— japan shinkansen line !
THE MORNING AFTER HER OUTING WITH MIHO, Kina left her dorm room, taking with her a small carry-on, taking the early bus to Shibuya station where she booked her shinkansen ticket for the earliest train. The sun had just risen, rising from the horizon a smidgen later than the week before, marking the approach of winter. The view from the window was much rather impeccable, all foggy skylines and fading dashes of red and orange morphing into blue sky.
Reclining into her seat, the bliss emptiness of the bullet train's interior allowed Kina to recline her chair back (and of course with the added pleasure of being seated right at the back with no chair behind) all the way.
The blonde let out a sigh of pleasure, resting her head against the seat. Closing her eyes for a moment, she put her arms over her head, arching her back. The joints in her back popped in a satisfying manner— that feeling of contentment one felt from righting a discomfort.
Within the next ten minutes or so, the remaining passengers had all piled into the bullet train's carriage, light chatter and knocking of suitcases sounding as baggage was put away and passengers settled into their seats. Kina waved at a few students she recognised, upperclassmen and underclassmen from school, some looking rather odd in outside clothes, some with uncovered eyebags who collapsed right into their seats to take a long nap for the ride.
Brown eyes strayed back to her own seat, and Kina pulled out her tablet, plugging in her earphones, turning on calm music not unlike those sleep music videos she'd play when she felt too restless or anxious to sleep in the pitch black silence of her dorm.
Admittedly, with the onset of holidays, Kina had spent the past three days finishing all her homework, often falling into bouts of procrastination in which five minute instagram breaks turned into full-on deep conversations with the randomest of friends.
It had definitely done a number on her sleep schedule, and for the week that Kina was in Miyagi, she planned to catch a glimpse of Kei's friends (mainly to embarrass her dear little brother with entertaining stories) and spend more time with her family and less time before the screen.
Making sure that her alarm was set, Kina leaned back on her chair, snuggling into the softness of her fluffy travel blanket, slipping off her shoes. She curled her legs up into a cross-legged position, and her head tilted onto the train window, cheek smooshed against the ring pillow.
She could feel the lethargy already setting in. With a sigh, she closed her eyes, and let sleep overtake her.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
— shibuya city !
"Omi! Rise and shine!"
The sound of curtains being pushed along the horizontal metal pole on the wall. A low groan left the obsidian-haired boy's lips, who further burrowed into his blankets, burying his face into the belly of a random plushie with a soft, velvety texture. Sunlight poked at his eyes like pricking needles as the plushie was pulled out of his grasp.
"Ikumi," Kiyoomi grumbled, "piss off."
"Good afternoon to you too, Omi," Sakusa Ikumi said, unaffected by how her younger brother had basically told her to fuck off, albeit in a non-venomous way.
Kiyoomi rolled onto his back to see Ikumi's fingers hovering near the latch of his carefully heat-proofed windows.
His eye twitched.
Ikumi smirked.
"Piss off," he repeated, swinging his legs out of the queen-sized bed, the sudden loss of warmth on his body acting like a draft of cold air.
All wily and insulting, Sakusa Ikumi was 176 centimetres of pure annoyance, nineteen years old with choppy, layered black hair framing her face in an odd way, shadowing her face and sharpening the more feminine and soft features inherited from their father, something which Kiyoomi, all sharp angles and blase indifference, had inherited from their mother. Long and lithe, Ikumi was all parts former wing spiker of Itachiyama Institute, a strong back row player, now a student majoring in computer science in the University of Tokyo.
Her eyes, a shade of green a few shades lighter than Kiyoomi's likened to that of an emerald, glinted in the Meguro sun, full of that mischievous gusto that one could only see between two squabbling siblings.
Despite the girl's impressive credentials as the overall number 4 student in her whole school with grades and activities that granted her entry into the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, Ikumi, at her core, was still Kiyoomi's annoying older sister.
"First Kiyoshi, now you," Ikumi said, shaking her head in mock disappointment. "What are you jet-legged with? Volleyball?"
