Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume22 Chapter1.6

Section 6

During the afternoon of the next day, Kashiwagi-san came to the Fukuzawa residence to quickly offer his thanks again.

Yumi's father was working, and her mother was out shopping. Yuuki was at home, but he had locked himself in his second floor bedroom. So inadvertently, it was Yumi who answered the intercom and came to the door.

"Hello." Kashiwagi-san was alone. "I've come as a representative for the Matsudaira family."

She watched Kashiwagi-san take out a huge box in a purple cover, much like a Japanese pastry chef of an old shop, and realized that Kashiwagi-san was more worried than usual. He didn't greet her with the usual "Hey", and he had come wearing a dark gray suit and a tie. She couldn't make out if the tie was navy, or just a very dark green. Last night, after all, he’d just been wearing a sweater. She understood that being someone's representative was hard work.

"Touko's parents wanted to come here to offer their thanks, but it seems like Aunt... Touko's mother is still a bit shocked. When she saw Touko come in, she sighed and fell asleep right where she was. So I was asked to come and represent them."

"Oh."

"They're very relieved. They would have wanted to come and offer their thanks in person but, after all that’s happened my aunt's not feeling very well. After the incident with Touko, it seems like the house won't quiet down."

"Um, don't worry about it."

"Sure, but I did undertake this job, didn't I? I've become an actor in a situation where I shouldn't be acting."

Kashiwagi-san checked inside the high-quality Japanese sweets box, and confirming that he had actually given her the box, turned to Yumi and said, "Thank you."

"..." That was that.

He was a person to be used. He had no purpose if he did not fulfill the responsibility given to him. If Kashiwagi-san had been worried about what to do, then he had had the choice of not accepting the job in the first place, but that wouldn’t have been very mature. He would not forgive her if she, in the absence of her parents, were to decline this gift. She had played around with the idea for a mere moment, and then rejected it.

Was it right to accept it when her parents were not there? If this was a delivery, then she would sign and accept the package immediately. But what if just a regular person were dropping the package off? She had received Lantern Festival Gifts and Seibo Gifts, but it had always been by businessmen.

"What should I do?" Kashiwagi-san spoke when it seemed as if Yumi would not accept.

"Right now, my parents aren't here."

"So? You told me this before."

"I'm wondering whether I should accept it."

Voicing her concern to the person who had come to deliver the gift seemed like some sort of joke. But Kashiwagi-san gave a serious reply.

"It's fine. It's not some sort of trap. It's not something that you accept, and have no choice but to give some equivalent gift back. This is simply a gift showing the thanks of the Matsudaira family for the time that Touko stayed here. If Yumi-chan's mother were here, what would she do?"

"I think she'd take it." She would be afraid though.

"Then?" Kashiwagi-san smiled. "Well, why don't you take it for now. When is your mom coming back?"

"By evening,” Yumi answered. Her mother had gone out to buy groceries for dinner. She probably was not coming back until she was ready to start preparing dinner.

Kashiwagi-san took the box back lightly, and quickly looked at his watch.

"Then, five o'clock."

"Five o'clock ?"

"I won't tell the Matsudaira family anything until five o'clock. If your mom comes and really denies the gift, then I'll call them on the cell phone. I hope she comes quickly. I've been told that my job ends by five o'clock if I do not contact them."

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I am. Do you want to accept it?" She nodded. Kashiwagi-san placed the box of pastries onto Yumi's hands. It was extremely heavy. It felt more like a wooden box than just a box.

Only a man could lift something so heavy so easily, and talk peacefully while doing it.

Kashiwagi-san had said that she could not win if she defeated him, and as Yumi tried to find ways in which she was sharper than Kashiwagi-san, her jealousy came back. Maybe this time she would buy some dumbbells and try to lift some weights.

"Oh yeah. Even if Mom doesn't come back by five, she will call."

Kashiwagi-san did not know that Yumi had been thinking about dumbbells, and Yumi thought of herself in a towel after coming out of the shower and bowed her head down.

"Won't you come inside, Kashiwagi-san?"

