
'Aha,' the doctor exclaimed happily, 'Kyoko, I take it back, it's very clear that you're expecting a beautiful baby girl…'
Kyoko looked from the doctor back to the screen and then at her husband. Seeing Keisuke's disappointed face killed her smile instantly.
'Keisuke?' Doctor Yamaguchi said frowning for she too, had seen the young man's expression.
'Are you sure?' Keisuke asked staring at the monitor. Kyoko now felt two tears cross her cheeks that had nothing to do with the joy she had felt earlier.
Doctor Yamaguchi nodded while looking at Keisuke gravely.
'Ah, alright,' he said clearly not impressed by the news.
'I'll go and get you the tape,' Doctor Yamaguchi said looking at Keisuke with contempt then, smiling at Kyoko as sweetly as she could, she said, 'honey, you can wash up and get dressed. I'll be waiting for you at my office, alright?'
'Sure,' Kyoko said and, refusing to look at Keisuke, she climbed down from the stretcher and went to the dressing room so she could get changed.
'So, it's a girl,' Keisuke said as, after the doctor's visit, both went down in the elevator that was taking them back to the Arakawa Hospital's car park.
'Yes,' Kyoko said a bit more aggressively than usual.
Keisuke didn't say anything and, as they reached the bottom floor and stepping out of the elevator, Kyoko exclaimed:
'Alright, let's hear it!'
'Hear what?' Keisuke asked confusedly.
'That you're disappointed! That you wanted a boy!' Kyoko shouted, no longer bothering with keeping her voice down.
'Kyoko, I…'
'Don't even try to deny it. I know that you didn't want a girl! You've said it a million times that you wanted a boy!'
'Well, that's true but…'
'I'm sorry that we're messing up with your plans then!' she shouted and, as she turned round to walk back to their car, she felt something weird in the lower part of her belly.
'Kyoko?' Keisuke asked and, as she put a hand onto a nearby column while holding her still small belly with the other, Keisuke's concern became sheer terror, 'KYOKO!'
He then caught her in his arms and, running as fast as he could, he headed back to the elevator, getting back into it and pressing the button that would take them to the hospital's emergency ward.
To be continued…