Chapter 5

“I’ll take my leave now,” the maid announced. “Good night, ladies.”

Yoshino and I were reclining in lawn chairs, looking out towards the sunset, a half-empty bottle of wine on the pedestal between us.

“Good night,” I said.

Yoshino remained silent until well after the maid had left. “I’m sorry about my mother,” she apologized. “I suppose this makes us even for you hanging up on me like that.”

“I thought that slap was supposed to make us even,” I commented. I paused to take a sip of my wine and watched Yoshino squirm out of the corner of my eye. “But I had a nice afternoon, and I suppose that makes us even.”

As much as I hated to admit it, I wasn’t above being bought off like this. Lunch and dinner had been exquisite, and between the two, we had taken a leisurely walk through the forest. When we had returned, there were professional masseuses waiting for us.

“I’m glad,” Yoshino said, smiling. “You seemed so shaken after meeting her. I thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”

“I’m not going to abandon you at this point.”

“Then… Can we talk about us?”

“Yoshino,” I sighed, placing my glass down. “I don’t think there can be an us. We come from different worlds.”

“You’re worried you can’t afford to take care of me,” Yoshino guessed. “I am high maintenance, but I’ll have my inheritance, and my father will set you up with a high-paying job… once you convince him you’re serious about me. You’ll be on your own for the engagement ring though…”

“Hold on, I was talking about dating. I’d never dream of marrying you.”

“And why not? I thought we had a good thing going. We’re very compatible.”

“But you told me just the other day that you don’t love me.”

“Only because you said it first! I can’t be the first one to admit my feelings. It wouldn’t be proper. Don’t you know how difficult it was for me to tell you I found you attractive, not knowing how you would respond?”

“You won’t even say my name. How was I supposed to know you had feelings for me?”

“I’ve been incredibly forward,” Yoshino insisted, “but just like you, I have my limits.”

“We’ve only known each other for a few months,” I protested. “We’re only in college—”

“We’re already in college,” Yoshino interrupted.

“See, that’s exactly what I mean. Normal people—us commoners—mostly don’t think about marriage until after we’ve established our careers, while you goshujin are busy marrying your teenagers off to solidify political alliances.” 
“Oh commoner, don’t be prejudiced. It doesn’t suit you.”

“You’re prejudiced towards the lower classes all the time!” I exclaimed.

“I am,” Yoshino said, “but that doesn’t mean it’s right. Would you kill an animal just because it would kill you in the right circumstances?”

“I don’t… Are you trying to use the golden rule offensively? I should treat you how I wish you would treat me, even though you won’t?”

“Given that you can’t control my actions, do you have a better alternative?”

I thought about it for a moment. Yoshino’s behavior was all screwed up, but would I achieve anything by behaving badly myself? No, it would just make things worse.

“You have a point,” I admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to marry you.”

“Perhaps I got ahead of myself, but I wanted you to know that if you’re holding yourself back because you think we can’t have a future together, you’re wrong.”

“That’s the least of my worries. We’re not even in a relationship. You just got this idea in your head that I should marry you, but I’m not going to marry someone I don’t love, and I can’t love someone who doesn’t respect me.”

“But I do respect you,” Yoshino said. “I… think you’re very mature. No one else puts up with me like you do. Maybe that sounds like I think you don’t have any self-esteem, but you’ve had to deal with a lot, and yet you still managed to win that full scholarship. Everything I have, I’ve been given, but you’re earning your own bright future.”

“And yet, you treat me like a servant, and you won’t address me by name. Fundamentally, you don’t respect me.”

“It was like that at first,” Yoshino admitted. “I thought that if I didn’t control you, you’d run away like everyone else, but then I started developing a real crush on you, and the prospect of you leaving scared me even more.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I reassured her. “and I guess, at this point, it would probably be too conspicuous if you started treating me like an equal, but can you at least start calling me by my name?”

“I can’t,” Yoshino said. “It’s too embarrassing.”

“What? You call Ibuki by her name all the time.”

“You’re not Ibuki. Saying your name feels… too intimate.”

“For real?” I laughed “Sex is fine, but first names are too intimate? What about when I address you by name?”

“It makes my heart flutter,” Yoshino said, picking up her fan to hide her face.

