It was abusing her position, but with so little time left she had no choice. A call to the old goat secured the approval of involving Uniclo in the fashion show. Christina didn't tell him she'd call her agency as well. He didn't need to know that.

That was her second planned phone call, but before she could make it her phone rang.

Amaya? “Christina here.”

“Hello, there's something I need to talk with you about.”

What's up now? I don't like that voice. “Yes? I'm a bit busy right now.”

“I'll make it short. Could you please not invite Urufu over to your place anymore?”

What the fuck! “Eh, I don't understand.” Christina felt panic rising in her. She's supposed to be on our side.

“I'd really prefer if you broke up with him, but I understand you wouldn't listen to that anyway. So I'm placing a curfew on Urufu instead.”

Christina stared at her phone. The call was off. She had punched it off without thinking. We have so little time together already, and now this. Why? Why would you want to hurt us this way?

Tears came to her eyes. They did so easily, and they would as long as she was still a teen if she could believe that doctor whom Nakagawa had brought to the beach. There was little reason to believe anything else. She had been something of a cry-baby when she was a teenager the first time.

Still, that call had been blunt to the degree of idiocy. A frontal assault like that was guaranteed to be met by resistance, so why hadn't Amaya been slyer instead of behaving like a pre-teen bully?

It was an important question, but it was one Christina just didn't have the time to handle right now. Later she'd talk with Ko-chan and maybe cry a little more, but now she needed to get a fashion show running from scratch with only hours to play with.

Then her phone rang again. Unknown number? “Ageruman Kuritina,” she said in the Japanese way.

“My name is Alice Kerringer. I'm calling from Uniclo concerning our autumn launch,” a voice said in English.

“Yes?”

“We're going live today. We've been in contact with your agency, but they told us to call you directly. We're interested in an event, but as you're still a high school student we got the impression there might be some scheduling issues.”

For the second time in a day Christina stared at her phone. Now that's what I call superb timing. “Yes, but I was just about to call you about a problem we have.” She sat down on the floor uncaring that her skirt would probably be stained from her doing so.

“Yes?” Now it was the other side's turn to ask that question.

“Ms Kerringer, our cultural festival is about to start, and some jerks destroyed our props for a fashion show.”

“Yes?” Christina could hear the rise in interest through the phone.

“I've cleared with our principal, and I was just about to call you to see if you had any interest in sponsoring us. Thinking how close it was to the launch and all that.”

“Ah, but we wouldn't want to seem partial to one school.”

Now that's just haggling, and a poor start to boot. “Ah, Ms Kerringer, the finishing shoot was with students from here, so it would fit in rather well. If I may say so.”

There was a short delay. “If I understand those kind of events only run for a few minutes. It's a lot of work for us for so small an audience.”

Got you now! “There are two events. The second one is a beauty contest, and that one should attract the interest of everyone for the duration of both days.”

Once more there was a delay of hesitation. The Kerringer person probably spoke with someone else right now. This was the final part of negotiations, and anyone downplaying Christina Agerman when it came to negotiations usually didn't last long in business. Or hadn't in her previous life.

“Unless we can have a camera crew there I don't see the use for us.”

You're way too easy to read. “That's cleared as well,” Christina lied. “The original plan was for my agency to sponsor the event with stock clothing, but I understand why they asked you to call me directly now.”

And that was about as far from the truth as possible, but Christina knew her agency would prostrate themselves and cry hallelujah, or whatever people in Japan cried, at the opportunity for a public display together with a local behemoth like Uniclo.

“We're not paying any fees.”

“Of course not. This is a school event after all. I'm doing this in my role as club president, but we would really like to be able to display your autumn line before it's in the stores.”

And that was another lie. Uniclo sold clothes about as sexy as Chag had done the last years, which was to say cheap and not sexy at all. Maybe not entirely a lie after all. It would be clothes that weren't available at the shops yet, and that counted for a lot.

Christina sealed the deal over the phone, and after that she quickly placed a call to her agency. She almost heard the hallelujah cries over the phone, and with that their show was on track again.

Now there was the matter of scheduling her models. All of them. Especially the one who didn't have a clue he'd be forced on-stage.

Her fame was about to explode, and she had already experienced breaking through once before. Whether she would become a national icon again or not was uncertain, but for the coming three months she'd become one of the most famous faces in Japan.

Ulf however didn't understand how fast his own fame was rising. Sure it was contained to Himekaizen only, but for all practical purposes their school was their world, and Christina planned to make her claim on him very, very, very public. Public enough to make certain it wouldn't be contained to their school any longer.

Amaya's call scared her, and it angered her, and it made her decide to put Ulf on the stage together with her. No one had the right to break them up. If their relationship broke down it should because of their own faults.

With new determination Christina punched Ko-chan's number. Amaya's call still made her need to cry a little.

Most of all she wanted to feel Ulf's arms around her, but he was probably too busy for that right now. With that thought in her head she busied herself for a few hours before she found a reason to go outdoors.

***

Ryu's delivery had been beyond expectations. Not only was the fight between 5:2 and 3:1 resolved, but they had gained another ten students from 9:1, and with that Ulf's remaining staffing problems dissolved.

