The first call came around ten in the evening, and after the third Yukio convinced his mother to drive him to Kuri's apartment.

For a while he thought of calling Kyoko, but her parents would most likely have gone ballistic if he tried a stunt like that.

Traffic was bad with a lot of people in their twenties driving to parties celebrating that summer was about to end. A lot of university students flocked the streets as well. All in all it took his mother the better part of half an hour to get there. Eleven pm.

It was still warm in the air, so the shuddering couldn't be because he was freezing.

Yukio heard the sounds of walking feet above him. So he's outside her door. Yukio ran up the stairs and found his friend where he had guessed. He grabbed Urufu's shoulders and stared into a rabid face. “What's wrong, man?”

“She's not here. She doesn't take calls and she doesn't reply to emails. I don't know where she's gone. Amaya's coming. She's a police and there has to be something she can do.”

Yukio let the flood of words roll over him. Urufu was frantic, and he probably didn't even know he was talking constantly.

“Man, calm down. Mom's here and Sato-sensei is coming. We'll be fine,” he said. Truth be told he didn't have a clue what the emergency was about. Kuri was out. She had flipped her phone off and thus she couldn't be reached. End of problem. Both Urufu and Kuri were grown-ups anyway. They just looked like high schoolers.

But then crap with Urufu seldom was that easy.

Yukio looked down the stairs. His mother stood there looking back up. She pointed towards a line of vending machines and Yukio nodded. Then she vanished out of sight, and Yukio sat down beside his friend. There wasn't much else to do?

From outside the railings he could hear the muted metallic thumps of cans dropping to the bottom of a machine. Shortly afterwards his mother came up with some canned coffee. When she looked at him Yukio just shook his head. There wasn't anything more she could do, and she walked back down again. A bit later a thin line of white in the dark rose above the railings. He smelled the cigarettes she smoked whenever she felt awkward or nervous.

Urufu remained strangely silent throughout all this. When he was done with his first outburst it was as if he didn't have anything more to say, and a silent Urufu wasn't anything Yukio was prepared to handle. It was outright unnatural.

The sound of an engine saved Yukio from his problem. He rose and leaned over the railing. Just as he had hoped Sato-sensei opened the door and stepped out of her car. He saw her and his mother exchange a few words and then he heard Urufu's guardian make her way up the stairs.

“What's going on kids?”

Not a 'hello', no 'how are you doing' or even a 'good to see you again'. But maybe that was Sato-sensei when all was said and done.

“Don't know, to be honest, sensei,” Yukio said. That wasn't entirely true, was it? “Seems Urufu can't contact Kuri, and he's worried,” Yukio added. This time he had told her all he had to add.

Sato-sensei looked at him. “You're a good friend, but I don't think you have to worry so much.” Then she smiled at him, a friendly smile but very much the kind of smile a grown-up gives a child.

Yukio wasn't comfortable with that, but he had involved adults because he was uncertain what to do. “It's not that Kuri's gone I'm worried about,” he tried to explain. “But Urufu didn't feel all that well earlier, well you know.” More like he had gone totally under the surface for some time, and that did worry Yukio. It was doubly frustrating as he wasn't certain how much the adults had learned or how much he could tell them.

“Thank you for caring. I'll take it from here. I think you can go home with your mother now.”

At that moment Urufu's phone blared to life, and Yukio watched his friend frantically dig around in his pockets for it.

Listening to half a conversation in Swedish was bewildering. Yukio only understood Kuri's name, or rather the unpronounceable version of it Urufu used. His voice rose from concern and worry to anger and irritation; it hovered on frustration, balancing on the edge between resentment and reconciliation until the latter won and Urufu's voice sank back to some kind of mutual understanding and promises. After that it petered out into soft sounds which Yukio didn't need to know Swedish to understand anyway.

He watched Urufu hang up the call, slide the phone back into the pocket where it belonged and stretch out on the concrete outside Kuri's door. He sagged, shrunk as worry ran off him and met the eyes of his guardian.

“I think we can go home,” he said. “She was only working late.”

You should have called earlier, Yukio thought. Dammit Kuri, Urufu deserves better. “You OK with me going home, man?”

Urufu nodded and accepted the hand Sato-sensei stretched out to him. “I'll be fine. Thanks for being here, Yukio.”

Yukio grinned. “You'll be there for me next time. Just go home man.”

There was no smell of cigarettes from below, so Yukio knew his mother already sat in the car waiting for him. He grabbed Urufu's shoulder as a salute and squeezed slightly before he let go. Yukio waved over his shoulders and walked down the stairs. Somehow he didn't think this was the last of it. Rather a beginning of something he wasn't sure he wanted to see through.

***

Summer break came to an end, and school started anew with all the promises and problems that came with change.

In this case problems came to Christina a few days into the new term. It came in the form of some seniors with more time on their hands than brains.

Christina passed the vending machines outside the cafeteria and headed for the stairwell to their new club room. In her tow Hitomi-chan and Noriko followed, which gave the three of them the airs of a high school queen bitch with her entourage. Entirely unintended as Christina and Noriko ran into the beauty from Ulf's class just moments earlier.