“You’re cute,” I said.

“I know.”

“In the worst possible way.”

“I know that too.”

“Maybe… maybe we could get together someday, but I’m still not ready to be in a relationship right now.”

“I’m tired of waiting. It’s been three years for me. Maybe we could meet halfway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Take me to bed tonight?”

“No,” I sighed. “I only accepted your invitation because you promised we’d just talk.”

“I swear, you’re worse than a harem protagonist,” Yoshino complained. She pinched her nose to give her voice a nasal quality. “Oh no, I’m all alone with a hot woman who wants me. Whatever I do, I’d better not have sex with her like a normal human being would.”

“I too find insults to be helpful and productive to a serious discussion,” I said, standing up. “If that’s your attitude, I’m leaving.”

“Go ahead and try. You won’t get very far on foot.”

“I’ll call someone to pick me up.”

“Unauthorized cars aren’t allowed anywhere near here,” Yoshino informed me.

“So what, you’ve kidnapped me?”

“No,” Yoshino shouted, getting to her feet as well. “Fine, I’ll drive you back if I must, but that seems like such an awful way to end what’s been a fun day, doesn’t it?”

“You’ve got a point. Sorry, I got a bit heated. I need some time to myself, OK?”

After I’d cooled off, I had admitted to myself that Yoshino wasn’t completely wrong. If we wanted to have sex, and we weren’t hurting anyone, why shouldn’t we? It was normal for college students to hook up like that.

And yet, I didn’t want to base my actions on those kinds of stereotypes. Wasn’t it also normal for some college students to not have casual sex?

I’d resolved to discuss it further with Yoshino, but when I emerged from the guest room, I found her reclining nude on the sofa. She looked me in the eyes and curled her fingers seductively, beckoning me toward her. She hadn’t been listening to me at all, and it made me so angry that I returned to the bedroom and didn’t come out until the next day.

The car ride back the next morning was possibly the most awkward hour of my life. Although the car drove itself, I sat in the driver’s seat, while Yoshino sat in the back on the passenger side. She refused to say a word to me, and spent the entire drive looking out the window.

Ibuki was waiting for us when we returned.

“Good morning, Yoshino-sama,” Ibuki said, extending a hand to help Yoshino out of the car. “How was your villa? Did you have a pleasant evening?”

“Quite,” Yoshino remarked. “I slept very soundly, unexpectedly.” She didn’t bother to hide the scowl on her face with her fan.

Visiting my family over the holidays was more enjoyable than I expected. Although my parents had been proud of me for earning a full-ride scholarship, they had been worried about—and disappointed with—me for the way I handled getting dumped. Things came to a head the night before I moved out, and we all said things we regretted, but when I returned for the holidays, we pretended it had never happened.

I needed that. After the previous few months, I needed normalcy. It made me realize just how abnormal I had allowed Yoshino to make my life, and how abnormal it would once again become when I returned. I thought about not going back, but I couldn’t just give up the scholarship I had worked so hard for, and I knew Yoshino would drag me back herself if necessary.

Thus, I delayed my return as long as possible, arriving late at night, with just enough time to sleep before classes the next day. As I made my way to my room however, I heard a squeal from Ibuki’s.

This wasn’t surprising. In the three months that I’d lived with her, Ibuki had brought a few girls back, and because the walls were so thin, they were always audible from the common area. What was surprising, however, was that I recognized that squeal.

Yoshino was in there with Ibuki.

My mind reeled. When had they hooked up? Perhaps they had both returned from their vacations early, and without me to interfere, Ibuki had seduced Yoshino. Was this my fault? No, it couldn’t be. The dorms had remained closed until this afternoon. But it wasn’t impossible that Ibuki and Yoshino had pulled some strings to be allowed back early.

Jealousy consumed my entire being, and I almost threw open the door, but I stopped myself at the last moment. What did I hope to accomplish? Was I going to berate them for having consensual sex, after I had already passed up opportunities with them both? Was I going to try to join them in bed? I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew I didn’t want that.

So instead, I sat down in an armchair and listened to them go at it. The sound of their lovemaking made me angry and horny, but I did nothing to alleviate either feeling.

