Chapter two, 2018, field trip, segment nine

Ryu got his arse handed to him by the teachers, and only Christina’s blatant lie about him being dragged into an impromptu shoot saved him from further repercussions.

She regretted that a little. There had been an impromptu shoot, one that she hadn’t wished for at all. He had been asked to leave, and he had refused. Christina accepted that she loved the boy turning into a man, and his refusal only increased his stocks in her eyes.

In the end he stayed and watched. In the end Christina noticed how even in Kyoto he attracted more than his fair share of attention despite the surplus of male models at the set. It made her feel proud. In that sense she was anything but Japanese. Ryu at the other hand stared with open disapproval at how just about every male present ogled her.

It took some cooing on their way home, and a very thorough biting his face off by some teachers to make him forget his discomfort just to have it replaced by another.

Right now they weren’t on speaking terms. He really hated it when she saved him rather than the other way around, and that was a part of Ryu that Christina disliked.

Idiot! But the Sweden she once grew up in had shown more similarities than it wanted to admit. I’m an adult. Of course I’m going to help you when you need it. But she was also his girlfriend. At least she should treat him as her peer. Damn, I’d like someone to chat with. The solution came to her just as she voiced the need in her head.

“Sure, but I’ll be there as well,” Noriko said when Christina called her.

“You really don’t need...” Christina tried, but Noriko cut her short.

“It’s my boyfriend and it’s my brother. I’ll leave the two of you alone when I’m certain you’re not going on one of your crusades.”

An hour later Christina found herself in a crowded tourist trap. She’d been there before, in her previous life. Just after dawn, long before the horde of tourists invaded, freezing her butt off for a shoot while pretending it was another and much warmer season.

Crowded or not, the Arashiyama bamboo grove still enveloped her with an otherworldliness she normally never found anywhere. Apart from people around her world was green, and the never ending chattering still didn’t manage to dispel the sound of wing gusts trying to find their way down from the canopy.

Then one face turned the crowd into background, and by his side Noriko walked, hand in his, staring at the greenery and totally oblivious of how Ulf saved her from walking into strangers time and time again.

I don’t get you, but I’m happy for you. The smartest person he’d ever met, Ulf said, but she sure wasn’t street smart at all. Even a parent would have admonished a five year old for walking without paying attention to the world around.

“Noriko!” Christina called to save Ulf from his daycare duty.

His girlfriend finally looked ahead and made her way to Christina without endangering their surroundings. Behind her Ulf let out a sigh of poorly hidden relief. Christina understood him. Even as a friend you just felt the need to protect Noriko whenever she ended up along a lot of people. That need had to be multiplied if you were in love with the petite girl.

“Why here?” Christina asked when Noriko was close enough to e patted on her head, had Christina had those inclinations. “It’s not really a good place for me.”

“Cause it’s fun to tease you,” came the response. “Besides you won’t be able to use your work as an argument with all the people here.”

I never knew you were that scheming. “So you want the rational me?” Christina said and looked past Noriko, briefly met Ulf’s eyes and let her eyes walk across the gorgeous greenery surrounding them.

Noriko nodded back and then Ulf came up by her side. Side by side like this they looked more like big brother and little sister than a couple. The school uniform told a different story though.

“It’s Ryu. He wants to treat me like, well, his girlfriend.” That came out wrong. “In a bad Japanese way, I mean.” And why don’t I just insert an entire boot in my mouth while I’m at it?

Ulf just grinned with mirth at Christina making her best to win the award as the most moronic tourist in Kyoto this week. To her huge surprise Noriko didn’t look offended at all.

“I know what you mean,” she said with her head tilted slightly to one side. “One of my idiot brother’s worst sides.”

Ah, forgot you had to fight that part of him the entire autumn. “I don’t know what to do. I really do like him, a lot, but, well.”

“So you’re in love with the idiot kid and want him to grow up?”

That pretty much summed it up. This time it was Christina’s turn to nod.

Ulf remained silent the entire time, and what had once been planned as a chat with him more and more looked like a conversation with Noriko with Ulf as audience.

“He doesn’t deserve it, but you need to give him something in return. Ryu’s kinda stubborn that way.” Noriko’s smirk told Christina everything she didn’t want to know about what the short girl thought of yielding to Ryu when he was in the wrong.

“Give him a bone, you mean?” Christina said. It wasn’t as much a question as her thinking aloud.

“Yup,” Noriko said and shone up like a sun. “Pat him on his head and say: Good dog!”

But it doesn’t really solve anything. Maybe she couldn’t resolve the problem by talking with Noriko alone. Something was missing, something important, but Christina just couldn’t find out what it was.

From Noriko’s side a voice reached Christina’s ears. “You could always break up with him,” Ulf suggested deadpan.