Several months ago…
“Another masterpiece,” the young woman stated matter-of-factly as she pulled the finished scarf off the end of the sewing machine.
“It looks gorgeous, Yukako-sempai,” one of the other girls in the Fashion Club gushed. “Does this mean I can have your old blue one?”
“Of course not!” Yukako grinned as she twirled the new scarf stylishly around her neck. “But I’ll let you borrow it for awhile Eri, if you agree to wear it during the show next month.”
“You mean it?” The small girl nearly danced in place. Yukako loved the expressions the first years made sometimes.
“Sure, let’s go pick out a dress to wear it with,” Yukako suggested. The two girls headed over to the closet where the finished outfits were stored. Both were surprised to see Yuta, the club president, standing in front of the closet with a depressed look on his face. He seemed to be positioned specifically to prevent anyone from looking inside. “Yuta-san, what’s wrong?”
“Uh… funny story, Yukako-san,” Yuta chuckled nervously as he ran his hand through his hair. “Do you remember hearing about that student a few days ago that accidently set loose the biology class’s entire supply of mice?”
“Yeah, I think I heard about that,” Yukako said slowly, uncertain where he was going with this. “Wasn’t it some kid named Shino?”
“Yes, that was his name,” the president confirmed. “Well… I think we finally found where the mice escaped to…”
Confusion quickly gave way to panic as Yukako’s eyes went wide. Without an apology she shoved the club president aside and flung open the closet. It only took a moment for her worst fears to be confirmed. Box after box of meticulously crafted outfits had fallen victim to the emancipated rodents. Stunned, she lifted a dress out of one, only to find it now had more holes than a block of swiss cheese.
“Yukako-sempai?” Eri asked nervously, after watching Yukako stand motionlessly for over a minute.
Yukako turned back to face the rest of the horrified club. “We start again. Well, what are you all standing around for?!”
Some time later…
Yukako wiped her forehead from exertion as she finished stitching up another brand-new dress. As the few members of the Fashion Club still working at this late hour hustled over to get a closer look at her newest creation, she allowed herself to beam with pride. Most people would have given up after the rat debacle, but not Yukako Yasukawa!
“This is even better than your earlier work, Yukako-sempai,” Eri beamed. Yukako suspected that was partly because the dress had been tailored specifically to Eri’s measurements. It was not the only one. The mouse fiasco had delivered a serious blow not only to the club’s finances but to its membership as well.
Dealing with the lack of funding had been tough enough. Much of the money that would have gone to the show went instead to making the replacement dresses. The show itself would somehow need to be done on a shoe-string budget. However, the rate at which club members had abandoned her was particularly irritating. Many had simply shifted interests once things became difficult, but others blamed her! Certainly, the pace she had the club working under now was rough, but insults like ‘slave-driver’ and ‘Cruella de Ville’ were hardly called for!
‘It’s better without them,’ Yukako thought to herself, almost saying it out loud. ‘Maybe I owe that Shino kid a favor for weeding out all of the bad apples,’ she grinned.
“President!” Yukako called out. “I’ve got another one for you to store with the others.” The school claimed they had rounded up all of the ratty refugees, but Yukako decided not to take any chances. Yuta promised he could find a much safer location to store the outfits the club created until they were needed.
“Yes, about that…” Yuta replied as he walked up and did his very best to avoid Yukako’s gaze. “I had a friend in the chemistry club offer some space in their storeroom. Mice won’t go there because of the chemicals they use.”
“That’s… pretty smart,” Yukako confessed. “As long as we don’t end up with dresses that smell like formaldehyde.”
“Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem… except…”
Yukako’s gaze narrowed. “Except what?”
“Well… remember how you laughed when I told you Shino had another accident in Home Economics and broke off the faucet, drenching himself and flooding the room? As it turns out, that room was directly above the chemistry storeroom, and the water… well, it did what water does…”
Once more Yukako stood completely still as her brain tried to process the loss. A slow, tearing sound brought her back to reality. She looked down to see that her hands had spent the last few minutes tearing Eri’s new dress to shreds. A very primal pallor had formed on her face, and the few brave souls that had not already fled the room flung themselves onto sewing machines like they were life preservers in an endless ocean.
More recently…
Darkness had fallen outside, but inside the school one sewing machine still hummed relentlessly. Yukako fed the cloth through the machine with a keen eye, while Eri stood dutifully with extra thread.
“Looks like it’s just us now, Yukako-sempai. Oh, and Yuta-san,” Eri added as an aside.
“Good riddance,” Yukako spat back, without taking her eyes off of her work. “This would be no masterpiece, she was reduced to working with scraps now. But even strips of cloth can be elevated, made into treasured possessions. All it took was a little time, and a lot of skill.”
“Um, Yukako-sempai? You’re narrating again,” the younger student pointed out hesitantly, with a animated sweat drop forming on her forehead.
“Oh, sorry,” the seamstress apologized. “I guess the stress is just getting to me. Still, only a little ways to go, and we’ll have just enough finished. The show will go on! A small one, but at least it’ll be worth it in the end, right?”
Eri beamed and nodded forcefully. “Right!”
“Yasukawa-san, can I have a word?”
Yukako turned off the machine and looked up to see Yuta standing in the doorway. Irritation bubbled up in her (didn’t she tell him not to interrupt her while she was working) but she swallowed it and stood up. “This had better be important.”
Yuta spoke in a low voice as soon as Yukako had crossed the room. “I’ll let you break the news to Eri-chan, but we’re going to have to cancel the fashion show.”
The club president had been hoping for discretion from the fashion club’s star member, but he found something far different as he felt two calloused hands grab him by the shoulders. “What do you mean?! Why?!” Yukako asked, possessed by fury.
“M-Money… we don’t have any…” Yuta spat out as Yukako shook him violently.
“You told me we had enough money yesterday! Where did the money go?!”
Yuta slowly turned crimson, due both to embarrassment as well as the throttling he was receiving. “I-I lied. We only had half the money we needed. So I figured I’d just… win a little wager, double it, and we’d be set.”
“You… you gambled away our savings?” Yukako said aghast, dropping her hold on Yuta who slumped backwards against the door. “How could you?”
“Well, we couldn’t do anything with half the money, right? I saw that Shino kid win a bunch of bets in a row, and I figured he was due for a loss. I almost won…”
“Neither Yuta nor Eri noticed, but something inside Yukako snapped then and there.” Actually, they both noticed, since Yukako began self-narrating again. “Her dream, her long delayed, endlessly sought after show was never going to happen, and once again Shino was involved. Surely this was no coincidence! It had to be deliberate!
“Well, if Shino Tatsuko wanted to ruin her life, then it would be the worst mistake he ever made! She would make it her life’s mission to destroy him, and make him suffer like no one had ever suffered before!”
Fri Aug 26 16:11:44 2011
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