Yukio looked at Kyoko when Noriko answered his call.

“I’ve placed the call on speakers, so I apologise in advance if the sound is bad.”

There was a moment of silence.

“No problem. I’ll do likewise.”

Huh? Why?

“Hi Noriko, are you busy? We can call you later,” Kyoko said.

Oh, she’s doing something at the moment. “Yeah, no problem,” Yukio added. Kyoko’s quick to pick up on that. He leaned over the table and squeezed her hand.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Urufu’s voice suddenly said. “I’ll be absent from school for some time.”

What’s he doing together with Noriko? “Man, what do you mean by absent?” Yukio had a feeling he’d rather not hear the answer.

“I got suspended for insulting the principal.”

“Damn it Urufu, do you have to provoke him all the time?”

“I...” Urufu’s voice got strangely muffled.

“I asked him the same thing,” Noriko said. “He just won’t listen to reason.”

Yukio stared at Kyoko’s phone on the table. “Man, I planned to take this with you later, but I guess now is a good as ever.” He met Kyoko’s eyes across the table, and she nodded at him. “We don’t feel good about the situation with you and Kuri.” How am I going to explain this? He fell silent for a moment.

“Shoot, I’m listening,” Urufu said.

Knowing it needed to be said was one thing. Saying it was another. “Look, you’re my best friend, but Kuri is Kyoko’s. When the two of you are fighting you force us to choose, and we’ve decided that we refuse.”

“I won’t pick Kuri-chan over you, but neither will I support you,” Kyoko added.

“So we’ll just stay out of it all. Until both of you’ve got your brains in order don’t expect to see us a lot,” Yukio finished.

“Wait! You can’t do that. You’re their best friends.” Noriko’s voice almost broke.

Yukio had expected a much. That was the reason they wanted to talk with her first. Now she was with Urufu, so it couldn’t be helped, but Yukio respected how she tried to protect the friendship of them all, but with Urufu and Kuri gone as far as the had something drastic was needed.

“Noriko, we’re doing this exactly because we’re their friends. Friendship goes both ways. Urufu and Kuri need to respect our needs as well.”

“Hear that, man? You’re making Kyoko unhappy. You both are.”

The best thing with Urufu was that Yukio felt comfortable talking about awkward things with him. That way there was no better friend, and Yukio hated how they’d become estranged after Kuri and Ryu became a pair. Still, it wasn’t just Kuri’s fault. Urufu had a lot to answer for.

“Sorry about that. It’s just that seeing her with him makes me so angry. I’m not used to being this way.” Urufu’s voice sounded clearer now, as if he had sat down by wherever Noriko placed her phone.

“Urufu,” Yukio said, “with the two of us being driven home every day there’s no time left if you and Kuri are going to keep this up. Man up and get your grips together!” As if he could tell someone thirty five years his senior to man up.

Urufu’s laughter didn’t come as a surprise, but the honest mirth in it did. What did you do to him, Noriko. I haven’t heard Urufu laugh like that in weeks. “Good to hear you’re feeling better,” Yukio tried.

Kyoko took his hand and looked at him. Yukio could feel the question in her eyes.

He covered the phone with his other hand. “He’s laughing for real. That’s good,” Yukio whispered before he removed his hand from the phone.

The question didn’t entirely leave Kyoko’s eyes, but she squeezed his hand acknowledging that she understood Yukio’s relief. He could feel love and warmth from her fingers and squeezed back.

“Hey, stop making out with each other. We’re trying to have a convo here,” Urufu said.

“What’s that noise?” Noriko asked.

“We’re not...” Yukio began.

“...making out,” Kyoko finished.

“You so are,” Noriko retorted.

Kyoko giggled and bent over the table. Yukio was caught in her full mouth kiss. “Now we are,” Kyoko said after she released him.

You’ve grown bolder since we met. This time it was Yukio who flared red.

“Did you call us just to make us listen to the two of you kissing?” Urufu laughed.

Yukio had no problem visualising that grin on the other side of the call.

“We called Noriko, not the two of you,” Kyoko said. “And no we didn’t. We called to say you two better make up. We care for both of you, but we can’t stand the way you treat each other.”

“So you’re making it my fault that Christina...”

Yukio didn’t allow him to get any further. “Yes, I do. Grow up man!”

Someone giggled at the other end. It had to be Noriko.

“But she was the one who...”

“… told you how much she loved you just about every day. I was there, you know. Not once, not even once did I hear you say you loved her.”

“I did.”

“Not when she could hear. What was she supposed to do? Live on air?”

“Yukio!” Noriko didn’t sound like she agreed with Yukio’s cutting Urufu short, but truth be told he was sick and tired of his friend’s attitude.

“No, Noriko. Urufu is at fault here.”

“Actually Kuri-chan is as well,” Kyoko said. “She knew how much you loved her, but she wanted you to tell her so much that she broke up with you. You’re idiots both of you.”

“Getting told off by a bunch of kids,” Urufu murmured.

Yukio grinned. He hadn’t lost his best friend yet. After all it was Urufu who once told him to be frank, even if it hurt.

