The next day Ryou also knocked on the dormitory door, and there was a rumbling sound through it, followed by Isshin's slurred voice wishing good luck to Aiko. When the door opened, the lad was greeted by a dressed-up girl with a bit of makeup, pretty much prepped for her date. Aiko's excessive cleanliness was fully justified as Ryou's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened.
"Well," Isshin looked out the door, "let's stay out of your way!" the young man complemented, slamming the door shut. The young couple was left alone, in humble silence, not knowing how to begin a conversation.
Lifting his eyes, the boy spoke softly: "Come," and Aiko agreed. Their date began with an ordinary walk to the bus stop, with the aim of going to places the girl had not yet visited.
Barely out of bed, a sleepy Akiko, who had earned insomnia a couple of days ago, barely made it to the balcony in her room. Squinting from the afternoon sun shining directly on her head, the girl yawned and pressed herself against the parapet, looking out onto the street. Against her will, she wondered about the club members and their unknown to her everyday life. Rejecting the parapet, she stepped out of the balcony and began to get ready for school, overcoming the carefree urge to sleep.
Meanwhile, having missed another day of school, Ryou walked with a friend from her hometown throughout the day. During that day, the couple, at Aiko's insistence, saw the bulky diagonal intersection of Shibuya, had a modest meal at a well-known lounge bar, and walked through a park of the same name closer to the central district. The young man took all the expenses on his own initiative, deciding not to bother her.
Ryou didn't dare take his eyes off Aiko every time she admired the evening lights of the city and its large streets, and the tall and shining Tokyo buildings brought the girl into shock. Strolling down the main street with the endless light of traffic and human noises, the cotton candy-eating Aiko held hands with Ryou, shyly turning her shiny eyes and foxy lashes to him. She was genuinely relieved when she got over her insecurities, for the girl had wanted to hold hands with her beloved friend since lunchtime. Constantly looking earlier at his free palm, Aiko had long refused in her last moments, fearful of being rejected.
Before saying goodbye, Ryou walked her to the dormitory door.
"I am very grateful to you for this beautiful day you spent with me, Ryou-kun."
"We'll go out alone as many times as you ask me to and want to."
"Then… let's do it tomorrow! Oh, you have…school time."
"Come on, what school time when you all company came from out of town for me?"
"But you won't get kicked out for missing a lot? After all, two weeks of absence is quite affecting a student's grades and general activity. At least we've communicated our departure in advance by getting the okay."
"Of course I'm not going to be absent for two weeks."
"Good. Thank you, Ryou-kun, I shouldn't be gone too long, or the boys will go crazy with hunger. All they need is an excuse to eat food cooked with feminine hands."
The couple giggled. Turning to the front door, Aiko tapped gently with her thin knobs, and Ryou departed. There was a loud rumble and whispers from the door, and when the noises subsided, Iruma awkwardly opened the door with, "Welcome…" and the young man, seeing Aiko's face light up with fierceness, shuddered, barely finishing, "...in."
"Don't you have anything at all to do but bug out the door with the three of you!"
Frowning in fear, Iruma bit his nails from his fingers and asked for help.
"Yes!" stuck out Isshin's chest solemnly. "We heard every last letter!"
Puzzled by her brother's excessive hubris, Aiko sighed wearily, taking in the pointlessness in the aggression emanating from herself.
"At least you're honest about it."
"So," he hoped, flashing a stretched smile, "did it work?"
In response, the girl presented her joy outward and raised her thumb. Isshin and the boys cheered sincerely for the lovely Aiko.
***
The school day ended literally without any memorable news. Therefore, in the conversations of the club members, the influence of the two absent boys on the behavior of the others was strongly felt. Coming home a little early, until the evening Tomoyuki pondered about something that had been bothering him for the second day. It had to do with Ryou and his friends from Kyoto, and on top of that, Tomoyuki was constantly in deep thought, remembering old familiar routines that might no longer exist because of his self-interest. With the balcony curtains open, the plastic windows due to the bright light in the room reflected the stern gaze of the blue-eyed young man, clearly confident in his eagerness to snicker.
He switched on the chat with Ryou, who was online, and texted him personally to see if he was busy tomorrow, in order to find out what the thick-haired man was going to do next.
[Ryou: "Going on a date tomorrow morning."]
The blue-eyed young man's face expressed a surge of excitement, and as he reflected, he realized the importance of accepting ideas as soon as possible, ending what he believed to be a toxic friendship in their circle, from which he temporarily succumbed to false beliefs, as did the wayward Akiko, who had completely forgotten what she had joined the literary circle for.
[Yam: "Where to? I wonder."]
