WHO: Renju, Kou. WHAT: Preparations. WHERE: Renju's garden in Paradise. WHEN: After Yoshi's dungeon, before Isao's announcement. WHY: Renju is opening up.
It had been some time since Renju had last been here. Absorbed in other Paradise matters and the problem of the case as she had been, her resolution to be more social and spread her metaphorical wings a bit had largely been derailed.
But the dates of her parents' deaths--so close, less than a week apart--were something she could never forget.
It was two days before the first anniversary of her father's passing; her family had used that as the date to mark both, since her mother had seemed to wither away so soon after. The talk with Hamasaki had caused the thought to sprout in the back of her mind again, and looking at the calendar in her room had made it blossom.
She wasn't going to attend the service. She knew that. But she needed to go.
Didn't she?
She had considered talking to Kozue, but Kozue was... she still didn't fully understand the dynamic between them, after Christmas. At least with Kou, she knew where she stood, and he had some idea of what she was going through. So she'd called him here, hoping that this conversation would be as helpful, even indirectly, as the first had been.