A Love Story: Jun & Saya

Chapter 01

They Met in Baby World

Ages 16–18 · Two years of mandatory Shubaka

Jun and Saya were sixteen when they met in Baby World. Both were beginning the mandatory two-year Shubaka contribution in baby care, which they would complete at eighteen.

There were babies to feed, bathe, change, settle, and keep comfortable. There were experienced care stewards to learn from, and there were days when nothing seemed to go according to plan. A little one could be freshly washed, fed, and comfortable, yet still have a great deal to say about the situation.

Jun had already become familiar with practical work. In the Trott Bailey Family Civilization, every young man passes through mandatory Shubaka in home building and construction, farming, animal husbandry, cooking, cleaning, and baby care. He liked figuring things out. Give him a structure or a working system and he wanted to understand how every part fitted together.

But babies? Babies had ideas of their own. Baby care was the hardest contribution he had experienced yet.

Saya was learning alongside him. She enjoyed people and had a way of paying attention to what they needed. They saw each other on the easy days and the difficult ones, making mistakes, getting better, and laughing at the little things that happened along the way.

During their free time, they would often talk at the Sabennerie. Sometimes it was about Baby World. Sometimes Jun wandered into his favourite subject: birds, their nests, and how the surrounding ecosystems worked. Saya listened to his observations, and he listened to her talk about the people and places she loved.

She spoke often about her father. Jun remembered those conversations, though neither of them could have guessed how useful they would become later.

They also talked about travelling. Both wanted to see far more of the world, learn new things, and try different Shubaka contributions in different places. Neither imagined spending a lifetime doing only one kind of work.

Over two years, their friendship grew familiar and dear. Jun came to know Saya’s warmth and sense of humour. Saya got to know the thoughtful young man who could be wonderfully absorbed in something that interested him.

By eighteen, they knew each other well. They had not yet spoken plainly about the feelings growing between them.

Chapter 02

A Year and a Half Apart

New Shubaka interests · Old feelings

When their Baby World contribution ended, Jun and Saya went their separate ways for a while. They were eighteen, full of curiosity, and ready to explore the particular fields that interested them.

Jun moved into landcraft engineering. He enjoyed assembly, testing, understanding how the systems worked, and learning from experienced engineering stewards. He soon showed a keen aptitude for the field.

Outside that contribution, his deeper interest continued to be birds. He studied nesting systems, the materials birds used, how they chose their sites, and how those structures fitted into the ecosystems around them. He wondered what living systems might teach him about structures and engineering. He also wanted to travel, watch birds in unfamiliar habitats, and try many other Shubaka roles around the world.

Saya chose food preparation, particularly Gaúcha ice cream, the wonderfully stretchy ice cream developed within the Trott Bailey Family Civilization. She loved working with fruit flavours and was becoming skilled at getting that unusual texture just right. She helped prepare and serve it, learned from other stewards, and enjoyed seeing children, couples, families, and elders delight in the result.

She also had a good aptitude for another part of hospitality: organizing and caring for groups of performers backstage at singing performances on the Balushu grounds. She enjoyed helping groups find their places, getting people ready, and keeping things moving when backstage became busy busy busy.

Like Jun, Saya wanted to travel around the world. She wanted to discover unfamiliar fruits, meet different people, learn new skills, and take part in Shubaka fields she had not even considered yet. Ice cream was a contribution she loved, not a job she was bound to keep for life.

Their days filled up with contribution, learning, and ordinary life. Still, each kept remembering the other.

Jun would think of their conversations at the Sabennerie. He wondered where Saya was contributing now, whether she was enjoying it, and whether she ever remembered him when she had a quiet moment.

Saya remembered Jun too. The young man who had struggled through Baby World, who loved birds and their nesting systems, and whose mind was always trying to figure something out.

She had liked him for a long time. But Saya had her own little inner principles. One of them was that a young man should be the first to tell a young woman how he felt about her. She wasn’t going to confess her feelings before Jun declared his.

She wanted to hear it from him, plainly and confidently.

A year passed, then more months. Nearly a year and a half went by without their seeing one another. Neither had quite managed to get the other out of their mind.

Chapter 03

The Surprise at the Ice Cream Parlour

An unexpected meeting · A familiar face

One day, Jun happened to run into Saya’s father while the man was carrying out his Shubaka contribution.

Jun recognized him. Saya had spoken about her dad so often during their free-time conversations at the Sabennerie that seeing him brought all those memories rushing back.

They got talking, and naturally Jun asked about Saya.

He learned that she was enjoying her contribution in ice cream preparation. Her father told him which Gaúcha ice cream parlour she was working at.

Well, Jun didn’t need much more encouragement than that!

One day he turned up at the parlour without telling Saya he was coming.

He spotted her among the activity of the shop, busy with the food she had learned to make so well. She was preparing and serving Gaúcha ice cream, handling its long, creamy stretch with the ease that comes from practice.

Jun stopped for a moment and watched.

Somehow, in the year and a half since he had last seen her, Saya had changed so much. She was still the young woman he remembered, with the familiar face and curls, but she seemed more grown, more assured of herself, entirely comfortable among the people she was serving.

Then Saya looked up and saw him.

Jun!

There he was, in her ice cream parlour, after all that time. She was delighted, and he could see it. Their conversation picked up again with plenty to catch up on: his landcraft engineering, her fruit experiments, what they had learned, and everything that had happened while they were apart.

Saya had thought about him for a long time, and now he had come looking for her. That was encouraging. But did he still feel about her as she hoped?

She wasn’t going to answer that question for him.

For Jun, seeing her again settled something in his heart. He had missed her more than he had admitted, even to himself. They had grown and changed, but he still wanted to be with her, to share the places they dreamed of visiting, the things they wanted to learn, and eventually a home and family of their own.

He didn’t want to risk letting another year and a half slip by without knowing where they stood.

Jun knew he wanted to marry Saya. He only hoped she felt the same way.

Chapter 04

Jun Asks for Saya’s Hand

Clear intentions · Both families together

After finding Saya again, Jun was not prepared to leave his feelings unspoken. He spent time with her, and when the moment came, he told her plainly how he felt and that he hoped to marry her.

It was exactly the kind of courage Saya had hoped he would show.

She had known her own feelings for a long time. She was glad, at last, to hear his. And with their intentions clear between them, the next step was to meet with their families.

Jun came to Saya’s family home with his parents. This was a warm household meeting, with the comforts of family life around them. Saya’s father and mother were there to receive them, along with Jun’s parents, who supported their son.

Jun had come for a reason, and he meant to speak for himself.

Standing before Saya’s father and mother, he respectfully and boldly asked for their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Saya watched him happily. Here was the young man she had met at sixteen, the one who had made her laugh during Baby World, who loved birds, who wanted to see the world, and who had found his way back to her after a year and a half apart.

Now he stood before her parents, making his intentions plain. His own parents were beside him, but it was Jun doing the asking.

The two young people already knew something of the practical responsibilities of family life. Both had spent two years learning baby care. Jun had also completed mandatory contributions in construction, cooking, cleaning, farming, and animal husbandry, while Saya had been growing in food preparation and hospitality. There was much more to learn, of course, and both still had a world they wanted to explore.

They could now look ahead to preparing their own household, supported by their families and the Trott Bailey Family Civilization. A beautiful home, furnishings, everyday provisions, clothing, personal care, and free travel would be part of the life they were preparing to share.

Their private family marriage ceremony, including the joining of their hands by their parents, was still to come.

For now, Saya could look at Jun and smile. She had heard him say what was in his heart.