‘And what else’ve you got to say for yourself?’
Shoko gestured towards the quiet type with her chin. It was obvious to Shoko that she was fake-crying, but she managed to respond.
‘I’ve had feelings for X ever since I started working at the company … so when I realized that I was pregnant, it turned out … I said that I would raise the child on my own, he didn’t even have to acknowledge us.’
Though she didn’t know whether to be glad or sad that he could be taken in like that.
‘You’re strong, Shoko – I know you have what it takes to be on your own,’ he said.
‘But now that she’s pregnant, and such a quiet type, the kind of woman who would make a good mother and good home … I could never be happy, being with you, pretending not to know that she was having my child.’
‘Besides, you’re not even crying, are you? Even when this happens to you. Here she is, crying her eyes out, and all you do is get angry and allot blame, right? If you were a bit more sympathetic …’
‘I’d stop there if I were you. You’re only making yourself out to be even more disgusting and you’ll ruin your chances with her too.’
Shoko’s warning seemed to land, because he shut up.
Was he really implying that if she were more congenial, he’d have chosen her? That he wouldn’t have hesitated to insist that the quiet type have an abortion?
‘I’ll allow you to break our engagement on one condition. And if you don’t comply with it, I’ll sue you for breach of promise.’
They’d been together for five years and had been planning their wedding for months. She was well aware of his financial position, that on top of a shotgun wedding he couldn’t afford to be hit with a breach of promise and have to pay compensation.
The two of them gulped in anticipation of what Shoko’s condition would be.
‘You must invite me to the wedding.’
The quiet type, she was a romantic dreamer. Of course there would be a wedding, in one form or another.
Only now did she look like she was going to cry for real. Which made it all the more obvious that her tears shed previously had been a façade.
When the new couple made the rounds at their company to announce their impending marriage, they were met with uniformly dubious looks from the heads of every department – that was because each of them had already heard about it through Shoko’s network. In other words, the backstory of the quiet type sleeping with Shoko’s fiancé and getting pregnant, and of him then leaving Shoko had spread through the office.
All Shoko had to do was maintain a tragic but brave face as she went about her daily tasks – that was enough for the couple’s stock to plummet. Shoko had always had a stellar reputation at work, so the bosses’ sympathies were with her.
Apparently they were making it seem as though the wedding would be a modest gathering, only for their inner circle. Shoko heard that one of their superiors had made the blatantly snide remark, ‘I had been looking forward to attending your wedding, but not so much now that the players have changed.’
The wedding day arrived.
It was an intimate ceremony, with only family and the couple’s close friends, and Shoko was indeed invited as a ‘friend of the bride’.
From the moment she walked in, Shoko’s white dress, whose design could easily be taken for a minimalist wedding gown itself, caused a stir at the reception.
It was a rather tepid event. None of Shoko’s acquaintances had been invited. Naturally, she and the groom shared mutual friends but, thinking ahead and for the sake of appearances, it seemed he had only invited second-tier acquaintances whom Shoko had never met. It was their misfortune to have to bear the brunt of the celebration.