A Year In The Life, 3/4
A Year In The Life - Part Three
Health and Wellness
Within a week, Matsumoto's moved into the empty bedroom next to Shihori. He has a lot of clothes for a person who is rarely home, but Aiba's managed to accumulate a lot of things himself over the years. Shihori is teetering on the edge of madness, having a sad and depressed but ridiculously handsome man sharing a wall with her now. Nino isn't teetering at all, thanking his lucky stars that he now gets to pay one-fourth of the rent owed and not one-third. No matter the circumstances that brought Matsumoto Jun to their door with the face of a kicked puppy, if it means monetary savings for Nino, he doesn't mind at all.
Matsumoto is very stern, very stiff, very well-mannered, and Nino knows it'll be a while before he gets used to the daily stupidity that occurs in the apartment. He comes home from the store, asks for a marker or pen to label his food in the refrigerator. He seems confused when Nino and Shihori laugh at him.
"We're not going to steal your organic quinoa and kale salad," Nino is embarrassed to explain.
Matsumoto has remarkable self-discipline. Aiba has a strange metabolism. He eats like a junior high school student, non-stop junk and tons of greasy stuff and days' worth of meat in one sitting. But nothing sticks to him, and he does the occasional jog or pick-up game of basketball with some friends from high school. Shihori has exercise DVDs that Nino isn't supposed to know about except when she forgets them in the DVD player. "What the hell is a Zumba?" Nino finds himself asking one morning, disc in hand, before she yanks it away and runs with it to her room. Nino's exercise is called his job at the warehouse.
But Matsumoto Jun blows them all out of the water. He has a strange thing called a "gym membership" and he actually uses it, disappearing at the crack of dawn on his days off and returning fresh-faced and probably firmer than before. He counts calories and shops at the expensive grocery store that never puts things on sale. He eats bananas constantly. Constantly. Matsumoto eats more bananas in a week than Nino has probably eaten in his life. One day Nino catches Shihori peeling a banana, and he knows the contagion may be spreading. The bags of Onion King that once sat on the kitchen counter, held closed with a plastic clip, seem to have been stashed away in her bedroom.
The sudden health-consciousness wraps the apartment in a vise grip. Nino's eating instant yakisoba one off-day afternoon when Shihori suddenly plops herself down sideways on the couch, stretching her legs out so they lie across Nino's lap. He's stunned, holding the instant food container and chopsticks in hand as she squirms.
"Nino, do you think I have fat calves?" she asks. Shihori's in a knee-length skirt made of some soft jersey material, and her feet are bare, toes twinkling pink. He chews his food, obediently looking down at the lower legs now possessively perched across his thighs. He wills himself to contain the excitement her closeness is inspiring.
"Is this a trick question?" he replies.
"No, she complains, leaning back on her elbows. This motion arches her back and pushes her chest up, her t-shirt stretching across her breasts in the best way. Nino usually goes for the back end before the front end when it comes to admiring the female form, but living with a woman of Shihori's shape has opened his eyes to the best of both worlds. It's impossible to ignore the perky swell of her chest. Her bottom gives off a similar impression. But that's neither here nor there, merely the thoughts of a man without a girlfriend living with a woman without a boyfriend. Nino would feel guilty, ogling her, but he knows that Aiba likes to look too.
He finds, though, that he's never given much thought to her legs. His only points of comparison are the shins and calves that came before her, the girls he's been with previously. He's not sure at what point a woman determines them to be "fat" because he's known several women who have disliked various parts of themselves that Nino didn't at all. The magazines geared to women are kind of scary - slim down here, here, and here but make sure this stands out. It's confusing.
"From visual inspection," he says, holding his lunch aside. "They look okay." And they do. Nino's been with a few girls a little bigger than her and maybe more girls a little thinner than her, but she's still not an outlier on the chart.
"I think my ankles should be slimmer."
"Why?"
"I don't know," she admits. "Just the impression I get when I wear heels."
"Isn't this something Kei-chan can better weigh in on? Men don't think about these things so seriously."
This is the wrong thing to say because her legs are withdrawn, the warmth in his lap disappearing. In that instant, Nino wishes she'd put them back, that she'd let him touch and feel. He watches her poke at the back of her legs, watches her bend at the knee a few times, frowning. He shouldn't have mentioned Keiko, who is a little taller and thinner.
Her usually big, bright eyes seem a bit duller today. "I'm too lazy."
He digs into his lunch anew, not really wanting to go down this road. It's Matsumoto Jun's newness that is frustrating her more than any real disillusionment with herself. Before she never seemed to care much about how she looked at home, but now Nino can tell she's got on a bit more makeup and she leaves her hair down, letting it brush past her shoulders instead of tying it up in some messy ponytail. She's always been pretty, even in pajamas. He kind of wants to sock Jun-kun in the face, even if he's not aware of the psychological shifts his presence is inflicting.
"I find you well-proportioned," Nino tells her. "And I can't comment on laziness objectively."
"As a friend or as a man?"
"Hmm?"
She gets up from the couch, stretches. "Your opinion on my proportions. What perspective are you coming from?"
"Ah," he says, seeing her cheeks grow pink. "Definitely as a man."
She seems satisfied with this answer for now, but when he's in his room that night playing on his 3DS, he hears noise coming from the living room. One of her exercise DVDs, the sound lowered a bit and her feet shuffling across the floor. He pauses the game, sets the 3DS aside.
"Come on! You can do it!" one of the cheerful instructors is saying while some high-tempo Latin music plays.
He shuts his eyes, imagines her moving to the rhythm. Perspiration and determination on her face. He's not surprised when it leads to him pulling up his blanket, his hand slipping into his shorts. It's usually an AV star, an ex, an uncomplicated target. But tonight, for the first intentional time, it's Shihori, her back arched and her legs in his lap. Maybe he's known all along this was going to happen.
When he finishes, the music is still playing, her feet are still moving, and he stares at the ceiling knowing that the bridge behind him has crumbled and there's no going back.
--
Too Soon
It's apparently a horrible thing that Nino has never ridden the ferris wheel at Kasai Rinkai Park. Especially now that he's here in Edogawa and the park's maybe a 30 minute walk, give or take, depending on street lights. Shihori floats the idea at the bar one night. They've made sure to hold another meet and greet so Jun can be properly introduced to Oh-chan, Keiko, and Sho, the extension of the apartment family. He's a big hit, especially because his serious demeanor lets Sho off the hook as the member of the group with the least sense of humor about himself.
Keiko will be off on a business trip that'll take her to Fukuoka for the better part of a week. Sho, who doesn't like to be cooped up at home alone, takes Shihori's side and wants to plan an entire day at Kasai Rinkai. Oh-chan begs off with work and Aiba too, and suddenly it becomes a strange grouping of Shihori, Nino, Sho, and newbie Jun, who had tried to gather interest in a visit to DisneySea, but nobody has the money right now. Nino would have declined the invite too, but a mixture of Shihori's insistence and the thought of Shihori riding the ferris wheel with Jun have changed his mind.
He's not usually like this. He chalks it up to the early stages of realizing he's falling and falling fast.
Before Jun can volunteer, Shihori packs them a picnic lunch. Onigiri, a thermos of miso soup, a salad Shihori likes to make that has kimchi in it. Sho meets them at the park gate, itinerary called up on his phone. He's already bought tickets for the ferris wheel, leaving them a good hour for lunch. Nino's very happy to let Sho plan their day because it means less Nino has to do.
