Run Over Chapter 3.7

The Traducer
Chapter 3 Part 7
Early in the morning I woke up from a deep sleep. Seeing that the electronic dial only showed six o'clock, I carefully got out from the futon, so as not to crumple it. The shower seemed to wash away all the unpleasant things – what a wonderful feeling. But it instantly disappeared when I put on dirty clothes.

Minato was still sleeping, and her face was completely undisturbed, closed eyes, a slightly open mouth. I put an alarm clock on my phone for the time in ten minutes and put it by head of the bed. So I wouldn't see Minato getting out in just her undergarments, I left to the shower, and ran the water for no reason. The impossibility to leave the room due to the automatic cash register was depressing.

From the shower head, stuffed into the bath, rose a white waft, filling the already stuffy shower with new steam. Because of the noise of the water, I didn't know what was going on in the room, and decided to wait ten more minutes. I tore up the packaging and took out a toothbrush, squeezed out some toothpaste from a miniature tube, and brushed my teeth. I then washed my face, squeezing out some liquid soap from a small bad.Everything was specially made in disposable packs. Short-haired, mustacheless, and beardless, I didn't touch the plastic comb and the machine with shaving foam. Especially all sorts of women's hygiene items.

Deciding that I can already leave, I closed the tap valve, and when I opened the door to the bath, I ran into Minato, who had already changed into yesterday's hoodie.

"If you pretend to take a shower, try harder."

"Shut up."

And who thought of building this hotel without change rooms?

***

The automatic cash register swallowed a denomination of ten thousand yen and gave out three thousand in change. The hotel cost us seven thousand. Minato glanced at the bill in her hand: seven thousand for one night. Whether this was expensive or cheap, I couldn't say. The door opened after the pay and we exited through it and walked down the corridor, dimly lit by weak lamps. The street light barely went through the small obscure windows. It was early, and because of this my brain was confused.

We went out into the hall, and then into the street. Under the morning sun, the decorative lights were no longer as bright for some reason brought grief upon me. People on the streets were going home after bustling nights, and I didn't fail to snitch from a person, busy in babbling about beauties, three thousand.

We then caught a taxi and by seven returned home. We ate bread from the grocery store, changed into the fresh school uniform and began to look like normal high school students. And then we went to school together, just like a couple. Here I suddenly realized the one thing that is keeping us together. But I couldn't do anything about it.

***

It's been awhile since I opened the door to the teacher's room. Just when we allegedly walked towards our cla.s.s teacher, Bizon, who was absent right now, a young woman rose from the neighboring seat and looked at me.

"U-u-uh, Idzono-kun? Good morning. If you need Imamura-sensei, he's not here yet," said Katai, the teacher in charge of the neighboring cla.s.s. She succeeded with her face, so all men, whether student or teacher, loved her. I knew that this complicated everything. The clothes on her corresponded to the image of a teacher more or else, but what did she do last night?

"No, it just so happens that I need you, Katai-sensei."

Personally I was distorted from her eternal good nature and willingness to help. Perhaps it was because I myself lacked these qualities.

"What, me? What is it?"

"It's uncomfortable to say here, could we go to the consultation room?"

"I think we shouldn't talk without your cla.s.s teacher."

"Please, I ask you," I insisted, and Katai went to the room for student consultations. The lock on her door clicked, right when I exited into the corridor and turned in the right direction.

"Come on in."

I entered and sat on a couch. Katai sat across from me, on the other side of a low table. Lunch break started after the fourth lesson, and in the distance, in the hallways, the screams of the running degenerates were heard.

"Well, what did you want to talk about?"

I hesitated for just one moment, and then decided to go right ahead.

"This belongs to you doesn't it, sensei?"

I stuffed my hand in my pocket and took out car keys. The mascot keychain hanging on them swayed slowly.

"Where did…that…"

"It's not a good idea to leave your car who knows where with the keys inserted."

Silence in response.

"For example, at a parking lot."

I propped myself up on my elbow from my knees and shook the keychain in my right hand, as if it was a bait on a fishing hook. The fish sat right in front of me.

"Where?…"

"In a love-hotel," I sharply interrupted her.

She tried to hide her confusion from me, unsuccessfully. What to answer, what card to play – she got confused and tried to go with the flow.

"Which one?.."

I named the district, street, and the hotel, where I left Katai's car. Or, more precisely, where I slept with Minato yesterday.

"I see… That means I should probably go and get it." With this Katai stared at the keys in my hand.

Silence.

Between us, sitting right in front of each other, was a heavy silence, from which the air in the room seemed to harden. The racket in the hallway only emphasized the silence around us, and we were forced to endure it. However, I didn't push out any words from me. About twenty seconds pa.s.sed like this. And only after that did Katai open her mouth.

"Idzono-kun, why did you…"

"I noticed Kiyama."

"Is there something you want to say?"

