Author's note: This is a requested story. The premise was pretty simple: take Hanako's bad end and find a way to turn it into the good end. I was given full creative freedom beyond that. This 5-part story is the result.
Enjoy~
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The past week or so has been absolute hell. Ever since our one-sided shouting match, Hanako has acted like a completely different person. She's hanging out with that journalism girl - Naomi, I think her name was - socializing with new people... very unlike her. It feels wrong, like she's just looking for comfort outside of her old tight-knit circle.
It wasn't long until I spilled the beans about that afternoon to Lilly. I hated ruining her trip like that, but she deserved to know the truth, especially after I went against her advice. She was, as I expected, terrified for their friendship and disappointed in herself for failing to see what Hanako really wanted. “Don't beat yourself up,” I told her on the phone. “None of us expected this.”
“I suppose not. Can you give me details?”
“You'll have to wait for those. I really don't want to talk about it right now. Bad memories and stuff.” She understood.
Today, I'm meeting Lilly and Akira at the airport. I didn't bother trying to tell Hanako. It's not like she would come anyway after professing such undying hatred toward us. My plan is to tell both Lilly and Akira in the car ride back to school. Lilly isn't the type to overreact, but having three people around instead of two should make sure nothing... unexpected happens. Hanako already showed me what it means to be completely taken aback by someone. I don't want to experience that again anytime soon.
I check my watch. School hasn't been out for long. Mutou approved my early dismissal to ensure the safe return of another student. Hideaki is also here with me, clamoring at plane after plane, asking if each is the one. “For the last time, Hideaki,” I say, almost hissing, “the arrivals board will tell us when they get here.”
“But that takes all the fun out of it,” he whines. “You have to keep guessing to see who's right first.” I just roll my eyes. Definitely Shizune's little brother.
Finally, the marker for their flight number changes to “arrived.” Excellent.
We trek to their gate and keep our eyes peeled for a distinctive pair of blonde heads. Unsurprisingly, they're fairly easy to spot. I raise my hand high in the air to wave them down. “Heeeeeeeyyyyy~!” yells a familiar androgynous voice. Hideaki takes notice and runs toward the sound, clamping onto Akira's leg. Despite a short stumble almost dragging both girls to the floor, she keeps her balance. “There's my favorite cousin!” she exclaims, twisting her fist into his hair.
Lilly smiles at her sister's statement, then clasps her hands together. “If Hideaki is here, then where is -”
“Right here,” I interject. She turns to face my voice, practically beaming, and I grab the small carry-on bag sitting by her feet. “Ah, Hisao. Thank you again for meeting us here.”
“Hey, it's no trouble.” I raise my hand as a 'stop' gesture without thinking. “I trust you two had a good trip?”
“That's... one way to put it,” Akira snorts. I look at Lilly with a raised eyebrow, and she senses my questioning.
“We'll discuss it later,” she insists. Her sister's arm pre-occupied with a young Hakamichi boy, she grips my sleeve cuff lightly. A practical gesture, as we have done in the past. “Hisao, would you show us to our luggage?” I accept her request and start toward baggage claim as her guide, Akira and Hideaki not far behind us. Navigating crowded areas must be especially difficult for her. Too many people to bump into.
After Akira picks out their suitcases from the conveyer, we begin the trip to her car, which has been parked in the airport garage since they left. Akira and Hideaki are in front of us, bantering back and forth. “Hideaki seems... different,” Lilly notes as we walk, smiling. “He missed her.”
“He certainly did. Which reminds me, what was up with Akira in the airport?”
Her expression darkens. “Later, Hisao. I'll tell you in private. Akira doesn't like thinking about it right now.” She pauses, collecting her thoughts. “Forgive me, but I must ask: how is Hanako?”
“My turn to pull that punch. Later. Let's at least drop off Hideaki.” I pause for a moment to adjust my grip on the luggage. “Does Akira know what happened?” She shakes her head. “How did you explain Hanako not showing up?”
“Newspaper club business. I can't lie to my sister, but I can hide parts of the truth.”
“Should we involve her?”
