Steak

The district that Miyuki mentioned Kyo would make his delivery rounds at was about 14 minutes away from the Sugawa office by bus. Asuka stood at the mouth of the road that led into the shopping district. The sky was cloudy, but the sun peeked through, giving the day a bittersweet vibe. Checking the time on her phone, Asuka found that she had been at the office for about two hours.

Now that she was here, the idea of finally meeting Misaki was more overwhelming than she'd initially anticipated. But the gift Kyo never got the opportunity to give to Misaki inside of her bag blasts that feeling of anxiety away, replaced with renewed vigor toward her goal of completing her brother’s bucket list. Gripping the strap of her side bag with one hand, she takes her first steps into the bustling throng of people.

The streets were lined with shops ranging from clothing stores to restaurants. Streams of people milled about, presumably running errands or simply enjoying a pleasant evening out. Asuka had already reviewed what her brother said about Misaki, and concluded she must have owned a tea shop, or at least worked in one. It helps that she knows the specific niche of the store, but it still feels like she has her work cut out for her with the sheer number of different places to look.

Walking slowly, she maneuvers her eyes to get a good look at the name of each store she passes, and peers into the interior to make sure of what they were selling. It really would’ve helped if Kyo had written down the name of the tea shop in his notebook. Trying to put herself in her brother's shoes to see if it would help, she imagines him navigating through the streets with the large carts she has spotted other delivery workers lugging around.

Stopping to properly observe one of them, she sees as the worker removes large boxes from inside the green flaps of an even bigger storage container. She stacks them at the entryway of their assigned stores and completes the transaction list with the store employee. When it is completed, the woman bows away and moves onto the next stop.

Asuka continues to pound her own pavement, trying to stay focused. Unfortunately, that starts getting harder and harder. She doesn’t know why, but she starts feeling awful all of a sudden. Every step she takes sucks more and more energy out of her body. Her vision starts to get blurry and when she can no longer take it, she finds the nearest unoccupied bench and plops herself down gracelessly. A headache starts to form at her temples, irritating her eyes. She groans. What is going on?

Expecting the feeling to go away after some rest, she remains seated for 10 more minutes. But it just keeps getting worse. Asuka feels cursed. She tries to steady her mind by focusing on the people walking by. It’s a Sunday, so there are many families in the shopping area. Children jump around with ice cream cones in their hands, their parents tell them to be careful or they’ll drop them. Another couple passes by with their arms linked together. The taller of the two takes a bite out of the crepes his partner is holding, earning a light slap from the latter.

Everywhere she looks there is someone eating something. The pleasant aroma of coffee that she never drinks wafts in from the cafe behind her bench that sits in the middle of the walkway, separating the street into lanes. Realization hits when a woman sits on the bench that mirrored hers and unwraps the steaming hot sandwich she brought with her. The woman is poised to take a bite, when a piercing gaze tells her to look over her shoulder.

“Can I help you…?” Asuka blinks. She had no idea she had been inching so close to the woman who was trying to enjoy her meal and backs away quickly. Hurriedly wiping the drool that slipped down her chin, Asuka waves with her other hand, trying to come up with a reason for being so weird.

“O-oh, no, I’m sorry I was just, uh,” Asuka looks back to the burger in the girl’s hand. “Your food looked so good I was just wondering where you got it from…!” She quirks her lips into an awkward smile.

“Oh, um, I got it at the restaurant down the street there,” the woman directs Asuka’s eyes to a shop that she hadn’t passed yet about 4 meters away. Locking in on it, Asuka sheepishly nods her head to the woman and thanks her, getting up to check out the place for herself.

The restaurant is situated in between a clothing store boutique and a chic antique store. The entrance was decorated with two small, vertically aligned trees beside the door. Opening it, she is met with a bright interior that has minimal seating. Luckily, she doesn’t have much of a wait, as the line was only being held up by two people before her. There was one group of girls laughing and talking at one of the tables, but she would have plenty of room to eat at the bar.

