260 Chapter five, 2017, years end: 8 (1/2)

What Noriko just did was incomprehensible. Still, no true malice, of that Kyoko was certain.

She held Noriko's hand and squeezed a little to show there were no hard feelings, despite her own heart falling apart. Noriko had been there, the last time Kuri broke down. She kept the rest of them away. Anyone turning against them all to protect her friend couldn't be a bad person.

But it was incomprehensible.

Over the gravel, steps with a broken rhythm announced Yukio's arrival. His foot never healed perfectly, more a fault of his than his assaulter's. One more week properly on crutches, just as the doctor had said, and he wouldn't limp like this.

”See you, man. Six? I have it. Will tell Kyoko.”

Too many words. Too much willingness to please. Sometimes it was easy to forget how broken Urufu was, and how much Yukio tried to help his friend.

'Four of us in 3:1. They're only two.'

”Yukio, over here,” Kyoko called as if he could possibly have missed her where she stood with a crutch in one hand and Noriko in her other.

'And there he goes.' Kyoko followed Urufu's back with her eyes. They'd meet later. Six o'clock apparently. Their main customer probably, as neither Noriko nor Ryu was wanted. There was no end to how many sessions they bought.

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”Stay with me, please.”

Kyoko looked at Noriko and saw how much she hurt. 'Kuri, you and Urufu owe both Ryu and Noriko an apology. They're not adults like you.' ”I will. Care to join us?” Kyoko added and tilted her head in Yukio's direction.

”Where?”

'Where? Somewhere it didn't hurt.' ”The mall,” Noriko suggested to her surprise.

Those were happier days. She could still relate to them, and somewhere inside her she cherished the memory of what hadn't happened. Walking home from cram school that day almost a year earlier and noticing two Himekaizen blazers hanging from a hook a floor upstairs in that café. One of them belonged to her Yukio.

He looked at her, and she could almost see the cogwheels turn inside his head. 'Yeah, I saw you, so what?' But she had nursed a mild crush on Urufu shortly after, not Yukio, and she hadn't even known Urufu was Urufu at the time. 'Well, I got the best guy of those in the end.'

”Remember Urufu's bike?”, Noriko began.

'Yes!' Kyoko's impulse looked like it would pay off.

”He still rides to to school,” Ryu said. ”That overpriced racer of his.”

”Overpriced?” Kyoko hadn't thought of Urufu's stuff that way. He preferred high quality items, that much was certain, but overpriced?