Bullseye. I unwound the ball of events and tied my trophy with the resulting thread. I didn't just tie it, I tightly knotted it, I struck a crushing blow to the victim. With such a strength, that the inner organs could've burst. And I didn't hesitate one bit.

"You and Kiyama hooked up once didn't you? Oh, sorry, once. I mean, you f*ck with him all the time?"

Katai's face turned pale. I checked to see if we were really alone in the consultation room and whether anyone could interfere.

"I, well…"

"Don't pretend like you don't know anything."

Katai wouldn't want to go to the police now. She left her purse with her mobile phone in the car, and the existence of Kiyama in her life could ruin her reputation. If she would contact the police, the recording of surveillance cameras would be looked through. And here, most certainly, they will find out that the teacher comes to the love-hotel with a student.

I grabbed Katai by her shoulders, and sat her down by me on the couch. I said something so quietly that no one standing half a metre away from us would hear:

"I'm not going to tell anyone. But I would like for you to fulfill a few of my requests. I will even return the keys."

"This.. is blackmail…"

"In a way – yes."

"And if I don't listen?"

"Several interesting photos and videos will be sent to a person, who only I know."

I understood that I crossed a certain line. In the hanging silence, Katai's heavy sigh was heard, her shoulders trembled slightly.

"Have you been following me from the very beginning?"

" 'Course not. Everything happened by chance."

"What a b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Well not to that extent. You're just strange."

Not very good.

"I'll ask just in case: what did you want to ask of me?"

"Well, how do I say this, for access to the cla.s.s log and personal data of my cla.s.smates."

"You… you do understand, that if this comes up, I too will suffer?"

"If you can't, I'll just look for a different teacher."

Obviously, right after I finish with Katai.

"Do you realize that we won't always close our eyes on you?"

Judging by her behaviour, Katai didn't give in to panic, and she held herself confident. Moreover, she showed no sign of owing me something.

"In what way, close your eyes?"

"If someone digs into this matter deeper, then they will uncover a lot of interesting things. They can even be hinted that some anxious kids from the back desks wanted to fool around and went to a love-hotel. Look a lot like you, doesn't it?" Katai striked confidently. "Like you and Minato-san."

The conversation clearly went the wrong way.

"What if something can be found, with which you yourself can be threatened? That's why, if you want to split up on friendly terms, quit threatening me."

This phrase betrayed the true degree of Katai's desperation. As you please, I said to myself, although I could've just laughed in her face.

"Not at all, Minato is not at all like that," I corrected her.

"How not. Is she not your girlfriend, with which you fool around in cla.s.s, and then lick each other's wounds?"

Katai was obviously trying to provoke me. It was as if a black beetle crawled out of the depths of my mind, and embodying my feelings, spread out his low-humming wings.

"You two are like a pair of boots, after all"

Silence.

"If I will be uncovered, I will hand you over to the police and to your parents."

Low humming.

And a roar echoed through my head.

"If you come at me, I will call the police and your parents and explain to them that their children are f*cking in some hotel. That's all…" Katai got worked up. What low and disgusting statement she made.

I must shut her mouth, shut her up. That's what I thought.

Stupid garbage, come here.

The hum, emitted by the black beetle, filled my head, and all thoughts disappeared. My consciousness hissed and gave out an error.

An incomprehensible sound came from my mouth. I didn't have the time to notice, how my index and middle finger, which were usually cleaning out other' pockets, rushed to Katai's neck. I felt a thick vessel twitching on her neck.

If you stick your finger into a human neck with enough force…

Hooking a blood vessel with the tips of your fingers, is the same as a thin rubber tube…

Pulling, as if stealing a wallet…

Even a human life…

Can be pulled out with your fingers, right?

Now my head, free from the black beetle, was filled with this thought.

"You will either fulfill my request, or go down with me, I ask you, choose."

There were no other options.

She chose the first.

***

That morning Kiyama didn't turn up, and I endlessly called him. I called him from my phone, then made Fushimi call him, and Kiyama finally answered. He yelled something into the phone, but I forced him to come to school. Kiyama, who wore a uniform with long sleeves today, to cover his skin, was completely different from his normal self and seemed like a different person. Without saying anything heartbreaking, he simply sat on his chair and was quiet all day long.The very fact that he appeared in such an unattractive form, said a lot.

I examined the whole cla.s.s. It became a board for playing "reverse". The stoned, originally coloured in one colour, began to turn over. We turned the white stones – first, second, third – into black. If we continue, the surrounding stones will start to turn over by themselves.

The people around us were getting slightly nervous and showed a restrained curiosity. For the cla.s.smates, who only knew what they were supposed to, the situation looked very strange. And I was the one who made it like this. Having looked around the cla.s.s, I glanced at the nervous junk, which was only able to bully tohers and save their own skins.

Minato led Tanabe somewhere, ask her about this or that. Such a clever girl.

Looking at Minato's desk, I imagined how after turning over absolutely all the stones on the game board, I break the board itself.