Vacation

The Remnants of an Old Friend

I waved farewell to my help. My shrink. He really defog my clouded mind. I couldn't ask for a better friend.

What we did wasn't all that special anyway. I asked him questions and took them slowly. I was shocked, yet not surprised with my answer.

Both me and Kounosuke sat on my bed. I had so much going on in my head, I started to eat mindlessly. I got distracted by the glorious flavors, it never came to me what I was doing. I stopped though, and began my therapy.

"Kounosuke...what was those two like? You know, before I came into the picture."

He smiled. I guessed it hit a spot that makes him happy. "Oh wow. They were just the same then as they are now, to be honest."

No kidding. I thought I might hear that. But at least that made me smile too.

"Torahiko was still the athletic goof that gets himself in trouble. Juuichi was the guy that always puts him in his place. It always seems like that they hated each other...but everyone knew that they are best friends. There was a point in time where I thought they liked each other a bit too much." He chuckled.

"But I joked about it whenever I had the chance and then I get scolded by Juuichi then Tora just plays along and flirts with him. It resulted in him getting thrown, or slugged, or perhaps even both."

"That definitely describes them now. Every now and again I see Tora getting hit by Juuichi. And it's always because Tora is getting under his skin most of the time!" Now I started to laugh.

"Yeah, you see what I mean! The idea of them loving each other isn't that ridiculous, right?"

We just laughed away at our silly assumptions. Funny. I feel as if I'm bonding more with Kounosuke. He's annoying and all, but he's only being a friend. And I respect that. I guess I was too hard on him.

"Oh, those were the good old days. Back then Hiroyuki was still here..."

"Hiroyuki?" I tilted my head. I never heard of him before.

"That's right, you never met him. Chances are, you might never get to meet him. He used to live here, back when we were kids, that is. He left due to school. It's been like, what, five years?"

"He seems like a very respected friend. I bet you guys miss him."

"Oh we all do. Some more than the others..." Kounosuke at best mumbled the last part.

"What was that?"

Kounosuke began to swallow with discomfort. It looks like he gave away a secret of something.

"Well, some of us miss him more." He smiled shyly.

"Kounosuke...did you...?" I insinuate the love thing.

"No! I did not!" He paused and few seconds. Looked the other way and admit defeat.

"I did have a crush on him, ok."

"Awww! Isn't that cute! The little tanuki had a crush!" I teased him.

"But I'm not the only one..." Again, he shifted away.

"So there's another? Who's that? Let me guess." I thought it out and made some deductions. "Is it Shin?"

He looked surprised. His actions said it all. It was indeed Shin.

"B-but how? How did you know?"

"Well, actually I had no idea. You just told me he does." I laughed.

"Oh...please don't let him know then! I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone about it!" He laughed back, scratching the back of his head.

He continued to ramble on about Shin. How he would cook a lot of sweets for Hiroyuki to taste and how he would always go to him first. I guess that's a sign of a crush developing. This story is cute though.