He smiled remembering Ryu's heads up. Apparently a girl in their middle school with amazingly poor taste in boys had nurtured a crush on him before he was expelled. It was a little flattering, and he wasn't above feeling his self-esteem rising a bit.

Maybe Christina wouldn't think it was as fun, even though he trusted her to be mature enough to laugh it away in the end.

Probably.

They hadn't been able to share all that much time together since the night he spent in her apartment. By any normal standards they should have been lovers by now, but that night they only slept together just as they had done at the resort her grandfather ran together with his wife.

There was no mistaking why she called him over, but when he got there he was just too emotionally drained to do anything, and in a way he valued her closeness more than sex.

Ulf rehashed that evening as he had done several times by now. They slept together and nothing else but was that what she wanted? Had she wanted more, and if so was she angry with him now?

Gah, I'll just ask her when we meet. No point in worrying on my own. This was one occasion where fifty was much better than sixteen. Knowing that in order to avoid misunderstandings actually talking things over was a perfectly acceptable solution.

When he had been sixteen, the first time, talking something specific over hadn't been the main problem. Talking with a girl at all was. He spent his two first years in high school with his tongue perpetually glued to the back of his mouth whenever a girl approached too close.

Third year less so after a second year took a fancy to him and tired of waiting. She made him her boyfriend with all the finesse and subtlety of a stereotypical caveman. She crowned her whirlwind campaign by kicking in the door to his classroom mid lecture, declaring she had come for her boyfriend and frenched him before he had a chance to rise from his chair.

Ulf grinned at the memory. It only lasted a little over a year, but before they grew apart she had reshaped him into a very different person.

His first. There was something about firsts.

“Hamarugen-san?”

He shook the memories away and turned to look for whoever had spoken to him.

“Hamarugen-san?”

A junior from the liberal arts section, but which class he couldn't tell. “Sorry, I spaced out a bit, what can I help you with?”

“We're the Latin seafood stall.”

Ulf dug up his phone and made a search. “The grill?”

“Yeah. There's a problem. We wondered if we could extend the barbecue instead. We could use the stall for sales only.”

There's no way they came up with this on their own. They're not club members so no one told them to think independently. “Who told you to ask me?”

The junior pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. Behind him Ulf saw Christina talking frantically into her headset while still making time to wave at him.

“Fine, we'll do so. Get your grills out of the booth and set it up at one end of the two lines.” Ulf drew a quick sketch on the ground with the two lines of grills and where he wanted the last two set up at one end. “Got it?”

He received a nod in return, and the junior returned to make the changes.

Christina. I should have known. But Ryu's getting damn good at this as well, so it could have been him. Ulf started walking towards Christina. If nothing else he could get a hug and a kiss from her before they were swamped with more work.

He made it halfway to her.

“Hamarugen-san?”

What's up this time? The girl looking up at him was a complete stranger. “How can I be of assistance?” Not much point in pretending I don't know she's looking for help.

“I'm from the tea club and we've been told to cooperate with the espresso stall.”

“Yes?” How bloody hard can it be?

“We don't know how. Just because both stalls serve hot drinks we're not the same.”

Ulf looked over her shoulder to where Christina still stood. She threw him an ironic smile and waved to let him know she'd wait for him a bit longer.

“OK, split down the middle.”

When he saw the girl's face mimic a question mark he pulled out the umbrella he had used just moments earlier.

“Like this,” Ulf said and drew two boxes on the ground. “You're organised in two groups like this at the moment. Split each group in two this way and merge the two halves. Got it?”

She nodded understanding.

“Each new group continues planning like before, but this time both groups will have knowledge about serving tea as well as coffee. Should solve your problem.”

The freshman girl, because her uniform gave away that she was one, gave him an uncertain look as if she couldn't believe such a simple solution would do any good.

“Trust me on this. If it doesn't work you can always come back. OK?”

“Thank you Hamarugen-san,” she said.

He was about to leave her when she suddenly tugged at his shirt sleeve. Ulf looked up and saw Christina glaring at the girl, and just then she let go.

“Anything more?” Ulf asked, but she shook her head and ran away.

When he started walking to Christina he saw how she had already made the distance to him. Amused worry played over her face, and Ulf had an inkling of an idea what it was about.

“Sorry about that,” he said to Christina, “but I don't do two girls at the same time so you don't have to worry.” But isn't that a lie? Isn't this cheating on Maria?

She smirked. “I hope you understand that 'doing' a girl means something else. Besides, you all that certain she was going to confess?”

So you didn't catch up on my lie? “You glared. If I wasn't sure before I was after that.” It wasn't a topic he wanted to spend time on. Instead he drew her close and let go of all thoughts. Her arms around his back and her body pressed against his was all that mattered.

I can never get enough of this. If I didn't know how much I'd hurt your dreams I'd declare my love for you from the rooftop for the entire school to hear. He knew he wasn't in the clear yet, but at least admitting to himself that there were two women in his heart meant he was moving forward another tiny step.

“Ulf,” she murmured into his shirt. “do you have some free time around two pm day after tomorrow?”

Reluctantly he let go of her. There was something in her eyes, like she had thought something over and made a decision. If it's important for you. “If you need me at two pm I'll make time.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

He was rewarded with a smile that almost made his heart stop.

Then Christina's phone blared and she had to take the call. After she affirmed something Ulf didn't understand he heard how she called Noriko.