It was already Friday. I slept so well during the night, tired of the busy day. In the end, the snow had barely covered the ground. However the temperature had gone up, and it was clear it would get melted in a couple of days.  Walking through the streets was slower, as the snow was melting and it was slippery. The sun was hiding in between the clouds, and a slight breeze that went by ruffled my hair. Today would hopefully be just as good a day as yesterday.

I took my phone out and texted Masaru-san: “Hello, I was wondering if you are busy this  Sunday.“ It was barely 9 am, so I was not surprised when he did not immediately respond. I was checking the weather app while waiting for the green light. It seemed the next few days would actually be sunny, but not warm. While looking at the phone, it vibrated. A new message from Koji. „ When are your classes?“ I typed fast: „ I have one in 10 minutes but it will end around 10. and then I have one at 10 30, until 1 pm.“ The response came:“ Could you meet us around 10 then?“ „ Sure.“ I quickly put the phone in my pocket and ran the green light.  Getting in the bathroom to fix my hair before the class.

Hearing my phone vibrate during the class but not checking it as the lecture was rather interesting. And forget about it the moment I exited the classroom, as I bumped into Koji-san there. He immediately smiled and put his hand around my shoulder saying: „ Nice I found you. So how was the class?“ It was hard hearing him from all the noise in the hallway and the sounds my own body was making. But I managed to answer: „ It was very interesting.“ He hummed close to my ear while leaning on me, squeezing in between groups of people: “ Really, then you must be one of those prodigies, usually people complain about his way of teaching.“ I did notice that the professor thought differently from others but it actually it was easier to follow, so I asked: „ What about you, what do you think about his lectures?“  He pulled me closer:“ I do not go to them, Matsunaga really likes the lectures and he tales amazing notes and gives them to me for free. Honestly, I was there once in the first year and could not make it through the whole thing. He does take deduction points for that, but I had a perfect score on the test thanks to the notes, so I had a high grade at the end of the year. Anyway, they are gathering in front of the coffee shop we met yesterday.“ I was still busy hearing all the sounds, the soft breathing next to my neck, and how my heart palpated. I did not respond until we were outside. „Is this group your friend group?“ He nodded, letting go of my shoulder, feeling the warmth leave, regretting the rush of the cold air, and lack of people outside...

We walked for a few minutes in silence, cause he was texting someone. I was content in the moment. Soon we were in front of a coffee shop and there were three people, one girl, and two boys. The girl's beautiful blue eyes looked at me and him as if measuring the distance between us. I felt like I somehow sinned just by being near him. She took her blue beanie off, revealing beautiful brown long hair, a color similar to mine, somehow I felt inferior as she immediately grabbed Koji's hand. He did not even react to it as he was still writing on the phone. One of the boys coughed to take his attention. Not managing to succeed he started with an introduction: „  I am Yoshizawa Gaku, I am a third year, long-time Miyasaki's friend. It is nice to meet you. Yuki-kun right.“ I smiled: „ Nice to meet you, please take care of me.“ We shook hands, the other boy stepped forward, he was taller and seemed a bit older than everyone else, by at least a few years he spoke: „ I am Kita Eita, it is easy to remember, I am also the third year, however, I started university late. It is a pleasure to meet you.“ We shook hands, bowing our heads, he seemed nicer than he looked. And only one person was left for introduction, unlike others she did not get any closer, while she spoke to me:“ My name is Inoe Miya, what was your full name again.“ I was not surprised by her attitude. I saw it from the beginning, did I understand it, no, but Koji was nudging her and whispering to be nice, I answered: „ Fukuyama Yuki, it is a pleasure to meet you as well Inoe- san.“ She did not smile back at me. Koji then spoke some pieces of information about tomorrow, basically: “The two who came last will be models, so make sure even if you are late you are not late by much. 5: 45 am, is the time when the sun starts to rise, I want to capture that as well.“ Inoe spoke: „ You will pick me up, right?“ Koji answered: „ Well, I guess your house is on my way.“ I watched her giggle for a minute, before looking down, the vibration in my pockets made me remember, that I had an unread message.

