Kuina

It turned out that finding a job was a more difficult task for my brother than applying to school and passing the entrance exams. Ryohei longed to be employed somewhere in the industry or at least earn enough to become completely independent. However, no one was interested in a first-year college student. I tried to tell him that he didn't need to put so much pressure on himself, that combining studies and work wasn't easy, and that I had many classmates at college who tried it, but the result was that they didn't succeed in either. He couldn't be persuaded.

Fortunately, scarcity forced him to reduce his demands and he eventually managed to get a small part-time job in a clothing store. He wasn't very happy with it, but I actually considered it the best compromise between working full-time and focusing solely on school. Such a small part-time job, which also has a minimum of hours and is sufficiently flexible, will provide him with at least partial financial independence and at the same time will not burden him with so much time and energy that it will jeopardize his studies. He can also cancel it at any time if he finds it too much for him and doesn't feel like he's throwing away important practice.

Ryohei wasn't the only one trying to move on in his life. Kazumi and I decided to start living together. We have already found and rented a flat in Sumida Ward. We had taken care of everything necessary, all that was left was to pack up our things and transport them to a new place. Strangely enough, my brother offered to help me with the moving, and not only that, but to invite his friends to help too. So I expected to see Usagi and Heiyana again, but I was wrong again. When I opened the door that day, a rather tall woman with dreadlocks stood behind it, wearing jeans and a blue and white striped T-shirt. She held a fake cigarette between her red lips.

She took it out and greeted me with an amused smile: "Hello, you must be Hajime. Nice to meet you. I'm Hikari Kuina. I work with Ryohei at a clothing store. He said you'd need help moving," I nodded in confusion and hesitantly let her into the apartment, but my brother was already there and happily hugged the girl to welcome her.

"Hi, thanks for coming," he thanked her.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, you're welcome," She hummed into his shoulder and patted him on the back.

"Where is your other half? Couldn't she come?" he asked her when they stopped hugging.

"An is at one of those psychological sessions to help the victims of the meteorite. She wanted to boycott those sessions and so she thought that would be able to come here, but work ordered her to attend," Kuina apologized for the absence of Ryohei's another friend. I just blinked in surprise and tried to quickly put it all together in my mind. My brother is hanging out with four girls: Usagi, Akane, Kuina, and An. So now what? Does my brother suddenly have a "harem"? That was slightly absurd, like something out of an anime. It was clear that my brother was interested about Usagi. Akane seemed like a naughty single cat and Kuina with Ann, I had no idea. I just met Hikari. However, Ryohei asked Kuina about Ana's absence in the style of: "Where is your other half?", so maybe An and Hikari were together. So more of a "girl gang"? No, that was ridiculous too, and there were two more names involved: Aguni and Chishiya. Heiya spoke about Aguni, Aguni is probably a middle-aged man. Chishiya, who knows? Anyway, my brother's group of friends was obviously larger, and not exactly what one would expect.

"Psychological sessions to help meteorite victims? So your –" I paused for a moment before trying to test my assumption: "girlfriend was also one of those victims?"

"Yeah, like all of us, but she'll probably be the only one, who will have to attend in this nonsense," she confirmed both questions.

So lesbians, I had nothing against that. Still, Ryohei shot me a look that could only be interpreted as: "for God's sake, don't come across as a total homophobe." I guess it was just another thing we never talked about it together and so he had no idea that I wasn't as conservative as Dad. But something else disturbed me. "I think those psychological sessions could be good. Ryoheim is doing well now, actually better than before the accident, but it's still clear that what he went through was traumatic." That's right, even though my brother tries to hide it, I've noticed that he wakes up several times at night, probably from some scary nightmares. Another symptom was that he always jerked at any loud noise. "These sessions are professional care. Something that can really help significantly with faster and better healing."

Kuina looked as if she had just eaten a lemon. "Yeah, right, professional help. I kind of doubt that An will move this any further than the rest of us who are ignoring it."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because when she went there, she wore a white blouse, short black shorts, and put those big sunglasses on her nose," Hikari said, as if that explained a lot of things, and maybe it did, because Ryohei frowned and nodded worriedly.

"Beachwear," he stated.

"What?" I didn't understand. After all, it was only October, Indian summer, it wasn't that cold yet. However, it seemed that I had missed some crucial fact, which Ryohei and his friend decided not to discuss further and to leave me in desperate ignorance.