"Hey, Sohma, it's your family."
Kaida looked up at the phone her university roommate held in her outstretched hand, then turned back to her thick textbook.
"I'm not here," she said immediately.
"They heard you say that."
"Well, then I'm too busy to talk."
"You never want to talk to them." Sighing, her roommate put the phone back to her ear. "She —" she paused, listening to the person on the other end of the phone.
Kaida tried to ignore a tugging in her stomach and thwacked her palm with her highlighter, resolutely not paying attention to the conversation.
Her roommate angled the phone away from her mouth and directed her next words to Kaida. "He says to tell you it's Hosei."
Now Kaida gave her her full attention. "What's his voice sound like?"
"I don't know," her roommate responded, exasperated. "Like a young guy? Around twenty, our age."
Kaida pursed her lips, then held out her hand for the phone. She held it to her ear, gritted her teeth, and said, "This better actually be you Hosei."
"Hello Kaida," a smooth young man's voiced answered. It was soft, and sounded more solemn and a little older than Kaida remembered, but she still recognized it.
"Hey rooster boy," she almost smiled. "Nice to hear you. It's been a while"
Hosei's voice didn't return the warmth. "You need to come home," he said without preamble.
Kaida sat bold upright. "No. Did Samuru put you up to this? I should have known. I told him I'm not coming back. I'm going to live a free life, damn the family, damn the zodiac, and damn Samuru."
"It's not Samuru," Hosei said, with no change in emotion at her outburst. "It's Emiko. She's…" he took a shuddering breath. "Kaida, she's dying. I know you want to do things your way, but you have to come home now if you want to say goodbye. She doesn't have much time left."
Kaida swallowed and shut her eyes tight. "I'll be on the next flight home," she whispered.
Disclaimer: Fruit's Basket and its characters belong to Natsuki Takaya.