Summer: Beach Trip, part 2

As Kotoko inserted earrings and Satomi applied mascara, Jinko cleared her throat and met their eyes in the mirror.

"Uh, girls," she began. "I'd like a little private time with Narasaki after dinner tonight. I want to invite him to our room, if you know what I mean."

"So, are you telling us to make ourselves scarce?" asked Satomi with a grin. "Don't worry. Kotoko and I can hang out in the guys' room with Ryo and Taketo for a couple hours."

"Sure!" Kotoko put in. "We can rent a movie or something."

"Thanks!" Jinko hugged them both.

"Oi! Watch the mascara!" Satomi exclaimed.

"Narasaki, Taketo, you don't mind finding another place for a little while tonight after dinner, do you?" Ryo asked. "I'm thinking of asking Satomi to come up for a little while—to be by ourselves."

"I guess we can visit Kotoko and Jinko in the girls' room," Taketo agreed as Narasaki nodded.

"So how did it come to this?" Taketo asked Kotoko several hours later as they stood in the inn's lobby.

"I suppose they didn't coordinate their plans well," Kotoko surmised. "Should we hang out here?"

Taketo looked around the seating area. "It's a little crowded for private conversation. Damn! That red-headed woman is outside and heading in. Quick!" He and Kotoko hid behind a pillar.

"I really don't want to stay here with her around," Kotoko whispered. "Who knows what she'll do to us this time?"

"Right!" Taketo stuck his head out for a peek and ducked back quickly as she turned in his direction. Something about her felt familiar, but he couldn't place it. "Why don't we go for a night stroll on the beach?"

"I'd like to, but the temperature's dropped and my sweater is in the room," Kotoko explained.

Taketo pondered the situation for a minute then snapped his fingers. "I know! Stay here, out of sight."

He walked briskly to the desk and leaned over to speak to the attendant. She smiled and disappeared momentarily, then returned with a blanket which she handed over to him.

Taketo quickly walked back to Kotoko and clasped her arm. "I told her that we needed another blanket for the room. Now let's head that way as if we're going upstairs."

They entered the hall and then turned down the passage to the side door. No alarm sounded as Taketo opened it. "Come on!" he said. "The scenery isn't so nice, but we'll be out of it shortly." He and Kotoko walked past air conditioning units and a concrete wall before exiting the service gate. As they reached the other side of the road, they overheard a fare argument between the driver and passenger of a just-arrived taxi .

"Huh," Kotoko said. "That person must be from Osaka, because he sounds just like Kin-chan!"

"Small world," grinned Taketo as he put his arm around her shoulders and guided her to the beach. Once the breeze off the water began to make Kotoko shiver, he wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. "Here, let's walk around those rocks. They should cut the wind." They found a hollow between two large formations and settled down, using the blanket both as a seating surface and a covering.

"How will we explain the sand?" worried Kotoko, brushing at the fabric.

"We'll shake it out really well and hope they don't notice," answered Taketo. "Now relax!"

She snuggled next to him. "This is nice. Not so noisy as the hotel."

"Yes. And no beach balls bouncing off our heads!" They laughed together and spent long minutes watching the moon reflecting off the water.

"Kotoko-san?"

"Mmm? Yes?"

"Can I ask…is it too soon…how do you feel about me now?"

She didn't answer for a moment, and he held his breath. "I like you, Take-kun. I like you more than when we started going out. It's not love…yet, but I hope that it will be."

His arms tightened around her and he buried his face in her hair. "Thank you, Kotoko-san! You have given me hope."

She turned to him. "No Take-kun. You are the one that has given me hope." She placed her hand over his mouth as he opened it to argue. "Hope that soon my happiness will no longer be based on Irie-kun's actions. I'm tired of trying and failing to win his love. I want my future to be what I want, not what I think he would want."

"That's good, Kotoko-san," he said, removing her hand. "With your determination, I believe you can have that."

"And do you know what else, Take-kun?"

"What?"

"I don't want you to always act like a 'true Japanese gentleman'."

"Huh?"

She reached up and cupped his face. "I'm ready for you to kiss me now."

"-oko-san. Kotoko!"

Her eyes opened reluctantly. "Wha-?"

"We fell asleep, Kotoko-san. It's after one o-clock. We'd better get back."

"Right." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes like a child. "It's chilly without the blanket."

"We'll put it over both our shoulders and head to the hotel." It took a few minutes to coordinate their paces, since Taketo was so much taller, and by the time they reached the road across from the inn they were still laughing. Their mirth ceased when they saw a police car and a crowd in front of the entrance.

"Oh no, something terrible must have happened," Kotoko exclaimed. Before they could cross the road, a shadow broke free and ran to meet them.

"Kotoko!" Satomi exclaimed, hugging her so tightly that they would have fallen over if Taketo hadn't grabbed them both. "Where have you been?"

"Uh, Taketo-kun and I went for a walk on the beach and fell asleep. What's going on?"

"Someone reported you as missing!"

"What!?" Kotoko responded. "Who even knows I'm here except for you guys and the family…" She broke off.

"Yes, Mrs. Irie's over there raising a ruckus. She's wearing a red wig but I'd recognize her anywhere."

Kotoko and Taketo's eyes met and they tried to muffle fresh laughter but failed.

"Stop it! You haven't heard it all. Kin-chan is here too, almost howling at the moon."

"Wow, what a circus," Taketo mused. "Do you think you could sneak us in the side door and then pull the policeman out of the crowd discreetly so we can straighten this up without involving the—uh—vacation intruders?"

"Sure, where is it?"

In a few moments both Jinko and Satomi met them in the hallway. "Ryo will bring him upstairs in a few moments. Narasaki will watch and make sure those two don't follow," Satomi informed them.

"How did she even know we were missing?" Kotoko wondered.

"She saw you two going upstairs together and harassed the desk clerk for your room number. Since Ryo made the reservation, she couldn't get anywhere and spent an hour calling our friends back home to get the correct name. Meanwhile, Kin-chan showed up, got tired of waiting for Mrs. Irie to find you, and decided to run down the halls yelling your name. Something about 'Don't give up your purity so cheaply'."

Taketo rolled his eyes while Kotoko facepalmed. "Thank goodness I wasn't here!"

"Yeah, well our relaxing times were cut short," Jinko fumed. "But gee, we're sorry that you guys didn't have a place to go. We didn't know that both of the rooms were going to be taken up."

"No problem, we just went to the beach and fell asleep." Just then Ryo opened the door with a stern-looking police officer at his heels.

"Why do I feel like I've just been called to the principal's office in primary school?" Taketo muttered.

Kotoko whispered. "I hope we don't get in too much trouble. After all, we weren't the ones causing the ruckus."

"Don't worry," he grinned and squeezed her hand. "He has no chance against two lawyers-to-be!"

The end result of the half hour conversation was that Taketo and Kotoko made apologies all around for not letting anyone know where they were going; additionally they promised to keep their cellphones on them (Kotoko!) and charged (Taketo!). Meanwhile, Mrs. Irie was warned about being too busy in other people's business, since she wasn't an actual family member, and Kin-chan barely escaped being cited as a public nuisance. Thanks to all the excitement, it was three-thirty in the morning before everyone fell asleep.

After returning to the Irie house the next day, Kotoko cornered Yuuki. "Did you know what your mother was planning?"

"Duh!" he responded. "I warned you, didn't I?" And so, after explaining what "watch your six" meant, he then introduced her to his smuggled copy of the latest "Call of Duty". And thus she got to bed late two nights in a row.