Ana climbed up the last flight of steps leading to her third floor flat, feeling heavy and out of breath. 

It had been months since she had been here the last time; she only came once since her trip to Japan, to pick up the most necessary things. But now she wanted to stand on her own two feet again, carry the responsibility for her actions on her shoulders, and live her own life without complicating her sister's.

Reaching the door situated at the end of a narrow, windowless corridor she slid her key into the lock, but even before she could turn it the door opened on its own accord, revealing her sister Kate.

"What are you doing here?" she protested, her heart beating in her throat, as she put her hand over her belly in an unconscious, protective gesture.

"I just brought your bags and some food Sister, you said you wouldn't have time to go shopping today, I didn't mean to scare you." Kate explained in lieu of an apology. "Anyway," she added, placing her hand over Ana's, which was still resting on her belly, "you should finally stop working, there's less than a month left before she is born, you both should rest..."

"You know that I finish next week. Don't make me feel guilty, Kate, teaching art is hardly a tiresome work. It's a pleasure." It was way better than spending her days waiting for the baby to be born, alone in her flat, lost in her memories.

"Fine, you always say that, there's no arguing with you, Ana. I'm off then, call me if you need anything."

Ana let Kate kiss her on her cheek before she made her way out of the flat, then called before the door closed completely behind her sister, "Thanks Kate, for everything!"

Ana knew that she hadn't been behaving nicely lately, she wasn't quite herself since she got back from her trip in Japan, eight months ago. How much she missed him still... she realised with a pang in her heart. She took her shoes off her swollen, tired feet and walked into the kitchen.

There, on the table, sat a gift-wrapped packet. A piece of paper attached to it stated in Kate's handwriting -- 'I know I promised I wouldn't force you into celebrating and I'm not. Happy birthday Sister.' 

Shaking her head at her sister's stubbornness she opened the present, finding a book about Japan hidden beneath the layers of colourful paper. Ana ran her fingers along the contours of a couple of Tancho cranes dancing on a snow-covered field pictured on its cover, her eyes filling with tears. She appreciated Kate's thought, Japan had always been the country of her dreams and her sister knew it... but she also knew what happened to Ana on the trip there last winter. 

Ana only told Kate about how she fell in love last winter, about how she left half of her heart in Japan, with Kaito. She refused to explain anything to anyone else, not even to her parents. That was the reason why they ignored her now, and her sister was her only tie with the family.

But Ana was twenty-two now, and whether her parents agreed with her or not, she felt old enough to become a single mother, accepting the results of her mistake. No, not a mistake. She would never regret what had happened between her and Kaito.

Sighing, she walked towards her living room, the only room of her studio flat, wishing to lay down and sleep... and dream. Lately, her dreams were more pleasant than her reality. 

She didn't get far though-- like a thick layer of snow, an infinity of snow-white origami cranes covered every single surface of her room. They were everywhere between the door and the window, sitting on the carpet, perched on furniture and picture frames, lying on her bed.

"Kate.... why?" she muttered, tears falling down her cheeks. It was one thing giving her a book on Japan, and another entirely flooding her flat with origami cranes and thus, even though unconsciously, re-opening the still not completely healed wound in her heart.

Ana waded through the sea of white birds carefully, not wanting to crush their fragile paper bodies under her feet. Knowing her sister's patience, they were one thousand and not one less... A magical number. She stopped by the window offering a view of a pond spreading beyond the traffic-filled high road. The water's surface was teeming with white ducks and swans... The scenery always reminded her, though only vaguely, of another view-- the view of the Kushiro Mire.

The memories of her trip to Hokkaido started to trickle back and she did not try to stop them. Staring out of the window, suddenly blind to what she was looking at, Ana saw herself the day when she and five of her fellow art students arrived at Kushiro art school last winter. They stayed six weeks, perfecting their watercolour skills in Japan. Ana had graduated since then, and started working as an art teacher, but she knew she would never become as good as their teacher in Japan. Kaito...

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Ana turned away from the window, remembering him.  She saw the look in eyes the moment they first met. There was... something between them from the first moment, a sort of a... gravity pull they could not fight. It felt as if they had been waiting for each other their entire lives.

Her lips curled into a slight smile as she let her eyes travel over the walls of her room lined with many of her watercolours, most of them depicting the boreal marsh near Kushiro city and its Tancho cranes.

She remembered Kaito's smile as he told them that the word Tancho meant red-headed, even as his eyes rested on Ana's unruly ginger hair, making them all laugh. 

With perfect clarity, her mind pictured for her the moment when he told them, his students, that there was supposed to be one thousand birds living in the marshland along the Kushiro River, and they were believed to live for one thousand years.

She recalled the... warmth growing within her as she fell in love with him during the six weeks, the warmth she could still perceive whenever she thought of him. Then she remembered the last two days when Kaito took them to Kushiro Wetlands to sketch the cranes. Ana felt again the pang of disappointment she had felt the very last morning of her trip, as she packed her luggage in her hotel room, knowing that there only was one day and one night left, and she had never had a chance to be alone with him.