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 threatened to catch in her hair as she pulled away. The other two girls and got their hugs as well. Aya’s short bob tickles Asuka’s neck. 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 arm around her shoulder, “we were planning on going to karaoke after eating. Wanna join?”

“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.” Then she 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.” The grin on Hanako’s face and the grip on her shoulder don’t seem like she’s giving Asuka much of a choice, “…fine.”

“Alright,” Hanako gives Asuka’s shoulder a pat, “now that that’s settled, let’s go!” The others cheer, Aya less enthusiastically. And Asuka is strung along like a captured mouse in the claws of a starving cat. Weighing her options, Asuka concludes that she wouldn’t have been able to run away without getting caught by Mio, anyways. Her legs are too long.

They all walk in groups on the way there. Aya, Junko, and Mio in front. Hanako and Asuka behind. The three before them talk to each other in loud voices, laughing at things Asuka isn’t paying attention to. She’s 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, tossing 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 feet of the three in front of her.

Asuka can feel Hanako watching her silently, but she is surprised when she actually says something. “Hey, 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, it’s just that she has no idea what she would be bringing something like that up right now. “I remember when you saved one from a spider web,” Hanako continues, taking another drag.

With one eye raised, she finally gives her answer, “yeah, I remember.” Asuka 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 us because hair in her fingers, letting it fall to her back. “What?” Hanako hums, “nothin’. I was just thinking 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 square couch to sit.

Asuka doesn’t want to be here for so many reasons. She looks at Hanako from the corner of her eyes as she removes her jacket. Reluctant to ask her any unnecessary questions though she was, she figures she might as well since she’ll be stuck with them for who knows how long.

“Hanako…chan…,” she started slowly, “Risa and Yuzu, are they not with you guys?” 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 decorated with black nail polish. “They left us on our own back then. Why would we still be hanging around the likes of them?” 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. Confused, she looked at Mio who’d passed it. She made a pointing motion at the device, implying she wanted Asuka to go next. She looked down at the little screen. The other two had already put their songs into the queue.

It’s been so long since Asuka had listened to any music on her own that she didn’t know what to pick. Feeling pressured by Hanako’s gaze, she decides to go for the first song with lyrics she knows that shows up in the options and passes the controller to Hanako.

Junko was out of breath by the end of her set. Aya sprang up and snatched the microphone from her hand. Junko is so tired she doesn’t even complain, and sinks into the spot Aya had been in.

The song Aya sings is something from another country. Asuka can’t exactly make out the language, but it has a hard rock kind of energy to it.

Soon it dawns on Asuka after Mio goes up that her turn was coming. Mio sang something that sounded like it was from an older anime. She swears she heard it before but can’t place which anime it belonged to. She focused so hard on Mio’s song that she didn’t wasn’t aware when the microphone was pushed into her hands and is forced to go up front to sing.

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. Despite laughing and poking fun at her, the others do rock paper scissors to see who will call the front desk and pay for the water. Luckily for Asuka who was forced to join in, the winner—or, rather, loser—ends up being Aya. “You’re so unlucky today!” Mio cackles. Aya glares at her as she leaves the room.

While Hanako is out taking a cigarette break, 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 drink bark with her water. Asuka was now fully sick of this. Every minute she wasted in here was time lost trying to find Misaki. Aya comes in with a glass of water on a as Asuka was coming up with an excuse to leave.

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

Aya shouts “TMI!” at her retreating form. She hurries to the staircase instead of the elevator. Hurrying to find it, she meets Hanako 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, “here, 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 here, or around any of them for that matter. What is her angle, here?

…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. Aya and Mio clap heartily, whooping and cheering. They must have missed quite a performance.

“Oh yeah!” Mio grabbed the controller and paused 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, but I think it was before you came in.”

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 pestering me now!”

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

It’s dark outside by the time they leave the karaoke box. Most of the families who had been there earlier in the day were now gone. The stores themselves were also winding down, but, including them, there were still a few stragglers still in the market place. Asuka feels lost and empty realizing she’s probably lost her chance to meet up with Misaki today. She does the possibility of being able to afford another round-trip to come here another day with the money she has running out so soon.

“Hanako, what’s the ‘big idea’?” Junko asks. Everyone had gotten up to follow Hanako out of the booth after she left without saying anything more. Anxious, but curious, Asuka waits for her to speak up.

Lighting up a fresh cigarette, Hanako takes her time blowing smoke into the air before turning to the other four. “It’s been so long since all of us were together. How about we ‘play cops and robbers’, for old times’ sake.” Mio, Aya, and Junko looked shocked, but their expressions quickly turned to excitement.

Asuka, however, did not sign up for this. “What?” she cuts in, “what if we get caught?” Hanako shifts her eyes to look at her. “What does it matter? The world’s about to end, remember?” Asuka can’t keep up with Hanako’s logic. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life behind bars?” she doesn’t actually even care anymore; all knows is she was not trying to go down with her. Not again.

“Come on, it’s just one swipe. This’ll be a good chance to make it up to us for paying for you at karaoke.” Asuka feels anger at Hanako like she’s never felt before. She let her get away with so many things, but now she sees her for who she is.

