"We're here!" Karin calls out as she brings the car to a stop. It had been decided that Karin and Sakurako should do all the driving. Tsukushi wasn't fit to drive, Akira and Soujirou were too lazy to drive, Rui and Shigeru were forbidden from driving, and Kazuya and Yuki just wanted to keep Tsukushi company. Everyone slides out of the cars and looks at the large, old-fashioned inn. Ayumi is waiting at the front door in a kimono.
Ayumi bows, "Welcome everyone. I'm glad that I was able to be here during your stay. My husband and I are usually running around to all the different properties or I just stay at the Hisakawa mansion. You're room is all ready. If you would please follow me." She leads the group inside to one of the wings on the first floor. "This is our grand suite. There are two large bedrooms, one for women and the other for the men, on each side with a common living room. The baths are just down the hall from here. If you need anything please don't hesitate to ask any of the staff. I'm sorry I have to leave now to go oversee dinner preparations." She bows again before leaving.
Akira walks into the large living room and sets down the bags he is caring, all the men having been forced to carry all of the luggage. "Ayumi really takes her job seriously."
"Of course", Karin beams at the praise for her sister. "She loves to meet all different kinds of people. How about we unpack and take a quick dip in the hot springs?" Everyone agrees and divides into their own rooms, the women in one room and the men in the other like Ayumi had demanded.
There are four beds in the room along with a roll away bed for the fifth person. A couple of dressers with a TV on top of one of the dressers also complete the room's layout. A door to an adjacent bathroom is in the back corner of the room.
The women set their bags in the room and walk over to a large picture window and sliding door. Tsukushi opens the glass sliding door and walks out onto the balcony as the other women follow. They are on top of a hill overlooking the city below. Beyond the city, sea gulls swoop over the crystal blue ocean.
"Wow!" everyone says in unison.
"Nice view isn't it, guys?" Soujirou's voice surprises the women as they turn to see the men's balcony is connected to theirs with the only a removable fence as a divider. All the men are looking over at the women.
"Grow up! The view just got ruined the moment you showed up." Sakurako pulls down at her lower eye lid and sticks out her tongue.
Soujirou makes the same face back at Sakurako. Shigeru tows Sakurako back into their room before she gets too far into a "face" off with Soujirou. Fifteen minutes later, everyone is back out in the living room ready for a brief soak in the hot springs. They decide to go into the large, unisex one instead of the smaller, separated, male and female pools. The hot water quickly puts everyone into a good mood as they start up a chat recapping the past five years for Tsukushi once again, this time, she is able to put in her comments about the things she does remember and listens intently to what she still doesn't know. Yuki and Kazuya are the first ones to get dizzy so the group exits and makes their way back to their rooms to change into yukatas. Karin goes to get dinner and comes back with Ayumi and a few other staff to help carry the food. While they eat, plans are made to go into town after dinner and go shopping, though the guys have other plans on their minds.
In the night, the city lights up as everyone explores the town. By the time they get back to the inn, exhaustion forces everyone to call it a night and go to bed.
The next morning, as they finish breakfast, Ayumi comes into the room and hands Tsukushi a note, "This came for you this morning."
Tsukushi reads the note, "One o'clock, Iruka Café." She flips the card over to see if the senders name is on the back but there is nothing else written on the card. She looks up to see everyone is staring at her. "What?" she questions their stare. "It's nothing", she tries to calm their suspicions. They look at her with greedy, wild eyes craving to feed their curiosity. Tsukushi stuffs the note away and out of reach before anyone can snatch it out of her hands. Only one cat was going to be killed and that was Tsukushi. (Note: For those who don't know, there's a saying that goes, "Curiosity killed the cat.") She had already made up her mind that she was going to go to this mysterious meeting. Alone. The only problem now was to get away from her "mother birds" in time to go to the meeting and she had just the plan. "Let's go into the hot springs again, this time in the gender separate ones."
No one was willing to deny Tsukushi's request for bathing preference. They each go into their designated changing areas and into the pools. Just before Tsukushi is about to get in, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. When Shigeru stands up to go with, Tsukushi barks at her, "I don't need help going pee. I can still do that on my own." Shigeru sits back down and Tsukushi leaves. In the changing area, she quickly changes back into her normal clothes and sprints out the front door and down the street to town. She figures she has a good ten minute head start before anyone gets suspicious.
