Noise Complaint, Pt. 3

I was dying. Maybe not literally, but it might as well be. This was the quiet, suffocating kind of death — the type where your insides shrivel up and you're left watching the disaster unfold in slow motion, fully aware that there was no escape.

Despite my best efforts, Yue had seen her.

Megumi, a celebrity whom she'd only ever seen online, untouchable and unreachable, lying down... on my lap.

There was no getting out of this. No clever excuse. No half-baked lie. Just a suffocating silence thick enough to drown in.

Yue's face twitched. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, a wheeze. Then a stammer.

"W-what is... Megumi no...? I mean, uh— you... Taka, just what... Huh?!"

She took a shaky step back, visibly struggling to process the scene. The gears in her brain were clearly turning, but whatever they were cranking out wasn't anywhere close to coherent thought.

Koga finally turned the corner with a raised brow.

"Uh… Yue? What's up with you?"

She didn't answer. Her soul left her body in the form of a visible, imaginary wisp, her whole frame teetering dangerously.

"Koga... It's... I-i-it's... Megumi no... H-Hana..."

"Whoa, hey—!"

Koga lurched forward, catching her by the shoulders right before she collapsed.

"What the... What about Megumi no Hana?"

And then Megumi, entirely unaware of the bomb she'd dropped on my life, lifted her head lazily from my lap. Sleepy-eyed, hair slightly messy, she blinked over at him.

"Hey," she smiled gently. "Nakano Koga, right? Shohei's told me a lot about you."

His eyes widened. He made a sound, but it wasn't a word I was familiar with. Actually, it sounded more like a choked gasp. And then, as if someone unplugged him from reality, he toppled backward with Yue still in his arms.

They hit the floor with a muffled thud, Yue landing squarely on his stomach.

"Huh. Why'd that happen?" Megumi asked, completely unserious.

"Oh, I don't know. How would you feel if you saw your best friend of seven years with the Megumi no Hana lying down on his lap?"

"Don't know. Never happened to me before."

"Yeah... That's kind of the point. Still, that's exactly what happened. And now look at them. They're practically dead."

"Ah... Then... did I do something wrong again?"

She shriveled up into a ball at the edge of the couch, yet I couldn't help but let out a chuckle as I stood up.

"Don't worry, Megumi. That's not the case at all."

"What? But... how else can you explain this? Now your friends know that you've been keeping me a secret..."

"Hah... It's not that deep, so relax. If anything, this is fine. They were gonna find out eventually. Might as well be now. Come on. Help me get them off the ground."

Eventually, we got them up and moving. Well... 'Moving' is more of an overstatement. They were just sitting there, the air so tense you could probably slice it with a butter knife.

Koga sat on the arm of the couch, arms crossed, eyes darting between us like he was trying to solve a murder mystery.

Yue plopped down onto the floor, legs crossed, still visibly rattled.

Meanwhile, Megumi sat comfortably on the couch cushion next to me.

Nobody spoke for a while. The only sounds were the faint hum of the fridge and the occasional creak of someone shifting uncomfortably.

I caught Yue glancing at me. Then at Megumi. Then at me again. Koga did the same. It was like being stuck in an unspoken tennis match where the ball was my rapidly crumbling sanity.

Finally, Yue couldn't take it anymore.

"Okay," she blurted out, raising both hands. "I can't do this. I..."

She raised both hands and pointed them at Megumi.

"Y-you're... You're Megumi no Hana!"

"Ah... Yeah, I guess I am."

"You guess?! Okay, hold on. Let me calm down again."

One deep breath later...

"No. I can't calm down. Taka! What the hell is Megumi no Hana doing in your house?!"

"Keep it down, Yue," I sighed. "Someone's gonna hear you through the wall."

"Calm down? Calm down?! You want me to calm down after finding out something as drastic as this?!"

She turned her attention to Megumi.

"Miss Megumi. H-hi there. I... I'm a huge fan. Really, but... What are you, of all people, doing here? Why were you on Taka's lap? And on top of that, why does it seem like you've been here since last night?"

