Sunday was Fun-Day in the Gima household!

Well, it didn't start that way. The morning was always spent toiling over Bisque's homework for a few hours, though he did take frequent breaks so as to not utterly lose his mind.

He was supposed to read a bunch of books in English over the course of the year, but even when Bisque was enjoying books, and even when they were in Japanese, they still made his eyes gloss over a lot of the time. His meds had helped him focus, but he still occasionally had to jump back to the start of the page because he'd realized he hadn't actually processed anything he'd read.

But he'd known it would all be worth it. He'd even scrounged up the motivation to do some laundry, and both of his parents had the day off, so the possibilities were truly endless.

The first treat of the day was that he'd walked into the kitchen and found his mom making mochi. "Mama!"

"Hi, sweetie! Did you read the chapters you needed to get done, or are you taking a break?"

"I finished!"

"Excellent! I'm proud of you!"

"English is dumb, though. The rules are all out of whack and there are so many weird silent letters."

"I agree, dear. That's why I haven't studied it in years. I can still speak it somewhat decently, at least!"

"I have a friend who'd probably know why English is so strange and unstructured. He knows pretty much anything, it seems like."

"How very interesting! What's his name?"

Haruto blanked. He hadn't wanted to tell his parents that he'd reunited with Keiji. Not yet. He'd wanted to give Keiji time to thaw out some more, or at least to admit he remembered.

As he stood there, daunted, trying to come up with any sort of fake name, his mom giggled. It was a silvery, mischievous sound. "Don't worry. I forget people's names all the time, too, even if I've had good conversations with them." He sighed with relief— her assumption gave him an easy out. "It's gonna be mochi ice cream."

He shrieked with delight and wrapped his arms around her, which she excitedly reciprocated. "I love you, Mom!"

"I love you too, baby! This'll take a while to be ready, though."

"It's fine. I can be patient!"

"Bisque!" It was his dad, always a calming presence when compared to his wife and child. Even his most enthusiastic statements were like a still pond. "Care to go on a run with me? I've taken my allergy pills and I'm feeling energetic today!"

"Ah! Super yes!" After getting changed, the two headed off together, and there was a package for Haruto on the porch. OH! He'd nearly forgotten about that!

"What'd you get? Anything interesting?"

"It's... a video game." This was a lie, but one he knew would work– his parents very rarely played video games with him, and his dad would surely forget.

"Alright. Be sure to keep an eye on your spending though, okay?"

"I promise."

Father and son embarked, but Haruto's mind occasionally strayed to that package.

...

Sunday was always busy for Keiji, as the one day of the week he wasn't attending any classes. This was his schedule:

Wake up at seven in the morning. Make his bed. Take a brisk shower. No time to actually soak in the onsen. Relaxation was for chumps anyway. Get dressed.

Prepare rice porridge– he really couldn't trust himself to successfully make any breakfast more complicated than that– using any leftover vegetables or scraps of meat that his mother hadn't used in Saturday's dinner.

Make a pot of coffee and clean the dishes while he waits.

Clean the bathrooms. Clean the kitchen appliances.

Run through his Leitner box– the most effective method he'd found so far for learning new facts. Read through the categories from last night's trivia game shows to try and notice any trends. Research those areas, add new cards to the Leitner box. Check to see if there are any calls for teenage contestants at the moment.

Hunt for potential scholarships. Fill out applications and essays.

Head to the market to buy some groceries and a premade lunch. Read on the walk– it's all autopilot to him anyway.

He was about to embark on the next task– starting his laundry– when he was pleasantly taken by surprise. "Oh. Mother. It's nice to see you. How was your board meeting? Did any of the papers up for review look particularly promising?"

She took a long, slow sip of tea. "Not one. Nothing interesting, at least. There were so many papers about sleep that it nearly put me to sleep. The most noteworthy was probably the one about pragmatics."

"Neurolinguistics are somewhat enjoyable."

"Part of me wishes I had gone into medical research instead. The researchers studying PFAS are having a field day right now."

"Results will come in time," he reassured her.

"Speaking of results... have you gotten them from your chemistry test yet?"

"Yes. I will go retrieve it." He did so, coming back with a crisp paper with a bright "100" written on it.

"Well done." She returned her attention to the crossword she was doing.