While they pull their picnic items from the backpack Jun's carrying, Sho explains the ferris wheel to Nino, as if he is from Mars and unfamiliar with the concept. Sho has stats about the wheel's size, about its creation, how it "takes 17 minutes to complete a full rotation, isn't that amazing?" Finally they shut him up with the fattest onigiri in the bunch. The poor guy seems lost without Keiko to tell him when he's talked enough for the day.
It's a beautiful clear day, and Jun's brought a fancy digital SLR camera with all the bells and whistles. On the walk to the ferris wheel they stop over and over again so he can take a picture of something. Jun only apologizes the first time for making them wait. The wheel itself is a massive thing, the largest in Japan, set in the middle of a grassy field. Nino quietly arranges it so Shihori's leading them into the queue and he's behind her so he can snag the seat beside her.
It's at this point that Sho informs them all he's a little scared of heights, so please don't rock the car. This pronouncement makes the previously polite and proper Matsumoto Jun crack a wicked smile. Great, a sadist. They hand in their tickets and prepare for an awkward 17 minutes. Nino's wish is granted, Shihori tugging on his sleeve so he plops down beside her. Sho slowly enters their car and sits down, looking straight ahead and taking deep breaths. Jun is last, camera whipped out and snapping every few seconds.
Nino really didn't have to worry about him, he's on another plane of existence entirely. As their car slowly starts to ascend, Jun is in the photo zone, capturing every miniscule bit of their climb. He turns around, adjusts his position on the seat, which makes Sho wince almost every time he moves. If Keiko was here, maybe she'd be doing the same thing. An uncomfortable Sho is, after all, rather adorable to watch.
Because it's so clear, they can see out over Tokyo Bay and get a good view of Disneyland in one direction, the SkyTree in another. Sho looks out but doesn't look down, his hands shaking a bit in his lap while Jun's camera makes its continuous noises. Nino's mouth goes dry when Shihori links her arm through his, points to different landmarks they can see from the car. It makes time slow to a crawl, how easily she clings to him, how her excitement seems to vibrate throughout the car and envelop them in it. If only they were alone.
"Hey, over here," Jun says, oblivious, pointing his huge lens at them. "Let's show Aiba-san we had a wonderful time without him."
Shihori laps up the attention, making Jun take several shots of her in various poses. The whole time she's still got their arms linked, but it's Jun she's posing for, Jun's eyes she's trying to meet through the lens. "I don't like that one, Aiba-kun won't be jealous of that one," she protests, angling them so they've got Disney behind them. "Get up, get up so you can get Disneyland."
Jun agrees, making Sho whine as he gets to his feet, intentionally rocking the car more than necessary. He looms over them, camera angled down so he can capture the theme park far below. Nino and Shihori look up, Nino tries to smile. "Say 'Disney'," Jun says.
"Disney!" Shihori says alone, smiling big and the camera beeps and the shutter sounds. The car's big enough for six and Jun sits down on Shihori's other side, going into his camera's review mode. This leaves Sho feeling vulnerable, and he scoots slightly more to the center of the car, shakily snapping a picture with his phone for Keiko. Nino feels Shihori's grip on him loosen and she leans the other way to look at Jun's pictures. Even in his nervousness, Sho somehow notices this, meets Nino's eyes. Realization hits Sho hard, and he gives Nino a sympathetic look.
The ferris wheel turns and the car starts to descend. Once they're off the thing, and Sho is once more on solid ground, he annoyingly decides to help Nino out. By the end of the day, Keiko is obviously going to know, and Nino doesn't even want to know what her reaction is going to be when she learns Nino is crushing on her best friend.
"Matsumoto-san, how about the aquarium? I bet you can get some wonderful photos there." Jun, pleased by the thought of getting more pictures, goes on ahead with him, the two of them talking about nerdy things, Sho probably reciting aquarium factoids from the Internet from memory, Jun absorbing this information so he can feel more intelligent about the pictures he's taking. Two nerdy peas in a pod, Nino thinks, but he does owe this chance to Sho. Maybe he should be a little nicer to him from now on.
Nino's got their empty backpack from the picnic, plastic containers and bento boxes shuffling along inside as he and Shihori follow behind. "So what did you think of the ferris wheel, huh?"
"Nice view."
"Nice view, he says," Shihori complains. "It was a spectacular view. You don't get a clear view of everything like that every single day."
"I guess not. I'm usually not a ride person. It's a good thing we didn't go to DisneySea, I'd have been sitting alone waiting for you all day."
She turns and gasps. "You don't like rides? No roller coasters? No nothing?"
He shakes his head. "I don't like them at all."
"Not even the water rides?"
He considers this. "I'd rather not."
She looks almost heartbroken. "How do you live like this?"
"Quite easily, thanks."
"Oh Nino," she says, as though he's told her he's dying from an incurable disease, not that he's scared of roller coasters. They move to start catching up with Jun and Sho. "Well, if we do have a DisneySea day, we'll keep your feelings in mind."
"By not inviting me?"
She blushes. "That sounds awful. I couldn't do that..."
"Take Aiba-shi, take Kei-chan. Oh-chan would go if someone bought his ticket for him. Hey, why not take Jun-kun, he looks like the wild ride type of guy." Nino picks at his own scab. "Do a double date sometime. You, Kei-chan, Sho-kun, and him."
"Don't say things like that," Shihori chides him with an elbow to the side. "Don't say double date."
"Why not?"
She looks uncomfortable. "He was dating that woman for three years. It's too soon." They haven't learned too much about Jun's former beloved besides her name (Yuko) and that she was older than him, which probably explains her desire to start a family and her lack of interest in waiting.
"When will it not be too soon?"
She hasn't been looking at him for some time, their footsteps heavy on the cement path as they see Jun and Sho get closer to the aquarium. "Why does it matter to you?"
"It doesn't." He shrugs and his lie tastes bitter. "Just making conversation."
"I see."
When they catch up, Sho looks to him hopefully, as if walking ahead for ten minutes makes him some kind of matchmaker. Nino merely shakes his head, sees Sho's disappointment. Jun and his camera take the aquarium by storm, and Shihori follows him. Sho tries to get his head wrapped around all that's happening, and Nino shuts him down every time, distracting him by asking about the fish in the tanks and letting Sho run his mouth about them instead.
The day ends around sunset. Jun's off to Paris tomorrow, and he likes to turn in early. Sho catches a train, and it's the three of them on foot back to the apartment. "What's the flight number?" Shihori asks Jun while they're waiting for a green light.
"415," Jun replies. "Why?"
She's got her phone out, playing with her airline app. "I'm going to track you."
"That sounds scary," Jun tells her. "You mean you're tracking the flight?"
"Now that you're living with us, it seems wrong not to. I track Aiba-kun's flights all the time, see?" She shoves the phone at him. Nino knows it's got Aiba's usual routes saved in there. She always tracks it, but Nino doesn't think Aiba knows that she does. It's her way of caring for him without him knowing. But she's gone ahead and let the cat out of the bag.
"Thank you," Jun says politely.
"I just...I'd like to know you're okay, that's all."
Jun gets really quiet, only nodding. They get their green light and cross the street, halfway home. They don't talk much the rest of the way, and Jun's already gone when they wake up the next morning. But on the table, there's a notecard with "Kanjiya-san" neatly printed and Jun's handwritten his schedule for the next month - every date, every time, every flight number.
--
End of an Era
Aiba Masaki is waiting in the south employee entry hall of the Funabashi Rakuten Fulfillment Center one hot July evening. Nino's just cleared through for the night, scanning out and going through the metal detector to ensure his employers that he's not a thief.
Nino gapes at the unfamiliar shape of Aiba in this place. How did he even know how to get here? He gets lost without the GPS in his car. "Did someone die?"