[Ryou: "Remember that atmospheric restaurant we went to in the summer? There."]
Tomoyuki wondered why the guy would go to the "Romantic Restaurant" if the customers there were mostly young, and according to the blue-eyed man, smarmy and fickle couples, and came to the surprising conclusion that Ryou started dating a girlfriend from Kyoto. Such an outcome, if true, would make Tomoyuki's goals of crushing Akiko's life position, which was already on the verge of breaking, twice as easy, and the young man, relying entirely on Ryou's theory of love relations, rather wrote to the girls of the literary club to meet tomorrow at the "Romantic Restaurant," and discuss the matter with Ryou.
[Attyan: "Huh? Why would you want to meet at a dating restaurant?"]
[Yam: "I like it there."]
[Attian: "Oh, aren't you a sissy? Okay…"]
'What a surprise,' Tomoyuki muttered to himself, 'it all worked out as if I'd been given a chance to successfully viviparate," gloating, he grasped his fickle face. 'It's their time for a turning point.'
***
Waking up in the morning, the boys gathered at the "Romantic Restaurant," located in one of the middle streets of the central district, where many loving couples went. Apart from Tomoyuki, neither Ryou and Aiko nor the members of the literary club could have guessed that their destination held them in one place. The open sunny skies kept telling Yumiko that the warm weather was welcoming, and on her way out she dressed in a red skirt with dark tights and an autumnal blue shirt. Others did the same, noticing the unusually warm weather for a November day.
As they followed down the street, Tomoyuki spotted Ryou and his friend walking up the steps to the restaurant just in time, and huddled against the clear wall of a nearby store, hidden in the shadows, he began to wait for the girls to arrive. He counted the time on his wristwatch. After a little while, from the intersection of the streets from the back of Tomoyuki appeared Yumiko and walked toward the restaurant, and from the front street, as far as his keen eye could reach, stood Akiko at a red traffic light.
Halfway to the restaurant, Yumiko, feeling a tense look from her right shoulder, turned to face the dark wall of the store, and noticed an unperturbed Tomoyuki. Their eyes unhurriedly met each other's, without being able to cry out anything, and a strange foreboding swept over Yumiko.
He bowed his right hand to his temples, and unemotionally said: "Yo," to which Yumiko bowed her head in disbelief. Stopping to stare intently at the dial, the young man lifted his gaze to the restaurant's front door.
Crossing the road, Akiko's sleepy eyes caught sight of Yumiko standing in the middle of the sidewalk, and she looked back to see Tomoyuki standing in the shadows. The silhouettes of a couple looked out of the glass door of the restaurant, and when it opened, Ryou and his girlfriend stepped outside. Aiko was drinking juice from a straw with relaxed eyes. Akiko stood in the middle of the crosswalk.
Yumiko, on the other hand, looked straight ahead, and fell sharply into a slight stupor at the sight of a guy with dark blue hair. The couple, who had descended the short steps, turned toward the road where the brown-eyed girl was standing, and as she lifted her eyes, a sudden surprise swept over the guy.
The couple's and Yumiko's gazes met, forming a general confusion. Shocked, Akiko ran toward the guys as fast as she could. Turning back toward the quick steps, a pink-haired girl appeared to Ryou's dark blue eyes. Looking over to his friends, the young man called their names and asked how they got here. Stepping back from the wall, Tomoyuki stepped out into the sun and placed a hand on Yumiko's shoulder to bring her to her senses.
"I called them here for a meeting," Tomoyuki said.
"You wanted to go to the restaurant, too?" perplexed Ryou. "But you go to places like this for a reason!" and realizing how Tomoyuki's hands were touching the brown-eyed woman's shoulder, became slightly dazed, not knowing how to react in any other way. There was another misunderstanding.
"Nothing with us," the blue-eyed one replied, "and the restaurant was the starting point for the walk. We wanted to meet in the morning and have a good time."
Confident that Ryou would trust his words, Tomoyuki stood relaxed. The guy didn't miscalculate – Ryou actually believed him.
"So that's why you asked yesterday if I'd be free tonight," Ryou hung his nose.
"Yeah, but finding out you were going to be busy at the Romantic Restaurant, I just couldn't leave you alone," Tomoyuki glanced back at Akiko, whose eyes held a grim sadness. "You really don't go here for the usual reasons, do you, Akiko-chan?"
"Y-yes…"
"Still," he removed his hand from the girl's thin shoulder, "an unobvious place came my way to meet my friends, but there were reasons for that, too. Ryou-kun, did I accidentally mislead you?"
"No," muttered the thick-haired guy, still having his doubts. In his opinion, guys didn't usually hold on to girls' shoulders and encourage them by whispering in their ears. Tomoyuki did, however, but he whispered to Yumiko about something else entirely.