“I think it's best if we keep this... internal for now. Let's try to reason with Hanako first.” There goes my plan for having an extra soul around for protection. Her eyelids lower a bit, painting a worried expression on her face. “I fear we'll have to tell her eventually, though.”
“Hey, relax. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.” She just nods her head in approval.
After loading the luggage into the backseat, we climb into the car. Somehow, the brat ended up with shotgun. Hideaki keeps pestering Akira as she drives us out of the parking lot, trying to pull a confession on why Akira is so flustered about their trip. “Akira, tell us!”
“For the last time, kid, no! I *don't* want to talk about it!”
“You can whisper it in my ear, at least. It's not fair that Lilly knows and I don't! What about family?”
This bantering between the two of them goes on for quite a while. I can't help but snicker at Akira's growing frustration and Hideaki's blindness to how annoying he is right now; neither can Lilly, apparently. “Fine! Enough!” Akira throws her arms in the air, signifying defeat, before remembering just where we are. Her hands fly back to the wheel as we start veering to the left, but she makes the correction and rights us back into the lane.
Hideaki isn't sure how to react: gleeful at his victory or mortified at almost getting the four of us killed. Akira breathes a heavy sigh of relief, and Lilly just looks bewildered to the sudden jerks of movement.
“Alright,” Akira begins, “I might as well break the news before the kid actually wrecks the car.” Hideaki sits on the edge of his seat. “Lilly and I have been invited to move to Inverness with our folks. On a permanent basis. A job opened up in my father's company there. I'm... pretty sure I'm going to take it.”
Silence. It's like someone just got six months to live. Lilly breaks the tension. “I'm still undecided.”
Akira continues the conversation. “Lilly's always been crazy about family, so I'm not sure why she'd back away. Leaving friends, I guess?” I start to interject and tell her, but Lilly senses my movement and grips my arm as a reminder to holds back.
“Yes,” Lilly meekly responds. “I'm not sure if I want to leave everyone behind.”
“Isn't that what phones are for?” Hideaki asks rhetorically. I answer him with slap to the back of his head anyways. “Hey, knock it off!” he responds. Akira and Lilly just laugh at his reaction.
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We drop off our pint-sized passenger to his mansion of a house first. I was rather surprised by how big it was on my first visit this morning. More startling was his macho-man of a father. Even though Hideaki answered the door, he was abruptly shoved out of the way and replaced with a huge man in a Hawaiian shirt swinging his katana at me and shouting something about huffing glue. At the time, I wasn't sure if I should cower in fear or stand my ground. I ended up just taking Hideaki and leaving while he wasn't looking, focused on telling his entire life story to a nearby wall.
Hideaki waves goodbye as he heads inside, and Akira speeds away, presumably to avoid the crazy that lives in that house. “You learn to just avoid Jigoro when you can,” she states. “That whole family is crazy. Shizune kinda takes after his competitive side.”
“Understatement of the century,” I respond, meriting a few laughs from my carmates.
We ride in silence until our arrival at the gates of Yamaku. Lilly and I climb out of the car to fetch her suitcase from the trunk. “Be quick, you two!” Akira shouts out the window. “I'd like to get home and catch some shut-eye.”
“Jet-lagged that badly?” I ask rhetorically.
She scowls. “You try riding on a plane for 14 hours and get back to me.” Yeah, she's definitely tired.
Once the suitcase is properly removed, she waves out the window at us. “Catch you lovebirds later!” ...aaaand she's gone, definitely speeding.
“Lovebirds...?” I mutter. “Lilly, she doesn't really think-”
“Of course not!” she interjects, dropping the suitcase. Her cheeks flush with a bit of crimson, and she jumps when the luggage smacks the ground. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Oh, no reason.” I start inside the gates, hoping she won't hear my chuckling. Then a twig snaps beneath my feet.
“Hisao Nakai!” Dammit. “Come back here this instant!” She *is* the mother figure, I guess. I turn around to see her dragging her luggage on the ground, struggling to briefly lift it every few seconds. I may be a sarcastic bastard at times, but I'll be damned if I won't carry a pretty girl's bags when she needs help. Besides, I'll have both hands this time.
