Yukio grinned
when Hitomi-chan smirked and shook her head so much that her long
hair swirled around her head. She was exactly the kind of beauty who
didn’t make Kyoko uncomfortable, the slender type, like Kuri.
Right now
Hitomi-chan exaggerated a show of disdain for Urufu and Kuri to the
joy of their friends.
“She broke up
with that?”
Yukio followed
Hitomi-chan’s finger with his eyes until the straight line pierced
Urufu a little further down the beach. “He was skinnier back then,”
Yukio said in Urufu’s defence, or if it was Kuri’s. He wasn’t
certain himself.
“Is she daft?”
Yukio’s head
swivelled almost by itself. He was just that surprised. Kyoko?
“She’s my
best friend. Doesn’t make her immune to stupidity.”
There wasn’t
much more to do than agree. Urufu was his best friend after all, and
by every deity that ever existed, and most that didn’t as well,
that guy sure as hell wasn’t immune to stupidity. He probably used
that oversized brain of his to invent new kinds of stupid.
Both Yukio and
Kyoko joined Hitomi-chan in the shaking of heads and pointing
fingers. It caused a small ruckus, and friends around them cackled
with glee in a most unjapanese way. Being around arrivals for too
long must be infectious.
“What’s going
on?”
Yukio stopped
shaking his head long enough to notice Noriko who had walked up to
them with three of their guests, Rika-sempai, Jenny-sempai and
Jun-sempai.
He quickly
explained, which had Noriko join them in the head shaking, much to
the surprised mirth of their guests.
“And you call
us strange,” Rika-sempai said.
“You’re
strange. They’re just sad.”
Yukio glanced at
Noriko after the spat out that comment. It was a little like the old,
cynical Noriko. “Look, guys, let’s head into the shade for a
while.” It wasn’t really like he needed to get out of the sun,
but Noriko’s voice just now gave him a sour taste in his mouth.
Just as he was
about to leave for the beach walk Kyoko took his hand and shook her
head. “If we’re here I’ll swim, and you’re joining me.”
Yukio just
couldn’t resist a request like that from Kyoko, so he followed her
down to the water and tried to recall his swimming lessons. Almost
there they were overtaken by their squealing guests who rushed into
the sea and started playing in the water like they had been born in
it.
And I thought
Sweden was too cold for bathing. Either it wasn’t, or the
people living there gad grown used to ice cold water like polar
bears, because only Jun-sempai looked a little awkward between
girlfriend and girlfriend’s best friend. Rika-sempai might have
been born in Japan, but she certainly had gotten used to parts of the
Swedish which lay beyond Yukio’s understanding.
Then Yukio got
into the water himself, still clasping Kyoko’s hand. It was steeper
than he had expected, and he soon had to try his skills at swimming.
The water was
cool, but in the baking sun that only came as a relief. Still, he
only managed a few metres in water that had a life of its own, very
unlikely the stale water of a pool. To his surprise keeping afloat
was easier in the sea though.
Yukio felt he
enjoyed it all, and he regretted not having gone into the water last
year when they spent weeks by the ocean.
He let himself be
carried by a wave, and when he looked at the shore it was further
away than he remembered. At that time Jun-sempai came up beside him.
“You know,”
he said and paused to take a breath, “you shouldn’t swim out like
this if you’re unused to it.”
Yukio almost
answered with an angry retort, but the next wave dunked him and when
he resurfaced a smidgeon of worry built inside.
“Jun, get him
ashore!”
Yukio turned in
the water to see where Rika-sempai’s voice had come from, but he
suddenly stared into Jenny-sempai’s face.
“If you can’t
swim then please get back, will you?” she said in English.
But I can
swim, what’s the problem?
“Jenny, get him
back. I’ll help.”
Jenny-sempai gave
Jun-sempai a nonplussed look, and then her boyfriend laughed and said
something in Swedish.
“Yukio, please
float on your back. I’ll support you.” With those words she swam
under him and came up by his head. “Fantastic weather today,” she
said and grabbed him under his arms.
Then he felt her
legs moving under him and there was a feeling of being tugged. Yukio
could feel her breasts pressing against his back every time she
kicked out with her legs. Soon enough Rika-sempai and Jun-sempai
turned up beside them and Yukio was dragged upright.
“OK Yukio,
let’s get this clear,” Jun-sempai said, “these kids learned to
swim in the sea.” He pointed at the three native born Swedes. “If
they say water’s dangerous the rest of us had better listen.”
Yukio hardly
listened, because as soon as Jenny-sempai could stand she waded to
her boyfriend, and now a long string of worried words in Swedish
poured out of her.
“What’s that
about?”
“You put Jun in
danger, and now she’s angry with him, or worried,” Rika-sempai
said. “Yukio, the ocean isn’t a pool, not even when protected
like this,” she added and swept her hand across the surface to show
him how the man made inlet made the beach almost a little like a very
large pool. “If you’re careless like this at an ordinary beach it
could become dangerous for real.” She smirked. “Jenny’s my best
friend. If you make her worry I’ll get angry with you.”
Yukio felt more
than a little shame and nodded.
“What are you
guys up to?” That was Kyoko’s voice.
He looked at her,
but in her face he couldn’t read anything that gave away that she
had even been aware of the small drama unfolding.
“If you make
your girlfriend worry I’ll be angry as well,” Rika-sempai said
and grinned.
Yukio returned a
thin smile and sent her a silent thanks.
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