24 Chapter two, 2016, buddying emotions: 11 (1/2)
After the problematic Hammargren boy had left his office Principal Nakagawa nodded to the young woman in the door opening. She went for a chair by the wall, grabbed it and sat down across him.
'Young people today. No manners.'
”Suzuki-san, what on earth did you think you were doing?”
She crossed her legs and played a little with her hair. ”Things didn't happen the way I planned. I'm sorry.” Suzuku moved her hair away from her face with her fingers. ”I was busy filming. Never expected him to assault her.”
”You could have interfered.”
”Oh?” she said. ”And blown my cover?” She pouted.
That was the problem, Nakagawa admitted silently to himself. He inclined his head slightly in approval of her course of actions.
”No, I need you where you are. We haven't flushed out their plant yet.”
Suzuki grimaced. ”I don't like it myself. Forgot how mean high schoolers can be.”
”Forgot? Can't have been that long. How old are you really?”
”21 in October. University is different.”
University, high school. He had attended both, but a life spent working after that left him with very uncertain memories about what the differences were. Sure, on an academic level, but as for what it felt like. Besides, it might be different these days, and probably was.
Then Suzuki's personal situation surfaced in his mind. ”I'm sorry about that. We'll make sure you won't suffer for skipping a year.”
”What about the two arrivals? I guess that's why you called me here.” She hardly made a pause between the two sentences, but despite that she still had time to play around with her hair.
Nakagawa grinned. A very improper grin for an old principal, he knew. ”You're called here to receive punishment for bad behaviour. You'll be suspended for a week, along with the other idiots.”
”Why only one week? I thought we'd have the police crawling all over the place by now.”
”Because we need to look like a rotten and corrupt school that prefers protecting its good name rather than protecting its pupils.”
”That's cold. And the real reason?” she said, and Nakagawa noticed how she suddenly turned interested. Her hand left her hair and joined the other in her lap.
'Good girl. You know you're only acting out a role. It's not you who's being punished.' ”I want you to speed things up with the formation of a club. We need an existing one to go defunct.”
”Why do you help him that much? He can make the arrangements himself.” She was sulking visibly now.
Nakagawa smiled. Officially an adult, she was still a young girl after all. ”He's not only off by three decades. He's a foreigner as well. Absolutely no clue about how we do things here.”
”He could have studied us.” She was still sulking.
”You know,” Nakagawa began, ”there's a difference between studying and learning. He grew up elsewhere. He became an adult elsewhere. He made a family elsewhere, and when he was about to crown his career he got caught in transition. This is a restart for him.”
”But he still has the advantage of experience.” Suzuki let her fingers flutter over her lips.
'Going cute on me won't change my mind.' ”Experience from elsewhere. When you're older you'll understand.” Nakagawa mentally congratulated himself for not having said 'when you grow up'.
”What about the Ageruman girl?”
It was obvious that Suzuki tried to change the subject.
”She'll be fine. We managed to keep her away from Red Rose. Hamarugen is the more important player, though.” 'He's a mover, but Red Rose. What horrid luck! We need him on our side.'
”Anyway, I guess I should thank him for handling the situation after I lost control,” Suzuki said. She must have understood that he didn't intend to allow the conversation to veer away from Hammargren.