Ryo told me about his childhood and growing up in America. He had lived in California until about two weeks ago. I let him talk and never mentioned the fact that I too had lived in California for a year. I didn’t want to find too many similarities between us. At least not yet. He also had a sister but she was already married and still lived in California. He never talked about his parents or why he came here. When I asked him about it, he just said he would tell me some other times or just changed the topic.
We walked back to school and he asked about me but Kamiko came running to me, she seemed to have some important news.
“Er… I’ll see you later. I got to go…” he hesitated, “I’ve got to do something.” he ran off.
I looked after him as Kamiko came to my side.
“Was that Ryo, the new guy, you were talking to?” she asked.
“Um, yeah…” I never felt comfortable in these kinds of situations, “What’s up?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“I wanted to tell you that apparently Tsubaki was foud in the girl’s bathroom with that little girl clique G6″ I looked at her surprised, the G6 was the group of girls that called themselves the Glamorous 6. They weren’t very popular, although they were rich. No one liked them much but they thought they were loved by everyone. They also think they have some authority in the school but they really don’t. They don’t do much. They only shop and are often found in trouble here in school. They just give themselves a name. In a way it’s useful. We wouldn’t need to remember their names everytime they got in trouble.
“What was she doing with them? She’s so different from them! The only thing she has in common with them is the fact that she’s beautiful. Otherwise, she doesn’t get in trouble, she works hard, she isn’t rich and she doesn’t have that much confidence.” I said.
“True. I’m not sure of the reason myslef.” Kamiko answered.
“Maybe it was all just bad luck, perhaps she was just in the bathroom and they just happened to be there at the same time.” I suggested as we walked to class.
“I hope you’re right.”
“I’ll go talk to her after school.” I said to reassure her. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her since we started taking different classes.

“Hey Tsubaki!” I said as I tried to catch up to her. She looked back and gave me a small smile.
“Hello Mizuki.” She didn’t stop walking. She probably didn’t want to talk about what happened earlier.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Look, tell me what happened. You know you can trust me, I’m not going to tell anyone or judge you.” I try to encourage her, it always helped in the past.
“Mizuki, I…” she turned to me for the first time. It looked like she was tired. She seemed more closed up in her world that before. “I don’t feel like talking about it right now. Maybe some other time?” I knew that it would take her time to do that.
“Okay. But don’t hesitate if you need to talk to someone.”
“Okay, thanks.” she attempted another smile.
“I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah. Bye.” she walked away, fast.
I wonder what changed. What happened today in the bathroom? Why hadn’t I hear from her since school started?

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