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Revision as of 12:43, 12 February 2013
Rabbit and Cat and Wolf
Part 1
If life continued like this, she'd become spoiled.
In the cafe opening onto the hotel lobby, Eriko sighed. The ice floating in her fresh juice shifted as it melted. Water condensed on the side of the glass and made a faint sound.
The person she was waiting for still hadn't arrived. She opened her diary and put a cross through yesterday's date. At any rate, all she could do was take it one day at a time.
The pink sweater and matching skirt brought to the hotel had been at the request of her partner for today's date. The fluffy collar was real rabbit fur. He liked that sort of thing.
Based on the time it had arrived at the hotel, he'd slipped out during his lunch break to buy it. The way it had been wrapped like a present was nice, but the receipt that had still been in the paper bag when it had been given to the front desk slipped out. While it had been purchased with a credit card, it was a startlingly expensive set of clothing.
But even so, just how much was their monthly salary? This evening's hotel bill, tickets to classical ballet and dinner, all paid for by him, and to top it all off, these clothes as a gift.
One of them would splurge, which would kick off an endless cycle where they all tried to outspend the previous one.
How many days so far had she not returned home?
Her sole salvation was that they were all corporate employees, so during the day she could escape to school and have an afternoon nap.
"Eriko-chan."
Seeing the man happily waving at her, Eriko fired herself up with a, "Let's do this," and smiled broadly at him.
"Thanks for the clothes. You like?"
Rising from the chair, she cocked her head.
"Very cute. Like a little bunny rabbit."
He nodded, satisfied.
"Shall we go?"
"Yeah."
His right hand picked up the bill, while his left entwined itself with Eriko's arm. It was something necessary so that they could enjoy their time together. It was a lie, but he was under the impression it was "fun."
Part 2
The following day Rosa Foetida, Torii Eriko-sama, showed up at school.
(Which means she came to school from her relative's house … )
Like Yoshino-san, Yumi had a "that's suspicious" look on her face as she thought this.
That probably meant it wasn't something that she couldn't get out of. Seeing Rosa Foetida walking down the corridor towards her, it was hard to believe that she'd spent the night somewhere other than her house since she looked the same as usual.
Her schoolbag looked light, as though it didn't have any textbooks in it, let alone the standard overnight kit of toothbrush, towel and face cream.
"Yumi-chan."
Rosa Foetida approached, waving innocently.
"Rosa Foetida, gokigenyou."
"Gokigenyou. It's been a while. I've seen Yoshino-chan flitting around every so often, but – "
(Huh!?)
As Rosa Foetida ran her hand through her hair with a faraway look in her eyes, Yumi couldn't overlook what she'd spotted on her chest.
(Her tie – !)
Rosa Foetida's tie, famed for being the most beautiful sailor collar tie in the entire school, looked disheveled today.
"Huh? What?"
Seeing Yumi lost for words and instinctively pointing, Rosa Foetida laughed and said, "Ah, this?"
"It got creased in a strange place when it was ironed. To hide that, I had to shift the knot over."
"Ahh, the crease – "
After agreeing with this, the obvious follow-up question was, "Who ironed it?"
"Rosa Foetida, where did you come from today?"
"Where did I come from?"
As she said this, Rosa Foetida made a pose like a karate practitioner taking a blow. It was probably surprise. An easily understandable reaction.
"Actually, yesterday, I called your house. They told me you were out … "
"Ahh – "
Rosa Foetida nodded haltingly, comprehension dawning. Apparently she'd planned to remain silent if Yumi hadn't known she'd spent the night away from home.
"You stayed overnight at a relative's house, right?"
"A relative? Ah, a relative … right, yeah, that's it."
So inarticulate. It was like this was the first time she'd heard that the place she stayed last night was a "relative's house," and her response was seeking to confirm that.
"Yeah. There was some business that had to be attended to. I was helping out at a relative's house."
Rosa Foetida offered as an explanation, as though to compensate for her earlier words.
"Did you have trouble sleeping? Your eyes look red."
"I did. It's a tough life when you're working. At least I can escape to school during the day. If I go to the library, I'll probably doze off though."
"Escape during the day? So you're going back tonight?"
"Pretty much … Ah, right. You rang my house, didn't you Yumi-chan? What did you want to talk to me about?"
" – Nothing."
Yumi shook her head.
"I just wanted to ask when you were going to be back at school."
"Really? Well, my exams are finished, so I'll be here most days. Although I'll probably show up late and leave early."
"Is that so?"
Yumi put her hand in her skirt pocket just to check, but in the end she couldn't hand those photographs over.
Rosa Foetida was obviously lying.
At the very least, she hadn't spent last night at a relative's house.
Yumi had merely caught a glimpse of it. The slip of paper attached to her collar was unquestionably from a cleaning service. Sadly, the 20-20 vision of which she was so proud had no problem resolving the symbols written there.
OO Hotel.
The logo of a famous hotel in the metropolitan area was proudly displayed.
Rosa Foetida was most definitely the enigmatic Rosa Foetida from the photographs.
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