Regardless, the yellowing glow of the purple sunset was slowly disappearing from view, and a dim moon was slipping across the disconcertingly clear sky, heralding the imminent lull of the warm breeze and the onset of dusk. As he was about to leave the house, in the hallway Glenn reluctantly shifted his gaze to the secluded glass aquarium, furnished with decorative flora and studded with petals. The aquarium was empty of wildlife and dark, making the guy's face contort with longing for the one person he longed to talk to in his time of need. The torrents of thoughts trapped in his soul tore outward, pounding his heart with deafening blows.
At that time, the other club members were lounging in Ryou's apartment, eavesdropping on his story time and again. Ryou ran through his past, uncluttered, revealing his past life to his friends. He opened up to them about his family problems, his Kyoto friends, declassifying himself from all sorts of angles to his friends. The only thing he left out was his love affair with Aiko, which he would not have enlightened about in front of Yumiko and Akiko.
"At least," he added, smiling bitterly, "that's all I can remember. My life before I came to Tokyo, contrary to my aloofness, did not begin at all in infancy. I only started to see the world in different colors from the age of thirteen."
The girls looked frustrated, having finally figured out the secret of Ryou's quirkiness. The nervous breakdowns of his childhood remained an unhealed scar in the boy's soul,
"If you now think me a fool," said Ryou, "and have changed your opinion of me, I will understand, for I am worthy that all ties with me should be severed."
"Never!" Akiko exclaimed, waving her hand. "I'm sure none of us could ever think of such a thing."
Nodding, Tonoyuki carefully said: "Don't be silly, Ryou-kun. Our friendship will not fade. All the more reason for us to learn more about you!"
The support from his friends touched Ryou, letting the guy know how great his friends were.
"I still want to continue to accompany you as a friend. I'm insanely happy that I was lucky enough to find you…"
Yumiko's dumbfounded head sat silently, alienated in her thoughts. The girl's heart was literally bursting with the mere realization of how stupid she'd been by talking to herself about her past. She thought that no one else's childhood could compare to her meager one, and other people simply had happy childhoods.
"How foolish of me not to tell you friends about myself earlier… I was hiding, I thought I would be laughed at…"
"Now," Akiko retorted, "we can communicate more openly. To think, Ryou-kun is the child of the CEOs of a large company!"
"The truth is, I don't want to touch the family business in any way. I'm not attracted to that kind of work."
"I'm glad to hear something new about you," Yumiko said, good-naturedly. "What do you guys think — should we forgive Ryou-kun for cheating on us with other people?"
Her sarcastic words made Tomoyuki laugh and made Ryou uncomfortable, which made the guy immediately apologize, blushing.
"I'm kidding. These are your childhood friends, after all, who came to Tokyo for you. No wonder you treasure them, Ryou-kun. They must be good…"
"I'd like you to meet them," Ryou smiled at the boys, giving them a sincere reason to rattle what the young man's friends are like in conversation.
"It's settled, then! Let's have a general meeting and get to know each other."
Delighted by Yumiko's openness, transformed in a year from a lonely girl to an outgoing friend, Ryou lowered his head, hiding the red blush on his cheeks. Akiko, on the other hand, who was sitting on his side of the couch, looked at the blushing young man, not sure why she didn't feel an ounce of jealousy. She wondered if she had let Ryou out of her thoughts by accepting the truth of her feelings.
To her, Ryou used to be seen as a target she had to fall in love with in order to get even more attention from other people; but now she began to think from a very different angle. Akiko had developed a false crush on the thick-haired guy from the beginning. Looking at the brown-eyed girl's captured joy, Akiko became convinced that Yumiko was overshadowing her feelings for Ryou for some unknown reason.
As the evening weather turned, they said their goodbyes, each going their separate ways back to the house. Keeping their thoughts to themselves, they could only analyze again and again, feeling the bitter aftertaste of the young man's story. Thus, Yumiko finally realized how much the relationship between her and Akiko had changed recently.
She revealed that Akiko had become important to their friendship, while Yumiko herself had become convinced of the importance of both her friendship and her future. Freedom: she clung to this hope, through which she would be able to experience the long-awaited euphoria. In anticipation, she had plans to continue intensely learning.
