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Description

The evening comes into full swing. A female figure is standing on top of a building observing an illuminated Mushiyori City.

“They say ‘home is where the heart is’,” says the girl, “I left my heart in Mushiyori City when I was a little girl. Now that I’ve returned, I can finally say, ‘I’m home’”.

The girl then leaps from the top of the building to another, demonstrating her parkour skills. As she makes her way through the city, she begins to notice some…differences.

“This is strange, the overall energy here feels different than before,” she concluded, “I wonder what’s happened since I left.”

She then leaps from one roof to another, her silhouette can be seen gliding across the full March moon. Moving through the city, she takes in the atmosphere of her hometown before making a final stop at a construction site.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I can care less about what’s happened here. Now that I’ve returned home, I only have one goal in mind: to fulfill a promise I made seven years ago with someone very close to me,” the girl says while taking another good look the city, “I can’t wait to see you again, my beloved Shuuichi."

*****************************************************************************************************************

The first school bell of the new academic year rings the following morning. Students arrive with fresh faces, smiles, and laughter. Just around the corner from campus, Kurama, now seventeen years old and a third-year student, arrives with his school bag in his left hand and his cell phone in the other (he’s texting his mother, letting her know that he made it to school). Underneath his light winter coat, he wears the standard male student uniform: a navy blue uniform with gold trimming; no different from his junior high uniform. Along the way, an old acquaintance approaches from behind. It’s none other than Yu Kaito.

“Good morning, Minamino”, Kaito says with sarcasm, “ready for another year of academic competition?”

Kurama laughs as he responds, “Kaito. When will this so-called ‘competition’ idea of yours end?”

“It will end when I walk out of this school with better grades than you.”

“As I said before, you far surpass me when it comes to literature, isn’t that enough for you?” By this time, Kurama has become annoyed with Kaito.

“NO! It won’t be enough!” Kaito shouts as his face begins to turn red, “I will beat you Shuuichi Minamino! And when I do, all you’ll have left is your pretty, innocent face to fall back on. Hahahahahahahahahaha!”

“I see someone’s been practicing their threatening skills during their downtime.” Kurama smiles awkwardly.

Kaito, then, stops laughing, clears his throat, and adjusts his glasses, “Whatever. I will have my day. Just you wait.” He then continues walking.

Kurama sarcastically thinks, “Looking forward to it.”

Shortly after both boys walk through the opening gate of their school, Kurama notices a female student walking through the front door. He looks startled as if he’s never seen someone like her before and yet…has. Suddenly Kurama is found stuck standing in the middle of the entrance yard with a blank stare on his face.
“Hello, Earth to Minamino.” Kaito waves his hand in front of Kurama’s face. Returning back to reality, Kurama shakes his head in order to get his mind back to normal, “Sorry about that. I guess I must have lost my mind for a second there.”

“I’ll say. You looked a deer in headlights.”

“I’m fine Kaito, really,” Kurama waves his hands toward his academic rival, “I apologize for worrying you. It won’t happen again.”

“Uh-huh.” Kaito adjust his glasses again.

Inside the Principal’s office, the school principal sits at his desk reading through the file of the newest transfer student to his school. The new student stands in front of the desk, her hands and arms crossed in front of her. She is wearing a gold sweater over a bright, white, short-sleeved shirt with a navy blue, pleated skirt with gold trimming; the standard winter uniform for female students.

“Well young lady, it looks like your transcripts are in order.” The principal pIaces the file on his desk, “despite you being homeschooled these last seven years, I think it’s safe to assume that you haven’t lost your academic touch.”

“Thank you Principal Toshikawa. I guess my hard work did pay off.” She bows towards her elder.

The principal continues, “And adding the fact that you’re daughter of the doctor who helped my wife with her fight with leukemia gives you an extra bonus. All I can say now is that I wish you the best of luck during your only year of high school, at this school.”