Aiba's worried expression certainly gives off that impression, but he shakes his head, tugging Nino by the elbow and dragging him over to the vending machines while his other co-workers pass by in equal confusion. This is most likely because Aiba is here in his uniform and is pulling his wheeled suitcase with him. Who the hell let him in?
"Nino, something's happened."
"Spit it out," he says, panicking that Shihori or Jun or another of their friends might be hurt.
Aiba's shaky hands squeeze Nino's shoulders. "I can't...I can't go home."
Nino narrows his eyes. "Huh?"
"They've been discontinued, Onion King. The United States stopped making them two months ago," he admits, sweating from the heat and his layers of clothes as well as from his distress.
"Wait, what?"
"Shii-chan's chips," Aiba explains, rolling his eyes as though Nino's an imbecile. "I hadn't told her because I thought I had another way of getting them. They weren't getting pulled from the shelves, not until this week, so my friend in Los Angeles had been storing them at her house. But now they're gone and she hasn't found another supplier."
Nino is smart enough to know that Aiba's "friend" in Los Angeles is actually his girlfriend, a half-Japanese girl named Becky who works for American Airlines in the LAX terminal. What female "friend" would let a guy like him crash at her house every time he's in town? Sometimes Aiba has his laptop in the living room, and the girl's picture (in her bra and panties, no less) is his wallpaper. Nino has slammed down the lid to protect the girl's privacy on a few occasions, but either way, that doesn't matter because there's no more Onion King and all hell is about to break loose.
"They haven't made them in two months, and you said nothing?"
"I told you, I thought I had another supplier."
It sounds like they're talking about drugs, so Nino yanks Aiba's suitcase from him and heads out the door. Luckily enough Aiba had parked his car at Narita that week instead of taking the train and has driven to Funabashi to get him. Clearly he hasn't been home yet, and he's too frightened to confront Shihori alone. He's driven here to snag Nino in hopes of having someone else in the apartment to keep him from being murdered.
"You can't just show up at my work, that's weird," Nino tells him.
"Why?"
"Because it is," Nino says, even as he relishes the chance to save on train fare and get a free ride home. Work life and home life are separate. "Don't come here again."
"Whatever."
They drive in silence for a little while, navigating through the evening traffic. When they get closer to home, Aiba seems to be taking the long way on purpose. Nino sighs. "You have to tell her."
"I know."
"Face her like a man. She'll respect you for that."
"Before she drowns me in the bath tonight."
"She isn't going to drown you," Nino says, grinning. "She's not strong enough for that."
"Nino, shut up!" Aiba whines, smacking the steering wheel. "Ahhh, what am I going to do?"
"Park the fucking car. You just passed the garage, dumb ass."
"Ahhh," his friend whines again, taking them at least six blocks out of the way before turning around again. Nino tries his best to keep his chuckling at bay, but it's very difficult when Aiba's so nervous he looks like someone on the way to their execution. All because of a bag of stinky, nasty potato chips.
They park and make the walk back to the apartment. Jun will be back tomorrow. Maybe he'll bring back some croissants or something to ease Shihori's rage. Nino considers sending him an email, but for now, they've got Shihori to contend with.
As they always do, Nino's feet hurt as he takes the stairs up one at a time, but Aiba's walk up to the apartment is even slower. Nino snorts, unlocking the door. "We're home."
"Welcome home!" It's Kenji they see first, his head peering around the corner before Shihori's there in the hallway, watching him and Aiba take off their shoes.
Aiba says nothing, trying his best to hide behind Nino, but he's a larger guy, like an elephant hiding behind a tree. Nino figures it's best to get it over with now. "Aiba-shi has something to say. You might want to sit down."
"Did someone die?" Shihori asks, gasping.
Nino has to cover his mouth, scampering around her to hide. He sneaks into his room and closes the door just in time to hear Shihori's inhuman howl of rage. Again, they're quite fortunate that the dental office downstairs closes at 6 PM. Over the next few minutes he hears several unladylike words come from her followed by many repetitions of "two months?!" and "why did you wait until they were all gone?"
As Nino suspected, it's this breach of trust that enrages Shihori almost as much as the end of Onion King. Had Aiba simply told her upfront about the issue, perhaps she'd have had time to mourn properly, to find a new snack to love. It's bad enough she's feeling guilty eating anything at all when Jun's filled his section of the fridge with bizarre vegetable juices and low-sodium everything. Now the poor girl's been cut off abruptly, and Nino knows the feeling. He quit smoking cold turkey a year and a half ago, and the struggle was painful. His ability to meet his quotas at work, to walk miles without wanting to keel over and die, however, has greatly improved.
Shihori's bedroom door slams dramatically, and soon after, Aiba's door opens and closes quietly. Nino goes to his own door and peers out. Kenji has taken up residence on the couch, looking so satisfied Nino's half-convinced the damn cat shut down the chip factory. He snickers to himself, pulling out his phone and firing off a warning email to Jun, apprising him of the situation and letting him know that he's coming home to a cold war in progress. The email he gets back is unexpectedly full of cute emoji that doesn't fit Jun's stoic image.
"I've got it covered," it says amongst the little laughing faces and peace signs and fireworks.
The Onion King fiasco is downgraded to an "inconvenience" when an exhausted-looking Jun returns from Narita the next day, dead on his feet but bearing a large bag filled with fancy boxes of macarons in every color of the rainbow. Nino doesn't want to know how much it cost him, especially if he bought them at the airport before the flight. Shihori nearly knocks him down getting them away from him, pointedly ignoring Aiba while she eats them. Nino, having no French treats or American treats to offer, can only sit in the chair feeling like the odd man out.
--
Typhoon
"The trains aren't running," Shihori is saying, setting up candles around the room while Nino follows her course with a lighter. "No, no, it's too dangerous to drive. No, we'll be fine here."
A typhoon, the first big one of the year, has knocked out the power, and Keiko is stupidly trying to talk Nino and Shihori into making their way across town to stay the night with her and Sho.
"And what if their power goes out?" Nino asks, lighting another candle.
"Yeah," Shihori says. "What if your power goes out, huh? And I am not carrying the cat with us, no way. You're just using the storm as an excuse for a cat play date. How low can you sink, honestly?"
Keiko is obviously arguing her case on the other end, but Nino is pretty certain he and Shihori will make it through. They've got candles, they're keeping the refrigerator and freezer closed, they'll survive. Jun's stuck at the airport until it passes, and he's been messaging them back and forth for a while but has just stopped so he can charge his phone. Aiba left yesterday and is in sunny California probably having sex without a second thought for his suffering roommates.
The thunder and lightning have sent Kenji fleeing. The last Nino saw him, he was dashing underneath his bed. That Kenji's favorite room is Nino's says a lot about the recent tension in the apartment. Between Shihori's Onion King rage, Aiba's desperate attempts to avoid making her angrier, and Jun's tendency to close his bedroom door when he's gone, Kenji has chosen wisely. Although his occasional furballs have not earned him much favor with Nino in recent days.
Once Shihori's phone call is up, the cat's absence leaves the two of them to sit in the living room alone, surrounded by a bunch of scented candles that cast shadows on the massive Kitty Kondo. The combinations of fruity and sweet and pine are kind of disgusting, so perhaps they could do a little more emergency planning for the next power outage. For now, they're stuck with the smells, sitting side by side on the couch. Nino's got his 3DS with at least a few hours more of battery life. For lack of anything else to do because her phone is dying, Shihori seems content to just sit beside him and listen to the beeps and boops from his game.
"What did you want to be when you grew up?"
