Akane Tachibana – Empty Kouzu Beach

I knew mentioning his brother would have made him irritated, but I thought that his third successful world cup would interest him. It certainly seemed to intrigue me. After all Hiiragi did leave Kouzu with the intentions of surpassing his brother. I expected him to at least be more pleasant with me as I hadn't seen him in almost two months, yet he was the same moody idiot he always was, but that's what I like about him in some ways. I ran out of the ramen stall in time to catch up with him.

"Oi Baka!" I yelled after him. It was bitter cold and the streets were crowded.

"Nee-chan, your ramen is ready!" The old woman called out. I had completely forgotten I had ordered the ramen and that idiot had to walk out on me. I popped back into the store.

"Forget it, keep the change!" She looked at me with a startled expression and took the three hundred yen that was left on the table.

The streets were crammed with people at the fair and I lost sight of him, even with his white hair that would stand out miles away. Hiiragi had always hated crowded places and tried to avoid them as much as possible as he felt claustrophobic most of the time. The only place that remains empty at this time of the year is….the beach!

I pushed past a line of people queuing up to get their children dog shaped balloons with Kouzu printed along the bottom. I grabbed a balloon while throwing a few coins into the ladies money collector as I ran past. I managed to cram past the hoards of people at the fair and reached the stone staircase where I saw him sit, his hand on his chin and eyes on the subtle waves that glistened in the moonlight.

"Oi! Baka! Why did you just walk out for, I didn't get to eat my ramen thanks to you." His peaceful expression turned to one of annoyance as he gave me a piercing glance. Not seeming to take any notice of my confounded expression turned his head back to look at the sea and spoke.

"No one asked you to follow me."

I walked up and sat next to him, looking at him irritated, but he continued to look at the sea, the shine reflecting in his eyes.

"I haven't seen you in two months," I looked at him waiting for a reply that never was, so I continued to speak "you don't have to be so cold you know. Baka, you're just doing that on purpose. I thought you'd be interested in the page about your brother." He turned and looked at me, this time his expression was blank. He got up, shaking the fallen snow off his jacket and put his hands in his pocket.

"It's getting cold; I'm going back to my apartment." I took it as an indirect invitation and walked beside him. He didn't look up from the floor and seemed to examine the footprints he made on the clean sheet of snow. The silence made me feel awkward, but analysing his intrigued face made me think twice about interrupting is so called "observation". The sky was filled with stars shining like diamonds in the night.