School Girls' Stories - Year 2

A/N: Sorry for this short chapter, but I did want to put something up. It has been a while!! School is evil. Takes all my time. Well, that, and the full time job, the volunteer work, and the demanding life. I will try to get a few more up this week though!! ~~ PS - Toudai is another way to say Tokyo University, but people often shorten it.

Chapter 41 – Friendly Competition

Amatsu could not drive away right after he watched Fuji enter her house, scraped and bruised. Why did he not do more for her? Why did he not do less for her? He was supposed to be letting her go, letting her move on with her life so he could move on with his, but he could not get over watching her choose that… boy over him. Devilin was a child in many ways, why could no one else see it? The way he looked to Fuji was idolizing her, not loving her. There was nothing wrong with those feelings, Fuji had definitely had worse feelings over her over the last year or so, but this was not love. Did she really love him?

Amatsu should not have been torturing himself so, but he could not force the picture of her and Devilin out of his mind. It was not the after part of the evening, no one had looked at anyone with anything but blank stares after Danko’s announcement.
Instead it was the point where Devilin and Fuji had been wrapped around one another on the dance floor, Fuji leading him, not him leading her. Despite his need to play the white knight, Devilin needed Fuji in an entirely different way than he had her.

Amatsu was just restarting his car when Devilin stepped out of the house, his wounds barely administered, his fist clenched. Amatsu stepped out of the car, not expecting Devilin to start something, but the boy looked determined. Devilin stepped up to him with a set way to his jaw and stopped walking, hesitating only momentarily before holding out his fist. “Here,” he said, and dropped something into Amatsu’s open hand.

Amatsu was more than surprised to find an aquamarine gem glimmering at him from the dim street lamps. He would recognize the cut of the ring anywhere, and he remembered where he had last seen it, abandoned on the edge of the sidewalk by two people denying their feelings for one another.

“Why do you have this?” Amatsu could not help but ask.

“I heard the argument,” Devilin admitted. “I saw her throw it, and I saw you pass it up, so I grabbed it, with every intention of selling it off, but I couldn’t do it. So here.”

“But I don’t get why,” Amatsu admitted.

Devilin just shrugged, wincing in pain as he did so. “There does not always have to be a why,” Devilin snapped. “I did it because I did it, so here it is now, back in the hands of the person it belongs to. I believe this time you will treasure it more than you did the first time.”

Amatsu caught on to Devilin’s meaning. “Are you giving up on her?”

Devilin let out a loud laugh that belied his inner pain and outer. “Never,” he snapped sharply, “but I know she is not over you yet. I am just going to prove to you that I am the better man for her.”

“You’re too young for her,” Amatsu said suddenly, not expecting words of defense to come out of his mouth.

“I am only a year younger than her,” Devilin denied.

Amatsu shook his head and gave Devilin a cruel grin. “I meant mentality, not literally. She needs someone who will protect her.”

“Like you have failed to do?”

“You forget I have been there twice to rescue her, I already have a head start on you.” Amatsu did not wait for the man’s reaction, he just turned back to his car and then started to slide in. Then he stopped, popping his head back out of the door and looking to Devilin. “May the best ‘man’ win,” he told him, then hurried on his way from in front of Fuji’s house. Twenty minutes later Fuji would sneak out of the house to go visit Danko, and Amatsu drove out to the country to go visit his family, without a word to anyone.

~*~

“Where in the world have you been?”

“Hi Mom,” Amatsu said to Kyoei as he walked into his apartment later that evening. “I never knew you cared.”

Kyoei rolled his eyes. Amatsu walked into the apartment, a small brief case-like leather bag in his hands. He threw the bag on the couch and Kyoei eyed him suspiciously, then lied. “Fuji’s missing.”

Amatsu hurried to turn towards Kyoei worry written all over his face, then he looked into Kyoei’s eyes and saw the lie. “Where is she really?”

“At home having a small nervous break down, but she’ll be fine.” Kyoei decided going into details was not the best move to go with today. He was more curious to find out what was in the bag.

Amatsu looked torn between asking, and still wanting to pretend that none of this affected him. He shifted, shook his head, then sat on the couch. Kyoei followed and sat on the other side, completely nosey. “What’s in the bag?”

Amatsu smirked, knowing his friend’s usual quirks, and took out a bunch of papers and slapped them at Kyoei. Kyoei looked down in surprise. “Tokyo University? You’re going to try to get in to Tokyo University? Do you realize how hard Toudai is to get in?”

“Yes,” Amatsu said quite frankly. “But it is worth a shot. If I make it in I can have a world of opportunity opened to me.”

“What in the world are you going for?” Kyoei demanded. “You’ve been interested in nothing but deejaying since I met you. What could Toudai possibly have for you?”

“Business management, corporate heading, all of those types of things.”

“And you have been interested in that since when?” Kyoei asked in disbelief.

“Since I decided I’m still going to marry Fuji.”