“Yeah, man, we did. You deserved it.” Yukio hugged Kyoko before he continued. “Urufu, be the man I adored, that I still do. With all crap that’s going on I need my hero.”

“I’ll do my best.” Urufu’s voice sounded embarrassed. “Tell me if I’m doing OK when I’m back at school.”

***

But Urufu didn’t return to school.

Ryu found out his sister had skipped school together with Urufu and spent the day in the city. He also learned Urufu got suspended for the second time in a short time. For a normal student that was very close to expulsion, but neither Urufu nor Kuri were normal students.

“You should have told me,” he said to Kyoko when he found her waiting for Yukio outside the cafeteria.

“Told you what?”

Ryu looked at her, sun and shadow playing in her face as the wind made the great sails above them bulge. He could see what Yukio found so attractive, especially now when she had lost some weight, but Yukio being Yukio probably hadn’t even noticed she did.

“About Urufu’s suspension.”

Kyoko looked back. “If Urufu wanted you to know he would have told you himself.”

So she knew, which means Yukio knows as well. “Whoa! Why the hostility?”

“Don’t behave like an idiot! It doesn’t suit you.”

You’ve grown. Just half a year ago you’d never dare to tell me off like that. Ryu decided he wanted to test her mettle a little. “It’s not me being aggressive here. I haven’t done anything to upset you.”

The stare he got in return was filled with contempt. “Did you really lose your brains all by yourself, or did Kuri-chan help you?”

“I don’t follow you?” Ryu really didn’t. What did Kuri have to with anything?

“You owe Urufu an apology. Sure, he doesn’t get to decide who Kuri-chan goes out with after she broke up with him, but you still should have told him.”

Ryu thought about it. “Why?” he asked in the end. He had no obligation to report his private life to Urufu. If Kuri broke up with him she could do whatever she wanted without telling him, and that was true to an even greater extent for the one she dated.

“It’s the decent thing to do. It’s only proper.”

That’s the Kyoko I know. Things should still be proper in the end. “No, I disagree.” Ryu thought about it some more. “And so does Urufu.” Because Ryu was certain Urufu did. The man grown teenager came from a culture where women stood on a much more equal basis with men than in Japan. Ryu disliked admitting it, especially when Urufu voiced it in terms of medieval values, but that he was so adamant about it meant it was important enough to be ingrown in his backbone.

Kyoko shot Ryu an angry glare, but she didn’t protest. “It’s only proper of you to do so anyway,” she said at last.

Maybe she was right. “Too late now anyway, and I’m not going to apologise to him now.” Damn it Kuri, this really is your fault. Ryu smiled and combed his hair with his hand. “You know, ask Kuri about it. I can’t make up with Urufu for her. She has to do it herself.” As an afterthought Ryu opened his mouth again. “You’re aware she still loves him?”

Kyoko nodded. Then her eyes showed a disappointed glint. “I don’t understand,” she said. Her voice got silent and she looked up at the sails.

Ryu saw tears competing with anger. He sat down on a ledge and gathered his thoughts. Should he tell Kyoko what had happened or not? It would be kind of unfair to Kuri, and he genuinely liked her, even if his feelings for Ai still were stronger.

From the glass doors he saw Yukio leave the cafeteria and walk towards them.

I’d better say something. “She had to break up with Urufu,” Ryu said.

It said something about how strong their friendship had grown during the last year when Kyoko didn’t flare up.

“Please explain,” she said.

Ryu waved at Yukio and drew breath. “Her job. They’d take her job away if she didn’t.”

Kyoko nodded, sat down beside him and made place for her boyfriend.

“I know that part, but...”

“They tried to force a new boyfriend on her,” Ryu interrupted. He still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do telling Kyoko about this. “We made an agreement,” he added. Explaining to Kyoko that they were in fact boyfriend and girlfriend rather than pretending would take too long time. She’d believe it was all fake, but it had to do.

Yukio took his place beside Kyoko and gave Ryu a pained smile. No, one filled with resentment.

I can’t explain to him. To Yukio I betrayed Urufu, plain and simple.

“Kyoko, we should go somewhere else.”

Kyoko made to protest, but Ryu waved it away. “You want some time alone with your boyfriend, don’t you? Has to be hard being in different classes.”

Kyoko offered him a grateful look before she took Yukio’s hand and the two of them walked away.

Soon enough Ryu found himself surrounded by girls. They’d stick to him until Kuri arrived, if she did. Sometimes she ate away from school. Her fame rapidly grew into more and more of a problem.

I couldn’t live like you do, Ryu thought and gave the girl closest to him a false smile. I somehow don’t like myself very much right now. Thoughts of Ai came to him, mixed with his growing desire for Kuri. I’m an arse. What kind of pathetic man falls in love with two girls at the same time?

He wanted to ask Urufu, because Urufu probably had something wise to say, but he was also the only person Ryu couldn’t ask for help.

Sis, what the hell are you doing? Because Noriko couldn’t hold her feelings a secret. She always wore them like an overcoat. Had done so for as long as he could remember. Why Urufu?

A sudden warm gust made him look up. It carried with it the first, remote, promises of a summer to come.

Why Kuri?

There was no answer.