"Hello Mayu," was her cold and almost hypothermic greeting.
So her joy had once again blown itself up when her cell phone rang, huh?
"Hello Yuna," I also greeted her emotionlessly, 'it's about time I came by", again I would have liked to add, but then preferred to stick to the friendlier level.
"Oh yes," she pressed through her thin lips in a short and exasperated voice, and I could immediately hear the drumming of the whistles in the background, "you're far too late for that! We had agreed that you had to show your face after six months at the very latest! What excuse do you have? After all, there's no reason why you didn't show up!"
I couldn't help but grin mischievously. Yes, probably the worst time ever, but I couldn't help it.
"I moved again within Tokyo two months ago and unfortunately missed making a new appointment for the visit."
I was no longer even trying to sound credible.
I could have told her that I had been run over by an airplane. Or I could have spent several weeks in hospital because of an illness. Everything was an excuse for this woman.
"I see, and you've been so busy that you've just forgotten about our agreement?"
I nodded as if she could have seen it through the phone. How I hated her patronizing tone. No understanding or concern whatsoever. It could really have been that something had happened to me. But even if it had, they would probably have been happy about it. This reprimand had only served to demonstrate their power to me.
"Of course," I replied cheekily, because I had nothing to lose anyway, "so what about the weekend after next?"
"Just a moment, please. I need to see if we have any appointments and if we have time for you."
Don't feel pressured.
"From when to when, please?" she wanted to know, while I heard the rustling of paper in the background. Her second lover, or as some called it - calendar.
"From Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening," I answered neatly, but made a disgusted grimace as I looked up at the ceiling. How was I going to survive those two days?
"What?!", she exclaimed in horror, "two days? Why in God's name so long?"
I wondered the same thing, but Satoru wanted it that way.
"I'd like to bring my boyfriend and show him where I grew up," I blurted out unabashedly before I realized what lie I'd just seen flitting naked across the red carpet.
Oops...
"I see. Your boyfriend then? How long have you been together? You haven't told me anything about him," she threw contemptuously at my feet, as well as angrily in her voice.
I'd like to know, but how long have you been interested?
"It's only been about two months," I rambled on.
"Didn't you just move two months ago? I really hope you didn't get yourself into someone else's house by being unchaste."
I gave myself a horrified look in the mirror.
I had been used to a lot from her, but I hadn't thought it would go in this direction. Especially as I only let a man get close to me when I had developed feelings for him.
"That shows once again how much you know me, Yuna. Not at all, actually. You haven't even asked me how I'm doing here in Tokyo or how my new job is going. Nothing. And then you insinuate that I'm having sex with strange men-" I interrupted myself in my incipient tirade of anger, "to answer your disgusting question - no."
Calling me a slut indirectly made me unspeakably angry.
"We don't care about that either, Mayu. You're an adult. God will know which way you're going to go. Whether you're happy or not makes no difference to us. Anyway, I've made an appointment with you and your new boyfriend. Next weekend from Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening. God forbid he's not just as much of a lout as your ex-boyfriend Kei."
"You'll never forget him either, will you?" I alluded to my ex-boyfriend, who had given them a piece of his mind shortly before we broke up, "Don't worry. He's the opposite."
If only they knew how Satoru had reacted to them yesterday, I could have just stayed at home.
"Let's hope so, miss. I don't have any more time or desire to talk to you now,
Mayu. May God forgive your sins. Bye," she said goodbye briefly and succinctly and hung up.
Unmoving, I let the rest of the tooting echo in my ear before I simply dropped the cell phone into my cross-legged position. In a state of shock, I continued to fixate on myself in the mirror, my vision gradually beginning to blur. I couldn't stop her words from hitting me again.
As they had done so many times since I could remember.
I hated it! I hated beyond words that she had once again managed to make drops of emotion burn down my cheeks because of her, while my anger built up inside me. That stupid cow wasn't even worth a tear and she had still managed it. Again!
We don't care about that either, Mayu.
You're an adult.
Whether you're happy or not makes no difference to us.
I gripped my cell phone tightly and put it back on the bedside table more roughly than I intended, before taking a penetrating look at the drawer underneath.