Free Saying Goodbye, Part Two (Passports and Promises Book 1) by Abigail Drake

endearment. I smiled back at him, feeling like I’d just met my long lost Japanese grandfather. “I hope to see you again, Ando-san.”
    “You know where to find me,” he said. As I turned to leave, he stopped me. “Do you understand kanji ?”
    “A little.”
    “After you leave this building, look for the tsukubai.”
    “Tsukubai?”
    He demonstrated, pretended to wash his hands. “Oh. Washbasin. Okay,” I said.
    He nodded. “You’ll see four characters on it. Write them down. Learn their meaning. When you come back, share with me what you have learned.”
    “Sure,” I said, giving him a little wave, happy I’d have the chance to hang out with him again.
    I found the stone washbasin right away. I took a photo of it with my phone, and then took my notebook out of my purse and copied the characters carefully, frowning. Some looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out the meaning.
    I left the compound, my feet crunching in the snow, my mind deep in thought. I’d spent only an hour at Ryoanji, but felt better than I had in months. I got pulled out of my calm, blissful state when I got back to Ritsumeikan and felt a snowball hit the back of my head. I turned around, furious, only to see Thomas standing there, whistling, pretending like he had no idea who’d thrown it.
    “Oh, now you’ve done it,” I said, setting my package on the ground. “You are in so much trouble, mister.”
    He tried to feign blue-eyed innocence. “What? Me? What did I do?”
    I gathered up as much snow as I could, hauled back and whaled it at him. I missed; something he found incredibly amusing. “How could you miss? I’m so bloody big.”
    I tried to gather another one, but he tackled me, lifting me into the air and lowering me gently to the ground. He laid down on top of me, staring at me, his face bright with laughter.
    “You are so easy to tackle. It’s like knocking over a feather.”
    I grunted, trying to wiggle out from under him. “Sorry, I’m not built like a brick wall.”
    His face grew serious. “I like the way you’re built, Sam. I like everything…”
    I interrupted him by shoving a wad of icy snow down his neck. He made a sound a bit like a girlish squeal and let me up as he tried to fish it out. I took pity on him and pulled it out myself.
    “Eeeee. That was cold,” he said with a shiver. I looked at him in surprise.
    “Are you wearing a coat? ”
    “Aye. It’s snowing, isn’t it?” He helped me to my feet and then picked up my package. “What’s this?” he asked.
    I grabbed it out of his hands and started walking back to my dorm. “It’s a surprise.”
    “For who?” he asked, trying to see into the bag. “For me?”
    I held the bag as far as I could away from him. “Yes. No peeking.”
    He stopped walking and stared at me. “You got me a gift? Truly?”
    “Yes. Now go away and leave me alone. I’m wet and cold and I want to change my clothes.”
    He picked me up and swung me around again, but this time he didn’t toss me into the snow. Instead, he lowered me carefully to the ground and leaned over to place the sweetest, gentlest kiss possible on my lips.
    He was gone before I could respond, before I could do anything at all. I just stood there, in the swirling snow, my heart so full of joy I thought it might burst.
    Later, after changing and warming myself under our kotatsu, I pulled out my kanji dictionary and set to work trying to figure out what the message on the washbasin meant. Hana came in as I worked.
    “What’s that?”
    “My reading assignment from one of the janitors at Ryoanji. Don’t ask.”
    It was tricky, because the characters didn’t make sense in modern Japanese. I was about to give up when someone knocked at our door. Thomas and Malcolm stood there, all bundled up.
    “Come on girls,” said Thomas. “We’re going to build a snowman.”
    “Are you serious?” asked Hana. “It’s freezing.”
    “Stop whining, Hula Girl,” said Malcolm. “Let’s go.”
    “On