He smiles at his game. "Starting this kind of talk already? Alright. A baseball player."
"I wanted to be a mangaka," she replies. "I had great ideas."
"Can you draw?"
"Not at all. I'm horrible!" He hears her sigh, leaning back against the cushions with her feet propped up on the table. "It was a short-lived dream."
"You know who can draw? Oh-chan."
"No way."
"No, seriously," he says, his progress in the game starting to slow. "He was in the art club in high school. He was really, really good. He drew a picture of me once, but my head was on a dog's body."
She snorts at that. "What? Why?"
"He thought I looked like a dog. He was a really bizarre senpai to have."
There's a comfortable silence, and his characters advance through the cave dungeon. Eventually she speaks up again.
"Were you waiting for me to say 'No Nino, you don't look like a dog' or something?"
Nino grins. "I wasn't, but if those are your true feelings..."
"Ah, they are. Dogs are cuter."
This gets a heartfelt laugh out of him, and he reaches out a hand to give her a little shove. "I'm going by Keiko and Sho-chan's place. I'll receive better treatment there."
"Yeah yeah," she says back, chuckling at him and returning the shove. He relishes the warm press of her hand to his shoulder, however brief it is. This is his life now, waiting for little moments to crop up, for her to find any excuse to tease him, to touch him. He's usually more aggressive when he likes someone, usually much more straightforward. Usually he doesn't have competition living under the same roof.
If Jun has feelings for Shihori, even after only being here a couple months, he hasn't shown it. A three year relationship takes time to get over, and Jun never really talks about it. When he goes out to meet friends, it always seems like he's meeting up with guys for some drinks. If he has one night stands with women in Paris, he's certainly not telling them about it. Jun's very private. Not closed off or anything, but he seems to prefer that some things remain a mystery.
Shihori dotes on him in a way she never bothers to with Nino or Aiba. Sometimes she even does his laundry for him. Maybe it's because he's so different. Aiba is an open book, the type of person comfortable enough to fart when they're in the room with him and brag about it. And Nino believes he's pretty honest and open. Not to an Aiba level because Aiba is a complete anomaly when it comes to human existence, but Nino doesn't have many secrets besides the feelings he's hiding for his female roommate. Compared to the two of them, Matsumoto Jun is that cool, handsome guy, the hero in the manga who just needs someone to love him. And Shihori, despite her age, still reads a lot of manga like that.
But as much as Nino wants to let his jealousy turn him against Jun, he can't. Jun is private and quiet, but Jun is also a very sweet, kind person. Nino has caught him on multiple occasions talking to Kenji, a thirty year old man curled up on the floor beside the Kitty Kondo trying to befriend him, but the cat is still not a big fan. Jun leaves thoughtful comments on Sho's blog and has even submitted guest reviews of some ramen shops in Paris. He can talk baseball, he can talk old school Mario, he gives Shihori guest passes to his gym. Sometimes he's blunt or speaks without thinking, but he kicks himself about it later. And he cries during movies, those huge brown eyes of his filling up with tears during an apartment-wide viewing of some movie with a heartwarming ending a week earlier.
It's impossible not to like him in some way, so Nino gets it. He really does get it. Shihori would be silly not to fall for him. There's no harm in it when they're both single, and nobody's told her what Nino feels. Sho and Keiko know, and Nino thinks Aiba suspects something. He knows what he feels, but Nino just isn't sure he's ready for a commitment. Because that's what it would mean with Shihori. They live together already, so he can't just stop by for sex and leave. Their lives are too entwined now, and Nino's made friends with her friends. If it went sour, if he didn't treat her right, he'd lose almost everything. It's scary, really scary to think about. He can only distract himself with fantasies momentarily before reality sets in.
Shihori's phone vibrates. "Jun's flight is delayed another six hours, he's going to sleep. Hmm," she says, "I guess they've got places for that when you work for the airline."
"Sucks," Nino replies. "I hardly ever fly, and I hate delays. I can't imagine flying for a living and dealing with it."
"Me neither," she says. "And the passengers are going to be so cranky when they finally do leave. I couldn't be patient with them."
"Maybe that's why Jun-kun's always so grouchy. He uses up all his politeness in the air."
"He's not that grouchy," Shihori complains. "Compared to you."
"Me? When am I grouchy? I'm extremely pleasant."
She's laughing at him now. "What? How about every morning when your lazy carcass comes stumbling out of the bedroom? Or when you come home from work and lie face down on the living room floor?"
"I don't do that," he lies.
"You seem to have a very inflated opinion of yourself, Nino."
"The most important person in my life is me, so of course I do..."
She's near hysterical, muffling her laugh against the sleeve of his t-shirt. Somehow during this conversation she's leaned close, rested her head against his shoulder while he plays his game. Now he decides that if she's gone ahead and felt comfortable enough to do that, she won't mind when he lifts his arm and wraps it around her shoulder, even if it brings the challenge of resting his game in his lap and playing one handed. Turns out she doesn't mind, and she only snuggles closer to him, smearing her finger against the game screen.
"Who's that?"
"Nino."
She's so warm, and without the aircon running it's rather humid in the apartment. He hopes that he's not too stinky from sweat. Living with three men must have gotten her used to all sorts of smells by now. "You named your character after yourself?"
"Wouldn't you? You clock more than 70 hours on a game and you wouldn't make yourself the hero?"
"The main character is usually a boy."
"Shihori can be a very manly name."
She punches him in the thigh and lets him keep playing, only asking sporadic questions about the plot, the characters, his battle strategies. The whole time she doesn't move away, seems content to be so close even in the heat. The rain pings against the windowpanes, the wind blows, and the eye of the typhoon's probably across Chiba and out in the ocean already. He pauses the game to get up and pee, but sees that she's fallen asleep despite the lingering storm.
He sets his game aside. Maybe she likes Jun, maybe she doesn't. Or maybe she likes him but doesn't want to get tangled up in a rebound. But what does she think about Nino? Sometimes she sits next to Aiba this way, poking at him while they watch a movie, but it means nothing since Shihori doesn't like him that way and Aiba's otherwise spoken for. So maybe she thinks of Nino the same way?
Does it matter?
He strokes her hair. "Hey. Come on, Shii-chan."
"Mmm," she mumbles.
"I need to pee."
"Alright."
When he gets back from the bathroom, she's still where he left her. He blows out the candles and pulls her up, an arm around her waist. She seems to have no problems with this, and when he opens her bedroom door, she doesn't let him go. He hasn't been in her room much at all, and in the dark, everything's unfamiliar until his knees hit the mattress. He hears the bed shift and creak as she climbs in, shoving the sheets aside.
"I'll see you in the morning."
"No."
"No?" he whispers. "You planning to die in your sleep?"
"No, come here."
Not one to turn down an invitation like this from a woman, he obediently gets into the bed with her. The sheets smell different, a different laundry detergent. It's nice. She has a full-size bed, but even with the space for both, she stays close, encouraging him to spoon up behind her, an arm around her.
Maybe she doesn't like Jun after all.
It wouldn't take much effort to find out, to confirm it. All he has to do is move his hand up under her shirt or down into her pajama bottoms. He imagines each scenario easily, the noises and moans she might make. He imagines getting her on her back, discovering how it feels to be inside her, wanting to know what she sounds like when she comes. He does none of these things, of course, keeping his hand around her middle and listening to her fall back asleep.
She wakes first, and he thinks he feels her fingers stroking his face, poking at the mole on his chin. When he wakes for good, the power's back on and a note on the kitchen table says she's out shopping with Keiko.
There's an almost angry email from Keiko waiting for him later that afternoon.