“Fine,” Asuka meets her eyes defiantly. “I’ll be the one to take it, myself.”

One of the few shops that were still open was a pharmacy type drug store. Various items such as vitamin supplements, face masks, hair products, and makeup could all be found there. Hanako takes one last drag of her cigarette before stomping it out. “You guys still remember how to do this?” “Please, it’s only been like a year since we dropped out,” Aya says confidently. “How about you?” She singles Asuka out, testing her with her tone. But Asuka doesn’t give in. “Don’t worry about me. Let’s just go.”

They enter the store one by one, moving around different sections of the store until they crowd around one area at the same time. The makeup section. Mio casually locates the camera nearest to them and blocks Asuka from its view while pretending to inspect the price of a disinfectant spray. Junko takes it as her sign to go on the other side of Asuka and stretches spontaneously to hide any movement. When Asuka turns to leave, Aya makes her move. Going up to the cashier, she distracts him by asking about the health benefits of a bottle of iron supplements.

Asuka walks by the counter and begins her real plan.

Purposely making eye contact with Hanako, who was browsing magazines by the entrance, she gets far enough for it to be suspicious and drops the small tub of moisturizer she had hidden in her sleeve onto the floor. The guy running the counter notices and yells at her stop. Everyone scatters like birds to avoid getting caught. Asuka tries her best to ditch the others, ducking into an alleyway behind a building. When she thinks she’s lost them, her arm is yanked back by Mio.

Her grip is like an iron shackle around Asuka’s wrist. “What the hell, Pochi! What was that?!” Asuka futility attempted to free herself as the other girls gathered around them.

“You had one job, and you ruined it!” Junko’s scream echoes through the empty space.

“Keep it down.” Hanako’s voice was icy cold. “Explain yourself.” Asuka scoffs at her, making Hanako’s eyebrow twitch. “Hold her up.” Mio changes the hold so that both of Asuka’s arms are locked inside of hers. Asuka was prepared for something like this. She’d seen them do it to countless others before. Hanako comes closer to her, but she keeps her eyes trained elsewhere.

“Look at me.” Asuka doesn’t move and Hanako’s eyes furrow, “Pochi—"

“Stop calling me Pochi!!” Asuka shakes and snaps. Her eyes were wild with anger, “I’m not your fucking dog!!”

Hanako narrows her eyes. Asuka sees stars as she’s struck in the face with an open palm. She tries to bring a hand up to her cheek instinctively, but Mio still has a tight grip on both of her arms.

Aya and Junko look at each other with their eyes wide. “Uh, Hana-chan—” Aya tries to deter Hanako, but she whips around, smacking Aya’s hand off her shoulder. Aya holds up her hands as Hanako’s piercing gaze bares into her.

She turns her attention back to Asuka, speaking calmly, “why did you disappear back then?” Asuka furrows her eyebrows, waiting for her to elaborate.

“Isn’t it obvious? I got expelled. I wasted my time hanging out with you. It’s one of the biggest regrets in my life.” She decides not to bring up the effect her actions had had in Kyo. Bringing him up would just prompt her to use him as fuel to get on her nerves even more.

Hanako growls, “you’re all the same. You, Risa, and Yuzu. Filthy traitors.”

Risa and Yuzu were two other girls that used to be a part of their little posse. They had been with the other five during their early years of delinquency but moved on in the third year after deciding there was something they wanted to do with their lives. As a result, they weren’t there when the others got caught smoking and were expelled for it.

“Oh my God, get over it!” Asuka says with her chest. “They had the sense to not involve themselves with our and got out just in time. It could have been any of us if we’d been less stupid or even picked a better hiding spot than the gym storage room!”

Hanako’s face twisted in rage, her eyes seemed to glow in the dark. “Do you think you’re better than us or something?!” Hanako takes another swing, this time with her fist. The punch lands on her face. Asuka grits her teeth. She tastes iron as a bruise begins to form on her lower lip

Asuka doesn’t know how long it’s been going on by the time she regains consciousness. Mio doesn’t budge, still as a stone wall. Holding her head up by her hair, Hanako forces Asuka to look at her.

Another swing hits Asuka a spot directly under her rib cage and she hangs her head as much as she can from the pain. Her legs fully give out, now supported only by Mio. “You were better when you used to follow me around like a little puppy,” she spits.

It takes Asuka a while to recover from the hit. As soon as she is finished gasping she forces the words from her shaking mouth.

“Yeah, well, people change. Unlike you.” She thinks about it a bit and changes her mind. “Actually, I guess you did change. I used to think you were so cool, but then you started doing those things when we got older.”

Hanako throws her head back dramatically in a vicious laugh, “don’t act like you weren’t right there with me, Pochi. There’s as much dirt on your hands as there is on mine, so get off your high horse.”

That is a fact Asuka cannot deny. Thinking back on it, she’s always been a follower. Following Hanako around. Following her brother around, hell, she’s even following him right now by trying to finish his bucket list.

Time seems to slow down as Hanako raises her fist once more. Something catches her attention, and she looks up above Hanako’s head. A small creature dances in the air, fluttering bright orange wings that gleam in the moonlight. Her eyes widen in recognition as another fist collides with her cheek.

“HEY!”