While waiting for her turn to order, she observed the menu. Relieved to see everything was relatively affordable, she chose a steak set with a side of vegetables, soup, and rice. Checking her bag to make sure she wasn’t too low on funds. She opened her wallet to find…enough to pay for the meal, but if she did, she would be short on bus fare.

Oh.

She hadn’t been spending all that much these past few months, but the money she’d been left with was already at an all-time low. Asuka considers her options. The remaining amount of money on her Mikan card could still pay for the train ride. If she paid for the meal here, she could walk to a different train station to get home, right?

Not to mention she didn’t feel like she had the strength to make it, trying to search around for a cheaper place. These prices were already reasonable enough, and Misaki was waiting. She still doesn’t even know if her shop will be open if she manages to locate it, so the sooner she gets there the better, just in case it closes early. When it’s her turn to order, Asuka immediately chooses the ¥1,230 steak set she’d been eyeing.

Thirty or so minutes pass until Asuka is handed her food at the bar. The savory smell of the steak makes her stomach rumble in anticipation. Wasting no time, she takes a bite. She feels all of her irritation and ailments wash away as the flavor of the meat spreads on her tongue. Everything pairs well enough for her to forget her surroundings and focus completely on eating.

She had really forgotten how much she used to love eating these past three months. She remembers back before she was old enough to cook, when he was around 15, Kyo would do his best to feed the both of them. He really improved after getting his hands on a cookbook he had unearthed from an old forgotten closet.

Unlike usual, these memories don’t sour her appetite. After her crying session and the conversation with Miyuki, she had come to the realization that she would meet him soon. After all, there was a huge meteor on its way to pulverize the planet. That’s why she’s on this mission in the first place. So, every time she feels guilty, every time she feels pain when she remembers her brother, she knows it will be okay.

“Where should we hit up tonight?” Asuka suddenly tunes in to the conversation being had behind her. The girls who were sitting at the table were still there. Asuka turns her head slightly to see who it was that spoke. A girl with bleached blonde hair and winged eyeliner sat amongst them. She was currently flicking a lighter to burn the end of a lipstick-stained cigarette she was holding in her mouth.

Asuka’s eyes widen and she snaps forward. She decides to no longer take her sweet time enjoying every bite and finishes off the rest of her food in a matter of minutes. Trying to draw as little attention to herself as possible, she quietly slides her stool backwards to free her from underneath the bar. But of course, the legs drag across the floor and make a tremendous noise in the nearly empty shop. The girls don’t pay attention for longer than to pause and laugh, but they don’t stop their conversation. Asuka breathes sharply at herself and sneaks up to the counter with her receipt to pay.

The cashier rings her up and she pays her total. She just has to make it to the door before any of them catch on, and she’s home free. Willing herself to become invisible, Asuka keeps her head down and tilted to the right to avoid detection. Right as she passes in front of their table, she hears a loud shout.

“Young lady!!” Asuka jumps and reflexively turns to the noise at the same time as the other four girls and the other two patrons in the building. An older man who was working as a chef behind the counter in the kitchen calls out to the girls at the table. “There is NO smoking allowed in my restaurant!” He angrily jabs a finger at the sign above the register that did indeed read “smoking is prohibited”.

Instead of obliging, the blonde girl rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue, “man you’re loud. I’m a paying customer; I should be able to take a smoke or two whenever I….” The girl trails off, frozen with two fingers reaching for the cigarette in her mouth as she makes eye contact with Asuka. Too late to realize her mistake, Asuka speed walks out of the door and down the street.

Trying not to bump into anyone, she runs as far as she can and ducks into a corner to hide. Ignoring the stares she’s getting Asuka’s mind races.

“What was she doing here?!” Flashes came into Asuka’s mind of her time during high school. The times they’d skipped class to smoke. Sneaking out at night to pick fights with other girls. Swiping lipstick from store shelves. Guilt ebbs its way back into her mind and she closes them, cringing at herself.

“Wow, it really is Pochi.” Asuka’s heart almost bursts out of her chest. Her eyelids fly open to see the girl’s face inches from hers.