eighteen going on twenty-six

Soujiro is neither surprised nor disappointed to receive a call from Fuji at one in the morning during his day off. He wasn’t asleep anyway—he was marathoning a manga about giving a cute yandere love—so he picks up after the fourth ring. “Fuji.”

“Help Nagumo and Oda-chin find something cute to wear,” is her greeting.

“Uhh… sure. Just not now?”

“All you need to do is be there and make sure that the tailor doesn’t scam us. I already made the calls.”

“Oh, God. Sure. I’m just busy right now?”

“By the way, could you help me choose my outfit? Please? I’m sending you the pictures right now.”

“Please don’t—” But it’s too late. His phone is buzzing nonstop. “Fuji, it’s ONE in the MORNING.”

“And other people pay me for this! You’re so lucky, Soujiro. If I was a single man, I’d be ecstatic about getting ten… thirty… eighty-two pictures of a cute girl in different outfits. On top of that, you also get to visit Otohama all the time. You’re so lucky. Meanwhile, I can’t do anything without Kerochanfan’s army hounding me.”

“Who.”

“You get to talk to Oda-chin and Gaillard and Matsu and everyone else while I’m stuck here alone and sad.”

“Surrounded by servants in a room the size of my house,” Soujiro notes. His phone is still buzzing. He’ll just pick one at random and say she looks good in that one. “Why don’t you just ask Yuki—”

“Fumito sucks!”

“Sorry. Sorry.”

“Traitor!” She hangs up. Soujiro’s phone keeps buzzing as Fuji continues to send pictures of herself. He’d ask Dr. Shimazu to help him choose, but something tells him that this could backfire. Thus, alone in a hotel room, while his phone continues to get assaulted, Soujiro reads.

For nine months now, he has been going back and forth whenever he has time, which is to say seldom.

This will end soon.

Otohama, like many villages of its kind, has a depressing amount of very empty, very cheap homes. It’s also in dire need of young labor.

The day before they went back to Tokyo, under that fleeting, false snowfall, Soujiro asked Dr. Shimazu, “Do you think I should stay?”

To which she responded, “I’ll answer this later.”

‘Later’ meant so late at night that even Fuji had fallen asleep, so late that even Soujiro felt cold. It didn’t help that they decided to meet at the beach. Dr. Shimazu’s coat was so oversized that it almost seemed to swallow her, yet she still shivered, so Soujiro draped his own upon her shoulders.

For some time, they watched the sea in silence.

“I think,” she said, “That the easy answer to that is ‘do whatever you want’, but… I don’t think that you were here for long enough to decide. A lot of people have this thing where, um, where they go to a new location and feel refreshed, or disconnected, so they fantasize about permanently staying in that place. Like vacations? But it’s the transience that makes it feel that way… if you get it…”

“...so… I want to stay because I’m running away from my problems?”

“N-not exactly. Sorry. I don’t know.”

Unconsciously, Soujiro rubbed his arms. “But what if there’s nothing to run away from?”

Dr. Shimazu glanced at him from the corners of her perpetually tired eyes. “Meaning?”

Meaning that up until a few months ago, for the entirety of his adulthood, he’d been inside a prison cell. Those he walked along had gone to college, graduated, started careers, moved up corporate ladders, met someone, settled down, all while he was eighteen going on twenty-six; even the world had changed to such a degree that he felt like a time traveler. “I’m looking to connect, not the other way around, I think.”

“Is this place?”

He nodded.

“I don’t know… maybe think about it for some time. There’s nothing left here.” She sighed. “Nothing.”

Had Soujiro been somebody else and he would’ve answered, ‘There’s you’, but instead, he fidgeted, and he doubted, and thus he left the next morning.

Six months is more than enough time to ‘think about it’.

He’s saving up for a house, and he will have enough soon. If the sea swallows him along with those remaining in that tiny autumn leaf someday, then so be it. Soujiro won’t be alone.

Besides, he very strongly suspects that he’s not the only one yearning to return…

***

Nagumo is not happy to see multiple black vans in front of the clinic the next morning. Fuji told him to lie about it, but Nagumo scares him, so Soujiro just admits, “She made me.”

“...of course she did. What the fuck is it this time?”

“She, uh… she saw that Mr. Oda and you are in the list of guests, so she wanted to help you with your outfits.” Mrs. Matsueda is already greeting the tailor, who looks confused and scared. Both Nagumo and Soujiro see this, but neither of them can stop a force of nature. They’re already dealing with one, after all. “She said she already knows your size.”

“Of course she does.”

“Mr. Oda’s, too. Apparently they DM often.”

“Of course they do.”

Soujiro is about to apologize for being a lackey when he sees it; Nagumo clearly bites back a smile. The tailor, who is also dainty, clears his throat as he approaches them. “Gentlemen! Good morning. Are we ready?”

Nagumo replies, “I’ll just take whatever…” to then trail off as Dr. Shimazu parks her car at the corner. He groans. “...fits. I’m busy. Please help the elder, though, if you must.”

Dr. Shimazu and Gaillard walk out, eyes fixed on the vans.

“Don’t ask,” Nagumo tells them.