"What's taking you so long?"
Part Four
Health and Wellness
Within a week, Matsumoto's moved into the empty bedroom next to Shihori. He has a lot of clothes for a person who is rarely home, but Aiba's managed to accumulate a lot of things himself over the years. Shihori is teetering on the edge of madness, having a sad and depressed but ridiculously handsome man sharing a wall with her now. Nino isn't teetering at all, thanking his lucky stars that he now gets to pay one-fourth of the rent owed and not one-third. No matter the circumstances that brought Matsumoto Jun to their door with the face of a kicked puppy, if it means monetary savings for Nino, he doesn't mind at all.
Matsumoto is very stern, very stiff, very well-mannered, and Nino knows it'll be a while before he gets used to the daily stupidity that occurs in the apartment. He comes home from the store, asks for a marker or pen to label his food in the refrigerator. He seems confused when Nino and Shihori laugh at him.
"We're not going to steal your organic quinoa and kale salad," Nino is embarrassed to explain.
Matsumoto has remarkable self-discipline. Aiba has a strange metabolism. He eats like a junior high school student, non-stop junk and tons of greasy stuff and days' worth of meat in one sitting. But nothing sticks to him, and he does the occasional jog or pick-up game of basketball with some friends from high school. Shihori has exercise DVDs that Nino isn't supposed to know about except when she forgets them in the DVD player. "What the hell is a Zumba?" Nino finds himself asking one morning, disc in hand, before she yanks it away and runs with it to her room. Nino's exercise is called his job at the warehouse.
But Matsumoto Jun blows them all out of the water. He has a strange thing called a "gym membership" and he actually uses it, disappearing at the crack of dawn on his days off and returning fresh-faced and probably firmer than before. He counts calories and shops at the expensive grocery store that never puts things on sale. He eats bananas constantly. Constantly. Matsumoto eats more bananas in a week than Nino has probably eaten in his life. One day Nino catches Shihori peeling a banana, and he knows the contagion may be spreading. The bags of Onion King that once sat on the kitchen counter, held closed with a plastic clip, seem to have been stashed away in her bedroom.
The sudden health-consciousness wraps the apartment in a vise grip. Nino's eating instant yakisoba one off-day afternoon when Shihori suddenly plops herself down sideways on the couch, stretching her legs out so they lie across Nino's lap. He's stunned, holding the instant food container and chopsticks in hand as she squirms.
"Nino, do you think I have fat calves?" she asks. Shihori's in a knee-length skirt made of some soft jersey material, and her feet are bare, toes twinkling pink. He chews his food, obediently looking down at the lower legs now possessively perched across his thighs. He wills himself to contain the excitement her closeness is inspiring.
"Is this a trick question?" he replies.
"No, she complains, leaning back on her elbows. This motion arches her back and pushes her chest up, her t-shirt stretching across her breasts in the best way. Nino usually goes for the back end before the front end when it comes to admiring the female form, but living with a woman of Shihori's shape has opened his eyes to the best of both worlds. It's impossible to ignore the perky swell of her chest. Her bottom gives off a similar impression. But that's neither here nor there, merely the thoughts of a man without a girlfriend living with a woman without a boyfriend. Nino would feel guilty, ogling her, but he knows that Aiba likes to look too.
He finds, though, that he's never given much thought to her legs. His only points of comparison are the shins and calves that came before her, the girls he's been with previously. He's not sure at what point a woman determines them to be "fat" because he's known several women who have disliked various parts of themselves that Nino didn't at all. The magazines geared to women are kind of scary - slim down here, here, and here but make sure this stands out. It's confusing.
"From visual inspection," he says, holding his lunch aside. "They look okay." And they do. Nino's been with a few girls a little bigger than her and maybe more girls a little thinner than her, but she's still not an outlier on the chart.
"I think my ankles should be slimmer."
"Why?"
"I don't know," she admits. "Just the impression I get when I wear heels."
"Isn't this something Kei-chan can better weigh in on? Men don't think about these things so seriously."
This is the wrong thing to say because her legs are withdrawn, the warmth in his lap disappearing. In that instant, Nino wishes she'd put them back, that she'd let him touch and feel. He watches her poke at the back of her legs, watches her bend at the knee a few times, frowning. He shouldn't have mentioned Keiko, who is a little taller and thinner.
Her usually big, bright eyes seem a bit duller today. "I'm too lazy."
He digs into his lunch anew, not really wanting to go down this road. It's Matsumoto Jun's newness that is frustrating her more than any real disillusionment with herself. Before she never seemed to care much about how she looked at home, but now Nino can tell she's got on a bit more makeup and she leaves her hair down, letting it brush past her shoulders instead of tying it up in some messy ponytail. She's always been pretty, even in pajamas. He kind of wants to sock Jun-kun in the face, even if he's not aware of the psychological shifts his presence is inflicting.
"I find you well-proportioned," Nino tells her. "And I can't comment on laziness objectively."
"As a friend or as a man?"
"Hmm?"
She gets up from the couch, stretches. "Your opinion on my proportions. What perspective are you coming from?"
"Ah," he says, seeing her cheeks grow pink. "Definitely as a man."
She seems satisfied with this answer for now, but when he's in his room that night playing on his 3DS, he hears noise coming from the living room. One of her exercise DVDs, the sound lowered a bit and her feet shuffling across the floor. He pauses the game, sets the 3DS aside.
"Come on! You can do it!" one of the cheerful instructors is saying while some high-tempo Latin music plays.
He shuts his eyes, imagines her moving to the rhythm. Perspiration and determination on her face. He's not surprised when it leads to him pulling up his blanket, his hand slipping into his shorts. It's usually an AV star, an ex, an uncomplicated target. But tonight, for the first intentional time, it's Shihori, her back arched and her legs in his lap. Maybe he's known all along this was going to happen.
When he finishes, the music is still playing, her feet are still moving, and he stares at the ceiling knowing that the bridge behind him has crumbled and there's no going back.
--
Too Soon
It's apparently a horrible thing that Nino has never ridden the ferris wheel at Kasai Rinkai Park. Especially now that he's here in Edogawa and the park's maybe a 30 minute walk, give or take, depending on street lights. Shihori floats the idea at the bar one night. They've made sure to hold another meet and greet so Jun can be properly introduced to Oh-chan, Keiko, and Sho, the extension of the apartment family. He's a big hit, especially because his serious demeanor lets Sho off the hook as the member of the group with the least sense of humor about himself.
Keiko will be off on a business trip that'll take her to Fukuoka for the better part of a week. Sho, who doesn't like to be cooped up at home alone, takes Shihori's side and wants to plan an entire day at Kasai Rinkai. Oh-chan begs off with work and Aiba too, and suddenly it becomes a strange grouping of Shihori, Nino, Sho, and newbie Jun, who had tried to gather interest in a visit to DisneySea, but nobody has the money right now. Nino would have declined the invite too, but a mixture of Shihori's insistence and the thought of Shihori riding the ferris wheel with Jun have changed his mind.
He's not usually like this. He chalks it up to the early stages of realizing he's falling and falling fast.
Before Jun can volunteer, Shihori packs them a picnic lunch. Onigiri, a thermos of miso soup, a salad Shihori likes to make that has kimchi in it. Sho meets them at the park gate, itinerary called up on his phone. He's already bought tickets for the ferris wheel, leaving them a good hour for lunch. Nino's very happy to let Sho plan their day because it means less Nino has to do.