He waited for a while, standing with perfect posture, wondering what she would do or say next. He gave in eventually and brought up the next topic himself. "I have nearly completed all of the workbooks that you and Father purchased for my birthday. They were stimulating. Thank you for giving them to me."

She made a sound, and he knew the interaction was coming to a close. "Do not let me distract you from whatever you intended to get done today. I assume you completed your homework?"

"Yes, Mother." He turned to leave, but stopped. "Father... his conference is ending this evening, yes? Would it be possible for the three of us to analyze a reality show tonight? Like, um... Survivor?" He felt a little strange knowing that most kids would probably say "watch" instead of "analyze," but, well, that was the tradition.

"I do not understand how you find such endless entertainment in that. But, I suppose we can propose it to your father."

It had been many weeks since the three had done anything together. Keiji wanted to remind his mother of this, but held his tongue. He returned to his schedule without another word.

...

It was after class on Monday, and Haruto came up to Keiji with a smile even cheesier than usual. "Hey! Hi! Howdy!"

"Hi...? You're being weird. What do you want now?"

"I realized! Your birthday was right before the school year started! September 2nd, right? And since I didn't know you go here, I didn't think to do anything to celebrate!"

"What." The word was flat, but surprisingly harsh.

Bisque was undeterred. "Tada!" He pulled a set of DVDs out of his backpack. "I got you this! I know you love this show— or at least, you did." A season of Survivor, all on DVD. The very show Keiji had just failed to watch with his parents once again. "Palau. I don't know the seasons very well, but hopefully you don't have it?"

Keiji was stoic, unable to say a word. Haruto pushed on right through his lack of reaction. "And something a little more personal. I made a friendship bracelet! The beads are made of tiger's eye gemstones and lava rocks! Except, one of them is clay, and that's cause I baked it. Pretty cool, right?" He set it in Keiji's hand. Half of the beads were a honey-color, or perhaps amber, swirled with brown. The others were pitch black. The cord was dark and high-quality.

He had no idea what to do. His two first instincts were wrong. He couldn't happily accept the gift and snicker about how much of a beautiful trainwreck Survivor: Palau was. And even though it would come very naturally to him, he couldn't throw them out or do anything cruel to them. He wanted to. Goddamn, did he want to. But he just... couldn't... make Haruto cry. Suddenly, though, a flare of anger rose up in him for Bisque putting him in this situation to begin with. "What the fuck?! So you forget about tests you have coming up, but remember my birthday?! Hell, I forget my birthday half the time! I told you ONCE, when you were EIGHT! Actually, no, I didn't even tell YOU, your mom's the one who asked!"

For a moment, Bisque's eyebrows were pinched in and his eyes looked sad. But then, as the words sunk in, they positively sparkled. "Holy shit. Holy shit! You do remember! I thought so!"

Keiji clamped his hands over his mouth, forgetting he had a DVD case in one of them and bonking his nose. "Ah, shit! Ow." He paused, trying to absorb everything. "Fucker! You tricked me!"

"Not on purpose! I seriously just wanted to give you presents!"

Trembling with rage, Keiji stormed out of the building, but Haruto wasn't far behind.

"You always run off like this! Why did you pretend like you didn't know me?"

"Because now you're going to assume you can 'bring me back,' right?! For all intents and purposes, I am not the same person who helped you get that bitch fired! That's in the past, and I knew you'd go rooting around in my business trying to make me act like I did back then! Give it up, already, okay?! Please!"

"But—!" Haruto wanted to retort, but instead, took some time. He drew deep breaths. "Okay. I understand. Well, I don't, not really. But I want to. So. Can we just make new memories together, instead? Can we be friends now, and not just people who were friends a long time ago?"

Trembling, Keiji let Haruto take the friendship bracelet from his hand. He tentatively, slowly, moved to slip it around his wrist. Keiji jolted back. "Nope, not gonna wear it. Just give it to me. I'll put it somewhere safe, or whatever. Now, I seriously have to go. I need to make sure I finish my homework before cram school..."

"Keiji..."

"What?"

"My name is Haruto Gima! A first year! My friends call me Bisque, but you can go at your own pace. I hope we can get along!"

It was an olive branch. An offer to start over with a clean slate. In a near-mumble, he reciprocated. "...Keiji Sekiguchi... second year."

And then he was gone.