As summer heated up, so did school. They were uncomfortably close to finals now but the murdering heat made it difficult to concentrate during class.

Over a week had passed since that peculiar evening at the café. Urufu was absent the next Friday as well but at least this time Kuri-chan hadn't left in anger, which made Yukio feel at least a little better.

We're growing closer by the day. All six of us are dropping the honorifics from time to time now. Just Kuri-chan (Kuri, Kuritina?) and Kyoko who stick to those between them.

Yukio waved at Noriko as she left for the cafeteria and looked for where they sat. And calling her 'Noriko' wasn't an option. You made it clear I don't get to be that friendly with Ryu and leave you on the outside when it comes to dropping the honorifics.

He could see them through the windows, and it should be bright enough for them to see him where he sat under the sails.

Ryu came after her, happily chatting with Kyoko while at the same time trying to juggle with the atrocities he had forced the vending machines to vomit out. He failed, and what looked suspiciously like a sub filled with yakisoba fell to the ground. Suspiciously, because the baker needed to suffer from a hangover to produce that… thing that substituted for real bread. Whatever ailments the cook creating what passed for yakisoba suffered from, that was something Yukio preferred not knowing.

Ryu picked up his wrapped… could it actually be called lunch? Yukio wasn't certain. There should have been laws against it.

Kyoko laughed and caught up with Noriko just as she went through the cafeteria doors.

“Kuri and Urufu?” Ryu asked from where he stood wiping dirt from his… food.

Yukio sat down on one of the benches under the great sails. “Prep, just as I told them,” he answered after he had opened up his bento. He scowled. “In the best of worlds both of them will even believe I spoke the truth when I said the club members wanted them prepared for our activities.”

“In the best of worlds they're snogging,” Kyoko countered. That was a surprisingly blunt and improper statement coming from her but Yukio had seen her trying out a wilder side the last weeks. He liked it. She was more alive this way.

Noriko apparently wasn't as used to it as Yukio. At least not if he was to guess from the burst of tea that left her mouth.

“I stand corrected,” he said. You can correct me any way you want. “Snogging, making out, kissing, whatever. As long as they spend some time alone, together.”

“I don't know about 'whatever',” Kyoko said. “That could be bad.” At least she had the decency to blush at that.

“What's bad about making babies?” Ryu suggested.

“Ryu! Idiot bro!”

“Ryu, really!”

“Man, that's awful!” Yukio exclaimed just as he realised that all three of them had reacted in the same way. “It's Urufu we're speaking about,” Yukio needed a way to defuse the situation, “and knowing him they're probably actually preparing club activities.”

Those words seemed to work, but now the sexual innuendo was replaced by a subdued silence of discomfort.

Kyoko was the first one to break it. “No!” she said. “I hate that! Kuri-chan loves him. She needs to feel loved back.”

Yukio looked at Kyoko. You really care that much for your friend. “I'll sneak a look. I left them by the pool. They had their bags open.”

Kyoko groaned but rose from her seat.

The four teenagers left their food by their seats and hugged the left wing wall. Slowly they reached for the corner from where they could see the pool.

“Shush!”

“Don't push!”

“I can't see!”

Yukio peered around the corner. He could see Urufu and Kuri. They were snogging. And then some.

All four of them quickly withdrew their heads and looked at each other. Yukio watched three flustered faces and guessed he presented a fourth.

“I think we can take our lunch to the main school yard,” he said.

“And tell our members that the president and vice president are currently otherwise occupied,” Ryu filled in.

“With the last, ah, touches to their preparation of our activities,” Noriko snorted pointedly.

“And snogging,” Kyoko finished.

“Kyoko! Idiot girl!”

“Kyoko, really!”

“Man, that's awful!” Yukio laughed, not giving a damn that Kyoko very much wasn't a man at all.

***

That was… pleasant.

Flustered Christina left the pool side and followed Ulf. They had taken things a little bit too far but she longed for him so much. He was like a stranger these last weeks. Prowling the streets late evenings on his bike. Not once since that day by the river had they ridden together.

She saw the members of the kendo club filing inside the gym hall. One of them turned and waved at her and she waved back. Photos of her in those strange dresses probably floated around the club by now. A price she had to pay for Ulf's failed midsummer's dinner.

Then they rounded the corner and a bit down the slope she saw the football team trying to train in the murderous heat. Christina agreed with Ulf on this one. Football, not soccer. She had been an occasional fan of the Champion's League in her earlier life.

Somewhere down there the Watabe twins were sweating their hearts out to secure a place in the team, something normally only the second years managed but both twins were better than any second year at Himekaizen.

Christina watched the training in silence. Because the two of them didn't talk that much these days. Whatever haunted Ulf's nights followed him into his waking hours and stole his words. It was a wonder that she had managed to at least get Ulf to talk with his hands and lips earlier.

It worried her.

It scared her.

She hadn't allowed herself to fall helplessly in love like this since that horrid disaster when she was twenty. OK I was twenty one when I found out what a creep he was. One lover on the side would have made me sick, but five. Five!

But now she had. Whenever she saw a tall man in a crowd she tip toed to find out if it was Ulf. She turned at voices that sounded like his and once she had even run around a corner to catch up with a Himekaizen uniform that wasn't his.

