Chapter 16: Rain and Snow

Izumi finally came home. She stepped out of the car, looking unhappy. It was still raining, but she could care less if the rain poured all over her. Her golden hair was beyond wet like she had just taken a shower, her leather jacket containing water droplets, and her pants wet in the back. Her gray turtleneck was the only thing semi-dry. She grabbed her umbrella from the backseat of the car, slammed the door, locked it, and walked inside. She knocked on the white door of her new house. Her mother instantly opened the door.

"Izumi, look at you! You're soaked!" she immediately told her.

"I'm sorry, mom," Izumi said, looking at the wooden floor, acting like it was no big deal. She looked around, seeing that her parents have already assembled the living room and kitchen with furniture and accessories where they belonged. Izumi walked in and hung her wet jacket on the coat rack. She took her black boots off and set them near the coat rack. She slowly walked to the newly placed couch.

"Izumi, what did you do? You look like you went swimming in a park fountain," her mother questioned, wiping a plate with a washcloth in her hand.

"I didn't do anything," Izumi said, looking at the wooden floor.

"Izumi, do you know what an umbrella is? You open it and it protects you from weather conditions, now you might get sick from playing in the rain," her mother nagged.

"I just walked around and bought some coffee," Izumi replied in an annoyed tone, pouting.

"Without an umbrella?" her mother said again.

"Honey, she's not going to die if she walked in the rain," her father said, watching television.

"Fine," Mrs. Orimoto grumbled, then changed her face expression. "Would you like anything to eat?"

"No, thanks" Izumi concluded, and walked upstairs to her new room, which she still hadn't assembled and moved things into place yet. She walked into her fresh new room The basics, such as her bed, drawers, and such had arrived and were in the proper places. Her luggage was also placed on the floor. She sat on the floor and opened her bags. She dumped all her clothes out and threw them into drawers, dividing them into pants, shirts, socks, and other clothing. She then opened her second luggage bag, which contained hangers and room decorations. She carefully took out the hangers and placed them in her closet. She opened her third bag, which was separated from everything else, which were all her designer clothes. She took them out, and hung them all in the closet. She also took out her shoes and placed them in the closet. She went back to her bag full of room accessories and first hung the seventh grade class trip picture. She took other things, like her laptop, and several miscellaneous things. After she was finally finished, it was already ten o' clock. She took the bed sheets out of her bag, and spread it out on her bed. She threw out an uncovered pillow on her bed. She reached into her second bag and took out her toothbrush and toothpaste. She was too exhausted to do anything else or use any of her face-care products. She walked into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She walked back into her room, crashed into her bed, turned off the light, but couldn't fall asleep. She kept thinking about what had happened at the coffee shop. "…My name is Hashimoto Kogyo…" she remembered in her mind. "Why did he lie?" she thought. "I missed him so much…" She could still feel the trembling hug from Kouji back at the shop. She got up from her bed, turning on her desk lamp. She opened her desk drawer, taking out the hat she had not worn or seen in seven years. She sat down on the desk chair. She savored it, holding it in her hand. A rush of thoughts of remembering Kouji and all the things he had done for her. Being nice to her despite Miyamoto's snobbish ways. Offering her tissue. Helping and teaching her to climb. Pulling her up from the many cliffs they climbed. Lending her his tent while he slept outside in the snow. Literally saving her life from the horrors of drowning and suffocating. Offering her the only jacket he had despite the fact that he didn't have another one. Hugging her although he felt uncomfortable doing so. Izumi looked up from her desk chair. She finally realized she deeply cared and loved Kouji. And after all he did for her, she realized she didn't say "Thank you," the minute she saw him. Kouji did not change very much, as what of Izumi thought. His hair was a bit longer, but he still kept the same attire. And his attitude was exactly the same. Quiet, introverted, hardly revealing anything about himself. Except Kouji somehow became even shyer, as Izumi seen. Izumi smiled and grinned at the thoughts about him. She got up from her chair, slowly placed the hat back in her desk, and went back to bed and fell asleep.

