"Yo, Ryou-kun," put his hand to his temple, the young man standing meekly in front of the others.
"But," stammered Ryou, "how did you find us?"
"Well, we know from you that you walk here often. So we followed the map, hoping for a meeting."
"Stupid, you could have called me…"
"Just kidding! We were aware. Tomoyuki-kun gave us the details!"
All the club members turned on the blue-eyed man at the same time. Tomoyuki, who had become sad, barely uttered, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you…"
"We wanted it to be a surprise, so you shouldn't be mad at Tomoyuki-kun good-naturedly arranging a meeting."
"Anyway, you're a fool, Isshin."
Between Ryou and Isshin, a familial nature of communication had formed since long ago, and the boys could easily share joking insults with each other. This was what showed their distinctive friendship. In an instant, the boys' frowning faces changed to a sincere smile, followed by them approaching each other and hugging each other tightly.
"If your surprise met your expectations," Ryou said, "then I'm the happiest man in the world."
"We missed you," Isshin dared not let go of his best friend. The other Kyoto boys looked at each other enviously.
"Inseparable reunited," the girl said, putting her hand on her belt. Following, they joined the young men.
This picture embarrassed the members of the literary circle, making them feel their presence here was inappropriate. After all, their friend from Kyoto had finally met his former friends. Blaming something on Ryou was pointless.
"You all…" muttered Ryou softly, "came all the way to another city to visit me? Oda-kun, Iruma-kun, Isshin, Aiko-chan…"
"Depends how you look at it," Aiko replied. "We've always loved making surprises."
"This surprise," complemented the short, tall Iruma, "I hope I, you won't forget?"
"No, never."
Suddenly, Isshin deftly pushed away from the embrace and exclaimed with a preponderance of admiration on his face:
"So that's the kind of girlfriends you got!" and turned his head toward Ryou, raising his thumb. "Pretty girls like that are worth finding."
"Stop staring at them," Ryou measured him with a sharp look, folding his arms firmly.
"Sorry," chuckling, Isshin seemed happy and lowered his lashes. "How nice of you to have a new relationship."
The thick-haired man reacted with incomprehension, and wondered what he meant. Isshin directed his eyes back to the Tokyo teenagers.
"I beg your pardon, are we interrupting your conversation?"
"Not at all," Yumiko replied openly, "Ryou-kun is all yours."
The brown-haired boy expressed their request by leaning toward them and folding his palms together, as if casually. Yumiko responded by shaking her head amicably.
"We are very grateful to you," expressed the lovely Aiko, "for taking care of this fool."
"I'm not a fool at all!"
As he approached the members, Ryou discomfitedly apologized to them for leaving them for the day. He was uncomfortable about them, for originally this day had been entirely planned for them.
"It's not like that at all. We're not holding you back."
"I'm the one who should apologize," Tomoyuki replied, clenching his hands into fists with embarrassment.
"It's nobody's fault," the brown-eyed prude continued to comfort. "Ryou-kun, I hope to see you soon."
The members of the literary circle departed together, causing the thick-haired man's heart to burst with pain. Turning at Isshin's call, he stepped down a different path with them. This day meant more to him than usual, at the same price as an entire canopy of gold. He was finally reunited with his humble friends from his past city.
"How little we know about Ryou-kun," muttered Akiko, whose hazy eyes were lowered to her feet, slowly stepping after Yumiko and a silent Tomoyuki.
They entered a modest restaurant, where they ordered a table for three. Once seated, the boys took their time discussing, and while they waited for their lunch meal to arrive. A warm and cozy place this restaurant was, where people often ordered soups or salads to take a break from work at lunchtime. Even here there were their regulars, which the members were not.
Even though they were here for the first time, they immediately took a liking to the place. When the waiter served them red hot noodle soup on the table, Tomoyuki put his hands on the table and folded his fingers into a lock.
"I know what you're thinking right now," Tomoyuki added in a low tone, waiting patiently for the ignorant girls' questions. "If you have anything to ask, I'm all yours."
"Really?" gasped Akiko, sarcastically. "If you deign, of course!"
