Ryu got his arse handed to him by the teachers, and only Christina’s blatant lie about him being dragged into an impromptu shoot saved him from further repercussions.

She regretted that a little. There had been an impromptu shoot, one that she hadn’t wished for at all. He had been asked to leave, and he had refused. Christina accepted that she loved the boy turning into a man, and his refusal only increased his stocks in her eyes.

In the end he stayed and watched. In the end Christina noticed how even in Kyoto he attracted more than his fair share of attention despite the surplus of male models at the set. It made her feel proud. In that sense she was anything but Japanese. Ryu at the other hand stared with open disapproval at how just about every male present ogled her.

It took some cooing on their way home, and a very thorough biting his face off by some teachers to make him forget his discomfort just to have it replaced by another.

Right now they weren’t on speaking terms. He really hated it when she saved him rather than the other way around, and that was a part of Ryu that Christina disliked.

Idiot! But the Sweden she once grew up in had shown more similarities than it wanted to admit. I’m an adult. Of course I’m going to help you when you need it. But she was also his girlfriend. At least she should treat him as her peer. Damn, I’d like someone to chat with. The solution came to her just as she voiced the need in her head.

“Sure, but I’ll be there as well,” Noriko said when Christina called her.

“You really don’t need...” Christina tried, but Noriko cut her short.

“It’s my boyfriend and it’s my brother. I’ll leave the two of you alone when I’m certain you’re not going on one of your crusades.”

An hour later Christina found herself in a crowded tourist trap. She’d been there before, in her previous life. Just after dawn, long before the horde of tourists invaded, freezing her butt off for a shoot while pretending it was another and much warmer season.

Crowded or not, the Arashiyama bamboo grove still enveloped her with an otherworldliness she normally never found anywhere. Apart from people around her world was green, and the never ending chattering still didn’t manage to dispel the sound of wing gusts trying to find their way down from the canopy.

Then one face turned the crowd into background, and by his side Noriko walked, hand in his, staring at the greenery and totally oblivious of how Ulf saved her from walking into strangers time and time again.

I don’t get you, but I’m happy for you. The smartest person he’d ever met, Ulf said, but she sure wasn’t street smart at all. Even a parent would have admonished a five year old for walking without paying attention to the world around.

“Noriko!” Christina called to save Ulf from his daycare duty.

His girlfriend finally looked ahead and made her way to Christina without endangering their surroundings. Behind her Ulf let out a sigh of poorly hidden relief. Christina understood him. Even as a friend you just felt the need to protect Noriko whenever she ended up along a lot of people. That need had to be multiplied if you were in love with the petite girl.

“Why here?” Christina asked when Noriko was close enough to e patted on her head, had Christina had those inclinations. “It’s not really a good place for me.”

“Cause it’s fun to tease you,” came the response. “Besides you won’t be able to use your work as an argument with all the people here.”

I never knew you were that scheming. “So you want the rational me?” Christina said and looked past Noriko, briefly met Ulf’s eyes and let her eyes walk across the gorgeous greenery surrounding them.

Noriko nodded back and then Ulf came up by her side. Side by side like this they looked more like big brother and little sister than a couple. The school uniform told a different story though.

“It’s Ryu. He wants to treat me like, well, his girlfriend.” That came out wrong. “In a bad Japanese way, I mean.” And why don’t I just insert an entire boot in my mouth while I’m at it?

Ulf just grinned with mirth at Christina making her best to win the award as the most moronic tourist in Kyoto this week. To her huge surprise Noriko didn’t look offended at all.

“I know what you mean,” she said with her head tilted slightly to one side. “One of my idiot brother’s worst sides.”

Ah, forgot you had to fight that part of him the entire autumn. “I don’t know what to do. I really do like him, a lot, but, well.”

“So you’re in love with the idiot kid and want him to grow up?”

That pretty much summed it up. This time it was Christina’s turn to nod.

Ulf remained silent the entire time, and what had once been planned as a chat with him more and more looked like a conversation with Noriko with Ulf as audience.

“He doesn’t deserve it, but you need to give him something in return. Ryu’s kinda stubborn that way.” Noriko’s smirk told Christina everything she didn’t want to know about what the short girl thought of yielding to Ryu when he was in the wrong.

“Give him a bone, you mean?” Christina said. It wasn’t as much a question as her thinking aloud.

“Yup,” Noriko said and shone up like a sun. “Pat him on his head and say: Good dog!”

But it doesn’t really solve anything. Maybe she couldn’t resolve the problem by talking with Noriko alone. Something was missing, something important, but Christina just couldn’t find out what it was.

From Noriko’s side a voice reached Christina’s ears. “You could always break up with him,” Ulf suggested deadpan.

***

Urufu dropping a bomb like that turned out to be the starting point for some Kyoto shenanigans which eventually made the field trip quite memorable.

