When morning rose over the Himekaizen cultural festival, so did Yukio. He rose to the smell of too many teenagers sleeping in a classroom, the sound of snoring and the heat of Kyoko sleeping in his arms.

Shafts of sunbeams ripped through the curtains and bathed the floor in an eerie red. Drowsy with sleep he realised how the sudden dawn light had forced him awake.

There were sounds from the office area, sounds of someone sleeping over the desks and someone working. Rhythmic clattering of laptop keys sang a well-known melody – only Urufu abused a keyboard that way.

Yukio leaned on his elbows, torn between the want to help his friend and the need to feel Kyoko close to him. In the end Kyoko won, and he laid himself to rest on her arm again.

Nuzzling his head closer to her face he drank the smell of her hair and listened to her breathing. Ever so gently her calmness rocked him to sleep again.

When he woke again soothing dawn had given way to bedlam. Of his gentle Kyoko there was not a trace. She sat shamelessly astride him, all sense of propriety gone, daring any shocked onlookers to protest. Looking up at her he watched the most beautiful woman in his life glaring at students whispering and pointing at them.

His ears hurt, mostly because she tugged at them with both hands, and so did his balls.

Balls? Crap, Kyoko you can't sit there!

She didn't just sit but merrily bounced up and down. Yukio sincerely hoped she was oblivious to what it looked like. Even more he wanted her to get off him, because those parts were exactly as sensitive as his recollection of the last time he made a spectacular save as goalkeeper in a game of soccer.

Then a loud cough called for his attention, and Kyoko had the good graces to cease bouncing.

Behind her back four chairs lined up with their four best friends straddling them leaning their arms on the backrests. Noriko scowling, Urufu smirking, Kuri rolling her eyes and Ryu grinning wildly.

“Love birds, get a room or get real,” Urufu said in English.

Atop of him Kyoko gasped and turned.

“Rehearsing the racier parts of the play?” Kuri asked in the same language. “Want to continue on stage?” She frowned and dug into her school bag searching for something. After a while her frown made way for a satisfied smile.

A camera? Yukio wondered in panic, and Kyoko must have shared the same thought, because she rolled off him and covered herself with the blanket they had shared the previous night.

“The four of us need to have a talk,” Urufu said. It sounded as the start of a sentence, but he was interrupted by Kuri.

“You insensitive moron!” She threw Urufu an angry glare. “Ko-chan and I are going to have some girl talk.” And that sounded more like an order than a suggestion. “You are going to dress down that oversexed friend of yours.” A long finger protruded from her hand and stabbed at Yukio through the distance, but Yukio knew the words were directed at Urufu.

Still, oversexed, me? I was asleep for most of it, so why is it my fault?

Urufu just grinned and tapped Ryu on his shoulder. He had to reach behind Kuri to do so.

What once began as an open display of friendly rivalry from the Wakayama twins was an established habit by now, despite Noriko's dating Nao-sempai. Urufu had her by his other side, so the Swedish couple was sandwiched in the middle as always.

Yukio had a hard time imagining them side by side in any other order than Noriko, Urufu, Kuri and Ryu. Usually he and Kyoko trailed a few steps behind whenever the six of them went out together.

“Ryu can you get the patrols and play started? I really need to talk with the moron on the futon,” Urufu said.

Ryu nodded in return and headed for the office area. His chair screeched on the floor as he dragged it behind him. The noise was enough to silence the whispers around them that hadn't subsided until now.

“Noriko, get the food market going. I'll help you after I've knocked some sense into his head,” Urufu said and pointed a thumb at Yukio. “Yukio, boys' locker room. Now!”

With the last words Urufu rose from his chair and left the room.

Before Yukio even had the chance to protest Kuri had already pulled Kyoko to her feet. She did protest, but a shockingly well-articulated sentence in Japanese from Kuri silenced her.

“Ko-chan, you absolutely must shower and change your underwear, wouldn't you agree?” Kuri said to Yukio's stunned girlfriend.

Kyoko barely had time to get her bag, and Yukio used that as a signal to rip open his backpack and pull out one pouch with toiletry and another with fresh underwear. After that he hurried after the girls on their way to the locker room.

