Friendship From Afar

互いに離れる - Away From One Another

The sun shone brightly as Tsuki, Tsuna, Yui, Natsu and Kouichi wake up from the sunlight. Worst thing about waking up in the morning; it's impossible to get out of bed. 'Come on!' Shiori squealed. 'Rise and shine, you lazy bum!' Tsuki felt like staying in her bed rather than getting up and walking 2,000 - 3,000 steps (for your info, that's the average of how many steps a person takes in a day). She took her pillow under her head and used it as a "face mask", covering her face with it. Shiori snatched the "face mask" off her best friend and threw it to the wall. Tsuki sat up with a frustrated look on her face. 'What?!' she asked. 'What do you want? Can't I sleep on my day off?'

Shiori let out a heavy sigh and pulled the curtains apart from each other, letting the rest of the sunshine in the dark room. 'Of course not! It's such a beautiful day outside and it would be a shame to waste good weather like this, Tsuki. Come on. Besides, I don't have anyone else to hang around with than you.' Tsuki gave a tiresome smile as a reply. She said "ok" and pushed her energetic friend out of the room so she can take a shower and get dressed. Shiori jumped with excitement with a mischievious look on her face. What did she have in mind? A plan? Keep reading and find out. Tsuki took a shower to wash off all the sleepiness from her body and changed to a white dress with sleeves right above her elbows and ribbons decorated on the buttons of the blouse. Over the simple and pretty dress was a black see-through skirt with the length to a little above her knees. She tied her hair to the right side of her head with the part of the hair which was tied, curled. Leaving her fringe as it was, she took her grey bag and exited the room and looked for Shiori who was sitting down in the living room. Shiori wore a beautiful cream-coloured dress with white polka dots scattered on it along with ruffles on the ends of the straps and bottom part of the dress which was lengthed up a little above her knees. There was also a collar designed on it to finish off. She left her hair as it was and had a thin, white headband on top of her head and held a golden bag in her hand.

Tsuki followed her friend to the favourite and only car Shiori had. They hopped into the vehicle and drove off to... well, somewhere. Wait, you haven't heard of somewhere? It's the best place in the entire world! Anyway, gosh, I keep getting off track with the story. 'Where are we going?' Tsuki asked. Shiori kept herself silent no matter what the person next to her said. Tsuki was becoming irritated and annoyed by the silent treatment Shiori was giving her. 'What have I done this time?' she asked, thinking it was her fault for whatever she did. But it wasn't because of that. The silence atmosphere went for the whole trip. 'Alrighty, let's go.' Shiori said, hopping off the driver's seat and taking out luggages from the car.

The 2 had arrived at the Melbourne Airport. 'Surprise!' Shiori said in a delightful voice. 'Happy Birthday, Tsuki..!' The look on her friend's face said it all; surprised and was not expecting this. When Shiori wished her a happy birthday, she got confused, but then, remembered. 'Oh, my God. How could I have forgotten?' Tsuki exclaimed. 'My birthd-- well, of course! Thank you so much, Shiori!' She gave her a tight hug. It was an amazing gift. 'Anytime.' Shiori replied. 'So, let's get these stuff out of the big, fat vehicle!' Apparently, she had secretly packed all the things Tsuki needed for the trip. What a sneaky friend, I'll tell you that. 'Where are we travelling to?' the birthday girl asked. She had clearly no idea on where their destination was going to be. The mischievious friend smiled as an answer to that question. 'Tokyo, Japan.' The moment those words were said, Tsuki couldn't believe it and was so thankful to have a friend like Shiori.

'You do not know how happy I am right now.' Tsuki said. The 2 ladies were in the airplane, sitting down and talking to each other. Shiori giggled. 'Well, this is a "thank you" from me for giving me a chance to go overseas for the first time of my entire life.'

After 10 long hours and 38 short minutes, the girls couldn't believe their eyes; they were really at Tokyo, Japan! But something, or, someone interrupted the exciting atmosphere. A familiar face walked past Tsuki; she couldn't figure out who it was but tried to get it out of her head because she was here to have fun. 'Where are we going to stay?' she asked. Ever since they arrived in Tokyo, Tsuki had been asking questions continuously with curiousity. Well, that's what I'd do. It was something very unexpected for a birthday present. 'Tsuki, don't worry, alright? I've got everything planned way before I booked the tickets for this vacation.' Shiori said.

Then, Tsuki remembered. Shiori wasn't only her assistant; she also had a part-time job working with the Airline Reservation and Ticketing Management. To finish off, the 2 are very busy and hard-working. 'A little while ago, I was searching for the best hotels we can find in Tokyo and I went with Keio Plaza Hotel.' Shiori explained. 'If you're asking what we're doing now, we are waiting for my cousin to come and pick us up from the airport.'

'Who? Rikuto?' Tsuki guessed.

'Nope. His name is Kaito. You don't know him because he's been in Tokyo for 16 years. That makes him 25 now.'

'Wow.'

'Yeah, you can "wow" all you want. He's the worst.'

'And why is that?'

'"Why", you ask? Kaito's a real prankster on me.'

'All guys are the same, then.'

Shiori gave herself a laugh, agreeing to that. They have never layed their heart on a guy because of what Tsuki said. Out of nowhere, a voice called out. 'Hey! You coming or not?' it said, sounding like a guy's voice. The girls spotted Kaito in a silver Honda Insight. Tsuki and Shiori scooted over to the car with their luggages and helped Kaito put them in the back of the car. Then, hopped into the vehicle as the ultimate prankster drove off. Guess what? When they drove off, Tsuna stared at Tsuki who was in the front seat of the car. 'That's...' he stuttered. As he was about to say her name, Gokudera interrupted. 'Hey, what're you doing? Help me out with here!'

The atmosphere in the car suddenly turned quiet. Tsuki observed Kaito from top to bottom; he looked very professional as he was wearing sunglasses. 'So, this is the girl you were talking about on the phone, Shiori?' Kaito asked. Shiori gave him a nod along with an annoyed look on her face. 'Yeah.' Tsuki looked out of the car window next to her, with her hand carrying the weight of her head by her chin along with a sad face. 'Tsuki?' Shiori called out in a gentle voice. 'Are you alright?'

'Oh, yeah. D-Don't worry, Shiori.'

Kaito scoffed. 'Liar.' His eyes were locked on the road and he sounded very demanding. Tsuki protested. 'No, really, I'm fine.' Without looking at her, Kaito held a tight grip on her hand. Shiori realised this and wanted to get up from her seat but she couldn't because you know, "safety first" is what they always say. Tsuki struggled the grip with all the strength she had but Kaito made the grip tighter and stronger. 'Let go, Kai--' Before another word was being said from Shiori, he interrupted her with the I-don't-care voice. 'Hah... the look on your face says it all, Shiori. What? I have the right to do this..!'

Tsuki's eyes widened as she shivered with fear in her body. She touched the red mark on her right cheek and winced quietly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hai, it's Tsuki here~! Just want to say that from now onwards, I'll try to edit this book more often because sometimes, I'm busy and sometimes, I'm not. If you like the book, please leave a review down below and make sure you read the next part of this story! Thank you~!