Old Friends

“Hey guys, it’s Pochi!” Hanako uses her arm to steer Asuka towards the others, who are waiting with smiles on their faces.

“Pochi!” The girl named Junko pulls in Asuka for a tight squeeze, her chunky earrings threaten to catch in her hair as she pulls away. The other two girls got their hugs in as well. Aya’s short bob tickles Asuka’s neck, and Mio’s hug lasts the longest as she takes the time to pick Asuka up and spin her around.

Hanako returns to Asuka’s side with a grin on her face that doesn’t reach her downturned eyes. “Hey, why’d you run out on us like that? We’ve missed you y’know?” The other girls wait for her answer expectantly. Thinking back to what happened in the restaurant, it doesn’t take Asuka long to come up with a response. “The old guy yelling scared the hell outta me, so I bolted.”

At this they laughed, “Ah, my god, Pochi you’re still so hilarious,” Mio said as she wiped a tear from her eye. Hanako startles Asuka by putting another hand on her shoulder, “we were planning on going to karaoke after eating. Join us?”

“Yeah, we should catch up!” Junko chimes in.

Asuka tries to refuse, “I can’t, I just spent the rest of my money on that steak.”

“Is that all? We’ll just pay your half, no problem.” Hanako turns to Aya and speaks with a less cheerful tone, “hey, Aya. Pay for her, ‘kay?” 

“Whaaat? Why me?” Aya’s expression turns incredulous at the sudden fee she’s incurred.

“It’s fine,” she turns back to Asuka, “you’ll just have to pay her back.” Asuka feels the grip on her shoulder tighten for a moment. 

“…fine.”

“Alright,” Hanako gives Asuka’s back a few pats, “now that that’s settled, let’s go!” 

The others cheer, Aya less enthusiastically while Asuka is strung along like a captured mouse in the claws of a starving cat. Weighing her options, Asuka concludes that she won’t be able to run away without getting caught by Mio. Her legs are too long.

Hanako and Asuka walk behind the other three who are chatting idly in front of them.  Asuka isn’t paying attention to their conversation or laughter, too busy trying to figure out if she should escape from them now or later.

“Relax,” Hanako cuts through her thoughts like a blade. “We’re not gonna jump you or anything.” She finishes off her cigarette and tosses it onto the ground. “We’re just hanging out. Like old times, remember?” 

Hanako lightly shoulder checks her. Asuka fakes a laugh and returns to walking with her eyes pointed toward the heels of the three in front of her. Asuka can feel Hanako watching her silently, but she is surprised when she actually says something. 

“Do you remember when we used to go looking for caterpillars?” Asuka turns to her, unable to keep the surprise out of her face.

It’s not that she doesn’t remember, she just has no idea why she would be bringing something like that up right now. “I remember when you saved one from a spider web,” Hanako continues.

With one eye raised, Asuka finally gives her answer, “yeah, I remember.” 

She waits to see if Hanako will say anything else. When nothing happens, she continues herself, “…what about it?” Hanako shakes her head, “no reason.” 

Absently, she reaches out and flips a few strands of Asuka’s hair in her fingers, letting it fall to her back. 

“What?” 

Hanako hums, “nothin’…your hair’s gotten longer.”

Asuka, Hanako, Aya, Junko, and Mio sit in a karaoke booth. Because they’re in a large group, they were able to get one of the more spacious rooms. Junko immediately lunges for the controller and looks for a song. “Me first!” Aya is the only one who seems upset at this, and everyone else settles onto the couch to sit.

Asuka fiddles with the knot on her skirt’s string tie, quickly darting her eyes to Hanako as she removes her jacket. Though she’s reluctant to ask her any unnecessary questions, she knows she’ll be stuck with them for a while. She takes a deep breath  

“Hanako…chan…,” she starts slowly, “ have you been in touch with Risa?” 

Hanako lounges in the seat and looks at her. For a while she doesn’t say anything.