"Originally, Isshin-san wrote to me with his request back last month, asking me not to tell Ryou-kun. When I asked him, he kept saying that they were willing to stay in Tokyo for about two weeks to meet Ryou-kun. They have a man in his twenties at their disposal, so they had no problem with the trip."
"Why didn't you notify us of the surprise?" wondered Akiko, restlessly, at which Tomoyuki's eyes dipped to the food.
"I don't have an answer. Maybe my inattention followed that, or maybe I didn't want to bother you in preparation for the Cultural Festival — you're free to think."
"But why did you agree to help them?"
"How could I be otherwise? Ryou-kun is my friend; his joy is my joy," he shocked Akiko with his words. "They wanted to see their old friend, how would I refuse?"
Silence.
"More importantly, they want Ryou-kun… to go back to Kyoto."
The girls were startled, feeling a shiver in their thin hands. That shiver rushed right down to their bones, causing their minds to shift into a pile of mess. They were too thoughtless to respond in any way.
"Isshin-san is quite supportive of their opinions. And I...don't know what to do about it. On the one hand, Ryou-kun has the right to choose for himself. Although no, there can be no other choice here, the decision goes to Ryou-kun personally. We don't decide anything here…"
Tomoyuki's voice was interrupted by the girl's clinking palm on the table. Unwilling to listen any longer, Yumiko, rasped by the blue-eyed man's negative thoughts and reasoning, voiced out:
"We won't let him get away with it!" she gritted her teeth. "We're not going anywhere without him."
"Stop holding on to your selfishness," Tomoyuki replied softly. "It's not up to us to decide what he needs."
Akiko, whose body was gripped down to the bone by shock, sat mournfully, unable to get anything out of her mouth. Looking at her, a gazing Tomoyuki realized how pitiable her mind was at the moment. As he achieved, he crushed her with his humble assertions. That shout-out from Yumiko sharply sobered his mind.
"As sad and wistful as it is," the brown-eyed girl's shaky voice said, "to know the state of things, we must not stop. Of course Ryou-kun is free to decide where he wants to go, and we'll have to accept whatever he thinks, but if we don't want to let him go so easily, why don't we be selfish? I'm sure we'd all be fine if he stayed with us. We should talk to him some other time."
"I don't mind. Especially since Ryou-kun himself is unaware of his friends' lusts. See if they can change their minds, though that's unlikely. We should wait until the time finally comes for them to talk to Ryou-kun."
Anyway, the girls quietly accepted his words, which made a sad Tomoyuki glad that his opinion carried any weight for them.
***
Ryou and his friends were in the VIP lounge of the local bar, where he occasionally stopped by on his sister's whim. His friends chatted cheerfully about how Ryou's hair had grown and about his change in style. Ryou also noticed how they were keeping up with the times, and there was a distinct difference in their outfits.
After all, they were only newcomers; people dressed differently in each city, depending on the climate, the vastness of pop culture in certain places, and the rest of the youth movements that came from overseas. Eventually it came down to soul-searching and parsing. Seeing the waiter serve a can of fizzy beer to Odeh, the guy realized how fast time was flowing and how many years they had been friends.
"So Maiko-chan flew off to study at the American University…"
"She successfully got into a prestigious institution," Oda replied, cheering. "Don't forget to congratulate her sometime."
"Where am I going to go. It turns out that Maiko-chan is no longer with us."
Immediately a mournful cloud appeared over the room because of the boys' sad faces, making Isshin grow restlessly aggravated.
"That's no reason to be sorry! You crybabies, at least you'd be glad for your friend again. I promise you, they'll be amazed at her knowledge, too! Just watch, when she becomes popular, Oda-kun will have a hard time keeping his honorary title of boyfriend."
"Just don't be silly, idiot," Ryou expressed with caution, and Oda chuckled, modestly thankful for his protection.
Soon Ryou dared to ask how the boys were going to stay in Tokyo, and Oda clarified that thanks to his presence, the others, which included the minors, would be able to stay safely in Tokyo. They have already taken up a vacant dormitory for two weeks to see the thick-haired man and explore their capital.
"The surprise, by the way, was set up by Isshin-kun," said sixteen-year-old Iruma, "for he wanted to see Ryou-kun badly!"