When he passed the office area he saw Ryu handing Noriko an old style walkie talkie which she clipped onto a belt. By the windows a dozen more stood recharging.

His footsteps on the stairs down to the first floor were unusually loud but neither corridors nor stairwell were any less crowded than a usual school day. Yukio attributed the sound of his footsteps to a guilty conscience.

They passed the vending machines and then he waved to Kyoko before she vanished into the girls’ locker room. On the other side of the cafeteria Urufu stood waiting by the door to the boys'. He rolled one of the security armbands over a sleeve and opened the door.

“Security patrol. Anyone not showering evacuate now!” After delivering that lie Urufu beckoned for Yukio to follow him inside.

Yukio didn't see how he could avoid the inevitable, and in the end he meekly obeyed.

***

Leaving Yukio like that made her unhappy, but after a second serving of Kuri-chan's dark stare Kyoko didn't dare anything more than returning his wave before she sneaked inside the locker room.

“Ko-chan, where did you go yesterday evening?” Kuri-chan's voice was all sugary and Kyoko didn't believe one iota of it.

Kyoko sat down on a bench and rested her back against a locker door. Slowly she began to undress. A fresh pair of stockings and panties wouldn't hurt, and that shower looked more and more like a splendid idea now when she had dragged her tired body here.

“Ko-chan?”

“Shower first, chit chat later.” Kyoko answered. She was surprised how irritated her own voice sounded. It did the job though, and with a towel over her shoulder she went for the closest shower stand. Kuri-chan stayed silent.

While a morning shower at school just couldn't compare to home Kyoko still enjoyed it. Stiff limbs softened and she purred with satisfaction at the luxury of shampoo in her hair.

One of her peculiarities she guessed, but she just couldn't help it. Lathing herself with shampoo had always been a time of bliss for her. Maybe because she could pretend to be both blind and deaf without her parents yelling at her for it.

This time it was Kuri-chan who couldn't yell at her, because that was what was waiting, even though Kyoko really couldn't understand why she was going to be yelled at.

Dragging out the shower turned out to be possible for so long and no more, and reluctantly Kyoko turned the shower off and towelled herself down.

In the early morning hours the locker room quickly cooled down despite a cloud of steam promising lingering heat, and she soon found herself putting on her clothes scrutinised by Kuri-chan.

“Where were you last night?” Kuri-chan asked when Kyoko had donned panties and bra and was zipping up her skirt.

Kyoko waited until she started buttoning up her blouse before answering. “Rooftop,” she admitted, “with Yukio.” Because that was the real question, wasn't it?

Kuri-chan stayed silent, dug through her school bag and handed over a few plastic packages. “It's time you started thinking about these,” she said. “I hope it's not too late.”

Kyoko blushed red. She felt the rubbery contents through the plastic cover. “We didn't.” She met Kuri-chan's gaze. “We didn't do it.”

Her friend let out a long sigh. Of anger or relief Kyoko didn't know. Then she felt the hands of her friend on her shoulders.

“Be more careful next time. He's a guy, with the needs of a guy. Sooner or later you'll share your bodies with each other, or you'll break up.”

Break up? Does he hate me?

Those blue eyes met hers. “He's interested, but he'll respect you for some time more, but eventually those needs will become too great.” Kuri-chan took a deep breath before she continued. “Maybe your needs will be stronger than his, but sooner or later you'll have to trust each other enough. OK?”

Fear still dominated Kyoko's thoughts. “Do you think he dislikes me now?” she finally asked when she was done pulling her stockings to her knees.

The look she got in return was one of utter contempt. “Do you really see Ulf's best friend as that shallow?” For a moment anger flared to life in Kuri-chan's eyes. “Do you think the man I love would chose his friends so easily?”

It was a scary Kuri-chan, one who reminded her of the chasm that had grown between them since the time they made their differences clear about which methods were acceptable when it came to handle bullying. It was also a more guarded Kuri-chan than Kyoko had ever seen before, one who showed a desperate need to protect her Urufu even from a friend.

“I'm sorry,” Kyoko said. What else could she say?

“Love hurts, you know.”

