Ryu stared after Kuri when she dragged his sister out of the cafeteria. Then Kuri’s parting words reached him, and he looked down just in time to see Urufu pick up a broken phone from the floor.

What was that about?

“Urufu, give that to me. I’ll hand it over to sis later.”

“Shut up! Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage already?”

And what was that about? On the verge of flaring up Ryu got control over himself. He’s jealous, and hurt. Damn I’d be if I saw Kuri all over someone else like this.

“She said you needed help,” he said instead.

“You’re in love with her, but you got turned down?”

Ryu looked at the girl who asked the question. A foreigner. European or from North America. Her uniform spoke of a freshman, all shiny and new apart from the tell tale ribbon, colour coded for each year.

“None of your business,” Urufu barked in return.

“So you can sound like this. How cute.” Then the girl turned her attention to Ryu. “And who are you?”

Trying to play cute are you? “I’m Wakayama Ryu,” he said. “I have something of a reputation here,” he continued and turned on his best smile. A few girls further back in the queue blushed and most of them stared at him. I’m way out of your league.

“A naughty reputation?” the girl said. “Or a bad one?” she continued, and nuked the cafeteria with a devastating blast of charisma. “Please be kind to me in any case, would you?”

What was that? Ryu staggered backwards. When he got hold of himself he saw how almost everyone in the cafeteria stared at the girl. Quite a few of them had risen from their chairs.

“Dammit, just stop that pissing contest, will you?” Urufu growled, and for the first time in over a month Ryu saw a glimmer of a smile in his eyes. “Ryu you lost anyway.”

They made it to the counter and Ryu ordered lunch for the three of them. Behind him Urufu and the foreign girl exchanged insults, and the students next in line gasped from time to time when an insult got extra juicy.

At one time a senior came over to play the knight and save the girl from Urufu, but he just stretched a little and looked down at the third year. Just when things looked like they were going south the girl clung to Urufu.

“Hey, I haven’t rejected him. Just told him I need to think about it.”

“See, we’re friends,” Urufu said and walked right into the trap.

Ryu grinned and used the moment of surprise to get in between Urufu and the third year. “She’s quite the stunner, isn’t she?” Ryu said and nodded in Urufu’s general direction. “He was so taken in by her he confessed earlier today,” he lied and smiled.

“Whoa! I did what?” Urufu protested.

Ryu and the girl gave him an elbow each and Urufu went ‘Oomph’ and shut his trap.

Just who are you? Ryu wondered. Another arrival, like that Tomasu-kun Noriko told me about yesterday? Given the impact Urufu and Kuri had made the monstrous charisma the new girl displayed maybe wasn’t all that surprising.

“So, just how old are you?” he asked her when they made their way outdoors.

“Coperu Jeniferu, nice to meet you,” she said instead of answering his question.

Ryu stared at her as she passed him in the doorway, and a few steps ahead of them both Urufu shook his head in exasperation.

“Wakayama Ryu,” Ryu offered automatically. His parents hadn’t spent the years raising him to be impolite.

“You can call me Jeniferu. I’m not used to go by my last name anyway.”

Ryu followed in her steps. I would have anyway, you know, he thought. Cause Urufu refuses to have it any other way, but you could hardly know that. “I’ll do so, Jeniferu-chan,” he said.

“Thank you, Ryu,” she said over her shoulder in a tone that both displayed an exaggerated familiarity as well as a life spent without the use of honorifics.

Looks like the new year is going to be interesting. Ryu grimaced. As if it needed to be any more interesting. Then he got hold of himself and followed Urufu just as Jeniferu-chan caught up to him and clung to his arm. And I don’t believe you’re really interested in him at all, so why the show?

Quite a few of the students sent them greetings, and more than a few gave Urufu ironic salutes filled with sympathy. Kuri dumping him on Valentine’s day was still a popular topic, and Urufu had made more friends than enemies.

What a waste, Ryu thought. He’s not over her at all, and I’m certain Kuri loves him enough to cry when she goes to sleep.

But he’d play the boyfriend still. Kuri asked him to, and for whatever reasons she had, Ryu believed she’d continue to embrace her pain rather than make up with the man she loved. As for himself Kuri’s stupid game helped him get over Ai breaking up with him. She’d become much more dear to him than he ever believed she would.

“Nice catch, Hamarugen-san,” someone shouted. A second year, unsurprisingly. To the juniors Urufu was still something of a hero, especially with the sports festival coming up.

Urufu just smiled, and Ryu knew he was just about the only one to see how pained that smile way. Jeniferu-chan clung to his arm and blasted freshmen and juniors alike with her presence.

You’re going to make enemies with the girls if you keep this up, Ryu thought. Still, something told him she was just as eminently suited to handle that kind of problem as Kuri was.

He grinned while they made their way to the empty pool and decided to give his sister a call and tell her about the insanity. Then he recalled that she didn’t have her phone on her, and after that the look in her face when she dropped it.

He called Kuri, only to have his call rejected immediately. Giving it a second thought Ryu decided against trying again and settled down for lunch with Urufu and Jeniferu-chan.

***

A couple of hours later, after the last period, Ryu found himself on his way to the Haven café, or their clubroom to be more precise. The number of members took a dive after Principal Kareyoshi announced to the entire school that the Himekaizen Cultural Exchange club was disbanded.

