[oneshot] Parallel Hearts (Strangers on a Train: The Post-it Chronicles)
Title: Parallel Hearts (Strangers on a Train: The Post-it Chronicles)
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx)
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: AU. Slowly, Nino becomes aware of someone else’s life running exactly parallel to his own.
Notes: Written for reel_johnny at the Mini Reel challenge.
Music video used: Bad Day - Daniel Powter
(I should have posted it much earlier but I forgot that I hadn't done so already orz)
I think that in reality you’re actually allowed to stick whatever you want onto the train station notice board, but whether it’s true or not let’s just assume you can for the sake of the story.
Also, just so you know, I have zero knowledge on proper game programming - I’ve only ever done it on Flash.
Many thanks to keeconk for beta-reading!♥
Ninomiya Kazunari’s cell phone alarm rings at 7 am sharp, shattering whatever dream has occupied him through the night and filling the apartment with the sounds of the Mario Kart theme song.
Blearily, he rolls off his bed, only to muffle a shriek of pain as his arm connects painfully with the Nintendo GameCube lying on the ground.
He lies on the floor, face pressed to the cool parquet, and stares out the window of his apartment.
“Today’s not going to be a good day,” he grumbles to himself.
At 6.30 am in the morning Ohno Satoshi’s pastel blue alarm clock rings.
Sleepily, he gets up, trying as best as he can in his half-asleep state to avoid the fishing magazines and the occasional tube of paint strewn all over the floor.
Five minutes later, he bites back a swear word as he cuts himself while shaving. Sighing, he fumbles for a plaster.
“Not a good day,” he mumbles to his reflection.
His reflection nods back sagely, the bright blue fish-patterned plaster stuck on his chin catching the light.
A woman’s bag swings into his face on the shinkansen.
Nino yelps in surprise, and drops his DS. By the time he picks it up again from the train floor, his Dragon Quest character has died.
Scowling at the woman’s back, Nino stows his DS and heads for the train doors.
Ohno falls asleep on the shinkansen to work, and has to take the train in the opposite direction because he missed his stop.
Unfortunately, he falls asleep on that one too, and finally manages to get off at the right station only on the third train.
Nino’s stomach growls, echoing in the empty office.
All the other programmers are out to lunch, but Nino is stuck trying to program the game he’s working on. According to Aiba’s plan he’s supposed to have green peppers in the water portion, but he has no idea how to program them such that they only extend the character’s oxygen supply for a limited amount of time.
“Peppers can help you breathe underwater, my foot,” he mutters, squinting at the lines of code on the screen.
He sits next to the window in the programmer’s office of the game company, and he can hear the laughter of Matsumoto, Ikuta and Yamashita from the marketing department floating up as they go off for their lunch break.
Stupid, he thinks, and hits a key in frustration.
He regrets this a second later when the computer abruptly shuts down, making him lose the unsaved work of the part hour.
“Sho-kun.”
Ohno puts down the sheets of drawing block onto his desk, then looks up at Sakurai.
“Yes?”
“Why is there a cow on the layout plan?” Ohno asks. “I was under the impression it was a poster to advertise the zoo’s new panda exhibit.”
Sakurai grabs the top sheet of drawing block to examine it.
“It’s a panda,” he says indignantly. “How can it be anything other than a panda?”
Ohno sighs, and decides not to question Sakurai’s lack of drawing skill.
“When do you need the poster design by?”
Sakurai blinks.
“The day after tomorrow.”
Well, shit.
A little after three, he hears Nakagawa shriek from where she is working on a cat-themed game.
“There’s a monkey!” she says, eyes shining as she stands up from her chair. “It’s cute~”
Sure enough, a furry monkey leaps up onto a nearby table, sending papers flying all over the floor.
Putting down the scrap paper he is using to brainstorm a way around his programming problem, Nino stands up, watching as the monkey kicks around the fallen papers.
“Hey! Those are my papers! How did the monkey get in, anyway?”
Matsuyama’s yell is ignored by all the other programmers, in favour of trying to get the monkey out of the office. Nakagawa has somehow obtained a couple of bananas and is currently waving them at the monkey, trying to attract its attention.
“Shoko-san,” Becky says tentatively, peering over her white laptop. “I don’t think that will work…”
Just then, Nino notices a suspiciously familiar green collar around the monkey’s neck.
“Shit,” he says, realization dawning. “Isn’t this Aiba’s spider monkey?”
He is proven right when the door slams open a moment later, revealing Aiba looking around the room wildly, a broken green leash in hand.
“My monkey!” he gasps, running into the office.
At that exact moment, the monkey reaches Nino’s desk, and leaps away upon hearing Aiba’s voice.
Before he can move or even react, there is already scalding coffee spilling from Nino’s overturned mug, soaking his papers.
Silence falls upon the entire office as the monkey leaps into Aiba’s arms, and the gazes of everybody move to the disaster scene on Nino’s desk.
“You owe me lunch,” Nino grits out, moving to pick up the cup. “For a month.”
Ohno finishes his sketch within three hours, and heads off to the scanner so he can clean up the lines on Photoshop.
He jabs at the button for about five minutes, but nothing happens.
Ishihara from logistics comes in, carrying a stack of reports to photocopy.
“I think the scanner’s broken,” she informs him. “The technician’s coming the day after tomorrow.”
Ohno thanks her, and sighs.
He ends up having to edit his sketch using a photo of it, and takes three times as long as he normally would. By the end of it he has sore eyes from squinting, and a wrist cramp.
“Why does our company only have one scanner?” he laments aloud.
Nobody replies, but Ohno doesn’t expect anybody to - their advertising company is small enough that Ohno can get a whole office for himself.
Nino heads home at a quarter to midnight, tired and grumpy.
The notice board at the train station catches his eye, and he sees little notes pinned to it, mostly regarding lost pets or job offers.
Digging out a neon-yellow pad of post-its, he scribbles a short line of hiragana on it. He’s not attention-seeking, but he’s had a bad day and needs to vent somewhere.
I hate my life.
Leaving the post-it pinned to the cork board, he turns around and heads for the train platform.
Ohno’s alarm rings early the next morning again.
He kicks the magazines on the floor away, and shoves the spare tablet into his bag before heading to the bathroom.
Today he doesn’t cut himself with the razor, but he bangs his toe against the toilet bowl while reaching up to open the cupboard above it.
“Ouch,” he mutters.
Ten minutes later, he heads out the door, hobbling slightly with a sandwich jammed in his mouth.
Nino curses himself for forgetting to lower the volume of his phone alarm. The Mario Kart theme song is loud enough to wake the dead, and is made even more unbearably loud by the fact that he’d fallen asleep last night with the phone next to his ear.
