Normally Noriko would have grabbed a quick lunch from the cafeteria and brought it to the shaded area between the main building and the gym hall. Because normally she would have appreciated getting away from the crowded chaos around Ryu and Ageruman-san.

Truth be told she would have preferred sitting inside the cafeteria, but it sat flanked by the locker rooms on the first floor in the main building, and the seniors occupied the first floor classrooms in both wings. By the time the freshmen made it down from third floor there were no more seats to be had.

Perks of seniority, she thought.

That was however normally. The day before yesterday she overheard Takeida-san just after soccer training. Now normal concerns, like getting the best grades in school, took a bleak second place.

Thus it was that Noriko found herself by the vending machines outside the cafeteria facing rows of shoe lockers.

She pulled out a few coins and started feeding the machine. Plastic food, yummy. Wonder if the wrapping tastes better than the contents. She knelt and collected what had to substitute for lunch. Next was bottled tea.

“Did you see Wakayama-san?”

Noriko started to turn but stopped mid-movement. Wrong Wakayama.

“Yes. Isn't he the best?”

Yea, wrong Wakayama.

“Mori-san confessed to that Ogawa from 8:1, or she will after school. Super exciting!”

Small blessings, there were small blessings with having her idiot brother and the stunning foreigner in the same class. What should have been a Sengoku period civil war zone had somehow turned into a dating facility.

And even that would have been part of normality.

She grabbed her lunch, or whatever it deserved to be called, and made for the right wing stairwell. There were more students going up than down now. Like her, with cafeteria lunches or booty from the vending machines.

She was heading for the hornets’ nest because she wanted to. Because of no reason at all. Because 6:1 was playing soccer during lunch break. Because she was an idiot. Because she wasn't Ryu who waded through emotional turmoil without ever getting stained. Because she did get stained.

It's just my classroom. Why am I this nervous?

Noriko entered the bedlam that was 3:1. Students from every freshman class in school, even though a majority belonged in the right wing.

There were islets that hadn't been there earlier. New couplings created new groups which were only loosely attached to the centrepieces of attraction.

Find your own classrooms! Crowded here.

There was a sudden commotion by the windows. Noriko started walking there. It was where she wanted to be anyway. Then she saw Ryu literally barging in on her solitude.

***

He was the eternal clown. He knew that even though he never thought of himself as the laughing stock of anyone.

“Hey, look at that!” One of the Watabe twins shouted from the windows, and sure enough, a few seconds later the other materialised beside him.

One striker and one midfielder, and they were good. Though Ryu prided himself with being good at just about any physical activity, when it came to soccer he was no match. The twins shared a mental link on the field, and even individually each of them was far better than he could ever hope to be.

And they were part of his extended net of acquaintances. He needed it. Hell anyone would need one if they grew up with a larger than life midget as a sister. He had to keep up the illusion of being the centre of the universe. He attracted people, but his sister did so as well, even if she didn't believe it herself. And to top it off, for being so short she sure stood tall every exam he could recall.

Ryu rose and located said midget. A few quick steps and he scooped her up in his arms and threw her over his shoulders.

“Down bro! Let me down!”

He disregarded the protests and carried her to where the twins were standing. From behind his right shoulder the shrieks of verbal trashing continued. He could see Ageruman-san coming to the rescue with Takeida-san trailing her steps like a loyal dog.

“Moron, drop your sister!”

“That translates into letting her down gently, you king of idiots!”

OK, maybe not a loyal dog after all. And I'm a prince. Old people are kings.

“If she can climb down on her own,” he shouted over his left shoulder, a movement that left his older sister flailing wildly. It was time to obey the orders coming from three sources or those sources would have his hide later.

Takeida-san would have been a handful on her own, but she paled in comparison with his sister. And then there was Ageruman-san. For the first time he could remember he had to fight for his place in the limelight. And he was losing badly.

Not that he minded losing to her all that much.

Not that he minded anything with her.

