Chapter LXII.

Later, the same day...

'Another one, please!' Saien Natsume said at the bartender, putting his empty glass of whisky down onto the counter. 

He had swallowed the content at one go.

'Me too,' a female voice called, and instantly, the red-haired male looked at the young woman who was sitting next to him. The said-woman had been sitting there for a while. She was now resting the upper half of her body onto the counter, with her face turned the other way, and just like him, she had been swallowing one glass of whisky after another since a moment now.

'Well, it doesn't seem to be going on well for you either!' he declared at the blonde woman, without really thinking.

Straightening up, the young woman turned her head around to look at him, surprised at being addressed by a complete stranger. When he saw her stiffen and avert her eyes to look the other way, he guessed that she must be wary of speaking to people that she doesn't know, especially in this kind of place, and that, without any doubt, he must have made her uncomfortable.

'I'm sorry. I'll go sit a distance away,' he told her, in reassurance, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Picking the glass of whisky the bartender had just served him, he shifted two seats away down the bar counter. 

The young woman took a short glance at him to see where he had gone to sit, and he couldn't stop himself from giving her a reassuring smile. This had the opposite effect that he had intended on her. He saw her stiffen and avert her eyes again, this time more warily. 

Oh god! I'm not helping! 

He had succeeded to make her even more uncomfortable.

A whole moment went by after this, and the two had completely forgotten each other's presence to go back to drinking when, suddenly, a man got up from his table to accost the blonde woman.

'Hey, there! My name is Enmei. What's your name? Are you married? Not that I would mind! Can I invite you for a drink?'

The bartender, who was pouring yet another glass of whisky for Saien Natsume, paused down to look in the direction of the young woman and the man who had accosted her. The red-haired male couldn't help but look into their direction too.

The blonde woman had stiffened in her seat again, and keeping her eyes down, she replied, in an uncomfortable tone, 'No, thank you!' 

'Oh, come on!' the dark-haired man insisted, moving to place himself against the counter to rest one of his arms there, so that he was facing her now. 'Only one drink!'

'No, thank you!' she repeated, her expression growing panicky at the man's insistence.

He had been about to take a firm stand when, Saien decided to intervene at that instant. Getting out of his seat, the red-haired male made towards the blonde woman to put his glass down on the counter next to hers, and placing himself behind her, he addressed the man who had accosted her, with an unhappy look, telling him, 'Oi! She said that she doesn't want to have a drink with you! So, stop bothering her now!'

The blonde woman looked at his face on the spot, her eyes widening at him in surprise.

'Eh? Who are you, man?' the dark-haired male demanded at him. 'Is she your wife or something? I don't think so! You wouldn't be sitting in a corner if that was the case!'

What an over-bearing jerk! Saien thought to himself, and unnerved, he snapped, 'Yes. She's my wife. Have you got a problem with that? We had a fight. That's all. Now back off!'

And on these words, he shoved the man backward a little.

'Alright! Alright! No need to get violent! I won't bother her anymore! Don't leave your wife sitting all alone next time, if you do not want another man to accost her!' the man muttered at him, putting his hands up in a sign of defeat, and making a small grimace, the dark-haired male paid his consumption and left. 

Saien stared after him until he had disappeared through the door, before his eyes shifted onto the blonde woman. The latter was staring at him with wide, surprised eyes.

'Thank you,' she whispered, with a grateful look, giving both the red-haired male and the old bartender- who had moved in closer too in a protective gesture- a smile. 

The old man gave her a small nod in acknowledgement, before he moved away to serve his other clients, while took back his previous seat just next to her, deciding, 'I'm going to sit myself here just in case.'

Picking his glass of whisky up again, he took a sip at it.

The young woman was watching him out the corner of her eyes now.

'Now that I'm looking at your face more closely, I have the impression that I have seen you before!' she told him, feeling a bit intrigued as she could not remember exactly where.

'Really?' he asked, watching her out the corner of his eyes too, feeling equally intrigued, as he couldn't remember ever having seen her before. 

