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    ‘As well as this, you know my family are lucky if we see my brother at home more than twice a week in the evening and I’m always busy or at the gym, so he’s been inventing ways to keep himself amused,’ said Yuriko. ‘I’ll have a word with him tomorrow.’
    There was a knock on Yuriko’s bedroom door. Her older brother Taroo poked his head through and jiggled his car keys at the girls.
    ‘We were just talking about you,’ said Yuriko.
    ‘All good, I hope,’ he said to them, flashing Haruka a smile. ‘I’m ready to leave for Yokohama. I’ve just spoken to our cousin and he said he was looking forward to seeing you. You said you wanted to come with me, but it doesn’t look like you’re ready. Are you coming or not, Yuriko?’
    ‘I never said anything about going with you to Yokohama,’ Yuriko replied.
    ‘You told me an hour ago not to leave without you,’ said Taroo, not smiling anymore and looking annoyed.
    ‘I don’t remember that,’ said Yuriko. She stood and whispered to Haruka, ‘I love infuriating my brother. He needs to be brought down a peg – he’s so full of himself.’
    ‘You’re impossible,’ hissed Taroo and shut the door behind him with a bang before stomping downstairs in a huff.
    ‘I better go, Yuriko,’ said Haruka, quite amused by her neighbour’s sibling rivalry. It was not the first time she’d seen Yuriko and Taroo have a go at each other, and it always made her think how nice it would be to have a brother or sister. ‘Call me tomorrow,’ Haruka said to Yuriko as she headed for the bedroom door.
    ‘Okay Haruka,’ her friend replied. ‘I promise I’ll call you at about eight p.m., after you finish work.’
    Haruka had no doubt that she’d call. Yuriko never played games with their friendship. But it wasn’t her friendship with Yuriko that worried her. For the next few days, Haruka would be consumed by thoughts of how she might tell Takashi about Jun. She almost rang him a number of times, wanting to blurt out everything and lose the burden weighing heavily on her heart. But each time she stopped herself, believing that time might solve all her problems.

CHAPTER 3
     
    You must look where it is not as well as where it is
     
    Returning to his apartment in Kawasaki, Takashi was oblivious to the office workers packed tightly around him. He was still thinking of Haruka and her plans to move to Kyoto and her wanting to take up a management position there at one of the Kansai branches of the English conversation school for which she worked. He decided that he needed to spend some more time with her that month, apart from their regular Thursday night coffees. The fact that she was considering a position on the other side of the country made him want to see her so much more, and he knew that from October, he would have to knuckle down and commit even more to his studies.
    On the train back, Takashi decided that he’d call her in the next couple of days and ask her if she’d spend the day with him the following Sunday in Kamakura. This place would be cooler than Tokyo at this time of the year and it was only a short trip for Haruka from her home infune.
    He’d always liked Kamakura, with its Buddhist temples and statues – and compared to the rush and madness of inner Tokyo, it was a place that offered up for him a certain peace and tranquillity. Because of this, it provided value for the young and old alike, especially for those that lived and worked in the concrete jungles of the inner urban cities.
    He thought back to when he’d first met Haruka nearly three years ago at university, when he’d sat by her side in a Marketing lecture. His interest in her started on the first day of university when he’d spotted her sitting at the back of the lecture room by herself, searching in her bag for a pen. He clearly remembered her wearing a tight white top that showed off her form. He’d casually wandered over and taken the seat to her right. He wasn’t sure at