Yumi asked, mimicking her mother's pushiness. She wondered if having Kashiwagi-san wait inside would be the honorable thing to do.

"Ha-ha-ha. There's no way I can come inside while your parents are out."

"But Yuuki is here."

"Oh, I see."

"Should I call him?"

"She turned away from the front door, but then Kashiwagi-san called out, "There's no need for that" and stopped her.

"I have come here only as a Matsudaira family representative."

Kashiwagi-san began walking to the street where his red car was parked, and Yumi accompanied him. She didn't want him to go home like this. Her sentiment, however, was wholly different from the feeling a young girl would feel when her lover is leaving and her feelings are a-flutter. Yumi simply had something to ask Kashiwagi-san.

"Kashiwagi-san."

"Yeah?"

"Why did Touko-chan run away from home? Do you know?" Yumi asked pointedly, as Kashiwagi-san removed the key from his car door. And his normally bubbling smile faded a slight bit.

"... And what if I know?" Kashiwagi-san asked as if he was searching for something. Which meant that he probably did know. He wouldn't have done anything had he not known.

"You just can't tell me?" He knew, and so he was presented with the choice of either telling her or not telling her. Whichever one he chose she knew her life would be at least a bit changed afterward. To say "I know but I will not tell you" is different from saying "I do not know, so I cannot tell you."

"Touko-chan ..."

"I've heard nothing about her,” Yumi confessed honestly. It was something she might have heard, but it wasn't something that people often talked about.

"But in spite of all I've said, you still want to know?" For a second, it almost felt as if he was saying "This is a boring thing, you know" or "I'm telling you this, but I'm gonna get made fun of", or "It's just a romantic fancy", or something like that. But it wasn't. She wanted to label it one of those, and even though his choice of words and his previous mood made it feel like one of those, she knew instinctively that this was an incorrect assumption.

She had come to be interested in Touko-chan. If she wanted to know what was going on, and if she could accept being offered such dark words, then she should know.

"That's because you're putting your interests ahead of others,” Kashiwagi-san whispered.

"Mine?"

"This isn't a simple matter. This isn't just some random gossip about some person. But if it's Yumi-chan I’m telling, I can tell you, can’t I? I can just tell whomever I want."

"...Huh?" Kashiwagi-san had grown deadly serious.

"Are you sure it's okay? If I tell you, then you'll know Touko's secret. And you'll know it without Touko knowing that you do. You should think about what that means."

"What that... means?"

"Can you just listen and hold on to the secret?”

"Ah." It suddenly felt as if she had been tossed against something, and her face flattened.

"I ..." She hadn't given the matter enough thought. She hadn't been planning to simply ask in such a manner. It seemed like a topic that needed a great deal of courage to discuss, and she hadn't thought it did.

"For your sake, and Touko-chan's sake, think it over some more. You can ask me about the situation. If you do, I will answer." Kashiwagi-san left the words hanging in the air, and left.

---

Yumi's mother returned home shortly. She brought over the pastries, but she couldn’t pass on all the information to her parents. That she still talked with him even though she hadn't taken the pastries, and that she had been rude by not letting him in, and that it had been bad of her to let Kashiwagi-san wait until five o'clock, all those things she couldn’t say.

Eventually, she got a call from Yuuki. "Kashiwagi-sempai came over, and I didn't know. Why didn't you call me?" Even though it had felt like he was in his room and did not want to be disturbed, Yuuki was making a fuss as soon as Kashiwagi-san had left.

"I was going to but Kashiwagi-san said that he had been sent over by the Matsudaira family, and said it was fine.”

"...He had only come to deliver the pastries?"

"Yep. I can give you the phone Yuuki, but can you make the call?" Yumi tested Yuuki by handing him the phone receiver. He took the receiver and quickly punched in Kashiwagi-san's number.

"Ah, Sempai? Whassup?" Yumi heard Yuuki's voice and sighed. She still hadn't found the courage she needed to. She hadn't decided whether she could find the courage or not. And until she decided, she did not want to hear Kashiwagi-san's voice.