Chapter Three
I walk down the corridor to the dining room and enter. Xander and Ezra turn to look at me with concern in their eyes.
"Where were you, Kor?" Ezra asks, and I shrug.
"Exploring the forest. I'm not sure exactly where I was, but I enjoyed myself." Jase raises his eyebrows.
"Seriously? You've been in the forest all that time?" he asks, and I nod. "Why don't I believe you?" Dad enters the room carrying a large pot with steam coming off the top. I sniff the air and grin. Dad's really trying to get into the culture, so much so that he's cooked us ramen for dinner. He places the pot down in the middle of the table and takes each of our bowls in turn, asking us how much we want. Jase wrinkles his nose in disgust. The only ramen he's ever tasted is the one that I made in food technology class when I was twelve, and he got food poisoning from it. Xander has a bigger portion than I've ever seen him have of anything else, and Ezra beats his usually tiny appetite and has a normal size portion, which is about twice the amount he usually eats. Jase asks if he can just have bread instead, and Dad lets him, which surprises me. He normally won't let us have anything other than what he's cooked unless we all want the same thing.
"How much, Korin?" Dad asks me after he's served everyone else, including himself.
I grin, "All of it." Dad shakes his head and gives a portion about twice the size of anyone else's.
"You can have more once you've finished that, Korin." he says. I nod, grinning broadly.
"Itadakimasu!" I yell before picking up my chopsticks and beginning to eat.
We eat in silence, occasionally sharing 'I-really-hate-you' looks or calling each other idiots for choking on our food.
"I'm going to ask now, while I've got all of you here," Dad begins, and the four of us share a nervous glance. "I got a papercut earlier, and when I was looking for a plaster, I discovered that the bandage roll was gone. I want to know who took it and why." No one speaks, but Jase looks at me. I focus on breathing normally so that I don't give myself away by freaking and needing to use my inhaler.
"It wasn't me." I lie calmly with a slight shrug and a mouthful of noodles.
"I checked back in the medicine cabinet when I was cooking, and saw that it had been returned, but it had shrunk considerably. The cutting was very sloppy, which leads me to believe that Ezra is not the culprit." Xander looks nervous. He knows that he didn't do it, but he's obviously worried in case he gets blamed.
"It was probably Korin," Jase says, and Ezra frowns at him. "She left and then came back for a couple of minutes and then left again. Satoshi said that he saw her going into the forest with her pockets bulging."
"Is this true, Korin?" Dad asks, and I sigh. Ezra and Xander are both glaring daggers at Jase. Normally when one of us has done something wrong, we pretend that none of us have any idea who it was, even if it's really obvious who did it. I nod.
"I found a deer with its leg caught in a trap, and I wanted to help it." I say, only half-lying. Dad sighs.
"You should have just owned up to it, Korin. You're not going to get in trouble for helping someone in need. You're a Belododia, and we've been helping people for generations. Just tell me next time so that I can get a new roll in case one of us gets hurt." he says, and I sigh with relief. "But don't think you're getting off so lightly, young lady. You still get a seven day computer ban for lying." I groan and Jase smirks at me. I feel my anger rising and I want nothing more than to punch that smug smirk off his pathetic face.
"You're a total prick," Ezra says to Jase, "I hope you know that." My eyes widen. Ezra never swears or insults people.
"Don't use those sorts of words, Ezra." Dad says calmly. Xander giggles.
"Ezra got told off! Ezra got told off!" he sings teasingly, and Dad gives him the Alexander James Belododia, stop teasing your brother look, which shuts him up instantly.
I scarf down the rest of my ramen and excuse myself from the table, running to my bedroom to try and come up with a plan of action for looking after the Kirin.