Christina was about to climb the stairs when someone suddenly called to her from the corridor.

“You there, the idiot who doesn't know proper Japanese!”

Apparently a someone who suffered from a defunct short term memory given how the last attempt at bullying Christina Agerman, the billion dollar empress, eventually went down.

She walked over to the senior who made the call. “Can I help you big sister?” Christina said using children's Japanese. This time she didn't plan to allow anything to degenerate as far as it had done late spring.

The speaker and her friend rolled their eyes, and behind them a few of their classmates started giggling. “You? Help us?”

Morons. Don't they ever learn when they're beaten? Well, it's time to kill this one immediately. She hadn't expected anyone to try bullying her so quickly after the last attempt. “My Japanese is bad. You are ugly. I can learn Japanese surprisingly fast, but can you learn to be beautiful?” Christina made an effort to put on her best smile while the two seniors in front of her blanched.

The corridor had gone eerie silent when it was clear that a freshman had not only accepted the challenge but also delivered a counter-attack. Christina decided to make the most of it and walked close enough to the two girls that she had to bow slightly to look down at their faces.

Behind her she heard Hitomi-chan gasp. She was an airhead, so it couldn't be helped, but she was an exceptionally beautiful airhead. Christina doubted even the seniors would dare to push this too far if two out of the three celebrated freshmen beauties were involved.

Behind her Christina heard Noriko laugh her heart out. She must have come to the same conclusion. The sound of a sharp slap told Christina she had cajoled Hitomi-chan into a high-five. Good girl, Noriko.

A tiny package filled with brains and good looks. How did you become such an important friend to me? It was strange, especially as Noriko was hell-bent on stealing Ulf from her. But I can respect that. You told me so to my face.

Well, time to maim these girls for a long time coming. It had to be now when Noriko had set up the scene for Queen Bitch with retinue going to shop. I almost feel sorry for you, but I'm not taking any more crap.

“My, my,” Christina said and turned her attention to the other girl. Christina grabbed her arm before she had time to protest. Yes, it was a skin condition, and one she knew the girl had fought for a long time.

Pretending to study the arm Christina thought of a killer. And had one. She looked the girl straight in her eyes and summoned up all false concern she could conjure. “I'd recommend Tanshin's premium moisture lotion. It could almost help even someone like you.” There's no way she can afford anything Tanshin's.

The eyes Christina held locked with her own filled with tears. “You bastard!”

Christina just smiled falsely. Relentless. I have to be relentless. “You know, I can ask my agency for some. They'll give it to me if I tell them I need to help a destitute friend with a skin problem.”

The third year capitulated and sagged. Both friends had to rely on each other for support as they walked away through the corridor in defeat.

“What the hell?” Christina heard from another third year who stood there waiting for a freshman to be humiliated.

“What happened?” Noriko asked.

Christina turned to answer, but Hitomi-chan beat her to it. “Kuri-chan was really awful.” Hitomi-chan shuddered before she continued her explanation. “She saw how dry skin that girl had, and then she suggested that the most expensive lotion I've heard of won't be enough to fix it.”

“Sums it up pretty well,” Christina agreed when Noriko gave her a questioning look. No wonder Hitomi-chan knew. She's got the looks to explain an avid interest in cosmetics.

“Kuri-chan, I don't agree with what you did. Couldn't you see how much treatment she was using already?” Hitomi-chan said.

You've got it easy. No one ever tried to bully you. Christina placed her hands on Hitomi-chan's shoulders and bowed down to meet the beauty's eyes. “I did. I'm a professional after all. I did exactly what would hurt her the most, wouldn't you agree?”

She received a glare filled with distaste. “Just remind me never to make an enemy of you,” Hitomi-chan murmured before Christina let her go.

They climbed the stairs. In a way Hitomi-chan was right. With her sudden fame came a need not to make an enemy of her, something the seniors from earlier hadn't understood. But what about friends? Those she had were all in the club, and she couldn't even call all of them her friends.

She was respected. Christina truly felt she was, but that was her meticulously arranged beauty in action, and when that wasn't true she still held the position as president for the club. With Ulf as vice-president there were very few complaints about how the club was run.

So why was it so much easier to attract resentment than friendship? She was since long openly a couple with Ulf, so it couldn't be that the seniors thought she was pilfering their hunting grounds.

“Noriko, wait!”

That voice belonged to the only one anyone could have thought she would pilfer. The latest addition to their club, Nao-sempai who had just transferred in from Irishima High. He was Nao-kun when they worked as models but Nao-sempai in school. Attending class 7:2 where the girls were going hysterical over the new addition to their class. And he had his sights on Noriko.

“Not waiting for the likes of you,” she called downstairs and hurried up.

Christina shook her head and climbed another step. If what Ulf had told her was true this was going to be even more fun to watch than Yukio and Kyoko earlier.

Nao-sempai had already confessed to Noriko and been rejected once, which didn't dial down his courtship campaign one notch.