226 Chapter two, 2016, just another Christmas: 7 (1/2)

Ryu wondered if Urufu and Kuri had managed to spend their Christmas together in that Swedish style Urufu spoke about. If what Urufu said was true, then he spent Christmas like a Japanese New Year's celebration, well, minus visiting a shrine of course.

If the couple had, then that was two days ago, because apparently Christmas Eve was the big event in Sweden, rather than Christmas Day as Ryu had been taught was the western style.

'You give me a headache. Before I met you I could safely assume that 'western' was the one set of whatever was not Japanese.' The thought made him smile, because Urufu had tried to smooth things over by saying that most westerners only knew about their own version of 'western'.

Well, he had spent a nice enough date with Ai-chan yesterday, where they even quickly showed up at the Irishima High Christmas party. There he had been displayed like an exotic animal, and for the first time he could remember he felt uncomfortable being the centre of attention.

Ryu glanced at the reason for that discomfort. She had fallen asleep in the seat across his, but she was almost as cute sleeping as when she pulled him into her shenanigans. Almost. That laugh of hers, or her inexplicable shyness belonged to her waking world.

”Sis, when is Nao-sempai coming?” Ryu said and turned to his sister.

'Aw, damn!' She had fallen asleep as well.

”Mom, the girls are no fun!”

His mother turned and looked at him and Noriko. Then something nasty from many years ago glimmered in her eyes, and she stuck her tongue out at him. ”Suits you Ryu,” she said and returned to her conversation with his father who drove the van.

'What the?' He knew his mother could be surprisingly childish sometimes, but right now she had behaved like a grade schooler.

Smirking he pulled up his phone and mailed Nao-sempai a complaint.

The reply took a few minutes to come.

”They're girls, leave them be. Kuri-chan sends her greetings by the way and wants you to give them her best.”

Ryu decided against calling the junior despite feeling a little uneasy writing on his phone while the van they rode snaked its way further into the mountains. Another hour and they'd be at their destination, an onsen that carried memories for his parents.

”Something happened?” Ryu wrote and fished for some information on what had happened between Kuri and Urufu.

While he waited for an answer, they passed through another tunnel, and by now they had climbed far enough inland for the greenish brown hillsides to become greenish white. From what he remembered there would be snow all over the place when they finally arrived.

”Kuri got scolded, and they scheduled a lot of shoots during winter break.”

'Scolded? Good for you two,' Ryu thought. The only reason people would be pissed off with her was that she had indeed managed to save her Christmas date with Urufu.

”And you got caught up in it?”

It took Ryu three attempts to send that last mail, and when it was away they had left the last of the tunnels, and the entire world around him was covered in snow.