I didn't get much sleep that night, and it wasn't for lack of fatigue. It was for lack of going to bed. I'm not sure when Kento and I finally agreed it was time to stop talking and get some rest, but the moon had made a lot of progress through the sky before we did. 

The next day was a difficult one. I woke up later than usual, panicked at the thought that they might have already gone and I hadn't got to say goodbye, and skipped everything that didn't involve getting out of the house immediately. At that, I only just remembered to snatch up the package Mother had made up as a going-away gift for the family. I didn't know what was in it, but I was grateful that it didn't slow me down at all. 

I got to the hotel parking lot to find that it was a good thing I'd hurried; the large van was mostly packed and Kento was watching the beach with anxious, if half-asleep, eyes. He looked very relieved when I came jogging up. I noticed some local bags among their things, including stuff from the stationary store. "School supplies," Kento explained, nudging those with his toe. "We got 'em this morning, saves some shopping later."

"Ah," I said, wondering how far down the road they would be if not for that delay. Then I turned to his mother and offered the packet. "You must leave room for this; my mother sends it with her compliments and urges you to visit again." 

"We will be delighted to visit, but really, we cannot accept such a lovely gift; it is too much." And we went back and forth on that for a while, as the custom is. I had no idea what was actually in the package, but that didn't stop me from pronouncing it 'a mere nothing' (a phrase I've always liked) and I had a certain amount of evidence on my side, because it was extremely light. At last she gave in gracefully and put it in the front seat (saying, "If I know Mouri-sama, it's something delicate, and I won't have those big feet back there crushing it," which made me wonder just how well she had gotten to know mother in the past two weeks) then turned back to me. "And now we must do what we wish not to, and say goodbye," she concluded.

There was a sort of general outburst-protest of "No, Mama!" "Not so soon!" "Don' wanna!" from Shun Ryu, Rinfi and Princess, respectively. Ryu actually sat down and attached himself to my leg, saying he wasn't going to leave 'his Shin-san', which surprised me. Princess reached up and did something similar as soon as I picked her up, while Yun, silent but wearing a very unhappy expression, sidled over and leaned up against my side. I put my arm around him and got a long sigh and a tight hug that took some of my breath. Rinfi tried to pry Ryu loose, but not very hard, continuing to protest that they didn't have to go this soon...

And Kento leaned back against the van, his eyes on the ground, arms folded across his chest. I took a deep breath and looked away, feeling as though I, too, might cry. How could we stand it? But we had to-

"Shin-niisan come with us!" Shun Ryu yelled, tugging on my knee. "Come stay with us, take Big Brother to school then. Don't have to go so far, don't have to ride that old train."

I looked down at him, then at the van. "But there's no room, little brother. You'd have to tie me to the roof, and I don't think I'd like that very much. Besides, I want some more time with my mother. And I like the train, it's the Shinkansen. It's fun." I gulped and shut my mouth, hoping the adults couldn't see how much I wanted to accept that thoughtless offer. But my mother would probably not give permission, and they didn't have room, and I couldn't impose like that. 

"Shinkansen, really? So cool. But Shiiiin, we want you to-"

"Now, don't be selfish," Rinfi interrupted. "Shin's mother is here, he wants to spend time with her before school starts again. And his sister, too. Besides, he'd have to sit on top of you."

"Oh, be quiet," Ryu muttered, but without heat. He sighed, let go, and stood up, looking at me with a pout. "You don't forget us!" he ordered.

"I don't think I could if I tried," I answered, smiling. "Give me a hug, little brother, and be good..." 

A hug, of sorts; he nearly broke my ribs. Then he wandered over to the van and sat down in the open doorway, scuffing his feet through the sand. Yun let go reluctantly, after I promised to write to him. Rinfi bowed, then took my hand in hers and smiled sadly, saying she'd miss me. Princess...well, Princess really didn't want to let go, and I really didn't want to make her, so that took a minute or three. Finally she went to her mother, sniffling. The adults bowed and expressed their thanks and appreciation more formally- I don't remember what they said, exactly, since I was noticing the sincerity in their eyes. 

And then, while they hustled the younger ones into the van and made themselves busy seatbelting and car-seating, I stepped slowly over to Kento. He glanced over at his parents and edged around to the rear of the vehicle, so that we were out of sight.

"A week." He looked at me.

"A week," I agreed. "When you come up the stairs and in the doors, there's a big entryway- I'll wait there for you."

He managed a smile. "I'll probably see you first."

"Probably." I rubbed my hand against my hair ruefully. "I'll help you find your class and tell you how to get to the cafeteria. It'll be warm, so we can eat outside..."

