Transition And Restart

Yukio enjoyed the feeling of falling more and more in love with her, but it scared him a little as well. The emotions were so much stronger than any he had felt before. Sure he"d crushed on a couple of girls, but there was no comparison. Together with Kyoko he felt at home. They had only spent a couple of weeks as a pair, but added together with the months as awkward friends it was as if he had known her his entire life.

Rolling a paper thin wind-stopper Urufu had given him as a gift into a ball he slid the door to their room open and entered the corridor. He pushed the ball of cloth into a leg pocket and stretched his shoulders. Most of the club members were already on the beach, but he wasn"t in any hurry.

When he arrived in the lobby he noticed how a small group of the models living in the hotel made ready to join the evening festivities. They were all a few years older than him, and normally his rival alarm would have screeched at full volume, but Kuri"s earlier phone-call calmed him down a bit.

"You running that club?" one of them asked him?

He smiled back. "No, Kuri"s the president."

"Kuri?"

"Love it when they prepare a home-run for the home team." "Yeah, she"s been modelling with you the last days, but she"s with us normally." The words slipped easily from his mouth, even though it had been Kuri who instructed him how to answer should an opportunity occur.

"Ageruman-san?"

"d.a.m.n, the kid"s on a first name basis with her. Awesome!"

"Thank you Kuri! You sure knew how the guys would react." "We"re not that formal in the club. But yes, she"s our president." "She"s played the c.r.a.p out of you since you arrived here." It was time for the last favour she had asked of him. "She wanted me to introduce you to our club. But would you mind waiting for Urufu first?"

He should come down soon. Yukio hadn"t hidden both of his pair of shoes where it would take too long to find them. Another one of Kuri"s nasty suggestions.

"Urufu?" The voice showed consternation both at the foreign name as well as the lack of t.i.tles.

Yukio looked up at the asking face. "d.a.m.n they"re a tall bunch! Well, time to nail the coffin shut." "Man, haven"t you met her boyfriend yet? I"ll have you shake paws with him when he comes down." Yukio plastered a fake smile onto his face. "He"s our vice president. I"m sure you"ll like the guy"

"f.u.c.k, Koji-kun said something about a boyfriend." The smile that met Yukio was equally false. "Well, can"t be much of a compet.i.tion if he"s a high school kid, can he?"

Yukio glared back at the model. "You"re in for a bad one. Kuri belongs with Urufu and not some porcelain doll like you." "Compet.i.tion. I didn"t know he had any?" Kyoko was the most important person in Yukio"s life now, but that didn"t change that Urufu was his best friend, and Yukio felt adrenaline surge through him as it always did whenever someone challenged Urufu. "Calm down, Kuri has it all planned. Trust her the way you trust Urufu."

"Yukio you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Was it you or Ryu who came up with this brain-dead prank?" the voice Yukio waited for called from up the stairs.

"And here he comes."

And here he came. It wasn"t a happy Urufu who descended the stairs in the tailor-made suit Kuri had coerced Princ.i.p.al Nakagawa to order when she sent him out to buy swimming trunks for the management people. Yukio had hung it where his friend couldn"t possibly fail to see it, and the rest of Urufu"s clothes were stashed together with Kyoko"s luggage in the girls" room.

It wasn"t an Urufu Yukio had seen before. What came down the stairs wasn"t his cla.s.smate at all, but a corporate leader who lived his life in expensive business suits, and one who for once was severely p.i.s.sed off when more casual clothes were nowhere to be found.

"Yukio! Not fun at all!" Urufu said and pointed a finger at Yukio.

"You"re late man. Some kids here want to meet you," Yukio said and thumbed the closest model as nonchalantly as he could.

"What the f.u.c.k are you calling us?" the thumbed model growled.

"Shut it Shoji-kun! That"s some serious money up there," another said.

"Outward appearance," Kuri had said. "Those who live skin deep will only see skin deep," she had explained. But Urufu wasn"t just skin deep. For the first time Yukio saw the man Kuri had been smitten with before she fell in love with him. "s.h.i.t, Noriko, I feel bad for you, but he"s out of your league." He knew Urufu was older, but he hadn"t understood the sheer magnitude of difference that experience carried with it.

