A few minutes after they finished the last exam her idiot brother came up with another of his harebrained questions.

It was brain-dead to the extent he immediately regressed from 'brother' or even 'bro' to 'idiot brother' in seconds. In what alternative universe would she be able to solve the love problems of her best friend, the fifty year old supermodel with men clinging to her like grapes. The one who decided to cut off the man who must have been the love of her life, and who was Noriko's first love as well.

“But I promised I'd ask you.”

And that makes it better exactly how? Noriko stared at her idiot bro. Did we really have the same parents? “Fine, you asked.”

Ryu's face lit up enough for Noriko to glare at him.

“You're on your own with this one. She hands him crap chocolate and he returns a million yen ring?”

Ryu nodded.

“And how did you expect me to talk them out of that kind of monumental idiocy? Moron, is it contagious?”

That he nodded again didn't make things any better.

You really thought I could? Gods! “Ryu, they're beyond help. They're so disgustingly stupid I feel ashamed I fell in love with one of them. So should you.”

She had to keep her voice down. Ryu was still Ryu, girlfriend or not. When anyone spoke with him people tended to eavesdrop. The midget sister equipped with an up and rising model as boyfriend didn't make it any more discreet.

Thinking of Nao soured her mood some more. He worked more than could be accounted to Kuri's well paid prison. Her amazingly paid prison. Noriko guessed Kuri alone made more than Urufu's company, and the way Urufu worked the last month money kept pouring in.

Broken and rich. Is money really worth all that? But money wasn't part of it. Noriko knew that. Working to death as a means to escape the trap they built of themselves, to pretend they didn't notice how much they each hurt the one they loved the most.

If that was becoming adult, then Noriko would stay a child for the rest of her life.

“You're silent, sis.”

Noriko fidgeted a bit. Sorry, forgot you were here. “Follow me!”

She led her idiot brother down the stairs, en route their lockers and through the entrance. Not until she reached the line of sakura trees, which already showed signs of breaking out in beauty, did she stop.

“Master of morons, I'll help. OK?”

Ryu nodded. He even knocked a fist to his head like an elementary schooler. “How...”

“Silent! Contagious. It's contagious!”

Ryu stayed silent, and Noriko could afford enjoying spring some more while they waited for Kuri to show up. Her car already stood waiting, but it didn't worry Noriko as much now as earlier. A phone-call to Sato-sensei and car, thugs and Kuri each vanished in different directions. After Noriko found that out she didn't care, and neither did Kuri.

Then the midday sun shone from the entrance, and soon thereafter a halo of golden hair floated above school-yard gravel. As had been the routine since she dumped Urufu, Kuri came with a reinvigorated fan-club tailing her steps. Even the number of confessions increased.

“Idiot bro, last chance. Do you really want me to got through with this?”

He nodded.

Sorry Kuri, but this will hurt.

Noriko waited for her best friend to leave the school yard before the ambush.

“Kuri, Ryu here asked me why he fell in love with you.”

Kuri's face clouded over.

“Had to tell him I can't understand why.”

For once an angry glimmer lit in Kuri's eyes, but it died as soon as it awoke.

“Shut it Wakayama...”

She didn't have time to allow Kuri's fan-club to get involved. “I mean, wasn't all that much there to love after all.”

A gust of wind ran along the street. Noriko heard it rustle branches above her, she heard Kuri take two steps and stand absolutely still, she heard fan-club members gasp for breath, and she heard strangely running steps from the school yard. Kyoko? Why are you running?

“Don't do it! Noriko, stop!”

I have to move in for the kill. “Kuri, if you don't love him, then just throw away that toy.” I'm not doing this for you Ryu. This is for Kuri. But her idiot bro knew that. It was why he asked her in the first place. Noriko was aware of that. He was the catalyst and she the mover.

“Toy?” one of the boys wondered.

“Noriko, I couldn't.” An ember of life lit in Kuri's eyes.

Yes, please, we want you back. Yell at me, scream and hate me, but come alive!

“Back when I wanted him you never let go.” That was grossly unfair and untrue, but Noriko couldn't afford being nice. “Now when he only looks your way you dump him by the road.”

Kuri didn't say anything, but her silence spoke of anguish.

“Keeping that ring of his for the money?”

The gust of wind ran it's course and made a left turn at the end of the street. Kuri took another step forward and the fan-club growled with anger.

“Sis, there's no one like you. Thank you!” her idiot brother whispered.

“Noriko, how low do you think...”

Got you! “To any depth. There's no stopping you from sinking even deeper.” And now I kill her. “You even made money when Kyoko got stabbed.”

Kuri looked as if Noriko had slapped her.

“What happened to the Kuri who came first to Urufu's hospital but last to Kyoko's. How little is your best friend worth?” I can't make you two work again, but I can give you a clean break. Noriko looked at Kyoko who had stayed silent during the assault. I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Kyoko, but this is my last gift to Kuri and Urufu.

“Why would...”

“To smash what you broke. Kuri, it's broken. Don't try to mend it! Now off you go to the job you love so much.”

With Kyoko's hand in hers Noriko watched Kuri get into her car. Ryu stood behind them and made sure none in Kuri's fan-club tried to attack Noriko.

“She'll hate me, but this is the best I can do,” Noriko said to Kyoko. It hurt.

“I'll explain 'some day'.”