Kiyoomi blinked at that, his shoulder hunching over a little as he processed Ikumi's words. He had spent only ten minutes of the night texting a certain Okamikumo setter. Kiyoomi, after sending that short, odd text— i don't do loans— had received a reply to their rather stilted but still continued chat in the unholy hours of the night, and spent ten minutes texting the setter.
"Don't be such an idiot," Kiyoomi said, rising from his bed, tugging the curtains out of Ikumi's grip. He dragged the curtains over half of the window, and placed a firm hand on his older sister's back, pushing her out of the room. "Go away now. My morning's been ruined because of you."
Ikumi glanced back, amused. "What morning? It's 1PM. Motoya, Honoka and Sumika are downstairs, y'know?"
Kiyoomi slammed the door in her back.
"Oh," he said softly.
Kiyoomi collapsed onto his bed again, letting out a sigh. He closed his eyes, thinking back of the night before, of the few words on that screen.
good night.
He'd certainly slept quite well, and quite long at that.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"Next station: Sendai."
Blinking the sleep away from her eyes, Kina began to keep all her stuff, reproachfully shoving the soft material of the travel blanket into her bag, missing its soft touch. The two-hour journey from Shibuya to Sendai was nearing an end, and Kina most definitely did not want to risk missing her stop.
As the train slowed to a stop, the carriage basking in the bright yellow-white glow of the early afternoon sun, lighting the seats and reflecting on screens and metal surfaces, Kina could spot the approach of a slight crowd on the shinkansen platform.
Getting up from her seat, bag slung over her shoulder, the blonde girl went over to the door, taking her carry-on, and alighted from the bullet train, exchanging goodbyes with the nice train conductor who helped her to put her baggage onto the platform.
Earphones connected to nothing hung over her neck and her hair messy with the static from the train seat, Kina tugged her jacket over her shoulders, fingers cold and frigid in the cold weather, her exhales puffing out foggy condensation into the air.
The interior of the train station greeted her with a warm blast of hot air, a polar opposite to the way the old air felt when it first hit her skin as she alighted the train. Bright sunlight was replaced with white artificial lights and high ceilings filtering in sunlight, the grey-walled station bustling with people in an assortment of clothes and demeanours, the scents of cafe foods and roasted coffee beans filling the air.
Kina's lids, once heavy with the onset of being dragged from a deep sleep, now began to orient itself with the surroundings, and her pace slowed down for a moment. She breathed in the comforting smell of coffee and pastries, listening to the ambience of rolling suitcases and walking, chatting people. The familiar sight that awaited her as she approached the automated sliding doors leading to the station's drop-off point.
And there it was, a sight to behold; leaning against the wall of stony marble, phone in hand, somewhat messy, honey-blonde hair; a lanky frame leaning against the wall of Sendai station. Warm eyes of a dark amber, framed by oddly long lashes were trained on a flip-phone, which the man pressed slowly.
Kina paused, unable to stop the big smile from creeping onto her face. She strode forward, eyes trained on the middle-aged man, a noticeable eagerness in her otherwise calm steps. Her phone buzzed, and the man put away his own phone into the pocket of his sweatpants. He looked up, glanced toward the interior of the station, and then, his eyes landed on Kina's approaching form.
His own lips starting to curl up into a wide smile, and he too began to walk, approaching Kina, the lines in his face becoming clearer, from the crow's feet that creased near his dark amber eyes in that kindly way, from the confident, self-assured gait of his that Kina had learnt.
And then Kina threw an arm around the man, who wrapped his arms around her, half a head taller than her, his hand squeezing his daughter's shoulder. Kina hugged the man tightly, unable to stop herself from smiling widely, that giddy, childlike feeling of seeing her father after a long business trip returning.
"Long time no see, Oto-san," Kina said, pulling back to stare at her father. "Is that another set of wrinkles I see?" She gestured at the general left area of his face.
"Hah! Some cheek you've got, bullying your old man," Tsukishima Sanma said, laughing, lightly pinching Kina's cheek. The blonde let out a groan in return, prying her cheek out of her father's grip. "Welcome back home, Kina. It's good to see you again."