Ghost

“Take it easy!” Haruki said, as he removed his mask and took the sunglasses off.

His newly bleached hair was barely visible under the cap. He had lost weight, she noticed.

“I’ll scream.”

Haruki held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He smiled—his practised smile.

“When Sakuya told me he’d been saved by a Kana, I thought it was a coincidence. Then I remembered that you once said you would be running a cafe if you weren’t in—”

“Why are you here?”

Kana was still behind the counter, like a safety barrier between them. Haruki had never once hurt her physically, but the pain had been sharp enough without it. She reached for her phone, and dialed her emergency contact. He wasn’t scheduled to arrive until lunch time, but there was an agreement between them in case Haruki ever appeared. She would call and just leave the phone on. It had never happened before, but the possibility was frightening enough.

Haruki watched her pick up the phone, but it seemed he didn’t realise she had called for help. Instead he stepped into the shop, hands in his pockets.

“You disappear for three years, and you ask me why I’m here? I’m worried about you.”

“Pull the other one.”

“Genuinely. I know things ended badly between us, but to cut me off so completely? To cut everyone off?”

“And whose fault is that?”

Haruki rolled his eyes.

“You got everything you wanted. I’m gone from your life, and you have your career. Leave me in peace,” Kana spat.

“But I never wanted you gone. You have to believe me. My lawyers—”

“Shut. Up. Leave or I’ll call the police on you for harassing me.”

“Harassing you? I’m just here to talk.”

“About?”

“Kana, I missed you so much. All these years, I—“

“Out.”

Haruki crossed his arms.

“You slander me, ruin my reputation, force me to quit to take the blame on me, and now you waltz into my life like nothing has happened and claim you miss me? Don’t even fucking start. Out!!”

Kana was close to losing her patience and would have liked nothing better than to punch Haruki, but any kind of physical action wouldn’t hold up in court. That’s what her legal advice had said three years ago, for what they were worth. Not much else, apparently. She clenched her hands to fists regardless.

“Fine, fine. For the record, all that? That was the agency, not me.”

“And that’s why you’re still with them? Because they did such a good job exploiting me?”

Haruki shrugged. “I don’t have much time today. I’ll be back.”

He smiled sweetly and turned around to leave.

“You’re banned from the premises and if I ever see you again, I will call the police!”

The second Haruki was out of view, Kana’s legs failed and she sank to her knees on the floor, shaking. Tears came unbidden, even if she didn’t want to cry. Three years. Three years and it all rushed back into her head as if it was yesterday. The running, the hiding, the humiliation.

Most of all: her cowardly capitulation.

Kana cried and cried and cried, only the low humming of the coffee machine keeping her company.

—

“Kana! Kana!!”

Yuto ran into the cafe, completely out of breath, to find his boss and friend sitting on the floor behind the counter, shivering and crying. He reacted immediately. First he closed the door and turned the sign to ‘Closed’, then he somehow manoeuvred Kana to the couch in the corner of the cafe and sat her down on the plush seat. He wiped the tears from her cheeks with a tissue, and handed her another one for good measure.

“Yutoooo…”

“I’m here, Kana-chan, I’m here,” he said and put his arms around her, letting her sob into his shirt.

Nishida Yuto had been friends with Kana since middle school. He had supported her single-minded dance and singing practice when all others had called her delusional. He was tall, broad, had a curly head of hair, and looked not unlike a gym bro, but his glasses softened the image. They had never lost contact during her time in the spotlight, and when it became time for her to fall and take her place among the normal people again, he had been there to catch her. Even though he was still studying at the nearby university, he helped out with Cafe Adagio for a pittance of a salary. That didn’t matter to him. What mattered was that he was there.

“What happened?” he asked, as if their emergency signal wasn’t just for one specific thing only.

“He found me.”

Yuto took her by the hands and looked her up and down, but he could not find anything amiss.

“Did he touch you?”

“No.”

“Good. I’d break his fingers.”

Kana had to smile despite everything.

“Sorry I couldn’t be here quicker. I was studying at the library nearby. Though I think they might not let me back in after I sprinted through the halls.”

“I’m just happy you’re here at all.”

“Of course. Of course.”

Kana recounted the meeting with Sakuya the week before, and how she had helped him to hide. A chance encounter leading to connecting her back with that scumbag of a person. It still, impossibly, hurt her to think of Haruki that way. She had genuinely loved him once.

“Why do you think he was here?” Kana asked.

“He just started out with a new band. He wouldn’t want anything from the past to come up again,” Yuto replied.

“Then why was he here?? People could’ve recognised him!”

“I don’t know, Kana-chan. I wish I knew. I… If you think he might come back, I can come in more hours, accompany you while you’re here. Or you could close the place until he decides to no longer shower up.”

“No. Why should I adjust my life to suit him? Haven’t I done enough?”

“Right you are. I’m sorry for suggesting it.”

Kana patted Yuto’s leg. “I know you mean well. It’s complicated.”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. They looked up to find someone standing there, hands against the glass to see into the relative darkness of the shop. When he spotted them on the couch, he waved, pulling the hat and mask off.

“Is that…” Yuto asked.

“No. But that’s how he found me.”

“What?”

“He’s one of the members of ‘Candy Apple’.”

Yuto glared daggers. “So he was the one who spied on your location for that bastard?”

“I don’t think so. It’s all a big coincidence."

“Coincidence my ass.”

Yuto made to stand up, but Kana grabbed his sleeve. She shook her head.

“Let me.”

“You look a fright.”

“I don’t care.”

Even if Kana went ahead, Yuto didn’t let her go alone. He was directly behind her when she opened the door, arms crossed, looking for all intents and purposes like a bodyguard.

“Hey… uh. Is this a bad time? What happened to you?”

“As if you don’t know!” Yuto snapped.

He was taller than Sakuya, but somehow the least threatening person Kana had ever known. It meant a lot to her that he backed her up.

“Let it go. I’m sure he doesn’t know.”

“Doesn’t know what?” Sakuya asked.

Kana took a deep breath. “I had a visit from the past. I didn’t take it well. Excuse my looks.”

Sakuya looked up to Yuto, swallowed and held out his hand. Yuto rolled his eyes, but after a knock into the ribs from Kana, took it.

“Hasemi Sakuya. Nice to meet you.”

“Nishida Yuto.”

“And you are?”

“Not my boyfriend,” Kana blurted out before she could think better of it.

Apparently she liked Sakuya more than she thought. It had only been a few days, but his messages had been...

“I think you should go and not come back,” Yuto said. “See what your meddling has done so far.”

“I… what… I just…”

“Yuto!” Kana chastised him and waved for Sakuya to come in.