Oh, it’s been a while.

Ulf rose from his chair and bowed to the trio taking seats two tables away.

“Who are they,” Jennifer asked and looked at the Wakayama parents and Christina’s grandfather.

Ulf received a nod in return, and a curious look at the foreigner across his table. He sighed silently with relief when Jennifer politely waved in just the perfectly awkward way a foreign teenager should do when confronted with adults in a country not their own.

“Noriko’s and Ryu’s parents, plus a friend of theirs,” Ulf added rather than telling the entire truth. Jennifer was asking too many questions as it was, and she didn’t need to know there was effectively a community of arrivals in Tokyo. Not that Mitsuo lived in Tokyo, but he visited both Christina and the Wakayamas often enough to be part of that circle.

“Do you want to leave?”

Ulf glanced at Jennifer and shook his head. “They won’t mind. I’m doing business with the Wakayamas anyway, so they’re kind of used to my antics.”

Ulf made a point of twisting up his wrist watch to show Jennifer how old fashioned he was. Funny that, he thought, there are schools here where you’re not allowed to wear one, but when I grew up all kids were encouraged to do just that. More than a difference in culture, Ulf understood. A difference in generations as well. I didn’t even know what a mobile phone was back then.

“Expensive?” Jennifer suddenly asked.

Ulf nodded. Wrong question, girl. Is it good, or do you like it, would have been better. “I feel uncomfortable without one,” he said.

They shared the first half of their dinner in relative silence only broken by chit chat pertaining to the food and the boat trip earlier. While very much a young girl Jennifer still showed she knew good manners if she wanted to.

Ulf glanced at her over his food from time to time. Not once had she used that devastating charisma of hers since they entered the restaurant. Maybe she really wanted to talk after all.

As they were finishing their main course, and Ulf mentally prepared to order desserts, he decided it was time to get down to business.

“Thomas, you said.”

Jennifer swallowed a bite together with some sparkling water. “Yeah, Thomas.”

“Do you like him, or do you want to pump him for knowledge about us arrivals?” Ulf knew he sounded callous, but this was Jennifer.

She hesitated for a moment, gave first him and then the table with the Wakayama parents a long look, and then she shrugged. “Both,” she admitted.

Ulf followed her stare over white tableware and met Mitsuo’s searching eyes. “You didn’t lie, so I’ll listen to you.”

“I’m intrigued, and have been from the start.” She grimaced and took another sip of water. “As you say he’s kind of boring, but he seems like a good guy, and I’ve never been much for the exciting ones.”

Ulf gave her a long stare. That was a surprise, but then he guessed someone like her could have the exciting at a moments notice. Maybe she’d been burned before she moved to Japan. “Continue,” he said and put down his for on the plate where it made company with his knife. Soon he’d order dessert, but he wanted to hear what Jennifer had to say first.

“I kind of made friends with Thomas in the club. He’s broken, you know.”

Broken, what’s with us arrivals and being broken? Ah, the other Jennifer. How could I have forgotten?

Jennifer looked at him, and as Ulf was caught in his own thought she must have taken that as a sign to go on. “They were living together, you know. He says it still hurts.”

Like Maria. It hurt for a long time. Still does from time to time. And my kids. Ulf nodded. He understood exactly what Jennifer was talking about.

“I don’t know if he’s ready to move on, but I can’t help myself. I’m falling for him,” she said.

Ulf searched her eyes for the lie, but he found nothing. Could it really be that simple?

“I’m living here on a scholarship. Alone. My parents trust me. Honestly I don’t understand why, but they do.”

Probably because you deserve that trust no matter how you behave. Parents notice the big lies, even if they sometimes try not to. “And you feel lonely?”

Jennifer nodded. “I wanted this date with you for two reasons. You seem like a good guy as well, but I don’t feel anything at all for you. I needed to know. I’m sorry if I led you on.”

In ways she was definitely more grown up than her years. So she wanted to know what kind of infatuation she felt. If it was real, or if it was just a reaction to feeling lonely.

“Don’t worry. I’m not hooking up with anyone anytime soon.”

“Still in love with Christina?”

Ulf smirked but nodded. He was. Seeing her didn’t hurt as much as before, but he was definitely not over her, if he ever would be. “Part of me always will be,” he admitted both to her and himself.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Part of? So you’re moving on?” Jennifer tilted her head. She was very cute, but Ulf only saw curiosity in her eyes.

“In a way. We broke up. One day I’ll find someone else.” He searched his thoughts for a better explanation. “I don’t think I’m the kind of person who could live his life alone.” Whomever he met down the line he needed to be very honest with her. Worst case he’d hook up with second best. Best case he’d always compare her to Christina.

“I feel sorry for her,” Jennifer said and proved she had just read his thoughts.

I’m an arse. “I’ll help you on one condition.”

Despite the caveat Jennifer’s face lit up in a happy smile. Ulf understood she didn’t mean it this time, but her smile together with a surprised shout of joy had just about everyone within three tables turn their heads and stare at her in admiration.

Please, don’t do that! “Fine,” Ulf said and grinned. He might not be interested in the girl, but she was still his company, and being at the very centre of admiration like this was a huge ego boost despite how much he tried to deny it. “Thomas gets to know. I’ll help you, but I’ll play with an open hand.”

