Chapter 13: Returnings and Revelations.

The instant Takashi and Sumiko stepped off the train and onto the platform, they were assaulted by a crying Sanu, a quietly concerned Ageda, a rather harried-looking Yoshida, and a very unhappy Sato-san.

"Sumiko-chan!" Sato-san roared, "Where have you been?" (Takashi noticed that her voice was surprisingly loud for such a tiny woman)

"Sumiko-chan!" Sanu wailed, "It's so awful! Arata –," and she was cut off by Yoshida, who began to shout "I've tried to explain, and she just won't listen, and" but he was promptly cut off by Sanu, who had just burst into a fresh bout of tears, and Ageda, who was attempting to comfort the weeping girl.

"HEY!" Sumiko yelled, "What is the problem?"

"He-he-he," Sanu stuttered, her voice catching, "He –,"

"He kissed the waitress," Ageda explained in an unusually firm voice, "And she saw him."

"Oh," Sumiko said, putting a hand to her mouth in dismay, "Oh." Then she turned on Yoshida, who was staring at her like a deer caught in the headlights.

"YOSHIDA!" she exclaimed, "How could you? Oh, poor Mika-chan. It'll be all right."

Takashi tiptoed around the edge of the group until he reached the spot where Sato-san was standing.

"Um…dating?" he inquired, jerking his head towards where Sanu and Yoshida were engaged in their shouting contest.

"Not exactly, Takashi-kun. It's more along the lines of… I think the current term is 'friends with benefits'," Sato-san said with a sad frown, staring reflectively at the two people in question, "But both of them are in love with the other, and too damn silly to admit it!"

Before Takashi could recover from the fact that he had just heard Sato-san swear, her face darkened, and she whirled around to stare at him.

"I was worried sick about the two of you! You could have called! Takashi-kun!" she shouted, "Why didn't you tell her to call?"

"I-I, um," he stuttered, caught off guard, "Hangover?" he finally ventured.

This was a mistake. Sato-san slowly turned towards Sumiko and her friends, somehow managing to keep Takashi in her visual field as well.

"You were all out drinking?" she said, in a terribly sweet voice.

Everyone froze. Yoshida and Sanu stopped screaming in each other's general direction. Ageda began to melt into the backround, but stopped with one sharp glare from Sato-san. Takashi felt like he was a small boy again, on the awful day that his mother had discovered that he had broken his grandmother's antique teapot.

"I – yes, we were drinking," Sumiko said, and she bowed. "I'm very sorry, Sato-san," she said, and her voice was little more than a whisper.

"You're sorry?" Sato-san said, her tone dangerously soft, "You know that I worry about you, and then you disappear for a day, without so much as a phone call, and all you say is sorry?" She paused for a moment, and her eyes filled with tears. "This is exactly what your mother would do, and look what happened to her!"

Sumiko's face went white, and then red.

" You leave Mama out of this!" she screamed, and then she turned on her heel and dashed out of the train station. Sato-san stared after her for a moment, and then stalked off in the opposite direction.

Takashi stared after Sumiko for a moment, and then turned towards the swiftly fleeing girl's friends, who were still standing, frozen in their tracks.

"Her mother?" he asked with his face screwed up with confusion, "I thought her father and mother are on vacation?"

"Her father and step-mother," Ageda clarified. "Her biological mother… well, that is a tale for her to tell you at her own leisure. She and her step-mother are very close friends, but… she loved her mother desperately, and she misses her terribly."

Takashi's forehead furrowed. "Her mother is… dead?" he asked.

Ageda shook her head. "It is not for me to tell," she insisted obstinately.

Takashi smiled a small smile. "Good friend," he said, and gave her a nod of approval.

Ageda looked at him, and he thought that he saw that strange, knowingtwinkle that so many people seemed to be giving him these days.

"That was the first time that I have ever seen you smile outside of Ikeda-san's presence," she noted, and then she gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and walked out of the station with quick, precise footsteps.

Takashi looked around to where Yoshida and Sanu had been standing, and then quickly looked away. The two of them were wrapped in a rather… heated embrace. There was a lot of kissing going on. And… something that looked kind of like groping. His face flushed, and he tiptoed away as fast as he could, not wising to disturb the apparently reconciled couple in their reunion. (Their very public reunion, said a slightly shocked voice in his head. Maybe he ought to interrupt them…?) He glanced back at the couple, and shook his head. He doubted he'd even be able to get their attention hen they were in that state.

He would definitely need to talk to Sumiko soon.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Thank you everyone, for your concern over my health! I was in the hospital for a relapse of pneumonia, but thankfully, I'm out again, and hopefully not going back in!

In the next chapter:

Dare I say it? Something that looks kind of like… a plot! *Gasp*! Tune in next time to find out!