How did I even become like this. He's good looking but not that good looking. She drowned in his eyes for a while when he heard her draw for breath and turned around to look for what had excited her.

He's arrogant and conceited and he thinks too highly of himself. She felt secure when he was around, solid, always true to what he believed was right.

He's uncaring, unchanging and sometimes he's so socially inept it hurts. She could trust him. Sometimes he was manipulative but he seldom told outright lies.

Is it because he's my only anchor back home? I don't think so. I don't think all that much of home any more.

Christina took another step to catch up with him and took hold of his hands again. They felt good in hers. Warm, with his fingers around hers, like lovers of their own.

I love him. “I love you.”

He gave her an uncertain smile in return. Like he wasn't certain he had heard what she said. A sudden gust of breeze threw his bangs over his head and glued his shirt neck to his cheek making him look like a surprised idiot but she didn't care.

I don't want a life without him. Even if I have to start all over from the beginning in this world I'm doing so together with him. She found new resolve in that thought and took both his hands in hers. “I've fallen helplessly in love with you. Please be careful with me!” There, she had told him how much he meant to her. Her entire world.

He shot her another of those uncertain smiles as if he was thinking about what she had said. Then that smile turned into one of those grins that made her heart lurch. “I will,” he promised. “I'll never knowingly do anything to hurt you.”

He threw his arms around her back and hugged her close to him. Drew her into the warmth of his world. His shirt was a little salty to her lips.

And yet you do. I want to hear those words from you. I want to hear you say that you love me. “I'm happy,” she lied, and smiled into his chest. It hurts you know, to need you so much more than you need me. To love you so much more.

That wasn't entirely honest. He loved her back. She knew it, felt it whenever he touched her. But something held him back. A fear of something she couldn't understand and therefore couldn't compete with.

With some regret she loosened herself from his hug and stared into his eyes. What is it that stands between us? She found no answer there, only a pair of eyes with a longing for love that mirrored her own.

Christina took his hand and led them on.

They rounded the right wing hand in hand, and when they arrived at the main school yard they saw their club members. Under the walkway they stood or sat waiting for them. A few rather racy wolf-whistles greeted them. Someone saw? No! Someone saw!

“Here they are... all prepared!”

“Ageruman… -san… -chan!” they chanted.

I'm so embarrassed I'll die of shame! They saw!

The summer heat was sweltering but that didn't prevent her from flaring red from her collarbones to her hair.

It was the last Saturday with the club before summer break. They would spend a long walking talking session riverside, and after that another two the coming week. Then club activities went into hiatus in preparation for the final exams.

***

The clubs closed down for spring term. One week was all that separated them from finals. After that summer break.

All six of them gathered for study evenings, which really wasn't all that different from club activities. But walking talking sure is a lot more fun.

At the moment Ryu was spending time with his sister. In their kitchen. Any other time he would have refused but this time they were standing here preparing food for ten. The club core, which meant even more time with Kuri, was coming.

Also expected were Sango-chan with Jirou-sempai and did they make a cute couple, or what?

More unexpected was that the motor mouth had announced his arrival together with Sakura-chan. Talk about a mismatched couple. But whatever floats their boat I guess.

“You're strangely happy idiot bro,” Noriko said.

He had been silent for a while.

Behind them two large stashes of vegetables and meat threatened to merge into one. This was the main reason they were both so busy cleaning and chopping vegetables.

“Last time gang's getting together like this before exams,” Ryu answered. “I like the club a lot more than I had thought.”

Noriko cleaned out some shiitake and put them in a plastic bowl. When she put the bowl on the second table she looked at her brother. “You like the club or like Kuri?”

Ryu didn't even take the bait. He just continued cutting up salad. “Both,” he smiled.

After another quarter of an hour they were ready to fire up two hot-pots, and shortly after that the doorbell rang. He saw them through the window. All eight at the same time. They must have taken the train together.

Noriko was busy making the tables so he went for the door.

“Welcome to our imperial residence,” he greeted them to take some edge from the impact of the oversized house.

Urufu and Kuri failed that test badly. As in it was clear they hadn't even noticed how large the building was. What kind of places did you two call home?

After that Ryu's home turned into a friendly chaos of hungry teenagers planning to spend the evening studying.

Soon the ingredients lay simmering in the two pots and hunger set the pace for the conversations. From the occasional word or grunt while they still gorged themselves to fragments of statements and then full sentences as gluttony gave way to satisfaction.

“That was,” Sakura-chan beamed, “exactly what I needed.”

The motor mouth was still busy eating but even he stopped chewing as he watched her in amazement.

“You know I am able to talk. I just don't overdo it.”

She had spoken a second consecutive sentence without letting anyone in.

“Did he do anything to you?”

“Should we beat him up?”

“Nori-kun what have you done to her?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I in' o any'ing!” he said and looked for some sympathy. Talking with his mouth full of food did little for his cause. “'agura-an, 'elp me!”

“Nori-kun, silence becomes you better,” was Sakura-chan's merciless reply to his plea.

That bought her a round of laughter from both tables.

Well that's a good way to finish dinner. “Books everyone. One table English and the other Japanese.”

It was as Kuri would have said, time to get down to business. But not the way Urufu wanted to. They couldn't afford to do it right. At least not according to his standards. If they did they'd all fail their exams.

Guys it's good to see you here. One last race before finals and then we break up for summer.