Past fazes the present

The birds were chirping, a soft and sweet wind was blowing gently and the rays from the rising sun gave everything around a pinkish-red hue. On such a delightful morning, the only thing that didn’t match the scenery was Yushu, who was lost in the thoughts of Himari and those dead expressions that he was only accustomed to seeing in the mirror.

“...What should I do? How should I contact her? I have been looking all over for her since yesterday, and she hasn’t come to the university… It’s the second day today”

“...Hmm, did I see the train that she took that evening when she saved me? Think… but, wait… even if I know the train, how would I know which station she got off at…”

Lost in such thoughts, suddenly… Yushu saw a familiar face.

“...Isn’t that the girl who came to the library that day trying to find Himari-san? She might know something about her whereabouts… But.. how am I… going to ask her that?”

Conversation, as everyone can guess, was definitely not the forte of Yushu, and talking to a girl, out of nowhere and asking about the whereabouts of another girl, was just next to impossible.

“Well, I can just g-go… and t-talk to her and ask her about Himari-san…”

Yushu tried to calm his thoughts and his overthinking mind and moved two steps in the direction of Matsunaga Chiharu, who was talking to her friends with her back turned towards Yushu.

“...”

“Wait… wait, wait…”

“What if… what if she thought I was some creep who was trying to get Himari-san’s address from her?”

Overthinking and shabby as Yushu was, his perception of himself was even worse, he could not dare to approach somebody else, let alone another girl to ask some other girl’s address. While Yushu was seemingly perplexed, Chiharu somehow glanced back and saw Yushu trying to come in her direction.

“...Oh… she… saw me! Now, I am going to the jail for sure, she is gonna report me as a creep, I should leave…”

“...but, wait… what if my leaving served as the proof of me being guilty… oh no…”

However, Chiharu rather than making a scene or anything swiftly ended the conversation with her friends and started going toward the university building.

“See… I knew it… I bet she is going to report me to the university staff… I am done… I should not have thought about this, I should not have…”

While Yushu was apparently thinking about him landing in the prison and being rusticated from the university along with being labelled as a creep, he didn’t see where Chiharu was headed and when he did look, she was nowhere around.

“...oh, I lost sight of her… she probably has gone to the dean’s office or something… It’s over… I should not have tried to find more about Hi–”

Yushu stopped his thought in the middle as if he didn’t even want to let his overthinking mind ponder over this.

“...I should go somewhere else… maybe this will all settle down… or if not… I can at least wait for everything to come crashing down peacefully–”

“–Like always…”

Yushu was feeling a bit uncomfortable already like he always felt in the presence of many people, so he started moving towards the only place he felt comfortable at the university, the mostly-abandoned second-floor library.

“Huh… Friend-san…? Why aren’t you at the Dean’s–”

Yushu exclaimed when he saw that Chiharu was at the library seemingly waiting for him. And of course, he didn’t know her name so he just blurted out what he thought of her as… Himari’s friend.

“...Um, it’s Matsunaga Chiharu, Ayane-san– What do you mean Dean's?”

“...Sorry… nothing– I mean, I am sorry… Ma-Matsunaga-san, I didn’t know what to s-say…”

“...It’s okay, Ayane-san. I wanted to talk to you about something important. Do you know where Himari has been for the past two days?”

“...”

“Actually… Matsunaga-san, that’s what I wanted to ask you… when I saw you before–”

“–So, Ayane-san, you also don’t know where Himari is? I thought at least you’d know… She hasn’t been responding to my texts from the time we talked here at the library after you left. She said that she was going somewhere important, but I haven’t heard anything from her since…”

“...Matsunaga-san… Um…”

Yushu was finding it very difficult to say that he probably knew where Himari had gone after that… as the answer was his house… without his keys… cooking for him… and asking his answer to her confession…

“...I think, I-I know where Himari-san went after there–”

“–Where, Ayane-san? I am quite concerned about that goofball”

“...m-my h-house…”

“What… Ayane-san? I couldn’t quite hear that…”

“...my house…”

“Wh—What the f–? Wh–What do you mean… your house, Ayane-san?”

“Ma–Matsunaga-san, it isn’t what you’re thinking… I can explain…”

A surprised and bit confused Chiharu stood while the meek Yushu tried to explain that he didn’t take Himari to his house, rather… she kind of… broke in, without him knowing about it and cooked food for him.

