Chapter 6

Before he knew it, it was two o' clock on Saturday afternoon. Kaito had, albeit reluctantly, gotten dressed and headed to the hospital with Meiko in tow to wait for SeeU to finish her work.

"It'll be a little strange seeing SeeU again after all this time," Meiko commented before smiling softly. "Though, I guess I have missed her a bit these past few years."

"Yeah," Kaito responded offhandedly.

"Kaity~! MeiMei~!" SeeU grinned and waved to them as she ran toward them.

"Can you not call me that?" Kaito asked.

SeeU merely giggled, ignoring his request. "It's so good to see you both! I've been dying to hang out again, just like old times!"

"It has been a while, huh?" Meiko smiled slightly at the cheerful girl.

SeeU nodded enthusiastically, all while continuing to grin broadly. She really did look just like she did in high school, especially with the clothes she was wearing. She must've changed clothes for their outing after her shift, for she was clad in a black hoodie with cat ears, a pleated orange skirt, white knee-high socks, and black hightops with bright blue and orange designs on them. Yep, she was definitely the same SeeU they had known.

"There's a local festival close to here that I thought would be fun to check out, so let's go," SeeU chirped while grabbing onto Kaito's and Meiko's wrists and beginning to drag them with her.

"Hey, slow down a little!" Kaito exclaimed, struggling to get out of the blonde girl's grasp.

"Nooo, I wanna get there as soon as possible so we can have fun!" SeeU whined.

Meiko chuckled slightly as she looked over at Kaito. "There's no point in arguing with her, you know that."

Kaito sighed in resignation, ceasing his struggles. "Yeah, I know..."

"Besides, I think this'll be good for you. You hardly ever go anywhere anymore, so it'll be a nice change of pace," Meiko commented.

"What about you? I don't see you going to places with your free time," Kaito pointed out.

Meiko looked away with a small, awkward laugh. "Well, you know, there's hasn't been anything I've wanted to do lately..."

Kaito hummed thoughtfully but decided to let the topic drop. Meiko seemed oddly uncomfortable about the topic, which was a little strange, but Kaito had to admit he wasn't all that interested in continuing the conversation. He could care less about what Meiko did with her free time; it was her life, after all. As long as she wasn't doing something absolutely insane like, say, being a serial killer then things were fine. But Kaito seriously doubted someone like Meiko would be a murderer or something like that.

"Look! Look! There it is!" SeeU exclaimed excitedly as she pointed to a festival they were quickly approaching.

It looked rather nice for such a small, local festival, and the scent of delicious food reached their noses even from this distance. It wasn't until then that Kaito realized just how hungry he was. Maybe some good food would be a nice change of pace from his usual bland meals...

"Wow... it seems like forever since I've been to a festival," Meiko commented, a faint smile on her face as she recalled fond memories. "It almost makes me wish I wore a yukata." She laughed lightly as she said this.

"Ahh, yukata's look so pretty on you MeiMei~ I wish you would've worn one too!" SeeU said wistfully. "I always go to festivals whenever they're in town, and when I was in college I would always go with my little sister Mayu and my best friend Tei. They're really nice girls, I'll have to instroduce you two to them someday!"

"Sounds good," Meiko responded.

Kaito wasn't really paying attention to the conversation, he was too busy looking at all the booths they were passing by. The smell of the food was almost unbearable now that they were so close to where it was being made, and Kaito couldn't help but wonder when the last time he had felt this hungry was. He hadn't been to a festival since two summers ago, back when Miku was still healthy. He remembered they used to try all the food that was served, then they would go back and get more of whatever they liked the most. Miku's favorite things were always anything that had leeks in it, so they ended up getting lots of that stuff everytime.

"Hey, Kaito, what's up? You seem even more distracted than usual," Meiko pointed out.

"I'm hungry..." Kaito muttered plainly in response.

Meiko blinked in surprise, not expecting this since Kaito never had much of an appetite for anything, then she chuckled. "Well, would you look at that? It seems Kaito's cheered up already."

"No I haven't!" Kaito argued, not wanting to admit that he actually did feel a little better.

"Well, if Kaity's hungry, let's grab something to eat! I haven't had lunch yet, so I'm starving~" SeeU chirped in a singsong voice. She looked around at the surrounding booths and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... where to start~?"

"How about over there?" Meiko suggested, pointing to a booth selling takoyaki.

"Ahh, I love takoyaki~! Come on, guys, let's go get some!" SeeU exclaimed, dragging them over to the booth.

Usually I'd be annoyed by something like this, Kaito thought to himself as he watched SeeU order takoyaki for the three of them. But today it doesn't really bother me that much. I wonder why...

And so, the trio spent the whole day going around to different booths, eating delicious food, playing games, and (occasionally) winning prizes. SeeU won a cute rabbit plushy at one point, which she said she was going to give to her sister Mayu next time she saw her. Meiko and Kaito had faced off at a shooting gallery, where the brown-haired girl had come out victorious, earning her a large stuffed panda bear. They also did various other things, and before they knew it it was late into the evening.

"Ahh~ Today was fun, wasn't it?" SeeU asked with a smile before taking a bite of the candy apple in her hand.

"It really was," Meiko agreed then looked over at her blue-haired companion. "What did you think, Kaito?"

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Kaito mumbled while nibbling on his cotton candy.

Meiko chuckled in amusement. "I'll take that as an 'it was fun'."

Kaito made a small "hmph" sound and busied himself with eating in order to avoid having to respond properly. He would never admit it, but today had been the most fun he had had in over a year. It was really refreshing, and he felt much better than he had before the outing. Still, the reminder of the reality he was forced to face lingered in the back of his mind the whole time, impossible to forget.

"You know, I'm glad you're finally enjoying yourself, even if it is just a bit," Meiko started slowly, turning her gaze toward the dusk sky. "It seems like no matter what I do, you're just constantly depressed. It makes me worried, you know?"

Kaito gave a thoughtful hum, but didn't say anything in response. He knew that Meiko worried about him, but there was no helping that. It wasn't like he could change his mood with a snap of the fingers like magic, that just wasn't possible. Even still, he didn't exactly want to be depressed all the time either. Silence enveloped the group as they all stared up at the sky. And, bathed in the soft orange glow of the sunset, three old friends stood side-by-side in a sort of unspoken agreement that this was how things should be, from now until always.

A/N: Well, tomorrow's Friday, so that means the first week of school for me is almost over. Yay! It's been exhausting, but other than that it wasn't actually all that bad. Still sucks that I've had homework every night ever since the second day, though... -.- It would've been cool to post this chapter before I went back since it has kind of an "end of summer" feel to it, but oh well, what can you do? I really enjoy the Kaito, Meiko, & SeeU trio, so I hope all of you do too~

Welp, have a great day/night/whatever!