“Thank you very much sir.” She bows again.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The school bell rings marking the start of the new school day and year. The homeroom teacher of class 3-A stands in front of class to read off the list of names for attendance. Naming off his students one by one, the teacher then reads, “Minamino, Shuuichi.”
“Here!” He then turns his head to the left to look out the window.

“I wonder how this tree will look this time, when it blooms,” Kurama thought even though he already had an idea. He’s been looking at the same tree since his first year of high school.

The instructor then says, “Alright class before we get into business, I have an announcement to make. We’re going to have a new student joining us today. So I expect everyone to make her feel welcome.”

The new girl slides open the classroom door, enters, and slides the door closed behind her.

“Ah! Here she is now!” the teacher says with much enthusiasm, “Welcome to our class! Please, come forward and introduce yourself, will you?

“Yes, sir,” the new girl answers while walking towards the front center of the room. As she’s making her way, Kurama turns his head to see what the fuss is about, “Ah! It can’t be…” he thought with the same startled look on his face he had earlier. The new girl stands in front of the room to do what her sensei asks, “Good morning everyone,” she continues with a big, innocent smile on her face, “My name is Kiyoni Ikeda. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” The class looks at their new classmate in awe. Some of them knew that people like Kiyoni existed in Japan, but most of them never thought they would see one in their school, much less in their class.

Kiyoni is a hafu, the product of an Asian father and Black mother (AMBW) relationship. She stands 5’10” tall and about 135-140 pounds. She has light golden brown skin with long, black, kinky-curly hair neatly styled in two, low-positioned pigtails. She has amethyst-purple eyes and is wearing only some rose-pink lip gloss she bought herself just two days before. She blushes a little while the class continues to look at her in astonishment.

“She’s kind of cute,” a male student whispers in the background, “I wonder what she’s into.”

“Wow! She kind of looks like Miss Japan,” says a female student.

“You mean the hafu Miss Ariana Miyamoto?” whispers another.

The teacher overhears some of the background conversations going about in his classroom. “It looks like you’ll do just fine here Miss Ikeda,” the teacher assures while smiling at Kiyoni, “now why don’t you try to find a seat. Seats here are at a ‘first-come, first-serve’ basis.”

“Yes, sir.”

She then looks at the rows of desks sitting before her, noticing how their spaced. Kiyoni sighs at the thought of walking through those isles, knowing that she’s going to bump into at least one desk and/or one student. Due to the fact that she has slightly larger hips and butt than the average teenage girl in Japan. She can thank her mother for that. As Kiyoni is walking towards an empty seat in the middle of the room, Kurama can’t help but stare at his newest classmate, knowing very well that he’s seen her before.

During lunch period, Kiyoni stands in front of a vending machine making a decision on what to drink with her lunch, “Hmm. Decisions, decisions.”

Once she’s made her choice, she inserts the necessary funds into the machine and makes her selection. A can of strawberry soda leaves its place but, gets stuck on the way down. “What the hell,” she whispers.

She taps the machine. Nothing happens. She taps it again. Nothing happens. Frustrated, Kiyoni attempts to kick the machine but before she does, she hears a male student in the background, “Allow me to get that for you. This machine is old and can be very tricky.”

“Go right ahead! I was just about to break this thing anyway.”

Tapping the machine with both his left elbow and foot, the student frees the soda can, causing it to fall and become available for consumption. Elated, Kiyoni grabs the can and thanks the student who helped her, “Thanks a lot for the help!” When she opens her eyes to see her “soda savior”, she develops a surprised look on her face. It’s none other than Kurama leaning against the machine, arms crossed and his left foot placed on the vending appliance and with a smug look on his face, his typical stance, “Hello, Kiyoni. Long time, no see.”

Kiyoni freezes as she looks upon the one person she wanted to see the most in life, “Shu-, Shuuichi? Is that really you?” Her body begins to shake.

“Yes, Kiyoni. It’s me.”

Kiyoni, unknowingly, drops her soda can and leaps towards Kurama, embracing him.

