Chapter 16: Double exposure
Shit.
That was the first word which came into Youhei's mind as soon as he saw the paper pasted on the bulletin board. Normally, he wouldn't have stopped to look at the board. Normally, he wouldn't even have glanced at it.
Not this time.
It would've been impossible not to see this, thought Youhei, as he stared at the very brightly-coloured poster-sized paper. Anybody who's not blind would've been able to see it from the end of the corridor.
"Hey Youhei! What are you looking at…" Takamiya found his own voice trailing away as he looked at the bulletin board.
Behind him, Noma and Ookusu looked on gravely. "We'd better rip this out before Hanamichi sees it," said Noma. Ookusu nodded his head in agreement.
"You don't even have to tell me twice," said Youhei, tearing the paper off the board. "Whoever did this must have a death wish."
"And a big one too," said Takamiya, pointing to the other end of the corridor. There, pasted on the wall, was another copy of the paper containing a picture of Hanayuki and Aoi-chan at the playground, obviously taken without their knowledge or permission, and below it, Aoi-chan's birth certificate, with Hanayuki's name on the certificate circled in red ink.
As the four friends stood rooted to the ground, their eyes transfixed on the same thing, the same thought crossed their minds.
This is not good.
---
Hanayuki was used to people pointing and whispering about her, but this time, she found it to be much more unbearable than before.
"There she goes."
"I can't believe it. She looks like such a good girl."
"Looks can be deceiving."
"Poor Rukawa-kun. He must be devastated."
"No wonder she refers to Sakuragi Hanamichi as her brother. She's just as wild as he is."
Annoyed, Hanayuki quickened her pace to escape the brutal whisperings. She was so eager to get away that, as she turned around the corner, she bumped into the principal who was coming the opposite way.
"Ah! Gomen-nasai, sensei!" Hanayuki apologised quickly.
The principal adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat before saying, "Tsukino-san, you are the just the person that I was looking for. If you will follow me to my office please, I have something to discuss with you."
Hanayuki nodded her head and said, "Hai, sensei." She could hear the whisperings picking up around her again. Letting out a sigh, she removed her hearing aids, for once feeling glad about the deafening silence that took over.
---
BAM!
Every student in the classroom looked up at the slamming of the door against the wall. Normally, the girls would have immediately turned starry-eyed, but this time, instead of euphoria (thus the starry-eye symptom), they felt a sense of fear.
Sugiyama Kiori definitely felt it; it would have been a lie to say that she didn't, seeing as to how it was her that the cold blue eyes of Rukawa were looking at. She forced herself to stay calm as he slowly made his way towards her.
When he finally stopped right in front of her desk, he was towering above her, and if Kiori had wanted to feel thankful that he leaned down so that they were both at the eye-level of each other, she quickly felt otherwise when she saw the intense hatred that was literally spurting out of his eyes. In an equally venomous tone, he spoke softly, but loud enough for her to catch every word.
"I'm only going to say this once, so listen carefully and remember it well. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing, that you can do that will affect us, Yuki and I. Having said that, I don't appreciate your meddlesome ways, so do yourself a favor and stop all your futile efforts." He straightened up to his full height, once again towering over Kiori, before continuing, "And the next time you see my father, tell him that I will never forgive him if he does anything more than he already has."
With that, Rukawa walked out of the classroom, but not before slamming the door close behind him. Everybody moved out of his way as he stalked down the corridor in his usual silent way. He was about to make his way to the rooftop when the sight of Sakuragi and the gundan sticking themselves to the principal's office door stopped him in his tracks.
When Sakuragi saw Rukawa, he made some motions with his hands, beckoning to the latter to come over. Grudgingly, Rukawa obliged.
"Kitsune, come and help listen to the conversation inside," he said in an unusually soft voice.
Rukawa narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Do'a-"
"Hana-chan is inside with the oyaji."
Rukawa raised his eyebrows as the insult died on his lips. He took half a step forward, stopped, contemplated for half a second what eavesdropping with the likes of Sakuragi and his friends was going to do to his image, decided that he didn't care, and proceeded to stick himself to the door alongside the others.
---
In the principal's office...
"Tsukino-san, this rumour about you that is going around the school..."
Hanayuki watched as the principal spoke to her from across his table, his hands clasped together in front of him. She could hear almost nothing of what he was saying, but she knew what he was saying, thanks to the lip-reading lessons which she had taken a few years ago.
