School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 36 – Shai’s Christmas Present

“How is living with Shinwa going?” Shai asked politely in class one late in December, two days before Christmas break. She was fiddling with her book bag, opening it, and sealing it, perhaps not knowing what to do with her hands.

“It’s okay,” Yuki said, her grey eyes on Shai’s hand as it slipped into her bag once again, as if making sure whatever it was she had in there remained in there. Yuki tried not to question her friend, Shai had been a bit secretive herself lately, which was odd for the mother, but Yuki did not want to push her to say something she was not ready to say. “I think he very much is not enjoying me being there.”

“Why do you say that?” Shai asked, resealing her bag.

Yuki gave off a small shrug. “Well, he began filming another movie, and absolutely refuses to let me on the set. He will not even tell me where it is filming. I’ve also caught him talking to someone on the phone that he never let’s me hear the conversation with. He even hid himself in the bathroom to talk to whomever it is. Do you think he is cheating on me?”

Shai hesitated before she said it, then sighed. “Did Fuji put that thought in your mind?”

Yuki began to shake her head, then sighed and nodded. “Fuji has not said he was, but when I thought of how her and Amatsu ended because of it, I just wondered if he had found someone else.”

Shai shifted. She hated to say horrible things about her sister, she loved her sister, but sometimes she was a little too blunt, and not everyone could take that type of honesty. “Shinwa might not want you to hear him arguing with his agent,” Shai pointed out, “or talking to one of his old band mates, don’t forget that they all lost two people close to them. He’s never really mourned over that.”

“Yeah…” Yuki sighed. She did not know what to say. They were living like roommates, not like… lovers. He slept more often than not on the couch in the living room and gave her the bed. She wondered if he even wanted to be with her or if he was just being placating.

Yuki was very aware of everyone’s eyes on her as she talked about her living arrangements with Shinwa and decided it was definitely time for a change of subject. “What’s in the bag you are being so protective of?”

“Oh,” Shai said, as if she just realized she had been playing with it all along. “I am going to give Shu’s father a Christmas present,” she was careful never to mention who the father was while she was at school. “I have been avoiding him for a few weeks, I don’t want to be around him right now, but I don’t think we should hate each other.”

Yuki raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that… wise?”

Shai shook her head, her hair perfectly trimmed as always. “No,” she admitted. “I don’t think so, but I think it is the right thing to do. I do not love him anymore, I don’t, but… I think I need to be kind to him. I have not really told him why I have been avoiding him, and I think I need to admit my heart belongs to Kyoei now, and only Kyoei, well, and Shu. But I still want him to be a father to his son if that is what he desires.”

“You have a good heart,” Yuki told her friend. “I would just crush him under my toes like the rotten bug he is.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Shai laughed, instead of taking offense. “You would do the same thing because you are as kind, if not more kind, than I am. You are just stronger than me.”

Yuki was about to say more when the homeroom teacher straggled in, looking disheveled and tired. All of the students hurried to sit forward and watch him while he drearily taught class.

At the end of the day Shai bid farewell to Yuki to go deliver the gift, her legs shaking slightly. She was not used to walking to the tennis room any longer, though it was often saddened news from her former teammates that she no longer joined their games. She oft wished she could.

Shai watched one of the girls from the tennis team go into the locker room, and Shai hurried to sneak passed the locker room and towards Teiyoku’s office. She could see the back of his head as he sat at his desk, his head slightly bent back just a bit. He looked as if he were sleeping. Shai gently opened the door, and to her dismay she noticed that Teiyoku was not alone. Dark black hair, tinted with red, could be seen buried in Teiyoku’s lap. At the sound of the door opening the head raised and Teiyoku swiveled in his chair. A female voice said, “I thought you locked the door,” and seemed slightly undisturbed by the interruption until she caught eyes with Shai.

“Raquel…” Shai said softly. “Teiyo… Mr. Tennison, I thought I should bring you your Christmas present, since…”

“Shai,” Mr. Tennison cried, pulling up his pants and hurrying to buckle them as he pushed Raquel away. “Shai, it’s not what you-”

“It’s never what anyone thinks, is it?” Shai asked placidly, no real reaction on her face except for the glassy eyed expression on her face. “Merry Christmas, both of you.”

“Shai, wait,” he leapt from around the desk to reach for Shai, but she stepped out of the way and instead he slid into the glass of his door.

“I guess you did not expect anyone else to come down this hall,” Shai said bitterly, her first signs of emotion showing. “Was it every girl on the tennis team, or just me? Am I the only one lucky enough to have carried your child?”

“Shai,” Raquel said, stepping around the desk and looking towards Shai. Mr. Tennison only laid his head against the glass, unable to look at the much shorter girl. “Shai, this was the first time, he had been pushing me away for so long, and he was so distraught he just-”

“He’s married,” Shai announced. “He’s married, and in love with me, and you would allow yourself to be used. It is not him that I believe is scum Raquel, it is you. You knew all of this, I know you did, but you allowed yourself to be the slut to his need. I have no respect for you, and I am sorry I ever almost considered you a friend. Mr. Tennison, no, Teiyoku, this Christmas present is my way of ending things between us.” Shai rummaged in her bag and handed the box to Teiyoku, the sparkling purple gift wrap catching his eye as he took it. “I’m not hurt, if that is what you think. I think this was a destructive relationship from the beginning, but it was fun while it lasted, but now, I love Kyoei, no one else. Thank you for giving me the son I adore, and if you want to see him, please arrange things with my father or Kyoei to see him. I never want to see your face again, except at school when I have to see you, and luckily for me, that is rare.”

Shai literally pushed Teiyoku out of the way so she could pull open the door of his office. She was in no mood to deal with this any longer than she had to. She walked out and walked down the hall, walking out of Teiyoku’s life for good.

Teiyoku slowly unwrapped the present, Raquel silent behind him, shocked at what had been said to her. Inside of the wrappings Teiyoku held a frame, which he allowed to drop to the floor. The glass shattered around the picture, but it did not keep Raquel from seeing what it was of. Shai stood in the middle, her arms around a bundled up Shu, behind her stood Kyoei, looking happy as he could be with the two main people in his life. Around them Fuji, Shinji Taiikuka, and Shinji’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Risa, stood happily, even Fuji’s smile something real. On the front of the picture, done with a digital computer, most likely Kyoei’s doing, were the words, “The Taiikuka/Memeshii family.” Shai and Kyoei were a family, whether legally or not, and for his Christmas Teiyoku would not be able to avoid that picture. He had seen it, that had been enough.