It wasn’t. Not after parental outcries and a hastily assembled meeting by the board of directors. An eight percent increase in test results compared to the rest of the student body was hard to argue against, but Ryu was certain Kareyoshi would force the club to close shop one way or another.

Test results, however, was the last on his mind right now. The latest arrival, Jeniferu-chan turned out to be a first class pain in the arse, much more so than Tomasu-kun, who just couldn’t let go of his old academic merits. At the moment Ryu was more afraid of Kuri than anyone else. She’d go livid if she saw how Jeniferu-chan glued herself to Urufu.

What a mess. I’m scared about how my girlfriend is going to react when she finds out about the guy she dumped. Which really meant she wasn’t his girlfriend in the first place.

When Ryu came inside, accompanied by the chiming of the bell, the first thing he saw was a different kind of mess, one he didn’t mind confronting at all. He’d recognise that back anywhere.

“Ai-chan?”

His ex jumped up from her chair, and somehow managed to turn mid-air. “Ryu? Why are you here?”

Now that’s a new high-score in stupidity. “Eh, because our clubroom is here, like it’s been since the start of the year.”

“I forgot.”

Ryu looked at her and her friends. No you didn’t. You were looking for me. “Wanted something?”

Ai-chan quickly regained her composure, one of the reasons Ryu fell in love with her. “Actually I do. Your sister to yell at. She had me come here, but I never thought she’d stoop to the level where she set us up.”

Noriko? Ryu gave it a thought. Actually she would stoop that low. He grabbed a chair by the table next to Ai-chan and sat down. When James waved a question, Ryu nodded a silent approval. Soon enough his standard order would arrive.

“You’re saying you’re unhappy to see me?”

By Ai-chan’s side her best friend looked like she was going to explode. She grabbed her glass of water, and Ryu braced himself, but then the girl thought better of it and put it down again. A clatter of kitchenware from behind Ai-chan told Ryu the other friend was burning with ire as well.

“No, I’d never do that,” she said.

“Because this is not about what you want, is it?” Suddenly irritated Ryu felt the need to be mean. “Just for the record I still love you. Very much,” he added when he saw Ai-chan stare at him, mouth wide open, while she blushed furiously.

This time the clatter was replaces by the sound of a fork being slammed to the plate. “If you love her so much, then why did you dump her?”

Dump her? Ryu glared at Ai-chan. I didn’t think you were the kind to lie.

“He didn’t. I broke up with him.”

“Is what you’re saying, but let’s hear it from him as well.”

Oh, so you didn’t lie about it after all. “Like Ai-chan says. We agreed to break up, but she took the initiative.” Hearing her defend him warmed him somewhat. “Why are you here?” Time to change topic. This one still hurts.

Ai-chan looked down at her shoes while she dangled her feet.

Cute.

“Your sister called me here.”

James arrived with coffee and cake; Ryu’s standard order, but in the beginning something Urufu ordered by chance.

“Noriko?” Ryu said and sipped his coffee. As usual a superb blend. James might cheat on interior and exterior design, but what he served was first class. “How so?” Ryu continued when Ai-chan didn’t answer.

“I think it’s about you, or me, or us.” Ai-chan fidgeted a little until she finally looked up and met Ryu’s eyes. “She thinks you dumped me for another girl.”

With a bit of cake in his mouth Ryu mulled over Ai-chan’s explanation. “You know what, the part about another girl is true.”

As expected both of Ai-chan’s friends growled angrily.

“Wait,” Ai-chan said. “Ryu’s not like that. Explain.”

He still saw the hurt in her eyes. “Kuri saw us that day.” So now you dropped the honorifics. I wish you had done so earlier. Ryu looked at the girl he still loved. Kuri, Urufu, I’ll kick your butts to kingdom come. What a mess!

“She’s hurting. She loves Urufu maybe even stronger than I love you,” Ryu began. There was no maybe in that, but he had no reason to hurt Ai-chan. An adult’s love wasn’t flimsy in the way of a teenager’s, that much he understood. “Kuri saw us and asked me if it was a new beginning or an end.”

Ai-chan bit her lips but said nothing.

“And then you just got yourself a new girlfriend?” Ai-chan’s best friend, and she showed signs of losing her control altogether.

“Please, listen to him!”

“She needed a cover, a convenient lie, for her work,” Ryu continued. “Two people in love with someone else they can’t have, she said.”

“Ryu,” Ai-chan said. Her voice was very small. “Do you really love me?”

He looked at her, and then he looked inside himself. “I do, but I’ll never keep my girlfriend a secret, just as I told you that day.” Knowing that she’d need time to process that Ryu drank some more of his coffee. Still hot but no longer scalding. Make of that what you want.

“Ai?” That was the girl hidden behind Ai-chan.

The question made her flinch. Ryu watched her looking down, just to turn around and face her friends.

So you didn’t tell them everything?

“It’s my dad. Ryu did nothing wrong.”

“Ai, if he loves you and you love him, then why...”

“It’s not that simple!”

You know, Ai, Ryu thought for himself, and dropped the honorific, even if only silently, it really is that simple.

He looked at her as she explained what had happened, and then Ryu’s thoughts went to his sister. I wonder what happened, but this sure is a shitty way to start a new year.