New friends have been made in the span of seven days, I suppose.

To be very honest, I found it amusing how comedic Sora Aobana was. From the memories of Uncle Eijiro in my mind, she was a clumsy child yet still so adored by others. Years later, she then grew to become a lady with a captivating beauty… and then you see her the next morning after a night of drinking, like a zombie desperately looking for water the first thing in the morning.

Even so, she quickly recovered from the hangover and regained composure.

That being said, I don't really know if I was really able to do something substantial for them in the week they stayed in this province. I had opted not to pry even more in the last day they were in Cotona, and it did not seem like nothing has changed even if by a bit—which is completely fine with how close the two of them are.

By the time it was noon, they had called for a cab towards the train station and so we said our goodbyes to each other.

Haku, who could now freely return to being a cat in the open, felt a mix of relief and a hint of sadness now that the house has turned empty. Something unusual has happened, or rather it was the first time in a while that he felt comfortable with the company of someone, being Kyo. I had not really noticed as I was usually at the Akanami's but it seems that he had somehow found some things in common with Kyo, which perhaps has quickly made him lonely now that he realized he probably would not see him for a while.

But after a busy week in the middle of April came following somewhat mundane days leading to the start of May. I say that, but I was basically working on a continuous stream of art commissions in two accounts.

I do not know if it was by pure luck that the Capy account became more noticed as I was able to see some other Japanese illustrators sharing my art posts, which eventually led me to making a promotional art for a crowd funded indie game. Before I even know it, I managed to hit five digits in my follower count.

But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows when I randomly checked my account's status… and I did not even realize that I was already shadowbanned for a week for unclear reasons. Needless to say, the account hit a plateau. Sure, I was kind of concerned as it is one of the two and only sources of income I have right now, but the last thing I want to do in my lifetime is to begin thinking about the numbers and getting consumed by the algorithm. I let the tiny storm pass by and the account went back to normal in a few days.

Things like that made me think how glad I am to still be part of Giotto's—that I have a consistent work that feeds me.

But to be honest, I have never really removed the habit of being always on the edge in me for the longest time until just shortly. When I regained my memories in full, I thought that I was finally lightening up a bit, then Teardrop emerged, my first and last school trip endangered Rin, we were attacked in Cobalt, Joseph Horach hunted me, and Rin fell hopelessly ill. There were always the periods of ups between them, but every time a bout of extreme down follows.

Deep inside, I have always felt like I am in danger 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. It always came as a lingering thought in me, and when something is able to get a hearty laugh out of me, I stop midway, always reminded that there is a hateful part of me that will always loathe me when I am at my brightest and be the one to let out a hearty laugh when I am overcome by fear and despair. It's like a self-schadenfreude.

But recently, it honestly feels like I am living a life ever since Rin overcame her disease. Was it because of the extreme relief that I will still see Rin for the rest of my life? I do not know. If anything, it felt like the relief I had was too excessive it's almost bad. Still, this whole thing gave the feeling similar to when I was exposed to a hundred times the gravity of the Earth and suddenly returning to normal and so light as though I could just float with one small hop.

I don't even know if I'll really ever be rid of the scars that five year-old me received up to eighteen more years of distress, but I have recently thought that perhaps I could finally turn around and walk opposite of it.

And so, it made me realize that I may really need an actual vacation to clear my mind.

As we now have confirmed, we will be able to fly to Japan right after the country's Golden Week.

That thought made me realize that I have never actually had a break where I could just turn off my brain in a place where I am not very familiar—not thinking about work, school works, safety, nothing. I only ever realized what a vacation could actually be when I went on a trip with my family and the Akanami's, but with me being a driver and going places with a big group of people, it quickly drained my social battery even if I enjoy their company.

But now, it would just be the two of us in this trip that is most likely going to last up to three weeks. I would probably be looking forward less for this trip if I was someone other than Rin, since she's not the type to push others around, and so do I not. In our case, I guess six years is enough to identify our similarities and differences and it helps us both to see what we don't like or prefer on certain things. And while we're still not quite familiar with the country even after a month of staying there for the opening of Giotto's North, I think we're confident enough with our Japanese that we would easily get by even if we're walking around alone.

Besides, I pretty much brought up this trip for Rin—for her to break away from any lingering thoughts about her illness, and I suppose it is also for me to see if I will actually have a peace of mind in a place where it would not remind me of my memories, pleasant or not.