"Not true!" blushed the sharply flamboyant boy with brown hair. "Iruma-kun, you are a complete fool!" he added, and followed offensively by repeating himself countless times.
"Now he will deny every word said in his direction," laughed Iruma.
"You got your way," chuckled Oda, taking a sip of fresh and cold beer.
"Oda-kun, you shameless!" mouthed a squeamish Ryo. "Bad manners you show the children! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
Oda brittle in embarrassment, and Miura and Ryou laughed. The boys liked to make fun of each other, and especially of Oda, whose kind character drew people to him. So they weren't embarrassed when they learned that Maiko had been crazy about him at one time, and that they soon got together.
"The thing is," Oda grimaced, telling the boys, "at one time we decided to experiment with Maiko-chan, and tried all sorts of lustful positions and toys…"
Aiko, furious with confusion, immediately punched the bully in the head, and his short hair couldn't hold back her stern punch, causing Oda to take all the direct damage.
"W-what are you saying?! Lusty, rascal!"
This was how their ordinary conversation was structured, but there was also something fascinating about it-that magical feeling of having their entire companionship together communicating to the fullest, without looking at the time period. It was just part of their inseparable relationship. Toward the end, when the boys were tired and Oda, who had been taking charge since the morning, fell into a deep sleep. They knew it was better not to wake such an Oda, and it was unlikely he would awaken from mere shouting — he needed a whole dump truck for that. In a whisper, Isshin called Ryou outside to get some air.
Meanwhile, the outskirts of greater Tokyo were shrouded in the cold, evening twilight. The street lights were on, shining off whole streets and the central district, which was a long way off, but the light of these lights did not reach them, and the boys had to stand under the blue sky. Leaning against the iron fence near the front door of the bar, the boys breathed in the fresh air coming from in front of them, straight from a distance where their feet had not reached. Looking out at this distance, Isshin calmly took a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of his checked gray jeans and lit up. Seeing this, Ryou responded.
"You started smoking?" he asked, probably not knowing the answer why.
"You'd understand how hard it's been for me to do without you. What a terrible feeling it is… when one loses half of one's essence."
"Why did you have to ask Tomoyuki-kun if you could talk to me about meeting? You put my friends in an awkward situation."
Lingering, Isshin didn't give a look. He remained silent.
"It was my initiative that brought us to Tokyo, so you can take offense at me. They had nothing to do with it," and, silent, he bowed his head. "Fourteen days we're going to live here. To hell with school, we wanted to see you."
"Isshin-kun?"
Turning to Ryou, he uttered: "Don't you want to go back?" and waited leisurely for his reaction. Aiko looked surreptitiously at the boys through the door, listening carefully to every word they said. "We can handle transferring you back to our school, and you'll manage to live with Iruma-kun and his parents, they don't mind and would rather be happy. As a last resort, my family can take you in as well, and Aiko-chan will be happy."
No answer came. Sighing, Isshin threw out his cigarette and smiled quietly.
"Only you have the right to decide. Think about it, maybe you want to leave town, or vice versa, stay."
"Yes, I'll think about it," the thick-haired man fervently said. Aiko walked away from the door back to the VIP lounge.
"You know, I haven't told anyone about my new goal yet. I think it's about time. I'm thinking of going to a foreign university, and for that I'm going to keep studying and trying until I get in."
"That's a great idea, Isshin-kun. Like Maiko-chan, are you going to skip one year to study?"
"Yes. Ryou-kun, we can fly away together, then Aiko-chan will agree. The three of us would be much easier together. Consider that offer, too, if you don't know where you're going after school. Your mental faculties, I'm sure, will unfold entirely with a higher education."
"Okay, I'll think about it…"
"Thank you. I've decided not to stay in Japan alone. I want to evolve, and Aiko-chan shares my thoughts as well."
To Ryou, Isshin is the sincere and purest person whose worries for his friends are able to bypass all obstacles. He trusted him more than anyone else, even his sister, whose trust was never to be doubted. Isshin would never leave them in trouble, Ryou concluded. He treasured his surroundings, and he needed no one else. It was he who brought them together in one day.