School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 16 – I’m in Love with Someone Else

“You look fine,” Fuji called through the doorway, though Shai was hardly listening to her. Shai was checking her hair for about the one thousandth time that morning, making sure she looked perfect as she went out with Kyoei and Shu today. “Besides, he has definitely seen you looking worse!”

Shai popped her head through the door and gave Fuji a blasé look. “That wasn’t very nice,” she said in her softly sweet voice. She then went back to fixing her hair.

“It’s true!” Fuji called. “I did not say it to be mean, I said it because he saw you after you just gave birth, there is no moment when a woman looks more… sweaty.”

Shai chuckled quietly to herself, but would not give Fuji the satisfaction of knowing she was right, though by all means she was right and knew it. Fuji never did not know she was right. Wait… Shai was beginning to confuse herself.

“Look at the world all around you,” Fuji sang to Shu, whom she was bouncing on her knee. “It’s full of surprises and ingénues…”
“I’m sure that is not how the song goes,” Shai said, looking under the sink for her lipstick.

Fuji gave off a small shrug, wiggling her nose against Shu’s. “I know, but I can never remember the words to children’s songs.”

“You would make a great comedic singer if you weren’t so serious!” Shai called. She painted her lips with a beautiful stain and then stepped out of the bathroom. “How do I look?” she spun around in her perfect little pink skirt and white blouse, and shoes that were going to be killing her feet by the end of the day.

“Overdressed for the zoo,” Fuji said honestly. When Shai began to look defeated Fuji corrected her answer, “but you look beautiful. Kyoei is going to appreciate the work, though you and I both know in his eyes you could look like you just gave birth and he will love every minute of you.”

“Thank you,” Shai said softly, stepping over to pick Shu up from Fuji’s lap.

“Are you sure you do not want me to watch Shu today so you two can be alone?” Fuji asked, looking at her nephew. “Auntie Fuji can take care of him.”

Shai’s eyes nearly bulged. “I just can not picture you as… auntie,” she said, staring at her older sister. Fuji shrugged. Neither could she. “No…” Shai said, holding Shu close. “No, I think it would be nice for it to be all three of us.”3

Fuji nodded and began to stand up and help Shai put all of Shu’s things in the bags, but then she stopped and looked over at her sister. “Can I… ask you something?” she asked, a bit hesitantly.

Shai and Shu both looked over at...Aunt Fuji. “Yes?”

“Has Kyoei… mentioned… anything…”

“Oh, geez, Fuji, spit it out,” Shai snapped, then clamped her free hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she muttered through her fingers. “I just know what you are going to ask already.”

“If you know what I am going to ask, take your hand off of your mouth, and tell me the answer.” There went that little nervous twitch that happened above Fuji’s right eye when she became angry. Shai was always bewildered to see it.

Shai let out a sigh and finished zipping up the bag. “I tried asking Kyoei, in the first couple of weeks in the breakup,” Shai said honestly. “He said that Amatsu just refused to talk about you. He refused to acknowledge you, refused to even mention you. He was home less, he was working hard… and then suddenly, he was normal again. He still won’t mention you, but he is acting like you never existed.”

Fuji sniffed and looked into the air. “I see how much I meant to him,” she snarled, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You… have not really been mourning his loss either, Fuji dearest,” Shai pointed out. “I would not have even known the two of you had broken up if Kyoei had not told me. When I questioned you about it, you barely acknowledged he existed as well.”

Fuji opened her mouth to argue her point, but Shai held up her hand and shook her head. “Fuji, you made your choice,” she told her. “You love him, then you fight for him. You did the first time.”

Fuji looked down at the carpet and did not know what to say. Shai placed Shu down on the bed and wrapped her arms around her sister and best friend. “You will get through it, you are stronger than I am… and look at me now.”

Fuji did not say the words that were on the tip of her tongue. Shai was nowhere close to being near over what had happened to her. Much to Fuji’s relief, the doorbell rang. Fuji hopped up from the bed and said, “I’m going to go let Kyoei in,” she said. She hopped down the stairs and left Shai slightly bewildered to finish up with Shu.

Shai picked Shu and the heavy bag that went along with him up and began her way towards the stairs, and was surprised to hear anger in Fuji’s voice. Wondering who the girl could possibly be setting to some type of anger now, Shai began to hurry before she heard what it was Fuji was saying.

“It’s a bad time for you to interrupt her day, Teiyoku.” Shai would have realized that lack of respect in Fuji’s tone if she had not even heard the name. Fuji had become more and more casual around the adults in her life as time went by.

“Fuji, stop being the pest you have become adapted to being, and let me speak to her myself,” Teiyoku snapped at his step-daughter.

