Shizuma walked into the interview with her usual overwhelming confidence.
"Linguistic differentiation. Synthetic deconstructionism. Mitigating factors: revolutionary origination. Similarities to iconoclasticism."
"Negatory interpretations of 18th century authorship?"
"Needless anti-deformation developments...."
While Shizuma was busy pontificating, Nagisa went shopping. Primary for food - the infinite cold rice was getting depressing - but also for a gift for Shizuma. Something to celebrate her academic success and perhaps, Nagisa thought, something to make up for their odd half-a-fight over the last two days.
Or whatever that had been. After Nagisa's outburst earlier that morning she had felt a bit silly. Shizuma was nothing if not moody. Nagisa supposed she should be used to it by now. Still, a little present never hurt anybody!
But what to get? Cheesy little trinkets weren't really Shizuma's style. And she seemed to be against expensive trinkets purely on principle of rebelling against her parents - not that Nagisa could afford them anyway. That left - not much of anything. Pens? No. Pencils? Hardly. A hairbrush? Shizuma owned about 30 as it was. Alcohol? Bad idea. She eventually settled on a little silvery-colored photo frame with a flower pattern. Which was definitely cheesy, but at least it looked cute, and the thought counted and all that, right?
Meanwhile, Shizuma was exiting her interview in high spirits. She normally didn't get excited about academics, but showing off to potential graduate schools always made her feel a bit special. Not to mention, the pretty little grad student in the corner (whatever had she been doing there, anyway) had totally been checking her out. And anyway, they had all but told her she was a shoe-in for the position - that should keep her parents off her back for a while. One less problem to deal with. She walked out the front entrance of the english building.
Nagisa ambushed Shizuma with a hug. "How did it go? How did it go?"
Shizuma looked down and smiled. "Really well. They say I'm probably in."
"Oh, how wonderful! I knew you would do it! So when will you start and will you have a special title and I wish I could go with you, or can I? And oh - I got you this!" Nagisa handed her the picture frame.
Shizuma took it, stared at it.
"Nagisa, I..." she started. Nagisa looked up expectantly. Shizuma didn't say anything else.
Shizuma cell phone rang, and she hastily pulled it out of her portfolio.
"Yes? Oh, my. Certainly, we'll see you soon. And Miyuki? It's nice to hear your voice."
Nagisa looked startled. "Miyuki-san is here? Already?"
"Ah, yes. It seems they've had some sort of problem at the airport. Miyuki wants me - us - to pick them up." Shizuma started striding toward the parking garage.
Nagisa stood still for a moment. "I don't think Shizuma-chan liked my picture frame," she whispered to herself. She turned to look at Shizuma. She was already fifty feet away. "Shizuma, wait!" Nagisa ran to catch up.
* * *
The ride in Shizuma's car - Shizuma's parents' car, rather (as Shizuma always insisted) - was quiet for the first fifteen minutes. Shizuma was completely intent on driving while simultaneously teasing at her hair in the little mirror attached to the sun visor.
Nagisa tired of silence rather quickly. "So..., did Miyuki-san say how she was doing?"
"She's fine."
"So why are they stuck? Was it like that time I forget the English word for 'shuttle' and thought it was the word for 'rabbit' and nobody could understand what I wanted and you had to come get me at 3:00 in the morning?"
Apparently it wasn't like that either.
"Well, I hope everything's okay..." Nagisa lapsed into silence. Shizuma was just in one of her moods again.
"Here we are." Shizuma finally spoke, bringing the car to a stop. "They're in terminal three."
They exited the car. Shizuma walked rapidly toward the terminal doors.
"Shizuma, wait! You forgot your bag," Nagisa called, but Shizuma didn't hear. Nagisa fumbled with the lock, opened the door and fished Shizuma's portfolio out of the mess. She sighed and ran toward the terminal.
Shizuma pulled open the glass doors and looked around, grateful to have lost Nagisa and her annoying questions. There they were - over by the fake potted plants in the corner; Miyuki hadn't noticed her yet. Shizuma started to call out, then reconsidered. She walked slowly toward them, inspecting Miyuki critically. She looked same as she had the last time they had seen each other almost three years ago.
Shizuma felt almost disappointed. She had somehow expected Miyuki to be like a, a - her vast stock of literary smilies failed her - a broken bird, or rather something else less clichéd. Yet here she was, sitting straight and tall and calm, her eyes as intelligent as ever. Not that she looked happy, but that wasn't Miyuki's style anyway.
It was so entirely unfair. How did Miyuki deal with it? Shizuma knew that she couldn't. She'd run away - hell, she pretty much had - or commit a crime, or something, before she would go along with an arranged marriage like that. Duty be damned, she thought.
Miyuki finally noticed Shizuma, if not her obsessive gaze. "Shizuma! Over here!" she called, waving her right arm undramatically. Shizuma started, than walked over, paying close attention to her posture.
"Shizuma, I'd like you to meet Yoshida Jun, my fiancé."
"How do you do, I'm Yoshida Jun - Miyuki has told me so much about you."
"Hanazono Shizuma. Nice to meet you."
The formalities and arrangements dragged on. It seemed somebody in Yoshida's company had difficulty with the concept of time zones, they needed a ride to the hotel as the shuttles didn't run there and they had very little US money. Not to mention...
"But where is Nagisa?" Miyuki suddenly interrupted.
Shizuma looked surprised. "I'm not sure - she was right behind me."
"There she is - Nagisa, here!" she called. Nagisa came up a minute later, a bit out of breath.
"Sorry, Shizuma - I went back to get your bag and then your phone, and I couldn't find you and, oh - Rokujō-sama!" Nagisa's face turned an amazing shade of red.
Miyuki smiled for the first time that day. "Hello, Nagisa."
* * *
After returning home, Nagisa went immediately to take a shower. "I'm just so tired," she sighed.
Shizuma watched her exit the room. A minute later she remembered Nagisa's picture frame, and took out of her portfolio bag. She looked at it - it just seemed so familiar, and she was quite sure she knew from where.
Another minute, she found and opened the little old box with the pictures from school. Sure enough, Nagisa had managed to buy the identical frame that the picture of Shizuma and Miyuki was in. Well, not quite identical, to be exact - and it was a common flower pattern - but all the same...
Shizuma put the box away without looking at the picture.
Notes: So, after receiving some advice (thanks again!) about honorific use, I'm going to tone it down quite a bit. I tried removing them altogether, but using 'honey' and 'sir' made the characters sound like mid-westerners and generally looked stupid. So, I'll probably keep (ab)using them as I see fit...
I originally didn't intend for Shizuma and Nagisa to have a car, but given that they're living in LA and Shizuma's parents are loaded, it seemed kind of ridiculous for them not to. Plus, it made the plot of this chapter a good deal more sensible. And yes, I totally stole the idea for Shizuma's 'interview' from a 30 Rock episode. It was just too cute to pass up!
