Just like last year the school was eerily empty. Unlike last year Kyoko had no problem finding a place for herself and Yukio in the cafeteria. They were second years after all.

Exams, White day and end of school, graduation for their seniors and after that the short spring break. A month; even less depending on how you looked at it. The seniors had three weeks until life as they knew it ended. For Kyoko the two weeks between her junior year and her senior one signalled both a transition and restart. Third year was in preparation for a new world, but it wasn’t yet that new world.

“Yukio, over here!” She waved at him from her table.

Yukio paid and walked over to her with a tray in his hands.

“About our birthdays,” he said as he sat down and put his tray down with a thump that had everything on it dance around.

“Yes?”

“We might have to share them with the others.”

Dancing food in combination with the tone of his voice made Kyoko look at him a bit closer. “You make it sound like a bad thing,” she tried.

He mumbled in response and shovelled food into his mouth.

OK, bad thing. But why? “Yukio, my mind reading failed badly. Can’t we just give them some time early evening and celebrate alone after that?”

“I wish!”

It wasn’t like him not to think about a solution even before finding out how bad a problem was. “Look, if I talk with Kuri-chan and ask her…”

“You can’t.”

That was new. Yukio never told her what she could or couldn’t do. Kyoko copied him and filled her mouth with something to chew on lest he became the target of her chewing. If he behaved like an insensitive moron there had to be a reason for it.

“Explain,” she said when her irritation cooled down a little.

Yukio met her eyes. He looked gentler now. Somehow he’d pushed down whatever ate him. “Tomasu and Jeniferu,” he said. “It’s pretty bad. They need some talking or they’ll break up the bad way, as in worse than Urufu and Kuri bad way.”

You didn’t do worse that that. Kyoko’s best friend spent half a year failing miserably at breaking up with the man she loved and who loved her back. In the end they hurt each other and everyone around them.

Kyoko smiled. “I like the selfish you,” she said.

“Huh?”

She turned and looked around to make sure no one listened. “You want our birthdays to be for us alone. That makes me happy.”

Yukio gave her a sullen stare and took another bite of his lunch. “Of course. You’re my girlfriend.”

She really did like him for that. “We’re also the wingmen of the school heroes.”

“So what?”

“That makes us heroes as well. I’ll ask Kuri-chan. You go to Urufu and find out what he needs, OK?”

Yukio nodded and finished his lunch. Kyoko wondered if the reason he was so sour to begin with was exactly because he knew from the start that this would be what they both decided upon.

Kyoko finished her food as well, and together they carried their trays and disposed of them. They left the cafeteria and between shoe lockers Yukio gave her a short peck of a kiss before they parted ways.

She spent the rest of the day paying proper attention to lessons and shortly after Kyoko found herself by Kuri-chan’s lockers waiting for her friend. A few classmates waved when they grabbed their shoes and left school. Bored with nothing to Kyoko stared through the entrance to what had become her world for almost two years. Across the school yard a line of sakura shrugged naked branches in the wind as if it was still winter, but every time the doors opened a whiff carried promises of spring to come.

“Ko-chan?”

Kyoko looked over her shoulder. They hadn’t made an agreement to see each other after school, and she was certain Kuri-chan was in a hurry for one modelling job or another.

She had, just as she said she would an eternity ago when they were still middle school students busy with becoming friends, grown into a stunningly beautiful woman. Blond hair and blue eyes aside, everything about her woke the desire in anything male. Kyoko guessed the same went for jealousy when it came to women.

I don’t think I’d like knowing I’d grow into that. It must be scary.

“My birthday, or Yukio’s, I want one of them alone with him,” Kyoko said.

“Why are you telling me?”

“You’re getting dragged into Tomasu’s and Jeniferu’s problems, and that means the two of us get dragged into it as well.”

Kuri-chan nodded. “A selfish Kyoko. How improper,” she said and grinned.

Kyoko recalled a life lived according to rules. She returned the grin. “You taught me.”

“Seems I was a good teacher.”

“Very.”

“You want me to make sure we’re off your back?”

Kyoko’s grin thinned into a smile. “Yes, I’d like that. We’ll give you white day.”

There was a glimmer of surprise in Kuri-chan’s eyes.

“That’s when, as Urufu so elegantly would say, the shit hits the fan.”

“Both observant and improper,” Kuri-chan quipped.

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“I know. It’s called acquiring new skills.”

“That’s my girl!”

“Yukio’s.”

There was a moment’s silence. “You win.” A wide smile spread over Kuri-chan’s face.

Things got strained between the two of them when Kuri-chan hurt Urufu and in doing so hurt Yukio. With a sigh of relief Kyoko realised that while their friendship would never again be as innocent as it had once been, it was still there. For better or worse Kuri-chan remained her best friend.

“Love you too,” Kyoko said.

“Never got any chocolate from you last week,” Kuri-chan retorted and pretended to sulk.

Kyoko rolled her eyes. “I only make one set of honmei chocolate, you know.”

“Yes?”

“Giving you giri chocolate would still be wrong.”

“So I get none at all?”

Kyoko felt her own grin spread all the way to her eyes. “I see that you’re both beautiful and bright.”

“Ouch!”

“You deserved it.”

The last taste of bad feeling from the afternoon left her and Kyoko tackled her friend. They were both giggling when they left Himekaizen.