“Did you forget?” she jabs at Asuka’s forehead with a finger coated with black nail polish. “She left us on our own back then. Why would we still be hanging around the likes of her?” 

She returns her attention to Junko as Asuka rubs the spot she poked. Of course she would still feel sore about that. It looks like Hanako hasn’t changed much at all since then, not that she’d expected her to.

The song Junko picked starts with an electronic pinging. She jumped up and down which affected her singing a bit, but she didn’t seem to care. While watching the performance, Asuka suddenly had the controller thrust at her. Surprised, she looked at Mio who had passed it. Pointing at the device reveals she wants Asuka to put her song in next. 

It had been so long since Asuka had listened to any music on her own that she didn’t know what to pick. But the pressure of Hanako’s pushed her. Going with the first song she recognized of the most popular songs, she hurriedly passes the controller to Hanako.

Junko was out of breath by the end of her set and Aya sprang up to snatch the microphone from her hand. Junko is so winded that she doesn’t even complain, sinking into the spot Aya had been.

Soon it dawns on Asuka after Mio goes up that her turn was coming. She focused so hard on trying to make sure she knew the lyrics to her own song that she wasn’t aware when the microphone was pushed into her hands.

After everyone had gotten a turn to sing twice, they all decided to take a break. Junko had done another idol performance with her song, and she genuinely looks like she’s dying. “Water…I need water…” she gasps. The others are laughing and poking fun at her as she heads to the drink bar.

After Hanako leaves for a cigarette break, Asuka feels relaxed enough to really take in what’s happened. Mio is scrolling through her phone and Junko is fully lying on the couch, her messy hair bun squishes against the cushion as she waits for Aya to come from the bathroom. 

Irritation begins to prickle at Asuka, who was now fully sick of this. Every minute she wasted in here was time lost trying to find Misaki. Aya comes back as Asuka was coming up with an excuse to leave.

“I’m going to pee,” she announces, jumping out of her seat.

Aya shouts “ you should’ve just gone with me!” at her retreating form. She hurries to the staircase instead of the elevator. Hurrying to find it, she meets Hanako on her way back to the room in the hallway.

“Ah, Hanako…chan,” she deflates, “I was trying to find the restroom. Hanako leans by the door of the elevator and propels herself off of it with her shoulder. “There’s one in this floor,” she moves toward Asuka, “I’ll show it to you.”

Asuka feels like exploding as she walks through the karaoke hall with Hanako. She knows Hanako is aware of how little she wants to be there, or around any of them for that matter. What is her angle?

…She really does have to pee, though.

By the time they get back, Junko has fully recovered. She’s doing the same routine, dancing like a maniac while she belts out another song. The one that’s playing right now has a planetary atmosphere. With one final note, the song ends with a crashing note. Aya and Mio clap heartily, whooping and cheering. They must have missed quite a performance.

“Oh yeah!” Mio grabs the controller and pauses Aya’s song just as she was about to sing the first word. Ignoring her protests, Mio turns to Asuka. “Pochi, did you hear about the huge meteor that supposed to crash on Earth in like a year?”

Aya forgets her irritation to participate in the conversation, “right, we were all talking about it at the restaurant earlier like right before you ran out.”

Asuka doesn’t even have the energy to be sarcastic at this point, so she just answers honestly, “yeah. I saw it on ChikTak a week or so ago.”

“God, my mom’s been going crazy about it,” Junko joins in, rolling her eyes. “She keeps going on about repenting and is calling everyone in our family trying to make amends and stuff, blah blah blah. But at least she’s letting me do what I want now without nagging me now!”

“Like you haven’t already been doing that?” Hanako interjects. Junko makes a face at her. “Do you seriously think it’s real?”

While the others argue about the possibility of the news regarding the meteor being fake, Hanako interrupts them. “Hey, I have an idea.” The other three immediately cease their chatter. A familiar sense of foreboding pools in Asuka’s stomach at her words.