Since he was a kid, Ken has never had any difficulty in socializing. Due to his jovial nature, Ken can easily mingle and quickly make many friends, both boys and girls.
Of the four friends who have accompanied Ken until now, Shimada Chikara is the friend he met the first. Their homes can be said to be close together, but not next to each other. They have known each other since the age of five. At first, the two of them were not very familiar. At that time, Chikara was annoyed and disturbed because Ken always followed him wherever he went. Little Ken, who was never absent, gets expelled from Chikara still trying to get close to him because he didn't want to see Chikara who always spent time alone and was considered a bad-behaved child by other children. As time goes by, Chikara runs out of his mind to kick Ken out and chooses to let him do whatever Ken wants as long as it doesn't bother him.
In the fourth grade of elementary school, Ken's class has a new student. His name is Nomura Yasuhiro. This new student looked so shy that during the break, he could only sit quietly in the class. Ken who happened to be sitting in front of Yasuhiro at the time, without hesitation invited him to the canteen together. Yasuhiro hesitantly nodded his head with a feeling of pleasure mixed with relief.
Ken met Ogawa Kazuhiko when they both entered high school. Their equally jovial and sociable personalities easily made the two get along in a short time. Even so, their liking for something is different from each other so it is not uncommon for them to have a fight just because of trivial matter.
Ken, Kazuhiko, Yasuhiro, and Chikara just met in one place at the same time when their first debut as high school students began. Since then, the four of them became close friends and slowly began to be known as an inseparable unit.
Ken still occasionally remembers some of his old friends from kindergarten, elementary school, or junior high school. They also still remember Ken and some of them still like to invite him to play together or visit Ken's house in person. Ken also remembers having quarrels with his old friends back then, but never ending up holding a grudge. So in Ken's dictionary, there is no record of an old friend with bad memories that made him not want to be reunited with that person.
At least, if his mother meant by an 'old friend' is the one like Ken thinks it is.
"Eh? Why are you wondering that?"
Ken had just told his experience a while ago when he picked up his mother in front of Enmaru Bakery to Suzume. Suzume who heard her brother's babbling while stuffing her clothes into the closet suddenly stopped the movement of her hands with her eyebrows linked when Ken asked, "Do you have any old friend you don't want to see anymore?"
Ken returned Suzume's astonished gaze with a faint shrug. The long black-haired girl exhaled a long sigh. She continued her activities while answering, "My ex-boyfriend was in high school, for example. Actually, there are many old acquaintances who I don't want to see again no matter how long it is, but from the beginning they were not my friends."
" ... Not friends, but just acquaintances?" Ken murmured as he grabbed his sister's round pillow for his head. His sister nodded once. Ken muttered. "But Mom said, the guy was her friend. That means, they've been close, right? If that person had never been close to Mom, Mom would have said that he was just an 'old acquaintance' instead of an 'old friend'."
"So?"
Ken was silent for a while, then looked at Suzume with a serious look. "Is it possible that guy is Mom's ex-boyfriend?"
Suzume throws Ken right in the face with her teddy bear. "Seriously?!"
Ken clicked his tongue as he rolled over and clasped the teddy bear Suzume threw in his face. He stared at the ceiling of his sister's room while thinking about something in his head. Suzume closes her wardrobe after putting her clothes, then walks over to Ken and pats his arm so that he shifted slightly to the left.
"You look at his face, Ken? Mom's 'old friend'?"
"Just from the side," Ken replied as he rolled to the right and curled up. Suzume who was sitting next to him, now looked busy with her smartphone. "But it seems that he's one of the important people in the Jikai. Does Mom have a problem there?"
Suzume's eyes widened. Her fingers stopped moving. Ken who realized it, looked at his older sister silently, waiting for her to spill it out without coercion.
"If that's the case, I can't tell you much about it, Ken. Sorry," Suzume said in a low voice. Her eyes glanced at Ken who was still coiled up on her bed, looking at her curiously. He let out a long sigh while shrugging his shoulders, then sat down.