They finished a few minutes later, but it felt to me like an eternity. When Yoshino emerged from the room, she started.

“Commoner! I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“Is that your excuse?” I growled.

“Excuse? Why would I—Are you jealous?”

“Intensely,” I admitted, standing from my chair.

“Oh commoner, I knew you’d come around,” Yoshino said, throwing her arms around me.

“Get off,” I grunted, grabbing her wrists and pulling her off me. “You think I want you now? Right after Ibuki finished with you?”

“Hello to you too, Alex,” Ibuki said, standing in the doorway to her bedroom, a huge smile on her face.

“I’m going to bed,” I announced, finding myself suddenly unable to face Ibuki. I turned and marched towards my room, but when I got there, I found that I was still holding one of Yoshino’s wrists. I looked back at her. She was blushing but following along. She thought I was going to take her to my bed. “How shameless can you be?” I asked, dropping her wrist in disgust and slamming my bedroom door in her face.

“Do you want me or not?” she let out an exasperated sigh.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know. For now, just go away.”

Ibuki wasted no time making her next move. We were walking between classes the next day. I was carrying Yoshno’s bag as normal, but walking a few paces behind her. Ibuki was next to her, in my place, and I was staring daggers into her back, but she seemed not to notice. As we passed by a  group of students, Ibuki dropped to one knee and offered a ring to Yoshino.

“Yoshino-sama, will you join my harem?” she asked.

“How presumptuous!” Yoshino exclaimed, hiding her face behind her fan. From where I was standing though, I could see her real smile, that slight curve at the corner of her lips. No, she was angling her fan to make sure I could see it. “Surely you can do better than that.”

What she didn’t say, however, was “no,” and by then, I knew that, for Yoshino, that meant “yes.”

“You can’t,” I gasped. “I mean, Yoshino’s too esteemed to be just a harem member. She deserves someone who will devote themselves only to her.”

“Is that a counter-proposal I hear?” Yoshino said, cocking her head towards me.

By now, a large group of students had gathered to watch us, and I lost my nerves.

“Just an observation,” I muttered.

“You’re right, of course,” Yoshino said, “but I have to consider my position. I’m nineteen already, and nobody else is lining up to propose. Very well, Ibuki-san. I accept… until something better comes along.”

“You have to call it off,” I told Yoshino once we were alone. “This is a trick. Ibuki-san has it out for you.”

“I get it,” Yoshino assured me. “She’s just using my political influence to get her harem license approved.”

“No, she has a vendetta against the entire goshujin caste,” I explained, “and she’s going to use you to take revenge.”

“What nonsense are you saying?” Yoshino scoffed. “Her family does business with lots of goshujin families, and it’s always been mutually beneficial. I’ve never once heard of any complaints from their side.”

“She tried to enlist me to help her,” I told her. “She wants to involve you in some kind of scandal.”

“Commoner,” Yoshino said, “I like this jealous side of you, but you’re going to have to do better than that. Ibuki has nothing to gain—and everything to lose—from pulling a stunt like that. If you want to steal me away from her, then just take me. You don’t have to slander Ibuki.”

It was no use. No matter how I tried to convince her, it was too late to get her to believe me. I had lost Yoshino.

In late February, a party was held in Ibuki’s parents’ house to celebrate the approval of Ibuki’s harem license. Ever since I had returned, I had stuck as close to Yoshino as possible, to keep her safe from Ibuki. The only place I didn’t follow them was into Ibuki’s bedroom. I hadn’t been invited to this party, but, learning that Yoshino’s father would be there, I figured she would be safe without me.

My only hint that something was about to go down was when Ibuki left for the party.

“Hey, Alex,” she had said, “for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for hurting you. You didn’t deserve that.”

I didn’t give her the satisfaction of a reply, and in fact, I forgot all about her apology until later in the night, when my phone rang. Seeing that the call was from Yoshino, my heart began to race.

“Help!” Yoshino’s voice came from the phone’s speaker before the call disconnected.

My legs carried me halfway towards the parking lot by the time my brain caught up. I had no idea what Ibuki’s plan really was. I would drive to her house and then what? For all I knew, even if I made it on time, I might not be able to get inside, but I couldn’t sit around doing nothing, and if calling the police were an option, Yoshino wouldn’t have called me. For that same reason, I couldn’t engage the emergency mode in the self-driving car, so even though traffic was light, it took me almost half an hour to reach Ibuki’s place.