“So cruel,” I say, taking the suitcase, “to make the boy with a heart condition carry your bags.”
She regains her composure, but her expression resembles a pout. “I'm not *that* bad about overpacking.”
“Hey, cut it out! I'm already packing it, what more do you want from me?” She just laughs and motions for us to head on to her dorm.
A number of people have gathered in the lobby of the girl's dormitories as a welcoming committee. Mostly classmates, I gather. I relax against the wall for a while to let her enjoy the company. She's telling short tales about her time in Scotland and listening to the latest happenings at the school. I tried to keep her as up-to-date as I could, but one man can only do so much. Most everyone is here to see their favorite class mother; unsurprisingly, Hanako isn't present.
Lilly doesn't take long to break away from the crowd, begging them for some time to rest and unpack. “I promise, I'll tell you more tomorrow morning,” she assures them. The mob disperses with a groan, and I start guiding her up the stairs to her room by my sleeve. Thankfully, she's only on the second floor. I'm not sure how much further I could carry this thing considering how heavy it is. 'Not that bad about overpacking' my ass.
When we reach the second floor stairwell, she tugs on my shirt cuff. A signal to stop that we've established. “Lilly? What's up?”
She stands there, mouth open slightly, absorbing her surroundings. Her ears perk, and her blissful demeanor melts into neutrality. “Hanako,” she whispers. She's probably been too mentally exhausted or preoccupied with her friends to think about that yet, and now it hits her. “She's in the second floor common area. With some other girl I don't recognize.”
She managed to pick up Hanako's voice from that far away? If Hanako is in the common area, we'll have to pass by her on the way to Lilly's room. I put my hand on Lilly's shoulder as reassurance. “It'll be okay. I promise.” She puts up a rather fake smile, extends her cane, and takes a deep breath. The metal stick taps to-and-fro as we enter the hallway.
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Click, clack, click, clack.
The tapping interrupts our conversation. Naomi and I were just discussing the next edition of the school newspaper: articles, editorials, headlines... but that tapping is all too familiar. When I woke up this morning, it felt like today was important for some reason. And now, at the last minute, I've remembered.
Lilly's back from Scotland.
“Hanako?” Naomi asks with a worried undertone to snap me out of a rather wide-eyed trance. “Are you okay?” She's in my class. She's seen the panic attacks. I'm kind of worried about what might happen, too.
Strength, Hanako. You are strong. She always told you that. Now show it. Be the better person.
“I-I'm fine,” I respond, smiling weakly. “Really.” She's not convinced, but we go back to our discussion. One of the big highlights recently has been that Ibarazaki girl. 'The fastest thing on no legs,' they call her, and she shows it with all those first-place runs recently. She has a very determined aura, one of power and dominance over her disability. Everything that Yamaku wants in free PR.
The tapping gets louder. She's getting closer. “Oh God what do I do, how do I look at her, I told him I hated her, I said all those terrible things...”
“Hanako!” It's only when Naomi starts physically shaking me that I realize that I was muttering those words, not thinking them. “What's up?”
I have a view down the hallway. Lilly is coming, and I can see her. But there's someone else... it's him. Carrying her bag. I start to tremble. Dammit, Hanako, you were doing so well... don't let this ruin it. You can face her. Naomi breaks my musing. “Hanako, I'm getting a nurse.”
“No!” I shout at her. I can see Lilly flinch as I scream, pushing Naomi away. She just keeps moving, passing down the hall, through the common area, and on to the remaining wing of rooms. Hisao follows behind her, suitcase in tow. He keeps his head forward, not even trying for the eye contact. I watch idly as they walk, waiting for the sound of her door closing. It comes, and I turn back to Naomi, who appears absolutely bewildered. She blinks rapidly, as if that would help her make sense of everything.
“The hell was that about?” she asks, almost flatly.
“I-I'm sorry, it's... h-hard to explain.” How can I tell her? How could she possibly understand what went on there? I've only just started to expand my horizons. I don't want her to think I'm a terrible person for shutting my two best friends out of my life.