"If this should ever get out, if the parents of Shohoku's students should ever hear about this..."
It would've been so much easier to simply put on her hearing aids and listen, but Hanayuki wasn't in the mood to hear anything. At least, not anything with the kind of tone that the students of Shohoku had been using the whole morning, which she was sure the principal was also using at the moment.
"Therefore, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to..."
Even so, Hanayuki could still feel and see the tone, and she was getting sick of it.
"Do you understand what I'm saying, Tsukino-san?"
Hanayuki was tempted to just nod her head, get up, and leave the room. Just so that she could escape the tone.
"To put it simply, you're expelling me for getting raped and giving birth as a result of the rape at the age of 12," said Hanayuki monotonously.
The principal gaped at Hanayuki; he was definitely not prepared for her response.
Seeing that the principal was rendered speechless, Hanayuki stood up and bowed. "I'm sorry for all the trouble that I have caused you and the school. Thank you very much for your time, sensei." She turned around and walked to the door.
"Aaaarggghhhh!"
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The principal blinked at the sight in front of him: a bunch of guys lying on top of each other, groaning and moaning.
And right at the bottom, Hanayuki herself.
---
5 minutes later...
"Hana-chan, wait! Hana-chan!"
Hanayuki paid no heed to Youhei and continued walking. Even when she felt a hand grasping her arm, she didn't stop to see who it was. She just wanted to get out of the place. She had had enough of everything.
Rukawa planted his feet firmly on the ground and held on to Hanayuki's arm, determined not to let her go any further. And she didn't. But then she started clawing at his hand with her free hand, trying to make him let go of her arm, so he tightened his hold, only to let go immediately when he saw her grimace in pain.
Seizing the opportunity, Hanayuki walked away as fast as she could, but this time, instead of one hand, she felt two hands grabbing her from behind, and pulling her back into an all-too-familiar embrace. Hanayuki let out a sigh and gave up trying to get away.
"Hana-chan!" Youhei called out, finally catching up to them. "Hana-chan, where are you going? You can't leave school just like that."
Hanayuki just looked at him without saying anything.
"What's wrong Hana-chan?"
No reply.
"Hana-chan?"
Still no reply.
"Rukawa, why don't you take her home? I'll stay and make sure Hanamichi doesn't do anything stupid," said Youhei.
Rukawa gave him a nod and let go of Hanayuki, taking her hand in his and giving it a tug.
Hanayuki looked up at him. After what seemed like an eternity, she said wearily, "Your bag."
"I'll go get it Rukawa," Youhei volunteered immediately. "You stay here with Hana-chan." He left before either Hanayuki or Rukawa could say anything else.
Rukawa turned his attention back to Hanayuki, who did the same, and they both stared at each other until Rukawa wrapped his arms around Hanayuki, once again pulling her into an embrace. Mentally exhausted, Hanayuki closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I'm so tired," she said softly.
"I know." There was a pause. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," she said, lifting her head to look at him. "It's not your fault," she repeated, when Rukawa didn't say anything. She reached up to touch his face, and he responded by hugging her closer, resting his chin on the top of her head.
They stayed that way for a while, and only broke apart when they heard Youhei clearing his throat. Nodding his head in thanks, Rukawa took his bag, and, holding on to Hanayuki's hand, led the way to the bicycle shed where he had kept his bicycle. It was a silent ride home, with Rukawa concentrating on the road and Hanayuki hugging him from the back. They ignored the stares from curious passer-bys, wondering what two students were doing outside of school during school hours.
"Maybe you should go back to school after sending me home Kaede," said Hanayuki.
Rukawa shook his head
Knowing that there was no changing his mind, Hanayuki didn't push the matter any further and kept quiet. A moment later, Rukawa spoke.
"When you reach home, get changed. I'll go home and get changed too, and then I'll pick you up."
"Why? Where are we going?" Hanayuki asked, confused
"A date," came the reply.
Hanayuki blinked. "Huh?"
When she didn't get a response, she stared at his back for a while, before breaking into a rueful smile. "We've never really been on a date before, have we?"
She couldn't see it, but the expression on Rukawa's face softened considerably. "No."
Silence. And then...
"So where are you going to take me?"
---
Hanayuki had never been happier in her whole life.
Sure, Rukawa had fallen asleep in the cinema; so did she. The movie was just too long and boring. They should've known better, seeing as to how empty the cinema had been at the time.
