PART THIRTEEN

Letting go

"…super enhanced dish washing paste! Just squeeze a little of this into your kitchen sponge and—"

CLICK!

"Oh my goodness! What the hell did you do? How could you do this to me? I'm your brother!!! Your very own blood! We live in the same house! We graduated together! We grew up together! We played poker together! We fell off our horses together!"

CLICK!

"Tired of silly soap operas that say nothing else but ' I'm your brother'? Sick of listening to them relive old times that are completely embarrassing? Then watch the new soap opera, 'I'm Not Your Brother' and experience something new!"

CLICK!

"…Nanka Shiawase, chotto shiawase, kanjiru toki koso, shiawase no kachi mari…nanka yuke sou, umaku yuke sou kumi dasu iiko de, sute mitae de yuke rune…"

CLICK!

"…for super shiny, super bouncy, super fake hair! All in a small sachet of—"

CLICK!

"…wang ji ni wo zuo bu dao…"

CLICK!

"Buy now for only $59.95! And if you call now, you can get a free sample! "

CLICK!

"…just add some hot water…there you go, and then pour the sliced potatoes in there in a very orderly fashion; make a small circle like so—"

CLICK!

"…and that was 'Cry' from Mandy Moore at the number two spot this week…"

Fuuko sighed and gave up on looking for a decent show, and stopped at the music video channel. After eating their lunch at 2 pm she had decided to pack up her things already, but after an hour she realized that she had packed almost everything she had brought to China, maybe even more. Now there was nothing else left to do but watch TV, in which of course, there was no good show at the moment.

And just when she was about to drop it and snooze, Yanagi came bursting into the room, beaming. Cuddled in her arms was a cute little brown puppy.

"Oh, Fuuko-chan!" she cooed, jumping into the bed with her, making them both bounce. The little pup yapped in a cute way and hopped down from her arms onto the soft mattress. It started wagging its tail and poking the flower designs on the bed sheet.

"What's with the dog?" Fuuko asked curiously, eyeing the puppy as it leaped onto her lap now and started licking the exposed skin past her skirt affectionately.

"You know how I said last night that Recca-kun was replacing me for Mei Ling? Well, it turned out that he wasn't ditching me just to spend time with her; he was actually arranging for me to get this adorable little fellow!" Yanagi squealed happily. The puppy, upon hearing her excitement, must've felt a rush of enthusiasm, because it started nipping on Fuuko's skirt more viciously (although unintentionally).

"Uh, I didn't quite get what you just said, but for now, will you take it away from my lap? It's ruining my skirt. I mean, your skirt," Fuuko winced.

"My skirt?" Yanagi cocked her eyebrow in honest confusion, carrying the puppy away from Fuuko and into her arms again. "Oh right…is that the one I bought while we were at the Great Wall?"

"You lent it to me," Fuuko shifted in her position to show Yanagi the side portion of the skirt. "Flowers embroidered here? See?"

Yanagi nodded. "Right. I honestly can't understand why you'd want to wear it, though…"

"I just want to wear something else for a change," Fuuko replied. "So anyway, you were saying about arrangements…?"

"Oh yes," Yanagi smiled. "Remember our second night here? When I went over to Recca and Domon's room to watch them play cards? Well, that night he found out that I'm really fond of little puppies. I've always wanted to have one, but Okaasan never wanted me to. And the next day while we were out to lunch, he said he wanted to buy some chips, right? I learned that he really was going to buy chips at Mei Ling's Stop and Shop, but then he found out that Mei Ling owns a whole bunch of pups she raised when she was still in California. And then she lent him some photos of her dogs. So then Recca-kun forgot about the chips and concentrated on trying to get me a puppy."

"Awfully sweet of him," Fuuko commented, grinning.

"I have to admit, yes," Yanagi chuckled. "That day when we got back to the apartment, remember when he said he'd like to show me something back at his room? So I asked you to meet me in our room?"

"How can I forget," Fuuko muttered. That was the time she bumped into Tokiya and started a racket at the lobby…

"Yes, he showed me Mei Ling's photos of her dogs and asked me which one is the cutest. I was wondering why all of a sudden he was showing me puppy pictures…it was kind of random, you know? But then he said it was for his dad's souvenir, so I asked no more. For our fourth night and fifth day here in China we were at the Great Wall, so nothing about the puppies actually came up. It was shoved out of my mind, actually. But then when we got back on our sixth day, I really caught him with Mei Ling, and I ran to you, complaining, right? That day, he was confirming the puppy I wanted. And the next day, here it is!" Yanagi lifted up the brown pup and swung it around, the puppy barking happily.

