Date and search came to an end faster than Ulf had hoped for. The bell rang for class, and he had to postpone his search to the next day.

Full of apprehension he made the rounds the following lunch break. This time without the company of Noriko. Ulf worried about having to look through the freshman classrooms without Noriko to create a diversion, but in the end searching for Jennifer Cooper took shorter than he had expected. He felt her presence before he even peered inside the classroom. Inside a full three dozen students sat mesmerized by a petite brunette in what was mostly a regulation school uniform.

Funny, I thought he said she was dark blond. Well, it's been a year, and she's the only one here with looks that scream: foreigner.

But that presence! It was almost overwhelming. It would look like he was going to confess, during their second week. Not worth it. I'll ask Christina. Better if they think she's sizing up the newly arrived freshman competition.

Because the brunette definitely represented competition. Not because of her looks. Nothing living in Tokyo could compete with Christina, and she wasn't even fully grown. But that presence! It transformed an already very pretty girl into something totally different. This girl could walk into a dark room and have everyone inside crushing on her without ever having seen her.

She's an arrival, so we want her in the club. But she's trouble walking on two legs. Damn, the guys are going to develop whiplash unless we keep a very, very short distance between her and Christina.

“Jennifer Cooper?” he asked.

She looked up and smiled. “Yes?”

You’re cute, but you’re still no match for my Ina. Every time he thought of Christina something hurt in his chest. Ulf wondered when that pain would go away. Seeing her all over Ryu certainly didn’t help. Or did it? Do I miss her more than I’m angry at her? Is this why she’s doing it?

“I have your friend in the other wing. Want to meet him?”

“My friend?” For a moment Jennifer looked as if she was at a total loss, but then she grinned and nodded. “Sure,” she said and rose.

“Superb.” Ulf took the lead. “Which middle school did they send you to?”

He heard her steps falter behind him and turned.

“I went to school in Nagoya before moving here.”

Nagoya? Well, I guess they wanted them separated for a year. The more Ulf thought of the system the more sense it made. Spend one year alone to get used to being a teenager, without any connections to the past to act as crutches. “So, what did you do before you arrived?” Ulf asked.

They were midway though the corridor that connected the wings, and through the windows Ulf saw how the freshmen tried to make themselves comfortable in the outdoor area behind the cafeteria. By now they should have started to understand that sitting indoors was a privilege of the seniors’ and some lucky juniors.

“Jennifer?” Ulf asked when she stayed silent.

“You mean in Nagoya?”

“No, you know what I mean. In Sweden. Your previous life.”

When she stayed silent Ulf turned once again, only to find her several steps behind him. What now? Bad memories?

“Jennifer, if you have bad memories from your last life I’m not going to pry. But could you at least tell me how old you were before you arrived in Japan?”

The girl didn’t react, and she didn’t say anything. Two eyes looked back at Ulf with a strangely calculating glint in them. Then finally her mouth opened. “You’re not trying to pull my leg, are you?”

Huh? “Sorry, I didn’t quite follow you there.”

Just as she was about to answer Ulf heard Noriko’s voice calling out to him.

“Here,” he said and tried to find her.

She came walking down the corridor from the wing Ulf was trying to lead Jennifer to. “Urufu, you found the other arrival?”

A year does wonders, Ulf thought. Noriko, do you even understand how fantastic it is that you take us for granted? “Yeah, Jennifer, meet Noriko.”

“I’m Coperu Jeniferu, pleased to meet you,” Jennifer said.

Ulf shook his head. Jennifer couldn’t know Noriko was used to the western naming conventions by now.

“Wakayama Noriko, pleased to meet you.” Then Noriko turned to Ulf. “Tomasu-kun agreed to join the club. He’s waiting to meet her,” Noriko nodded at Jennifer, “in his classroom. Reunite he called it.”

“Jennifer, then follow me. As for the club, you have a standing invitation as well,” Ulf said and led the three of them on.

“Age, your age?” Jennifer asked from behind his back.

“Sixteen here. Fifty two in total,” he answered. “Noriko’s born here, so she’s the sixteen she looks.” Better not give the new arrivals the impression we’re crawling all over the place.

“Fifty two. And… no it doesn’t matter.”

“Wondering how many we are? At this school, apart from Thomas and you, it’s just Christina and me. She’s part of the club as well.”

“Christina?”

“Yes, that Christina. The model. She’s a year younger than me, well, same age here, but, you know.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Jennifer ran up to him and tugged at his sleeve. “Are we talking Kuritina?”

Bloody hell, the Japanese name sticks even to another Swede. “Yeah, but she was born Christina Agerman, so the Kuritina part is just a way to make her name possible to pronounce here.”

They had arrived in the shorter corridor feeding the classrooms in the left wing. Christina’s corridor just a few weeks earlier. It felt strange to walk up to 3:1 when it was no longer her classroom, or Noriko’s for that matter. Ulf glanced down at his other side where she flanked him.

“Urufu?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Jennifer, he’s waiting for you.”

She didn’t move.

“Look,” Ulf said, “he’ll be looking a lot younger than you’re used to, and it’s been a year since you saw each other the last time. You just need to get used to it.”

She just shook her head.

“Urufu, I’ll fetch him instead,” Noriko said and went inside.

Moments later she returned with Thomas.

“Thomas, meet Jennifer. We’ll leave the two of you alone,” she said, and Ulf felt her pulling at him to give the two freshmen some privacy.

“Stay!”

What?