"Hey, sounds good. As long as it's not raining."

"A point. Bring your lunch." I managed a smile of my own. "After father-san's cooking, the cafeteria food won't taste very good to you."

"Oh! Yeah, good idea..." Kento nodded; then his smile faded and he looked down again. I stumbled a step forward and suddenly we were hanging on tightly to each other. His body was tense, but his arms were gentle, just tight enough to be comforting. I heard him sniff and felt his hair, soft against my cheek and neck.

"I'm so glad you chose my school, or this would be terribly permanent," I whispered. "And...I don't think I could stand it. How did you manage to do that?"

"Well, you let me," he murmured back. "You let me in, I let you in." He took a deep breath, then asked softly, "You sure you'll be okay? I've got four nosy, noisy brats to distract me, but you..."

"I've got the sea, and Suiko, and Mother- I'll be okay. And it's only seven days."

"Right." He took another breath. "All right then..." He slowly straightened up, letting his arms slide away from me. I reached into my pocket and pulled something out: an orange-gold headband I'd gotten at the store after he grumbled about the sea-wind always blowing his hair around. I showed it to him, then slid it over his forehead, arranging the little symbols just so and getting stray tufts of hair out of the way. "Aw, Cye, you didn't haveta-" he whispered, reaching up to touch it.

"I know that." I smiled again. "I wanted to. There's a lot of wind in Toyama, too."

"Thanks," he muttered, giving me a pat, then suddenly reached down and picked up a plastic bag I hadn't noticed. "The top one's from the folks." 

The 'top one' was a very fine watch, which Kento said was waterproof to about a thousand feet. But the item underneath it made me smile: it was an ordinary white baseball cap, but there was a soft little plush dolphin attached to it. "Keep that sun out of your sensitive eyes," my friend said gruffly as I put it on. "The dolphin does detach, so you don't have to carry him around all the time, but he might help that hat stay on your head, all this wind..."

"Kento, thank you, you're-" The van's engine started, causing both of us to jump. I gave, and got, another quick hug, and then Kento was hurrying around to the door and I was calling thank-yous in through the open window. Before I quite knew what was happening, the van was pulling slowly away. Kento stuck his head out and swiveled around to look at me.

"You keep practicing, I'm gonna test you!"

"Hai, sensei!" I called back; the van picked up speed; I waved... 

And somehow they were gone and I was alone, holding that sweet little hat close against my body. "Seven days," I told myself firmly. "It's a short time, and there's a lot to do. It'll go fast." And then I did what I always did when my feelings got the better of me. I went home, got my swimsuit, and walked into the sea.

It didn't help as much as it used to, though.

I can't properly describe the last seven days before school started again, except to say that I've never felt pulled in such opposite directions before. 

I wanted school to hurry up and start- I was really looking forward to it, for a change. I wasn't in all that much of a hurry for school to start; I never liked to see vacation end and I didn't really like leaving home. Home was smaller than it used to be, and emptier, missing something. Home was home and the sea made me happy and I would miss it badly when I was gone. 

The days were too long and dragged by. The days were too short and passed so quickly that I thought I must have mis-read the calendar. There was so much to do, it took up all my beach time. There was so much to do; I should DO it, not spend my time sitting on the beach and waiting for someone who wasn't there. 

I should practice the kendo, like I said I would. I didn't want to practice, it made me miss him more and I couldn't be sure I was doing it right anyway...

Like that.

It was a long week and a lonely one, and I think I reminded myself about a hundred times a day that it was 'only seven days' or 'only five more days' or so on. I didn't enjoy swimming as much as I used to- not because I loved the water any less, but because when I left it, there was no one waiting for me on the beach. I would walk out of the water and look around, I would see and hear up to a hundred people, depending on where I was at the time...but since I wasn't seeing the one- the ones- I wanted to, I felt as though I was the only one there. Normally solitude doesn't bother me, but feeling alone when you're literally surrounded by people... That was an odd feeling, and not a pleasant one. I told myself it was the fact that I didn't know anyone around me that made me feel so distant, but I often felt similarly alone, isolated, when I was with Mother and Sayoko.

In hindsight, it was the link I was missing (as much as Kento himself), but at the time all I knew was that I felt like someone had put me into solitary confinement. Only in an emotional sense, which is worse than in the physical sense, I think. At least if you're literally locked up alone in a small room, you don't look around at other people and wonder why you feel so distant from them. But it wasn't a constant thing. We've talked about it since; we both felt those moods very strongly at times and not at all at others, and we've concluded that those feelings of isolation occurred when each of us was thinking about the other. Missing the other. We were sort of reaching out for each other mentally- and falling short, because our link didn't stretch that far, resulting in that alone-lacking-empty feeling.