While they pull their picnic items from the backpack Jun's carrying, Sho explains the ferris wheel to Nino, as if he is from Mars and unfamiliar with the concept. Sho has stats about the wheel's size, about its creation, how it "takes 17 minutes to complete a full rotation, isn't that amazing?" Finally they shut him up with the fattest onigiri in the bunch. The poor guy seems lost without Keiko to tell him when he's talked enough for the day.
It's a beautiful clear day, and Jun's brought a fancy digital SLR camera with all the bells and whistles. On the walk to the ferris wheel they stop over and over again so he can take a picture of something. Jun only apologizes the first time for making them wait. The wheel itself is a massive thing, the largest in Japan, set in the middle of a grassy field. Nino quietly arranges it so Shihori's leading them into the queue and he's behind her so he can snag the seat beside her.
It's at this point that Sho informs them all he's a little scared of heights, so please don't rock the car. This pronouncement makes the previously polite and proper Matsumoto Jun crack a wicked smile. Great, a sadist. They hand in their tickets and prepare for an awkward 17 minutes. Nino's wish is granted, Shihori tugging on his sleeve so he plops down beside her. Sho slowly enters their car and sits down, looking straight ahead and taking deep breaths. Jun is last, camera whipped out and snapping every few seconds.
Nino really didn't have to worry about him, he's on another plane of existence entirely. As their car slowly starts to ascend, Jun is in the photo zone, capturing every miniscule bit of their climb. He turns around, adjusts his position on the seat, which makes Sho wince almost every time he moves. If Keiko was here, maybe she'd be doing the same thing. An uncomfortable Sho is, after all, rather adorable to watch.
Because it's so clear, they can see out over Tokyo Bay and get a good view of Disneyland in one direction, the SkyTree in another. Sho looks out but doesn't look down, his hands shaking a bit in his lap while Jun's camera makes its continuous noises. Nino's mouth goes dry when Shihori links her arm through his, points to different landmarks they can see from the car. It makes time slow to a crawl, how easily she clings to him, how her excitement seems to vibrate throughout the car and envelop them in it. If only they were alone.
"Hey, over here," Jun says, oblivious, pointing his huge lens at them. "Let's show Aiba-san we had a wonderful time without him."
Shihori laps up the attention, making Jun take several shots of her in various poses. The whole time she's still got their arms linked, but it's Jun she's posing for, Jun's eyes she's trying to meet through the lens. "I don't like that one, Aiba-kun won't be jealous of that one," she protests, angling them so they've got Disney behind them. "Get up, get up so you can get Disneyland."
Jun agrees, making Sho whine as he gets to his feet, intentionally rocking the car more than necessary. He looms over them, camera angled down so he can capture the theme park far below. Nino and Shihori look up, Nino tries to smile. "Say 'Disney'," Jun says.
"Disney!" Shihori says alone, smiling big and the camera beeps and the shutter sounds. The car's big enough for six and Jun sits down on Shihori's other side, going into his camera's review mode. This leaves Sho feeling vulnerable, and he scoots slightly more to the center of the car, shakily snapping a picture with his phone for Keiko. Nino feels Shihori's grip on him loosen and she leans the other way to look at Jun's pictures. Even in his nervousness, Sho somehow notices this, meets Nino's eyes. Realization hits Sho hard, and he gives Nino a sympathetic look.
The ferris wheel turns and the car starts to descend. Once they're off the thing, and Sho is once more on solid ground, he annoyingly decides to help Nino out. By the end of the day, Keiko is obviously going to know, and Nino doesn't even want to know what her reaction is going to be when she learns Nino is crushing on her best friend.
"Matsumoto-san, how about the aquarium? I bet you can get some wonderful photos there." Jun, pleased by the thought of getting more pictures, goes on ahead with him, the two of them talking about nerdy things, Sho probably reciting aquarium factoids from the Internet from memory, Jun absorbing this information so he can feel more intelligent about the pictures he's taking. Two nerdy peas in a pod, Nino thinks, but he does owe this chance to Sho. Maybe he should be a little nicer to him from now on.
Nino's got their empty backpack from the picnic, plastic containers and bento boxes shuffling along inside as he and Shihori follow behind. "So what did you think of the ferris wheel, huh?"
"Nice view."
"Nice view, he says," Shihori complains. "It was a spectacular view. You don't get a clear view of everything like that every single day."
"I guess not. I'm usually not a ride person. It's a good thing we didn't go to DisneySea, I'd have been sitting alone waiting for you all day."
She turns and gasps. "You don't like rides? No roller coasters? No nothing?"
He shakes his head. "I don't like them at all."
"Not even the water rides?"
He considers this. "I'd rather not."
She looks almost heartbroken. "How do you live like this?"
"Quite easily, thanks."
"Oh Nino," she says, as though he's told her he's dying from an incurable disease, not that he's scared of roller coasters. They move to start catching up with Jun and Sho. "Well, if we do have a DisneySea day, we'll keep your feelings in mind."
"By not inviting me?"
She blushes. "That sounds awful. I couldn't do that..."
"Take Aiba-shi, take Kei-chan. Oh-chan would go if someone bought his ticket for him. Hey, why not take Jun-kun, he looks like the wild ride type of guy." Nino picks at his own scab. "Do a double date sometime. You, Kei-chan, Sho-kun, and him."
"Don't say things like that," Shihori chides him with an elbow to the side. "Don't say double date."
"Why not?"
She looks uncomfortable. "He was dating that woman for three years. It's too soon." They haven't learned too much about Jun's former beloved besides her name (Yuko) and that she was older than him, which probably explains her desire to start a family and her lack of interest in waiting.
"When will it not be too soon?"
She hasn't been looking at him for some time, their footsteps heavy on the cement path as they see Jun and Sho get closer to the aquarium. "Why does it matter to you?"
"It doesn't." He shrugs and his lie tastes bitter. "Just making conversation."
"I see."
When they catch up, Sho looks to him hopefully, as if walking ahead for ten minutes makes him some kind of matchmaker. Nino merely shakes his head, sees Sho's disappointment. Jun and his camera take the aquarium by storm, and Shihori follows him. Sho tries to get his head wrapped around all that's happening, and Nino shuts him down every time, distracting him by asking about the fish in the tanks and letting Sho run his mouth about them instead.
The day ends around sunset. Jun's off to Paris tomorrow, and he likes to turn in early. Sho catches a train, and it's the three of them on foot back to the apartment. "What's the flight number?" Shihori asks Jun while they're waiting for a green light.
"415," Jun replies. "Why?"
She's got her phone out, playing with her airline app. "I'm going to track you."
"That sounds scary," Jun tells her. "You mean you're tracking the flight?"
"Now that you're living with us, it seems wrong not to. I track Aiba-kun's flights all the time, see?" She shoves the phone at him. Nino knows it's got Aiba's usual routes saved in there. She always tracks it, but Nino doesn't think Aiba knows that she does. It's her way of caring for him without him knowing. But she's gone ahead and let the cat out of the bag.
"Thank you," Jun says politely.
"I just...I'd like to know you're okay, that's all."
Jun gets really quiet, only nodding. They get their green light and cross the street, halfway home. They don't talk much the rest of the way, and Jun's already gone when they wake up the next morning. But on the table, there's a notecard with "Kanjiya-san" neatly printed and Jun's handwritten his schedule for the next month - every date, every time, every flight number.
--
End of an Era
Aiba Masaki is waiting in the south employee entry hall of the Funabashi Rakuten Fulfillment Center one hot July evening. Nino's just cleared through for the night, scanning out and going through the metal detector to ensure his employers that he's not a thief.
Nino gapes at the unfamiliar shape of Aiba in this place. How did he even know how to get here? He gets lost without the GPS in his car. "Did someone die?"