“It’s all right, Fuji,” Shai called from the stairs, starting her way downwards. “I can handle him from here.”

Fuji smirked, but said nothing. She walked passed Teiyoku and began her way out the door instead.

“Fuji,” Shai called, hurrying down the stairs and to the door. “Where are you going? Dad will be expecting you to be here.”

“I’ll be back by the time he gets home,” Fuji called, walking down the sidewalk and not looking back.

“She’s uppity lately,” Teiyoku said, watching Shai close the door behind her.

Shai sighed. “I worry about her though. She’s becoming…”

“Her mother,” Teiyoku finished, then wiped the thought away, considering he had just spoken ill about his wife. “I did not come over here to talk about Fuji.”

“What are you here for?” Shai asked, holding Shu closer. “Kyoei is on his way. We are taking Shu to the zoo today.”

“You said I could be a part of his life,” Teiyoku pointed out, reaching for his son. “I think it only fair you should tell me those things.”

Shai huffed. “I said a part of his life,” she pointed out. “That does not mean I have to okay every decision I make with you. If you want to arrange a day for you to have him, then I have no problem with that, but you have to okay it with me first.”

“You are becoming more assertive,” Teiyoku smiled, stepping towards her and taking his son from her hands. “I’m impressed.”

Shai had nothing to say to that so she just let Shu’s bag fall and sit on the floor. She would be carrying it around the entire zoo, she was not really in the mood to hold it before she had to.

“Teiyoku…” she began softly. “Please call before you come.”

“Afraid I will interrupt you and Kyoei in an intimate moment?” he asked teasingly.

“Yes, yes I am,” she said, though that was not the reason at all. The reason was that he always threw her off guard and she became nervous. He made her stomach turn in knots, the way it did when he had first touched her, and she realize, without a doubt, she was still very in love with Teiyoku Tennison. She did not know why. She did not know if it was because he gave her a son, whom she loved dearly, or if there really was just something about him that she could not stand to be without, but every time he was near she felt those old feelings. Kyoei was great, he made her feel loved and treated her perfectly, but Teiyoku was… the wrong choice. Why could she not just let him go?

“Shai, are you all right?” Teiyoku asked, stepping over to the couch and placing Shu down so he could sit and watch his mother and father.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I think you need to leave now, though.”

“I’m not leaving yet,” he told her, his hand coming up and cupping her chin. He pulled her closer, tilting her head upwards and looking down into her eyes. He leaned down and kissed her lips, a chaste kiss, something he had never given her before. Every moment with him had been about primordial lust, but this… was not. This was him showing his feelings for her, and it frightened her enough to have her pulling back.

She lost track of what happened somewhere around stepping back. One minute Teiyoku was gripping her arms, the next Teiyoku was flat on his back and Kyoei was standing over him looking smug. Shai went to neither of the men in her life and went to the boy, gripping Shu and holding his head into her breasts, keeping his eyes away from the violence as Kyoei began yelling at Teiyoku for touching her.

“Stop it!” Shai screamed, stepping forward and slamming her foot on Kyoei’s toes. Kyoei looked positively shocked as he let out a yelp. “No violence in front of MY son!” She pulled away from both men, Teiyoku sitting up, his lip swollen and bloodied already.

“Shai…” Kyoei began.

Shai was crying and gripping to her son. This was not how the day was supposed to go. “Both of you just leave,” snapped Shai. “I don’t… I…” she did not want them to leave… either of them. She looked to Kyoei and Teiyoku and felt lost. She wanted to tell them both to stay by her side, and she would be happy, or content, but she could not.

Kyoei stepped forward and Shai slid to the floor, her son still held tightly in her hands. “I’m all right,” Shai told him. “Just… give me a couple of minutes, then we will go to the zoo… and Teiyoku, call next time you want to see your son.”

Neither man knew what to say. They had pushed her over an edge, and they were afraid one more push would have her falling once again. Teiyoku quietly left Kyoei, Shai, and Shu to their date.

Shai looked up, pulling Shu away from her breasts and seeing the kid cough a bit from nearly being smothered. She kissed his forehead in apology. “I’m sorry, Kyoei,” she said.

“Why?” he asked her.

“Because I have to be honest with you,” she told him. “I’m not over Teiyoku.”

“I know,” Kyoei said, stepping forward and taking Shu into his hands. “I know how you feel, but it doesn’t mean I’m giving up on you, or that I have to like it. So, let’s take Shu to the zoo and have a good time, we’ll talk later. But today… it’s meant for smiles.”

Shai looked up at him and for a moment she idolized him, because there was nothing else to do.