For the thirty-second time, her eyes strayed from the work in front of her to the calendar on the wall. It had been two years. Well, two years and a day. And she could still replay their last conversation in her head like it happened yesterday.

“…tomorrow is my birthday…so by my eighteenth birthday, I’ll be back. I will find a way. I promise you,” he’d said.

“And then what?” she’d asked

“Then, let’s get married.”

He’d been gone two years. She had graduated from middle school and gotten into the prestigious school for girls that she had told him about that afternoon so long ago. She had changed. She was seventeen now. Her hair was longer. She was taller. She was near the top of her class. But, in all of her changes and successes, thoughts of him, thoughts of THEM didn’t leave her alone. It affected her decisions, too. Like she was in limbo.

Her friends, the ones she made since Yusuke had left, didn’t understand why she wasn’t dating. They just thought she was picky. And maybe she was, but that wasn’t the reason. She could hardly tell them that she was committed…to a guy who was currently in Demon World doing who knows what.

So no, she didn’t have that “new boyfriend” with whom she had threatened Yusuke. Honestly, she’d didn’t want a new boyfriend. The idiot who had her heart was the only one for her, even with all of his issues. Maybe even because of them. It didn’t matter to her that he didn’t finish middle school, or that he was half-demon. He was Yusuke. That was it. She just wasn’t sure if he felt anything like that for her anymore.

Two years and she had heard reports, from Kuwabara and Kurama and Genki. She had some idea of what had happened in that other world. She knew that Yusuke hadn’t won the big fight, but that he wasn’t dead. And, she knew that there must be a way out somewhere, because Kumara was always going back and forth. It wasn’t so much of not knowing; Yusuke seemed to have thoughts and updates for everyone.

Everyone except her, Keiko Yukimora.

Keiko sighed as she dropped her pencil. “Yusuke,” she said, more to herself than to the empty room, “I am not sure how much longer I cam wait. How long I can continue to push my needs and wants aside. I need you here for me. You need to come see about me. Me! I can’t – I can’t do this much longer.”

Shaking her head, as if that would stop the few tears she shed from falling, Keiko tried to return to her work. She was meeting everyone to go to Genki’s temple tomorrow. The psychic had summoned everyone. No one seemed to be sure why, but everyone was going.

Well, not everyone. It was never everyone anymore.

Another year and he’d be eighteen. Would he really come back then? Or should she just move one?

Another year. That just might be beyond her.