Then, there was the slight hitch where he almost got into a fight with the manager at the children's arcade when the latter told them off for hogging the basketball machine for a whole hour, causing a really long queue to form behind them. She had barely managed to contain the situation by dragging Rukawa away, but not before grabbing the tickets which they had won from said machine.
Which almost got him into another fight with the attendant at the tickets exchange counter when the latter declared that they didn't have enough tickets to redeem the really huge and cute soft toy put on display. Hanayuki had to once again drag Rukawa away before he could do any damage to the other very much smaller man.
After that, she had tried to push him into a sticker photo booth, failing miserably when Rukawa didn't budge a single inch no matter how hard she had pushed. She had then proceeded to give him the silent treatment, ignoring him even when he had gotten this whole bunch of little kids to come up to her one by one with a piece of candy each, only to burst out laughing to no end when they practically swamped him off his feet later for more candy.
There was no way she could have continued with the silent treatment after that episode, so she gave up trying to get him to take a picture with her at the booth and let him take her to this fast food restaurant where they got something to eat, before heading to the park. It was empty at that hour, which was great because Hanayuki had wanted to play on the swings. She swung to her heart's delight while Rukawa looked on.
Click.
Hanayuki stopped swinging immediately and looked up in surprise. "Did you just take a picture of me?"
Rukawa pretended not to have heard her and knelt down to have a closer look at the nearby bushes. The next thing he knew, Hanayuki had pounced on him like a cat pouncing on a rat.
"Give me that! I can't believe that you had a camera on you all this while and you never told me!"
Rukawa kept the camera out of her reach easily, despite having to keep his balance AND make sure that she didn't fall off his back, which she was currently hanging on to while still trying to grab the camera. Despite her yells, Hanayuki was actually having fun, laughing her heart out. Rukawa himself couldn't resist a smile, however small it may be.
Click.
Both Hanayuki and Rukawa kept still at the sound of another camera click. Turning their heads, they saw a man looking in his early twenties with a polaroid camera smiling at them. "Hello," he greeted. "I hope you don't mind, but I just couldn't resist taking your picture. The two of you looked so cute together."
Rukawa kept a blank expression on his face, while Hanayuki brightened up immediately. "Can I have a look at the picture?" she asked excitedly.
"Of course. Here you go," said the man, holding it out.
Hanayuki eagerly took it, and as she looked at it, her smile got bigger and bigger, while Rukawa, who was looking from behind, still had the same expression on his face.
In the picture, Hanayuki was shown holding onto Rukawa's back with one hand, while her other hand tried to reach for the camera. Rukawa himself had one hand on the camera, holding it high above his head, while his other hand was holding onto Hanayuki. She was laughing, and Rukawa was smiling.
"Is it possible for me to keep this picture, sir?" asked Hanayuki, looking hopeful. To her delight, the man nodded his head.
"Sure. It is a picture of you and your boyfriend after all," he said, still smiling.
"Thank you!" said Hanayuki, beaming happily. Next to her, Rukawa was beaming happily too. On the inside.
You and your boyfriend...
They were so engrossed in their own world that they didn't realise that the man had left, smiling to himself as he carefully put his SLR camera back into its bag. I can't wait to see the pictures that I have just taken...
---
Two days later...
"Rukawa-san, I haven't seen Kaede-kun for a while. How is he doing?" Mr Sugiyama enquired.
At the mention of the younger Rukawa, Kiori visibly stiffened, but it went unnoticed by both her parents. Mr Rukawa, on the other hand, pretended not to have seen it. Putting a smile on his face, he said, "Kaede's doing fine. His school's basketball team just won the National Championships not too long ago. He was very excited and happy about it."
"Is that so? That's odd. Kiori did not mention anything about it to me," said Mrs Sugiyama, glancing at her daughter.
"Oh I'm sure she just forgot about it. You know how it is with youngsters these days. They forget about everything when they're having fun together," said Mr Rukawa. "As a matter of fact, Kaede didn't tell me about it. I read about it from the newspapers."
Mr Sugiyama nodded in agreement, while his wife laughed. "That is so true, Rukawa-san."
Turning to Kiori, Mr Rukawa asked, "How is everything in school, Kiori-chan? I hope everything is going well for you."
"Everything is fine, Rukawa-san. Thank you very much for your concern," she replied.