"Well ... can't help it then."
Ken got up from Suzume's bed, intending to go out and move towards his own room. But before Ken really goes outside, Suzume scolds her brother so Ken stopped his steps.
"In a few days, you can already claim your own elemental power. There is no reason to envy me anymore. How about it, satisfied?"
The boy in his green jacket murmured. His gaze falling on the small white box that Suzume had placed on her study table. "Dunno. I don't know why either, but I no longer feel as happy and excited as before."
Suzume somewhat didn't expect Ken's answer. The reason is, even when his 17th birthday, Ken continues to hope that the end of the year can arrive quickly so that he can have his own elemental powers as soon as possible. Hearing that sentence coming out of Ken's mouth, which was inversely proportional to his statement a few months ago, certainly made Suzume wonder.
However, Suzume chose to hide the question mark in her head.
***
It was the last day of school before the end of the year. Students from grades one to three were gathered in an indoor sports hall with teachers and principals standing on the podium, giving the year's closing words and congratulations to the student who had turned 17 year olds.
In the middle row of class 2-3, Ken stood up without even listening to the principal's words who buzzed indistinctly in his ears. His gaze turned to the ceiling of the room, staring at one of the lights that shone brightly in the middle of the room. In his head, Ken already had plans to spend the rest of the year to sleeping and languishing at home alone. This winter is not too piercing for Ken, but he still feels lazy to go out to just buy a snack or buy the latest video game.
An hour passed, the principal's speech was finished. All of students, without prompting, had disbanded. Ken followed his three best friends' steps towards class. Just like before, Ken did not listen to the talk of any of his friends. Even when Kazuhiko shouted his name three times, Ken still didn't realize it. Until finally Chikara's hand landed his palm on Ken's cheek, the boy in his red jacket finally turned his head with eyes blinking blankly.
"Are you ... sleepwalking?" Kazuhiko leaned his face closer to Ken. Ken who felt uncomfortable pushed the annoying face away.
"You've been daydreaming a lot lately, Ken. You okay?"
Actually, it wasn't just Yasuhiro who realized that. It's just that Yasuhiro is the most open in expressing his worries. Ken glanced at him for a moment, then squirmed, giving a faint smile.
"... I'm fine, really. Recently, I've been sleepy a lot 'cause I often stay up late playing games."
"Well then, there's nothing else to worry about." Kazuhiko laughed. He put his arm around Yasuhiro who was walking beside him. "Now, we plan the preparations for Ketteibi! How about the day after tomorrow, the four of us gather at my house?"
"Huh? Why should it be at your place?"
"I don't want to if your real intention is to make us as your alarm!"
Chikara and Ken nodded.
"At the station. We gather at the station at eight o'clock. Five minutes late, go by yourself."
The one-sided decision made Kazuhiko's shoulders suddenly limp. Ken and Chikara grinned triumphantly. Yasuhiro just smiled.
Arriving in class 2-3, their other classmates had already started to pull over tables and chairs to the corner of the classroom. The diligent female students began cleaning the classroom floor while the rest tried to catch up with the male students who were supposed to help.
"Imai-kun."
A girl with short bob hair approached Ken with a broom in her right hand. Looking at that object, Ken began to think if whether that day was his schedule to help clean up the class. But before the answer could be remembered Ken, the girl said, "The blue jacket that was on top of the locker ... is that yours?"
Ken blinked in confusion, then tilted his head and noticed a dark blue cloth that was on top of the locker at the back of the classroom. Ken exclaimed, then approached the cloth that was Ken's jacket. In fact, Ken didn't know since when this jacket was languishing there.
"Sano! Thanks!" Ken exclaimed at the bob-haired girl. She smiled sweetly. "If only you hadn't told me, maybe until we reach our third grade I wouldn't have noticed it."
