June 24, 2040, absent friends

Kyoko grinned at the memories. The mirth had died down a little, but the four of them remained on the wooden deck.

“Just Noriko and Urufu missing,” she said to no one in particular.

Kuri-chan spat out her tea.

What?

“Don’t do that!” Ryu said and carefully let go of his own beverage after he had secured it onto a table.

Do what?

“Kyoko, that was hysterically funny right now,” Yukio added.

OK what button did I just push?

“Again?” Kuri-chan suggested.

This just has to be something about that field trip. What did I forget?

Yukio grinned open mouthed. “Nah, nothing as bad this time.”

“Hard to top that one,” Ryu suggested.

Kuri-chan and Ryu laughed in agreement. “Ko-chan, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?” the former said.

“Forgotten what? If you’re thinking Kyoto I spent most of it with Yukio you know.”

“Ko-chan!”

She ransacked her memory, but nothing came up. They spent most of that trip on endless trips from one site to another. With teachers present there wasn’t much time to get lost, well unless you weren’t the rapidly rising star of fashion fame and just so happened to get dragged into an unplanned photo shoot.

Blinking away the sun Kyoko dug a little further in her memories. So one of the free days, but those they spent scattered all over the city, so someone getting lost wouldn’t be noticed until curfew at the hotel.

“Kyoko, really!” This time it was Yukio who frowned and admonished her.

If Yukio remembers then I ought as well. Something crawled around in her head and called for attention. Let’s see. There was that day Kuri-chan stormed out, and she came back alone. The something gave Kyoko an ironic wave. Alone? If I recall that I must have expected her to come back with someone in tow. Then the memory finally flared alive. Oh dear! Noriko’s glorious time in the limelight. How could I possibly have forgotten?