"You know, I hardly see Kaede, what with my work and his basketball practices. I would like to know more about his life at school, so tell me, did anything interesting happen recently? Anything that has got to do with him, or the basketball team?"
Kiori knew exactly what he was asking about and wasted no time in telling him what he wanted to know. "Nothing much besides their victory at the National Championships. However, the school was in an uproar for the past couple of days."
"Oh? An uproar? About what my dear?" asked Mrs Sugiyama.
"Well, it turns out that a 2nd year student in our school has a 3-year-old daughter. She tried to keep it secret, but the school found out anyway and had her expelled," said Kiori, emphasising on the word 'expelled'. She looked at Mr Rukawa, who she could see was delighted with this piece of information.
Mr Sugiyama shook his head. "Youngsters these days..."
"Yes, Sugiyama-san. It's a shame really. I can't tell you how glad I am that my Kaede is engaged to Kiori-chan. She is beautiful and gentle and kind, so unlike the other girls."
"You're too kind, Rukawa-san."
The conversation continued for a little longer, before Mr Rukawa signalled to the waiter for the bill. After paying for the meal, Mr Rukawa and the Sugiyamas left the restaurant, and while waiting for their car to arrive, continued their conversation from before.
It was Kiori who saw it first, and as she stood where she was, transfixed by what she was seeing, she was joined by first her mother, then her father, and last but not least, Mr Rukawa himself. The uproar caused by Hanayuki's expulsion was nothing compared to the one that followed suit.
"Rukawa-san, what is the meaning of this?" Mr Sugiyama demanded angrily. "Didn't you tell me that your son has agreed to the engagement between Kiori and himself?"
"Sugiyama-san, please, let me-" Mr Rukawa tried to explain.
"Well obviously we have been lied to, darling," Mrs Sugiyama cut in. "I mean, look at that. Does that look like the boy has agreed to the engagement?"
"If you will let me explain-"
"This is the last straw, Rukawa-san!" Kiori shouted. She turned to her parents. "Otousan, okaasan, I should've told you this earlier, but Rukawa Kaede, he never agreed to our engagement. In fact, he humiliated me in front of everybody at school when I confronted him about it."
"This is outrageous! Rukawa, how dare you disrespect my daughter! And me! And my family!"
"Sugiyama-san, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and your family. I care a lot for Kiori-chan," Mr Rukawa pleaded.
"No you don't! Did you know that after you asked me to put up posters of that girl and her daughter in school, I was threatened by no less than 5 people? I was threatened!"
"Rukawa!"
"Hmph! I think the only reason why he had proposed this engagement in the first place is because of our family's business influence, darling."
"Otousan, okaasan, I want to go home. I don't want to stay here anymore."
"Rukawa, I will not forget this humiliation! From now on, the Sugiyama family has nothing to do with the Rukawas. And as for the business contracts, consider them cancelled!"
With that, the Sugiyamas walked off, leaving Mr Rukawa standing alone on the sidewalk. Shaking with anger, he slowly turned around and looked at the two black and white photos put on display at the photography shop next to the restaurant.
In the first picture, Rukawa was shown hugging Hanayuki from behind as they looked at a polaroid picture which she was holding in her hands. In the second picture, Hanayuki had turned her head to look at Rukawa, and they were smiling at each other.
As Mr Rukawa took in the images, a single thought repeated itself in his mind.
You will pay for everything, Tsukino Hanayuki!
---
Author's notes: A big PHEW! How long has it been since my last chapter? One year? Two years? I'm dreadfully sorry for taking so long. I really am. It's just that I got really stuck after the last chapter, not knowing how to continue the story. I know how the story goes; I just didn't know how to write it out. Anyway, I was going through all the reviews which I had gotten for this story and the previous one, and they wrecked me up with guilt so badly that I practically forced myself to sit in front of the laptop and stare at the screen until I could start writing again. And guess what? It actually worked. Somehow, once I started writing, the ideas started coming, and as I kept on writing, the ideas kept on coming. And so here we are. Chapter 16. If my calculations are correct, there should be at least two more chapters to go. Once again, I'm sorry for the really long delay. I feel really bad, especially to the people who had read and asked me to continue. I'm so sorry! Oh, and I was also going through this story and the previous story, and I realised that I had made Rukawa more and more out-of-character as the chapters rolled by. Haha. I'm sorry about that too. So much for non-OOC-ness.