Perhaps… for the past 18 years, I've gotten so sick and tired that I just want to rest.

▪ ▪ ▪

May 8th, 4:30AM.

"I wanna go back to sleep…"

"I knew this would happen…"

I'm never getting over this curse, aren't I?

No early sleeping can mitigate this morning listlessness, I have long found out. I say early, but it was still at 10 last night, and I am still reduced to a blob upon waking up getting dragged by Rin to the bathroom to force myself to brush my teeth.

"Stay strong, dude… Once you're in Japan- Once you're done with the bureaucracy, you'll be fine…"

At this point, the only things that we needed to prepare is our hand carry bags that are already quite set and ready apart from our electronic devices, and then we're basically going to wait for our ride to arrive in an hour. Even if we are having a 3-week stay in Japan, we still decided to bring five days' worth of clothing at most that makes our suitcases very spacious as we wanted to buy more clothes once we are settled.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"**Ah, ahh. Language test. Can you speak the language, Gin-kun?"

"**Gin-kun, speaking… I did a bit of restudying…

**I picked up some good energy bars, huh… Want some, Rin-chan?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine with an onigiri."

Please don't ask me if it's actually good to just eat an energy bar on an empty stomach so early in the morning before going to more than an hour of travel. I would probably just tell you to trust me, bro. But that's beside my point—I've actually felt best just eating them when I'm traveling this early. At most, I would either have music on my earphones or the car's speakers with my eyes closed for the entire travel if I am not driving with minimal talking, and I would only get away with being a little woozy and without any rainbows.

And while I am snugly sat on the couch trying my best not to move any more than an inch, Rin beside me seems to have her eyes sparkling with her chubby cheeks chewing on the rice ball on the still dead silent morning.

I wish her cuteness can cure me.

"You look awfully excited."

"I guess I am… it sucks that I wasn't able to dye all of my hair. Agh!"

"Huh… Can you turn towards me for a sec?"

"What are you up to?"

"Do I like I'm in a condition where I'd suddenly steal a chu?"

Half-jokingly, she then turned her head towards me as I asked, and something immediately stood out to me.

My hair, at this point, have already grown back to fully black, and had a requisite cut amidst the rising summer hear. Meanwhile, there were still no signs of Rin's hair growing to black, and so she had to dye them again.

The thing is—she wasn't really planning on dyeing her hair to black again for this trip, but we're going to be staying in Tokyo in our first week. So, what could be the problem with that?

Even within the metropolitan Tokyo where most of the people are basically very fashionable or dripped out, as the kids would say, Rin would still stand out, and we are avoiding even the smallest possibility of Rin getting scouted by some agency while walking on the streets of the city. Sure, I am probably going to be with her which would lessen the likelihood, but it seems that we are going to have our own excursions, which makes the probability still nonzero.

Anyway, Rin was on a rush to dye her hair yesterday and she was not able to dye it fully. But if anything, it looks alright since she completely colored the exterior of her hair, and yet she feels dissatisfied when in my opinion she should not be.

"Happy little accidents…"

"Hmm?"

I then raised my phone to take a picture of her, and briefly wondered if I will be fine with my phone not having a shutter sound.

"Ma'am, please take a closer look of yourself again."

While I said that the outer part of Rin's hair is fully dyed, the interior has remained white that only peeks through on certain angles that gives off some kind of a stylish look on her, hence a happy accident.

Then, she put my phone closer to her face, and a suspecting look suddenly emerged from her face.

"I'm guessing you like this, don't you?"

"Why, yes. I indeed do. Why not just rock that when you go back to CCI?"

"I'll… think about that."

With the dark sky slowly turning to blue as visible from the windows, we heard a car stopping just in front of the house.

"I'll go wake up Mom and Dad."

"I'll bring in our luggage then."

On cue, we both stood up figuring out that our ride has arrived just before 5:30 in the morning—plenty of time to not miss our flight.

"Morning, Gin."

"Don't even dare say that it's good next time, Kuroko… Why do G and I get the debuff but you don't…"

"I've been sickly half my life. Let me have this one."

I don't really know what it is, but there's something with people with white hair that I find very stunning, not like I've seen others apart from the two of them. And it also just so happened that Kuroko has his hair down on the blueness of the morning's surroundings, making him feel much more mysterious.

"Are you sure you're not Rin's brother?"

"What are you on to now."

"Is this another coincidence since Reina is your sister?"

"Your head is not right when it's this early in the morning, I see."

