Parade by Shuichi Yoshida

Author:Shuichi Yoshida [Shuichi Yoshida]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

3.13

Naoki had come home slightly tipsy, and Ryosuke was clinging to him, apparently begging him to lend him ¥30,000. ‘I promise I’ll pay you back when I get paid for my part-time job at the end of the month,’ Ryosuke pleaded. Koto and I were on the sofa eating ice cream, enjoying this little scene played out before us.

‘What’re you going to use it for?’ Naoki asked.

We could hear them in their room now, where it seemed like Naoki was taking off his suit and Ryosuke was hanging it up for him. ‘So if you could just see your way to lending it to me,’ Ryosuke said, continuing to pester him.

‘I’ll lend it to you if you’ll tell me what you’re going to use it for.’ Naoki had now stripped down to his underwear. He strode out into the living room with Ryosuke trotting along behind him, his bath towel in hand.

‘If I tell you, will you really lend it to me?’

‘Sure. As long as it’s not for something weird.’

‘It isn’t. I need it for a date.’

‘A date? With Kiwako?’

‘Of course. Who else?’

Seated next to me, licking her green tea ice cream, Koto said, ‘Ryosuke already asked Satoru.’ She sounded a bit disgusted by it.

‘You begged an eighteen-year-old for money?’ I burst out. ‘Don’t you have any pride?’

‘Yeah, but he’s loaded.’

‘He’s right,’ Koto said, nodding deeply. ‘When I went to play pachinko with him he pulled out ¥10,000 bills from his pocket one after another.’

I wondered whether male prostitutes these days were really doing that well, but all I said was ‘Hmmmm’ and let it go. Naoki grabbed the bath towel out of Ryosuke’s hands, said, ‘Okay. I’ll give it to you,’ and went into the bath. Ryosuke stood there in front of the closed bathroom door and gave a triumphant fist pump.

‘Where’re you going to go with ¥30,000?’ I asked.

‘It’s a secret,’ Ryosuke replied slyly, and retreated back into the guys’ room.

‘It’s a kind of talent,’ Koto murmured beside me.

‘What is?’ I asked.

‘How he can coax people to do things.’

Ryosuke really does have that ability. The fact that he doesn’t realise it makes you think that all the more, but sometimes you just can’t help stepping in to take care of him, when he acts so helpless it makes you mad. I imagine that talent alone – the ability to get people to do what he wants – should be enough to get him through life.

That’s right – the other day Ryosuke finally brought Kiwako, whom we’d heard so much about, back to the apartment. When I got back from work Koto and Satoru were already in the midst of the stupid little play Ryosuke had scripted, repeating their lines like a pair of mynah birds. Kiwako had long since seen through their act, and when I came into the living room she sidled up to me and said, ‘They’ve got to stop reading those lines. I can’t take it.’

Before I actually met her, I was sure that Kiwako, who was clearly cheating on her boyfriend with a younger guy, must be a terrible sort of woman.

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