Noriko waited
outside the station. “Park side,” she had said.
One Yakobuson
Anderusu would arrive together with his girlfriend from Sweden.
Anders Jakobsson the name read in her email with the names flipped in
the western style. Nesrin Kaplan was the other name other name in her
mail. Kapulan Nesurin? Noriko thought. Apparently it wasn't
Swedish in origin, but she was his Swedish girlfriend who wasn't
Swedish. Noriko didn't understand the naming antics of the people
from the wild north.
In reality
they wouldn't arrive from Sweden at all. When they learned of the
Himekaizen final exams they had simply rearranged their itinerary and
spent their first two weeks travelling Kyushu and the Kansai area.
Japan Rail
Pass. So much cheaper for foreign tourists, and yet we have so few of
them visiting. From exchanged emails Noriko had learned that a
similar system existed in Europe where you could go train-hopping
from country to country. Apparently it was popular among young
people.
You are
strange. Boyfriend and girlfriend, and she hadn't even graduated
high school, but still their parents must have agreed to them
spending a month together alone in Japan.
Noriko shook
her head. Different places, different rules.
She waited
alone, because her idiot brother was gone for Hokkaido with their
mother for a week and wouldn't be back until after the Obon festival.
Noriko and her father stayed in Tokyo for the same reason, as they
had done two years before. Last year Noriko had gone north with her
mother.
Half past one,
Saturday the sixth of August. Kuri wouldn't come. She had to plan for
tomorrow, and if she didn't show, then Urufu would be absent as well.
Probably biking around Tokyo in this heat like the moron he is.
Kyoko leaves south the day after tomorrow. She's busy packing. That
left Yukio, who had just come back home from the west coast.
So, where
are you? Half an hour late, and they'll be here any moment now.
And there they
were. “You won't be able to miss us,” he wrote in the last email.
What are you
wearing? Gods!
Not only did
the waving apparition dwarf Urufu, but he had a neon green top-hat on
his head. The girl at his side was a dark beauty looking nothing like
what Noriko had expected from Sweden. My Swedish girlfriend who's
not Swedish. So that's what he meant!
He was
pointing at the sign Noriko had in her hands and lumbered in her
direction with a huge backpack. The girl, Kapulan-san, carried an
equally enormous backpack, but otherwise she wore nothing as horribly
out of place as the ridiculous hat Yakobuson-san had.
“Good day,
I'm Wakayama Noriko,” Noriko said when the pair came close enough
for her to greet them without shouting. Yukio, you little… You'd
better teleport here or do whatever people do to flash into existence
in the manga you read.
She smiled at
her foreign visitors. The club's. They're not mine. They're
visiting the club. Gods you're a tall one!
“Anders
Jakobsson.” A huge hand shot out and down. It enveloped her small
one.
“Nesrin
Kaplan, pleased to meet you.” That hand was smaller and came from a
more normal height. She was a girl after all. Noriko took the offered
hand after Yakobuson-san had released hers.
“You wrote
that you'd wait for us here with a friend,” Yakobuson-san said.
Noriko nodded.
Being around Urufu and Kuri had done wonders to her English, but the
Swedes still spoke too fast in their sing song accent.
“I'll call
him,” she said and dug up her phone from her handbag.
“That won't
be needed,” she heard a voice from behind her.
Yukio?
“Sorry I'm
late.” He switched to English. “I'm Yukio Matsumoto, pleased to
meet you both.” Yukio looked up at Yakobuson-san. “Man, how tall
are you really? We don't get many like you over here.”
“He's 196,
and he's got muscles as well,” Kapulan-san said and snuggled up
closer to her boyfriend.
He did. It was
like looking at a blond door. You didn't pick that T-shirt by
accident. There's something with you that I don't like.
“That's a
lot,” Yukio said and turned to the girl. “You two are staying in
my father's place. Mom's here with a car to get your luggage.” He
took a look at the gigantic backpacks and smiled at Noriko. “Looks
like I have to make the trip to the apartment as well. Noriko,
they're waiting for us in the park. Could you take them there?”
Noriko looked
at the backpacks. It made sense, and she nodded. “Follow me,” she
offered to Kapulan-san. “Yukio will be back after he's dumped your
luggage. Anything you need from it right now?”
“Not me. I
have my sunglasses and wallet. Anders?”
The tall Swede
shook his head. “Maybe I should get rid of this one though,” he
said and took off his hat.
Thanks for
small gifts. “Maybe you should. It's hot today,” Noriko said.
This is going to be interesting. They talk so fast, and my English
really isn't all that good.
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