THE CITY TWINKLED WITH Christmas lights.
She could feel it, even from inside her house. Kokoro’s family wasn’t the type to put up Christmas decorations, though the neighbours always festooned their house from top to bottom. She didn’t have to go outside to see them. She could pick up the flashing of their lights reflecting on the walls and windows of her house.
✦ ✦ ✦
‘DON’T YOU THINK WE SHOULD do something for Christmas?’ Rion asked.
It was December and they were gathered in the castle.
On the sofa, Fuka raised her head from her book, and Masamune glanced up from his video game. They all looked at Rion.
‘I mean, we’ve got this space all to ourselves, so shouldn’t we get a cake or something to celebrate?’
‘Do they have Christmas in Hawaii too?’ asked Fuka. Christmas was about chubby old Santa Claus in his red outfit flying across the snowy sky. It was hard to picture this character on a tropical island.
Rion laughed. ‘Yes. Of course. Though they don’t have the image of a white Christmas like in Japan. There’s tons of posters with pictures of Santa surfing and stuff.’
‘Surfing?’ Kokoro didn’t mean to raise her voice, but Rion chuckled even more.
‘The holiday’s so big in America, much more than in Japan. It’s more like Very Christmas than Merry Christmas over there. You can’t get away from it.’
‘I see.’
‘Yeah. So why don’t we do something on Christmas Eve? We don’t need to give presents, just bring some sweets and things. I’ll bring a cake – and let’s invite the Wolf Queen,’ he added. ‘It’s December already. The castle will close at the end of March, so shouldn’t we do something fun before it’s all over?’
The Wishing Key still hadn’t turned up. Or at least no one seemed to have found it. And they still weren’t sure if after March they would even have any memory of each other at all.
‘I like it.’ When Aki voiced her assent, there was a scattering of nods.
‘OK, but,’ Masamune began. ‘When shall we do it? The twenty-fourth – are you free on Christmas Eve? Don’t you have other plans?’
‘Works for me,’ Rion said. ‘Because of the time difference, it won’t overlap with the dorm party for students staying over the holidays.’
‘Christmas Eve suits,’ Fuka said in her bright voice. ‘But I can’t make it on the twenty-third. I have a piano recital.’
Oh, Kokoro thought when she heard this.
‘Do you play the piano?’ she asked.
‘Um,’ Fuka said. ‘I don’t go to school, but I still have private piano lessons.’
On Kokoro’s first day at the castle, she’d heard the sound of a piano. It must have been Fuka. So there was a piano in her room.
Kokoro had taken piano lessons up till elementary school but had given up. She envied Fuka having something going on outside school.
‘I heard a piano being played in one of the rooms before,’ Kokoro said, and Fuka gave a little gasp of surprise.
‘Was it too loud?’ she asked, and Kokoro shook her head.
‘Really? I’m relieved,’ Fuka said. ‘Isn’t there a piano in your room, Kokoro? Am I the only one?’
‘As you’re a pianist, perhaps the Wolf Queen put it there especially for you.’
‘What do you have in your room, Kokoro?’ Fuka asked.
‘Bookshelves. But there’re hardly any books I can read. They’re all in foreign languages – English, Danish and others.’
‘Danish? Wow. How do you know it’s Danish?’
‘Hans Christian Andersen is a Danish author, and there are lots of his books.’
She remembered Tojo-san showing her. Kokoro’s room in the castle had many of the same books.
‘That’s cool. So your room is filled with books. I had no idea.’
I wonder what the other rooms are like, Kokoro thought. If there was a piano for Fuka, then there must be something in each room to suit them.
‘OK, the twenty-third is out. So what about the twenty-fourth?’
‘That doesn’t work for me,’ Aki said. ‘I might have a date with my boyfriend.’ No one seemed to know what to say.
Aki appeared ready to elaborate, but Rion simply said, ‘Sure, got it.’
So they settled on having their Christmas party on the twenty-fifth.
✦ ✦ ✦
NOW THAT THEY KNEW THEY were all from the same school, the atmosphere in the castle shifted a little.