There was nothing Fuuko could do but laugh. "Unusually clever surprise for Hanabishi," she smiled. "So what's the little cutie's name?"

"Name?" Yanagi looked up at the ceiling. "I never really gave it much thought…"

Fuuko grinned. "How about 'Jealousy'?"

Yanagi burst out laughing. "Weird…but I like it! Don't you, Jealousy-chan?"

Jealousy wagged her tail and yapped happily. Yanagi gave her another whirl around and winked at Fuuko knowingly.

"Looks like you got your happy ending after all," Fuuko mumbled softly, almost to herself.

Yanagi sighed and put Jealousy down. She moved closer to Fuuko and gave her a soothing hug. Somehow, that little act of comfort actually sent warmth through Fuuko.

"Fuu-chan…I'm really, really sorry about how things wound up between you and Mikagami-sempai…I just want you to know that what's rightfully yours is yours, and letting him go is…" Yanagi trailed off and gave her a reassuring smile. "…letting him go is the right thing, because if he's really for you, God's going to do everything just to make sure that you two hit it off!" she smiled again. "Just be thankful that you were given the chance to be his teammate, his close friend, and for a period of time, his girlfriend. I know it's a feeling that would last forever."

Fuuko looked up at Yanagi's comforting face and smiled as well. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

"Great!" Yanagi patted her hand and beamed. "Now, why don't we get over the past? At least we had fun, and don't forget we got to buy a lot of new stuff," she jerked her head towards the skirt Fuuko was wearing.

Fuuko grinned. "Right."

Yanagi got up from the bed. "Well! I think we'd better get moving now…"

Fuuko glanced up at the wall clock. "At 3:30?"

"Yes, we'll be getting to the airport at 4:30, and then make all those last-minute arrangements, right? That way, we'll be just in time for our flight," Yanagi replied, bending down to check the things she had packed an hour ago, Jealousy running back and forth around her feet.

Our flight…at 5 pm…when I'll have to leave China…and Mi-chan…for good…

Fuuko sighed and shook her head. She got up as well. "Okay, I'll go check if I left anything else." She opened up all the drawers of the cabinets, and rummaged through the dressers. She walked through the small living room and to the kitchen, looking around for stuff she might've forgotten to pack. She went back to the bedroom and into the bathroom, and was just about to leave when her eyes caught sight of some strips of bandages on top of the sink.

Slowly she picked them up, running her fingers through the strips, reminiscing. How nice it was for her to just have stayed friends with Tokiya…that way he'd still care for her…enough to treat her wounds…

She blinked away all of her unhappy memories and neatly folded the strips, walking back into the bedroom and stuffing them neatly into the pocket of her bag. I'll miss you, Mi-chan…

"Well? Forgot anything? Ready to go?" Yanagi asked, straightening up.

Fuuko smiled weakly at her. "Nothing…let's go." And they both picked up their bags and walked out of the room. Yanagi gave a last glance around before she closed the door behind her.

"Ikuso; the guys are waiting for us downstairs," Yanagi said, and started for the elevator.

Fuuko took a step forward, but stopped. She stared at the room across from her. No sound seemed to be coming out of it. Perhaps Tokiya was sleeping…?

"Fuu-chan?"

She sighed and tore her eyes away from the door, forcing a smile at Yanagi and walking towards the elevator as well. But all the way down it bothered her about Tokiya's whereabouts. Why was it so quiet in his room? Was he out somewhere? Where could he possibly be?

They hit the ground floor and Yanagi went straight to the exit. Fuuko, on the other hand, passed by the receptionist's desk and returned their room key.

"Xie xie ni," the woman at the desk greeted her.

Fuuko smiled back. "Um, excuse me, but…do you happen to know where the person lodging in room 418 is…?"

The woman, realizing that she wasn't Chinese, switched to English. "Room 418?" She flipped through the pages of a record book on her desk. "Well…no, not really…but I do know that Mr. Mikagami left the apartment at about 2 pm, and hasn't been back ever since."

"2 pm?" Fuuko's brows furrowed. "Did he say he was coming back here?"

"He's definitely coming back; he hasn't signed out yet."

 "Oh," Fuuko remarked, looking down. "Okay then, thank you very much." And she left the desk without another word. All the way to the taxicab she kept thinking about what the receptionist said.

Mi-chan's gone; you'd better forget about him, she told herself, looking back through the window at the apartment. He's not even planning to see you all off.

That's right…she was leaving…and she wouldn't even get to see him for the very last time…so she might as well forget…and leave it all behind…once and for all.

She looked up at the endless blue sky, and smiled. Thank you for everything…for giving me a chance to love you once…

Sayonara, Mi-chan.