He shuffles to the window to open the curtains, and sees a man with brownish-blonde hair hobbling down the sidewalk eating a sandwich.
Heaving a small sigh, he drags himself to the bathroom, to get ready for another demanding day.
Miraculously, Ohno gets off at the right stop without having to backtrack. As he is walking out of the station, he sees a bright yellow piece of paper tacked to the notice board at the entrance.
I hate my life
Ohno frowns - he’s a nice guy and seeing something like this just makes him want to help somehow.
From a side pocket of his backpack he fishes out a small notepad, and scribbles a reply.
Cheer up!
He pins the blue paper with the fish pattern below the yellow post-it, and heads off for his office.
Nino ends up getting dragged to the break room by an insistent Aiba, who feels that treating Nino to lots of coffee and biscuits might persuade him to forget about the free lunch thing.
Nino does not appreciate this, mainly because the break room is a breeding ground for gossip, and it kind of annoys him.
“I hear Matsumoto from marketing has a girlfriend!”
“No way!”
“I saw them on a date - she’s some model called Inoue.”
“Damn, he’s lucky to be able to hook up with a model…”
Nino groans, accidentally crushing a biscuit and dropping the crumbs into Aiba’s tea.
“Hey,” says someone else. “I heard a rumour that Yoshitaka from marketing’s going out with one of the programmers. The grumpy otaku one.”
“What’s-his-name… Ninomiya?”
“No way. He doesn’t even act like he’s interested in girls!”
“I thought Yoshitaka was dating Ikuta?”
Aiba is off looking for jam biscuits, and does not hear any of this exchange. Nino, however, does - evidently his coworkers have not registered his presence in the break room.
Scowling, he grabs the coffee and slips out of the break room.
“Ten minutes of my life, wasted,” he grumbles to nobody in particular.
Sakurai is fast asleep at his desk, drooling slightly onto the documents on his desk.
Ohno pokes at his shoulder tentatively.
“Sho-kun?”
Sakurai wakes up with a jerk, and Ohno can see a clean pencil print of the picture on the drawing block on Sakurai’s cheek.
“Your drawing’s smudged,” he says helpfully.
Sakurai blinks, and looks down.
“…Oh. I think these were the revised plans for the aquarium advertisement. I’d better redraw that bit…”
“That had better not be another one of my assignments,” Ohno frowns.
Cocking his head to the side, Sakurai thinks for a while.
“No,” he says. “It’s for the new intern. Watanabe-san.”
Ohno nods, and makes to move off to his own office.
“Remember, the panda poster is due tomorrow!” Sakurai calls after him.
The faint coffee stains on his desk remind Nino that he has to redo his planning to solve the pepper problem.
“Stupid monkey,” he mutters grouchily as he yanks out a sheet of scrap paper and begins to scribble on it.
Nakagawa walks by, fingers working away at her phone keypad as she updates her mobile blog.
“Weren’t you still stuck at that problem yesterday?” she asks curiously.
“Unfortunately,” Nino grits out. “Aiba is very insistent that I should insert in the peppers, but if I fiddle with the oxygen level bar I end up compromising the character’s mobility, somehow.”
“Oh.”
Nakagawa peers over his shoulder at the pencil scribbles, before letting out a sigh.
“Well, tough luck,” she says cheerfully.
“Sho-kun, can I hitch a ride to the station tonight?”
Sakurai blinks over his lunch, looking apologetic.
“Sorry,” he says. “I’ve got a date.”
Ohno wilts a little, but nods.
“Have fun with Maki-chan, then.”
The weather forecast for the night stays in his mind, and he regrets not bringing an umbrella along.
“Nino~” Aiba whines, bursting into the programmers’ office. “The boss says he’d like the game program by tomorrow.”
Nino scowls, chucking a wadded-up piece of paper at Aiba’s forehead.
“Can’t Taichi-kun give me an extension?”
Aiba sighs.
“I don’t know. Honestly.”
Groaning, Nino shoves his head into his hands.
Ohno ends up at some artists’ meeting after lunch, sandwiched between Tegoshi and Watanabe the new female intern.
Nakai cracks some joke, and everybody at the table laughs except Ohno.
“Ohno-san,” Watanabe whispers. “Aren’t the boss’ jokes so hilarious?”
Ohno blinks.
“Ha ha,” he says in a dry voice.
Watanabe rolls her eyes and turns away to whisper to Sashihara instead.
Groaning softly, Ohno squirms in his seat as Nakai cracks another joke and laughs.
What am I even doing here?
Despite the weather forecast, it doesn’t rain, and Nino slowly makes his way to the train station. Once again, he’s the last to leave the office, and his mood is foul as he makes his way into the station.
As he walks past the train station notice board, he notices a blue piece of paper pinned over his own yellow post-it from the day before.
Cheer up!
The paper is in fact a square pastel blue post-it, and Nino can see a pattern of fishes and other marine life on it. Scowling at the looping handwriting, he fumbles for his own yellow post-its to leave a reply.
What the heck?
Ohno misses his alarm, and end up leaving the apartment half an hour late.
A fresh post-it pasted on top of his blue one on the notice board at the station catches his eye, and he walks closer to take a look.
What the heck?
Grinning slightly despite himself, he pins his reply below, hoping whoever his mysterious correspondent is, he will eventually stop being so upset with life in general.
Don’t be depressed. :)
Nino wakes up before his alarm rings, and lies in bed for ten minutes before the apartment is filled with the strains of the Mario Kart theme song.
Walking towards the station, he notices a short man with brownish-blonde hair peering at the notice board.
Weirdo, he thinks idly, and walks past to the station gantry.
Nakai is lying in wait for him when Ohno enters the building.
“How’s progress?” he asks.
“…I need to be able to scan my sketch in,” Ohno replies. “Editing from a photo isn’t clear enough to catch the detail.”
“Well, I want it by today. The scanner was fixed yesterday.”
Nakai fixes Ohno with a glare, and Ohno wilts under it.
“Alright, I’ll work overtime,” he mumbles eventually, and Nakai nods, satisfied.
“I want it in my email by midnight.”
Nino pales when he hears a familiar loud voice echoing down the hallway.
“Hide me,” he whispers to Matsuyama. “Taichi-kun is here.”
Matsuyama snorts, amused.
“Maybe if you were a little more formal with him he’d hate you less.”
Nino scowls and tries to melt away into his seat, but before he can Kokubun bursts into the office and heads straight for him.
“Where is the programme?” Kokubun asks, getting straight to the point.
“I’m working on it,” Nino replies sullenly.
Kokubun frowns.
“Don’t sound so irritated. This is your job, and I don’t want you holding the whole team back because you have no talent. You’re not allowed to leave the office tonight until you get it done, you hear me?”