As I exited the vehicle, I caught a bright flash out of the corner of my eye. I turned but saw nothing under the streetlight. Then I saw it again, and I was able to make out a white headdress in the darkness it illuminated.

Combat maids were fighting nearby, the sparks from their clashing blades occasionally lighting up the darkness. I had stepped into something much larger than I expected. I fumbled for the door handle, but before I could open the door, I was grabbed from behind, and a knife was pressed against my neck.

“Sorry Alex,” Yoshino’s maid whispered. “I’m outnumbered, and I need a hos—”

Before she could finish, another combat maid slipped a garrote around her neck and pulled her off me. Yoshino’s maid dropped the knife to claw at the garrote, but more maids emerged from the darkness to subdue her. Within minutes, they managed to restrain her. Once she was bound and gagged, one of the other maids turned to me.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“N—nobody,” I stammered. “I didn’t see anything. I’m leaving.”

“No,” the maid said, grabbing me by the shoulder and pulling me away from the car. “She knows you. You’re going to stay with us until this is over.”

The maids kept us both captive outside for more than seven hours. It was freezing cold, but that was nothing compared to the dread. I had no idea what was going on inside the house, but every few minutes someone would lift the blinds to peek out, and I could occasionally make out the silhouette of a rifle in their hands.

In the early hours of the morning, a car arrived with Yoshino’s mother inside. Upon seeing her, Yoshino’s maid started struggling against her restraints, making enough noise for Mrs. Lexington to notice. With a sad smile on her face, she walked over to our group.

“Commoner,” she addressed me, “I’m glad to see you stuck by Yoshino. She’s going to need someone like you after this.” She then turned to the maid and ordered her gag removed. The other maids hesitated before following the order.

“You can’t,” Yoshino’s maid cried as soon as she could speak.

“I must,” Mrs. Lexington countered. “She’s my only child.”

“She’s not worth it,” the maid insisted. “Ten of her wouldn’t be worth you.”

“Maybe,” Mrs. Lexington allowed, “but she has a chance, and I don’t. I’m being fed to the wolves here. The deal is that if I cooperate, Yoshino gets to live.”

“How could they?” the maid spat. “After everything you’ve done for this country…”

“Because they see which way the wind is blowing,” Mrs. Lexington explained. “This will be the scandal that finally does in the goshujin caste. They don’t need me to spy on my fellows if they’re all dead. But you should be glad. You’ll finally be rid of me.”

“I don’t want that,” the maid said, choking back tears.

“I know,” Mrs. Lexington said, wiping a tear from the maid’s cheek, “but you’ll be much happier after I’m gone. I’m sorry for toying with your feelings so much, and… thank you for everything.”

Before the maid could say anything further, Mrs. Lexington leaned forward and planted a kiss on the maid’s lips. It was too much for the maid, who started weeping, and who didn’t resist as the gag was placed back in her mouth.

Mrs. Lexington had been right: It was the fall of the goshujin caste. A cabal of goshujin, including Yoshino’s father, had conspired with Ibuki’s father to manufacture and sell illegal weapons to rogue militant groups. For Ibuki’s father, it was a means of propping up his struggling company, but the goshujin hoped to create enough political instability to overthrow the government and take full political control.

Ironically, they were held hostage, and later executed, by the weapons they manufactured. Without the political power they collectively held, the remaining goshujin were purged from the government within months.

Ibuki had been the mastermind behind the plan to bring them down. She’d needed an excuse to hold a social event at her parents’ house, as the goshujin mansions were too heavily guarded. The harem license had been that excuse. I didn’t understand all the interpersonal connections amongst the goshujin, but she’d been able to invite all the principal conspirators and their immediate families, and with the exception of Mrs. Lexington, they had all attended.

Few survived. After the conspirators filmed statements admitting their guilt, and provided information on where to obtain proof, their executions were broadcast live. The only goshujin the militants allowed to live were those deemed harmless. Their lives were traded for safe passage out of the country.

