She was thinking her mother might find it suspicious, for she surely couldn’t eat them all herself, but she readily agreed and dropped it into her shopping basket.

They were on their way to the car park, when Kokoro stopped suddenly to gaze at the array of shops that lined the mall.

‘Is something wrong?’ her mother asked.

‘It’s just been such a long time since I’ve been outside.’

The gleam of the lights still made her dizzy. But she found herself getting used to them.

‘Mum, thank you for bringing me.’

For a moment, her mother looked at her as if struck by some unseen shock. She took Kokoro’s hand and pulled it closer to her. ‘I’m so happy we could come together.’

They hadn’t walked like this, fingers interlocked, since the lower years in elementary school. Hand in hand, they returned to their car.

AT THE CASTLE CHRISTMAS PARTY, Rion arrived with a cake. The group gave a ‘Wow!’ when they saw it.

‘It looks so delicious!’ Kokoro chimed in.

It was a chiffon cake, with a hole in the middle. The icing was uneven. It didn’t look as though it had been bought in a shop. The fruit decorations on the top were a little irregular too, but that gave the cake its charm.

‘Is it homemade?’ Masamune asked.

‘By a girlfriend?’ Aki asked, and Kokoro’s heart beat fast for an instant. All eyes were on Rion.

Boys who played football were always popular with the girls. Maybe that was why he was studying abroad. They hadn’t talked about it, but it certainly would make sense if he had a girlfriend.

But Rion shook his head.

‘Nope. It’s my mum’s,’ he said. ‘She bakes one every year. She came over for Christmas, stayed in my dorm and gave it to me, so I brought it.’

‘Can she stay in your dorm?’

‘Yeah. Parents can stay for a few days. They have rooms with kitchens for them.’

Kokoro glanced at the clock on the wall and vaguely considered the time difference.

It was midday in Japan. So in Hawaii it would be the late afternoon of the previous day. It was Christmas Day in Japan, but for Rion it probably still felt like Christmas Eve.

Kokoro had the impression that it was more usual for people from other countries to spend Christmas as a family than in Japan. Kokoro’s family was the same – they’d gone out for a meal the night before, but today, Christmas Day, her parents had, unusually, gone out together, which allowed her to come here.

‘Rion,’ she asked, ‘are you – coming back to Japan for the break?’