Hikaru's Life Lessons Number Seven: Couples Who Get Divorced Should Never Ever Ask the Children Which Parent They Love The Most
Akira was walking towards the train station on his way to school when Hikaru accosted him.
"Akira! Why haven't you returned any of my calls or messages? I've been worried sick about you. Look, I heard about your father yesterday. I have to tell you that I'm really really really sorry."
Akira uttered a harsh laugh. "You always are."
Sai mouthed over Hikaru's head something about also being sorry, but the ghost didn't speak out loud, probably not wanting to interfere.
Hikaru attempted to give Akira a hug. Akira dodged.
For a second, Hikaru looked confused, but then his face smoothed over. "Right, I'll save it for when were not in public."
Hikaru wasn't worried or scared. Hikaru didn't even seem to be considering the possibility that Akira might be angry with him. Hikaru never felt any doubts or hesitations or the slightest bit of concern about what anyone else might think. It was aggravating.
"How is your father doing?"
"He's still alive."
Hikaru looked like he'd been punched in the gut. And to his own astonishment, Akira felt good about that.
He continued, "They said that he had a heart attack brought on by, to quote, age and stress. Now what could have caused my father to be feeling stressed two days ago?"
With growing horror, Hikaru said, "Akira, you can't think that it was Sai's and my fault? Do you?"
"Oh, well, no more than all the chaos that goes on around you is ever your fault," Akira said.
"Akira…"
"You kept secrets from me, you put me at the bottom of your priorities list, and you lied to me, twice. But that's not the only reason why I'm angry—this goes much deeper than that. This is about every single stupid day where my life seems to revolve around you and your problems. I'm sick of it."
"Akira, if you weren't happy, you should have said something."
"Would you have listened? Because you never listen to me. I try to make an effort to take our relationship to the next level, and you forget the date. When I need you, you're not there. And guess what? No, I'm not happy."
Hikaru started to speak, and Akira shouted over him, "And do you know why? It's because you're a self-centered jerk! I do everything—teach you how to do stuff on the computer, help you with your homework, play Go with you, clean up after your crazy schemes—and you don't even seem to notice. What have you ever done for me? Forget it. We're done." He whirled around and walked away.
Hikaru said, "Once I cross-dressed, made a fool of myself in public, and gave away my biggest secret for you." But he spoke so quietly, that Sai was the only one to hear him.
After school, Akira went to the hospital to visit his father. He was still asleep, but Akira's mother was sitting by his bed reading a novel.
She closed her book when he came in. "Akira, good news. His surgery was a success. We're going to have to make a lot of changes—monitor his diet, schedule regular doctor visits, we should both take a class in CPR, and he's even been talking about possibly retiring professionally. But he's going to be just fine."
"I'm glad to hear that," Akira said softly.
"Your friend Hikaru has been here twice. He's the one who left that card with the bad joke. Visiting is still supposed to be family only, but he's over at our house so much that it was half the truth when I told the nurse he was a member of our household. He was almost crying when she said that your father was going to make a successful recovery."
Akira was tempted to tell his mother that Hikaru didn't have to receive any information about Father's condition. But that would just be petty. Plus Sai had probably been crying even harder, and Akira didn't want to hurt Sai. Despite what he might have said before, he knew that what had happened wasn't actually the ghost's fault. If this incident hadn't triggered Father's weak heart, then something else would have.
Akiko continued, "Your father woke up just an hour ago—and do you know what the first thing out of his mouth was? He wanted to tell me all about some game he'd been playing with an unknown amateur online. Honestly, that man, nothing but Go in his brain."
Akira said, "That game has already become a legend in the professional world. It front-paged Go Weekly and even made a tiny piece in a regular newspaper. Father lost by half a point."
"Really? Well, he's forgiven, then. I don't want to wake him up, but you should stay a little longer. Tell me about school, and the Hokuto Cup."
Akira froze. His mother shook her head. "Akira, you can't be thinking of missing the Cup because of your father, can you? You know he'd never want that."
"No, it's just—I'd completely forgotten about that."
"Forgotten, you? Akira, is something else wrong? Something you haven't told me?"
"No, of course not. I'll—I'll do my best to make you both proud."
Akira's big declaration about how he was "done" with Hikaru might have gone better if the competition for the Hokuto Cup team wasn't the next day. Difficult to never see someone again when you were about to enter intense training with them to compete as a team against young professionals from China and Korea in an international match. (Akira never doubted that Hikaru would make the team.)
Akira settled for not looking at Hikaru the whole day, and studiously not being engrossed by Hikaru's game with the wild-haired kid named Yashiro.
It wasn't fair that everyone kept crowding around Hikaru's game. It wasn't fair that Akira couldn't even peek without elbowing his way forward and making it obvious that he wanted to watch.
As expected, Hikaru made the team, which in turn meant that Akira was going to have to constantly spend time with him over the next few weeks. Again, not fair.
Kurata took the three players—himself, Hikaru, and Yashiro—aside to give them a lecture about training for the Cup. He set up a rigorous schedule of practice, and to make matters worse much of the practice was supposed to be at Akira's house (having cleared this with his parents in advance.) Akira's mother had probably thought she was doing him a favor by arranging for company, and they did have a large place.
Then Kurata instructed them to schedule some practice games, and left to give his statement to Mr. Amano about Japan's prospects of winning the Hokuto Cup.