“But-”
“No protests.”
Three hours after lunchtime, and Ohno finally finishes colouring in the base colours of the main portion of the poster.
“Shading next,” he sighs softly, cracking his neck from side to side.
He manages to set his brush to just the right settings, when Photoshop experiences an unexpected crash. Thankfully, Ohno remembered to save his work, so not too much damage was done. Unfortunately though, he has to spend the next ten minutes trying to reboot Photoshop.
It’s going to be a long, long day.
Nino finally figures out a way to get around the peppers problem.
“You know how there’s this timer to show how long you have left in the water, right?” he asks Aiba.
“…Yeah.”
“Well, are you alright with me removing the oxygen bar and just making the peppers freeze the timer for a short while instead? I think it would be easier to do that.”
Aiba wilts a little, but gives in.
“Alright. But you can’t leave out the full-body mirror suit in the next location, though.”
Nodding, Nino adds another scribble to his clipboard of notes. The mirror suit will turn the character invincible instead of invisible like Aiba had requested, and he would make all attacks ping away from him, but he wasn’t going to tell Aiba that.
“Finally we’re getting somewhere,” Nino sighs.
Ohno can hear Sashihara and Watanabe loudly discussing karaoke plans as they walk past his office door, and he sighs.
It’s Friday night, and he’s the only soul stuck working overtime in the whole advertising company. Even Nakai has left to go drinking down at Ginza, throwing the keys at Ohno and telling him to lock up when he’s done.
Leaning back in his chair to stretch, he allows himself a small content smile - all that’s left now is the background of a pseudo-bamboo forest and he’s good to go.
He looks out of the large window in his office that spans an entire wall, and notices that in the building opposite his there is a single light on as well. That light illuminates a room filled with computers, and one man sitting hunched over next to the window tapping away at one.
Ohno smiles softly.
Looks like I’m not the only one working overtime, eh.
He suppresses a yawn and turns back to his tablet.
The clock reads ten minutes past eleven, and Nino is struggling not to fall asleep. Despite the fact that Amuro Namie is blaring from his headphones, the catchy fast-paced tune is not doing much to keep him awake.
He’d finished the programming of the peppers about half an hour ago, and now he is putting the finishing touches on the scene with a million and one explosions.
Hitting ‘save’, Nino takes off his earphones and heaves a sigh. He has about three more scenes left to program, and he just hopes he can get them done soon so he doesn’t miss the last train back.
Idly, his gaze drifts to the small advertising company opposite the building he works in. There is one office with a light on, and it shows him a man with brown-blonde hair staring intently at a computer and drawing on something.
The man looks vaguely familiar, but Nino can’t recall where he’s seen the man before.
Shrugging, he slips on his headphones again. If he doesn’t want to end up searching desperately for a taxi home he needs to finish in the next twenty minutes.
Ohno’s never had to take the last train back before, and he runs frantically into the station praying he won’t be late - he doesn’t have enough money to take a taxi home.
There is a man with a bad slouch standing in front of the train noticeboard, but Ohno doesn’t take much notice of him. He’s too busy hoping the train hasn’t pulled out of the station yet, as he speeds past the gantry.
When he reaches the platform, he realizes the train isn’t due to come for another five minutes.
He heaves a slight sigh of relief, and digs around for a small sketchpad to pass the time.
Nino notices another blue post-it on the noticeboard.
He knows the train’s not going to turn up for another ten minutes, so he stops in front of the noticeboard to read it.
Don’t be depressed. :)
Nino isn’t exactly in the best of moods, and feels annoyed by the simple smiley face scribbled there in blue ink. He fishes his post-its out of his bag pocket and scrawls a reply.
Why?
He slaps the yellow piece of paper on the board, stabs it in with a thumbtack, and heads for the platform.
The next day is a Saturday, and Ohno wakes up blissfully late. He has a small breakfast of tuna sandwiches, and decides to spend the day fishing.
He boards the train with his poles and gear, feet squeaking in his brand-new laminated fishing slippers. There is a bus that goes straight to the seaside from the station he usually alights at for work, so he feels as if he’s going to work, only in fishing gear.
As he walks out of the station, he notices a new post-it on the noticeboard. Curiosity takes over, and he walks over to take a look at it.
Why?
The reply to his post-it is very short, and Ohno realizes the smiley face on his own previous post-it has been cancelled out for some reason.
Ohno wants to reply, but doesn’t have his post-its on him. Instead, he fishes out his ballpoint pen and scribbles his reply on the bottom of the yellow post-it.
People care, that’s why.
Smiling a small smile of satisfaction, he walks away.
Nino wakes up around one in the afternoon, to be greeted by a message in his answering machine. It’s his sister, demanding a reason for his absence at the wedding of some distant cousin he doesn’t even remember.
“By the way,” she adds as a parting shot, “even though Mum’s fine with it, I think you should hurry up and get a girlfriend, you know. You can’t stay married to your games forever.”
The message ends with a beep and Nino is left scowling at the answering machine.
“Girlfriend,” he mutters. “Right. Like that’ll ever happen.”
Grabbing his jacket, he exits the apartment.
He takes the train to Ebisu, and wanders around aimlessly. In front of him is a couple, the guy chasing after the girl, both laughing happily.
“Ryoko!” the guy calls, pushing back copper curls behind his ear. “Give me back my hat!”
The girl sticks out her tongue playfully, waving a baseball cap above her head.
“Come and get it~”
Nino rolls his eyes, tuning them out. His sister’s words echo in his head, as though mocking him.
Resolutely ignoring the voice speaking his sister’s words in his head, he turns around and decides to head for Akihabara to buy a couple of new DS games.
By the time evening falls, Ohno has caught three pikes and one tuna, and he feels extremely proud of himself as he gets off the boat and staggers along the wharf.
On the way home, he sees an elderly couple sitting together in the train, and smiles to himself.
It must be nice to find someone you’ll love even after so long, he muses.
Idly, he wonders if he’ll ever have such luck.
Nino alights at the station he normally gets off at to go to work, though today he’s not going to work but to the nearby music store. A week ago a string on his guitar snapped, and so he finally remembers to go buy a new one.
Walking back into the station, he catches sight of the train noticeboard. There doesn’t seem to be a new blue post-it there, but he still walks closer to look at it anyway.
Funnily enough, the new reply is scribbled on the bottom of his yellow post-it.
People care, that’s why.
Involuntarily, Nino remembers his sister’s scathing parting comment, and his mouth twists into a scowl. Yeah, right, he thinks.
As if they do. :/
He steps back, examines the word and the annoyed-looking emoji, and puts away his pen before heading into the station.
Ohno spends his Sunday lazing around at a nearby coffee shop the whole day, browsing fishing magazines and drinking cup after cup of coffee.
