RIVALS INCARNATE

Chapter Twenty-Three: When Things Go Bad

Appropriateness would always demand leverage at some point.

In a society run by mostly power-driven people who had been fueled by their own ambitions and selfish needs, things will never be just about helping and being benevolent at a true cause. That was the truth, and that was not something new anyway, in regards to being a part of that circle. 

Vain platforms, smiling at cameras, getting ready for handshakes, and good speeches: these things were always going to be a part of the political world forever. To people who desire to become on top, power and fame always come with a price. But to say that it was for serving people and doing charities for the community like some good ole saint with a pure heart is a total lie. Because underneath that flashy smile and good-natured image, people who would go that far just to raise their status were only doing all that for many superficial purposes. Nothing was genuine in politics, and everyone knew that. But no one has ever really learned a thing. Because that was the standard and practice in this society, it never really changed anything. 

Everybody was still a conformist.

Two weeks later, things began to tighten up a little bit in the business. And brought by a sudden urgency to make a proper visit to her hometown, Yuko Amazawa found herself driving back to the countryside for a short vacation. It was the very first time that she had tried to return in the past four years. The last time she had ever been there was when her cousin got married and her parents insisted that she must attend it. And yet she never really stayed that too long. She left after just one day for the wedding and never looked back again since then. For her, this life and family relationships slowed her down to make her own real progress with her goals, and she chose to forget everything else... because she felt it did not matter to her.

Perhaps, she had become this cold because of her past life which had something to do with why she was like this with her parents. It was pretty odd that she never really felt like she belonged with them. She never even liked going back to her old place. Yet this time she had been trying to find some outlet to release a bit of the stress she has been enduring for the past few months. And so when she got a call from her father that they were fixing up a party for her grandmother's ninetieth birthday, she took a proper leave from work to stay away from the suffocating atmosphere inside her office.

She needed it, actually. And as she watched the signboards telling her that she was nearing the border of the town where she used to live, Yuko felt the comfort of freedom. She was finally exhaling out loud as if to release the prolonged unbearable pressure that she had bottled up inside her since the first second she saw and met both Komatsu and Sato.

It was an addition to her pressure, honestly. Yuko had to go through a lot of changes and stress because she had to struggle with trying to meet things halfway with them while planning ahead for the upcoming elections and the strains in the political world. She also had to do some promotional strategy for Kyouhei which was now making her lose a lot of time to decide what will be the next step after this.

It seemed like it was really going to be a long way ahead... And the Prime Minister's seat was getting a little bit out of reach. And that was really stressing Yuko so much that she could not even get enough sleep at night too.

Sighing loudly as she drove past the welcome sign of the town, Yuko checked the time on the dashboard and saw that it was just an hour past lunchtime. She decided to stop by a convenience store on the way to get something to eat. And as she was just about to take a turn to a gas station she saw on the way, her phone rang. Seeing the blinking display of Kurosaki's name, Yuko stifled a groan and eventually answered by the third ring, knowing that she still had to attend to his concerns.

He's her client, after all.

"What is it?" she demanded as soon as she connected with the call while placing an earbud in her ear.

"Where are you?" Kyouhei immediately asked with a tone of urgency.

Well, leave it to him to be clinging on her at a time when she needed the space the most. Parking by a vacant lot beside the gas station, Yuko sighed once more and paused for a moment before answering back.

"I'm on vacation right now," she briefly told him, "Can we try to put a hold on this for a while until I can get back on Tuesday next week?"

"That's three days from now," Kyouhei faintly refuted, "I didn't know you were on leave for that long."

"It's a last-minute plan," Yuko explained, turning her car engine off. She removed her seat belt and reached out for her purse from the bag she had placed on the passenger seat, "It's not like you need to know everything about my schedule. I'm the publicist here, remember?"

"What if I needed to talk to you right now?" Kyouhei still countered with an anxious voice, sounding a little bit on edge. And that made Yuko frown at those words he said, pausing and glaring at the phone as she took it from the phone mount on the dashboard and looked at it with an incredulous expression. 

"Well, you can just call me about it like what you're doing right now, can't you?" Yuko stated, snorting as she went on, "More practical than having to see me in person. So just tell me now what's up? Why did you suddenly call me on a Saturday when I know you're on a day off?"