Aiba's worried expression certainly gives off that impression, but he shakes his head, tugging Nino by the elbow and dragging him over to the vending machines while his other co-workers pass by in equal confusion. This is most likely because Aiba is here in his uniform and is pulling his wheeled suitcase with him. Who the hell let him in?
"Nino, something's happened."
"Spit it out," he says, panicking that Shihori or Jun or another of their friends might be hurt.
Aiba's shaky hands squeeze Nino's shoulders. "I can't...I can't go home."
Nino narrows his eyes. "Huh?"
"They've been discontinued, Onion King. The United States stopped making them two months ago," he admits, sweating from the heat and his layers of clothes as well as from his distress.
"Wait, what?"
"Shii-chan's chips," Aiba explains, rolling his eyes as though Nino's an imbecile. "I hadn't told her because I thought I had another way of getting them. They weren't getting pulled from the shelves, not until this week, so my friend in Los Angeles had been storing them at her house. But now they're gone and she hasn't found another supplier."
Nino is smart enough to know that Aiba's "friend" in Los Angeles is actually his girlfriend, a half-Japanese girl named Becky who works for American Airlines in the LAX terminal. What female "friend" would let a guy like him crash at her house every time he's in town? Sometimes Aiba has his laptop in the living room, and the girl's picture (in her bra and panties, no less) is his wallpaper. Nino has slammed down the lid to protect the girl's privacy on a few occasions, but either way, that doesn't matter because there's no more Onion King and all hell is about to break loose.
"They haven't made them in two months, and you said nothing?"
"I told you, I thought I had another supplier."
It sounds like they're talking about drugs, so Nino yanks Aiba's suitcase from him and heads out the door. Luckily enough Aiba had parked his car at Narita that week instead of taking the train and has driven to Funabashi to get him. Clearly he hasn't been home yet, and he's too frightened to confront Shihori alone. He's driven here to snag Nino in hopes of having someone else in the apartment to keep him from being murdered.
"You can't just show up at my work, that's weird," Nino tells him.
"Why?"
"Because it is," Nino says, even as he relishes the chance to save on train fare and get a free ride home. Work life and home life are separate. "Don't come here again."
"Whatever."
They drive in silence for a little while, navigating through the evening traffic. When they get closer to home, Aiba seems to be taking the long way on purpose. Nino sighs. "You have to tell her."
"I know."
"Face her like a man. She'll respect you for that."
"Before she drowns me in the bath tonight."
"She isn't going to drown you," Nino says, grinning. "She's not strong enough for that."
"Nino, shut up!" Aiba whines, smacking the steering wheel. "Ahhh, what am I going to do?"
"Park the fucking car. You just passed the garage, dumb ass."
"Ahhh," his friend whines again, taking them at least six blocks out of the way before turning around again. Nino tries his best to keep his chuckling at bay, but it's very difficult when Aiba's so nervous he looks like someone on the way to their execution. All because of a bag of stinky, nasty potato chips.
They park and make the walk back to the apartment. Jun will be back tomorrow. Maybe he'll bring back some croissants or something to ease Shihori's rage. Nino considers sending him an email, but for now, they've got Shihori to contend with.
As they always do, Nino's feet hurt as he takes the stairs up one at a time, but Aiba's walk up to the apartment is even slower. Nino snorts, unlocking the door. "We're home."
"Welcome home!" It's Kenji they see first, his head peering around the corner before Shihori's there in the hallway, watching him and Aiba take off their shoes.
Aiba says nothing, trying his best to hide behind Nino, but he's a larger guy, like an elephant hiding behind a tree. Nino figures it's best to get it over with now. "Aiba-shi has something to say. You might want to sit down."
"Did someone die?" Shihori asks, gasping.
Nino has to cover his mouth, scampering around her to hide. He sneaks into his room and closes the door just in time to hear Shihori's inhuman howl of rage. Again, they're quite fortunate that the dental office downstairs closes at 6 PM. Over the next few minutes he hears several unladylike words come from her followed by many repetitions of "two months?!" and "why did you wait until they were all gone?"
As Nino suspected, it's this breach of trust that enrages Shihori almost as much as the end of Onion King. Had Aiba simply told her upfront about the issue, perhaps she'd have had time to mourn properly, to find a new snack to love. It's bad enough she's feeling guilty eating anything at all when Jun's filled his section of the fridge with bizarre vegetable juices and low-sodium everything. Now the poor girl's been cut off abruptly, and Nino knows the feeling. He quit smoking cold turkey a year and a half ago, and the struggle was painful. His ability to meet his quotas at work, to walk miles without wanting to keel over and die, however, has greatly improved.
Shihori's bedroom door slams dramatically, and soon after, Aiba's door opens and closes quietly. Nino goes to his own door and peers out. Kenji has taken up residence on the couch, looking so satisfied Nino's half-convinced the damn cat shut down the chip factory. He snickers to himself, pulling out his phone and firing off a warning email to Jun, apprising him of the situation and letting him know that he's coming home to a cold war in progress. The email he gets back is unexpectedly full of cute emoji that doesn't fit Jun's stoic image.
"I've got it covered," it says amongst the little laughing faces and peace signs and fireworks.
The Onion King fiasco is downgraded to an "inconvenience" when an exhausted-looking Jun returns from Narita the next day, dead on his feet but bearing a large bag filled with fancy boxes of macarons in every color of the rainbow. Nino doesn't want to know how much it cost him, especially if he bought them at the airport before the flight. Shihori nearly knocks him down getting them away from him, pointedly ignoring Aiba while she eats them. Nino, having no French treats or American treats to offer, can only sit in the chair feeling like the odd man out.
--
Typhoon
"The trains aren't running," Shihori is saying, setting up candles around the room while Nino follows her course with a lighter. "No, no, it's too dangerous to drive. No, we'll be fine here."
A typhoon, the first big one of the year, has knocked out the power, and Keiko is stupidly trying to talk Nino and Shihori into making their way across town to stay the night with her and Sho.
"And what if their power goes out?" Nino asks, lighting another candle.
"Yeah," Shihori says. "What if your power goes out, huh? And I am not carrying the cat with us, no way. You're just using the storm as an excuse for a cat play date. How low can you sink, honestly?"
Keiko is obviously arguing her case on the other end, but Nino is pretty certain he and Shihori will make it through. They've got candles, they're keeping the refrigerator and freezer closed, they'll survive. Jun's stuck at the airport until it passes, and he's been messaging them back and forth for a while but has just stopped so he can charge his phone. Aiba left yesterday and is in sunny California probably having sex without a second thought for his suffering roommates.
The thunder and lightning have sent Kenji fleeing. The last Nino saw him, he was dashing underneath his bed. That Kenji's favorite room is Nino's says a lot about the recent tension in the apartment. Between Shihori's Onion King rage, Aiba's desperate attempts to avoid making her angrier, and Jun's tendency to close his bedroom door when he's gone, Kenji has chosen wisely. Although his occasional furballs have not earned him much favor with Nino in recent days.
Once Shihori's phone call is up, the cat's absence leaves the two of them to sit in the living room alone, surrounded by a bunch of scented candles that cast shadows on the massive Kitty Kondo. The combinations of fruity and sweet and pine are kind of disgusting, so perhaps they could do a little more emergency planning for the next power outage. For now, they're stuck with the smells, sitting side by side on the couch. Nino's got his 3DS with at least a few hours more of battery life. For lack of anything else to do because her phone is dying, Shihori seems content to just sit beside him and listen to the beeps and boops from his game.
"What did you want to be when you grew up?"
He smiles at his game. "Starting this kind of talk already? Alright. A baseball player."
