Masa woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. He had mostly been camping out or overseas, so it had been awhile since he awoke in his own bed. The long soak in the bath last night had helped to relax him too. Camping was fine and all, but nothing beat the luxuries of home. It was also nice to eat his mom's cooking again. His brother had been as annoying as usual, pestering him and Rynn about how they met and so on after dinner. He hadn't told his family about Shyi'eld partly because his parents wouldn't believe him and his brother would mercilessly tease him about how he hadn't graduated from his "chuunibyou" phase.

He hadn't even heard of the term until recently when he overheard his brother laughing about it with his friends over the phone. Curious, he checked it up on the Internet and discovered it was a "sickness" that afflicted over-imaginative teens. He certainly didn't recall suffering from a malady like that when he was younger. On the other hand, his brother sometimes used slang that he couldn't understand, but to be fair, the same was true when he spoke with his birder friends. Most of the birders he met in the field tended to be much older than him and hanging out with them had influenced his speaking tone. In addition, there were the technical terms used when describing birds that made their conversations somewhat difficult to understand for non-birders.

Speaking to Rynn in Japanese made this abundantly clear to him since he had to put in extra effort to use words she would be able to understand. She was a fast learner though, and her language use had become much smoother with practice. Her pronunciation had already been more or less accurate, so if she continued to practice it wouldn't be long before she could pass for a native speaker.

Masa quickly changed and folded his futon, packing it back into the cabinet. He was looking forward to showing Rynn around in Japan ever since she kindly became his tour guide in Malaysia. They had mostly visited nature areas since he wasn't too interested in shopping and he was glad that she wasn't squeamish about trekking through muddy fields or jungle paths like some other girls. Thanks to that, he had added around thirty birds to his life list. He hoped they would have another chance to visit other places in Malaysia, especially the island of Borneo for its numerous endemic birds.

As he descended the stairs to the dining room, he could hear Rynn, Taka and his mother talking. At least she seemed to be getting on well with them, he thought. He himself wasn't too fond of conversation, so among his family, he got on the best with his dad, since they both didn't feel the need to fill in the silence with chatter. His mom was all right, since he knew she was asking him questions out of concern, but Taka seemed to go out of his way to get under his skin. He was like a drongo, pretending to be friendly and then stealing your food under your nose.

On the other hand, if he was asked to use a bird to describe Rynn, she would probably be a starling--sociable, adaptable and just a bit too talkative. He didn't really mind her chatter, since he had quickly discovered that she was mostly just thinking aloud. It was even amusing how randomly her thoughts jumped sometimes. He had been a bit apprehensive at first to find out that she liked anime and manga enough to want to learn a whole new language and dream about visiting Japan, but apart from the posters and manga in her room, she appeared pretty normal. In fact, he was now glad that she could speak Japanese and was familiar enough with their culture to not cause him too much problems.

Rynn spotted him on the stairs and waved. "Ohayou, Masa! Did you sleep well?"

"Yep, I missed my futon after so long," he told her with a smile. "What's for breakfast?"

"The usual," replied Taka with a shrug. "I'm going to do some stuff at school today, so I can't accompany you guys. Don't miss me too much, all right?"

"What a pity," said Masa as he rolled his eyes and sat down at his usual place, giving his dad a nod. He gave thanks for the food and then reached for the miso soup. His mom's miso soup never failed to warm him up. He had tried to reproduce the flavour when cooking it himself, but somehow never quite succeeded. It went wonderfully with the white rice, pickles and fried fish they usually had for breakfast. Today's fish was mackerel, which he was fond of. His mom smiled at him from across the table as she watched him enjoy her cooking and he smiled and nodded back at her.

"Wow, I'm so moved right now," exclaimed Rynn suddenly. "I'm actually eating an authentic home-cooked Japanese breakfast! Your cooking is wonderful, Tanaka-san!"

The older woman put her hand to her mouth as she chuckled. "I would love to cook more meals for you. Are you sure you can't stay longer?"

Rynn gave Masa a glance and then grinned. "My schedule's already planned for this trip, but I'll be sure to visit again as soon as I can."

Masa had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes at her. His mother was giving the both of them speculative looks, but was too polite to say anything. His father never said anything and Taka was...oh no. His brother had an all too familiar look on his face, a sort of half-smirk that never boded anything good. He had to change the subject, and soon.

"Maybe Rynn could cook us a Malaysian dish to try one of these days," he suggested, saying the first thing that came to his mind.

That seemed to do the trick, as everyone was now focusing at Rynn, who looked stunned.