“IT’S YOU, IT’S REALLY YOU!” she screams while laughing.

Kurama returns the favor, embracing his childhood friend the only way two friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time could embrace each other. An embrace that took seven years to accomplish.

“It’s been a long time, Shuuichi. How have you been my friend?” Kiyoni’s eyes beginning to water.

“Indeed, it has been a long time. I’ve been well to say the least.”

“Hold on. You’ve grown your hair out since I saw you last,” wiping tears from her eyes.

“Oh yeah. I guess, I did,” he grabs his side bangs a symbol of proof.

Suddenly, the two friends alert themselves to the fizzing sounds echoing in the hallway. They turn to find an exploding soda can on the floor.

“Aw man,” Kiyoni says disappointingly while placing her hands on the top of her head, “I spilled my soda. And I had such a hankering for it too.”

Kurama makes his way to fetch a mop, “Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”

“No, no,” she begins to follow, “It’s my mess. I’ll clean it up.”

“Very well. At least let me show you where the mop is.”

*****************************************************************************************************************

Back in the classroom, Kurama and Kiyoni are sharing a desk preparing for lunch. He starts the conversation, “I see that you still honor your school tradition.” Kiyoni takes out her bento. “By ‘school tradition’ you mean bringing a bento big enough for two to share on the first day of school? I still do.” She then opens her bento and hands Kurama a pair of extra chopsticks she carried with her. Inside the box contains shrimp tempura, tuna/wasabi mayo onigiri, a serving of cherry tomatoes and celery, and fruit sushi, with a side of raspberry dipping sauce, for dessert. Kurama looks at the bento in amazement, “Wow! Your bento looks so amazing. How fortunate of me to forget my lunch at home.”

“Kurama, you’re fortunate for me to bring a lunch.” She laughs.

“Hey, be mindful of that name Kiyoni. The world doesn’t need to know of it yet, if at all.”

“Whoops, my bad.” Kiyoni says before taking a bite of the onigiri, “I quickly forgot where I was just now. So tell me, what’s been going with you for the last seven years?”

“Well, most of the ‘action’ happened within the last 2-3 years to be honest with you,” Kurama responds before taking a bite of the fruit sushi, “I made some new friends, got a new family thanks to my mother’s new marriage, and I’m finally getting to understand who I really am now.”

“Wow that does sound like a lot. Well, I’m happy for you and I hope I get to meet your new family and friends soon.”

“Thank you. What about you and your family? What’s going on with them?”

“Well…you remember when I said that we were leaving so that my mom could take care of my grandfather’s estate, right?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, it turns out that when we got there, the estate was bigger than I thought. My grandfather did a lot in his time. So when it was my mother’s turn to take the reins, she handled it the best she could.”

“How did she do that?”

“She used the estate to turn to politics. You can say she’s a very well-respected politician now.”

“Oh boy. What about your father? Does he still practice hematology?”

“Yep, sure does. His work in the field gives him just as much respect as people give my mom.”

“That’s great! What about your older brother? How’s he doing?”

“Oh, Tai? Oh, he’s in college now. In fact, he just started his study abroad program this semester.”

“Really? In what subject?” Kurama takes a bite of the tempura.

“He…really didn’t tell me. We haven’t been speaking to each other much lately.” She frowns.

“That’s unfortunate. Even though he wasn’t that much of a conversationalist, back then, it still would have been nice to at least inform you about what he’s doing.”

Kiyoni sighs before popping a cherry tomato in her mouth, “Oh well. He’ll get around to it eventually.”

*****************************************************************************************************************

When the school day ends, Kurama and Kiyoni walk out of the school together. “Wow, what an exciting first day,” Kiyoni exclaims stretching her arms. “Yeah, one of the best first days I ever had. Say, how far is your house? I was thinking we could walk together like we used to back then,” Kurama suggests.

“Oh, I’m on the other side of town. In fact there’s a bus route that’ll take me to within a few blocks from my house. You can walk with me to the bus stop at least.”