***

“Mom wondered if Urufu got a new girlfriend.”

Ryu’s words echoed in Noriko’s mind as she made her way between tables in the typical kind of restaurant she expected to find her parents in whenever they had guests. Expensive, western food, sometimes gaudy, sometimes just stylish, but always fantastic food.

Right now food wasn’t on the menu for her. She needed to talk with Sano-san who had arrived yesterday to check in on his granddaughter. Sure, Noriko wasn’t supposed to know that, and she pretended she didn’t, but she was supposed to know that Kuri and Urufu had gotten themselves entangled in some kind of adult power game. For that she needed Sano-san’s help, because since a few hours she could no longer help Urufu directly.

When she arrived at her parents’ table Noriko dropped an envelope on the table even before she had time to greet them. She also made an effort to grab a chair with its back towards the table where Urufu and Jeniferu-chan sat chatting over a cup of coffee each.

Her father smirked when Sano-san wondered what it was all about.

“I just got notice of my expulsion,” Noriko said in her father’s place. “So did Ryu.”

“Expelled?

“Yes...”

“Noriko, silent!” her mother said. “Sit!”

Noriko sat.

“Expelled?” Sano-san asked again, this time to her parents.

“Who more?” her father asked instead of answering Sano-san’s question.

Noriko stared at the empty spot before her just as her mother made a discreet gesture. Soon a waiter would arrive.

“There were only four of us left,” Noriko said. She had already told them what had happened. Not that she needed. The PTA was split down the middle, and the angry half made an effort to notify every parent about what was going on. “I believe Yukio and Kyoko got expelled as well, and maybe Jeniferu-chan.” She caught her breath. There was the illusion to uphold. “Urufu and Kuri, and that new guy from Sweden probably got expelled as well.”

While her father grimaced Sano-san and her mother both gave her a long, searching stare each.

Crap, now they know that I know. Well, as long as the adults kept their silence she’d pretend she never noticed she had just botched it.

“Maybe time to take some measures,” Sano-san said.

Her mother’s gaze left her immediately.

“Don’t you even dare!” both her parents said in unison.

“You’re telling me there was a valid reason you children and all their friends got expelled together?”

Noriko’s mother put her fork down with just a little too much force. Enough to make it clatter angrily on the plate. “We’ll handle this one ourselves. Your solutions are, how should I put it, too short sighted.”

Sano-san shrugged, just like Urufu so often did. “I’d say they’re permanent, but it’s your call,” he said and offered her mother a thin smile than sent shivers down Noriko’s spine.

“Mitsuo, permanency can wait. We’ll do it the way you taught us back in school,” Noriko’s father said.

Noriko noticed how Sano-san almost flinched. “I never enjoyed it. When the two of you get angry together I stay the hell out of the way.”

What? Noriko searched her parents’ expression for a clue. Something must have happened back then, and to dare speak to each other that way their friendship must run way deeper than she had ever suspected.

“Mitsuo,” her mother began. “We’ll turn utter defeat into utter defeat. You just end things.”

“Cleaner that way,” Sano-san said silently. “I’m sorry for what I have done.”

Noriko listened in fascination as the three of them totally forgot she was present.

“Don’t be,” her father said. “You were a creepy bastard from the beginning, and you’ve been that way ever since. You’re one of our two best friends, so don’t give us that crap.”

“Me, creepy?” Sano-san and shot Noriko’s father a look of disbelief. “I just do things. You’re the creepy ones.”

As her parents and Sano-san got deeper and deeper involved in their conversation Noriko’s thoughts returned to the first words she had heard after the received her expulsion notice: “Mom wondered if Urufu got a new girlfriend.”

They sat two tables behind her, just far away enough that she couldn’t pick up on what they were talking about, just that they spoke English.

Urufu, you idiot! I’ve got first dibs on you. But she knew it didn’t really work that way. While he knew how she felt about him she couldn’t order him to fall in love with her. Only hope, and those words didn’t exactly help with that part.

Jeniferu-chan was competition. What she lacked in looks compared to Kuri she made up for in presence. And she’s a westerner, just like Kuri, Noriko thought. That makes her more like what he grew up with. Can I even compete with that?

Noriko pushed the thought away. Urufu’s head was filled with Kuri, and that was the uphill fight she had taken on from the beginning. Jeniferu-chan might represent competition, but at least she wasn’t someone Urufu was still in love with.

With renewed determination Noriko rose from her chair and turned to face the pair behind her. She felt better if they saw her arriving openly. She’d take whatever came her way from there.

She barely had time to take a step before Urufu looked up and met her eyes.

“Noriko?”

In her chair Jeniferu-chan turned as well, but rather than showing irritation she waved an invitation to Noriko. “Noriko! Why don’t you join us?”

Urufu shot them both a tired look and gestured for the waiter. “Girls!” he said, but there was no anger in his voice neither. Rather he looked kind of relieved to see her there, any any reaction that showed appreciation at her presence made Noriko’s heart bounce in hopeful anticipation.

“Sure,” she said and walked to their table on wobbly legs.