“This is from me,” Kyoko said and reached over the table with her bag.

The small karaoke booth barely had room for all eight of them, but Kyoko really wanted to spend some time with their extended inner circle before they all went to Stockholm Haven café where the rest of the club were headed.

Noriko took the offered bag in her hands and looked inside.

“What is it?” she asked.

“A little something from Yukio and me,” Kyoko answered.

By her side Yukio frowned and shook his head. “Don't accuse me of that atrocity. Wallet, my participation was strictly limited to my wallet,” he said and grinned.

With a squeal Noriko opened up the bag and quickly ripped through the gift-wrapped box inside.

“It's so… so… green!” she said, but her eyes glittered and she was already digging up her phone from a pocket. “I always wanted one of these,” she continued and firmly planted her phone inside the skin.

It really was as intrusive to the eyes as Yukio had said.

“Happy birthday!” Kyoko said, and she knew her eyes glimmered just like Noriko's.

“Ryu, we decided that to be as cool as Urufu you have to look as antique as Urufu,” Yukio said and took the verbal baton from Kyoko.

Both Nao-sempai and Ai-chan gave him questioning stares before they glanced in Urufu's direction.

That won't be enough to give our secret away, Kyoko thought. And we have to be allowed to at least make some stupid jokes about it from time to time.

Ryu made a show of hiding his face in his hands. “Seeing what sis got what kind of awful do you have in mind for me?”

In response Yukio pushed another paper bag across the table.

Kyoko grinned in anticipation and waited for Ryu to open his birthday gift. The staff probably wonder why this booth is so silent. Well, let them!

“What the? You bastards!”

“What is it?” Ai-chan wondered by Ryu's side. The surprising addition of a girlfriend had taken them all a bit aback, but she made her best to fit in, which wasn't easy given that her old style Irishima high sailor uniform looked out of place mixed with the Himekaizen Academy blazers.

“Bloody hell, it's an honest to god planner. I haven't seen one of those in...”

Kuri-chan yanked Urufu's arm before he had the chance to finish his sentence.

“Planner?” Ai-chan asked.

“It's what dad used before his first smart-phone,” Ryu said and glared at Yukio.

“Happy birthday,” Yukio said perfectly unperturbed. “Now you can look as cool as Urufu.”

The cool one smirked. “I don't use one of those. Look, I can prove it!” he said and fished up his phone. “All digital here.”

Ryu opened his faux leather-bound planner and flipped through the pages. “Just to show you I'll use it.”

“About planning, have you decided about next year yet?” Nao-sempai said.

Noriko nodded and looked up from her phone. “Science,” she said.

“No surprise there,” Ryu observed. “She's the brains here. I can't compete, but I'll do science as well.”

“Liberal arts,” Yukio and Kyoko said in union. She looked at him and then they both burst out in laughter.

“We'll stick together I guess,” she said and boxed him on his arm when he pretended to groan.

“We don't separate tracks that way at Irishima, but something like liberal arts for me as well,” Ai-chan said. She snuggled up closer to Ryu and glanced at Kuri-chan with unspoken rivalry in her eyes.

You really don't have to worry that much. Kuri-chan only has eyes for Urufu.

“Liberal arts,” Kuri-chan said and pretended she had misunderstood Ai-chan's look.

Well played, Kyoko thought. You understand what makes people tick. With a nod of approval to her friend Kyoko saw how Ai-chan relaxed a little.

Seven pair of eyes stared at Urufu who hadn't said anything.

“What?” he asked when he finally understood his opinion was wanted.

“What? What are you going to study next year?” Nao-sempai asked.

“Me? Science obviously.”

“Science? With your grades?”

Kyoko could only agree with Ryu's reaction. With Urufu's results she wasn't entirely positive he'd be able to handle liberal arts, let alone the much more difficult science track.

“Look, it's my written Japanese that sucks, not my brains!”

Japanese? You're flunking more than your exams in Japanese. Kyoko shook her head. If Urufu wanted to go through science hell it was his decision.

From the corner of her eye Kyoko saw Kuri-chan giving Urufu a look that told him that for those two the topic wasn't finished. Hmm, finished. Kyoko looked at the clock. They had only a few minutes left. It was time to wrap it up and leave for Stockholm Haven café.

The last songs were a mix of birthday celebration songs. For most of them they didn't even bother with music, and after a last round of roaring laughter they left the booth and made for the streets.

On their way to meet the rest of their friends Kyoko hooked up with Yukio and pretended not to notice how Kuri-chan and Urufu fell behind them. There had been an uneasiness between those two the last days, and Kyoko guessed they needed to discuss something.

“Ai-chan, your friends coming as well?” Kyoko asked to clear her thoughts of her misgivings.

Ryu's girlfriend turned and met Kyoko's look. “Yes, a few of them. Seems more fun than a goukon anyway.”

“And here I thought the last goukon delighted you,” Ryu shot in. That comment won him a pair of flushed cheeks from Ai-chan and friendly scowls from the rest of them.

“Be nice, man. She's your girlfriend,” Yukio suggested.

“I'm always nice. I was born nice.”

“You were born full of yourself.”

Yukio's last retort made Kyoko hug him closer to herself. You've grown, she thought. You're manlier now.

