It was summer alright—the whole package. Mirai could hear the crickets chirping as she walked home, and she pushed her bangs out of her eyes, automatically avoiding her glasses, which she pushed up her nose out of habit.
She stopped in front of the door to her tiny room and sighed. It was not an unhappy sigh. She pushed her clenched hands to her side and took a few deep breaths. It was a normal summer day in appearance, but tomorrow Akihito would return from college.
"Akkey…" She muttered his well-worn nickname and felt herself remember his laugh, his flails, his goodbye the day before he left.
"It's a special kind of college, Kuriyama-san," she remembered him saying. "Special courses for youmu! When I get back, I'll know so much more."
"Honestly, and here I thought you didn't care about school." Mitsuki added, smiling in spite of her efforts to appear disinterested.
"This isn't really school. It's…preparation."
"Preparation." She let out the word in a whisper and unlocked her door. She settled in and started tending the solitary bonsai plant on her desk before a knock sounded at her door. "W-Who is it?" There was no reply, but Mirai thought she heard some muffled laughter. "Hello?" She approached the door, confidence straightening her steps. She opened the door a crack and it burst open. Akihito stumbled into the room and found himself an inch from Mirai.
"Kuriyama-san!" He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. Mirai couldn't take her eyes off his cheeky smile…as long as he wasn't looking at her, at least. "I'm early!" A moment of silence passed between them. Mirai took a deep breath and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
"Yes, you are," she said shakily, but she didn't mind the jitters. They were comforting, exciting—Akihito was back, and that was all that mattered.
"There's so much I want to show you." He slipped a light backpack off his shoulder and set it gently on the floor. "College is so cool, Kuriyama-san."
"Mirai."
"Right, you asked me to call you that." He put a hand on her head. "Rather bold of you."
"Y-You're unpleasant!"
"There's the Mirai-san I know." She closed her fingers over the ends of her sleeves.
"So, what have you brought back? This can't be everything."
"I dumped most of my stuff at my place. This is the good stuff." He rifled through his backpack for a moment, gingerly parting the objects inside. "And this…is the best." He held up a small vial of cerulean blue liquid. "This, Kuriyama-san, is how we're going to spend our summer."