Not that there was anything specific, but Kokoro sensed they’d grown more relaxed around each other.
For instance, when Masamune told Kokoro and the others, ‘That Free School teacher came to visit me too.’
They looked at Masamune, bewildered. ‘Weren’t you two talking about it? The Classroom for the Heart?’ he expanded, and an affirmative ‘Ah!’ arose from Ureshino and Kokoro.
‘You mean Ms Kitajima?’
‘Think so. It was a woman teacher.’
‘So you’ve met her too, Masamune!’
Masamune seemed, for some reason, a bit self-conscious. Kokoro wondered why, but then it hit her.
He was feeling anxious because he’d never discussed things outside the castle.
‘So did you visit the Classroom for the Heart?’ Kokoro asked, still a little uneasy that the name of the School was the same as hers, but she knew that this group, unlike the kids at her school, would never tease her about it. And sure enough, Masamune shook his head, without dwelling on the coincidence over names.
‘No, I haven’t,’ he said. ‘My parents seemed to know about it, but they said it’s for getting kids to go back to their school. They weren’t thinking of sending me there.’
‘So your parents still think if you don’t want to go to school, you don’t have to?’
This was so different from her parents. Masamune only shrugged.
‘I mean, my parents know all about the hideous things that go on in schools these days. There’s news all the time, isn’t there, about bullying and all kinds of underhand things and how kids commit suicide? My dad said, There’s no way we’re going to make him go if it means school will kill him.’
Masamune imitated his father’s voice. School will kill him was a gruesome way to put it, but she was astounded to hear there were parents like his.
‘The thing is,’ Masamune continued, his eyes glazing over, ‘they’re really into looking for a school where I can feel safe. My dad said the Free Schools are nothing more than private NPOs. But then Ms Kitajima came to our house, and said she’d like to talk.’
Masamune drew in a small breath.
‘My mum stood at the front door and argued with her – Why are you here? We didn’t ask you to come. Did his junior high say something? Ms Kitajima said no, the school didn’t ask her to come, she just happened to hear about me from one of my friends and thought she would come over for a chat.’
Kokoro had never met her, but she could picture Masamune’s mother scowling. Did his junior high say something? Masamune’s parents really must have an intense distrust of public schools. She remembered Masamune had said, months ago, that teachers were just humans after all. And that most of the time they’re not even as smart as we are.
Masamune must have sensed what Kokoro was thinking, because he said, in a small voice, ‘When I first stopped going to school, my parents got into a heated debate with my homeroom teacher. They said public school teachers aren’t any good.’
‘I see.’
‘But I realized that the Free School teacher you two were talking about was the same one, so I agreed to meet her the other day.’
Kokoro and Ureshino exchanged a glance. Kokoro felt something warm inside.
Masamune’s decision to meet Ms Kitajima was down to them.
Maybe it was an exaggeration, but Kokoro was thrilled he trusted her.
Masamune still looked uncharacteristically shy about discussing outside things. His nervousness made him speed up his words.
‘We didn’t really talk about anything much, but she said she’d come again.’
‘She’s a good person,’ Kokoro said.
‘Yeah,’ Masamune agreed. ‘I could kind of pick up on that.’
‘Hm … I wonder if she’s going to come over to my house soon,’ Aki murmured. She’d been listening quietly beside them. ‘I was sure there was no Free School near us, but we’re talking about the same junior high, aren’t we?’
‘Maybe she will.’
If Ms Kitajima did visit Aki, Kokoro hoped she’d agree to meet her, like Masamune had.
They had worked out that they lived near each other, but that didn’t mean they ever considered meeting up away from the castle.
Picturing Ms Kitajima’s face, Kokoro discovered a fresh joy in realizing that they had real connections in the outside world. It seemed now that even Masamune, for all his sarcasm, and Aki, who absolutely refused to talk about school, were less resistant to discussing their real lives.
Though she never turned up wearing her school uniform again, Aki seemed to visit the castle more often.
And as a group, all seven seemed to hang out together in the castle more than ever before.