Around three in the afternoon a young man with a bad slouch walks in, flops down at the table near his, and promptly starts jabbing away at a baby blue DS after ordering his coffee.
Somehow Ohno feels this man is familiar, but he can’t place the face.
Nino gets up late again on Sunday. He decides to buy a couple of onigiri from the convenience store, and ends up heading into a coffee shop near his apartment that he frequents.
It’s not very crowded, and Nino easily finds a table. Two tables away, there is a man with brown-blonde hair poring through what appears to be a fishing magazine. Nino finds this man extremely familiar, but after a while of trying to place the face he shrugs to himself, giving up.
After he orders his usual coffee, he pulls out his DS and begins to play the new Dragon Quest game he’d bought the day before.
Around six in the evening Ohno gets up to leave.
On the walk home he sees the man with the slouch from the coffee shop walking out of a convenience store, eating onigiri.
The man is walking slowly, and Ohno soon overtakes him.
He turns the corner and enters the apartment building.
Nino is rather upset that the tuna onigiri have sold out, and resigns himself to plum onigiri for dinner.
If he’d been paying attention, he would have seen the fishing magazine man from the coffee shop in front of him, turning the corner and walking into the same apartment building that he stays in.
Unfortunately he’s giving more attention to the onigiri in his hands, and never sees any of this.
Ohno wakes up on Monday morning in a good mood.
For the first time in ages, he doesn’t end up injuring himself with some toilet appliance, and the newspaper actually arrives before he leaves the apartment.
The weather forecast on the paper says that it will rain at night, so Ohno grabs his umbrella before leaving the house.
He whistles a tune as he leaves the apartment.
It’s a good day.
Nino wakes up before the alarm, and remembers to turn it off so the sudden blast of the Mario Kart theme song doesn’t shock him into choking on his toothpaste.
The newspaper is lying at his door, but he doesn’t bother to pick it up - he usually reads them in the break room at lunch.
Feeling more cheerful than he has in a while, he heads for the train station.
Ohno pauses by the station noticeboard, and sees a line of text in the handwriting of his mysterious correspondent.
As if they do. :/
Grinning, Ohno pulls out his post-its and pastes a fresh one on the board. Somehow, this post-it exchange partner has not only piqued his interest but makes him want to know this person better, and he knows the perfect answer to write now.
I care~
Kokubun sounds reasonably satisfied when Nino gives him the report on the finished game program.
“Give it to Nishikido at graphic design and go help Nakagawa finish her cat game,” he says nodding before leaving the programmers’ office.
This is a very simple task because Nakagawa’s pretty much finished the game, and is only pretending she hasn’t so she can slack and watch anime on her laptop. Nino sits next to her just in case Kokubun decides to spring a spot check, and plays Dragon Quest all day with Nakagawa offering him pointers.
Ohno spends his day lazing around in his office, because Nakai doesn’t have any new assignments to give him. He ends up doodling Hachiko, and even superimposes the face of the strangely familiar man with the slouch on one of them.
Sakurai drops in near the evening, and does a double-take at the Hachiko sketches.
“Who is that?”
Ohno just smiles, and doesn’t answer.
The programmers drag him out to an izakaya for dinner as colleagues, and Nino reluctantly agrees after learning that Matsuyama will pay for everyone since he lost at janken.
When he steps out of the izakaya, it is probably too late to even make it to the station to catch the last train. To make things worse, it’s pouring and Nino realizes belatedly that he has no umbrella.
Sighing, he yanks his jacket out of his bag and drapes it over his head. He stands by the roadside, hoping to get a taxi before he gets thoroughly soaked.
No taxis come by.
Ohno heads home late, after having to give their newest intern a crash course in Photoshop.
It’s pouring cats and dogs, and Ohno is relieved he’d brought his umbrella. Holding his plastic file in one hand, he steps out into the rain.
Five minutes later, he sees a vaguely familiar silhouette standing by the roadside, holding a jacket to ward off the rain. Walking up to the young man, he holds his umbrella so that it’s sheltering both of them.
The younger man whirls around, surprised.
All of a sudden rain stops falling on Nino’s head.
He turns around to see the fishing magazine guy, holding a giant blue umbrella and sheltering both of them from the rain.
“…Hi?” he says awkwardly.
The blonde man smiles back, equally awkward.
“I’m Ohno,” he says randomly.
“I’m Ninomiya, but you can call me Nino,” Nino replies automatically, and suddenly his eyes catch sight of something he’s definitely seen before.
Stuck on the top sheet of paper in Ohno’s hard plastic file are a couple of pastel blue post-its with fish designs.
Nino’s breath catches in his throat.
“Those post-its…are they yours?”
Ohno blinks.
“…Yes?”
“Oh my god, you’re that post-it guy,” Nino says in a rush.
A few moments later, Ohno seems to fully process that statement, and his mouth drops open.
“You’re the guy with the yellow post-its?!”
Nino nods, and Ohno blinks several times in rapid succession.
“I care,” he blurts out suddenly. “I actually wanted to give you a hug because you always sounded so depressed, but that would be kind of weird so…yeah. I care. People care.”
A corner of Nino’s mouth quirks up in a wry smirk.
“Really?”
“They care enough to stand out in the pouring rain in order to share an umbrella with someone who they’ve only gotten to know through post-it messages,” Ohno counters, and Nino smiles.
“Well, I guess…”
At that moment, a taxi pulls up beside Nino.
“You should get in,” Ohno tells him, but Nino hesitates.
“I’m glad I met you in person,” he says quickly. “We would have run out of space on that noticeboard to exchange messages after a while.”
Ohno nods, and makes to walk off as Nino climbs into the taxi.
“I’m going to take the train back,” he says. “I hope I get to see you again~”
“Wait.”
Nino’s hand flashes out and grabs hold of Ohno’s.
“The last train’s probably left by now. Get in.”
“I can’t-”
“Where do you live?”
“The apartment building across the road from Shinbashi station,” Ohno says, and Nino’s eyes widen.
“I stay there too,” he says. “Get in.”
The taxi drops the two of them off, and they huddle under Ohno’s umbrella until they enter the building.
“I’m glad I got to meet you,” Nino says again, in the elevator.
Ohno smiles, brushing dripping bangs away from his eyes.
“Me too,” he says, taking Nino’s hand. “Me too.”
The elevator doors open at Ohno’s floor. Just before he leaves, he turns back one more time.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I wake up at seven,” Nino replies, smiling a little before the doors slide shut.
Ohno sets his alarm to ring half an hour later than it usually does.
Satisfied, he smiles to himself before he goes to bed.
On Tuesday morning two men - one slouching and one with brown-blonde hair - take the train together to work.
