It was the last day of exams and school had ended early, so I’d gone to the Shiraishi residence a little earlier than I usually would have. I finished Kazuki’s lesson, left the room, and headed down the stairs. Just then, I heard a heated argument coming from Mr. Shiraishi’s library. “Shame on you!” a furious voice yelled. After hearing what I thought was a sharp slapping sound, Mr. Shiraishi burst out from the library, tugging a hysterical Itsumi by the arm. Her hair swung wildly as she sobbed, struggling in his grasp. I panicked and hid behind a pillar. Mr. Shiraishi’s eyes were bloodshot, his neatly combed hair tousled, his shirt collar in disarray. He dragged Itsumi out of the house and threw her into Mr. Muro’s car. Then, I watched the car drive off into the distance.
What on earth had happened to their happy, loving family?
I quietly put on my shoes, thinking it would be best to leave without saying goodbye, when someone suddenly emerged from the dark hallway.
“Ah!” I reflexively screamed. But the person just stood there staring blankly, unfazed by my scream.
“…Mrs. Shiraishi?”
It was Itsumi’s mother. “Oh, Mirei…”
Her pale face showed no trace of her usual cheerful expression.
“I just finished the lesson. I’ll be going home now,” I explained quickly.
“I see…” Her eyes were distant and unfocused. She had probably heard them fighting.
I felt frightened and sped out of the mansion.
After that, Itsumi didn’t come to school for a while. The teachers told us that she was in the hospital with pneumonia.
✦ ✦ ✦
One week later, I had heard rumors that Itsumi was out of the hospital. I made my way to the salon to see her, but she wasn’t there. I hurried to the terrace, hoping I’d find her there. And there she was. She looked languid and ill as she leaned her body against a handrail.
“Itsumi,” I called out to her.
She turned to look at me, but she didn’t seem like her normal self. Her skin was pale, her eyelids were red and puffy, and her cheeks were sickly thin.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, thank you for asking. My lungs have been weak since I was young,” she answered. It was painful watching her force a smile.
“Did something happen?”
“Something?”
“I mean, well, with your family…”
“Why do you ask?” she said, suddenly angry. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I had accidentally seen her argue with her father.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just wondering if anything was bothering you.”
“Bothering me…” Itsumi trailed off, looking up at the church. “Mirei…have you ever wanted to kill someone?”
I was startled. Everyone has dark thoughts at least once in their life, but I never thought Itsumi would say something like that. Unsure of how to respond, I stayed silent.
“I have. There’s someone I want to kill,” murmured Itsumi in a dark, hollow tone. I stared at her face in disbelief. I thought I had misheard her. The wind howled viciously.
“If I could kill her, I wouldn’t care if I died. That’s how much I hate her.”
“Itsumi…you don’t seem like yourself. What’s going on—”
The fight between Itsumi and her father replayed in my mind. I remembered Itsumi’s sobs as he took her away.
“My father,” Itsumi said in a detached tone, staring out into the distance, “is being seduced. Someone in the Literature Club is seducing him.”
“What?”
“I had noticed he’d been acting strange. So I searched around the library and found a school handkerchief on the floor. It wasn’t mine, of course.”
“That can’t be…”
“It smelled like lilies. Muguet by Guerlain—there’s only one person who uses that perfume, right?”
“I can’t believe it. That would mean…”
“It’s disgusting. We have science and math together. I thought we had a good-natured rivalry, and then she does something like that behind my back. With my father.” She bit hard on her lower lip. I had never seen her make that face before.
“Itsumi…” I didn’t know what to say.
She looked beyond me, her gaze so piercing it could kill. Terrified, I tried to say something, but couldn’t. Then, as if returning to sanity, she relaxed her shoulders and turned to me.
“Let’s go to the salon. I’ll make you some hot chocolate.” She smiled calmly. Then she took my hands in hers and stressed these next few words:
“Don’t tell anyone about this. This will be our little secret.”
✦ ✦ ✦
When we arrived, everyone in the salon was talking about the sweets we would sell at the Easter & Pentecost Festival in June. The festival is a huge charity bazaar that celebrates Easter, which is in the spring, and Pentecost, which is celebrated fifty days after Easter, at the same time. Itsumi wasn’t saying anything, so Sayuri took her place and proceeded to talk about the festival arrangements with the members.
“We make cookie bunnies every year. We should do something different this time, something new. Does anyone have any ideas?”
“Um, what about cookies shaped like eggs? We can use icing to draw patterns on them,” Akane suggested.
“Ah, that’s great. It’ll be so cute. Ooh, I want to be in charge of drawing,” Shiyo called out, raising her hand.
“Okay, that’s what we’ll do for cookies this year. How many cakes should we bake?”
“We baked two hundred last year.”
“But we were immediately sold out.”
“All right, should we try for three hundred this time instead?”
During the entire conversation, Itsumi’s gaze didn’t waver. She stared directly at Sonoko Koga.
Did Sonoko really sleep with Itsumi’s father? I wondered.
“Well, why don’t we have three flavors, plain, green tea, and chocolate, and bake one hundred of each?” Sonoko suggested. She was acting completely normally in front of Itsumi. Didn’t she have any shame?
“Good idea. Let’s do it. Diana, do they celebrate Easter in Bulgaria?” Sayuri inquired.
“Yes. We make life-sized egg sculptures and paint them, and decorate the town square with them,” Diana answered.
“That’s interesting! I’d like to try my hand at that. I’ll ask the executive committee about it,” Sonoko replied. Itsumi still stared blankly at her.
“Umm, I have a question,” Akane chimed in, raising her hand. “I want to put some dainogen beans into the green tea pound cake.
What do you think?”
“Dainogen? A type of red bean, right?”
“Yeah. Beans from Hokkaido have thick skin, so I’d like to use beans from Tamba, if we can.”
“I’m sure that’ll taste great. What do you think, Itsumi? It wouldn’t be a problem if we just raised the price of the green tea cakes a little, right?” Sayuri addressed Itsumi, whose gaze didn’t even falter.
“Itsumi?” Sayuri called her name again.
Suddenly she snapped out of her trance and quickly threw on a smile. “Oh, right. That’s fine.”
After that, we all began to talk excitedly about what color our wrappings and ribbons should be, how much we should charge for our sweets, and other small details. Only Itsumi didn’t join in, just staring out the window with melancholy eyes.
It only makes sense that she was depressed. I would be in utter shock if I were in her shoes. It must’ve been painful for Itsumi to force a smile and see Sonoko every day. What’s worse was that Sonoko didn’t even seem to notice that Itsumi knew what she had done.
There were times when I thought about telling Sayuri and asking her for advice, but I didn’t. There are some things that best friends can’t tell each other because they’re so close. That must be why Itsumi wanted me to keep it a secret. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t say anything, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.