92 Chapter two, 2016, southbound: 9 (1/2)
'What are those idiots doing now?'
Noriko stood and looked at where her mother had parked the car.
Yukio and Kyoko had just stopped grappling with Kuri, and she ran like mad for where Urufu was puking his guts out. That left her brother, and that moron just kept on spewing out one stupid joke after another to keep his harem by his side during the bedlam.
With a sigh Noriko started walking to the car. She waved a few members to her side, the few who hadn't been caught up in the insanity that played out around them.
'High school, where you prepare for being an adult. Yeah, right!' ”Hiroyuki-kun, we need those tents on the ground. Mom's gonna drive back and fetch the rest.”
Somewhere inside her she felt she was being unjust, but Urufu had taken his self-loathing a step too far. There was a difference between showing weakness and indulging in self-pity. It didn't matter that she was crushing hard on him. That wasn't the same as being blind. 'I need to take control of this madness.'
From behind her she heard Ryu finally coming to help, and he had his girls in tow. Together they carried tents and charcoal, and in the time needed for that task the situation around Urufu finally calmed down.
Club members started acting as parts of a whole and she saw some of them erecting the tents while others began preparing food. Within a surprisingly short time Noriko had her troopers offloading another batch of tents when her mother returned.
Kuri had Urufu seated in the car, and the two of them rode down to the hotel with her mother when she returned for the last batch.
”Ryu, get over here!”
The idiot brother of hers obeyed without asking and left his stash of vegetables to Jirou-sempai where he stood beside Sango-chan.
”Ryu, knife!”
He stopped in his tracks and gave her an uncertain look.
”Leave the knife you moron!” 'Swap some of your charm for a brain!'
The message finally hit home and Ryu returned the kitchen knife he hadn't left with the vegetables. Sango-chan gave Noriko an ironic salute when her boyfriend received the sharp tool needed to start chopping the vegetables Ryu abandoned him with.
'Sometimes I wonder if we really have the same parents.' Noriko shook her head and waited for Ryu to get to her side.
More tents went up and watching how the club members attacked the work at hand without asking, Noriko felt confident enough to drag Ryu out of earshot. What she had to tell him couldn't be part of the club.
”Bro,” she said when she felt certain no-one could hear them. ”Kuri and Urufu went back down again. He's in a pretty bad shape and I don't think we'll see more of him today.”
Alone together Ryu showed her a very different side than the role he played out with the other girls around him. ”I saw, but there's nothing we can do about it.”
”What about the night out?” Noriko asked.