“Fancy seeing you here,” Yumiko said with a big smile.

“Yumiko! I missed you!” Risaki hugged her tight.

Even though Yumiko and Risaki were best friends in school, they drifted apart when she started working. Risaki Yamashina pursued an electronics paper, from what she remembered. Other than that, they both had a knack for knowing how the other felt.

“Hehe…” Yumiko grinned. Her friend never failed to make her smile. Her absence in her life was made more obvious now that she’s seen her.

Looking above Risaki's shoulders to Soji, she greeted him. "How've you been doing, Soji?" Yumiko asked.

Nodding at her, Soji said, "I'm good. It's been awhile, Yumiko." He was balancing a basket full of groceries on one hand and extended out the other.

Grasping it, Yumiko shook with a firm grip before letting go.

"Are you two together...or something? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asked hesitantly.

Soji's eyes widened before he schooled it back into place, while Risaki fidgeted before answering.

"Soji's just helping me with stuff, Yumiko," Risaki replied. "I was at home for too long and he got worried that I'm not eating again."

'Oh. Both seem to be oblivious to it, but there is something going on here...' Yumiko thought.

"Skipping meals again?" she chided, giving Risaki a slight tap on her forehead. "With your tummy, that's like suicide." Yumiko laughed. “Judging from the pile, are you making dinner?”

Yumiko saw carrots, broccoli, some seafood and pasta. Feeling nostalgic, she had a flashback of when her mother used the same set of ingredients for her favourite dish.

“Care to join us for dinner, Yumiko?” Soji asked, after being nudged by Risaki. “We have enough to feed for three.”

Feeling sure that Risaki might have picked up on her sudden change in emotions, she plastered on a smile for both of them. “No thanks, you two. I should get back. Daichi would be expecting me. He said he had a surprise and I wouldn’t want to spoil those plans,” Yumiko explained.

Receiving another hug from her friend, with promises of giving her a call to her cell the next day, Yumiko walked away with her small purchase of juice and yogurt.

‘That’s about as much as I can eat right now.’