19
Kumiko
My parents were stressed out. Their threats about sending the princes away turned out to be just that—threats. And now that the four of them were actually gone, with no return date, my parents were freaking the hell out.
I was on house lock-down, which I tolerated because my hand hurt so much. Who knew a couple tiny bones could make me want to be placed in a medically-induced coma? Until now, I’d always thought I was pretty tough.
The princes had been gone two days. Two days of phone calls and text messages.
Two days of flirting.
Two days to fall more under their spell.
Two days closer to my birthday and eternal sleep.
On the morning of the third day, I came out of my room to find the house in chaos. As I left the study, I was nearly run over by a stranger. He glanced at my face, blanched, and then scurried down the hall.
The servants were used to me now, and my parents’ advisors hardly ever looked me in the eye, so meeting someone new threw me off. Hat. Sunglasses. Scarf. I hurried back to my room, hid my face, and left again.
Keeping my head down, I braved the halls to search for my family. My stomach dropped when I found them all together. Something was up, and no doubt it had to do with me. My sisters stood at Dad’s shoulder, looking on as he fiddled at his computer.
In my entire life, I’d seen my father on a computer twice. He preferred letters and phone calls, and delegated anything technology related.
“We checked here, and here.” He pointed to the screen. “There’s an old vacation house in complete disrepair on Tol Island. I’ve sent people there before.”
“You’re searching for the witch,” I stated.
Mama started from her seat across from Dad and spun. “Why are you sneaking around?”
“I wasn’t—” My mother narrowed her eyes, a sure sign she was spoiling for a fight. It was then I noticed the dark circles beneath her eyes. And my sisters weren’t looking much better. Each one of them could have done with another few hours of sleep. “I’m sorry,” I said, knowing full well their lack of sleep had to do with me. “What can I do to help?”
“We’re trying to figure out if there’s any place we haven’t looked,” Fuyumi said.
“She’s probably moving around,” I answered. Five heads swiveled my way with identical expressions of surprise. “Or she has the power of invisibility.”
Mama rolled her eyes, but her lips lifted in a half smile. “Can your sister become invisible?” she asked my father.
“How would I know?” he replied, smiling back.
“Where did they send her when you were little?” I asked my dad. “Do you think she’d go back there?”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” my father said. “Well, I did. But I thought she’d never want to return there.”
“It’s familiar,” I said, thinking about how I always retreated back to the safety of my room when something happened to me.
“Good point,” Dad said. He picked up his phone and barked directions to whoever answered.
A wave of sadness hit me. So they’d given up on the princes, and moved onto Plan B—search the country for a witch who may not even be in the country. Heck, she may not even be in this hemisphere.
“Did you ever get a chance to talk to her?” I asked suddenly. “At my presentation, did she just show up, curse me, and leave?”
“Pretty much,” Aoi mumbled. She was the oldest sister and probably remembered best.
“She had a plan,” Mama said. “I think she’d been working on it for years.”
Miori walked around the table to sit next to Mama. She leaned her head on my mother’s shoulder and yawned. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her. She could have been just like us.”
Huh. I’d never thought about it that way before. My grandparents had died long before I was born, so I never knew them. And it was hard to see the connection between Dad, who loved me so fiercely, and his father, a man who’d shun his daughter because she had a power he didn’t understand. All I had to do was study my sisters to see the difference between my father and grandfather.
A tiny vibration in the pocket of my skirt made me smile. All of the other people who would call me were in this room, which meant one of the princes was texting me.
I bit my lip before turning my back on my family. “Excuse me,” I said and without waiting, I hurried out of the room.
Goro: This is Mr. Whiskers. Say hello.
Beneath his text was a picture of Goro, dimples on full display, holding an orange striped, and frankly, overweight, cat. Nearby was a chair, and I sat to balance the phone on my lap and type one-handed.
I’d barely begun my message to Mr. Whiskers when my phone rang. It was Goro.
“Meow,” he said.
“Meow, back,” I answered. “Is Mr. Whiskers the palace cat?”
“Nah,” Goro said. “He lives at our apartment. You’ll meet him soon enough.”
Would I? I tried to hang onto the good mood Goro inspired. “Should I bring any gifts when I meet him?” I asked.
“Catnip,” Goro began listing, “cat treats. String. Maybe a laser pointer. Your undying devotion. Mr. Whiskers demands very little.”
“He sounds intimidating.”
Aoi poked her head out of the room, saw me on the phone and smiled, her face relaxing.
“He’ll love you,” Goro said, but paused. “I’m sorry we’re stuck here.”
“Any estimate about when you’ll be back?” I asked, stomach knotting.
“I wish,” Goro replied. “I really thought we’d be finished by now, but our families have us running the gauntlet of media events. I’ve done more interviews and video apologies in the last two days than I have in my entire life.”
I’d watched some of those videos. They were inevitably linked to my own pathetic video in the amusement park. Luckily, whatever the magic that kept my face from appearing clearly in photographs also kept my face blurry in video.
Boy, were those paparazzi pissed. Served the bastards right. One of them had the audacity to send my father a bill, claiming I broke his camera with my face.
Jerk.