After twenty or so minutes of fruitless searching through my books, my phone vibrates on the bedside table. I reach over and pick it up, switching the screen on and unlocking it by swiping between the dots in the shape of a 'Y'. I smile when I see that I have a Snapchat message from someone. I open Snapchat and grin when I see who it's from: Connor, the boy I sat next to in Physics and History for four years. I open it and laugh when I see a picture of him pulling an 'ugly' face. The caption reads Having fun in Yaoi Land? I shake my head at the typical Connor face and attitude. I reply with a photo of one of the Yokai photos from the boy who killed himself, captioning it Great, but I'm already banned from the computer. I follow it up straight away with another Yokai photo with the caption Can you look something up for me?
I glance at my watch and sigh. It's 8pm here, which means it's Midday in London. Connor will be on his way to gymnastics, like he always is on a Saturday at this time. I won't get a response for at least two hours, and I don't know how long it took for his Snapchat to get to me.
I continue to look through my books, searching desperately for anything that could help me to nurse the Kirin. I briefly consider asking Megumi for help, but I decide against it when I remember the way she looked at me on the first night when she found out that I like Yokai. There's no way she would tell me how to care for one. She probably doesn't know, because she's only been taught how to kill them. I frown angrily. She would tell me to kill it, or she would kill it herself. How could anyone do that to such a beautiful creature? Kirin are pure and gentle. They walk without flattening blades of grass or killing insects and are strictly herbivores. They deserve better. I feel a small tear roll down my cheek at the injustice Yokai receive from humans who only care about themselves.
I read and re-read, pouring over the seemingly endless pages until it's dark outside and my eyes sting from the strain of reading in such low light. A hand beats a sequence of six rhythmic thuds on my bedroom door.
"Come in." I say, and the door slides open with a quiet creak. Ezra is standing in the doorway, his hands fiddling nervously with his blue Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt and his chocolate brown eyes looking anywhere but at me.
"H-hey, Korin…" Ezra begins, but trails off to an almost silent mumble the moment he starts to say whatever it is he's saying. As he 'speaks', his eyes flicker between me and the floor. I sigh.
"What's wrong?" I ask, trying to make eye contact. "Did Dad send you to take away my electronics?" Ezra shakes his head.
"I was just wondering if…" Once again, his voice shrinks to nothing. I sigh.
"Let me guess…" I say, and Ezra glances at me, shocked. "You've found a piano you want to buy, and you need me to give you some money because you can't afford it." Ezra blushes bright red and develops a sudden interest in the SasuNaru fan art on my wall. I snigger and roll my eyes. Ezra's so predictable. He speaks normally and with confidence to me, unless Dad's told him to get something from me, or he wants something.
I get up off of my bed and walk over to my chest of draws. I check that Ezra is still looking the other way before I scroll the correct combination onto the locked box on top of it. I flip the lid open and take out the key marked 3. I crouch down and slip the key into the keyhole of the third draw down and twist it. When a small click signals that it's unlocked, I pull the draw open. I let my fingers move around inside the draw until they settle on my SNK wallet. Pulling the wallet out of the draw, I glance over my shoulder to see Ezra staring at me, his eyebrows raised questioningly.
"You already have locks on your draws?" he asks exasperatedly.
"You really expect me to leave my stuff in the open with Jase around?" Ezra thinks for a moment, then shrugs, nodding. "How much do you need?"
"Well… I have ¥11783."
"And the piano costs how much?"
"... ¥27100."
"You want me to give you ¥15317?" I ask after quickly working it out in my head. Ezra nods slowly, looking more worried than he should. I sigh and take out three ¥5000 notes and a ¥500 coin. I stand and walk across the room towards Ezra. I take his hand, unfold his fist and press the money into it.
"Thank you so much, Korin," he says with a grateful smile, "I'll pay you back as soon as I can."
I nod, "You'd better. You owe me big time for this, Ez." Ezra grins, hugs me, and walks out of my bedroom, probably to give the money to Dad so that he'll buy the piano. Of course, there is a downside to getting a piano. Dad will try to make me take up lessons again. I shudder and try to push the thought out of my mind. I do up my wallet and put it back into the draw. I lock the draw and put the key back, then I sit back down on my bed and return to my books once more, reading until I drift into an uneasy sleep filled with Yokai suffering in man-made traps, each one of them slowly dying.