Hikaru had the nerve to look hopeful as he approached Akira. "So, what time this Saturday should we schedule the practice for?"
Akira deliberately turned to Yashiro. "I have this weekend free, but I think that we should start practicing earlier this week. Yashiro, could you ask the number two player if he is free on Thursday afternoon?"
Hikaru's face twisted with hurt. Akira felt a kind of guilty satisfaction.
"Yashiro, tell Hikaru that if he shows up late for the Hokuto Cup then we're letting Ochi play instead."
"Yashiro, tell Akira that some of us are occasionally late for a good reason."
"Yashiro, tell Hikaru that watching Yugioh Abridged for the third time is not a good reason."
"Yashiro, tell Akira that we might watch certain shows out of consideration for others in our household, and please imply that indulging the whims of self-centered people is time consuming, despite the many other things we might have wanted to do with our day."
"Yashiro, tell Hikaru that if his houseguest is selfish it's only because he picked up bad manners from his host."
Hikaru leapt to his feet. "You leave my ghost out of this! You can say what you want about me, but not about him! And you—I can't believe you actually brought him up in public!"
Akira was on his feet as well, "Yashiro, tell this buffoon that it's not my fault he can't keep his mouth shut! I didn't say anything about him, you did!"
The rest of the train was trying to politely ignore this display. Yashiro contemplated going over to the other side of the car so he could pretend to have nothing to do with these two. It wouldn't be hard—they weren't looking at him.
A white-haired, foggy-eyed old lady patted Yashiro on the arm. "It's always hard to get stuck between a married couple, isn't it? Don't worry, just let them be and they'll likely sort it out. You have to really love each other to shout like that in public, yes?"
Hikaru and Akira were shouting too loudly for Yashiro to reply.
For some reason, Yashiro kept making excuses to leave practice early. (He was a very jumpy person too, Akira couldn't help noticing.) Unfortunately, this often left Akira and Hikaru without a buffer between them. Sai did not count, because he refused to repeat Hikaru or Akira's words back to them, and was prone to wailing when this was even suggested.
When he couldn't address Hikaru through someone else, Akira at least made a point to not look at his face, and finished his remarks with something snarky. As he cleared the board, he said, "Your end game has improved, but you still need to stop rushing when you think you have the advantage. By the way, a fake moustache under my bed says that you made another attempt to play my father in disguise that you didn't tell me about. I don't see why I'm surprised, since you were lying to me since the first time we met."
"I don't see why you only blame me! Sai was just as guilty of deceiving you."
"Blaming your mistakes on Sai. That's like telling your parents you shouldn't be punished for eating all the cookies because your two-year-old brother suggested it."
Hikaru looked ashamed. "I admit that was out of line."
Sai wondered if it was possible he should be insulted here.
Akira continued, "I'm not really in the mood for another game. Sai, do you want me to log in under your name and play a few games online? Your adoring public desperately wants to see you again. Give me a little more time and I'll set up another game with my father."
Hikaru gaped and made surprised noises.
Akira said, "What? Just because I'm angry at you doesn't mean I'm not still friends with Sai."
Hikaru protested, "But Sai is my ghost!"
Akira said, "Maybe he'd rather live with me. I'd be happy to let him play online at least once a day. And all the most famous professionals in Japan and around the world come to visit my house."
"You can't do that!" Hikaru screamed. "Sai, tell Akira that you like me better."
Sai began to back away uneasily. "I would kindly appreciate if you two would leave me out of this."
Akira's mother called, "Akira, there's some news posted on the Go Weekly reporter's blog that I think you should look at. Oh, and please try to keep the noise level down, okay?"
Chastised, Akira turned to his computer to look, studiously avoiding Hikaru's eyes.
He found Mr. Amano's blog, and a set of informal comments on his opinions of the interview with the Korean players. There was something about Honinbo Shusaku being outdated and overrated?
Hikaru popped over to look at the sound of Akira's surprised gasp.
"He said what about Sai? That bastard! I'm going to show him what for at the match."
Akira didn't want to agree with Hikaru, but couldn't disagree on this point. So he said, "Sai, I'm sorry about that. I hope you realize he is going to eat those words."
Hikaru demanded, "Why are you angry about this?"
Akira said, "I have just as much right to defend Sai's honor as you do."
"You mean at the Cup?"
"Yes. I'm going to play Ko Yeong-ha. It's the logical choice: I can beat him, you can't."
"You're just doing this to spite me!"
"And you really think you can win? Really? You're not just being selfish?"
Hikaru faltered.
Akira drove the knife home. "Not everything is about you, Hikaru. Maybe I happen to want the captain's game with Ko Yeong-ha. It's rightfully mine since—your unfulfilled boasts aside—I'm still the stronger player. Maybe this time I don't feel like giving anything of mine up for you." Akira added, "You don't mind me being the one to avenge you, do you, Sai?"
"Sai, tell Akira what jerk he's being! You don't like him when he's like this either, do you?"
Sai wondered if this was what children with divorced parents felt like.
With both Hikaru and Akira going through so much pain, there was no way the poor ghost could mention how ever since his game with Touya Meijin he kept feeling like his body was fading away…
Author's note: I am so close to breaking 100 reviews. Everyone, please help me make it!