Kyoko looked at her friend. Did it? The last months ran through her head. Worry, embarrassment, a little anger and a lot of joy and excitement. “No, I disagree. I never felt hurt.”

The door opened and a few students from 6:1 arrived inside. From the looks of them they were about to make the final preparations before the play.

“Funny you should say that. I said the same all those years ago.” Kuri-chan laughed softly to herself and sat straight up leaning her back and head against the locker door. “Maybe a first love doesn't hurt.”

She wore the face of an angel, with eyes staring at the ceiling and through it. Kuri-chan was worlds away. Kyoko saw it in her eyes, had seen the expression of what she once took for homesickness many times before.

“Have you been in love before? Before Urufu I mean?”

“Mm,” came the answer.

But that answer wasn't for her. Kyoko guessed her friend spoke with her own memories right now.

“Twice,” Kuri-chan said after a long silence.

“You said it didn't hurt, your first love.”

Kuri-chan smiled, but she never moved her head. Her blue eyes still stared at a landscape of years gone past. “No, not me. I hurt him though. Fourteen, I was fourteen.” Then she returned to the here and now and caught Kyoko's gaze. “An ugly kid with long legs. I think you remember.”

Ah, yes, she looked the same the first time I guess. “Why would that hurt him?”

A grimace played over Kuri-chan's features. “He wasn't very good looking. Strong and fast and very good at football, and he adored me, and I him.”

Kyoko waited for her friend to continue. In the background she heard the other girls giggle as they tried out clothes for the play.

“He was shorter than me. And when I grew beautiful and started modelling he got scared,” Kuri-chan said. “It took years for me to feel confident with my looks though. Always running to photo shoots, always cancelling with him whenever an opportunity opened.” She sighed and stroked her face with both hands. “I had him waiting for me, but I never waited for him. In the end I never gave him a chance to follow me. I hurt him.”

“How?” Kyoko asked when she understood that Kuri-chan was finished.

“I always believed he broke up with me, but in reality I forced him to. I enjoyed being surrounded by beautiful boys too much, and I always thought he'd be there for me anyway.” Kuri-chan's hands slid down from her hair to cover her face. “Damn, that's embarrassing to realise so many years later. And I never apologised to him.”

Kyoko didn't understand those thoughts. Yukio was Yukio through and through. She'd wait for him and she'd ask him to wait for her. Wherein lay the difficulty in that?

“You'll understand one day,” Kuri-chan said as if she had read her thoughts. “Anyway, I'll give you this one. A first love doesn't have to hurt. I'll give you that.”

That piqued her interest. “But the second one?”

Kuri-chan grinned and laughed. “Oh that hurt for sure. I was twenty. He cheated on me on a grand scale.” She smiled at Kyoko who only saw sparkling joy in those eyes. “Five on the side, or more likely all six of us girls were his playthings. I've never felt so humiliated in my life.”

She had heard that story before. Never so heartfelt though. “And you never fell in love after that?”

A bubbling laughter was the first answer. “No, not until I met Ulf. I promised myself never to fall in love again, but he made me break that promise.” Once again those eyes strayed elsewhere, but this time they weren't looking into another world.

It was time to change the topic. “Why did you want me here?”

The question had Kuri-chan return to reality. “To give you this.” She dug into her school bag and offered Kyoko a small metal case. “It's a portable make-up set.”

Kyoko turned the box over and opened it. “Yes?”

“You can pull that lever.”

She obeyed and stared as the bottom came away. “Yes?” she asked again.

“You have parents. Parent's never respect the privacy of a teenager in love. That's a false bottom with enough space to hide two of those.”

It took a while for Kyoko to grasp what Kuri-chan meant, but when she did she blushed from her collarbones all the way to her hair.

“This isn't a suggestion. In this case you'll do exactly as told. Get it?” Kuri-chan took both her hands in hers. “Ulf's having this talk with Yukio as well. Don't you even dare to take stupid risks!”

“It's not like we're going to do it any time soon,” Kyoko protested.

Kuri-chan grinned, took the one Kyoko held in her palm and placed another in the adorned metal case before she put the false bottom and make-up back. “It's not like they go bad in a few days,” she said and pulled Kyoko to her feet.