They watched each other like this for a minute in silence, trying to remember where it could have been, before the red-haired male declared, 'By the way, my name is Saien.'

'And my name is Tsubasa.'

They exchanged a meek smile with each other, before they both looked down at their glasses on the counter, growing all depressed again.

'Well, Tsubasa, why don't we do this? I tell you what I have on my heart and you tell me what you have on yours. In this way, perhaps, we'll feel a bit lighter.'

The blonde woman was not against the proposition.

'Alright,' she murmured, nodding.

Lifting his hand up to call the attention of the bartender, Saien ordered saké for both of them, and on this, he began to tell her about his life, his career as a lawyer and then as a judge, and then the cancer of his wife. The blonde woman listened to him with great attention and a compassionate ear. When he was done, he was a bit surprised to see that tears had formed in her eyes.

Reaching up for her face, she wiped them off the corner of her eyes with her forefinger, to tell him, 'I'm really sorry about your wife. What happened at your school today must have revived all of those memories…'

Not that she believed that such a wound could ever heal or the pain ever to lessen.

'Yeah,' he answered, morosely, pouring himself some more saké. 'Now, it's your turn to tell me about your life!'

And on this, she began to tell him about it- her marriage, the unfaithfulness of her husband, and above it all, her son, and his departure from home. After she had finished, Saien could only stare at her voicelessly for a minute, telling himself that she was the strongest person he had ever encountered in his life. And her son…

'Your son seems to be an extraordinary young man to me,' he told her sincerely, with a smile. 

For some reason that he could not understand, he couldn't help but think of Shunsui Shigeizumi at the same time. 

'Yes, he is!' she said, smiling too.

'That's why you should not worry too much!' he declared, in regards to his departure.

She looked at his face for a minute, pondering over what he had just said, and finding that it made sense, she gave him another smile, feeling reassured in her heart. 

She called at the bartender to bring them more saké after that, and they both swallowed down one bottle after another, without really being able to explain to their own person as to how they could feel so comfortable at speaking about their respective lives, their tragedies, their frights, and sit together drinking together like this, while the two of them were perfect strangers to each other. They decided to put it all on the account of alcohol.

***

Next day... 

Saien Natsume was awakened by the strong smell of alcohol. He was reeking. And he was not the only one. The young woman sitting next to him was reeking too.

'Tsubasa?!' he gasped, surprised to see her, and that's when he realized that he was not sleeping in his bed at home, but instead, they were both still at the bar where they had been drinking all night long, both of them having apparently fallen asleep there against the counter at some point or another.

He sat up in a jerk in his seat to take a look around of the bar in a panic. The place was completely empty. It was very early in the morning. The clock on the wall showed that it was five o'clock. 

As he heard someone clear his throat in the room, the red-haired male looked back in front of himself and his eyes fell onto the old bartender. The latter had come out of the door of the kitchen and was actually cleaning a glass with a piece of cloth in his hands.

'Why didn't you wake us?' he asked the old man. 

'Oh, but I did try. But you wouldn't wake up! It's not very surprising after all the drinks you've had last night.'

What's happening to me? Saien asked to himself. It doesn't resemble me to get drunk all night in a bar and wake up there in the morning! I'm letting myself go too much! 

And it didn't seem to him that it resembled the blonde woman either, judging from her personality and character.

He shook her out of sleep.

'Tsubasa, wake up!'

'Huh? Yes, what is it?' she demanded, sitting up in a jerk, startled. 

Her expression grew just as panicked as his when she realized that she had fallen asleep there in the bar.

'We need to go!'

And, on this, they both sprang to their feet, paid their consumption rapidly, to hurry outside, but only to pause down just outside of the door on the street to look at each other's face awkwardly, before they said goodbye to each other, and left each one on their own side, both certain that this was the first and last time that they were seeing each other, for they had both come to the decision by now that they would never to go into a bar again to give themselves over to alcohol. 

***

Later, at Shigeizumi High School... 

Shunsui was very low that morning. He was very silent. And he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. He still felt very guilty about yesterday.

