Ichiko ran her finger down the row of book spines, reading off numbers as she went. "100s, 110s, 112s, 113s…" Her hand hovered over an empty slot, where two books had fallen together after the volume between them had been pulled out. "It's not here."
"I'll ask a clerk." Yumemi threaded around Ichiko and headed for the reference desk.
"You're too shy. I'll ask them."
"I can ask."
"I'll do it," Ichiko argued.
Yumemi looked at her. "I. Can. Ask. Them."
Ichiko was surprised into silence. Yumemi hailed a clerk, showed her the title scrawled on her square of scratch paper, and returned.
"She says there's another copy in the YA section."
"Lucky for us," Ichiko grumbled. "Why couldn't you do a report on fashion or cooking? Why psychology?"
"I need to understand how people think."
"'And then you'll get a degree in political science,'" Ichiko rehearsed wearily. "Why, Yumemi? I always thought you would go into botany or the arts."
Yumemi found the shelf she wanted and tilted her head to scan the nonfiction. "I changed my mind."
"You've been even stranger than usual lately."
Yumemi pulled out a medium sized volume. "She was right. Here it is."
Ichiko squawked. "That's way too much reading!"
"That's why it's my assignment topic," Yumemi smiled. Ichiko had picked soccer.
"Mmm… but I still don't see why." Ichiko rocked back on her heels and crossed her arms behind her head. Her balance was exquisite. "You pick these heavy subjects, but you don't study as hard as you used to."
Yumemi, thumbing through her book, paused. Her eyes took on a faraway look. "School is for someday," she said finally. "The important things are happening right now. It's enough if I learn something and pass the class."
Ichiko shook her head. Normally, that kind of thinking was grounds for a Serious Talk between parents and teachers, the gist of which eventually trickled down to the offending student. But Yumemi's parents had been so overjoyed to have their daughter back that they'd eased up on the grade pressure. Yumemi wasn't a bad student, but…
"I get the feeling you don't really care about school anymore."
Yumemi handed her book and card to the librarian. "That's not true. I want to learn."
"Not that!" Ichiko threw her hands up. "School. Three boys have asked you out this quarter, and you turned them all down. You're seventeen, and you've never had a date."
Yumemi sighed. "Technically, social activities are not school."
"One of them was cute. A senior, even."
Yumemi put her card away and slid the book into her backpack. "I'm not interested," she said quietly.
X X X
It wasn't just that she was happier. In some ways, she was more serious. In class, when she'd finished an assignment ahead of time and had nothing else to do, she could be seen deep in thought with her eyes on the desk almost as often as looking out the window.
But her step was surer, and her gaze was steadier, and her smile was bright and ready. Suzume and Ichiko were still her best friends, but the other students had begun acknowledging her as well. She no longer moved through the crowds like a ghost.
But she wasn't one of them. She was happy to chat and discuss general subjects, but nobody knew what she was thinking inside. Yumemi Hidaka remained a mystery. Her refusal to hook up when most of the other students had paired off didn't help.
"I think it's because of that time that she vanished," Ichiko sighed.
The school counselor cleared his throat, and Ichiko came to with a start. "We were discussing your grades, Miss Ono," he said politely.
"Oh, that's so," she said with embarrassment. He'd been droning on about her responsibility to work harder. At least, that was the last thing she remembered him saying before she'd tuned out.
He shuffled papers on his clipboard. "But perhaps your worry about Miss Hidaka is related to the drop in your grades."
"Mo!" Ichiko clutched her head. "How am I supposed to concentrate when she's acting so strange?"
"It's hard when people start drifting apart," the counselor sympathized.
"No!" Ichiko lunged to her feet. "We're not drifting apart! We're not!"
"Calm down, Ono." The counselor poked his glasses farther up his nose. He was a thin, stooped man who wore a turban and spoke with an accent. A foreigner.
He'd only started working here in this winter. Ichiko wondered what he'd do with the turban when summer came. Melt, probably.
"Yumemi will always be my friend." Tears stung her eyes. "Always."
"Hmmmm." The counselor reached into his metal drawer and pulled out a file marked Hidaka. "Perhaps Hidaka does not realize how much her altered behavior is upsetting you. Her teachers have noted the change in her as well."
"There's nothing wrong with Yumemi." Ichiko was starting to feel like a rat.
He held up a placating hand. "I didn't say there was."
"She's not like other people, that's all. Never has been."