No more post-its make their way onto the train noticeboard.
fin.
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx)
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluff
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: AU. Slowly, Nino becomes aware of someone else’s life running exactly parallel to his own.
Notes: Written for reel_johnny at the Mini Reel challenge.
Music video used: Bad Day - Daniel Powter
(I should have posted it much earlier but I forgot that I hadn't done so already orz)
I think that in reality you’re actually allowed to stick whatever you want onto the train station notice board, but whether it’s true or not let’s just assume you can for the sake of the story.
Also, just so you know, I have zero knowledge on proper game programming - I’ve only ever done it on Flash.
Many thanks to keeconk for beta-reading!♥
Ninomiya Kazunari’s cell phone alarm rings at 7 am sharp, shattering whatever dream has occupied him through the night and filling the apartment with the sounds of the Mario Kart theme song.
Blearily, he rolls off his bed, only to muffle a shriek of pain as his arm connects painfully with the Nintendo GameCube lying on the ground.
He lies on the floor, face pressed to the cool parquet, and stares out the window of his apartment.
“Today’s not going to be a good day,” he grumbles to himself.
At 6.30 am in the morning Ohno Satoshi’s pastel blue alarm clock rings.
Sleepily, he gets up, trying as best as he can in his half-asleep state to avoid the fishing magazines and the occasional tube of paint strewn all over the floor.
Five minutes later, he bites back a swear word as he cuts himself while shaving. Sighing, he fumbles for a plaster.
“Not a good day,” he mumbles to his reflection.
His reflection nods back sagely, the bright blue fish-patterned plaster stuck on his chin catching the light.
A woman’s bag swings into his face on the shinkansen.
Nino yelps in surprise, and drops his DS. By the time he picks it up again from the train floor, his Dragon Quest character has died.
Scowling at the woman’s back, Nino stows his DS and heads for the train doors.
Ohno falls asleep on the shinkansen to work, and has to take the train in the opposite direction because he missed his stop.
Unfortunately, he falls asleep on that one too, and finally manages to get off at the right station only on the third train.
Nino’s stomach growls, echoing in the empty office.
All the other programmers are out to lunch, but Nino is stuck trying to program the game he’s working on. According to Aiba’s plan he’s supposed to have green peppers in the water portion, but he has no idea how to program them such that they only extend the character’s oxygen supply for a limited amount of time.
“Peppers can help you breathe underwater, my foot,” he mutters, squinting at the lines of code on the screen.
He sits next to the window in the programmer’s office of the game company, and he can hear the laughter of Matsumoto, Ikuta and Yamashita from the marketing department floating up as they go off for their lunch break.
Stupid, he thinks, and hits a key in frustration.
He regrets this a second later when the computer abruptly shuts down, making him lose the unsaved work of the part hour.
“Sho-kun.”
Ohno puts down the sheets of drawing block onto his desk, then looks up at Sakurai.
“Yes?”
“Why is there a cow on the layout plan?” Ohno asks. “I was under the impression it was a poster to advertise the zoo’s new panda exhibit.”
Sakurai grabs the top sheet of drawing block to examine it.
“It’s a panda,” he says indignantly. “How can it be anything other than a panda?”
Ohno sighs, and decides not to question Sakurai’s lack of drawing skill.
“When do you need the poster design by?”
Sakurai blinks.
“The day after tomorrow.”
Well, shit.
A little after three, he hears Nakagawa shriek from where she is working on a cat-themed game.
“There’s a monkey!” she says, eyes shining as she stands up from her chair. “It’s cute~”
Sure enough, a furry monkey leaps up onto a nearby table, sending papers flying all over the floor.
Putting down the scrap paper he is using to brainstorm a way around his programming problem, Nino stands up, watching as the monkey kicks around the fallen papers.
“Hey! Those are my papers! How did the monkey get in, anyway?”
Matsuyama’s yell is ignored by all the other programmers, in favour of trying to get the monkey out of the office. Nakagawa has somehow obtained a couple of bananas and is currently waving them at the monkey, trying to attract its attention.
“Shoko-san,” Becky says tentatively, peering over her white laptop. “I don’t think that will work…”
Just then, Nino notices a suspiciously familiar green collar around the monkey’s neck.
“Shit,” he says, realization dawning. “Isn’t this Aiba’s spider monkey?”
He is proven right when the door slams open a moment later, revealing Aiba looking around the room wildly, a broken green leash in hand.
“My monkey!” he gasps, running into the office.
At that exact moment, the monkey reaches Nino’s desk, and leaps away upon hearing Aiba’s voice.
Before he can move or even react, there is already scalding coffee spilling from Nino’s overturned mug, soaking his papers.
Silence falls upon the entire office as the monkey leaps into Aiba’s arms, and the gazes of everybody move to the disaster scene on Nino’s desk.
“You owe me lunch,” Nino grits out, moving to pick up the cup. “For a month.”
Ohno finishes his sketch within three hours, and heads off to the scanner so he can clean up the lines on Photoshop.
He jabs at the button for about five minutes, but nothing happens.
Ishihara from logistics comes in, carrying a stack of reports to photocopy.
“I think the scanner’s broken,” she informs him. “The technician’s coming the day after tomorrow.”
Ohno thanks her, and sighs.
He ends up having to edit his sketch using a photo of it, and takes three times as long as he normally would. By the end of it he has sore eyes from squinting, and a wrist cramp.
“Why does our company only have one scanner?” he laments aloud.
Nobody replies, but Ohno doesn’t expect anybody to - their advertising company is small enough that Ohno can get a whole office for himself.
Nino heads home at a quarter to midnight, tired and grumpy.
The notice board at the train station catches his eye, and he sees little notes pinned to it, mostly regarding lost pets or job offers.
Digging out a neon-yellow pad of post-its, he scribbles a short line of hiragana on it. He’s not attention-seeking, but he’s had a bad day and needs to vent somewhere.
I hate my life.
Leaving the post-it pinned to the cork board, he turns around and heads for the train platform.
Ohno’s alarm rings early the next morning again.
He kicks the magazines on the floor away, and shoves the spare tablet into his bag before heading to the bathroom.
Today he doesn’t cut himself with the razor, but he bangs his toe against the toilet bowl while reaching up to open the cupboard above it.
“Ouch,” he mutters.
Ten minutes later, he heads out the door, hobbling slightly with a sandwich jammed in his mouth.
Nino curses himself for forgetting to lower the volume of his phone alarm. The Mario Kart theme song is loud enough to wake the dead, and is made even more unbearably loud by the fact that he’d fallen asleep last night with the phone next to his ear.
He shuffles to the window to open the curtains, and sees a man with brownish-blonde hair hobbling down the sidewalk eating a sandwich.