“Gladly,” Kurama says with a smile.

As they make their way to the bus stop, Kurama reflects to himself on today, “I can’t believe it. She actually came back. After seven years, she actually came back. Interesting, because I was actually starting to forget about her. How silly of me to think that.”

When they arrive at the bus stop, Kiyoni pulls out a pen from her bag, grabs Kurama’s left hand, and starts to write something on it.

“Ah! What are you doing?”

“Its old school I know, but now that we get to see each other again on a daily basis, I figure that I should give you my phone number in case you want to get in contact with me afterwards.”

“Why don’t I just accompany you home? I’m sure your parents would be happy to see me,” Kurama says, again with a smile.

“Uh…yea. I’ll be happy to entertain the idea, but not today. We moved in just before the school registration date, so we still have some settling-in to do,” Kiyoni scratches her head, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s ok. Maybe next time.”

Kiyoni then looks at Kurama’s left hand, the same hand that she had written her number on, “Hey, Shuuichi. Do you remember the promise we made? You know the one we made before I left?”

Kurama follows suit and looks at Kiyoni’s right hand, “How can I forget?”

He then outstretches his left pinky finger to link with Kiyoni’s right as if they’re making a pinky promise like they did back then, “Whether we’re old and gray…”

“Or have already met our end…”

They both recite the rest, “Someday we will be reunited. A promise made between friends.”

Kiyoni laughs, “It’s funny. Back then I thought that was cool.”

“Funny, but a promise, nonetheless.”

At that moment, the bus that Kiyoni was waiting for arrives at the bus stop. The two then let go of each other’s hands. The door opens and she climbs aboard.

Turning to face Kurama, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure. Count on it.”

The bus door closes and takes off. As the bus leaves, Kurama continues to watch it drive away and thinks to himself, “Seeing you tomorrow. Now that’s something I’m definitely looking forward to.” His cheeks lightly blushing with anticipation.

Description

The evening comes into full swing. A female figure is standing on top of a building observing an illuminated Mushiyori City.

“They say ‘home is where the heart is’,” says the girl, “I left my heart in Mushiyori City when I was a little girl. Now that I’ve returned, I can finally say, ‘I’m home’”.

The girl then leaps from the top of the building to another, demonstrating her parkour skills. As she makes her way through the city, she begins to notice some…differences.

“This is strange, the overall energy here feels different than before,” she concluded, “I wonder what’s happened since I left.”

She then leaps from one roof to another, her silhouette can be seen gliding across the full March moon. Moving through the city, she takes in the atmosphere of her hometown before making a final stop at a construction site.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I can care less about what’s happened here. Now that I’ve returned home, I only have one goal in mind: to fulfill a promise I made seven years ago with someone very close to me,” the girl says while taking another good look the city, “I can’t wait to see you again, my beloved Shuuichi."

*****************************************************************************************************************

The first school bell of the new academic year rings the following morning. Students arrive with fresh faces, smiles, and laughter. Just around the corner from campus, Kurama, now seventeen years old and a third-year student, arrives with his school bag in his left hand and his cell phone in the other (he’s texting his mother, letting her know that he made it to school). Underneath his light winter coat, he wears the standard male student uniform: a navy blue uniform with gold trimming; no different from his junior high uniform. Along the way, an old acquaintance approaches from behind. It’s none other than Yu Kaito.

“Good morning, Minamino”, Kaito says with sarcasm, “ready for another year of academic competition?”

Kurama laughs as he responds, “Kaito. When will this so-called ‘competition’ idea of yours end?”

“It will end when I walk out of this school with better grades than you.”

“As I said before, you far surpass me when it comes to literature, isn’t that enough for you?” By this time, Kurama has become annoyed with Kaito.

“NO! It won’t be enough!” Kaito shouts as his face begins to turn red, “I will beat you Shuuichi Minamino! And when I do, all you’ll have left is your pretty, innocent face to fall back on. Hahahahahahahahahaha!”

