Comes up Roses

Chapter 9: Introducing the Famed Zuka Club

Once, long ago, there lived a princess. Steeped in wealth and bathed in beauty, she had all she could ever want. Her family prospered, her kingdom thrived; she would be the fairest queen her land would ever know.

Then her mother disappeared.

The king searched for her far and wide but eventually gave up hope and remarried. He wouldn't speak of the first queen, wouldn't allow anyone to speak of her in his presence. Gradually, the kingdom forgot the king had ever had a first wife. Though the princess didn't forget.

She tried her hardest to abandon the love she harbored for her mother but it was impossible, she was in unbearable pain. So she hid herself away from the world, let poison ivy crawl up the walls over her tower and put monsters in her moat so that no one would ever try to love her again.

Her subjects, who cared for her like family, cried for her to return to them. But the princess was so deafened by her grief and her rage that she couldn't hear them; her tower rose and rose until it was thousands of feet above the kingdom and no one on the ground could see her. There, she worked tirelessly. Working, working, and for what? For the family that she didn't love, for the subjects she had left behind?

Masae, where does your tower hide? And how can we bring you back down from it?

🥀🥀🥀

"Are you ever going to make up with the Twins or are you content with watching me pull my hair out?"

Masae looked up from her laptop, staring blankly at Ootori. "Your hair looks fine to me," she said. "Is that a very convincing rug you're wearing, or—?"

Ootori's brows furrowed in an expression very unlike him. "You're missing my point on purpose so you can avoid this conversation. I need you to focus, Aoki."

So he was serious. "Alright then," Masae said, turning away from her work to give Ootori her full attention. "What did you want to talk about, Ootori? Though I should tell you, Honey has already lectured me on this point."

"I imagine he took the angle of love and forgiveness. Maybe he said that the Twins would move on from you if you took too long to apologize? Rolled out his bottom lip and pretended to cry?" Ootori took a moment for his words to sink in. Masae nodded and he continued. "I know you don't respond well to pathos, so I feel the need to add that the Twins' sales have gone down since we got back from the beach."

Masae jumped as Ootori dropped a binder on the table in front of her. She immediately pored over it, taking in the graphic representation of the customers that the Hitachiins had drawn in and the merchandise they had sold. Until two weeks ago, when they had gone to the beach and fought with Masae, the Twins had been nearly the most popular duo, beaten only by Suoh. Now, they were ranked below Honey and Morinozuka.

But was that really possible? Masae looked over at the Twins, who were chatting with a small group of ladies. They seemed to have their usual joie de vivre. "They look fine to me," said Masae. "Monday mornings are always slow."

Ootori followed her gaze. "Of course you think they're alright. But the girls know better. They can tell when something's off."

"They're like dogs before an earthquake?" Masae sighed. "I don't think I follow your train of thought here, Ootori."

"I mean no offense, but it doesn't particularly matter whether or not you understand their feelings. So long as you understand that their numbers have gone down, and you're able to see the cause, then that's all I care about. And of course that you understand what you have to do to fix this; it is entirely your fault that the Twins are in their current state, after all."