Oh, Shunsui...

Even if he had reacted rashly, none of us could have imagined something like that, and therefore, I wanted to tell him that he shouldn't be too hard with himself. But as I tried to approach him where he was sitting at his desk, watching out of the window, his eyes far away, Gōjun put a hand down onto my shoulder from behind to stop me.

I looked at the latter over my shoulder.

'No! Don't!' he told me, softly. 'It's not only because of yesterday that he's behaving like this. Today is the death anniversary of his father and biological mother.'

My breath caught.

I didn't know!

I wondered how he must be feeling on this day. 

And Tsubasa-sama, what is she feeling? 

'Every year, on this date, he behaves like this. He has difficulty to decide whether he should visit their graves or not.'

I see… It is because he is a good person, that's why.

'But also...'

But also?

Gōjun didn't complete his sentence. 

'You'll see this evening,' he simply added.

At this, I was a bit intrigued.

Lowering my head, I moved to take my seat quietly, and Gōjun did the same thing, both of us feeling anxious for the reddish-brown-haired young man and Tsubasa-sama. But it was a way too delicate a subject for us to say anything.

It was in this way that the day went by. 

I didn't like to see Shunsui like this. 

And when sports class arrived, we discovered that Saien Natsume-sensei was absent today. He had taken a sick leave. 

After classes were over, we didn't go to the reddish-brown-haired young man's house. He told us that he has something to do and he parted with us after he had dropped us to our respective homes. 

Before leaving with Gōjun, he told me, 'Ah, by the way, Hime, there'll be a family gathering at the mansion this evening. You're invited. I'll come pick Gōjun and you up.'

My eyes widened at him a little. 

A family gathering? I guessed that his father's family would be coming over. I was unsure about whether it would be right for me to come.

'Shunsui...' 

Putting his hand down onto mine, he told me, in a murmur, his voice catching a little, 'Hime, please, come! If Gōjun and you are not there...'

He trailed off. My heart stirred.

'Alright! I will,' I whispered.

***

Hayate Shigeizumi…

She had loved this man with all her heart and soul. And she had believed that he loved her too.

Bending down in front of his tombstone, Tsubasa placed the bouquet of flowers in her hands over his grave. Her heart felt so heavy that she had the impression of carrying a block of metal in her chest, with its weight ready to drag her down to the floor at any given time. 

For a few minutes, she stood there, staring at the tombstone with her eyes filled with pain and sadness, trying to resist the pull, before she took a glance in direction of another tombstone which was situated only a short distance away. It was that of Shunsui's biological mother. She stared at the woman's grave for another few minutes, with the same pained and saddened look, before she looked back in front of herself again at Hayate Shigeizumi's tombstone 

Just when she thought that her knees were about to give up on her, ceding to the weight in her chest, out of the blue, she felt a pair of hands seize her by her shoulders from behind, keeping her tightly into place and comforting her at the same time.

Instantaneously, she looked over her shoulder at Shunsui. Even before she had turned her head around, she had known only by his touch that it was him. 

Reaching up for one of his hands, she grabbed hold of it tightly into hers, tears welling up her eyes.

'We shouldn't come here anymore,' he murmured, his expression matching her own pained and saddened one.

Her eyes went wide at him.

'Promise me that this year is the last one. From this year onwards, we'll send somebody in our place.'

'Shunsui...' 

She stared at him, breathlessly.

During the years that had gone by since the accident, she had noticed that apart from this date, Shunsui- just like her- would never visit the cemetery, and even on this particular date, she would have the impression that he does so only reluctantly. She had often wondered the reason behind it, and she had begun to ask herself if it was possible that it was only for the sake of supporting her that he would come, because he knew just how much it pained her heart every time she would come here. She had also noticed that, not even once during all these years, he would take a single glance in direction of his biological mother's grave.

Is it in regards for me?

'Come on, let's go now!' he told her, and moving to her side, while still holding her by her shoulders, he started to lead her away. 

