"Oriya! Common! You'll never believe what I found!" Kazutaka yelled back to me. I wasn't running like he was. I hated being cold, and was wearing far too many layers to be sprinting or even walking as quickly as I was. I wouldn't have left the warmth and security of my house, but it was rare that I saw Kazutaka this excited about anything.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I said irritably, frowning. He turned towards me, and in his excitement he was unable to wait, and ran back to my side.
"Do you remember the golf course they put in last year?" he asked, slightly short of breath when he reached my side.
"Yes." My father has ranted endlessly about it. His opinions had bounced back and forth between good and bad. Good because it bought people in for our hotel (the KoKakuRou had been only a hotel back then with an excellent in-house restaurant), and bad because it was Western. My father was old-fashioned, and didn't like the Western culture and how it was invading Japan.
"Well, they took down the fence around it," Kazutaka said, smiling. "Which means there is nothing guarding it."
"Oh? So we're going to tresspass?" I asked. My feet were getting wet. My boots weren't good for being in the snow. They weren't really meant for it. They were more like dress shoes that looked like boots.
"Wait until you see it, Oriya. It's like looking at life itself," Kazutaka said. He linked arms with me, and I only allowed it because it was dark save for colored lights on houses, designating which home-owners were Christians, and no one was awake at that hour to see us walking together. If it had been otherwise, I would not have let Kazutaka take my arm. He wasn't good at respecting personal space, even back then when we were 15.
"It's a bit high up, and I know you don't like heights, but it's worth it. Ah! How can you stand walking so slowly, Oriya! You're killing me!"
"I'm cold," I said in my defense. To make this clear I bought the sides of my robes together and bundled then in my arms before breathing out so we could see the white cloud of frozen crystals.
Kazutaka smiled. "Well, I'd give you my coat, but I'm afraid I'd object to freezing."
"You know what? I object to freezing, and it's only because you're my best friend that I'm even out here."
He gave me his fondest smile. His eyes were silver then, instead of the hardened steel of today.
We were silent, except for the occasional groan when Kazutaka tried to pull me faster then I wanted to go. When we arrived at the golf course, I saw that the fence had indeed been torn down. It left a ring of exposed soil around the depression which was the golf course. It was all filled with snow and the flags had been taken down for winter.
We stood near the edge for a second, before Kazutaka let go of my arm, and jumped. He jumped the six feet without thinking about it. I've always admired his courage with things like that. Height and cold meant nothing to him. He lived, even then, as though death were nothing.
"Jump, Oriya!" he yelled. "I'll catch you!" It seems to stick out in my memory how the moonlight made his hair look. He looked so carefree, so innocent. He was wearing a black coat, the last time he would ever. Next year, it would be nothing but white.
I gave him a 'you're joking' look.
"Really!" he said, holding out his arms. "Oriya! It's fine! The snow is soft! It's not like you could hurt yourself! It isn't like I would let you get hurt."
"You're a crazy bastard," I said angrily. Back then Kazutaka didn't pay attention to the word 'bastard.' He never took it literly. It was just another insult.
"Oriya Mibu, if you don't jump, I am going to come up there and push you down here. And that will be more unpleasant then jumping. Now, jump!"
I was terrified to do it, but I jumped. I trusted him, still trust him, with my life. I held out my arms, and landed in Kazutaka's. After the immediate adrenaline rush, I relaxed my grip on him, and looked up. He was taller than me, then. That was the only time when he was, those nine months in 1979.
He smiled at me. "You see?" He kissed my cheek. "Nothing to it. Now, common!"
I blushed as I always did when he kissed me. I came from an old-fashioned family, and boys kissing just wasn't acceptable. Although if it weren't for that almost inbreed sense of immorality, I would've kissed him back every time.
"I don't think I can move yet..." I said softly. I was still shaken from jumping. It was ridiculous, but that was my phobia, and it couldn't be ignored so easily, even if I was with Kazutaka.
Kazutaka threw his arms up into the air. "What am I going to do with you, Oriya?" He put his arm on my opposite hip and took one of my hands, tsking.
"You could have let me sleep."
"And let you miss this?"
We drudged up the snowy hillside until we were at the top. It was a good fifteen feet, and I remember holding onto to Kazutaka's hand very tightly. In fact, I even remember thinking to myself that I was going to hurt him, and that I shouldn't be holding his hand at all. But he was right, it was worth it.
The moon was shining onto a frozen lake. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. The ice was reflecting the light in a way that made it brighter than the moon itself, gentler than light on water. I gasped when I saw it. It was picture-skew, the type of thing one sees on postcards. The scene a photographer dreams of catching as the eyes see it.
He was right. It made me think of life and that eventually I'd have to turn away from it.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
I smiled. "Yeah. It is." I looked up at him, and I saw the same extra-brilliant light showing in his silver eyes. I must've looked for a second too long, because Kazutaka kissed me, for the first time, on the lips. I didn't shoo him away. I think it was because of the view he'd shown me, and not only the lake.
I still remember him wishing me 'Merry Christmas' that evening. He never did it again, but he makes sure to contact me around that time. I am still thankful for him dragging me out into the cold. If he hadn't, I would have never noticed the silver and that the change to steel I would see next year wasn't a change in Kazutaka, but his death.