“I see someone’s been practicing their threatening skills during their downtime.” Kurama smiles awkwardly.

Kaito, then, stops laughing, clears his throat, and adjusts his glasses, “Whatever. I will have my day. Just you wait.” He then continues walking.

Kurama sarcastically thinks, “Looking forward to it.”

Shortly after both boys walk through the opening gate of their school, Kurama notices a female student walking through the front door. He looks startled as if he’s never seen someone like her before and yet…has. Suddenly Kurama is found stuck standing in the middle of the entrance yard with a blank stare on his face.
“Hello, Earth to Minamino.” Kaito waves his hand in front of Kurama’s face. Returning back to reality, Kurama shakes his head in order to get his mind back to normal, “Sorry about that. I guess I must have lost my mind for a second there.”

“I’ll say. You looked a deer in headlights.”

“I’m fine Kaito, really,” Kurama waves his hands toward his academic rival, “I apologize for worrying you. It won’t happen again.”

“Uh-huh.” Kaito adjust his glasses again.

Inside the Principal’s office, the school principal sits at his desk reading through the file of the newest transfer student to his school. The new student stands in front of the desk, her hands and arms crossed in front of her. She is wearing a gold sweater over a bright, white, short-sleeved shirt with a navy blue, pleated skirt with gold trimming; the standard winter uniform for female students.

“Well young lady, it looks like your transcripts are in order.” The principal pIaces the file on his desk, “despite you being homeschooled these last seven years, I think it’s safe to assume that you haven’t lost your academic touch.”

“Thank you Principal Toshikawa. I guess my hard work did pay off.” She bows towards her elder.

The principal continues, “And adding the fact that you’re daughter of the doctor who helped my wife with her fight with leukemia gives you an extra bonus. All I can say now is that I wish you the best of luck during your only year of high school, at this school.”

“Thank you very much sir.” She bows again.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The school bell rings marking the start of the new school day and year. The homeroom teacher of class 3-A stands in front of class to read off the list of names for attendance. Naming off his students one by one, the teacher then reads, “Minamino, Shuuichi.”
“Here!” He then turns his head to the left to look out the window.

“I wonder how this tree will look this time, when it blooms,” Kurama thought even though he already had an idea. He’s been looking at the same tree since his first year of high school.

The instructor then says, “Alright class before we get into business, I have an announcement to make. We’re going to have a new student joining us today. So I expect everyone to make her feel welcome.”

The new girl slides open the classroom door, enters, and slides the door closed behind her.

“Ah! Here she is now!” the teacher says with much enthusiasm, “Welcome to our class! Please, come forward and introduce yourself, will you?

“Yes, sir,” the new girl answers while walking towards the front center of the room. As she’s making her way, Kurama turns his head to see what the fuss is about, “Ah! It can’t be…” he thought with the same startled look on his face he had earlier. The new girl stands in front of the room to do what her sensei asks, “Good morning everyone,” she continues with a big, innocent smile on her face, “My name is Kiyoni Ikeda. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” The class looks at their new classmate in awe. Some of them knew that people like Kiyoni existed in Japan, but most of them never thought they would see one in their school, much less in their class.

Kiyoni is a hafu, the product of an Asian father and Black mother (AMBW) relationship. She stands 5’10” tall and about 135-140 pounds. She has light golden brown skin with long, black, kinky-curly hair neatly styled in two, low-positioned pigtails. She has amethyst-purple eyes and is wearing only some rose-pink lip gloss she bought herself just two days before. She blushes a little while the class continues to look at her in astonishment.

“She’s kind of cute,” a male student whispers in the background, “I wonder what she’s into.”

“Wow! She kind of looks like Miss Japan,” says a female student.

“You mean the hafu Miss Ariana Miyamoto?” whispers another.