"Because I was," she answered without hesitation.

Koga visibly choked on air.

"Wha—?!"

"I-it's not like that!" I exclaimed.

"Then what's it like, Taka?!" Yue fired back, eyes sharp. "Because I'm trying really hard not to jump to conclusions, but this looks very jump-able!"

"Look, it's complicated, okay? She, uh..."

I glanced at Megumi, hoping for backup.

"Oh. I live here now."

Silence. Again.

Koga's jaw dropped while Yue blinked twice like a loading screen.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Megumi nodded cheerfully.

"Yep. Moved in. This is my room now."

She pointed toward the hallway with all the confidence in the world.

"I'm... really struggling to understand any of this right now," Yue muttered, rubbing her face with both hands. "Taka, explain."

"Well, I just... It's a long story," I stammered. "I kind of... found her on the bridge. You know, the one at the edge of the campus... and... stuff happened... and now she's staying here."

"The bridge?" Koga repeated. "Dude, what the hell kind of stuff happened on the bridge that ends with her moving in?"

"I'd also like to know," Yue muttered.

I wanted to evaporate. Or die. Or both.

"L-look, I'll explain later!" I managed to say. "Just— Can we not do this interrogation thing first thing in the morning?"

Megumi raised a hand.

"Technically, it's noon."

"You're not helping."

"Aw~ what? I've been nothing but helpful since I moved in."

"You're insufferable..."

"Yep. And that's why you haven't kicked me out yet."

I was just about to fire back when a chill crept up my spine. Instinctively, I turned my head—only to find Koga and Yue staring at us, jaws practically on the floor.

"You two..." Yue finally muttered, eyes wide. "A-are you... in a relationship?"

"W-what?!" I yelped, full-on panic mode. "No! No, no, no! You've got it all wrong!"

Koga pinched his chin, squinting at me like some detective closing in on a suspect.

"I don't know, man... That banter sounded an awful lot like what Yue and I do on the daily. Anyone would take one look and think the same thing we're thinking."

"Well, I'm telling you it's not like that! Hey, Megumi! Say something!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. We slept together. That's why you found me lying on his lap."

Silence. Pure, undisturbed silence. Not the good kind, either.

I could practically hear the gears grinding in Yue and Koga's heads.

"What the hell was that?!" I exclaimed. "Why couldn't you have just agreed with me about how we weren't in a relationship?!"

"Oh. That's what you meant."

Megumi turned to the others.

"We're not in a relationship."

"A little too late for that..."

Suddenly, I felt a cold hand resting on my shoulder. My head slowly twisted around to see that Yue was standing right behind me with a menacing glare.

"Taka..." she muttered before blowing up. "You did what?!"

"Hold on!" I shot up from my seat, waving my hands around. "She's phrasing it weird! It's not what you think!"

Koga's brows furrowed.

"So you didn't...?"

"Of course not!"

Megumi stretched her arms over her head with a casual yawn.

"Wow, you're making it sound like I'm not a catch, Shohei. A little rude, no?"

"Megumi! Stop talking!"

Another pause, then Yue finally grabbed a throw pillow and screamed into it.

"Okay..." Koga mumbled. "Can we at least get something to go off of? This is just a little... very hard to process."

I groaned, rubbing my face.

"She's... Megumi no Hana. As you could probably already tell. She's staying here temporarily. I helped her with... uh... personal stuff. Long story, but nothing weird happened, okay? We just— we're friends. Roommates, if anything."

"Roommates with a freaking celebrity?" Yue grumbled, muffled by the pillow.

"...Y-yeah."

The room fell into another beat of awkward quiet before Koga stood and clapped his hands together.

"Okay. Well... I guess... This is a rather unorthodox way to meet one of my favorite actresses, but here we are. Nice to meet you, Megumi no Hana."

She beamed, turning her head to wink at me as if she had done a good job.

Seriously...?

I slumped back onto the couch. The day has only just started, and I already want it to end.