For Ibuki, it had been a matter of survival. By being the one to turn her father in, she had avoided the guilt by association that could have sent her and her mother to the gallows. Although they had managed to avoid detection up to that point, she believed her father would eventually get caught, but that when he did, the goshujin who put him up to it might escape.

For hiring a band of illegal militants to take care of them, however, Ibuki was sentenced to two years in prison. Her sentence was commuted after a few weeks, due to a PR campaign that made her out to be a sympathetic victim.

Yoshino was not so lucky. It turned out she had an inkling of what her father was up to, but she had turned a blind eye to it. For this, she was sentenced to five years, which she spent in a posh, minimum-security prison.

During her trial, her treatment of me became national news. There were lots of students on campus who were eager to gossip to the press. I was made out to be the victim of class-based bullying. In a sense, it was true, but whenever I tried to explain the context around it, how it was an excuse for her to be with me, I found myself on the wrong end of a media blackout. In the end, it factored into her sentencing.

I don’t know what happened to the maid after that. Like me, some of the details of her relationship with Mrs. Lexington were surfaced by the media. To her closest confidants, Mrs. Lexington called the maid “that poor gay girl” and bragged about how she was manipulating her.

Because the combat maids were technically government employees, I tried filing freedom of information requests to learn what happened to her. Every time one was rejected, I filed a new request, asking the question in a slightly different way. I never expected anything to come from it, but I didn’t have any other leads.

Shortly before I graduated, I filed a request with the exasperated question, “Can you at least tell me if she’s alive?” A few days later, I got a phone call from her.

“Alex,” she said as soon as I picked up. “I’m alive, so you can stop bothering the front office.”

“Was Mrs. Lexington right?” I asked. “Are you happier now?”

“I’m afraid that question isn’t covered by your request,” she answered.

“Have you at least found any happiness since then?”

“Goodbye, Alex.”

The rest of my college career was relatively uneventful. I kept my head down and my grades up. When job hunting, I was often recognized by interviewers, and I was able to parlay their sympathy into a story about how I resiliently bounced back. Where once I had hoped to get an inroad through Mr. Lexington’s business connections, I was now getting ahead with the help of antagonism towards him and his daughter.

Returning home late from work one night, I found Yoshino sitting outside the door to my apartment. She was wearing the same dress she’d had on the night she’d gone to Ibuki’s place. I was shocked to see her. I thought she still had a few months left in prison.

“Commoner,” she said, standing up. She looked me square in the eyes, and then bowed deeply. “I’m so, so sorry for the way I treated you.”

“Hey, don’t make a scene,” I whispered. “Look, we both made mistakes. How could either of us have known Ibuki was planning something that extreme?”

“You don’t hate me?” Yoshino said, straightening up.

“You don’t really believe all those things they said on the news, do you?” I scoffed.

“But they told me…”

“I don’t hate you,” I told her. “I pity you.”

“You never visited me.”

“They wouldn’t let me.”

“Oh commoner,” she said, throwing her arms around me and burying her head in my shoulder. “I was so scared. I have nobody else to turn to. I can’t cook, and I can’t clean, but if you’ll have me—”

“Whoa, hold on,” I said, gently pushing her off me. “I’m not going to marry you out of pity. Besides, I’m seeing someone right now.”

“You can’t turn me away,” Yoshino pleaded. “Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll be your mistress, your sex toy, your—”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “You once helped me get my own room in the dorms, remember? You fed and sheltered me for a few months. I owe you the same. Besides, I got a chunk of your parents’ fortune as recompense for the way you treated me. As far as I’m concerned, the money’s yours. It’s not enough to retire on, but you could go back to school, get a new start on life.”

“You’d really do that for me?” Yoshino asked.

“One condition,” I said. “Stop calling me ‘commoner.’”

“You’re still hung up on that, A—Alex?” Yoshino managed.

Even in the dark, I could tell she was blushing deeply, and emotions I hadn’t felt in five years started to stir within me. I’d planned to help her get back on her feet then distance myself from her once and for all, but I’d forgotten how damn cute she was.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to let her back into my life, I thought. Not as a lover, but as a friend. My life had been so boring since she left. Surely, it couldn’t end as badly as it had last time.

Right?

Fin.