317 Chapter four, 2017, revolt: 7 (2/2)
'Urufu, angry?' ”Eh?”
”I want your help to convince him to tone down his improvements. Actually I want you to convince Yukio.”
'What?' ”I don't understand?”
”Urufu needs to take it easy on the finals.”
'Why the adoration?' Ryu clenched his hands into fists, and he felt Kuri's confusion as he did. He looked up and stared into that golden halo that demanded all his attention. ”Finals? A month and a half. What could he possibly do?”
Kuri looked like she was on the verge of responding when she suddenly changed her mind. She quickly lifted his hands to her face and kissed his knuckles. ”I'll stay with you. I promise. Will that be enough for you?”
Ryu's heart somersaulted at those words. He nodded, and somewhere in the back of his head he knew his face must look like an overeager middle schooler being promised his first date. 'I'm sorry Ai, I really am.' But there was no denying how quickly he'd fallen for Kuri.
'Wait a moment. You're bribing me.' ”Urufu, how much could he improve?”
Kuri smiled. ”So you caught up on that one. Don't worry, my promise stands.”
”How much?”
She sighed. ”Too much. Enough to get us all into trouble.”
”Trouble?” Sometimes he just didn't understand her. It wasn't as if her Japanese was horrible any longer, but when Kuri's thoughts ran ahead of him he was left in the dark.
Kuri looked at him. A smile that never reached her eyes played on her lips, and Ryu could feel how she fought with herself to stop crying.
”If he makes it too far into the top fifty there's no way we can stop the accusations of cheating.”
”What? That's ridiculous, both that he'd make the list and that he'd be accused of cheating for doing so.”
Kuri's fingers stroked the backside of Ryu's hands. ”Is it really? He's suspended right now you know.”
”You are as well. That's only because our principal is a bigoted swine.”
”Even so. If Ulf makes a push he'll score among the top thirty next time. Just as you said before, there's no way any normal kid could improve like that.”
Ryu nodded. Kuri finally seemed to understand how impossible such an improvement was.
”But he's not a normal kid, is he?” she said instead.
”But still?”
”Remember the December marathon?”
Ryu did. He collapsed trying to keep up with Urufu.
”Ryu, Ulf had both lungs punctured less than three months before that. Sometimes he can be really stubborn.”
Memories from when Urufu was assaulted during their cultural festival floated through Ryu's head. ”Fine, whatever, so we just tell him to calm down.”
This time Kuri failed to stop her tears. ”I wish I really was young and everything was that easy. Ryu, I made a choice. My career came first, but he got nothing in return.”
”I don't understand.”
”I left him with nothing, and now when he's found the strength to pursue a goal we're going to stop him from doing that. I hate myself!”