Yushu was quite certain that nobody would believe him.

“...Ah… Ayane-san… I understand…”

“Huh? Eh? You understand…? Matsunaga-san, do you believe me?”

“Yes, Ayane-san, I do, it does sound exactly like something Himari would do… that idiot is very straightforward in everything, you’ll understand soon enough… But, what after that, if she was at your house and you were having food together, where did she go then?”

“...That’s the thing which is troubling me, Matsunaga-san…”

Yushu then proceeded to tell how a man named Yamashiro Aoto knocked on their door, and how all of a sudden Himari had almost a change in her personality, and she accompanied that man without any question.

“...Huh? That’s very unusual for Himari, and I have never heard that name before… Did you know that man Ayane-san?”

“...Um, no Matsunaga-san, but he mentioned that he knew me. He had heard about me from the university mathematics olympiad ceremony we had two days back.”

“Oh… I see… the one which you didn’t attend, Ayane-san…”

“...Uhm… yes…”

“It is not like her, she usually never does this Ayane-san, and I have known her for like four or five years very closely… I am not sure what I should do…”

“...Matsunaga-san… Do you think we could go to her house and check on her?”

“I already did that Ayane-san, I went there this morning before coming to the university, and nobody answered the door, so I assumed that it was lock–”

“–Matsunaga-san, can you take me there as well? We can go together and check… maybe we can find something.”

Chiharu was truly concerned, but hearing Yushu speak in such a calm way helped her subside her emotions a bit. Yushu, on the other hand, didn't even understand why he insisted on going to Himari’s place when Chiharu had already checked there a few hours back.

“Yes… okay, Ayane-san, let’s go. I’ll also ask Kou-kun to come along.”

“...Kou-kun?”

“Oh yes, Ayane-san you haven’t yet met him, right. Kou-kun is my boyfriend and someone who also knows Himari. Don’t worry, I’ll introduce you.”

Yushu, who was already talking much more than he had ever talked to anyone except Himari in almost forever, was now going to be meeting another person. His life had truly taken a very different turn than he was used to.

“Ayane-san, this is Kuwahara Kou, my boyfriend, and Kou-kun, this is Ayane Yushu-san.”

“...Of course, Chi-chan, who doesn’t know Ayane-san? Hello Ayane-san, nice to meet you!”

“...Hello, Kuwahara-san, N–Nice to meet you t–too…”

Yushu staggered a bit in his sentences but somehow managed to greet Kou.

“I have heard a lot about you Ayane-san… As someone who was not selected even in the preliminary round of the mathematics olympiad, I respect you a lot as the winner…”

“...Hha.. Ah… T-Thank you, Kuwahara-san.”

“Kou-kun, Ayane-san, I am sorry to spoil your conversation, but we have to go… I don’t want to waste our time standing and talking here, you can talk on the way…”

Chiharu dragged both Kou and Yushu along to the Kyoto train station, and all of them boarded a train to Yamashina-Ku (a ward in Kyoto), which was just one stop away.

“Are you sure, this is the right way to Himari’s house, Chi-chan?”

“...”

“Don’t take me for an idiot, Kou-kun, I came by just four hours ago. And how can I forget my best friend’s house?”

“...Haha… okay Chi-chan, guide us along, please.”

“Humph… I will Kou-kun… hehe…”

Yushu who was mostly quiet all the time and never gave attention to anyone, to avoid being noticed himself, began to find Kou and Chiharu’s interactions a bit funny and amusing.

Why? Well, because both Kou and Yushu knew that they were passing through the same road for the fourth time since they started walking towards Himari’s home from Yamashina station.

“...Pstt… Um… Ayane-san, you also noticed it, right?”

“...Eh… Uhm, yeah… I did…”

Yushu and Kou started whispering to each other to avoid hurting the pride of Chiharu, who still had the utmost confidence in her directional ability and memory.

“Ayane-san, do you have some idea as to where we could ask or go, otherwise we will just keep passing through this road, again and again, going nowhere…”

“Actually, I have no idea as well, I was depending on Matsunaga-san. Kuwahara-san, do you not know Himari-san’s house?”