Heaving a small sigh, he drags himself to the bathroom, to get ready for another demanding day.
Miraculously, Ohno gets off at the right stop without having to backtrack. As he is walking out of the station, he sees a bright yellow piece of paper tacked to the notice board at the entrance.
I hate my life
Ohno frowns - he’s a nice guy and seeing something like this just makes him want to help somehow.
From a side pocket of his backpack he fishes out a small notepad, and scribbles a reply.
Cheer up!
He pins the blue paper with the fish pattern below the yellow post-it, and heads off for his office.
Nino ends up getting dragged to the break room by an insistent Aiba, who feels that treating Nino to lots of coffee and biscuits might persuade him to forget about the free lunch thing.
Nino does not appreciate this, mainly because the break room is a breeding ground for gossip, and it kind of annoys him.
“I hear Matsumoto from marketing has a girlfriend!”
“No way!”
“I saw them on a date - she’s some model called Inoue.”
“Damn, he’s lucky to be able to hook up with a model…”
Nino groans, accidentally crushing a biscuit and dropping the crumbs into Aiba’s tea.
“Hey,” says someone else. “I heard a rumour that Yoshitaka from marketing’s going out with one of the programmers. The grumpy otaku one.”
“What’s-his-name… Ninomiya?”
“No way. He doesn’t even act like he’s interested in girls!”
“I thought Yoshitaka was dating Ikuta?”
Aiba is off looking for jam biscuits, and does not hear any of this exchange. Nino, however, does - evidently his coworkers have not registered his presence in the break room.
Scowling, he grabs the coffee and slips out of the break room.
“Ten minutes of my life, wasted,” he grumbles to nobody in particular.
Sakurai is fast asleep at his desk, drooling slightly onto the documents on his desk.
Ohno pokes at his shoulder tentatively.
“Sho-kun?”
Sakurai wakes up with a jerk, and Ohno can see a clean pencil print of the picture on the drawing block on Sakurai’s cheek.
“Your drawing’s smudged,” he says helpfully.
Sakurai blinks, and looks down.
“…Oh. I think these were the revised plans for the aquarium advertisement. I’d better redraw that bit…”
“That had better not be another one of my assignments,” Ohno frowns.
Cocking his head to the side, Sakurai thinks for a while.
“No,” he says. “It’s for the new intern. Watanabe-san.”
Ohno nods, and makes to move off to his own office.
“Remember, the panda poster is due tomorrow!” Sakurai calls after him.
The faint coffee stains on his desk remind Nino that he has to redo his planning to solve the pepper problem.
“Stupid monkey,” he mutters grouchily as he yanks out a sheet of scrap paper and begins to scribble on it.
Nakagawa walks by, fingers working away at her phone keypad as she updates her mobile blog.
“Weren’t you still stuck at that problem yesterday?” she asks curiously.
“Unfortunately,” Nino grits out. “Aiba is very insistent that I should insert in the peppers, but if I fiddle with the oxygen level bar I end up compromising the character’s mobility, somehow.”
“Oh.”
Nakagawa peers over his shoulder at the pencil scribbles, before letting out a sigh.
“Well, tough luck,” she says cheerfully.
“Sho-kun, can I hitch a ride to the station tonight?”
Sakurai blinks over his lunch, looking apologetic.
“Sorry,” he says. “I’ve got a date.”
Ohno wilts a little, but nods.
“Have fun with Maki-chan, then.”
The weather forecast for the night stays in his mind, and he regrets not bringing an umbrella along.
“Nino~” Aiba whines, bursting into the programmers’ office. “The boss says he’d like the game program by tomorrow.”
Nino scowls, chucking a wadded-up piece of paper at Aiba’s forehead.
“Can’t Taichi-kun give me an extension?”
Aiba sighs.
“I don’t know. Honestly.”
Groaning, Nino shoves his head into his hands.
Ohno ends up at some artists’ meeting after lunch, sandwiched between Tegoshi and Watanabe the new female intern.
Nakai cracks some joke, and everybody at the table laughs except Ohno.
“Ohno-san,” Watanabe whispers. “Aren’t the boss’ jokes so hilarious?”
Ohno blinks.
“Ha ha,” he says in a dry voice.
Watanabe rolls her eyes and turns away to whisper to Sashihara instead.
Groaning softly, Ohno squirms in his seat as Nakai cracks another joke and laughs.
What am I even doing here?
Despite the weather forecast, it doesn’t rain, and Nino slowly makes his way to the train station. Once again, he’s the last to leave the office, and his mood is foul as he makes his way into the station.
As he walks past the train station notice board, he notices a blue piece of paper pinned over his own yellow post-it from the day before.
Cheer up!
The paper is in fact a square pastel blue post-it, and Nino can see a pattern of fishes and other marine life on it. Scowling at the looping handwriting, he fumbles for his own yellow post-its to leave a reply.
What the heck?
Ohno misses his alarm, and end up leaving the apartment half an hour late.
A fresh post-it pasted on top of his blue one on the notice board at the station catches his eye, and he walks closer to take a look.
What the heck?
Grinning slightly despite himself, he pins his reply below, hoping whoever his mysterious correspondent is, he will eventually stop being so upset with life in general.
Don’t be depressed. :)
Nino wakes up before his alarm rings, and lies in bed for ten minutes before the apartment is filled with the strains of the Mario Kart theme song.
Walking towards the station, he notices a short man with brownish-blonde hair peering at the notice board.
Weirdo, he thinks idly, and walks past to the station gantry.
Nakai is lying in wait for him when Ohno enters the building.
“How’s progress?” he asks.
“…I need to be able to scan my sketch in,” Ohno replies. “Editing from a photo isn’t clear enough to catch the detail.”
“Well, I want it by today. The scanner was fixed yesterday.”
Nakai fixes Ohno with a glare, and Ohno wilts under it.
“Alright, I’ll work overtime,” he mumbles eventually, and Nakai nods, satisfied.
“I want it in my email by midnight.”
Nino pales when he hears a familiar loud voice echoing down the hallway.
“Hide me,” he whispers to Matsuyama. “Taichi-kun is here.”
Matsuyama snorts, amused.
“Maybe if you were a little more formal with him he’d hate you less.”
Nino scowls and tries to melt away into his seat, but before he can Kokubun bursts into the office and heads straight for him.
“Where is the programme?” Kokubun asks, getting straight to the point.
“I’m working on it,” Nino replies sullenly.
Kokubun frowns.
“Don’t sound so irritated. This is your job, and I don’t want you holding the whole team back because you have no talent. You’re not allowed to leave the office tonight until you get it done, you hear me?”
“But-”
“No protests.”