So at any rate: on the whole, I was more relieved than reluctant when Sunday came and I got on the train to Toyama once again. I was more impatient to get there than I ever had been, and it's as well for me that the rail service in Japan is so efficient. I did suffer a -a qualm, is it?- or two, reminding myself that there would be a lot more to the school year than seeing my best friend again... but I knew the school, was familiar with the city, was friendly with my housemates and knew what was expected of me. I reminded myself that I'd been sure this school-year would be a much better one than the last one had been, and the last one, while having its down spots, had certainly not been terrible.

I was a little let down, on returning to the old house where I roomed, to find that all six of us had taken up our lodgings there again. Mind you, I was glad to see Sebastian (Boo) and Cornelius (Cor) again, but I wouldn't have been upset if one or two of the others had found somewhere else, as they had often hinted they would. The grandfather and uncle- that is, the elderly man and his son, the owners- greeted me kindly and I settled in quickly enough, hoping (out loud) that there wouldn't be as much controversy this time around.

Not that controversy ended up being any sort of a problem.

Ah- anyway, I was what Rowen describes as 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed' (no, I don't have a tail, so I don't know why he says that, but whatever) the next morning, the first day of school. It was almost as though I hadn't been gone, the whole getting up and catching the bus was so familiar, but it was different, too. Today I would see my friend again, and as we pulled up to the school entrance and got off, I was suddenly glad I was a bit taller than most. It made it much easier to look around and try to find a particular person in the crowd.

Naturally I didn't see him. 

I hesitated a few minutes on the steps, looking around as many younger and a few older kids moved past me and into the building. It would have been convenient, I thought- not for the first time- if the elementary and high school wings had their own separate entrances; as it was, we all came in the same doors, crammed up the foyer, and banged into each other trying to go towards our assorted destinations. I did see a blond-haired boy about my age hurry past and looked after him in some surprise; I hadn't seen many blonds before and didn't recognize that one. A new seventh-grader, apparently. Then someone knocked into me from behind and someone else tried to get fresh; I dealt with that in my usual manner, with a sharp slap, then hurried inside and took a spot near the wall to watch some more.

It really wasn't very long before Kento came through the door, but it seemed like a long time. I knew school wouldn't start until all the students were there, but the later he was, the less time we'd have to talk, so I kept looking at my watch to make sure it wasn't growing too late. It was when I looked up after perhaps the fifteenth anxious check in five minutes that I saw him coming through the door and felt all the uncertainty and loneliness that had troubled me just melt away. 

I would have smiled in any case, but the fact that he was wearing the headband I'd given him made me grin. It did make him stand out a bit among all the other students. When you're all wearing black and white, a little thing like a dash of gold is highly noticeable. 

I watched him move off to the side a bit, looking all around, and when his gaze turned to me I lifted my hand and waved- something I normally would not have done. Kento beamed at me and hurried over, dodging around the other students between us with an agility that I might not have expected if I hadn't known about his Kunfu skills. He looked sort of different- older- in the school uniform, but his smile was the same and his voice, when he greeted me cheerfully, was of course the same. Then I noticed something else and frowned a little. "It's awfully good to see you, too! What a long week it was."

"No kidding, I thought it'd never end." Kento laughed. "Never thought I'd be so eager to get to school."

"I know what you mean. My friend, did you grow, in just a week?"

He laughed again. "Naw, I'm just not barefoot anymore."

"Oh." I looked down at his sneakers. "True. So which classroom do you have?"

He told me the number, and I told him where the room was, pushing through the crowd to the staircase and leading him up. I showed him which halls the seventh-years had their lockers in and explained that he'd get one assigned right before lunch, so he could put his morning's books away. I reminded him about the ten-minute break between second class and third, and suggested he meet me at the top of the stairs at the lunch break so we could walk down together.

"You're even more organized than I thought," he concluded when I was done, and I thought he looked a little relieved. "You've got it all covered, don't you?"

"Well, having enticed you here, the least I can do is make it easy on you," I said lightly, touching his arm. I was about to add something else- I forget what- when the bell rang shrilly and Kento started. "It does that," I grumbled. "I was hoping they'd fixed it... I'll wander over and see how you're doing at the break."

"Sounds good to me." He patted my shoulder, gave me that bright grin, then turned away. I watched for a moment, pleased and yet not entirely so... and then I shrugged and hurried off to get to my own room before the late bell went off and deafened me.

After all, it wasn't to be expected that we could catch up on a week in a matter of five minutes talk- but he was glad to be there and so was I, and for the moment, that would do.