Tide Between Two Worlds

Forget About Touching Grass, I Need To Touch The SEA!

       Now that arrangements have been made, everyone can return to complete normalcy. That meant that Shuichi and his family could return to life before finding out his deepest sea cret and his friends could focus on school. Speaking of, throughout the rest of the school year, it was nothing but studying and volleyball for Kiyoni. For the second time this academic year, Meiou Academy was involved in another tournament. Unfortunately, the volleyball team made it to the first round only to be eliminated in the second. Kiyoni took that loss hard, feeling like it was her fault for the team's loss. In reality, it wasn't. Since she was so focused on getting accepted into high school like her fellow schoolmates, she practically had no energy for athletics. Fortunately, she was able to get a scholarship out of it though slightly less than her goal. The same went for Shuichi who received a surprise scholarship to a different high school. That made his parents very proud.

At the lounge area of a local mall one day, Shuichi asked his friends to meet up with him to share their news regarding the future. It's possible all three will be going their separate ways during high school but it's expected. Outside of his winter coat, Shuichi arrived wearing a black and white, horizontal striped T-shirt with a black, kimono style jacket, and denim jeans with his hair up in a ponytail, reading and rereading the acceptance letter from his chosen high school while waiting. Since it was a weekend afternoon, the mall was fairly busy with patrons doing their own thing from shopping to hanging out at one of the food courts to parents playing with their children at the neighboring play place.

       "Yo, Minamino," Kuronue called, removing his coat to reveal a simple, white T-shirt underneath an old school Lakers jersey and matching jeans. His hair was completely down but Kuronue had a scrunchie on him just in case he wanted to switch things up.

       "Kuronue. What's up?"

       "I see you got your letter too."

       "Arrived in the mail yesterday. You?"

       Kuronue displayed his letter, "Just got it. My parents haven't even looked at it yet."

Shuichi grimaced at the thought but just as he was about to say something, he saw Kiyoni arriving in the distance looking vastly different than before. She wore a bubblegum pink hoodie that had the letters P-I-N-K across her chest in white, varsity font on it from the Victoria's Secret Pink line, a pair of light wash jeans, and some simple sneakers accessorized by a pink, mini bookbag with the Sanrio character, My Melody, on it. The major difference was her hair for there were no braids this time. Instead, said hair was tightly coiled, creating an afro about a few inches in length.

       "Ikeda, over here," Shuichi directed.

       "Ikeda? Whoooooooooa!"

       "Hi, boys," Kiyoni greeted. As she stood at the bench where the boys sat, the latter simply stared in aghast at Kiyoni's new look. "Yes, I know. I changed my hair. It's happened before."

       "Yeah but I've never seen your hair this... short," Kuronue commented with an uplifted inflection. "It's definitely different."

       "He's right," Shuichi added, "As far as I knew, your hair was either braided or–"

       "Straightened?" Kiyoni finished. "Yeah, that's true but since I'm going to high school, trips to the salon for keratin treatments and braids are seen as a luxury now. Matter of fact, I was going over an overhaul of hair care products my mom had ordered from Tokyo and overseas just prior to coming here. Speaking of high school, I see you got your letter."

        "Yes. You?"

        Kiyoni pulled hers from her hoodie pocket, "Yep. Misaki?"

       "Yo," Kuronue claimed, "Got it right here. How are we doing this?"