Three hours after lunchtime, and Ohno finally finishes colouring in the base colours of the main portion of the poster.
“Shading next,” he sighs softly, cracking his neck from side to side.
He manages to set his brush to just the right settings, when Photoshop experiences an unexpected crash. Thankfully, Ohno remembered to save his work, so not too much damage was done. Unfortunately though, he has to spend the next ten minutes trying to reboot Photoshop.
It’s going to be a long, long day.
Nino finally figures out a way to get around the peppers problem.
“You know how there’s this timer to show how long you have left in the water, right?” he asks Aiba.
“…Yeah.”
“Well, are you alright with me removing the oxygen bar and just making the peppers freeze the timer for a short while instead? I think it would be easier to do that.”
Aiba wilts a little, but gives in.
“Alright. But you can’t leave out the full-body mirror suit in the next location, though.”
Nodding, Nino adds another scribble to his clipboard of notes. The mirror suit will turn the character invincible instead of invisible like Aiba had requested, and he would make all attacks ping away from him, but he wasn’t going to tell Aiba that.
“Finally we’re getting somewhere,” Nino sighs.
Ohno can hear Sashihara and Watanabe loudly discussing karaoke plans as they walk past his office door, and he sighs.
It’s Friday night, and he’s the only soul stuck working overtime in the whole advertising company. Even Nakai has left to go drinking down at Ginza, throwing the keys at Ohno and telling him to lock up when he’s done.
Leaning back in his chair to stretch, he allows himself a small content smile - all that’s left now is the background of a pseudo-bamboo forest and he’s good to go.
He looks out of the large window in his office that spans an entire wall, and notices that in the building opposite his there is a single light on as well. That light illuminates a room filled with computers, and one man sitting hunched over next to the window tapping away at one.
Ohno smiles softly.
Looks like I’m not the only one working overtime, eh.
He suppresses a yawn and turns back to his tablet.
The clock reads ten minutes past eleven, and Nino is struggling not to fall asleep. Despite the fact that Amuro Namie is blaring from his headphones, the catchy fast-paced tune is not doing much to keep him awake.
He’d finished the programming of the peppers about half an hour ago, and now he is putting the finishing touches on the scene with a million and one explosions.
Hitting ‘save’, Nino takes off his earphones and heaves a sigh. He has about three more scenes left to program, and he just hopes he can get them done soon so he doesn’t miss the last train back.
Idly, his gaze drifts to the small advertising company opposite the building he works in. There is one office with a light on, and it shows him a man with brown-blonde hair staring intently at a computer and drawing on something.
The man looks vaguely familiar, but Nino can’t recall where he’s seen the man before.
Shrugging, he slips on his headphones again. If he doesn’t want to end up searching desperately for a taxi home he needs to finish in the next twenty minutes.
Ohno’s never had to take the last train back before, and he runs frantically into the station praying he won’t be late - he doesn’t have enough money to take a taxi home.
There is a man with a bad slouch standing in front of the train noticeboard, but Ohno doesn’t take much notice of him. He’s too busy hoping the train hasn’t pulled out of the station yet, as he speeds past the gantry.
When he reaches the platform, he realizes the train isn’t due to come for another five minutes.
He heaves a slight sigh of relief, and digs around for a small sketchpad to pass the time.
Nino notices another blue post-it on the noticeboard.
He knows the train’s not going to turn up for another ten minutes, so he stops in front of the noticeboard to read it.
Don’t be depressed. :)
Nino isn’t exactly in the best of moods, and feels annoyed by the simple smiley face scribbled there in blue ink. He fishes his post-its out of his bag pocket and scrawls a reply.
Why?
He slaps the yellow piece of paper on the board, stabs it in with a thumbtack, and heads for the platform.
The next day is a Saturday, and Ohno wakes up blissfully late. He has a small breakfast of tuna sandwiches, and decides to spend the day fishing.
He boards the train with his poles and gear, feet squeaking in his brand-new laminated fishing slippers. There is a bus that goes straight to the seaside from the station he usually alights at for work, so he feels as if he’s going to work, only in fishing gear.
As he walks out of the station, he notices a new post-it on the noticeboard. Curiosity takes over, and he walks over to take a look at it.
Why?
The reply to his post-it is very short, and Ohno realizes the smiley face on his own previous post-it has been cancelled out for some reason.
Ohno wants to reply, but doesn’t have his post-its on him. Instead, he fishes out his ballpoint pen and scribbles his reply on the bottom of the yellow post-it.
People care, that’s why.
Smiling a small smile of satisfaction, he walks away.
Nino wakes up around one in the afternoon, to be greeted by a message in his answering machine. It’s his sister, demanding a reason for his absence at the wedding of some distant cousin he doesn’t even remember.
“By the way,” she adds as a parting shot, “even though Mum’s fine with it, I think you should hurry up and get a girlfriend, you know. You can’t stay married to your games forever.”
The message ends with a beep and Nino is left scowling at the answering machine.
“Girlfriend,” he mutters. “Right. Like that’ll ever happen.”
Grabbing his jacket, he exits the apartment.
He takes the train to Ebisu, and wanders around aimlessly. In front of him is a couple, the guy chasing after the girl, both laughing happily.
“Ryoko!” the guy calls, pushing back copper curls behind his ear. “Give me back my hat!”
The girl sticks out her tongue playfully, waving a baseball cap above her head.
“Come and get it~”
Nino rolls his eyes, tuning them out. His sister’s words echo in his head, as though mocking him.
Resolutely ignoring the voice speaking his sister’s words in his head, he turns around and decides to head for Akihabara to buy a couple of new DS games.
By the time evening falls, Ohno has caught three pikes and one tuna, and he feels extremely proud of himself as he gets off the boat and staggers along the wharf.
On the way home, he sees an elderly couple sitting together in the train, and smiles to himself.
It must be nice to find someone you’ll love even after so long, he muses.
Idly, he wonders if he’ll ever have such luck.
Nino alights at the station he normally gets off at to go to work, though today he’s not going to work but to the nearby music store. A week ago a string on his guitar snapped, and so he finally remembers to go buy a new one.
Walking back into the station, he catches sight of the train noticeboard. There doesn’t seem to be a new blue post-it there, but he still walks closer to look at it anyway.
Funnily enough, the new reply is scribbled on the bottom of his yellow post-it.
People care, that’s why.
Involuntarily, Nino remembers his sister’s scathing parting comment, and his mouth twists into a scowl. Yeah, right, he thinks.
As if they do. :/
He steps back, examines the word and the annoyed-looking emoji, and puts away his pen before heading into the station.
Ohno spends his Sunday lazing around at a nearby coffee shop the whole day, browsing fishing magazines and drinking cup after cup of coffee.