Right now, however, Noriko had yet to experience any of those, and she reeled from handling what Urufu suggested an hour earlier.

Right now the three of them sat freezing over cups of coffee and tea, watching what had to be a gorgeous view come spring. Now the river felt naked somehow, lacking the greenery that was to come later.

“So, no I don’t have any plans to break up with Ryu. You taught me the hard way what an awful thing it is to give up just because it’s hard,” Kuri said between sips of coffee. She had said that several times, but this was the first time she added something akin to regret for breaking up with Urufu a year earlier.

Noriko clenched her fists in her lap and pretended she hadn’t understood. Kuri was a good friend, but she was also an eternal rival. She was one Noriko needed and yet was scared of. Without Kuri she herself would never had been given a chance with Urufu, because without Kuri and Urufu being an item he’d have stayed forever in that black world of his where he lost wife and children.

Urufu allowed an almost smile to curve his lips and stared down at his coffee. Almost regretfully he lifted it and drank a little. The cup hid his eyes and Noriko wondered what passed his mind. A gust of wind that played in his hair later he let the cup down again and it met the table with a brittle sound.

“Fine, you’re not breaking up,” he said and looked up.

Noriko noticed how his eyes met Kuri’s, but that little something that had her worried wasn’t there. Love for certain, but neither the kind of needy greed of someone staring at his crush nor one half of the shared happiness of one in a relationship.

“Say something!”

Urufu shot Kuri another glance after her outburst. With a cup of lukewarm coffee once again in his hand he smirked and studied the sky. “What about you make up? What about you apologise even though it wasn’t your fault?”

“But I didn’t do anything...”

“Isn’t he worth it?”

Noriko stared in fascination at the exchange of words. Silently she felt grateful the both of them had chosen Japanese rather than the sing song Swedish they used when the rest of the world was best kept in the dark.

“What do you mean with worth it?”

Urufu sighed and put his cup on the table. This time for the last time. There was nothing left in it. “Do you love him enough to make use of a white lie occasionally, even one that hurts you a little?”

“One that hurts me?”

“We’re the same, you and me. Too damn proud when it doesn’t matter.” Urufu shot her a bashful smile. “There’s a difference between integrity and stupidity you know.”

What, Urufu admitting a fault of his own? That was a novel thought. It’s almost as if he’s ready to learn something new. Which was grossly unfair, but he was rigid enough to merit being that unfair from time to time.

“I’ll get something warm,” Noriko said and rose from her seat. “Please talk things over!”

Kuri gave her a worried look when she left for the entrance. “A tea for me,” Kuri said rather than ask her not to leave.

You need to talk anyway. I need you to talk, or else I’ll always be afraid of you taking him from me. “Don’t worry. I won’t be long.” Noriko gave Kuri a smile that maybe wasn’t entirely honest and went inside.

A waitress behind the counter gave her a curious look when Noriko beelined directly for her, and with a self-conscious smile Noriko realised she had grown too used to the Haven where you either ordered at your table or by the counter depending on your mood. Or on the mood of whoever worked the tables that day for that matter.

Ordering something warm was quick business and she spent the short respite looking out the windows. Just outside Urufu and Kuri were busy talking about Ryu. Noriko didn’t need to hear their conversation to know. Behind them a street with more pedestrians than cars separated café from river. Walking the river upstream with her eyes she saw the famous Togetsukyo Bridge, the main reason for anyone being here in the first place.

Should have been the four of us. That was wishful thinking. More wishful thinking had her and Urufu alone here. Still, this was better than the circus back home in Tokyo. If she asked him discreetly maybe they’d share the rest of the afternoon together.

She barely registered a group of four girls from their school who passed outside the window until one of them returned and stopped by the table Urufu and Kuri shared. Even from inside the café Noriko saw how the glare Kuri received was anything but friendly.

What the…

With the door closed Noriko couldn’t hear anything, but she saw a mouth moving in agitation and Kuri reeling from the verbal onslaught.

That’s strange. Kuri hasn’t been up to any of her usual stunts where she turns strangers into enemies. Noriko quickly went to the counter and picked up her order. Once again the waitress gave her perplexed stare, but Noriko decided that right now wasn’t the time to remember that orders were served at the tables.

With a small tray in her hands she pushed the door open and went for their table. Whoever the angry girl had been she had rejoined her friends, and Noriko stared at her receding backside. So did Urufu and Kuri.

“What’s up?” Noriko wondered and put the tray on he table.

Urufu guffawed and Kuri frowned, but she didn’t look angry.

“Fine, I’ll make up with him,” she said.

“OK, fill me in,” Noriko said and sat down on the chair she had occupied until she went for refreshments.

“I just got told off for not treating Ryu well enough. She told me she’d take him from me if I didn’t shape up.”

Noriko stared at Kuri. “That, eh… that sounds unlikely,” she finished.

Urufu just kept on laughing.