This was how I silently and steadily built my own world. After obtaining Akane, I invited three more girls to join the club.
Sonoko Koga. There was no way a girl as logical and clever as Sonoko would just volunteer for the executive committee if there wasn’t some benefit. And sure enough, after doing some research, I found that she had hacked the academy’s computer from the laptop in my father’s library and altered her grades and school ranking to obtain a recommendation letter that would get her into a top-ranking medical university.
Diana Decheva. I was suspicious to find that her passport was issued right before her sister’s accident. When I pressed Diana about it, she tearfully confessed that she had pushed her sister off the fortress so she could go to Japan in her place.
Then there was Mirei Nitani. Volunteering to be a conversation partner over the internet was just a laughable lie: She was prostituting herself to an unknown number of men.
These young, beautiful, sinful girls.
When they joined my club my world became complete.
My sidekicks moved and spoke on my demand and made my dream world a reality. My sinners feared and respected me, held their breath as they watched every move I made, and entered and exited stage precisely on cue.
Accompanied by my fantastic sidekicks, I grew brighter and brighter with power and confidence. I was the star.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mr. Hojo and I had another hideaway besides the salon. To get to it, I had to go through the underground parking garage.
To prevent accidents, the parking garage was closed to the students. It was no place for high school girls without a driver’s license like me. I couldn’t go very often because of how risky it was. First, I had to go to Building 2. I would pass the science lab and home economics classroom and make a turn in the hallway. There was a giant mirror that showed me my reflection when I got close enough to it. It wasn’t just a regular mirror. It was a gift the academy received from English nuns after the war. It is etched with Verse 12 from Corinthians 1, Chapter 13.
Most students feared its immense size, archaic design, and that mystical verse. But there’s another reason why this mirror was special.
I would open the glass box of the fire alarm on the wall. When I pulled the lever all the way down and pushed on the mirror, a small space opened up between the mirror and wall, just big enough for one person to slip through.
After I passed through that crawl space, I would press the mirror from behind to return it to its original position. I am the only person at school who knows this trick.
Behind the mirror, there’s a wooden staircase that leads underground. When the school building was previously a convent, this staircase used to go from the underground storage room all the way to the third floor. However, when the convent was rebuilt, the above-ground portion of the staircase was replaced with the science lab. All that was left of it were the steps that led underground, but those began to deteriorate dramatically and were eventually blocked off to keep the students safe. The construction workers used this enormous mirror as a blockade, instead of a wall. The workers installed the contraption because they thought they might have to take the mirror down again someday.
Aside from me, they are the only other ones who know about it. I knew about the false wall because the reconstruction was done by one of my father’s companies.
Once in, I would cautiously close the door and tiptoe down the creaky staircase. The small door near the bottom of the staircase leads to the parking garage. The professor always parked next to the door. No one would see me when I slipped into his car.
He would be waiting for me in the driver’s seat. When I got in, he’d look at me with his heart in his eyes and give me a kiss, and then we’d drive off.
This was our second hideout. We enjoyed a little drive and gazed at the night sky. To make sure no one would see us, we never left the car. If the salon was my homemade getaway, then his car was a clandestine space at his fingertips. It was wild and exciting for me.
✦ ✦ ✦
Our secret love blossomed in the car and salon.
I wanted it to last forever.
I wanted us to have a future.
When I was with him, I always wished for one.
Perhaps all that wishing made it come true.
Soon, a new life grew within me.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Is this true?” The professor was shocked when I told him I was pregnant.
“It is,” I said. “What do we do?”
“There’s only one thing we can do,” he replied. He took in a deep breath and smiled. “We already know, right? Itsumi, let’s get married.”
“What?”
“I’ll go talk to your father. I mean, you’re already graduating next year, I’m sure he’ll give us his permission.”
“Really?”
“Why? You don’t like me?”
“No, it’s just too good to be true.”
“You’re silly.” He held me tightly and kissed me tenderly on the lips. “Ahh, I can’t wait. I can’t believe we’re going to have a family together,” he murmured.
“My father is stubborn, you know. He’ll never approve.”
“Of a lowly professor like me?”
“Well, yes,” I answered honestly. At this, Mr. Hojo laughed, running his fingers through his hair.
“Then I’ll just have to keep at it until I get his approval. Until the day you stop loving me, that is.”
“Oh, that day will never come.”
“Ahh, aren’t you young. But that’s good. Your beauty is so pure because of that youth. It’s what I love about you best,” he praised me with a carefree laugh.
His ironic personality was what had drawn me to him in the first place.
“When should I visit your father?” he continued. “The sooner the better.” Just as the professor was about to reach for his schedule book, I stopped his hand with a kiss.
“Not yet. I think we should wait a little while.”
“Oh?”
“In three months…Let’s wait until August. I’ll be in my third trimester, so it would be too late for an abortion. My father won’t be able to do anything about it.”
So our plan was to lay low until August. We didn’t do anything that would make us stand out. We didn’t meet in his car. We stopped talking on the phone. We only communicated by text.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” Mr. Hojo asked.
“I don’t know. For some reason, I feel like it’s a girl.”
“I hope she looks like you.”
“What should we name her?”
“How about ‘Lily’? I want her to be as innocent and happy as a flower.”
“That’s beautiful. What a lovely name.”
My body started to change. There was the never-ending, unbearable nausea. The perpetual sluggishness. The migraines. In the salon, all I could do was rest on the sofa. Even the smell of Akane’s once-mouthwatering sweets made me so nauseous, I’d vomit until my stomach was empty.
Although I didn’t feel well, my skin had become smooth, and my hair and nails grew very quickly. My body was pale and gaunt, but even as I was throwing up and unable to eat, my eyes glistened brightly with the hormones coursing through my body.
I was already Lily’s mother. That was the happiest time of my life.
My story was perfect.
And yet, I never thought my sidekicks would be the ones to tear my world apart.
✦ ✦ ✦
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