"Anyway, thanks for driving us to the airport."

"I have to go on an early shoot in the Capital, so no problem. I had to go on an even earlier filming at 3am, you know…

Give me those suitcases."

"I feel like I've missed some things. You're also screenwriting now?"

"Your luggage is surprisingly light.

Quite a while now. Well, it's a low-budget film, the producer is not famous, but man the way he schedules stuff is stellar. He doesn't let the assistants do all the odd jobs and he's very hands-on. I wish all of them is like him."

"Huh… Maybe you should pull Nagi with you."

"I already did ask him, but he's taking this summer break as a pause from any filming to recharge. Apparently his fourth year is going to be rough especially since most of it will be more work-related stuff."

"Internship, huh… I guess Rin will also have hers if she passes her completion exams."

"Nice of the school to let her move up."

"Apparently it wasn't allowed to hide her illness to the school, but it turned out well."

"Should she really be going on a long trip when she's preparing for that?"

"She could have said no, but here we are."

"Yawn… musuko…"

"Oh, Uncle, Auntie."

"Good morning, Mr. And Mrs. Akanami."

"Ohhh… We saw you at one of your plays… Thank you for having us."

"No, no, thank you for watching."

"Potatoooo, I already grabbed your bag."

"You sure we didn't forget something?"

"L-Let's check, then…"

I can already imagine how much of a pain it would be if we were to forget something, especially our passports. In the last minute, we opened our bags again to check if we had our IDs and any important things, which we verified that they are all with us. At this point, it would be by some form of a miracle if things were to screw up on our side.

A still sleepy Aunt Sumi then gave the two of us a hug and wished us safety minutes before we leave for the Capital.

"Take care of my daughter, alright?" Uncle asked of me, while ruffling my still messy hair.

"Now and forever, I guess, Uncle," I cheekily whispered.

"I'm still not used to how awfully assertive you've become these days… but it's reassuring that you're now confident to say that. She's in good hands, I see."

"I would really be stupid to lose your trust now."

"Enough of that! You might miss your flight if we continue stalling."

"Ahaha. Alright, see you soon."

"We'll keep in touch!"

…

It was a surprisingly peaceful drive, especially for me. Just a few times of rolling down the car's window did wonders for me, and by the time it was almost seven in the morning, I got my energy back aside from my legs almost giving in.

I'm a little offended at how very surprised Kuroko was when I told him that we would not be using the usual highways of the Capital, and that we drove mostly in the expressways with a little bit of traffic towards the airport itself. I kept getting teased on how I'm unemployed, yet I am paying for the toll fees and gas for Kuroko's car. Well, I have a good reason for it, but we arrived at the airport safely anyway.

After getting checked in-

I've only been on planes a few times, but why do I get stopped at random checking in all of them?!

After getting checked in, there is always that crippling anxiety whenever you see your luggage go into the conveyor line, and both our hearts are beating fast at the thought of it getting lost somehow even before we board. But our worries were temporarily set aside with a nice quaso- I mean croissant with horseradish mayo and a coffee on the side. It also made me want to try baking my own once we get back home, but I thought that I shouldn't even think about it with Japan ahead of us.

With plenty of time, we just waited on the waiting seats until the time hit 8:35 in the morning when the boarding started, and we opted to be near the end of the line just as we usually do on anything.

"Your tickets and IDs please?

…

Mr. Sakato and Ms. Akanami, we hope you enjoy your flight."

I have noticed that ever since getting to the airport, or even a few days before this day, Rin has been directing a suspicious look at me and the proof of reservation for our flight. Finally, she started her inquiry when we got into our seats while waiting for the plane to take off.

"How exactly did you get us premium economy seats?"

"Uhh… let's just say that I didn't pay for this one-way. By the time we fly back home, I'll be paying on economy…

I can't really say much, but our place of stay in Tokyo is also covered already."

"What strings did you pull now…"

"It's a secret, but I promise I'll tell you in a few months."

She sulked, nevertheless, and buckled her belt with just a few minutes before take-off. The flight attendants began their requisite announcements and the pilot told their greetings multilingually. Shortly after, the plane started moving, accelerated on the runway, and lifted away from the ground.

By the time we got over the clouds, Rin prompted to take pictures of the clouds for reference purposes, so I did, and the camera of my new phone is really delivering.

Afterwards, I just brought my laptop out to watch some titles we missed amid the three-and-a-half-hour flight, and we landed in Haneda Airport safely.