Kouji had just gotten home. He opened the door to his dorm, and there was Tama, actually studying with his textbooks open and all. At first Kouji thought it wasn't real. As he walked closer, it actually was Tama, reading his Chemistry book and drinking coffee. Kouji was already sick of the aroma of coffee from working too much. Kouji just stared at him. "Is that Tama? Or some other guy that looks like Tama?" he thought.

"What?" Tama said sharply, looking up from his book.

"I'm sorry, you must be in the wrong dormitory," Kouji said, with a little joke in his voice.

"Stop playing jokes, Kouji. I took what you said seriously to me two days ago. I realized I should be making use of myself."

"Oh," Kouji said, a little shocked from seeing this.

"My grades are below average and if I can pass my midterms, I can get an average in total. So I am studying now. I have a midterm in two days and four more this week."

"I'm almost done, I have one left in Organic Chemistry, it's a two part test, then I can go home for vacation," Kouji said, opening the refrigerator, surprised to see that there were no more Asahi beer in there. He took out a plate of food and heated it up in the microwave.

"Do you need help?" Kouji asked nicely while chomping on food.

"No, thanks. I need to learn how to do things on my own without depending on people," he said, reading his books and taking notes. Kouji didn't say anything and went to his room. He sat on his blue desk chair and reached into his pocket. The usual wasn't in his pocket. Izumi's hat wasn't in there. He sighed, knowing that the only thing he had left of her was gone. He missed her. But he couldn't do much and he didn't want to either. He took his indigo bandanna off and went to sleep.

Izumi woke up the next morning. It was a rainy Sunday, and she had to go to Jiyuugaoka University to get her schedules and housing papers. It turns out they accepted her. She got up, did a regular routine just like when she was in Italy. Go to the bathroom, go downstairs and eat breakfast, go brush her teeth, and get dressed. She opened her closet and took out a light color of fuchsia blouse. She put some black slacks on and a pair of black sandals. She also put the silver necklace which Asami had given before she left seven years ago. She wondered why she kept wearing it as Asami was not a close friend of hers. It felt like she had not left Italy at all since she did not feel any welcoming ambience from her friends. She grabbed her purse and left. She drove quietly, no radio on whatsoever. She drove past an intersection as a blue car executing a left turn almost slammed into her. She slammed on her brakes in the middle of traffic and intersection, she grumbled, "Stupid driver," and kept passing and drove off to Jiyuugaoka University. The person in the blue car, who unknowingly was Kouji muttered, "What a stupid, blind driver, " he mumbled, and drove off to work. Izumi arrived at Jiyuugaoka University and went into the main office area. She saw a clerk at the main desk,

"Excuse me, but I'm here to pick up my pamphlets, schedules, and paperwork," she said quietly.

"What is your name?" the clerk asked, not bothering to get up.

"Orimoto Izumi," she replied.

The clerk dug through a pile of papers, shoved pamphlets in her hands, and typed her name on the computer.

"Here is your schedule," she said in a nonchalant tone and printed it out

Izumi felt unwelcome, but accepted all the papers anyway. "Thank you," she said softly.

She left for the door, but then someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me," said a content, cheerful voice from behind her. Izumi immediately looked up. The voice sounded somewhat familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it that it was. She slowly spun around. "Is that…" Izumi thought, in shock.

"…Orimoto Izumi, I presume?" she said nicely, smiling while also catching a glimpse of the silver chain.

"Ichiyusai Asami?" she said very quietly.

"Yes, it's me When did you get here?" she asked.

"I came here two days ago because my father's company got retransferred here, isn't that lucky…" Izumi replied back.

"Yes, it is, by the way Izumi, you've changed a lot… in fact you look great!" Asami said.

"Thank you," Izumi said, smiling, looking at the floor. "Asami …"

"Yes?"

"Could you… I mean… can you help me around this new campus. I'm not very familiar with this place."