She seems to get the hint: I don't want to talk about it. We struggle to work more on the newspaper for an hour or so. It's hard for me to focus, so we don't get much more done. “Hey, Hanako.” I pick my head up to meet her gaze. She's packing up her things. “It feels like you want to be alone right now.” A quirky smile. “But let me know if you need to talk. I'm here for you.”
I just nod as she stands and walks down the hallway, in the opposite direction to my room. I gather my belongings and follow suit. Not a sound comes from Lilly's side of the hallway as I slip into my room. The door clicks shut, and I make sure to lock it. It's only mid-afternoon, but I'm mentally exhausted and decide to lie down.
My head meets the pillow and my restless mind evaporates. Sleep takes hold, but not before I can feel a single tear rolling down my cheek and onto the cloth casing.
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Lilly brings the teacup to her lips, as graceful as ever. A boy and a girl our age alone in a room like this could normally be construed as something... inappropriate. But there are more pressing issues. Namely, the girl right across the hall. Acute as her senses are, Lilly noted when Hanako went into her room not long after we had situated ourselves in Lilly's. “And alone, at that,” she adds. “Something must be wrong.” She sets down her cup and stands, reaching for her cane. “I must go visit her.”
I stop her before she grabs the metal rod. “No. She wants to be alone, let her be alone.” Her head turns away, eyes somewhat misty and mouth in a slight frown. She's always been the mother figure, praising Hanako for being so strong. I try to draw her attention back to me. “Let her be her own person. That's what she wants.” After her outburst on her birthday, that much is obvious.
Her response is nothing but a whisper as she takes her seat back at the small table. “I always knew she was strong.” She manages a smile as she thinks back on their friendship. Our friendship. “I'm sure you saw that, too.” To be honest, no, I never did. She was always broken Hanako to me. I suppose I'm mostly at fault for what's happened.
“Lilly... I'm sorry.” She cocks her head. “This is my fault. I always treated her like a child, like someone who needed protecting. Like I was her knight in shining armor.”
“In a way, Hisao, you were.”
I'm sorry... what? Then what was Hanako's outburst about? “Okay, you've got me there. Spill it.”
“You were there for her. You came into her life so suddenly, so easily and near-flawlessly.”
“But I treated her like a child-”
“Technically, she *was* a child.” Her sarcasm throws me for a loop. “I'm sorry. It wasn't right for us to dote on her so much, in hindsight. But I only did it to show her just how loved she was. I wasn't sure how else to do it.”
It suddenly feels like I should've taken Hanako on that date instead of heading back to our separate rooms. Or at least not barged into hers. “So... pardon my language, but we fucked up. How do we fix it?” She frowns and takes another sip of tea.
“I don't know.”
“Please. I need to fix this. I need to show her how much I- how much we care about her.” She giggles and raises an eyebrow.
“How much *you* care about her?” I blush a bit at her suggestion. I know that I want to protect this girl, to keep her safe and be there for her through it all. But I need to focus on salvaging our friendship first. More can come second, if it comes at all. She takes my silence as one of disgust. “Hisao, I'm only teasing you.”
“I know,” I whisper. “She means a lot to me.”
She smiles and nods. “You would be good for her. You *have* been good to her.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” I glance at my watch: 6:14. “Hey, Lilly, I'm going to head back to my room.” She follows my face as I stand.
“Are you sure, Hisao?”
“Yeah, I need to get caught up on homework, and you need to sleep off that jet lag.”
“I'm not tired,” she yawns. Yet another smile, realizing what she just did. She does that smiling thing almost too much. “I suppose you're right.”
As the door latch clicks, she speaks up again. “Hisao, wait.” I turn and find her wrapping her arms around me, her hands snaking up my back. I'm not sure if this is platonic or romantic, but I don't really care right now. I envelop her in my own embrace, and we just stay like that for a moment.
She pulls away, forcing the tears back from her eyes. “Thank you. For everything.” There's a slight crack in her voice.
“You're very welcome, Lilly.”