Little Tiger

Home

Ayame came to fetch me from the station. I saw him waiting on the platform when the train screeched to a stop. I hurriedly grabbed my luggage and rushed out of the train, sneaking past the rest of the passengers. I was the first to get off. I rushed towards Ayame, my free arm extended outwards as wide as it would go.

"Welcome home, my little graduate," Ayame cheered, engulfing me in his arms. I hugged him back with the arm I had reserved for him. It was the first embrace I had willingly given to Ayame and I cherished it.

"How's it feel to be back?" he asked me as we walked towards the estate car. He had his arm around my shoulders, our steps synchronizing perfectly.

I gazed about the train station. I'd only been here once before, on the day I had left for Tohoku, yet it was nostalgic to me. I wouldn't be back here again, I was sure of it. I'd keep my feet planted where I was, in the safety of my own city and the people I'd known since birth. "Surprisingly good," I replied, though it wasn't surprising at all. I wanted to be nonchalant about the four years I had been gone. Nobody knew the full extent of what had happened to me while I was away, which worked in my favor because I didn't want them to look at me the same way I had been looking at myself. They could live under the impression that I was the "same old Koharu" and not the version I felt I had become. But, once I reached the estate again, I'd realized that nobody else stayed the same.

Momiji was waiting for me at the entrance of the estate. "She's here!" he yelled to whoever was behind him, hiding behind the archway. He looked taller, but his face had barely changed. He was almost done with middle school now. I hadn't seen him since he was in primary school.

Hatsuharu emerged, watching Ayame and me step out of the car. He looked happy to see me, if you could call it that. Momiji ran up and hugged me, making my feet teeter over the curb, one of them landing on the street. I put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself.

"Hallo, Ko-chan!" He looked up at me expectantly.

Realizing he wanted me to speak German back, I began to stutter, trying to recall the little vocabulary I had learned. "Um...Hallo, Momiji...Ich...sie..." I worked at it for a little while longer, trying to remember how to say You look bigger, but I stopped when I couldn't remember anything. "You've grown a lot," I stated, disheartened with myself. German was our "thing" and now that was gone.

Momiji replaced his puzzled expression with a gleeful smile, as if to make me feel better. "You think so? Haru has grown up a lot more than me," he replied, turning back to look at Hatsuharu.

He had grown a lot since I last saw him. He was almost as tall as me now. "Haru, you're--" he cut me off politely before I could finish.

"Welcome back, Koharu," he said in a deep, matured voice.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. When did he get so old? I had to make sure that he and Momiji were the same age for a second. "Thank you," I managed to say through my confusion.

Ayame suddenly swooped in, rushing me away from Momiji and Hatsuharu. "Yeah, okay, you two. Ko-Ko is busy so we have to go," he said dismissively, shaking his hand at the two boys.

"They're so big," I repeated to Ayame, still unable to fathom it, looking at them over my shoulder. It seemed that for the first time, I realized just how long I had been gone. What felt like a few minutes to me was four years to everyone else.

He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. He hadn't noticed the change. I was sort of jealous. "They're the same runts you used to know," he stated indifferently. You used to know. "Cheer up, Ko. You just got home, don't start depressing me." He pinched my cheek.