Urufu walked down the stairs. "What do you want?" he asked the closest model. Just like Kuri he had that scary ability to look down on someone ten centimetres taller than him. "Hamarugen Urufu, pleased to meet you," he added in the j.a.panese form and with a voice that clearly said he wasn"t.

It was at that moment Yukio understood that Urufu would be sitting in the sand in the horribly expensive suit later, because it probably was casual clothing to him. "Game set and match, Kuri. I know he"s an awesome friend, but that"s one h.e.l.l of a boyfriend you got." Yukio studied the short conversation between Urufu and the models and tried to remember as much as possible for future references.

"Screw you! You trying to tell me she"s yours?" one of the models, Shoji-kun if Yukio remembered, growled. There was no mistaking who "she" was.

Urufu sent him a condescending stare. "No, I"m afraid you"re mistaken. She"s not mine. She doesn"t belong to anyone," he said in a tone that clearly stated that the talk was over.

The guy called Shoji-kun apparently had less brains than the rest. He grabbed Urufu"s shoulder and leaned closer than what could possibly be considered polite. "So you don"t mind if I"m hitting on her later?"

"f.u.c.k it Shoji-kun! Don"t be like that. He"s her boyfriend so just leave her alone will you?"

Urufu smiled and waved his rescuer aside. "Shoji-kun, is it? Do what you want, but don"t come for my shoulder when you want to cry." That earned him a few smiles from the other models. Urufu turned to them after giving Yukio a sly wink. "You guys mingling with us down at the beach?"

"Yeah, Ageruman-san invited us."

"Yukio!"

"What now?" "Yes?" "d.a.m.n it, man, you"re playing along like you planned this with Kuri from the start." But he knew Urufu shouldn"t have a clue about what was going on.

"The guys here are a bit older than the rest of us. Have you talked with Princ.i.p.al Nakagawa about some beer or wine for them?" Urufu asked as if he had been in the know the entire time.

"Ah," "what the h.e.l.l," "I think that"s taken care of," Yukio stammered. Worst case it was a lie, but he hoped Kuri had thought of that. He stared out the door opening where it was darkening quickly. They had to go down to the beach soon.

"Then let"s join the others," Urufu said and tried to shake lose the grip on his shoulder. Shoji-kun didn"t let go. "You"re stuck or something?"

"You c.o.c.ky little s.h.i.t!" Shoji-kun said and threw back his other hand for a punch.

"Poor sod," was everything Yukio had time to think. He saw the other models move to intercept their friend, but it was too late. A fist came rushing for Urufu"s face. It never connected.

Urufu"s feet moved across the floor as he somehow moved aside and behind his a.s.saulter. Grabbing the hand on his shoulder he slid in, pushed the grabbing arm upwards in a circle and pushed down.

Shoji-kun would have crashed face first into the stairs hadn"t Urufu suddenly pulled back. Instead the model landed hard on his bottom. "Careful there. The floor is slippery, and we wouldn"t want any accidents, would we?" Urufu said with a sheepish grin about as trustworthy as Santa Claus in August.

"So that"s aikido? I wonder if expelling him from Red Rose wasn"t justified after all." The rapists wannabes had been horribly maimed, and Yukio realised they never stood a chance to begin with.

Shoji-kun gurgled something and rose for a second round. This time his friends grabbed him and one of them even twisted his arm behind his back. "I think you should thank Hamarugen-san for saving you, OK?" he said and screwed up the arm harder.

"What the f.u.c.k..."

"Magic word, now!" he said and twisted some more.

"f.u.c.k, it hurts! OK! Thank you, you..."

There was yet another twist, and the last word never left Shoji-kun"s mouth.

"He says he"s very grateful."

"I heard," Urufu said. "Tell him it"s no big deal," he continued as if Shoji-kun wasn"t standing directly in front of him.

Yukio shook his head and led his friend outside.