Aoi lifted an eyebrow at my silence, but nevertheless drew her head back inside and shut the door, giving me privacy to finish my conversation with Goro.
“It feels different here, now,” I said, off-topic.
“How?” he asked. Over the line, I could hear traffic and wind, and pictured him walking through the streets.
It was hard to explain the type of loneliness I felt without them. I had my sisters, but the princes offered me something they didn’t—a taste of the future I wanted.
“Just different.” I hated the tone my voice had taken. The dead last thing I wanted to do was sound clingy. “I haven’t had any adventures since you left,” I joked.
Goro chuckled softly, but then got serious. “How’s your hand?”
“Hurts like a mo-fo,” I answered honestly. “I contemplated cutting it off.”
“Shut up.” Goro laughed. I could see him as clearly as if he stood next to me. Head thrown back, eyes shut, face to the sky.
The door to my father’s study opened again and my mother sidled out. She glanced at me, frowned, and continued down the hall. Her back ramrod straight and her walk stiff.
“I have to go,” I said. Mama walked into her room and shut the door with a soft snick. No hysterics for my mother, but I knew her well enough to see she barely held herself together.
“All right,” Goro replied. “Call me later?”
“Yes,” I assured him. “If you hear anything about when you can return…”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
“Okay. Goodbye, Goro.”
“Bye, Kumiko. And remember, Mr. Whiskers requires tribute.”
“Of course.” I smiled. “Tribute.”
Goro hung up and I held the phone loosely in my lap, staring at my mother’s door. Did
I go to her? Try to make her feel better?
What could I tell her that she didn’t already know?
The princes would come back, eventually. I’d be awake to meet them, hopefully.
Aoi opened the door and glanced at me. “No date?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
She let out a sigh. “Mama wants you to tell the princes about the second part of the curse.”
“It won’t help,” I said. “All it will do is make them feel pressured. I have no doubt if I called them and told them I was five days away from dying, they’d drop everything and come back.”
“So what the hell are you waiting for?” Aoi asked. Strands of wavy black hair framed her face and she tucked them behind her ear. “Tell them.”
“They don’t love me yet, Aoi.”
“You don’t know that.” She frowned, for once looking more like Mama than Fuyumi. “You can’t know until you try. Pick one of them, and tell them. Tell him not to tell the others. He can kiss you, and maybe it will work.”
Pick one. I couldn’t pick one. I loved talking to Goro as much as Reiji. And Dai. Or Wataru.
“True love,” I reminded her. “Can’t be forced. It will happen or it won’t.”
“You can’t give up.” She gripped my arms and squeezed, then with more strength than I expected, she yanked me into her arms and squeezed me tight. “Don’t give up yet, okay? We still have seven days.”
Not quite. Patting her back awkwardly with my good hand, I tried to squeeze her around the waist without banging my injured one. “Five days,” I whispered.
“Five days.” Aoi’s voice was bleak. “Fuck.”
“What if I went to them?” I asked. “Instead of waiting around for them to show up…I feel like I’m always waiting. The princess in the tower, ready to be rescued.”
“Go to Iriogaki?” she said. Aoi tapped her finger on her lips. “Hmm. But what about the paparazzi and media?”
“They can see my face,” I said. “But it doesn’t appear in pictures. I’m pretty much a giant waste of time and effort.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” she allowed. “And I do have an apartment there. The trick will be getting Mama and Dad to let us go.”
My mother’s posture as she escaped down the hall came to my mind. “I don’t know if it will be as difficult as you think.”
I underestimated my parents. They were more difficult than Aoi and I had predicted. They didn’t like my idea at all.
“Absolutely not.” Dad crossed his arms. “I’m not sending you to Iriogaki without guards, and I can’t justify the expense. Not after Suita Park.”
“It’s a two-hour flight to the island,” Fuyumi said. “We could get her on a plane, wrap her up like she had some kind of surgery.”
“And what about you?” Mama asked. “Are you going to hide your face as well? Two girls with bandaged faces on a plane to Iriogaki? People will put two and two together.”
“A boat?” I asked.
“You’re not going anywhere near the water!” Mama’s voice was shrill and she cut off, as if her outburst had taken her by surprise.
Besides, how was I supposed to avoid the water when I lived on an island?
“Listen.” I tried to make my voice as firm as possible. “I want to be smart and do this safely. And I need your help to do it.”
My mother’s head hadn’t stopped shaking from side to side.
“Five days, Mama,” I said quietly. “If Dad hasn’t found his sister in twenty years, he’s not going to find her now.”
“I don’t like it,” she said.
“The paparazzi can’t do anything worse to her than they already have. There’s no need to outrun them. Let them take their disappointing photos.” Like always, Aoi had my back.
Miori and Fuyumi weren’t as certain, but I knew with Aoi on my side, they’d follow. In fact… “We could all go,” I said.
Mama’s eyes went wide and something like a gleam came into it. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I don’t know if that is possible.” Dad rubbed his hands down his face. “It is one thing for the girls to go, but for us? It would be more expensive. And the planning alone would take more than five days.” He smiled at me a little sadly. “Not that I wouldn’t love to go with you. But even in our small country, a king can’t go wherever he’d like when he feels like it.”