"I wanted to be a mangaka," she replies. "I had great ideas."
"Can you draw?"
"Not at all. I'm horrible!" He hears her sigh, leaning back against the cushions with her feet propped up on the table. "It was a short-lived dream."
"You know who can draw? Oh-chan."
"No way."
"No, seriously," he says, his progress in the game starting to slow. "He was in the art club in high school. He was really, really good. He drew a picture of me once, but my head was on a dog's body."
She snorts at that. "What? Why?"
"He thought I looked like a dog. He was a really bizarre senpai to have."
There's a comfortable silence, and his characters advance through the cave dungeon. Eventually she speaks up again.
"Were you waiting for me to say 'No Nino, you don't look like a dog' or something?"
Nino grins. "I wasn't, but if those are your true feelings..."
"Ah, they are. Dogs are cuter."
This gets a heartfelt laugh out of him, and he reaches out a hand to give her a little shove. "I'm going by Keiko and Sho-chan's place. I'll receive better treatment there."
"Yeah yeah," she says back, chuckling at him and returning the shove. He relishes the warm press of her hand to his shoulder, however brief it is. This is his life now, waiting for little moments to crop up, for her to find any excuse to tease him, to touch him. He's usually more aggressive when he likes someone, usually much more straightforward. Usually he doesn't have competition living under the same roof.
If Jun has feelings for Shihori, even after only being here a couple months, he hasn't shown it. A three year relationship takes time to get over, and Jun never really talks about it. When he goes out to meet friends, it always seems like he's meeting up with guys for some drinks. If he has one night stands with women in Paris, he's certainly not telling them about it. Jun's very private. Not closed off or anything, but he seems to prefer that some things remain a mystery.
Shihori dotes on him in a way she never bothers to with Nino or Aiba. Sometimes she even does his laundry for him. Maybe it's because he's so different. Aiba is an open book, the type of person comfortable enough to fart when they're in the room with him and brag about it. And Nino believes he's pretty honest and open. Not to an Aiba level because Aiba is a complete anomaly when it comes to human existence, but Nino doesn't have many secrets besides the feelings he's hiding for his female roommate. Compared to the two of them, Matsumoto Jun is that cool, handsome guy, the hero in the manga who just needs someone to love him. And Shihori, despite her age, still reads a lot of manga like that.
But as much as Nino wants to let his jealousy turn him against Jun, he can't. Jun is private and quiet, but Jun is also a very sweet, kind person. Nino has caught him on multiple occasions talking to Kenji, a thirty year old man curled up on the floor beside the Kitty Kondo trying to befriend him, but the cat is still not a big fan. Jun leaves thoughtful comments on Sho's blog and has even submitted guest reviews of some ramen shops in Paris. He can talk baseball, he can talk old school Mario, he gives Shihori guest passes to his gym. Sometimes he's blunt or speaks without thinking, but he kicks himself about it later. And he cries during movies, those huge brown eyes of his filling up with tears during an apartment-wide viewing of some movie with a heartwarming ending a week earlier.
It's impossible not to like him in some way, so Nino gets it. He really does get it. Shihori would be silly not to fall for him. There's no harm in it when they're both single, and nobody's told her what Nino feels. Sho and Keiko know, and Nino thinks Aiba suspects something. He knows what he feels, but Nino just isn't sure he's ready for a commitment. Because that's what it would mean with Shihori. They live together already, so he can't just stop by for sex and leave. Their lives are too entwined now, and Nino's made friends with her friends. If it went sour, if he didn't treat her right, he'd lose almost everything. It's scary, really scary to think about. He can only distract himself with fantasies momentarily before reality sets in.
Shihori's phone vibrates. "Jun's flight is delayed another six hours, he's going to sleep. Hmm," she says, "I guess they've got places for that when you work for the airline."
"Sucks," Nino replies. "I hardly ever fly, and I hate delays. I can't imagine flying for a living and dealing with it."
"Me neither," she says. "And the passengers are going to be so cranky when they finally do leave. I couldn't be patient with them."
"Maybe that's why Jun-kun's always so grouchy. He uses up all his politeness in the air."
"He's not that grouchy," Shihori complains. "Compared to you."
"Me? When am I grouchy? I'm extremely pleasant."
She's laughing at him now. "What? How about every morning when your lazy carcass comes stumbling out of the bedroom? Or when you come home from work and lie face down on the living room floor?"
"I don't do that," he lies.
"You seem to have a very inflated opinion of yourself, Nino."
"The most important person in my life is me, so of course I do..."
She's near hysterical, muffling her laugh against the sleeve of his t-shirt. Somehow during this conversation she's leaned close, rested her head against his shoulder while he plays his game. Now he decides that if she's gone ahead and felt comfortable enough to do that, she won't mind when he lifts his arm and wraps it around her shoulder, even if it brings the challenge of resting his game in his lap and playing one handed. Turns out she doesn't mind, and she only snuggles closer to him, smearing her finger against the game screen.
"Who's that?"
"Nino."
She's so warm, and without the aircon running it's rather humid in the apartment. He hopes that he's not too stinky from sweat. Living with three men must have gotten her used to all sorts of smells by now. "You named your character after yourself?"
"Wouldn't you? You clock more than 70 hours on a game and you wouldn't make yourself the hero?"
"The main character is usually a boy."
"Shihori can be a very manly name."
She punches him in the thigh and lets him keep playing, only asking sporadic questions about the plot, the characters, his battle strategies. The whole time she doesn't move away, seems content to be so close even in the heat. The rain pings against the windowpanes, the wind blows, and the eye of the typhoon's probably across Chiba and out in the ocean already. He pauses the game to get up and pee, but sees that she's fallen asleep despite the lingering storm.
He sets his game aside. Maybe she likes Jun, maybe she doesn't. Or maybe she likes him but doesn't want to get tangled up in a rebound. But what does she think about Nino? Sometimes she sits next to Aiba this way, poking at him while they watch a movie, but it means nothing since Shihori doesn't like him that way and Aiba's otherwise spoken for. So maybe she thinks of Nino the same way?
Does it matter?
He strokes her hair. "Hey. Come on, Shii-chan."
"Mmm," she mumbles.
"I need to pee."
"Alright."
When he gets back from the bathroom, she's still where he left her. He blows out the candles and pulls her up, an arm around her waist. She seems to have no problems with this, and when he opens her bedroom door, she doesn't let him go. He hasn't been in her room much at all, and in the dark, everything's unfamiliar until his knees hit the mattress. He hears the bed shift and creak as she climbs in, shoving the sheets aside.
"I'll see you in the morning."
"No."
"No?" he whispers. "You planning to die in your sleep?"
"No, come here."
Not one to turn down an invitation like this from a woman, he obediently gets into the bed with her. The sheets smell different, a different laundry detergent. It's nice. She has a full-size bed, but even with the space for both, she stays close, encouraging him to spoon up behind her, an arm around her.
Maybe she doesn't like Jun after all.
It wouldn't take much effort to find out, to confirm it. All he has to do is move his hand up under her shirt or down into her pajama bottoms. He imagines each scenario easily, the noises and moans she might make. He imagines getting her on her back, discovering how it feels to be inside her, wanting to know what she sounds like when she comes. He does none of these things, of course, keeping his hand around her middle and listening to her fall back asleep.
She wakes first, and he thinks he feels her fingers stroking his face, poking at the mole on his chin. When he wakes for good, the power's back on and a note on the kitchen table says she's out shopping with Keiko.
There's an almost angry email from Keiko waiting for him later that afternoon.
"What's taking you so long?"
Part Four