Even if I now saw you only once,

I would long for you through worlds, worlds.

-Izumi Shikibu

"Shino? Hey, Shino!"

It was Kiba's voice.

Dazed by the sunlight glaring in his face from the treetops, Shino sat up.

Wincing and blocking the sun from his eyes with his hand.

Why does the sun seem a bit much today? Shino wondered.

"Hey, Shino," Kiba and Akumaru finally made it over to him. "What happened to you? You just disappeared all of a sudden!"

Kiba raised a questionable brow at him.

"Where have you been? One minute you were behind me, the next you were gone."

"I..." Shino started.

But nothing came to him.

Just this gnawing feeling that he'd forgotten something.

Like right down to the core of his soul, he was missing a deeper piece of himself, but he couldn't quite put it into words.

"I don't know," he said quietly. "I must have gotten sidetracked. I can't remember what I was doing before you showed up...But I feel-"

"Now is not the time to be slacking on the job," Kiba interrupted him. "We got a beekeeper to find. I told you to keep up."

Beekeeper?

And then Shino's gaze dropped to his side, where a full jar of honey wine shimmered golden in the sunlight.

Strange. I don't remember meeting any Beekeeper.

"Sorry to fall behind," Shino said to Kiba. "However, I did manage to get ahold of this somehow."

"Whoa! When did you get that?" Kiba exclaimed, impressed. "I figured you were just wondering around lost out here somewhere."

"Lost, huh? That's ironic," Shino commented, his memory oddly chopped like sushi, filled with strange images of bees, fireflies, and ladybugs. "The reason is, because I sense I am more lost now than I was before you found me."

It didn't add up.

How had he found the honey wine jar without remembering the Beekeeper who gave it to him?

And why couldn't he get rid of the bittersweet taste of Wisteria on his lips.

"Well, now that we got what we came for," Kiba said, making his way back to the path home. "We can return to the village. It's about time. I'm starving."

Akumaru barked in agreement.

Taking the honey wine jar in one arm, Shino slowly followed Kiba back to the path.

"And since you were the first one to find the honey wine, I guess that means you get to treat us to lunch. Right, Shino?...Shino?"

Kiba glanced at the silent insect master walking beside him.

"What?"

"What bug's eating you?" Kiba asked him.

"Somehow, I can't help but sense I've lost something important to me...A missed opportunity to know someone special...A lot like that cat girl you never had a chance with."

Kiba cringed.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Kiba declared. "Did you really have to bring that up again?"

"You mean, you don't care about her anymore?"

"I'll just write her a letter or something," Kiba said, waving dismissively as he continued walking. "What do you say we hit Yakiniku Q on the way back?"

"Yeah," Shino answered quietly, looking back at the forest one last time, yet failing to pinpoint the unexplained sadness that left him feeling a little emptier inside. "Sounds great."

Whatever had happened before he found Kiba, it must have been a dream.