Hey everybody! I'm back with another chapter! Thanks for reading and enjoy the story!

The friendship between Kenma and I really started to blossom over the next few weeks. We talked games, sports, school, life overall, and very quickly he became one of my closest friends. We even exchanged emails and phone numbers. We both also got a texting app because we had different brands of phones and the phone bill would have been astronomical if we didn't find a way to send each other messages without incurring fees.

We were constantly talking. Phones were 100% not allowed in his school, but you could get away with then very easily at mine. This led to us texting nonstop from 5am my time(6pm his time) until almost eleven oclock my time (nearly midnight for him). I was always telling him to go to sleep by the time my lunch period rolled around. I knew he was not getting enough sleep, especially with all his volleyball practices.

We would also sometimes talk when it was night time for me. At five pm my time(6am his time), he was up getting ready for school and usually the texts would stop around 6:30pm my time(7:30 am his time) when he would arrive to school and would no longer be able to look at his phone until it was the early hours of the morning for me and he was getting out of practice again. Weekends were the best though, on Fridays and Saturdays, we would text until it was dawn my time and dusk in his.

It was Christmas when he texted me out of the blue. Well not really out of the blue, we talk every day, it was just at an odd time for him. It was the middle of the day for him and midnight when it turned from Christmas eve to Christmas for me.

"Merry Christmas, Ria." What was even better was that he sent the text in english with a gif of Kevin McAllistar saying 'Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal.'

I busted out laughing and send him one back of the grinch dancing, "Merry Christmas Kozu."

In our time texting, at some point I had shortened his name, Kozume, to the nickname Kozu. He didn't mind it, or at least that's what he told me. When we spoke on comms in games or over skype calls he seemed to change his tone when I called him that. I wasn't sure why, but he swore up and down that it wasn't because he didn't like the nickname.

"Hey, Ria, when are you coming to Japan?" he asked.

"I'll be leaving in a little less than a week. I'll arrive on January 2nd and be in school for the January to March term."

"Where are you going to school?"

"Somewhere in the Kanto region. Not sure on specifics but I can check."

"Check." he said and then followed it up with, "I'm from that region so I want to know if we'll be near each other."

I wasn't sure. I started sifting through the files of printed out paperwork on my desk, and finally found something a few minutes later.

"I'll be attending one of the Fukurodani Academy Group's schools. I don't know which one. Does that help?"

"There are a lot of them littered through the region, do you have a way to get more specifics?"

"I'll check the online portal."

I read through the information once, twice, three times and came up empty, but then I spotted a paper under my desk. chair when I rolled back. It was wrinkled and a bit crushed from being run over by the chair, but I could still read the whole thing. I must have dropped the paper when I was going through the paperwork. I scanned the paper and found a name in one of the blanks on the sheet.

"I'll be attending the group's namesake academy, the Fukurodani Academy." I told him.

"Really? Please tell me you are kidding!"

"What's wrong, do you go to school there?" I sent with a laughing emoji.

"No, I wish I did now. I do know some people who go to school there. Do you want me to introduce you to them?"

"YES!" I replied without hesitation, "One of my biggest fears was being all alone on the first day! Please introduce me to your friends, oh great one!"

"Hold it!" he said, "They aren't my friends, they're acquaintances, but they're very nice, especially Akaashi. I'll make a group chat to introduce you later. For now, go to sleep."

"I usually have to tell you that :p" I laughed.

"Well now it's my turn, go to sleep. We'll talk later."

"Good night, Kozu."

"Merry Christmas Ria."