Yuuki hauled himself out of the pool after his twenty laps and quickly showered off the chlorine. A teammate clambered out a few seconds later. "Irie!"

He stopped rubbing his wet hair and turned at the call. "What's up, Harada?"

"I saw you at the festival last Saturday."

"Really?" He sat down and began drying between each toe.

"Yeah! So tell me, who was she?" Harada sat down beside his friend.

"She?" Yuuki paused, then grinned. "No one you'd know."

"Well, yeah, she's not a student here. Does she go to Shoin Middle School? Or maybe Asano?"

"Give it up." He stood and walked to the locker room.

Undeterred, the other boy trailed behind him. "Are you dating her?"

"Hardly," he snorted.

"Then introduce me!" he pleaded. "She looks just like my type!"

Yuuki looked Harada up and down derisively. "Believe me, she's not."

In early autumn, chilly breezes swept through the park one late afternoon. Yuuki turned to Kotoko after the seventh sigh that she heaved. "Okay, I get it. Something's wrong. So are you going to tell me, or do I have to guess?"

Kotoko wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "It's school."

Yuuki leaned back against Chibi's forward motion. The dog had already done his "business," so he could be still for awhile. "Let's sit down." He led her to a bench. "Now, stop being mopey and let it out, or I'll have Chibi tickle you into submission. Your neck, right?"

"That and my sides. But you keep control of the beast. I'll spill without threats."

"Grades, again?"

Kotoko gave him a half smile and absently rubbed behind Chibi's ears. Several months of forced contact had gotten her used to the St. Bernard. "No. Thanks to you I'm doing fine in class. It's just that I'm falling behind everyone else."

"Ah." Yuuki tilted back his head. "That semester where you lost credits."

Her bottom lip protruded. "I was a little behind even before then. Now Satomi and Jinko are going to graduate and go out into the world before me."

He reached out an arm and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, Kotoko. You'll get there in the end."

"But that's just it!" she exclaimed and, to his discomfort, burst into tears. "I still don't know what I want to do after graduation!"

"No idea?" he asked while fumbling in his jacket pocket for a handkerchief.

"No." She blew her nose then sniffed. "I was always thinking that I would choose a career that would keep me close to," she hesitated, "your brother. I never really thought about what I wanted to do."

He rubbed his neck while looking into the distance. "So, whatever career goals you once held have disappeared, and now you feel totally lost?"

"That makes it sound better than what I really am—just a wishy-washy person who can't think for herself."

"Number one," Yuuki ordered while placing his hand firmly on top of her head, "stop talking about yourself like that."

She looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded.

"Number two, keep your eyes open and you'll find your own way. Just because others know what they want to do with their lives already doesn't mean that you won't know eventually."

"Even if—"

Yuuki placed a hand over her mouth. "No negative thinking! Understand?" She nodded again. "I'll think about it also. After all, I've known you for almost five years now."

Sure enough, a few weeks later Yuuki showed up at the restaurant and smacked her over the head with an employment flyer.

"What's this?" she asked, rubbing her head.

"One of those tour companies that caters to anime-crazy Americans," he replied caustically.

"So?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"They want to experience the world they've viewed on the television. Karaoke, cat cafés, purikura—you've dragged me to all of these in the past few months, haven't you?"

"Well, yes." She stared at him. "Wait, you don't mean—"

"Look, you may not be able to come up with a good enough argument to win even one debate, but you're good at talking. Goodness knows there were enough times when I first met you that I tried to shut you up."

"Smartass," she muttered.

"And, thanks to me, your English is better than most. Go ahead, try it out! You get to meet new people and show them your favorite places."

"It does sound like fun," she said slowly, reading through the brochure.

"Plus, it's a growing field," he added. "If you like it well enough, you could probably purchase your own franchise—if you could get a loan."

"Why, you little—" She wrestled him close, an arm around his neck. Only those nearby heard her say, "Thanks, Yuuki-kun."

To say that Kotoko took to the touring business like a duck to water would be an understatement. Because of her rave reviews on the company website, she was the highest requested guide in the franchise to the point that several months later she ended up moaning about her success. "I don't have time for studying if I take all the jobs!" she complained.

While her father and Kinnosuke had just stood around scratching their heads with no solution, Yuuki, when told about it later, swallowed his soft drink and said, "Then take fewer courses."

"What?!"

"Do you like the tour work?" he asked.

"Yes, but I'm already behind in graduating as it is! Now it will take even longer." While she spewed forth along these same lines, Yuuki began writing on a sheet torn from his composition book.

"Okay," he interrupted her, "you'll only graduate a year and a half behind with this schedule. We'll plug in several business management courses—I'll get with Dad tomorrow and pick the best ones—and you continue working and saving your salary." Kotoko bent over his notes. "By the time you graduate, your savings should be enough to convince the bank to loan you enough money to purchase a franchise of your own. This way you can set your hours plus have the background knowledge to be able to hire and manage other employees in the future."

"My own business?" Her eyes were as wide as a shoujo manga heroine. "Employees?"

"Sure," he replied offhandedly. "You've told me yourself that you've found other destinations that you're not permitted to use because they're not contracted with the firm. This way you can tailor your own tours, using places that you think your customers would enjoy seeing. Of course," he added, "you and I might have to do some reconnoitering."

"Re-what?"

"Checking out new places, timing visits, et cetera. That is, if you'd want me along."

"Want you?" She flung her arms around him. "I don't think I could do it without you, Yuuki-kun! My own business!" she repeated as she sat back, mouth agape, staring at the café ceiling.

He pushed her chin up. "Don't just sit there and catch flies. Let's go check out some of those places you were interested in before I have to go to the pool."

"I could have specialized shopping trips, a dessert crawl to all the cafés, maybe even overnight excursions…"

"One step at a time," he said, laughing, as he took her hand to drag her from the restaurant, her head still in the clouds.