Around three in the afternoon a young man with a bad slouch walks in, flops down at the table near his, and promptly starts jabbing away at a baby blue DS after ordering his coffee.
Somehow Ohno feels this man is familiar, but he can’t place the face.
Nino gets up late again on Sunday. He decides to buy a couple of onigiri from the convenience store, and ends up heading into a coffee shop near his apartment that he frequents.
It’s not very crowded, and Nino easily finds a table. Two tables away, there is a man with brown-blonde hair poring through what appears to be a fishing magazine. Nino finds this man extremely familiar, but after a while of trying to place the face he shrugs to himself, giving up.
After he orders his usual coffee, he pulls out his DS and begins to play the new Dragon Quest game he’d bought the day before.
Around six in the evening Ohno gets up to leave.
On the walk home he sees the man with the slouch from the coffee shop walking out of a convenience store, eating onigiri.
The man is walking slowly, and Ohno soon overtakes him.
He turns the corner and enters the apartment building.
Nino is rather upset that the tuna onigiri have sold out, and resigns himself to plum onigiri for dinner.
If he’d been paying attention, he would have seen the fishing magazine man from the coffee shop in front of him, turning the corner and walking into the same apartment building that he stays in.
Unfortunately he’s giving more attention to the onigiri in his hands, and never sees any of this.
Ohno wakes up on Monday morning in a good mood.
For the first time in ages, he doesn’t end up injuring himself with some toilet appliance, and the newspaper actually arrives before he leaves the apartment.
The weather forecast on the paper says that it will rain at night, so Ohno grabs his umbrella before leaving the house.
He whistles a tune as he leaves the apartment.
It’s a good day.
Nino wakes up before the alarm, and remembers to turn it off so the sudden blast of the Mario Kart theme song doesn’t shock him into choking on his toothpaste.
The newspaper is lying at his door, but he doesn’t bother to pick it up - he usually reads them in the break room at lunch.
Feeling more cheerful than he has in a while, he heads for the train station.
Ohno pauses by the station noticeboard, and sees a line of text in the handwriting of his mysterious correspondent.
As if they do. :/
Grinning, Ohno pulls out his post-its and pastes a fresh one on the board. Somehow, this post-it exchange partner has not only piqued his interest but makes him want to know this person better, and he knows the perfect answer to write now.
I care~
Kokubun sounds reasonably satisfied when Nino gives him the report on the finished game program.
“Give it to Nishikido at graphic design and go help Nakagawa finish her cat game,” he says nodding before leaving the programmers’ office.
This is a very simple task because Nakagawa’s pretty much finished the game, and is only pretending she hasn’t so she can slack and watch anime on her laptop. Nino sits next to her just in case Kokubun decides to spring a spot check, and plays Dragon Quest all day with Nakagawa offering him pointers.
Ohno spends his day lazing around in his office, because Nakai doesn’t have any new assignments to give him. He ends up doodling Hachiko, and even superimposes the face of the strangely familiar man with the slouch on one of them.
Sakurai drops in near the evening, and does a double-take at the Hachiko sketches.
“Who is that?”
Ohno just smiles, and doesn’t answer.
The programmers drag him out to an izakaya for dinner as colleagues, and Nino reluctantly agrees after learning that Matsuyama will pay for everyone since he lost at janken.
When he steps out of the izakaya, it is probably too late to even make it to the station to catch the last train. To make things worse, it’s pouring and Nino realizes belatedly that he has no umbrella.
Sighing, he yanks his jacket out of his bag and drapes it over his head. He stands by the roadside, hoping to get a taxi before he gets thoroughly soaked.
No taxis come by.
Ohno heads home late, after having to give their newest intern a crash course in Photoshop.
It’s pouring cats and dogs, and Ohno is relieved he’d brought his umbrella. Holding his plastic file in one hand, he steps out into the rain.
Five minutes later, he sees a vaguely familiar silhouette standing by the roadside, holding a jacket to ward off the rain. Walking up to the young man, he holds his umbrella so that it’s sheltering both of them.
The younger man whirls around, surprised.
All of a sudden rain stops falling on Nino’s head.
He turns around to see the fishing magazine guy, holding a giant blue umbrella and sheltering both of them from the rain.
“…Hi?” he says awkwardly.
The blonde man smiles back, equally awkward.
“I’m Ohno,” he says randomly.
“I’m Ninomiya, but you can call me Nino,” Nino replies automatically, and suddenly his eyes catch sight of something he’s definitely seen before.
Stuck on the top sheet of paper in Ohno’s hard plastic file are a couple of pastel blue post-its with fish designs.
Nino’s breath catches in his throat.
“Those post-its…are they yours?”
Ohno blinks.
“…Yes?”
“Oh my god, you’re that post-it guy,” Nino says in a rush.
A few moments later, Ohno seems to fully process that statement, and his mouth drops open.
“You’re the guy with the yellow post-its?!”
Nino nods, and Ohno blinks several times in rapid succession.
“I care,” he blurts out suddenly. “I actually wanted to give you a hug because you always sounded so depressed, but that would be kind of weird so…yeah. I care. People care.”
A corner of Nino’s mouth quirks up in a wry smirk.
“Really?”
“They care enough to stand out in the pouring rain in order to share an umbrella with someone who they’ve only gotten to know through post-it messages,” Ohno counters, and Nino smiles.
“Well, I guess…”
At that moment, a taxi pulls up beside Nino.
“You should get in,” Ohno tells him, but Nino hesitates.
“I’m glad I met you in person,” he says quickly. “We would have run out of space on that noticeboard to exchange messages after a while.”
Ohno nods, and makes to walk off as Nino climbs into the taxi.
“I’m going to take the train back,” he says. “I hope I get to see you again~”
“Wait.”
Nino’s hand flashes out and grabs hold of Ohno’s.
“The last train’s probably left by now. Get in.”
“I can’t-”
“Where do you live?”
“The apartment building across the road from Shinbashi station,” Ohno says, and Nino’s eyes widen.
“I stay there too,” he says. “Get in.”
The taxi drops the two of them off, and they huddle under Ohno’s umbrella until they enter the building.
“I’m glad I got to meet you,” Nino says again, in the elevator.
Ohno smiles, brushing dripping bangs away from his eyes.
“Me too,” he says, taking Nino’s hand. “Me too.”
The elevator doors open at Ohno’s floor. Just before he leaves, he turns back one more time.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I wake up at seven,” Nino replies, smiling a little before the doors slide shut.
Ohno sets his alarm to ring half an hour later than it usually does.
Satisfied, he smiles to himself before he goes to bed.
On Tuesday morning two men - one slouching and one with brown-blonde hair - take the train together to work.
No more post-its make their way onto the train noticeboard.
fin.