Chapter one, 2018, Hatsumode, segment one

“Aren’t we supposed to visit a shrine together?” Kuri asked.

Ryu looked up from the bed they shared. From the bed they shared with all their clothes on. Kuri sat tailor-fashion dead centre in the bed, golden hair cascading down her shoulders and with those deep blue eyes measuring him. Ryu had draped himself diagonally across it with his head hanging outside. The last being the reason he needed to look up to face her.

“Hatsumode? Why not?”

Urufu had worked them to the bones ever since their respective Christmas dates. Well not Kuri; she did the working all by herself as usual.

January the first. They spent New Year’s Eve at his home with Kuri visiting. Celebrating the new year at a shrine would have been the normal thing to do, but gruelling hours of working during the first half of their winter break made certain they were fast asleep long before midnight.

“I could call Ko-chan,” Kuri suggested.

Ryu grumbled a little. Things were good between him and the couple once again, but he still hadn’t fully come to grips with them being able to bite as well as bark.

“Or don’t you want me to?” she added.

Do I not want you to? That wasn’t really the question, was it? Telling Kuri not to ask her best friend out was something he needed to be careful with. If he wanted to spend some time alone with his girlfriend, well that wasn’t a problem. If he wanted to avoid Kyoko; that was an entirely different beast. “No Hatsumode with friends sounds fine,” Ryu decided. “Why not give sis and Urufu a call as well?” He could just as well be magnanimous.

“Sounds fun. I missed out last year.”

You were working last year. With Nao to boot. “So, all six of us?”

“All nine,” Kuri corrected him.

“Nine?” Ah, of course. “But Tomasu and Jeniferu only makes eight.”

Kuri smiled. “Noriko mentioned inviting Hitomi for hatsumode.”

Noriko mentioned? You mean Urufu, don’t you? Or maybe it had been sis after all. Urufu and Kuri weren’t on the best terms with each other any longer. The drawn out war with Kareyoshi took its toll in the end. “Sure, six or nine, what’s the difference?”

“Later today or tomorrow?”

Girls liked to dress up. Kuri just did it with supersonic speed because of who she was. It wouldn’t be fair to the others. “Tomorrow. That way it won’t feel as rushed.” That way her body guards won’t scream bloody murder.

Kuri stretched like a cat and Ryu admired how her body curved in all kinds of alluring ways. Hers was a special kind of beauty, which only made sense considering her part time work. Your average school girl didn’t work as a model, or in Kuri’s case a rising super star. It still sometimes befuddled him walking by her side with her face plastered to bill boards all around them.

He slid down on the floor. His sister making good friends with Kuri eventually led to Kuri standing on the receiving end of Noriko’s endless nagging. By now it finally showed. The flat that was Kuri’s home slowly started to resemble a home. Sure, parts of it was still too sterile, but at least it didn’t look abandoned like it had done when he first came here. Back then she referred to it as her golden cage.

The oversized bedroom they sat in very much looked like where a young woman slept, not to speak of the bathroom attached to it. As he glanced through the door opening Ryu felt a smile come to his lips. The living room no longer tried competing with the school gym for having the cleanest floor. That was definitely Noriko’s doing, or rather her insisting on bringing friends over whenever she visited Kuri. Groups of friends needed somewhere to sit, and in the end odd pieces of furniture slowly found their way there.

There was a kitchen which even sported plates and glasses for more than one person these days; including a pair of cups that would look horribly out of place no matter where they were placed. Those were a terrifying memory of their Christmas date.

The sound of Kuri’s voice reached him through his thoughts, and pushing with both hands against the floor Ryu rose to his feet and looked at Kuri as she spoke in her phone.

Ah, she began with Kyoko. I guess it’s a twofer. Calling Yukio wouldn’t be needed. If you spoke with one of them you spoke with them both.

Ryu left the room. His thoughts right now weren’t entirely truthful. Kyoko was Kuri’s best friend. They’d chit chat about absolutely nothing for at least half an hour. He could as well spend that time shopping for something to eat, and there was a convenience store nearby.

On his way out he grabbed his coat and slowly buttoned it up in the lift. He threw the guard a glance, nodded at Kuri’s personal body guard, wrapped his scarf around his neck and walked through the sliding doors.

While warmer than Sapporo, this still couldn’t be called warm. Ryu tugged his coat closer to him as he hugged the walls by the pavement in an attempt to get a little cover from the wind. Another two freezing blocks got him to the convenience store and Ryu greedily snuck into the warmth.

He stayed a little longer than planned, absently leafing through the magazines by the window, to get some warmth back into his body. Coat was all good and well, but by now Ryu regretted not having donned the sweater he left with Kuri.

It couldn’t be helped. He put back the last magazine, grabbed the pre-packaged lunch boxes and sauntered over to the counter where a girl in her early twenties had stood sending him disapproving glances while he went through one magazine after another.

Just because he could, Ryu sent her one of his most devastating smiles and got the expected reaction in return. He paid, she stammered and Ryu was on his way back to Kuri.