"Where are you right now?" Kyouhei still profusely insisted, evading her question, and tried to speak with a firmer voice as he pressed on with his question, "I need to see you. So tell me where to find you."

"Why?"

This was unusual, and Yuko felt irritated about it. Why was he pressuring her to tell him where she was? She gritted her teeth, resisting to curse back as she got out of her car and started walking towards the store with a glower on her face. She removed her earpiece and took the call by the phone against her ear and waited for a response.

But instead of telling her what he needed, Kyouhei just kept his silence and took a long wistful sigh. What the hell was going on with him now? 

"Okay," Yuko remarked, taking his lack of response a sign that he was really having a hard time revealing everything that was troubling him this way. "Let's just talk on Tuesday, okay? I won't be back until then so you need to wait. In the meantime, just try to chill."

It took a few more seconds before she finally heard a clipped reply and when Kyouhei did, it was too abrupt and distant.

"Fine." 

But when Yuko was about to say something back to him, the end tone suddenly interrupted her. And she was even more shocked than actually relieved that Kyouhei hung up on her... Unexpectedly.

What the hell just happened?

Stopping on her tracks, she found herself standing in a frozen posture right near the door of the convenience store. It took her a few more seconds to finally gather her senses and enter the place with a dumbfounded expression. She was still not over the fact that Kyouhei dropped the call on her like that. It was so not like him... That busted her pride for some reason.

And she hated that.

As she was still constantly bothered by it, Yuko blindly walked around the store, not bothering to check what she got until she was checking out on the counter, settling with a tuna sandwich and some random soda she just picked out from the chiller. 

"That bastard," she muttered out loud, unable to stop herself from thinking about it too much and the guy behind the register startlingly looked at her with a deep frown.

"Pardon?" he said in a confused and offended way, blinking at Yuko after hearing what she just said.

"No," Yuko quickly took it back, shaking her head aggressively as she met the guy's eyes. She immediately regretted it so bad as soon as she realized that she had said it out loud. That was really embarrassing and she mentally hit herself for being so careless. And with an apologetic smile, she gave the register guy a tip for consolation. "Sorry, it's not you. I was thinking about something else. Really."

Nodding his head but still frowning, the guy just silently let her go along with the food she had bought. Leaving a generous compensation as a form of her apology, she exited the store and walked as fast as she could. When she finally got in her car, Yuko sighed once more. She had been sighing so many times today and it felt like she was so exhausted that she just wanted to drive away and go someplace else where no one will ever find her again. But who was she kidding?

She needed to do this all now. She was not the type to back down from this fight,

Doing a mental prep talk, she finally decided to start up the car again and drove the road straight into her town. She might really need this vacation more than she had anticipated. 

She will just have to make the most out of it.

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"Yuko-chan!" 

Being welcomed by a hug was rare for her, and by saying rare, it meant that she was never used to it. Even when she had grown up being hugged by her mother so many times, Yuko had never really gotten used to it at all. It was still weird for her, and it felt like being held by a total stranger.

It was not like she never treated her new life's family as a real family, but being in a state where you were still haunted by your past life's memories had made her treat this entire identity as a mere facade. She was just living the life of someone else and she never really tried to fit herself in despite her efforts of trying to live by through it. However, she still learned not to act too distant from these people at times when she needed to interact with them. Because, after all,  her new family was still family. And she just had to accept that now.

"Long drive, huh? You must be tired," Her mother smiled at her, rubbing her on the back as she ushered her into their house and Yuko immediately saw her father walking towards her as he hugged her as well. It was a little gesture that was normal for a familial thing and she tried to return the favor by hugging them back with the same earnest warmth. The day went by and she was eventually given the chance to get some sleep in her old room after a simple dinner and family conversation. 

She never really realized it, but even when she could feel her entire body tired from the long drive, she was still relaxed. It had been so long since the last time she had been free from worry just like this. And maybe going back here was actually a good decision, after all.

She might never want to admit it, but this was utterly peaceful. And she wanted to make this last, at least until the day she had to go back to the real world again. And as the feeling of drowsiness hit her, only one thing came into her mind...

Relief.

She felt so much at ease, compared to the past few months she had been suffering so bad from a lot of stress. She really did the right thing taking this leave... She never knew that she really needed this... So bad that it had been the very first time in a long while since she had slept like a baby that night.

----------------------------------------------------------------------next chapter: Chapter Twenty-Four