"We've been waiting here for one more person, since you didn't come. We're having a friendly, steamy date."
"Okay… I understand."
Tomoyuki's words clearly put pressure on both Ryou and Akiko. That's what the guy was trying to do, making up non-existent situations. Yumiko only glanced silently at Tomoyuki standing next to her.
"So you're those friends of Ryou!" exclaimed Aiko cheerfully, barely catching a moment to blend into the conversation, which made the guys shake slightly. Leaning toward them, she folded her palms together in front of her and said: "Deeply sorry we didn't warn you! This fool's brains are completely fused."
Seeing Aiko bow her head, Yumiko came to her surprise. Ryou's not-so-encouraging look frolics to ask Tomoyuki about how much had happened during his absence, but he knew that in his position, he would be better off keeping his mouth shut. Aiko, on the other hand, only showed her bright side, just to avoid offending Ryou's friends, whose faces she knew that they were at least partial to him.
"Ryou-kun," came the suppressed voice of a sad Akiko from the guy's back, "have you started dating?"
"Nothing," the brown-eyed schoolgirl omitted the painful question, in an effort not to aggravate Akiko's anxious state. "We seem to have interrupted you, so please get on with your day! We will leave."
"Not at all!" replied Aiko. "We were going to call it a day."
"We're leaving immediately, so please…just take care of yourselves."
Ryou couldn't express himself, being in the knowledge that he would only make things worse, and the reliable Aiko who kept her safe from all sorts of trouble wouldn't let him speak. Taking care of the scene, Aiko apologized again, and the couple walked away in another direction. The edge of the conversation between the good-natured Yumiko and Aiko struck a chord with the pink-haired girl. Towards the end she only lowered her eyelashes and covered her face, taking in the long tips of her hair. Aiko, on the other hand, finally realized how close the bond between Ryou and his Tokyo friends had become.
Yumiko is doing a fine job of not venting her filled with bitterness, Tomoyuki noted to himself, seeing the confidence in her well-wisher face. She was the only one, in the boy's opinion, who was a worthy person of light society, of which there were few on this earth. Yumiko was like a time bomb about to explode in the fullness of tragedy. She wondered if Tomoyuki and Akiko could have set up this scene on purpose to make Ryou's problem worse and turn her own feelings against herself. She was in the dark, so she couldn't trust them or herself.
Upon entering the restaurant, they sat down at a free table. The cozy restaurant offered a time of complete relaxation, and the warm tones of the muted lights and thin candles accentuated the whole romantic atmosphere. Akiko, who sat down next to Yumiko, was intimidated by her previously unseen gloominess and sulkiness. Folding her arms, she unfolded her disgruntled eyes and stared at the young man.
"I expect an explanation," she said, barely containing her anger.
"An unforeseen encounter, nothing more," Tomoyuki added, appearing cold.
"Why did Ryou-kun mention that you were aware of their date?"
"I didn't know we would cross paths. It was a one-in-a-million chance."
"We picked the perfect time to meet Ryou-kun," she regarded his answer with disdain, and darted a glare at Akiko.
"Honestly, I don't know! I had nothing to do with this farce, especially since I couldn't get the word out when I saw Ryou-kun…"
With a hopeless sigh, Yumiko shook the weight off her shoulders. "I can't suspect you," she said, soon smiling. "You promised you wouldn't lie, didn't you?"
The friends shuddered as they heard her sincere words. In the end, they felt ashamed of themselves, especially Tomoyuki, who had dragged Yumiko, a fragile girl who deserved so much better than friends like them, into such a tense scene. Lowering his lashes, the blue-eyed young man added:
"Still, we learned a little more about Ryou-kun. As a matter of fact, he started dating an old friend. That more than means about the final choice for Ryou-kun where he should go."
Yumiko's heart fluttered, only realizing the situation further, as Ryou moved out of Tokyo without announcing it to anyone. As a result, Yumiko would be left without one good friend she treasured dearly.
"At least the decision will remain with him," she said, "I don't want my fears to come true. I will miss him so much if Ryou-kun disappears… Yes, he's already started to disappear, but that doesn't matter at all, compared to his possible relocation."
Yumiko didn't back down to the last minute, lest she alarm the friends around her. As he delved into her concern for the people she called friends, Tomoyuki grasped the idea that he was getting his hands dirty by actually burdening Yumiko with worry. He realized that he was doing her an injustice by throwing her into his purposes where she did not belong. The girl hid her emotions from her friends, only to eventually cry alone.
"Your order!" the waiter sounded as he approached their table.