The teacher overhears some of the background conversations going about in his classroom. “It looks like you’ll do just fine here Miss Ikeda,” the teacher assures while smiling at Kiyoni, “now why don’t you try to find a seat. Seats here are at a ‘first-come, first-serve’ basis.”

“Yes, sir.”

She then looks at the rows of desks sitting before her, noticing how their spaced. Kiyoni sighs at the thought of walking through those isles, knowing that she’s going to bump into at least one desk and/or one student. Due to the fact that she has slightly larger hips and butt than the average teenage girl in Japan. She can thank her mother for that. As Kiyoni is walking towards an empty seat in the middle of the room, Kurama can’t help but stare at his newest classmate, knowing very well that he’s seen her before.

During lunch period, Kiyoni stands in front of a vending machine making a decision on what to drink with her lunch, “Hmm. Decisions, decisions.”

Once she’s made her choice, she inserts the necessary funds into the machine and makes her selection. A can of strawberry soda leaves its place but, gets stuck on the way down. “What the hell,” she whispers.

She taps the machine. Nothing happens. She taps it again. Nothing happens. Frustrated, Kiyoni attempts to kick the machine but before she does, she hears a male student in the background, “Allow me to get that for you. This machine is old and can be very tricky.”

“Go right ahead! I was just about to break this thing anyway.”

Tapping the machine with both his left elbow and foot, the student frees the soda can, causing it to fall and become available for consumption. Elated, Kiyoni grabs the can and thanks the student who helped her, “Thanks a lot for the help!” When she opens her eyes to see her “soda savior”, she develops a surprised look on her face. It’s none other than Kurama leaning against the machine, arms crossed and his left foot placed on the vending appliance and with a smug look on his face, his typical stance, “Hello, Kiyoni. Long time, no see.”

Kiyoni freezes as she looks upon the one person she wanted to see the most in life, “Shu-, Shuuichi? Is that really you?” Her body begins to shake.

“Yes, Kiyoni. It’s me.”

Kiyoni, unknowingly, drops her soda can and leaps towards Kurama, embracing him.

“IT’S YOU, IT’S REALLY YOU!” she screams while laughing.

Kurama returns the favor, embracing his childhood friend the only way two friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time could embrace each other. An embrace that took seven years to accomplish.

“It’s been a long time, Shuuichi. How have you been my friend?” Kiyoni’s eyes beginning to water.

“Indeed, it has been a long time. I’ve been well to say the least.”

“Hold on. You’ve grown your hair out since I saw you last,” wiping tears from her eyes.

“Oh yeah. I guess, I did,” he grabs his side bangs a symbol of proof.

Suddenly, the two friends alert themselves to the fizzing sounds echoing in the hallway. They turn to find an exploding soda can on the floor.

“Aw man,” Kiyoni says disappointingly while placing her hands on the top of her head, “I spilled my soda. And I had such a hankering for it too.”

Kurama makes his way to fetch a mop, “Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”

“No, no,” she begins to follow, “It’s my mess. I’ll clean it up.”

“Very well. At least let me show you where the mop is.”

*****************************************************************************************************************

Back in the classroom, Kurama and Kiyoni are sharing a desk preparing for lunch. He starts the conversation, “I see that you still honor your school tradition.” Kiyoni takes out her bento. “By ‘school tradition’ you mean bringing a bento big enough for two to share on the first day of school? I still do.” She then opens her bento and hands Kurama a pair of extra chopsticks she carried with her. Inside the box contains shrimp tempura, tuna/wasabi mayo onigiri, a serving of cherry tomatoes and celery, and fruit sushi, with a side of raspberry dipping sauce, for dessert. Kurama looks at the bento in amazement, “Wow! Your bento looks so amazing. How fortunate of me to forget my lunch at home.”

“Kurama, you’re fortunate for me to bring a lunch.” She laughs.

“Hey, be mindful of that name Kiyoni. The world doesn’t need to know of it yet, if at all.”

