Transition and restart, book seven: High School Days

Chapter four, 2018, white Valentine, part five

Kyoko snuggled closer to Yukio. Urufu's present had taken her by surprise even though she knew he'd be too extravagant the way he always was.

While there were still a lot of them in the living room it felt strangely empty after most of the Irishima High guests left for the evening. The core group, by now including Hitomi, and Tomasu and Jeniferu of course stayed. They'd stay the night.

She frowned. There was one more. Noriko had shut herself in her room with a friend Kyoko didn't know. She might have seen her occasionally, but most likely it was a contact from middle school.

At another table Tomasu, Jeniferu, Urufu and Kuri-chan ran a silent conversation. Kyoko couldn't hear what they spoke about, but she guessed the contents. Across the table by which she herself sat Ryu kept Hitomi too busy with stupid jokes for her to have any chance to grow anxious about what happened closer to the kitchen.

It was all very normal and yet so absurd.

Soon enough she'd change places with Kuri-chan, and Urufu should probably be the one who rose first to give his chair to Yukio. Between them Urufu, Ryu and Kuri-chan should have no problem keeping Hitomi's attention to themselves for the time needed to sneak out through the kitchen and into the backyard. Some topics, Kyoko suspected, were best kept out of earshot even from those who really already were in the know.

Seconds grew to a minute, and suddenly Urufu rose from his chair just as Kyoko had guessed. An almost wave had Yukio copy his motion, and only the discreet scraping of chairs on the floor gave away how the two best friends changed places. Kyoko didn't know Ryu well enough for such an elegant solution, but in this case the one they wanted to keep in the dark was Hitomi, or at least the one they wanted Tomasu and Jeniferu to feel was kept in the dark.

Ryu looked up when a finger tapped on his shoulder and offered his chair to Kyoko as he stood. With a half smile on his lips he walked across the table just as Kuri-chan rose from Jeniferu's side and stole the chair he left moments earlier. It must have looked like Kyoko had nowhere else to sit but at the other table.

Too much drama, she thought. There was no way Hitomi didn't see through it all, but as long as she played her role maybe Jeniferu believed the dark beauty to be fooled. Tomasu you didn't have to fool. The easiest way to keep him in the dark sometimes was to grab his arm and drag him away to where you wanted him. He'd protest, but he never asked questions.

Kyoko just hovered above the chair Kuri-chan left. There really was no need for sitting down.

"Tea?" she asked?

A nod was enough for her to leave for the kitchen. Behind her Jeniferu picked up her cup from the table and followed.

Yukio!

Tomasu got physically dragged from the table.

You really weren't supposed to do that for real.

From the corner of her eye Kyoko saw Jeniferu cover her mouth to hide her giggling.

Kyoko shook her head, refilled the water boiler and replaced the used tea bag in her cup before opening the glass doors to the Wakayama backyard. Something trying a lot to look like western style outdoor furniture greeted her, and she put her cup on a table.

I wonder if Urufu has seen this crap? One of her father's very few real friends had a minor obsession with northern Europe. Kyoko was a lot more familiar with what people there used during summer than Urufu ever knew. She probably was the first to understand the background behind the atrocity of a home in Mie that day late last summer when he and Noriko finally became a couple.