“You deserved that one,” Noriko noted and elbowed her brother. “You can keep him, Ai-chan. He's damaged goods anyway.”

“Hey, it's my boyfriend you're talking about!”

“He's my idiot brother.”

“You can have the idiot part. I'll take the boyfriend material,” Ai-chan shot back.

Kyoko grinned. Ryu's surprise girlfriend had a lot more spunk than her looks gave away.

***

When Ulf drummed up the speed of his feet Christina had to pull his sleeve to physically slow him down.

“Ulf, I didn't just accidentally fall behind them.”

“I know,” he answered, “but I feel well enough to keep up. You don't need to show me this kind of concern.”

Crap, he thinks I'm worried about his health! Truth be told she was, and more than a little, but if he said he was good then she needed to believe him. Besides it wasn't the real reason she held him back.

Waiting for two cars to pass them and the sound of engines to die off a bit she walked with Ulf along a 7-Eleven that could have passed for a Stockholm memory from two years earlier.

“Ulf,” she said when both the sound of engines and lit store-front were behind them. “Are you sure about the science track?”

For once she spoke Japanese with him even though they were alone. Some concepts didn't translate all that well into Swedish, and the Japanese system with a one size fits all freshman high school year didn't exist in Sweden. Hadn't existed when she attended high school the first time, and didn't these days.

He gave her a look of curiosity but responded in Japanese as well. “It's my main background. I'm in IT, so computer science is kind of natural for me.”

“You're about as much in IT as I'm in modelling,” Christina grumbled, but she regretted her words as soon as she had spoken them. Since a few months she was very much into modelling again.

Ulf pulled her closer to him and laughed silently. “Fine, I'm into management and development processes.”

Thank you for forgiving me when I'm an idiot! “Ulf, can you handle it with your grades?”

There were a few moments of silence only broken by the sounds of their feet on the ground and the occasional car of the street.

“You know,” Ulf began, “I think I'll have an easier time with the science track than the liberal arts one. Less dependent on the Japanese language.”

“So you mean your grades aren't that important?”

“They're important and they suck!”

Christina stopped in her tracks at the sudden vehemence in Ulf's voice.

“How come you're so angry about your grades? They're low, but not disastrously so. Look at mine!”

Ulf sighed. “We'll get to those later. I think Noriko will help, and between the three of us we'll have you above the cut-off.”

Dammit Ulf, don't treat me like an idiot! “You didn't answer my question.”

Ulf took a long time to answer, and they got almost a block closer to their destination. “I guess,” he said finally, “that I hate being dragged down because of my Japanese.”

“We both are, and yours is a lot better than mine.”

He nodded but still managed to look downcast. “It's just… it's just that I grew used to being among the best when I was a high school student for real.”

“For real. Ha.” And what exactly do you mean by 'the best'?

Ulf looked morose for a moment. “Yes, you're right. Here we're real students as well. Only makes it worse.”

“Among the best you said?” Christina suggested, digging for some more knowledge about his past.

“Yes. Even though I pretty much flunked music and did poorly at sports I still managed five flat with the system back then.”

“Five flat?”

He looked at her. “You were, what, one year behind me? You must have used the one to five scale.”

“Yes. Changed sometime during the nineties. So, five flat?”

“That's my mean from high school. Made me feel like a king.”

What he had just said finally filtered through Christina's mind. “You graduated high school with five point zero? What?”

“Our sister club is in an elite school, my old school. Think I told you earlier. We were five in our class with perfect grades. Well, after you cut sports and the two worst non-core subjects.”

“Gods!” Christina took two quick steps and turned to face him. “You're not kidding?”

“No, I had it easy. Chalmers was harder. It seemed everyone had grades like mine, and most had worked a lot harder. I never really shone there, but I didn't mind.”

“Of course you went to Chalmers. That's so… Ulf.” She laughed and poked his chest. “So you have a master’s degree?”

“Uhum, science and arts.”

“Eh, that's a strange combination.”

“Sorry, my bad. Science from Chalmers. After the dot com crash I took up English studies at university. Evening courses to fill my time. Got my arts degree from there.”

Me and my big mouth. I should have guessed. “Two, the idiot has two degrees,” Christina said at a lack for a decent retort.

“Don't worry. Took ages to get the last one. I didn't finish until a couple of years ago, so I spent, what, twelve years getting it.” Ulf laughed. “Was just a hobby after all.”

“Yes, sounds like my Ulf. You ran a company and got yourself an extra master’s degree as a hobby. And you kept up that Japanese combat training of yours.”

“Aikido, not combat.”

“Whatever. You've got too much brains for your own good, you know that? Probably why you always think too much.”

If he had that kind of learning capacity he'd probably handle the science track just fine. As for herself Christina held no overblown hopes about her academic ability. She'd claw herself through the Japanese high school system one way or another, and after that she'd be done with her studies. She had a world to conquer.

“Ulf,” she said after the content of their conversation became a future reality. “I guess that means we'll never be in the same class.”

“I guess not,” he said. “Would you prefer for me to go for the liberal arts track instead?”

Christina threw out her hands in horror. “No! Don't build your future on me!”

The look she got in return was filled with equal parts respect and hurt.

Please don't! You can't build your life around me. But she would have liked to share more time with him, and she was on the verge of saying something stupid when she saw the entrance to Stockholm Haven café ahead of them.