Ryu shook his head and pretended to look at whatever the Watabes were studying. Soccer, of course it had to be soccer.

Below them on the field class 6:1 had their lunch break just before PE, and the guys were slugging it out. Compared to the Watabes 'slugging' was an apt term.

“He's pretty bad, isn't he?” one of them commented.

“Yeah, but strong. And he's quick as a snake.”

“Still a crap player. Anyone that tall could be a decent striker.”

Ryu stopped pretending and started looking for whomever had caught the interest of the twins.

“No soccer player that one.” That had to be Okamoto-san, from 1:1 or 2:1, Ryu could never remember which class. “Budoka, and a damn good one. Look at his stance!”

Below them a tall guy jumped and tried heading the ball into the goal, but it flew wide of its target. Then he landed, slid on his feet, swivelled and accelerated back to take part in the defence. Crap, he ought to have bowled those two defenders over. How the hell did he avoid them both?

Beside him Noriko suddenly cut the verbal trashing short and became noticeably silent. A Noriko silent after being manhandled by him was worth taking note of. Ryu looked down to read her face. Oh, that's interesting. He knew that look. He'd seen it often enough on other girls. With himself as the object of affection.

She's crushing hard! Damn, sis looks like someone clubbed her from behind!

He stared out the window. It had to be the guy who had just caught his attention. I've seen him before. Ryu took another look at his sister. Her face displayed the slight blush he expected to find there, and a quizzical recollection. She's seen him before as well?

“Cute, or even husband material, eh?” he teased her.

Noriko turned so red he could have sworn her hair would blush as well. Ryu was about to embarrass her some more when suddenly…

First Takeida-san went sour all of a sudden, and then...

“Man! Did you see that?”

Two defenders had collided and were falling to the ground. Oblivious of the impossible action the tall one slid under them, twisted mid-air and came out rolling on the other side. He was already racing after the ball.

“Yeah. Cool, but he's still a crap player. Midfielder should go for the ball, and he should run for the goal instead.”

“Who gives a… Damn, karate or jujitsu? Both?”

“Eh?”

“The bastard's at least a black belt in both an offensive and a defensive style. That's impossible!”

“Eh?”

“His age. I'd know who he was. Tokyo's big, but not that big!”

Beside him Noriko had paled, and Ryu felt the colour drain from his own face.

Yes, we both know him. Sis, I'm so sorry!

“He saved me, and I never thanked him,” she whispered. “I never thanked him, and then he vanished.” Limply she dropped her lunch to the floor. Her bottled tea bounced under a desk, but the wrapped bread just thudded to the floor and hugged it like a bag of sand.

Ryu bent down. For once it was time to play it with a semblance of tact. “You can now,” he said. She had turned down two guys the last year because of a dream, and now he had seen her fall in love with that dream again. This time before she even recognized him. That makes it a double first.

“I hate it! He scares me,” she said. “I got all warm and cosy, and it was a new guy, and I could forget, and I could make a new dream and, no! Not fair!” Noriko stared at him. “It just had to be the same one. I hate it!”

Ryu embraced his sister. This wasn't a time to be cool, and she didn't need the rest of them to see how small she was. For once she was just a midget and nowhere close to larger than life.

Behind him he could feel Ageruman-san watching him. And Noriko. And Takeida-san. The three of them were being studied like a new and novel specimen at the zoo. Ageruman-san could be cold that way, like she was comparing them to a secret of hers.

Below them cheers rose to the windows.

“Finally! With that speed and stamina even that guy had to score eventually. Damn, he really is hopeless!”

And he had scored. With a kick. Force instead of skill. A kick hard enough to shatter, for example a knee. Ryu knew he should have remembered the guy, but the cheering teenager below them looked nothing like the raging avenger who had saved Noriko more than half a year earlier. The one she had fallen in love with while he was busy being expelled from school.

***

“Pretty good for a geek, ha.” A bunch of students were entering the locker room, and the comment had come from the door opening.