If my father wouldn’t go, neither would my mother and her disappointment was palpable. They exchanged a loaded glance and my mother sighed.
We had them.
20
Wataru
Kumiko: On my way to Iriogaki. Landing this evening. Staying at Aoi’s apartment.
I read the message again, and then, because I wasn’t certain I’d read it right the second time, I read it out loud. The door to my room burst open to slam against the wall.
“Did you get the message?” Reiji asked. He held up his phone. “She’s coming here.” He smiled widely, eyes bright with excitement and he bounced up and down. “‘On my way to Iriogaki.’ She’ll be here this evening.” Reiji threw his phone on the bed and grabbed my shoulders. “Wataru!” He gave a huge sigh and threw himself onto my bed. “I’m so relieved. I had no idea how we were going to talk our parents into letting us get out of here in the next few days.”
The weight that had been settled firmly on my shoulders lifted, and for the first time since getting the call that dragged me back to the island, I could breathe.
“We should throw her a birthday party,” I said. In one of many conversations over the last few days, Kumiko had mentioned her birthday. I wasn’t much for parties, but I suddenly wanted to do something for her. Something big.
“I have an idea—” Reiji said, but was cut off when Dai and Goro came inside.
“You heard?” Goro asked. “Mr. Whiskers is so excited.”
Mr. Whiskers was Goro’s overweight, bad-tempered cat the rest of us tolerated. Because we’d been forced to stay at the Governor’s Estate, Goro had rescued his cat from our house sitter and brought him here. Now, extra angry, he prowled the hallway for unsuspected pants to attack.
“She’s staying at Aoi’s apartment,” Dai said. “It’s not far. We can meet her there later.”
Our phones chimed at the same time, and I glanced at mine.
Kumiko: The paparazzi may follow, but we’re not in disguise. Well, I am, but my sisters aren’t. We’re bringing the circus to town, I guess.
I loved the way I could hear her voice in her messages. She didn’t cut words down and as a result, her voice was as clear as if she was standing next to me.
Wataru: We’ll be ready. To my friends I said, “Her birthday is coming up. Reiji wants to throw her a party.”
“Not any party,” Reiji said. “I’ve been watching these things called promposals, and I want to do something like that.”
“I hate to break it to you, but we’re way beyond prom,” Goro said. He opened the door and smacked his lips together. “Whiskers! Whiskers!”
Someone in the hallway screeched and a blur of orange ran into the room. Goro lifted the cat in his arms and hefted him over his shoulder, presenting us with the cat’s ass.
“I know we’re beyond prom,” Reiji replied, drily. “But I want her to be my girlfriend. No one has ever made a big to-do over her. Well, they did, but she got cursed at that one.”
I was too much hung up on the possessive way he talked about Kumiko. He wanted her to be his girlfriend.
“No,” Dai said and crossed his arms. “No way.”
“No?” Reiji drew his brows together. He couldn’t really be surprised we weren’t ready to step aside and give her up to him.
“No,” I repeated. “She’s not yours.”
Reiji sucked in his cheeks and narrowed his eyes for a moment, considering me. “You don’t want her to be my girlfriend.”
“I want her to be my girlfriend,” Goro said. “I love you like you were my brother, but I’m not down to be a martyr.”
“I thought we worked it out before,” Reiji said, confused. “When we left, we told her father, we were all interested in her.”
“Exactly,” Dai said. “All of us.”
Reiji’s eyes suddenly widened. “One of us doesn’t get her. All of us get her.”
The idea was less shocking to me than perhaps it would have been a week ago, but since meeting Kumiko, I’d come to believe in magic and the unexpected. Nothing about our nascent relationship had started in a normal way. As far as I could see, there was no reason to bow to convention now.
Briefly, I thought about our parents’ reactions, but pushed the fallout firmly in the worry about it later pile. It struck me, suddenly, how far my sense of obligation to Iriogaki had fallen. Kumiko was at the top of my list now.
“Okay,” Dai said, shrugging. I expected him to brush his hands together, like that’s that. I wasn’t the only one whose priorities had changed.
“Mr. Whiskers is good with it. He already shares me with you.” Goro scratched the cat’s back and it lifted its ass in the air. Nice.
Three pairs of eyes in three hopeful faces fixed on me. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine with it. But I don’t know about your whole promposal idea. How about a birthday party, and we tell her how we feel then?”
“I’m making a sign,” Reiji mumbled. Dai punched his arm and Reiji narrowed his eyes, stepping away from the larger man. “Damn, Dai. Fuck off. You can make your own sign.”
Dai rolled his eyes and looked at me, but I’d long since given up reining in Reiji. Or any of them for that matter.
“There’s nothing left for us to do today,” I said. “Kumiko will land in two hours, and head to Aoi’s. What do you say we surprise her there?”
There was a scuffle and Whiskers flew out of Goro’s arms to dart out the door. “I’m in. Let me change and we’ll meet in thirty minutes.”
Dai nodded while Reiji approached the mirror above my bureau and fixed his hair. “Yeah. I think I’ll put on a hat. My hair is a mess.”
While Beauty Sleeps Page 13