She nodded, not only in agreement, but also in sign of her promise that this was indeed the last time that she would be visiting Hayate Shigeizumi's grave. It was time that she let go of him, not only as the man whom she had loved and married, but also, as the man who had betrayed her.

As they were descending the small slope, suddenly, Shunsui's eyes fell onto a familiar face inside of the cemetery. He jerked to a stop at the sight of the red-haired male. The latter was holding himself in front of a grave. He had just finished flowering it and had burnt incense sticks. 

At the same moment that Shunsui's eyes fell onto the red-haired man, the latter looked up and saw the reddish-brown-haired young man, both of them exclaiming at each other, at the same time, 'You?!'

'Shunsui... Saien… Do you know each other?' Tsubasa asked them, in surprise, and the red-haired man's eyes instantly zeroed onto the blonde woman, his expression becoming even more astonished.

'Tsubasa! It's you!' he exclaimed at her. 

Shunsui looked at their faces. 

'Saien? Tsubasa? Why are you calling each other in such a personal way?'

'Well, Saien and I have met each last night at a bar and we had a few drinks together,' the blonde woman informed him, sheepishly, lowering her eyes and scratching the back of her head a little. 'But I think I'm beginning to understand now.'

She turned to face Saien Natsume again.

'The name of the school where you work...' she started, only for the red-haired male and she to complete together, 'It's Shigeizumi High School!' 

Their expression had turned awkward now.

They had been in an employer-employee relationship all this while, without even knowing it. Saien had understood by now that the blonde woman was none other than the "Tsubasa-sama" the director keeps chanting the praises, and mother of the reddish-brown-haired young man.

Slowly, the blonde woman's mind drifted off to that evening during the previous week when Ryutsuki-san had approached her with a court order they had received.

***

Flashback

'Ah, I'm completely exhausted!' Tsubasa Shigeizumi declared, in a large sigh, stretching her arms. Her shoulders were so stiff. And it was so late that she was yawning.

'Tsubasa-sama, about the court order...'

'Yes, what is it about?' she inquired, getting up from her seat to make her way around her desk, grabbing her bag.

'It's for the post of sports teacher. The man… well, he...'

'Did you read his record?' she asked, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

'Yes, I did. But I think you should read it too.'

'I don't think that'll be necessary. I leave the whole decision up to you. I trust your judgment. If you think he has his place in our school, give him the post.'

'I appreciate your trust in me, Tsubasa-sama. But still, I believe that-'

However, the blonde woman wasn't listening anymore. 

'I'm feeling so tired today! Once I get back home, I'll go off to bed immediately!'

And on this, she was already making for the door of her office. 

Scratching the back of his head a little, the old man followed after her, quietly.

***

Since it was a court order, she didn't believe that the man they were proposing for the post could be someone dangerous. Not to forget that she has complete trust in Ryutsuki-san's judgment. But still, she couldn't help but feel a bit lame.

'Wait a second!' she exclaimed, as she remembered one particular piece of their conversation at the bar last night, her face scrunching up at the man. 'You called my son a wealthy brat?!'

'He paid a courtesan to accost me!' he pointed out to her, in the same tone.

Her expression turned awkward again.

That's true! It was vicious!

Taking a deep breath, she sighed.

'I think you both owe to apologize to each other!'

At this, the two males looked at each other's face for one long moment like earthenware dogs, only to put their arms up in front of themselves in the sign of a cross, and exclaim, testily, 'It's out of the question!'

She shook her head to sigh again. 'Yare! Yare!'

She was sure that Shunsui regretted what he did. And so, did the man. But they were both way too stubborn to admit it openly to each other.

'Come on! Let's go!' Shunsui stated, and grabbing hold of her shoulders again, he started to usher her away, while watching the man, sulkily. The red-haired male was sulking too.

As they went past the latter, their eyes fell onto the name written on the tombstone in front of which he was standing.

Ayane Natsume. 

It was the grave of his wife. 

The flowers he had put away still looked very fresh. They wondered if he would visit her every day.

Thank you for reading!