The tailor glares at Soujiro as though he’s to blame for this. He kind of is, but…

Mrs. Matsueda teleports next to them, as she so often seems to do. “Nonsense. If that blobfish can look great for Koha-chin, so will you.”

“Mrs. Matsueda, why is Gaillard here?”

“I told Iroha to bring her. You’ll be busy for the next few hours.”

“No I won’t!?”

“Yes you will,” says the tailor. “This has already been paid for, and I won’t allow such a snack to go to waste.”

Nagumo is paralyzed after being called a snack. Soujiro did the same the first time that happened, so he understands. Soon, the tailor is taking measurements for a very uncomfortable-looking Nagumo and a perpetually unfazed Mr. Oda in the lobby while almost all the regulars watch.

Gaillard and Eguchi sit across from Soujiro on the new couches. “Can I ask what’s going on, or not yet?” Inquires Gaillard.

Eguchi grins. “They’re going to some charity thing in Karatsu. Fujinomiya will be there.”

“Ohh… oh! I think I know what you’re talking about.” She doesn’t ask ‘why the hell did a clinic turn into a runway’, which means that Gaillard has adapted well to this place. “So… Koha-chin will be there, huh.”

“Yeah.” Eguchi sips on a soda can. Where did she get that fr—oh, right, they just got vending machines. “It’s okay, you can say it.”

“...do you think they’ll talk again?”

“Would Fujinomiya have ordered this if that wasn’t the plan?”

“She ordered…” Gaillard sighs. “Koha-chin…”

Come to think of it, it is pretty weird.

“I just hope nothing bad happens. Some of Koha-chin’s antis apparently raided a few clinics in Fukuoka during her stay here. They were detained and everything, but imagine if, um.”

“You can say it,” Eguchi mumbles, chewing on the edge of the can.

“Imagine if… if they… you know.”

“Fuck?”

Gaillard blushes up to the ears. “Mrs. Eguchi, we’re at work!”

When Eguchi turns to look at him, Soujiro tenses up. “Hey, Hino, what’s the plan? We all know Toshi isn’t going to do anything. ‘Oh, no, I can’t. The clinic needs me’. ‘Oh, no, those weird pictures are just a coincidence’. ‘Oh, no, I’m not staring out the window melancholically, just enjoying the view’.”

“So that’s what the 5 PM sky is about,” Gaillard mutters.

“Yeah, you follow him? He’s been posting pictures of the sky every day for months, and when you ask him about it, Toshi always changes the story.”

…so they’re both…

…that’s so…

…oh, poor Nagumo. He has been infected…

Speaking of, as he walks out of Clinic #1 dressed in the first suit, Eguchi wolf whistles at him. His hair is just long enough to tie some strands at the back. At last, Dr. Shimazu exerts some authority by scowling at Eguchi, putting a finger over her mouth, but this proves to be fruitless.

Then Mr. Oda walks out and Eguchi stands up, using both hands to wolf whistle. “Yuu! I-I mean Eguchi!” Dr. Shimazu tries.

“Dr. Shimazu, will you look at those fine pieces of meat!”

Mr. Oda strikes a pose. Several patients coo and clap—even the tailor does. He’s clearly having a bit too much fun with the spectacle.

“Bring Koha-chin back!” Cries out Mrs. Matsueda.

Eguchi claps once. “Bring her back! Bring her back!”

Soujiro has been around them for long enough to know that they’re taking the piss for the most part… ‘for the most part’ being the key phrase. They might not know about what almost happened during the snowfall that day, but that doesn’t matter. Fuji is now a regular, and maybe, hopefully, so is Soujiro.

Amidst the chaos, Dr. Shimazu and him exchange glances.

How could he not want to move to this place?

As though reading his mind, she smiles.

***

Koharu is deciding on an outfit when her father walks in. He doesn’t even knock. “It looks lovely!” He lies, though she knows that he’s wondering why she’s not buying a new dress. It's not sustainable, that’s why. She only has six hundred, but it’s a sacrifice she must make to save fish. “It will uh. Stand out, that’s for sure.”

It’s an orange, sleeveless gown that goes all the way to the floor. Munetoshi will be salivating. After all, up until now, he has only seen her as a withering little thing wearing ugly, loose clothes and ponytails. “Yup! So what did you want to tell me?”

“I don’t—”

“You do. So?”

Her dad sits on her bed. He uses what he calls a Magnanimous Stance. “You and Fumito will use that event to make your engagement public.”

Koharu stares at him. “Uh, no I won’t?”

“He already agreed to it.”

“He what. But Fumito doesn’t even like—” Women.

Her dad uses what he calls an Empathetic Smile. “Oh, no, he adores you. He just struggles to show his true feelings. He will attend the event with you, then make the announcement… near the end, I suppose.”

Koharu stares at her reflection in the mirror. At Sharky, obliviously swimming in his own piss. At the giant millipede in her terrarium beside her bed. At her father. “We’re not even dating!”

“I fail to see how that matters.”

She’s about to throw a tantrum when she remembers that she’s an adult in the twenty-first century. “Okay,” Koharu says instead. “I will.”

(She won’t.)