Caught in the Middle

The other two students just stared at her with surprise and growing worry and alarm, after Minami asked her ambiguous question.

"Why are you making Subaru here wear girls clothing... when I know, you know he's a guy?"

Thankfully she rephrased her query.

"Huh... oh uh, - that wasn't my idea..."

Kei recovered fairly well.

"So you do know though?"

Minami stood and looked at Kei, while Subaru continued to fret.

"Oh, um. Yes, I know..."

"... And yet you still made him go out with you? Why?"

Kei was startled by this fresh development, which was completely unexpected for her, but answered after a moment.

"Subaru chose to..."

Minami didn't like that half answer at all.

"Sure, I bet you threatened him."

"No, there were no threats at all, I swear!"

Kei shot back defensively, while Tetsuko huffed lightly.

"Well... you can call it off, since we both know Subaru's a guy and all, so he can go out with me instead."

"Why? - and Subaru's pretending-"

Kei spat back, but was quickly interrupted too.

"This is the twenty-first century, girls do date and so with other girls you know."

Minami said quite matter of factly.

Kei glanced to Subaru, then back to Minami.

"But..."

"I would have thought... Besides, we've been close... we've seen things I mean."

Tetsuko looked fairly angrily at Akashi as she brought another fact to support her, that she then found hard to get out, so she closed her eyes.

"Well he must, because we once... well he and I were... He's seen me totally naked!"

"Uh!?"

Her confession wasn't too surprising, since Kei had actually been there as well, but she responded with surprise anyway, before breaking the quiet gap with her own reviolation.

"Well... he's seen me naked... a few times too...!"

"So?"

Minami shot back straight away.

"Wha... what's that mean... 'so'?"

Minami looked at Kei with some disbelief.

"You're both guys... what's it matter to you... I bet you've seen and showed heaps of male buff over the years to all your pals..."

Kei was taken aback, apparently forgetting that Tetsuko only knew of the one cross-dressing person in the room, going a little red.

"No I would... it... that doesn't happen...!"

"What would I know what goes on between guy groups... only what I hear from my brothers. But as a girl... it's a serious matter for a guy to... gaze upon..."

Kei stayed quiet, as Minami trailed off, but soon she found a second wind.

"I guess I know why Subaru's going out with you. To keep his secret from others, but if it is just to be taken, let him go out with me instead..."

Minami turned to Subaru with intrigue and asked.

"I mean it's obvious - you do... like girls' right?"

"Well yeah..."

Subaru partly replied in reflex, not helping Kei's position though.

"See, so I'm clearly the better choice here. Unless you do go for... the same team?"

Tetsuko insinuated, but Kei immediately shot that down.

"No I do not! But... I thought you wanted... me though?"

The conversation was getting complicated; as Kei brought up Minami's recent play for getting 'him' to start a serious relationship with her.

"I've moved on, since you weren't interested at all... I can't fathom why though."

She said the last part under her breath, but they all heard her.

"But..."

Subaru's one word brought their attention back to him.

"I still think we - Kei and I, should still be a couple... I mean I did promise to after all, and that still means a lot to me."

The three stared at each other for a little.

"Fine..."

Minami said reluctantly, but she wasn't done, as she walked over to Kei and declared right in her slightly shorter face.

"Oh, I'll win him over yet."

Kei stared her down angrily, but stayed quiet for now.

"You've certainly known me long enough to know by now Kei..."

She tapped her finger on Kei's flat chest and with an assured smile.

"I get what I want... always."

"Your dad's not going to be around to buy everything for you anymore!"

Those words stung her, and Kei looked almost as pained after speaking them too, but Minami recovered promptly.

"Da... he's been... unreliable of late... but I have plenty of my own money."

"Oh yeah... a little savings isn't enough to-"

"A couple of million yen is more than enough for now!"

She blurted out hastily, and reclaimed her smug attitude after seeing Kei's surprise and disbelief.

A couple million... how much embezzling did that family do...?

"We're rivals from now on... Kei Akashi."

Subaru thought his luck would change when another entered the private hospital room, but he'd just witnessed a declaration between two girls - for his affections.

I'd make for a rom-com, apart from all the guarded secrets... that haven't really remained very secretive despite best efforts...

"What do I care, your family is a total disgrace."

Minami didn't refute that, but did her best to ignore it.

"Don't underestimate me... I have an overwhelming advantage here."

She puffed her bigger chest Kei's way, right under her chin, and reclaimed her overly smug attitude.

"I have things... to lure Subaru away from you... offers you couldn't possibly match."

Kei couldn't hide her displeasure at that statement, but kept quiet, as she and Subaru knew that there wasn't all that much different between those two.

"And you heard it from him too; that Subaru likes girls... and I'm a totally adorable girl... so there's no real challenge here anyway..."

Minami keep going, before she briefly stopped to check a ping on her phone, then turned Subaru's way, to kiss her fingers and then blow it his direction.

"Got to go now... See ya Subaru. Get well soon."

With that Minami left, but only after giving another look and a tiny head bob towards Kei, who kept her cool, till she was far enough away to be out of earshot.

"Such a know it all, stuck up, selfish, conniving, little...!"

Kei sighed, and turned back to the one she'd come to see.

"Uh, she always makes things into a competition..."

Kei sat sideways, heavily on the end of the bed, narrowly missing Subaru's foot.

"Sorry you got dragged into our squabbling... mess... again."

"Well at least yesterday's confrontation revealed who was responsible for... pinning the blame on me, I think."

"Not that you can tell father that, and clear your name amongst..."

Yeah, too much has gone under that bridge... Speaking of the Yakuza...

"What is going to happen to Minami's dad?"

Subaru asked, not too confident he'd like the answer though.

"Dad handed him over to the cops, and he'll be gone for a while... but he knows not to blab, or mention the family... not that it matters to you."

Subaru was sort of relieved, and was just about to ask about the Akashi's, when another tap came at the door.

"Hey kid's... I hear you'll be fine Sekiya."

Masaru appeared and wandered in a little, receiving small smiles from them both.

"I say that because they're going to kick you out soon, so we'll give you a ride if you want?"

"Thank-you, again sir."

He smiled back.

"Feel free to call me whatever kiddo, you earned that..."

What, like; Akashi...? Masaru...? Father...!? No, I couldn't do that one...

Subaru only nodded shyly.

"Anyhow, here're your clothes, and here is a change for you too kid."

He handed over a couple of bags, and started to back out.

"Kei worried so much, she stayed up all night, so I guessed you'd need a change. You two will be alright in here... I'll keep everyone else out, okay."

"Uh father!"

Kei tried to object, but he just shut the door carefully.

Subaru looked about the private room, but with an 'out of order' sign on the locked bathroom, and not even a privacy curtain - there was nowhere for the boy and girl to get changed alone.

Kei only briefly huffed after also glancing about herself, and set her bag down beside her.

"Well we better get to it then..."