Packin' for the Move

The next day was when Yuri-chan told her prominent friends about her decision to leave for Italy. It wouldn't be too difficult to guess that Natsu-chan was a piece of work to deal with; Yuri-chan comforted her for hours. I think Akaki-kun was more worried for me.

She'd leave before her birthday. We had school, but she wouldn't go because she didn't have to, so she stayed home and packed. Looking back on those days, I could only remember staring at her empty desk, imagining a world where she was present.

It was the late afternoon on Wednesday when the dismissal bell rang. I was watering the plants at the flower garden, it was the pinnacle time in spring where most of the flowers were blossoming to their full extent.

"Okay, paperwhite narcissus. Faithfulness and purity, because of the white color. Umm, these are… Right, snapdragons. And those are orange lilies, they seem to be the only orange-bloomin' plant right now. I don't think the butterfly weeds will show this summer, next year it is."

I finished watering all the plants and returned to the clubroom. I wasn't expecting anyone to be there, but apparently they were waiting for my return.

"Finally," said Natsu-chan, "ya took yer sweet time there, Kiyoshi."

Hmm?

"Great, now we can get going!" shouted Hanayo-senpai.

What?

"Hey, Kirano, put that pail away and get your bag. We're leave'n now."

With ultimate confusion, I said, "What are you guys talkin' about?"

Natsu-chan walked up to me and took the pail from my hands.
"We're going to Yurichin's place to help her pack!"

My eyebrows dropped along with my jaw.
Huh?!

➼ ➼ ➼

Natsu-chan rang the doorbell of Yuri-chan's house and knocked in a specific way. I was certain it was how she announced her arrival to this residence. Yuri-chan opened the door.

"You guys came!"

"Yurichin!" cried out Natsu-chan. "I haven't seen you in so long!"
She leapt through the door and embraced her best friend.

"It's been three days," said Akaki-kun. "You talk to her every night."

"Shut up, you! I'm never letting go of her!"

Seemed like Yuri-chan had her work cut out for her. She expertly calmed Natsu-chan with a refrigerated drink and some homemade snacks.

The house had a distinct difference from when I came here on Christmas. The furniture was to be left in the house, with only the family decorations put into the boxes. There were stacked boxes against the corners of the rooms.

"So yer leaving Saturday?" asked Natsu-chan.

Yuri-chan nodded.
"It's a fifteen-hour trip to Rome, so we'll be departing early in the morning and arriving at night."

"How much do you have left to pack?" asked Hanayo-senpai.

"For the most part, my parents have been doing the downstairs bit. All that's left is the kitchen, and my mother will be taking care of that."

"What about yer rooms?"

"I haven't started with mine yet. That's why I asked if you could help me, Hanamaru-chan. I see you brought everyone else to help too, thank you."

"It's nothing. I'm a good packer and it'll be easy to carry the boxes downstairs for ya."

"I bet I'll be carry'n more boxes than you today, slowpoke."

"Is that a challenge yer offering?! All talk, no bark?"

"That's all you!"

Yuri-chan set down a cup of tea and stood up.
"Let's get started then, shall we?"

There were a few unfolded boxes downstairs that we brought up to the second floor. Natsu-chan and Akaki-kun tasked themselves with emptying the hallway closet and storage, since they were filled with heavy objects. Hanayo-senpai offered to pack the items in the bathrooms, since apparently she was also an expert packer and could do it well.

I didn't know what to do, but Yuri-chan asked me to join her in packing away her personal belongings.

"Okay, Kiyoshi-kun, why don't we start with the bookshelves."

"Alrighty then."

Her two bookshelves went up to the ceiling, split into five rows. In order to reach the top half, we'd need a stepladder. She brought one from downstairs and I volunteered to climb it. I gave her four books at a time and she began filling the box.

"You sure do have a lot of books. Have you read them all?"

"I don't believe so. The ones at the top are what I definitely read, and they're lined up so after I finish a book, I read the one immediately to its left. How do you read your books?"

She conveyor belts her books? That's pretty cute.
"I read them randomly," I replied. "I don't really have a bookshelf to queue them in an order I'd like. If I could, I would"

It took around an hour to finish the bookshelves and carry the boxes downstairs. From there, we moved onto her desk and east wall. We skipped her wardrobe because she said she'd do that with her mother tomorrow.

I saw my Christmas gift hung on the wall with a ring of LED lights around it.
"It's a shame this has to be taken down," I said.

"Wait!"
She lunged forward and pulled my arm away from it.

I looked at her perplexedly and said, "What's the matter?"

She didn't let go of my arm straight away, and I could feel her softly tightening her grip on my school blazer. She looked past me towards the canvases with a reddened face.

"I-I want to pack this…last, o-okay?"

My heart skipped a beat upon hearing that. My romantic feelings for her deepened, and I didn't care to think about the future at that moment.

In my blazer pocket was still the white lily necklace I bought. I carried it with me everyday, because I always had the urge to show up at her house unannounced and give it to her. I was feeling the urge to hand it to her at that moment, but I stopped myself.

Packing away her wall decorations would take the most time. The others had finished their tasks and we took a short break as the evening turned into night.

"So where's your parents, Yurichin?"

"My mother should be back later tonight, she's out handling the moving trucks that will show up on Friday. My father is actually already in Italy, handling our house and his business over there."

Hearing that her father was gone twitched my ear. Perhaps it was the adolescent teen in me, but my imagination of what could've happened with her parents and other friends gone was exaggerative, but also didn't cross unethical.

I simply imagined how it would be if Yuri-chan and I, as adults, lived in a house together. If she had her business to run, what job would I have? Would the two of us be home during the day, and how long would we spend together at night? I imagined a utopia, which seemed real until I was brought back to reality.

"Kirano, let's go back upstairs."

I had to shake my head in order to clear the fantasy from my head. I briefly forgot where I was, until I saw Yuri-chan waiting for Akaki-kun and I to walk up the stairs with the rest.

We were all in her room, which was about halfway packed. The five of us would complete the other side of the room with efficiency. After a couple of hours, the only things left were the bed, kotatsu, and the Forever Blossoms canvases.

We sat around the kotatsu, though it wasn't turned on. Yuri-chan and Hanayo-senpai brought snacks from the kitchen and we indulged in them for another hour or so. I listened while the others talked about all sorts of topics, one being how the three girls often had sleepovers in this room.

"I still think my Christmas sleepover at the start of intermediate school was the best!"

"Ya think so? I would have guessed ya liked our recent one the most. Ya were always too excited to make those chocolates for Kiyoshi that ya squeed all night––"

"Hanamaru-chan!" Yuri-chan cried aloud.
She dove into Hanamaru-chan's chest to stop her, then dug underneath the kotatsu to hide herself.

The others giggled and chuckled, while I sneakily ducked my head under the kotatsu's cover and saw Yuri-chan with her hands over her face.

I pushed my lips together to create a soft "Psst" sound, which caught her ears. She separated her hands and we connected instantly. I gave her a pleased smile as appreciation for what Natsu-chan said.

For whatever reason, Yuri-chan switched gears and displayed a mischievous smile, then pulled herself from underneath the kotatsu to offer a suggestion I would have never imagined.

She stood up and clapped together to gather our attention. She must have gotten close to my sister, because she twirled in a circle as she declared,
"Everyone! Let's have one last sleepover here…together!"

All of our reactions were the same; mine the most shocked. What's more shocking...was that we agreed to it.