“Whoops, my bad.” Kiyoni says before taking a bite of the onigiri, “I quickly forgot where I was just now. So tell me, what’s been going with you for the last seven years?”

“Well, most of the ‘action’ happened within the last 2-3 years to be honest with you,” Kurama responds before taking a bite of the fruit sushi, “I made some new friends, got a new family thanks to my mother’s new marriage, and I’m finally getting to understand who I really am now.”

“Wow that does sound like a lot. Well, I’m happy for you and I hope I get to meet your new family and friends soon.”

“Thank you. What about you and your family? What’s going on with them?”

“Well…you remember when I said that we were leaving so that my mom could take care of my grandfather’s estate, right?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, it turns out that when we got there, the estate was bigger than I thought. My grandfather did a lot in his time. So when it was my mother’s turn to take the reins, she handled it the best she could.”

“How did she do that?”

“She used the estate to turn to politics. You can say she’s a very well-respected politician now.”

“Oh boy. What about your father? Does he still practice hematology?”

“Yep, sure does. His work in the field gives him just as much respect as people give my mom.”

“That’s great! What about your older brother? How’s he doing?”

“Oh, Tai? Oh, he’s in college now. In fact, he just started his study abroad program this semester.”

“Really? In what subject?” Kurama takes a bite of the tempura.

“He…really didn’t tell me. We haven’t been speaking to each other much lately.” She frowns.

“That’s unfortunate. Even though he wasn’t that much of a conversationalist, back then, it still would have been nice to at least inform you about what he’s doing.”

Kiyoni sighs before popping a cherry tomato in her mouth, “Oh well. He’ll get around to it eventually.”

*****************************************************************************************************************

When the school day ends, Kurama and Kiyoni walk out of the school together. “Wow, what an exciting first day,” Kiyoni exclaims stretching her arms. “Yeah, one of the best first days I ever had. Say, how far is your house? I was thinking we could walk together like we used to back then,” Kurama suggests.

“Oh, I’m on the other side of town. In fact there’s a bus route that’ll take me to within a few blocks from my house. You can walk with me to the bus stop at least.”

“Gladly,” Kurama says with a smile.

As they make their way to the bus stop, Kurama reflects to himself on today, “I can’t believe it. She actually came back. After seven years, she actually came back. Interesting, because I was actually starting to forget about her. How silly of me to think that.”

When they arrive at the bus stop, Kiyoni pulls out a pen from her bag, grabs Kurama’s left hand, and starts to write something on it.

“Ah! What are you doing?”

“Its old school I know, but now that we get to see each other again on a daily basis, I figure that I should give you my phone number in case you want to get in contact with me afterwards.”

“Why don’t I just accompany you home? I’m sure your parents would be happy to see me,” Kurama says, again with a smile.

“Uh…yea. I’ll be happy to entertain the idea, but not today. We moved in just before the school registration date, so we still have some settling-in to do,” Kiyoni scratches her head, “I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s ok. Maybe next time.”

Kiyoni then looks at Kurama’s left hand, the same hand that she had written her number on, “Hey, Shuuichi. Do you remember the promise we made? You know the one we made before I left?”

Kurama follows suit and looks at Kiyoni’s right hand, “How can I forget?”

He then outstretches his left pinky finger to link with Kiyoni’s right as if they’re making a pinky promise like they did back then, “Whether we’re old and gray…”

“Or have already met our end…”

They both recite the rest, “Someday we will be reunited. A promise made between friends.”

Kiyoni laughs, “It’s funny. Back then I thought that was cool.”

“Funny, but a promise, nonetheless.”

At that moment, the bus that Kiyoni was waiting for arrives at the bus stop. The two then let go of each other’s hands. The door opens and she climbs aboard.

Turning to face Kurama, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure. Count on it.”

The bus door closes and takes off. As the bus leaves, Kurama continues to watch it drive away and thinks to himself, “Seeing you tomorrow. Now that’s something I’m definitely looking forward to.” His cheeks lightly blushing with anticipation.