School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 48 – Another Mouth to Feed

Kaori sat on the couch, her back stiff, her stomach protruding. Mr. and Mrs. Oshidori could not bring themselves to sit. Mrs. Oshidori would sit with cookies and milk or something to the like, and Mr. Oshidori would have to pace. Mr. Oshidori finally sits on the couch beside his daughter and Mrs. Oshidori thinks she needs to find more in the kitchen for food. Yuki sits in front of the mat table before her, eating the cookies and milk that Kaori has yet to touch. She looks proud, though she is seven months pregnant, and her head is held high. No, she does not look proud, she looks haughty, and no one in the room can bring themselves to ask about the gold ring on her wedding finger.

“I’m sorry to come home so suddenly,” Kaori said, not looking the least bit apologetic. “I just thought it would be best to have the baby here in Japan.”

Everyone stops moving. Mr. and Mrs. Oshidori slide into their chairs and sit, watching Kaori as she leans her dark head back. She looks radiant, even more beautiful than when she had left. If it was a result of her being pregnant or something that had been happening in her hiatus away from the family no one knew for sure. Kaori seemed reluctant to speak of what had happened in the last year since they had seen the wayward daughter.

The three Oshidori’s looked to the girl who no one even knew anymore. She was dressed in designer clothes, and though she was seven months pregnant and showing, she looked thin and muscular, like a woman who had been working out while pregnant to keep toned. How does someone breech that subject? No one seemed to know what to say, they all just looked on in silence.

Kaori shifted, just as uncomfortable as the other three. How ironic that her baby sister, who had run away, something Kaori never would have suspected of Yuki, had returned on the same night that Kaori found her way back into the Oshidori household. She could see her mother continuing to glance towards the door, waiting for Nakago to step for the door as well, but he did not. There was no sign that he was even with her.

Kaori finally leaned forward, reaching for a cup of tea, hoping to soothe her nerves and her stomach, and said to her family, as she leaned forward, “Nakago will not be joining me.”

A small sigh collectively went around the room. Yuki was more surprised to know it was relief. None of them wanted to see Kaori and Nakago together, and it was a bit awkward to not even want to see their son. For all they knew, he was a murderer, and they were right, they just did not know whom he had truly murdered that night.

“Is it his?” Mrs. Oshidori was the one who finally asked. The family looked surprised that she had asked, her voice rising, and even Mrs. Oshidori looked surprised at her sudden outburst.

Kaori gave off a very unfamiliar shrug. Silence again, before she finally said, “It is a fifty/fifty chance.”

“Only fifty?” Yuki could not help but ask. She tried to bite it back, but it was too late and already out of her mouth. No one looked offended, least of all Kaori. Kaori just sighed and said, “Yes, only fifty.”

“Who are you married to?” Yuki asked. Now that she had spoken she did not plan on stopping now. This was her sister. Why was this family treating her like a stranger? True, who in this family had really known her, but they had ever right to demand answers now, didn’t they? If she was going to come into this house, looking for a place to stay to have this baby, did they not deserve to know the truth?

“I married a man named James Grant,” she admitted. “He is-”

“You married Jimmy Grant?” Yuki cried, slamming her hands down flat on the table. “You married, oh my God, and I thought I was dating someone well known.”

Mr. and Mrs. Oshidori looked rightfully confused. Kaori sighed, knowing it was up to her to explain. “James Grant is a famous Hollywood actor,” Kaori said. “He is said to be the next Tom Cruise, well, before Tom Cruise went over the edge a bit.”

Mrs. Oshidori’s eyes widened impressively, Mr. Oshidori did not seem happy at all. “How did this happen?” Mr. Oshidori asked, his arms crossing against his chest. Yuki and Kaori both had never seen him looking so disappointed, even when Kaori admitted that she was in love with her brother.

“Is this really something you want to hear, daddy?” Kaori asked, trying her hardest to look sweet an innocent, hard to do with ruby red lipstick, dark eye shadow, and the stomach that proves there is a fifty/fifty chance that her brother could have sired that child.

“Yes,” he said honestly. “I want to know, everything that happened.”