Looking at the message Masaru-kun sent me, while the others were joking about something I would not get even if I listened to them. There were two messages on my phone, I checked them both, the first one was: „ Yeah, I am free on Sundays, but I would not be able to get a place to take pictures.“ The second was: „ Are you with Miyasaki by any chance, right now.“ I responded: „ If you cannot, I can, I will send you the location of my place, what time would you like, yeah I am with him right now, we are talking about tomorrow.“ And sent, I looked at the time, and calculated how much time I would need to get back to the classroom. Inoe-san asked me with curiosity: „ Are you texting your girfiend?“ Koji spoke after her: „ Sorry about her, she is just like that.“ I did not mind:“ It is fine, I was just texting with Masaru-senpai.“ Koji nodded not looking interested, but Inoe smiled: “Oh, wow, you got him to reply to your message, that is rare, right?“ she looked at Gaku and Eita, who just nodded adding: „ He is more of talk in person guy. But I do not hang much with him in the first place. You two would know him better.“ Inoe hummed: “Well, we are not that close, but he bares with me as I am an ideal model as he stated.“ Koji hummed: „ Miss Ideal model, he did not ask for your services in six months, I doubt he was satisfied the last time...“ she punched him in his shoulder: „ That is not true, he has been tasked with male beauty for last few projects. And I am just as busy a person as he is .“Koji hummed:“ Do you want to know who is his new model?“ She smiled: „Nope, no way they compare with me.“ Koji said: „hey don't say rude things like that.“ I smiled before saying: „ It was really nice to meet all of you, but I must go back to my classes now. I will be seeing you guys tomorrow.“ I could hear them bicker after saying bye to me. „How was  I rude, exactly?“ “Girl read the room, it was obvious, that Yuki-kun is the model.“ „ And what is wrong with I said. I mean we have similar, hair color and eye color, but I am better looking.“ I was not able to hear more. Did it bother me, somewhat, did I know at the time why, no. It did not matter even when I found out why, what was done was already done, there was no way to return to the beginning.

The class was long, and many people left before the end, it was not really boring, but the professor was taking his sweet time explaining even the simple things, I could hear people behind me comment:“ he explains it this way, cause if he did not, they would long ago shorten this class, and he would lose some income, but thankfully he gives answers to all questions in a test like this. That is why only geeks stay until the end of class. However, there are cases when he takes attendance at the very end of class, so be careful, he takes a lot of points off your test if he catches you not attending. That is how I got here.“ Well, it was not like I planned to leave anyway.

After class it was working hours, it was most likely the last day of the nearby drama shooting, seeing how every staff was celebrating and more relaxed. The Miss star was here again, honestly, I was getting sick of seeing her, though she was not sick of stealing glances at me. Honestly, it kept me on edge. If I did not know why she was staring at me I would definitely have gone and asked her if she needed anything, but I knew and was trying my hardest not to let it bother me. I was thankful for the manager taking their orders with joy. I would have definitely died if I had to act that nice to them.

It quickly got dark, they left earlier than usual, and it was a busy Friday night for us, but compared to the last few days we could easily manage this. Taking a few more breaks, and even enough time to talk to each other about everything. He complimented me for this week's hard work and even said that many new people would come because of the presence our restaurant would have on social media. He even proudly showed Miss. Chiyo post with the location of our restaurant. It was for 2 hours, just when she was leaving if I remember. I was glad he was happy, for the longest time he was the most constant person I talked to.

It was closing time, and I was tired, already thinking about when I was supposed to wake up, I usually slept in on the weekends, as other part-time workers worked on those two days, but tonight, I would barely sleep, it was 11 pm now, and I would reach the house around 11 30, going to bed at the midnight, then waking at 5 am, cause I need another 15 minutes to get ready and another 15 to walk to the location. Five hours of sleep sucked, but I would survive, the sunset would be around 5:21 pm and I have plans on straight going to bed.

The dark, silent walk, did not feel like usual, as I stopped thinking, yeah it definitely had a weird feeling, I stopped at the bus station, looking at the white tulip drawing I did months ago, checking my surroundings while pretending to be on the phone, noticing an older man slowly walking towards me, honestly, he had barely made any progress looking at his phone. I thought I imagined it, so I continued, reaching the street i knew everyone who lived here because only 20 or so people lived there and they were all elderly, so turning around and seeing him still just as far away really gave it away. He was following me. It felt terrible, there was nothing that I could really do, the police, he would escape by the time they came here, and no one else could help me, so I turned around and stared at him before saying: „Leave while I am being nice.“ He did not say anything as he continued to walk towards me, he spoke as he passed by me:“ You must misunderstood something.“ This guy, I was too tired to comfort him, it was obvious by the way he was walking around, slowly, that he was reading names on the addresses for the post. I did not care about that because even if he was following me and searching for the place where I lived, he would not find it, cause my name was not written anywhere, I waited for a few more minutes, for him to pass by every house before I headed into it. Looking carefully that he was not around.