"Let me see your schedule," Asami asked, peering at Izumi's papers. "Well, you don't have any with me; your dormitory is near mine though, isn't that great. Let's see… you're taking Psychology," Asami said, looking down through the papers. "Ah I see, you took Biology as a elective."

"Can you help me with dormitory things?"

"Sure," Asami said. "By the way, where do you live?"

"My father's boss actually bought us a new house."

"Wow, that must be cool,"

"Well, we should go and set up my dormitory and pay the housing fee and pick up my key."

"Well, okay."

Izumi and Asami walked to Izumi's car and drove home. While driving, Izumi felt weird but overjoyed to see an old friend, or almost an old friend.

"So, how is Jiyuugaoka?" Izumi asked.

"Well, it's the same. You should have a lot to tell me about Italy," Asami replied back.

"Well, it's the same also. It was kind of lonely. It may have a lot of scenery and attractions to look at, but it will get tiring after awhile, and sometimes people will attempt to steal from you. Anyway, here's my house," Izumi said.

"Will your parents be okay if I enter? I mean, I wouldn't want to interrupt or anything."

"It's fine," Izumi said, as she put her key in the keyhole. She opened the door, hung her hat and coat, and took her shoes off. "Mom, dad, I'm back from school," she called. She motioned for Asami to come in. Asami walked slowly. She was kind of shy when entering other people's homes. "You're back Izumi, who is this young lady you brought?"

"This is Asami. She was one of my friends seven years ago."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Asami, would you like anything to drink?"

"Oh, no thank you," Asami said with a smile. "I'm just here to help Izumi move into her dormitory."

"Oh yes Izumi, I'd like to see your school schedule," her mother added, while wiping dishes. Izumi handed her mother her new schedule, and said, "Mom, I'll be taking things out of my room, yet again."

"Okay," her mother said, still looking at the papers.

Izumi and Asami walked upstairs, grabbing only the essential items. Izumi grabbed her laptop case, regular supplies, like paper and pencils. She stuffed it into a box and asked, "Asami, they are providing me a bed and a desk, correct?"

"Yes, a closet and chair, but that's it," she said, taking linen and sheets from the closet. Izumi took that and put it neatly in a box. She had moved so much it was like a routine now to her. She grabbed her suitcase and threw clothes and shoes into it. "Is there anything else I am going to need?" Izumi asked Asami. "I don't think so…" Asami said, looking around. She stared at Izumi's room. Then something caught her eye. The photo from the Iwate-san Mountains fieldtrip.

"Maybe you should take this too," Asami said, walking to the picture hanging on the wall.

"Do you still have this?" Izumi asked.

"Well, uh, yeah," Asami said.

"I guess that's all I'm going to need. I don't feel I need to decorate my room with unnecessary items like posters. I don't want to pack too many things."

Izumi nodded and grasped a box, heading for the stairs. They both went to the car and put the boxes in the trunk. Izumi went back inside, with Asami following.

"Oka-san, I'm going," Izumi said, walking to her mother and gave her a hug.

Asami tilted her head down and said, "Thank you very much for letting me in your wonderful home," and walked quickly out the door.

Izumi and Asami walked back to the car and drove back to Jiyuugaoka University.

"Asami, may I ask, but you seemed like you were trying to sweeten up to my mother, why is that?"

Asami put on a straightforward look. "Well, you see… I feel very uncomfortable in other peoples houses which I don't feel comfortable in."

"I see… and after my studies, it could come from being alone too much. How often do you go out?"

"Sometimes… to get coffee, to go home,"

"Well, hopefully that will get better in time," Izumi said while driving back to the university. "Asami, I know you and I haven't gotten to get to know each other well, especially when you picked a bad time to befriend me, but I suppose we can be friends from now on. I guess you want your necklace back huh?"

"Oh, no, keep it, I want you to have it," Asami said, smiling. Asami felt content now that she had found herself someone, a friend.