“Who are you?” Thomas said. “You’re not Jennifer. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

***

Noriko let go of Urufu at Tomasu-kun’s surprising outburst. A little reluctantly, she admitted to herself. Despite her being in love with Nao there were still some lingering feelings for Urufu.

“That’s not Jennifer Cooper. Doesn’t matter if she’s fifteen, my Jennifer looks totally different.”

What’s going on? Noriko wondered silently.

At her side Noriko felt Urufu stiffen.

“My name is Jennifer Cooper. I never said I knew you. They did,” Coperu-san said and pointed at her and Urufu. Coperu-san until she joined the club. After that she’d become Jeniferu-chan despite being a stranger. Those were club rules.

“What?” Urufu said. “You’re Jennifer but she’s not Jennifer?” He continued. Noriko saw him looking from one face to the another.

“She’s not Jennifer.”

“I’m Jennifer!”

“You’re not!”

“I am.”

“Wait, please be silent,” Noriko tried. Then she saw the entire door to 3:1 filled with apprehensive faces. “Let’s continue this somewhere else,” she added.

Her last words had both Coperu-san and Tomasu-kun look at the door to 3:1, and they fell silent. One after another they nodded.

“Urufu, cafeteria?”

He shifted his attention from the freshmen to her. “No space left, but maybe under the sails?”

While Noriko doubted they’d have any better luck there, it should be enough to convince the two newcomers to follow them downstairs. With Kareyoshi disrupting the lives of the Himekaizen students, Noriko wanted to stay away from any commotions on the school grounds.

“Sure,” she said, making it sound like she agreed with Urufu’s idea. “We buy some grub and take it outdoors.”

As they walked downstairs Coperu-san asked the question Noriko waited for. “Under the sails?”

“That’s what we call the sunshades between the wings outside the cafeteria,” Noriko explained.

“Won’t that be cold during winter?”

Huh? Only a few sat there after the cultural festival early October, but it was still a strange reflection to make. “Yes, why?” Noriko asked, fishing for more information.

Coperu-san smiled. “I was thinking of all the snow and that.”

Snow? Then an idea struck Noriko. “Do you have a lot of snow where you come from?” she tried.

They were almost at the cafeteria entrance before Coperu-san answered that question. Amidst the low thunder of conversations among the tables came the tell-tale question. “It snows less here than in New England?”

Noriko didn’t know much about New England, but the question in itself suggested Coperu-san had moved here recently rather than having spent one year in middle school like Urufu and Kuri, or Tomasu-kun for that matter. Is she even from the same world as Urufu and Kuri, and Tomasu-kun for that matter. “How old are you?” Noriko asked, just to test her suspicion.

There was just a little hesitation, just a little, but there should have been none, or a very long one.

“Fifteen.”

“Subjective or objective?” Noriko asked. She didn’t understand herself from where that question came.

A few steps below her she saw Urufu stiffen and turn to stare at her. So you heard, didn’t you? Don’t you know it’s impolite to eavesdrop? Noriko shot him her best smile, hoping it didn’t come out too much like a smirk. While she wasn’t oblivious enough to fail understanding she was seen as cute, Noriko also knew she had nothing on Kuri. The only times anyone had called her smile beautiful was when she was taken by surprise. Only Kuri could deliver a devastating smile on demand.

“What do you mean?” Coperu-san said as they landed on the entrance floor.

Noriko pulled her aside and stared into the eyes of the girl, because by now she was dead certain it was really just a girl. “If you can’t answer that question you shouldn’t even be here.”

In return she only got a hostile glare. “I’m fifteen. Not fifteen and forty, or whatever. So what? Don’t you think you should try to make friends with me now when I know about you?”

Is she threatening me? Noriko was on the verge of retorting when she thought the better of it, and instead she just dragged the freshman foreigner to the cafeteria queue. She had just caught up with Urufu, who flashed her a naughty grin and shook his head when two things happened at the same time.

Her idiot brother sailed into view with Kuri on his arms, and Urufu’s grin was gone in an instant.

Noriko’s phone came alive, and she took it out of her blazer pocket and clicked open Nao’s line message.

Hours later she still couldn’t believe it, hours she spent with Kuri and Kyoko who rushed to join them. But that was hours later.

Noriko just had time to see how the joyful flare went out in Urufu’s eyes before she saw what Nao had written.

“Slept with one of the models. Maybe we should break up.”

A brittle sound of metal and glass echoed from her feet and spread out in the cafeteria until it died, soaked up by juniors and seniors who didn’t even notice how her new school year shattered in a moment. Only a few noticed that something had happened, but they stared at her feet, just like she did.

Nao cheated on me?

Faint gusts of wind reached her whenever someone opened the doors to the back of the cafeteria.

Nao cheated on me?

The sound of running feet reached her ears. Maybe someone had noticed that something was wrong with her.

But I love him

“Noriko, what’s wrong? Is there anything...” Urufu’s voice.

“Not you. I’ll handle this. Ryu, Ulf needs your help.” Kuri’s voice. “Pick up her phone!”

It hurts. It hurts so much!

Suddenly slender arms wrapped around her, and Noriko felt how she was dragged out of the cafeteria to the shoe lockers.

How can it hurt this much? He phone was gone. Maybe she had forgotten it back home, but then how could she hurt like this? Come on Noriko. There has to be a sensible reason to this. You just need to figure it out. Because that was what she did. Figure out sensible reasons.

“I don’t feel too well. I’m going home,” Noriko said as she pulled her loafers from her locker.

She was halfway across the school yard before she noticed how wet her face was, as if it rained. A salty rain.