"I agree," he said, and the certainty in his tone seemed out of place for a new counselor. "Miss Hidaka is not like anyone else."
He leaned forward. "That is why, Miss Ono, she may not realize why something is bothering you until a, ah, disinterested third party explains it to her. That's all I meant."
Ichiko stared at the floor. Yes, Suzume and Yumemi were her friends. But… it was slowly dawning on her, month by month, that they didn't need her any more. Suzume had Kazuya; Yumemi had her untouchable sky.
And while Ichiko was loathe to admit that she needed them to need her far more than they'd ever needed her to protect them, she did sometimes wish that Yumemi would realize how much that sky of hers was taking her away from her friends.
But this was friend-friend business, not something for grownups.
"I don't think so, sir," she said firmly. "If Yumemi needs to be talked to, I'll do it myself."
Not that Yumemi listened to anything she said these days.
"Very well, Miss Ono. As you wish."
She bowed her thanks.
"Make sure you study harder."
She faked a smile and made her escape. The counselor sighed and re-read his clipboard, then flipped through Yumemi's file. He reached for the intercom.
"Send Yumemi Hidaka to my office, please."
"Right away, sir."
He nodded in satisfaction and steepled his long, thin fingers. It had taken him a long time to work his way into this particular school system and earn the staff's trust. Now all he had to do was wait.
X X X
"Ichiko! Where's Yumemi?"
Ichiko lifted her head from the gym fountain, where she'd been dousing her cropped hair after a fierce tennis match. "What? Isn't she with you?"
Suzume stumbled, catching the wall in time to keep herself from sprawling headlong. Then she shook her head. "I asked the secretary, and she said Yumemi'd been sent to the counselor's office."
Ichiko jerked upright. "What?"
Suzume worried her ponytails. "Do you think she did something to get in trouble?"
Ichiko was already running back towards the hall. "I told him to leave her alone!"
"Ichiko!" Suzume pattered after the taller student. "What's wrong?"
By the time she caught up, Ichiko was arguing with the secretary. Finally she threw up her hands and turned away.
"You're right. She's in the counselor's office." Ichiko stalked down another hallway, Suzume tagging along behind.
"What are you going to do?"
"We're going to wait for Yumemi. What else?" Ichiko found the office she'd been in earlier and parked herself opposite the door. "And if what I said got her in trouble, I'll apologize."
"What did you say?"
"I zoned out while he was talking about my grades and blurted out something about Yumemi," Ichiko admitted. "I don't know why he took such an interest."
Her head snapped up. "Come to think of it, how did he know I was talking about Yumemi?"
"Didn't you mention her?"
"Not by name. He's new here. He can't know all the students yet, never mind who their friends are. But he did know."
She contemplated that a moment, then tried the door.
It was locked.
"Yumemi." Ichiko banged on the door. "Mr. Ito! Hey, are you in there? Open up!"
No answer. Suzume gaped as Ichiko began kicking the door in.
"Ichiko!"
It was a flimsy Chinese lock, the kind students picked all the time with their ID cards. It sprang open on the third kick.
"Yumemi!" Ichiko plunged in, Suzume on her heels.
The room was dark. A strange smell hit her; faintly chemical, it reminded her of biology class.
Fearing the worst, she groped for a switch. After what seemed an eternity, the lights came on.
The room was empty. Yumemi was gone.
X X X
It took a precious fifteen minutes to convince the secretary that Yumemi was gone, really gone, not just in another office or in the locker room. The school staff undertook a quick sweep of the grounds in a rather indulgent manner, thinking but not saying that the dreamy Hidaka had probably wandered off somewhere and forgotten to tell her friends.
As floor after floor turned up dry, alarm set in and then spread. Students darted from stair to hallway to fire escape, calling out to the staff and to each other. The principal called the police and Yumemi's parents. Ichiko ran herself ragged, hurtling through every floor in search of her friend.
It was too cruel. Yumemi had already gone missing once. At least the last time, Ichiko'd known that she was with someone she felt safe with. She had no such illusions about the school counselor.
Because he was gone too. Ito had vanished as completely as Yumemi had, and nobody knew where they'd gone.
After everyone had done everything they could think of, and the police had talked to the staff and the parents and assured everyone that they'd begin an investigation immediately, and all the crowd aside from Yumemi's friends and parents had gone home, Ichiko couldn't take it anymore. She sat down against the fence, chain links digging unheeded into her shoulder blades, and cried.