“She recently moved here to her new house, so I haven’t yet visited her… so unfortunately not… Hmm… but that’s bad Chi-chan’s direction sense is very bad–”

“–Kyo-kunnn… did you say something bad about me?”

Even though Kyo and Yushu were speaking in their lowest possible volumes, somehow Chiharu got a feeling that Kyo was maybe bashing her about something. Nobody knew how, maybe that was her girl’s intuition.

“Eh… uhhhmm… n–no Chi-chan, why would I say something bad about you? Have you ever known me to say something like that for you?”

“...Hmmm… if you didn’t, then it’s okay…”

A pouting Chiharu who was staring Kyo down gradually started looking ahead again, trying to find Himari’s house.

“–But, Matsunaga-san said that she had come to Himari-san’s house to check, just today morning…”

“That’s the thing, Ayane-san… I am not sure that she did. In the past, there have been times when Chi-chan even forgot her own house’s address… so I am finding it a bit hard to believe that she didn’t mess this one up.”

“Ehh…”

Yushu, who had almost never heard stories about other people’s lives, or talked to anyone, was finding these unusual stories quite amusing. Although, funnily enough, Chiharu soon stumbled upon a house that all of them had passed twice before.

“Yes… we are here… See, I told you that I could find it…”

“Chi-chan, very good…”

Although this whole sequence of conversations and happenings made their mood a bit lighter, after reaching that house, and reading that nameplate of Kuwahara Himari, they were reminded of how tense they really were.

“Wait… Kuwahara?”

Yushu looked like he noticed something peculiar, something that he didn’t give much attention to, earlier.

“...Uhmm… Kuwahara-san–”

Yushu suddenly blurted.

“...Yes, Ayane-san?”

“Uhm… I just noticed… are you related to Himari-san, by any chance?”

“Oh, yes… you didn’t know Ayane-san? Did Chi-chan not tell you?”

“Oh… sorry… sorry, Kyo-kun, Ayane-san, I forgot that you didn’t know… Kyo-kun is a cousin of Himari.”

“Yes, a bit of a distant relative, since I am from the branch family of the main family line of Kuwahara. I know Himari-san from my childhood, I often used to see her when our family heads used to meet to discuss business.”

“Huh? Business…? Sorry Kuwahara-san, I am not familiar.”

“Oh, it’s okay Ayane-san, basically our family owns the Kuwahara Hospitality chain, so all Kuwahara hotels and motels.”

Yushu was surprised… in fact, quite a lot. He had heard of Japan's largest chain of hotels and motels, Kuwahara Hospitality, but he had no idea that Himari– the girl who saved her, broke into his house and cooked for her - was from such an affluent family.

“We all used to talk and play together, you know, Ayane-san. Me, my younger brother Takumi, Himari-san and her older sister Niwa-nee-san… We all used to play together and have fun. But. it all changed after that day.”

“Huh… after that day? Kuwahara-san… what are you talking about?”

“...”

“Ayane-san, Himari-san’s parents are dead. They died in some kind of accident, nobody but close members of the family know the details, but… after that day, we never met till I found that Himari and I started at the same university, coincidentally…”

Yushu was shaken, he never could have guessed any of this from Himari’s demeanour or her straightforward but affectionate nature.

“Then… Kuwahara-san, do you know someone named Yamashiro Aoto?”

Yushu had so much bubbling inside him to ask and say, but this was the only thing that could pop out of his mouth.

“No… Ayane-san, Chi-chan asked me the same thing in the text message, but I also have never heard of this name before.”

“...”

“Let’s try ringing the doorbell…”

Chiharu quickly proposed.

ting tong… ting tong…

“See… nobody’s home. I told you… I think we should go to pol–”

Before Chiharu could complete her sentence, Himari opened the door, dressed in a silver sweater and black skirt, with her blue hair flowing meticulously in the air.

“Yes… who’s there– Oh, Chiharu, Kou-san and Yushu-kun, what happened?”

Everyone was shocked to see Himari opening the door as if nothing had happened, but Yushu was not. For some reason, he was lost in some thoughts, and kind of reacted like he knew what was going to happen. And apart from him, everyone was–

“Ehhhhhhhh… Himari… Himari-san? You’re home… and okay…?”