In thirty minutes, she arrives at the café. She looks at her watch to see it is only 12:20. She shrugs and walks in anyway; she could have something to drink while she waited. She scans the tables to find an open one but stops as her eyes meet those of the person she knows now wrote the note, Tsukasa Doumyoji. She walks over to his table and sits across from him.
"I'm glad you were able to come by yourself. Everyone does a great job of watching you", he smiles.
"Sometimes it's too much." She changes the subject and gets right to business. "Why did you call me out here?"
He leans forward, closing half the space between them. "Did you get my flowers?" She nods. "As I said in the card, if you can't remember, I'm going to make you fall for me again." He leans back and scratches his head. "We never really went on many real dates or completed ones so I'm trying to go off of what I've heard other people do on dates."
The image of Tsukasa at an arcade makes her giggle. She can't be sure if it's a memory or just her imagination, it seems too real to be an imagination but to hilarious not to be. "Alright, so what are we going to do?"
"That's a surprise."
"Meaning that you haven't thought of anything and you're just going to make it up as you go."
"Yeah, something like that", he smiles. "Why don't we start with lunch?"
They sit and talk over lunch and then make their way over to the movie theater where both of them agree on going to see the action movie over the romance movie. When the movie is over, they come out talking and acting out their favorite parts, both of them laughing. They walk down the street looking at all the shops along the way and end up at the beach.
"Come on, let's go!" Tsukushi eagerly takes off her sandals, carrying them in one of her hands. She slides down over the retaining wall that separates the beach from the road and goes skipping though the sand laughing and enjoying herself.
"I can't let you have all the fun." Tsukasa follows suit, jumping down off the wall and chasing after her.
Tsukushi ends up in the gentle waves of the ocean and playfully splashes Tsukasa. He joins her in the water in splashes her back. They keep up this child's play of chase and splashing for a while. Tsukushi collapses on the sand with Tsukasa collapsing next to her, both of them tired and laughing. She looks at him and he looks back at her. Their laughter dies down as the mood of the situation sets back in.
"I think this is the most fun I've had in who knows how long." Tsukushi catches her breath and sits up.
Tsukasa is a little slower at sitting up. "So you decided not to wear the ring? That's understandable."
"Oh, no, I have been wearing the ring and the necklace but I took them off so I wouldn't lose them in the hot spring."
Tsukasa tries to hide the joy that returns to him but is unsuccessful. "Oh, I see."
It starts to tense up again. Tsukushi again tries to overpower the tense atmosphere. "Wow, look at the sunset."
Both of them are distracted by the sun setting over the water turning the waves shades of pink and purple. Once the sun disappears beyond the horizon, Tsukasa stands up and offers Tsukushi a hand up. "We should probably get back. It's getting late." Tsukushi nods and they walk side by side back to the inn.
Back in the living room, everyone yells their frustrations, mostly at Tsukasa, about Tsukushi's disappearance. The group slits up, some going to soak in the pool and the other's go to play in the recreation room in the inn.
"I think I'm going to call it a night", Tsukasa announces. He leans down and whispers to Tsukushi, "Meet me on the balcony once everyone is gone." He slips into the men's room.
Tsukushi yawns trying to get attention. It works. "Tsukushi, you should also go to bed. You look beat." She tries to reject, saying she's fine but everyone insists so she obliges.
Tsukushi waits in the room listening until there is no more sound coming from the living room before she sneaks out onto the balcony to see Tsukasa is already waiting at the divider.
He smiles as he sees her coming. "There's something I forgot to talk to you about today that I wanted to say in absolute privacy." He pulls Tsukushi into his arms holding her against his chest. She stays as she is, enjoying the sensation. "I'm sorry. You should never have to be in any situation like that again. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about right now but someday you might. You never have to go through anything alone any more. I'll always be here for you, whatever it may be. Remember we can get through anything together." He kisses her forehead but she wants more.
She briefly gives him a peck on the lips before going back into her room. "Thanks for today. Goodnight, Doumyoji." She leaves him standing there shocked and closes and locks the door before he can think of what to do next. The emotional and physical exhaustion catches up to her and she goes to sleep the second her head hits the pillow.