Ryosuke sat off to the side at a small table, smoking his cigarette. He had been listening to the whole conversation, but hadn’t contributed much. It had been the same thing over and over again for the last few weeks, and I knew the problem could easily be solved. It didn’t mean that I didn’t want to be stubborn about it. All I kept thinking about was all the times that Toshi had fucked us over and wondering if Reiko knew about it. She had to have if she was sleeping with the guy.
“I get it. It’s just not something I ever thought I’d have to deal with. Reiko was our buffer, and to know that she’s been sleeping with the devil? Fuck, Itsu-chan, I don’t know if I can recover from that. She’s her own person, but I was beyond hurt to find out. Especially like that.”
The smell of tobacco filled the air as Ryosuke brought over his ashtray and put out his cigarette to sit next to us. “It’s understandable to be hurt. We’ve talked about that before. You still need to hear her side of the story. Maybe it’s not as black and white as it all seems.”
How could it possibly be a better scenario? Either my sister was sleeping with our manager and didn’t actually care what happened to us, or she’d been using him to make things better for us. Neither of those options painted her in a very good light.
I’d looked up to Reiko since we were young, and I wanted her to still be that role model. People you looked up to didn’t use people and hurt them.
But it was like the universe was done being kind to me because as we continued to sit there in the coffee shop and stew about how to deal with my situation with my sister, she ended up walking in. I hadn’t seen her at first, and it was Itsuki who ended up having to point her out. Reiko had tried to stay hidden in a thick hoodie with the hood pulled over her head and a pair of oversized sunglasses on. Even with all of that, there was no wayto deny that my sister was there and standing in line waiting to order.
My breath caught because I thought that I’d feel nothing but anger the first time I saw her again. But I didn’t. All I wanted to do was run to her and give her a hug because, as hurt as I’d been, I missed her. She had been my rock for so damn long that being without her left me feeling unmoored.
“What are you thinking?” I almost jumped out of my damn skin at the sound of Ryosuke’s voice so close to my fucking ear.
I had my hand placed on my chest as I turned to face him, eyes wide in panic until I realized that he’d only asked me if I wanted to actually talk to her or not. I hated how lost in my thoughts I could get sometimes, so that I didn’t notice when people got close to me.
Unfortunately, it was enough to cause a commotion, and several people in the coffee shop were now looking at us, including Reiko. She’d pulled down the sunglasses just enough to look at the three of us sitting at the table, and I knew she had to be wondering why I was spending so much time with Ryosuke. The last we talked, she thought I still hated his guts. Now we were sitting in a cafe together, and he had an arm slung over my shoulder as if we were best friends. Though a lot could change in three weeks.
Instead of just sitting there and answering the pesky bassist, I stood and brushed him off of me. The distance between me and Reiko disappeared all too quickly because by the time I reached her, I still hadn’t thought about what I’d wanted to say. She deserved so much more than the half-hearted “Hi” that I did manage to squeak out.
At first, she said nothing to me.
We stood next to each other in line until it was her turn to place her order. She got her usual latte, and we waited together for her drink before she led us to an empty table on the otherside of the coffee shop from Itsuki and Ryosuke. I could still see them from where we were sitting. My only hope was that they’d know if I needed to be rescued or not.
“Reiko?” I asked as she took a long sip of her coffee, still not saying anything to me.
She finally looked up and took off the ridiculous sunglasses. “So you’re finally willing to talk to me?”
I sighed, rubbing my temples before nodding. “I mean, I wouldn’t have been at your side this whole time if I wasn’t attempting to try.”
Reiko went back to sipping her coffee, and I wanted to shake her because I was giving her the chance to explain what happened, and she wasn’t taking the opportunity. I could easily get up and walk away. It would be hard because we’d been so close for so damn long, but we’d managed the last few weeks without her.
The longer she went without speaking, the more annoyed I became. It wasn’t like her not to say anything, but this was the most turmoil that had ever been between us. We’d had our fights over the years, but they were over small things like who was responsible for cleaning certain parts of the apartment or because someone forgot to wake the other up for school or something like that.
“Come on,” I finally broke the silence because I had a feeling that if I didn’t, she’d be just as stubborn as I was and we’d be stuck sitting in an awkward standoff until the shop closed and we’d accomplish nothing. “You have to understand why I was upset.”
Reiko nodded. “I do understand. It’s why I gave you so much space because I didn’t know how to talk to you about it without making you angrier. You brought me on board to help the band and instead of doing that...” she trailed off and looked over at thetable where Itsuki and Ryosuke were still watching us. “What’s going on with them?” She asked, clearly deflecting.
I shook my head because I wouldn’t answer that question until I knew what happened with her and Toshi. “You betrayed my trust. How can I think that anything you’ve done was sincere when you’ve been sleeping with the one person who has been out to destroy us since the beginning?”
Her eyes softened at that before she reached across the table to grab my hand. As much as I didn’t want to, I took hold of it and gave it a squeeze.
“It hasn’t been since the beginning. Toshi was a nightmare. We fought all the damn time. You were right to bring me on board because without me, Pink Cherry would have been done a long time ago.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “The more I fought with him, I don’t know, I also got to know him. Sure, Toshi is an asshole. That never changed, but he has a softer side to him, and he treats me well.”
It was hard to sit there and listen to it all, but it was good to hear that Reiko at least hadn’t been taking advantage of him. In a way, their story was sort of like mine and Ryosuke’s. I’d not liked him at all at first. He still had his moments when I thought he was an epic jerk, but he grew on me a little more every day. Throw in the mind-bending sex, and it was a recipe for everything to fall apart.
“So you’re in love with him?” I didn’t really want to know, but maybe I did because that made such a huge impact on the rest of my life. If this guy really wanted to take care of my sister, that meant he had to stop being such a pain in the ass to the rest of us. That was non-negotiable.
The band wasn’t just my life—they were my family. Welcoming him into it meant that he had to have respect. We wouldn’t tolerate any more random outbursts or him trying to make us feel like we were less than. Pink Cherry was successful andpopular for a reason. We brought in more money for the label than the rest of their bands combined.
Reiko only shrugged. Her eyes filled with tears, which she quickly wiped away. “I don’t know, Otou-san. I thought, maybe? But it’s not worth it if it means losing you. You’re far more important to me than he is.”
It was enough to break my heart because I wanted Reiko to be happy. She had dedicated her life to making sure I was successful. It wasn’t fair if I didn’t have her best interests at heart.
It took everything in me to swallow my pride and ask her the one question I didn’t want to. But Reiko deserved happiness. She deserved all the sunshine and rainbows on a cloudy day.
“Does he at least make you happy?”