***

Having that chat with Ulf took more than the day Christina promised Ko-chan. Almost a week passed before her schedule and Ulf’s coincided, which meant freshmen and juniors both dropped everything in favour of cramming before the last exams of the year. Stealing some of his time meant grabbing him by the neck in the Haven between cramming sessions in the inner room.

Noriko threw her a sour glance, and Christina regretted chipping away even a little in the already limited time Ulf and Noriko could share, but a promise was a promise.

“Outside?” Ulf asked after he resigned himself to being dragged away from his girlfriend.

Christina nodded and opened the door. A tired chiming of the doorbell later they stood on the street. She waited for her body guards to arrive as well. Now was not the time to play mouse and cat with them.

“Could you give us some privacy, please?” she asked.

When she passed the convenience store a little later both guards followed them discreetly just out of earshot.

“Talked with Yukio?” Christina asked. Walking by Ulf’s side was no longer awkward, and she could enjoy his company and long for Ryu at the same time.

“Yeah.” Ulf fell silent again. “Why don’t we take this in Swedish? It’s been a while.”

Oh! Cramming Japanese the last year had made her used to using the language. Maybe too used to. “Sure.” Like the first year. Christina pushed that thought away. First year included memories she treasured, but they were best treasured alone.

Ulf switched language. “Just in case your goons get too close. Want to keep it alive as well.”

With a nod Christina nudged him to continue. Forgetting the language she once grew up with wasn’t the reason they were out here.

“Mind strolling through some side streets?”

She shook her head. There was less traffic and despite dusk turning into evening darkness she’d be absolutely safe with Ulf and body guards close. If anything a stalker, and she had too many of those since becoming famous a year and a half earlier, would be the one in danger.

A few blocks later they were enveloped in darkness. Japan being Japan dusk was but a fleeting moment between day and night. Of course it wasn’t really dark; it never was in Tokyo. Still, here away from the main street, her feet echoed in a subdued light she remembered from her first teenage years back in a Stockholm that no longer existed. In more ways than one that was a world lost and gone.

“You should tell Noriko your feelings more often,” Christina said.

“She knows I love her,” came the expected response.

Moron. You really are an idiot. She took a deep breath and forced down her irritation with the man she once loved to insanity. “You’re a fan of making new and exciting mistakes,” Christina began. “Reusing old ones is a waste of time, didn’t you say that?”

After a few seconds of silence Christina heard Ulf drawing for breath. “Yeah, so what? It’s not like…”

She cut him short. Some kinds of idiocies you never ever did again. “Just tell her you love her! No special occasion, no special romantic feelings, no special nothing. Just tell her over and over again!”

“But I might not feel like…”

“Then fake it! As long as you want her by your side then tell her! Tell her several times a day!”

“But that would be dishonest…”

“Look you idiot!” If this lesson called for her hurting him then so be it. “The day Noriko walks out of you because you didn’t love her enough, that’s the day you’ll understand just how dishonest you are all the time.”

Ulf still fidgeted. “It just doesn’t feel right…”

“Do you love her?”

“Of course I love her. That’s not what it…”

“Then tell her! Trust me on this one. You already lost one girlfriend because you didn’t.”

This time he flinched, just as Christina had known he would. Note to self. After this talk I’m getting some alone time with Ryu no matter what. An entire evening snuggling up together with her showering him with affection, now that was the kind of special event you couldn't afford every day.

Christina didn’t wait for him to protest. To be honest she didn’t expect him to. Her last salvo hit below the water line and he was sinking fast.

If I’m the teacher in matters of love then something’s seriously wrong. But maybe this was matters of communication. She didn’t really tell him how to love Noriko. How the hell did you manage to stay married for over twenty years? But he had, and Christina knew he had experience from before that. The way he explored her body when they were still a couple gave away that his wife had been anything but his first.

“Look,” she said to change topic. “Ko-chan is complaining, and that means Yukio is as well. We have to get off their backs but I still need their help.”

Ulf’s face lit up again. He probably felt happy about any topic that didn’t remind him of last year’s disastrous Valentine. A pity this topic would.

“Playing Cupid with the freshmen?”

Christina shook her head. “It’s gone beyond that. That’s why it can’t be you and me. We’re living proof of how wrong it can go.”

By her side Ulf froze in his steps. It took you this long to understand why our break up disqualifies us from helping them? How dense can you be? She screamed a little inside. Does that make me the queen of fools falling for him the way I did?

“So Yukio and Kyoko?”

“Yukio and Kyoko. They’re the sane couple.”

“I could go with Noriko,” he protested.

“I just scolded you for your lack of affection, so that’s a big no.”

“You and Ryu?”

“You mean the guy who spent more time last autumn trying to break the two of you up than hugging me?”

Ulf fell silent again. “So Yukio and Kyoko?”

Above them something frightened took flight and left an echo of shaking twigs behind it. Christina looked up but she only saw naked branches stretching into the sky.

“I’ll pull some strings as well. Ryu owns me a few.”

“Irishima?”

For being so dense, sometimes Ulf’s ability to put things together bordered on clairvoyance. Christina shuddered. “Irishima,” she confirmed.

“I don’t think Ai deserves this.”

Christina nodded. “I know, but she’s the closest we have as a friend of Jeniferu’s. I need someone in that school as well.”

“Let Ryu handle it. You’re going to hurt people anyway:”

You insensitive arse! But Ulf was right. Besides Ryu needed to talk things over with Ai anyway.