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Ikeda Kiriko | 池田 妃凛子 (apathyisboring) wrote in disappear_plot, @ 2011-08-06 00:00:00

EPILOGUE
“I think spring is definitely my favourite,” said Kei, lifting his head to the warm sun, turning it against the cool breeze and breathing deep. He couldn’t resist closing his eyes, and upon opening them again, he spent a few moments just taking in the scene. The commencement ceremonies had just finished up and everyone who had attended – most of the school, in Nanakamado’s case – was out on the grounds, planning with each other for the summer and saying goodbye to the graduates. He was glad that Shingo was staying in town – a group of girls in the class ahead of him had started sobbing in the middle of the valedictorian’s speech and he had no idea how he was going to handle this kind of thing next year.

“Ob course it’s your fabourite,” came Shingo’s voice from behind him, followed by a deep sniff. It was, he appreciated, much more difficult for his friend to appreciate the cherry blossoms wafting gently through the air when it was likely he could barely see them. It seemed like the millionth time that Shingo had removed his glasses to rub furiously at his red, swollen eyes, and truth be told he looked like he’d been crying at least as bad as one of the third year girls. It was a testament to their friendship that Kei kept from laughing.

“Couldn’t you just… stand downwind?”

“There is no downwind! It’s eberywhere! ” he huffed. “I forgot my pills. How much longer are we gonna wait?”

Kei was back to scanning the scene – or rather, the crowd. The person he was looking for did not seem to be there, and his eye stuck instead to the group of people standing together amidst the grove of cherry trees where the pollen assault had originated. He felt himself frowning slightly.

“Weird group, huh?” said Shingo amidst more sniffles, following his friend’s line of sight. Kei was inclined to agree. For a clique, it certainly was large – not to mention eclectic. “I don’t get why Yoshi-chan hangs out with those people… Or why any of them hang out together, to be honest…”

He spotted Yoshimi when Shingo mentioned her, laughing and smiling with a tall, gangly first year with overgrown hair and an anxious air about him. Kei recognized the other boy standing with them as Yamada Kai – they were in the same class and he had always been privately impressed with his hair. Not too far away was another classmate, blonde and bubbly, who appeared to be telling some kind of a story. Yamada made for a receptive audience member, and an elegant-looking girl standing with them laughed politely along in between sips from a tastefully decorated travel mug, but the tall, blue-eyed third year also listening mostly just seemed confused.

The girl that stood next to him was also western-looking, though probably less than half his size, and chatting amiably to two quite dissimilar dark-haired girls nearby. He guessed that she had said something funny, scandalous or both, as the smaller of the two dropped her head and tried to disappear into her jumper, and the other grinned devilishly, laughed, and promptly began to relate something presumably relevant to the hulking boy on her right. Kei recognized him, too, if only because Shirai Reizo was the most terrifying person he had ever almost-sort-of-met. He had nothing but the deepest sympathy for the dour looking boy Shirai had just quipped at, and imagined how he might have fared in those circumstances as the boy stiffened and began to polish his glasses as haughtily as one could do such a thing.

Aoi Misaki was another one he knew, standing abreast the cooking club captain and her somewhat unremarkable best friend. They seemed to have coaxed a smile out of her between the two of them as all three moved around with a plate of cookies, which a third year with a strange dye job was helping himself to generously and sharing with a smiling girl in a baseball cap.

“Don’t stare, man, someone’s gonna notice.” Kei started and whipped his head around to look back at Shingo. “They’re weird, but not that weird.”

“Sorry, I just…” He frowned again, glancing back. He just what? Well, he wasn’t sure, and whatever thought he might have been having had slipped away as he wondered if anyone had noticed.

“h-hey, guys!”

“Finally! Can we go inside now?” Shingo sounded irritable even as he helped the newly-arrived mousey boy with the overstuffed bag he had been struggling with. “Someone give you trouble, Seiji-kun?”

“n-no, i just had to go back for some things i forgot…”

“Yeah, your whole desk from the looks ob it… Come on, Kei-kun. Back to my place. Indoors. Where it’s decent.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming…” Hefting his bag onto his shoulder, he trudged off after his friend, oblivious to the fact that Seiji had hung back again, watching the same group they had been looking at earlier with the faintest of smiles.