Post card 1 - Iceland

"Hey Ayame-chan, I'll go grab us some drinks" said Chizuru-chan. "Do you still have peach ice tea in your fridge?"

"Hmmm"

Ayame nodded without looking up from the magazine. There was an absorbing article about gravitational waves and she could barely hear Chizuru-chan make it out the door and thumping down the stairs. From what she gathered, the discovery of the elusive phenomenon could change the way humanity practice science! To think that Einstein-sama had predicted decades and decades ago that there must be another type of wave out there in the wide universe, with nary doubt. No technology of his time had of detecting his gravitation waves, and therefore it was up to the forward thinking and dedicated minds of the twenty-first century to make that prediction true.

Voila!

Ayame gripped the article even tighter in her sweaty fingers. She swallowed hard as her eyes burned the glossy pages of academic science journal she subscribed to since starting University. She was slightly aware of the soft thumping drawing closer and closer, signalling her of Chizuru-chan's return of the said drinks.

"Earth to Ayame! Funny thing happened, when I was about to walk upstairs, someone slipped a postcard under your front door… I went to open it to catch the sneak, but nobody was there. I don't think it's from Bernardo…"

The mention of Takumi-kun stirred Ayame from her happy place. She looked up and blinked thoroughly as Chizuru-chan placed the wooden try of drinks and crackers onto her chabudai. Her best friend was very comfortable in Ayame's family home, to the point that she often does as she pleased despite her parent's presence. She would often just go fix herself a drink and few snacks, even just randomly wash the dishes in the sink even though it wasn't hers. She would come over just to lounge around on the living room sofa like she was the pampered cat who owned the joint just because she wanted to. She was like the daughter Otou-san never, ever, ever, ever, ever NEVER wanted, and the daughter Okaa-san loved to gossip with.

"Post card… from where?"

"No idea. I don't recognise the picture"

Colour her intrigued, Ayame bookmarked her page and folded the journal away. She focused her green eyes on Chizuru-chan who dropped the post card onto the table so that she could shove her face with crackers. Ayame gulped and gingerly picked up the small rectangular postcard. There was a picture of an amazing geyser on the front! She gasped. Plumes of water thrusting into the air with a spectacularly freezing looking backdrop or hard black rocks and blinding white snow. The crisp clarity of the photograph sent goose-bumps up her arms. It had to be a hundred metres high. Ayame imagined the amount of pressure it took to send boiling hot water into the atmosphere like that. Curiosity grew and Ayame examined every inch of the photograph until she came across three Roman alphabet words at the bottom.

She couldn't read it…

"Chizuru-chan, what does this say?"

Her best friend leaned over and squinted her eyes.

"Strokker Geysir… Iceland"

Iceland?! She had a post card from Iceland?! But Okaa-san is currently on business trip in New York, so it couldn't be from her. Takumi-kun is busy with the trattoria, so it was impossible that he made a trip to Iceland… without her.

Ayame flipped over the card and both girls held their breaths.

I've been wondering, Is Isami fat or thin

Morning Songbird

What.

"That was not what I was expecting" Chizuru-chan chortled and guzzled her ice tea. Ayame pushed her glass just a tad out of reach of Chizuru-chan so she didn't accidently knock it over.

"He was a pretty plump guy wasn't he, made me want to rub his stomach to see if it would give me goodluck" said Chizuru-chan.

"Really? I thought he was rather thin"

"What?"

"What?"

Chizuru-chan stared at her blankly as if Ayame was spouting a mathematical equation in Punjabi.

Hang on a minute… Ayame grabbed her chin and thought for a moment. Isami-kun was somewhere in between... wasn't he? She remembered his wild brunette hair and his cheerful blue eyes that were often crinkled at the sides when he smiled more than anything. He had a big and cheerful laugh as well and was always game for a good time, and good food. If she couldn't think of a definite answer regarding his size, then there was something wrong with her memory.

"I think I'm going to check"

Ayame flipped open her phone and went through all the photos she had taken of Isami-kun. She started from the very first picture. It was when the whole gang were at the Aldini brother's apartment after Isami-kun came back from Italy at the start of their second year. She had just gotten together with Takumi-kun just before that. She fiddled with the ring on her left hand as she thought about her fiancé.

"So, in this picture he's skinny… This was in summer three years ago" muttered Ayame.

She could feel Chizuru-chan breathing against her ear as she stretched herself to look as well. The creasing in her best friend's brown also told her that she too was dubious of her memory on Isami-kun's size. She flipped through the next few pictures. She didn't have many pictures of Isami-kun since… none of them had time to take that many photos because of school, entrance exams, Shokugeki and stuff. They were busy people!

"This is him again when we were visiting Ojii-san at the hospital. He looked a bit more filled out"

Ayame scrolled through some more.

"Oh woah"

"What is it?" asked Ayame.

"Scroll down more. Three quarters of the way" commanded Chizuru-chan.

Ayame was confused by Chizuru-chan, but sounded like she knew what she was doing, so she obeyed.

What she saw stumped her.

"No way! He gained so much weight!" Ayame gasped.

They were staring at a completely different person! How on Earth did she miss that! They saw the brunette Aldini almost every single week back when they were in high school and she never noticed if he physically changed forms! Ayame was going to have a very strong word with her fiancé in their next video chat about this, because his brother was a shape-shifting wizard and nobody told her. Smiling in the picture was a very plump Isami Aldini. His adorable face was filled out with baby-fat as if he was very well fed by his loving family. His bulbous tummy was sticking a bit out of his belt line and his arms were thicker and stronger looking than before. Takumi-kun standing next to him still looked the same. One wouldn't be able to tell they were brothers, except in the eyes and the brilliant Aldini-smile. Oh this was so trippy…

Ayame noted the date-stamp. This was in the winter, after Nakiri Azami was arrested.

"I-I think his weight changes were so gradual… we didn't even notice. We probably acclimated ourselves to Isami-kun's physiological processes. When I first met Isami-kun he was skinny because it was summer. All the way up to when Azami was arrested, he was still skinny because it was in the Autumn. After that he gained weight, which is normal in winter, I suppose. Then when summer came around again at the end of second year, he lost weight. So, in that full seasonal cycle, it seems like Isami-kun is skinny in the summer and autumn, and then gains weight in the winter and spring…" Ayame fell back onto her back and splayed her arms out wide.

"So that explains why you think he's skinny, and I think he's chubby, and Kuchiyose-kun… doesn't actually care. How about that" Chizuru-chan leaned back. "If you didn't see him for an extended period, then sure, you would notice the change immediately"

"I don't now anymore"

Ayame felt tears starting to leak out the corners of her eyes and she yawned as she stared at the ceiling which was marred by glow in the dark star stickers she slapped on when she was in primary school. She remembered sitting on Otou-san's shoulders so she could do it all by herself for hours just so she could get the constellation right. He didn't complain at all.

"For someone who prides themselves in the scientific method of observation, Ayame-chan, you suck at observing the people around you"

Ayame threw a cushion into Chizuru-chan's face and let the self-satisfied smirk paint her face. Her best friend bowled over with a squawk, but didn't make a fuss after that. Wow, Terunori-kun's power of annoyance must of trained her patience to zen level. She fluffed up the cushion and threw on the other side of the room so it couldn't be reused as a projectile weapon.

"And as someone who's analytical and investigative, you also fail to ask the big question"

"That is?"

"Why are getting postcards from anonymous people using code-names asking random questions?"

Ayame was ready to flip the table.