After all, each of them was concerned about Ryou's decision to move. Both sides had their truths, and the teenager, choosing between the two options that would determine his future, ideally wanted to please both, even though he knew that such an outcome was unacceptable. Choosing between one social circle and the other is difficult for every adolescent, especially one who does not know the consequences of the decision he makes. In this case, Ryou would have preferred not to choose at all, but he would have made the situation even worse.
As the next day dawned, with the cool, sunny light outside the window and the yellow leaves of the trees falling on the blooming ground from the rushing wind, Ryou finally woke up on his usual schedule. With all the unexpectedness of meeting him in the clubhouse office, his friends (excluding Glenn) could barely get used to him dressed in his black, school uniform. Ryou promised not to miss any more classes, and on the first day he wrote all sorts of explanations to the school for his unexcused absence.
At the end of the school day, he showed up at the dormitory where his friends from Kyoto were temporarily living, and in the middle of their usual conversation, he announced that he had decided to stay for the rest of his studies in Tokyo. His friends were astonished, and Isshin's gaze soon expressed joy, causing Ryou to pout, asking if he really wanted to get rid of him.
Not about to be ceremonious, the twins in turn said, "We're going to go to American University," thus revealing themselves. It was the university that Maiko had attended, and, from her emotions, they were aware enough of it to have a reason to go there.
None of them regretted their choice. Without dropping their hands, they were proud of their decision, and, in their determination to follow the unseen, were intent on building their own future, one in which they could take responsibility for themselves. To some extent, Ryou had the confidence to accept this responsibility, and his friend, Isshin Yoshida, was immensely pleased with his decision, realizing that even fools can grow up. Immediately, Miura childishly exclaimed that he, too, was going to attend American University. Taking in the news from the twins, Ryou had some thoughts about the future and what upcoming steps he had to take so he wouldn't regret the result.
He had arranged for two groups of his friends to meet over the weekend, and as they gathered in the main square, the eight teenagers barely found common ground. Fortunately for Ryou, with each new conversation on seemingly mundane topics, the boys overcame their discomfort and got used to each other. Pleasant to talk to, Isshin and Akiko seemed head and shoulders above the rest. As a result, the friendly horde of teenagers walked around Shinjuku, going to restaurants at one time and places of entertainment at another.
The Kyoto friends, in turn, finding a great excuse for a photo shoot, took many beautiful pictures with views of both landmarks and local beauties. Ryou was glad that their favorite peers were able to get along with each other in just a couple of hours, because it would have taken a long time for a guy to do that.
After the weekend was over, the teens became more and more surprised by the fast flow of time. The next morning, while Yumiko was cooking breakfast at her leisure and texting with a caller, she got a call from Ryou.
[T.K.: "Are you sure I should go to the talks without lenses? People might be discouraged to see me."]
[Yumi-kun: "You don't need to be embarrassed about your appearance — you're an adult, after all!"]
Picking up the phone, she put the phone to her ear.
"Ryou-kun?" she immediately uttered. "Oh, yeah, we have algebra tomorrow. Let me look in my diary to see what assignment they gave us."
***
Iruma's parents became worried, even though the boys had warned them of their temporary departure. Their time was running out, and in a few days they were to return home. When the hour of farewell came, Ryou and the members of the literary club escorted them straight to the station, and the Kyoto teenagers, sincerely wishing the young man well, boarded the intercity train. Ryou humbly looked after the departing train, wondering if he had made the right choice, but when Akiko and the others called him out, he realized that there was nothing to regret.
The four teenagers sat in the clubhouse. They didn't talk much, devoting their time to doing homework and other things. Akiko and Tomoyuki, as was obvious from their indifference to their studies, were cheating off the two geniuses of the school. Nothing foreboded of trouble, so they sat relaxed in their chairs until, all of a sudden, the silence in the office was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door, behind which the silhouette of a tall teenager appeared. The boy entered the office in the most unceremonious way imaginable to his friends. He waved his hand, giving them his cold, unapproachable gaze.
"Glenn-kun…?"
Glenn showed up exactly a month later.