A few days later
Ulf wasn’t as certain about how good the new year looked.
A number of the
teachers yelled at him when he showed up despite being suspended, and
Kareyoshi screamed bloody murder. It took a couple of men in black
business suits to stop the yelling and screaming, but they had the
sense to ask him to cease flaunting his invincibility in the face of
his principal.
After that Ulf
decided to stay away from school for the duration of his suspension.
He didn’t care for getting problems with the acquisition of new
customers after all. On top of that, the presence of bodyguards came
as a surprise to him, and right now he didn’t need that kind of
attention.
The next day he
saw Christina on Ryu’s arm. That hurt. Amongst the jealousy welling
up, Ulf managed a thought of pity for Ai’s sake. He hadn’t heard
anything about the pair breaking up.
After yet another
day, that he spent at home wallowing in self pity, Ulf called Noriko.
Asking Ryu for help right now was out of the question, and Ulf
couldn’t call Yukio without Ryu getting involved. The two of them
had made just as close friends as Ulf wanted from the beginning.
So what remained
was hoping Noriko would agree to help him without calling in the
cavalry. With Christina glued to her brother’s arm Ulf had higher
hopes Noriko might agree to it. If not, he’d play the lovesick boy
to convince her she really couldn’t get Christina involved; not
that it required any acting from his side. Watching Christina with
Ryu made him want to throw up.
As it turned out
Noriko was more than willing to help.
Two days later,
after three grossly overpaid work sessions, Ulf walked Noriko to
exactly the kind of restaurant he had ruled out on that first date
with Christina almost a year earlier. If money was easy to get by, it
were harder to spend now when he no longer had Christina to enjoy his
time with.
When he met
Noriko she gave him an amused smile. “You do understand this looks
bad?” she said instead of greeting him.
Ulf did, and he
didn’t care. He grabbed her in a bear hug and swung her around. She
was the first of his friends he’d talked to since he fled Tokyo
astride his bike.
“Down! Down
this moment!” she said, but she didn’t push him away.
Ulf let her down
anyway. “Sorry about that. Just that I really missed you guys.”
“Idiot bro and
ex girlfriend as well?” Noriko said and twisted the knife.
Ulf didn’t take
that bait. Whenever he got into bantering with Noriko he couldn’t
be sure he’d end up on top. She was just too bright.
Feeling a little
morose he escorted her into the restaurant, where they were led to
their table.
Christina’s
tailor-made suit from last summer guaranteed no one questioned his
right to dine here. Noriko’s choice of clothes only strengthened
that impression.
Forgot you
were always the rich kids. Does you honour you never flaunt it to the
other students.
For a moment Ulf
harboured the idea to order an excellent wine to go with their
dinner, but he quickly abandoned that idea. First of all he had no
idea what normal amounts of alcohol would do to his teenage body.
What binging did he knew from that horrid evening in the Stockholm
Haven café after he witnessed the suicide.
More importantly,
he just didn’t think it would be worth it in terms of taste. Wine
was an acquired taste from his mid twenties during his previous life.
“I apologise,”
Noriko said from across the table.
Ulf realised she
read his silence as a reaction to her barb earlier. “No, I’m the
one to apologise. You’re a good friend and make splendid company,
and I treat you with silence.”
She smiled. “You
know,” she began. “I’m together with Nao, and because of that
reason I’d appreciate if you treated me like a woman and not like
your daughter.” She didn’t say: ‘Because Nao already does’,
but Ulf didn’t need her to. Noriko had grown in her relationship,
and she deserved being treated like someone with her own wishes and
goals.
“I’ll try,”
Ulf said. Then he grinned. “I won’t promise I’ll succeed, but
I’ll do my best.” That had to suffice. She was still very much a
child in is eyes; a very bright child, and one he wouldn’t have
minded courting had he both truly been a teenager as well as one who
hadn’t been as tongue tied as he remembered from those days.
“You wanted to
ask something,” Ulf said when their starter had arrived. It tasted
just as delicious as he remembered.
Noriko swallowed
her food and looked up from her plate. Ulf could see how she was both
used to eating out like this, and still very much a child, but he
pretended not to notice.
“It ties in
with my request earlier,” she said. “I need to understand what’s
happening. I want a reason I can accept as to why Kuri would do this
to you, and Ryu to Ai-chan.”
Ulf shook his
head. He didn’t know. Growing up didn’t make you omniscient. “I
can’t say for certain, but in Ryu’s case I believe it’s a
matter of moving on.”
“But he hurt
Ai-chan!” Noriko’s eyes showed pain at the betrayal of her
brother.
Did he really?
Yes, he probably did. “Who broke up?” Ulf asked. He’d been
away, and answering questions with insufficient data was a common
source for errors. Insufficient data, ha, trying to behave like
the great CEO. Cut crap! Here you’re a school-kid.
“I, I don’t
know,” Noriko said between two mouthfuls. “You think Ai-chan
might have broken up with bro?” She put her fork to rest on her
plate and waited for him to answer.
“As I said, I
don’t know. I just try to avoid speculating too much.”
The waiter
arrived with two glasses of what looked suspiciously like white wine.
Midway through
the starter, and they suddenly serve wine?
Ulf looked up and gave the waiter a long look.
“Watered wine,
sir. It’s very weak. Courtesy of the kitchen.”
Ulf nodded and
accepted the gift. Then he took a sip. It was heavily watered down,
or rather mixed with something very close to water. While he could
taste the dryness there was very little alcohol left.
“You should try
it,” he said to Noriko. “It’s good.” It was time for the
reason he had asked her here. “Tomorrow, would you mind being my
date for a day?”
“Date?” she
asked and sent him a quizzical glance. “Are you cheating on...”
“We already
broke up,” Ulf interrupted, “and I’m not asking you to cheat on
Nao. It’s strictly business, and besides we have school tomorrow.”
And this is where you differ from the other school girls? Ulf
thought. You’re already able to understand this is a business
dinner and not a date.
He shot Noriko a
long look. In some ways you’re older than your years.
Noriko gave him
another glance filled with questions, but in the end she nodded.
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