Some day. I just lost one of my two best friends, and I have to wait for 'some day'. I didn't want this.

***

What Noriko just did was incomprehensible. Still, no true malice, of that Kyoko was certain.

She held Noriko's hand and squeezed a little to show there were no hard feelings, despite her own heart falling apart. Noriko had been there, the last time Kuri broke down. She kept the rest of them away. Anyone turning against them all to protect her friend couldn't be a bad person.

But it was incomprehensible.

Over the gravel, steps with a broken rhythm announced Yukio's arrival. His foot never healed perfectly, more a fault of his than his assaulter's. One more week properly on crutches, just as the doctor had said, and he wouldn't limp like this.

“See you, man. Six? I have it. Will tell Kyoko.”

Too many words. Too much willingness to please. Sometimes it was easy to forget how broken Urufu was, and how much Yukio tried to help his friend.

Four of us in 3:1. They're only two.

“Yukio, over here,” Kyoko called as if he could possibly have missed her where she stood with a crutch in one hand and Noriko in her other.

And there he goes. Kyoko followed Urufu's back with her eyes. They'd meet later. Six o'clock apparently. Their main customer probably, as neither Noriko nor Ryu was wanted. There was no end to how many sessions they bought.

“Stay with me, please.”

Kyoko looked at Noriko and saw how much she hurt. Kuri, you and Urufu owe both Ryu and Noriko an apology. They're not adults like you. “I will. Care to join us?” Kyoko added and tilted her head in Yukio's direction.

“Where?”

Where? Somewhere it didn't hurt. “The mall,” Noriko suggested to her own surprise.

Those were happier days. She could still relate to them, and somewhere inside her she cherished the memory of what hadn't happened. Walking home from cram school that day almost a year earlier and noticing two Himekaizen blazers hanging from a hook a floor upstairs in that café. One of them belonged to her Yukio.

He looked at her, and she could almost see the cogwheels turn inside his head. Yeah, I saw you, so what? But she had nursed a mild crush on Urufu shortly after, not Yukio, and she hadn't even known Urufu was Urufu at the time. Well, I got the best guy of those in the end.

“Remember Urufu's bike?”, Noriko began.

Yes! Kyoko's impulse looked like it would pay off.

“He still rides to to school,” Ryu said. “That overpriced racer of his.”

“Overpriced?” Kyoko hadn't thought of Urufu's stuff that way. He preferred high quality items, that much was certain, but overpriced?

Ryu took a few steps, turned and bowed like an old style westerner. With an invisible hat in his hand he returned upright. “May I, dear lady, present for you Urufu's, or moron-sama's' shopping habits?”

“By all means,” Kyoko said. She had learned a little helping Yukio with his part in the play 6:1 did for the cultural festival. She even curtsied a little on the pavement.

“A bike, a mere 300 000 yen, an offer you can't refuse. A backpack. It's a give-away, a fantastic deal in orange that would make its namesake proud. Almost free, just 15 000 yen!”

Kyoko bowed. If she was supposed to curtsey or bow she didn't know, but she wanted to continue the game. A few cars passed and Ryu made a pause for some relative calm to return again.

“When it rains, why settle for an umbrella. No, I've found you a light weight rice boiler for a mere 60 000 yen, trousers included. If it's merely windy, why not have this orange atrocity for 10 000 yen. It doesn't even come with a hood.”

By her side Noriko had started laughing, and Kyoko could see how Yukio stood grinning wildly. Apparently he approved of Ryu's exaggerations.

“For more formal occasions, a business suit. A find at a mere quarter of a million yen.”

That was unfair. It had been a gift from Kuri.

“A watch, same price, but the phone, alas, is a mere hundred thousand.”

Maybe you should stop now. Then it struck Kyoko it was exactly what Ryu shouldn't do. The list of excessive prices put Urufu's White Day gift to Kuri in a different light. Presented like this it was just a reflection on the only way Urufu knew to buy things. Expensive, always horribly expensive, because he lacked the knowledge needed to find find something good without paying in excess.

In front of her Ryu had gone silent, and Kyoko found herself standing still as well.

“He's a self-made man. Dad taught me about those. They're powerful people in their own right, but they never have contacts from birth. They always, always compensate for what they weren't born with.”

What Ryu just said went past her. Maybe it mirrored his upbringing, but Kyoko couldn't place herself in that kind of world. Noriko nodded her understanding, and her smile displayed something akin to respect for her own brother. Yukio just shrugged his shoulders like Urufu would have done.

But I wonder what Kuri-chan would have done. Shrug, most likely. But there would have been that flash in her eyes that said she understood more than anyone else. I think I understand you a little better now. Didn't you say you never bought jewellery but always bought the jeweller?

While the conversation had fallen flat there were smiles on their faces. When they rounded a corner and saw the old mall ahead of them Kyoko pointed at the stand where Urufu's bike used to be locked.

“Right one?” she asked Yukio.

“Damn girl even knows where he placed his crap. But I got her in the end anyway!”

He was never interested in me, but I love you all the more for making it sound like he did. “You got nothing. I reeled you in,” Kyoko said. Loving what Yukio said wasn't the same as allowing him to grow too large a head.

“Upstairs?” Ryu asked.

“Yeah, let's celebrate the absence of Kuri and Urufu,” Yukio said, and Kyoko watched how the two of them high fived each other out of nowhere.