What's with them? Ulf looked at Yukio in search for a clue.

“Because you're an idiot.” Yukio handed over the plastic bottle with shampoo together with his verbal assessment. “Towel.”

Ulf exchanged bottle for towel, and then they left their locker room. Two more classes, and it would be club hours. If they had had a club that was.

“My lack of brains. What about it?” he asked as they climbed the left wing stairs to the third floor.

“Those were 3:1,” Yukio answered as if it explained everything.

“So?”

“They're in the right wing.”

“And?”

“For being so damned old and smart you're really a moron sometimes.” Yukio looked slightly disgusted. “Old geezer, you act on experience when you should be thinking.”

Ulf blushed slightly. This wasn't the first time they had this discussion. One of the advantages with being older was that you had a vast pool of experience to use. The main disadvantage with being older was that you usually used that pool automatically.

“Right wing, so?”

“Their windows face the soccer field. You know, where we played during lunch break when 3:1 was filled with a full two classes worth of students?”

Oh, crap! Ulf could see where this was going.

“You know, when you displayed those amazing athletic skills of yours. Those that you share with every other average member of geek squad.”

“I'm no good at football,” Ulf countered.

“It's soccer over here, not football.”

“Played with your feet, hence football. UEFA, FIFA, notice the lack of an 'S' there?”

“Football is another sports. It's...”

“Played with your hands. I know. Yanks aren't known for their brains to begin with. Had to be an idiot from the states to mistake handball for football.”

Yukio gave him a cold stare, and then they both laughed.

“You're still an idiot, you know that?”

Ulf sighed. Just as he pulled open the door to their classroom he turned to his friend. “I guess I am at that.”

Yukio shook his head, and they entered.

“Think 3:1 lost out on their monopoly?” Ulf asked over his shoulder as he went for his desk.

“No, not yet,” Yukio answered from behind. “But you're pulling too much attention. Someone will start asking questions.”

That was bad. “You don't think she...?”

“I don't know.” Now it was Yukio's turn to blush. “Takeida-san was there.”

That was correct. Ulf had seen the human sun shine from one of the classrooms, and wherever she was Kyoko wasn't far away.

His personal problem was that lately the two large gangs of admirers had merged into one, so if you found Christina you were likely to find Ryu as well. And that meant Noriko, and there was a risk she would remember him.

He was running out of time. If he was found out and rumours started to spread he could wave goodbye to his plans.

If I could only redo! But he couldn't go back, only forward. He wasn't redoing high school. This was a new experience, and as such it had to be handled with the respect it deserved.

Club first. Then have a chat with the Wakayama twins. Because now he had to get them to join as well. That Ryu's fan-club had merged with Christina's horde of admirers had put a huge wrench into his plans. They were no longer as simple and clean as when he had started harbouring them. Ulf hated complicated plans, because those soon grew to become complex. And when plans became complex, well then usually all bets were off.

His thoughts returned to the football field and the teenagers playing ball.

When I was their age the first time, he thought, remembering when he had travelled to Japan with his parents but no those thoughts didn't match reality. They probably played baseball on that field back then rather than football.

But those kids were fifty now as well. You're not playing baseball any more. Did your kids play football or baseball when they were fifteen? He missed his parents. He missed… Maria, do you wonder what happened to me? Are you alone? Are you taking good care of our kids? His eyes brimmed with tears. Our surviving kids? And an overwhelming feeling of loss came over him. He hadn't been born to this world. In this world, somewhere in Sweden, a Maria who had never met him lived out her life, and their children had never been born. But in that case his daughter had never died, and if so why did he miss her so much?

Ulf blinked away his tears. He needed to switch his attention to something that didn't give him a headache.

“Yukio, what's up now?”

“English.”

Ulf swore. For one hour he'd be forced to pretend to learn English from that half arsed moron who really should have finished his career at being a student before becoming a teacher. Ulf felt his headache spreading.