Sano's pale-skinned cheeks suddenly turned reddish. She lowered her head, trying to hide the blush on almost her entire face. Ken who had been watching his interlocutor from earlier cleared his throat slowly while turning his gaze to the side.
"Oh right, Imai-kun," Sano seems to have managed to minimize the blush on her face. Now she looked up and looked at Ken with a both curious and doubtful eyes. She twisted her fingers before finally continuing, "The day after tomorrow, when Ketteibi, may I go with you?"
Sano's female friends who had been watching the two of them from behind, looked at Sano expectantly. They hope that Sano can successfully invite Ken so that they also get the opportunity to be able to go with Ken's three best friends.
"It's fine though, but I've planned to go with those three as well. You mind it?" Ken replied as he turned his chin at Yasuhiro, Chikara, and Kazuhiko who were standing by the blackboard. Sano automatically nodded her head enthusiastically, without hesitation and without thinking twice. "Oh, and if you want, you can also invite your friends."
Sano's friends seem to be able to guess that Sano's plan worked. They seemed to be giggling happily back there while continuing to watch Sano who seemed to have not finished talking to Ken. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the three boys who had been waiting and watching Ken began to look smirking and more excited to see the action of the two.
"We plan to leave the station at eight in the morning, how about it?" Sano nodded her head again. "Five minutes late, go by yourself, 'kay?"
Ken couldn't help but laugh when he saw Sano's honest response. Chuckling, he grabbed his blue jacket that had long been left behind and forgotten in the classroom. "Anyway, don't be too late. See ya."
Ken waved his hand then turned and passed leaving Sano who was immediately approached by her friends. Ken's friends stare at his arrival with amused eyes, ready to tease him all out.
The warm atmosphere made the heavy thoughts lodged in Ken's head distracted. At least for a while.
***
Yasuhiro and Chikara have gone home first, maybe they have even arrived at their homes. Kazuhiko will not go home before going to the basketball club room, meet his other friends, although there is no practice schedule anymore. Therefore, Ken walked home alone with his right hand carrying a shopping bag with the logo of his subscription electronics store.
As he walked by himself, Ken walked with his head up. The contents of his head wandered in all directions. His eyes then focused on square-sized flags of various colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. Flag with the colors representing The Great Four major groups: Higami, Futen, Jikai, and Suimi. The flags were affixed to every power pole and street light pole that Ken passed by.
"Since when did those people stick it?" Ken asked himself in a low voice.
"Ah, I feel offended. That's my job. Nothing else helps."
Ken reflexively shifted to the side. His eyes widened. A man in a gray suit stood beside him. His lips formed a weird smile. Very suspicious. Ken tries to read the situation, whether he is a bad person or not, although yesterday his mother confessed that he is her old friend.
"Hey ... calm down, calm. Don't label me as a bad person. I have proof that I am really an old friend of your mother. An old friend during high school, if you are still curious."
Ken kept his distance. His eyes watched the man up and down with a deeply furrowed.
[How does he know what I'm thinking? Anyway, since when was he there?]
"Are you psychic?" Ken asked. The man was silent, looking at him with a disappointed and incredulous look, then let out a long sigh that sounded frustrated.
The man grabbed into something from under his suit jacket. Between his long thin fingers, a business card was tucked in there. He gave it to Ken. Ken touched the tip of the card hesitantly, reading the name written in the thick black writing on it.
"Morita Abe. Jikai's human resource staff?"
The man in the gray suit nodded. This time, the smile on his face was sincere. "That's right. Ah, just call me Mori-san. I, just like your mother and sister, from the Jikai group. My innate element is nature, so I can hear your question thanks to the help of the tree you passed there."
The man in his gray suit who wanted to be called Mori-san pointed to a big tree with its leaves partially covered with snow. A tree that stands firmly near a street lamppost with two green flags tacked on it. Ken glanced at the tree for a moment, then looked back at Morita Abe with a question mark that still hadn't disappeared completely.
"Imai Ken-kun, how about we eat some sweets over there while drinking tea?"