2: Introducing Kami

“Haruuu.”

Haru sighs from behind the counter. It’s a quarter to 9; Haru wants to go home but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Takemi-san stumbles into the store with a pale face and very, very heavy bags under his eyes. His hair is balding at the top and his lips are darkening from smoking.

“Manager,” Haru greets him. He’s already getting ready for the speech.

“Never get married, son,” he tells him, slamming a fist on the counter and lowering his head.

Haru wants to tell him that it’ll be probably easier if he stopped bringing women over but he only hums and pretends to be busy with something at the back.

“I’m leaving,” he announces. “I have an interview tomorrow so I can’t stay longer.”

He doesn’t really care if Takemi-san believes his lie or not.

“That’s too bad.”

He sounds dejected but Haru doesn’t care.

It takes approximately 20 minutes on foot for Haru to get to his house.

He usually plays music and keeps his head down. But tonight his phone died and now he has to keep his phone stuffed in his pocket. The sounds he gets are from cars, people walking and some conversations.

It’s when he gets to his neighbourhood, as he walks down the sloped road, that everything gets quiet and that is usually when he’d need something to distract him.

It’s not that he’s scared; it’s just the principle of things.

He gets to the road and walks as fast as he can because he’s really tired and just wants to sleep at this point.

And at that moment it could be the drowsiness but he swears he can hear something. It’s not a loud noise but in the quietness of the street, anything stands out.

It sounds like something or someone chipping paint off a wall, and then the sound stops but only to be replaced by what definitely sounds like whistling.

Haru thinks of ignoring it but it’s hard to, because he’s the only one—aside from whoever it is—that is here by this time and he doesn’t think playing dumb could be considered a good idea.

Just a stranger on a bus

Trying to make his way home

Back up to Heaven all alone

Nobody calling on the phone

What if God was one of us?

Haru remembers that song from when he was small and his mother would play it every Sunday while she baked.

It came on the radio randomly and ever since then, she’d play it until the song wore off and wasn’t played anything. Physically, yes, but the impact of it still lingered since every Sunday afternoon, he felt like he could hear it being played. If not that then he would be the one to him the song or his mother would.

Right now, hearing someone else sing it felt like a disorienting hit on his head, and he almost tripped after hearing it.

The hairs on his arms rose and he swallowed a lump down his throat.

The sound came from his right and he looks there but sees nothing but houses and apartment buildings. His own building is just about a few blocks away so he picks up the pace.

But the sound still feels like it’s following him.

Yeah, yeah, God is great

And yeah, yeah, God is good—

At this point he almost starts running. He doesn’t know why but he just wants to keep running and get away from whatever creepy thing is happening right now.

And then—

“Do you believe in God?”

The whistler is sitting on top of a house and looking down at Haru. Haru can’t see the face well but from the voice and body, he can tell it’s a guy.

“What?”

“I asked if you believed in God,” the guy repeats and Haru might be seeing things but it looks like the guy is smiling at him.

What exactly is there to smile about?

“Maybe,” Haru replies and then instinctively clutches his bag tightly.

“What would you ask God if he were to be in front of you?”

The guy is probably drunk. It happens. And so because Haru really doesn’t see any threatening aura in the guy and also because he might as well do something worth talking about before he goes home, he decides to indulge him.

“I’d want to punch Him.”

“Huh?” The question came quickly, as if the guy did not expect him to say that. But then again, no one can actually anticipate an answer like that.

Haru turns so he can look at the guy properly. He is sitting behind the moon and so his face can barely be seen.

“I want to fight God. I think that’d be something worth being alive for.”

He can’t see his face but he can see the grin that appears on it. Haru feels cool all of a sudden, like his body is being blown gently by the wind in all the right places.

“Interesting,” the guy says and his voice is filled with what Haru can assume to be excitement. He’s definitely drunk. “What’s your name?”

“Haru.”

Then the boy waits as if he’s expecting Haru to also ask. But Haru doesn’t. He thinks it’s not worth it.

“I’m leaving.”

He doesn’t turn back again and continues his walk home. He’s very sure that the guy won’t follow him. The encounter was short and unexpected, but by tomorrow, he’ll forget all about it and life will go on as usual.

He gets home with no one behind him. His parents have left food for him on the kitchen table that he picks up and takes to his room.

After he eats, he showers and then crashes on his bed.

Tomorrow will be a repeat of today and the day after tomorrow will also be a repeat of tomorrow. It will be like that until Haru decides to do something else with his life—like go to school—but he’s learned to live with the monotony; there’s no guarantee life won’t be as repetitive as it is now if he did something different, and so he’s content for now.

But no.

Today for some reason is different. Very different.

The whistler is seated on his windowsill. He has a hand supporting his chin and is looking at Haru with what looks to be amusement in his eyes.

Haru knows it’s not a dream simply because the confusion he’s experiencing feels way too palpable to be a play of his mind.

“What?” He croaks out in a flat tone, because his outside demeanour looks blank-faced but on the inside his heart is racing so fast that he can hear it through his ears.

“Hello,” the whistler greets brightly. Haru has to even squint because he’s like a substitute for the sun right now.

“Why?” Haru throws another monosyllabic question. That is the only thing his head is able to form and utter at that instant.

“I came to see you,” the guy simply answers. Haru then has to sit up because it is starting to make perfect sense that the two of them aren’t technically operating on the same wavelength, and that will only bring more confusion and disarray and Haru has to be at work any moment from now and—

“How did you know where I live?”

Now that Haru can actually get a good look at him, he comprehends the situation a little bit more. At least the part where his fight or flight mode didn’t activate, or the part where he seemed a bit too at ease for someone currently facing an intruder.

The guy is… pretty; that’s all he can say. But more than that, there’s something about his composure that makes Haru feel sedated, in a way.

It isn’t like he’s trying to make Haru less alarmed or less scared; it is more like he’s giving off vibes that Haru unknowingly feeds off of.

Is that what having a compelling charm looks like? Is that how those ‘attractive people’ do it?

But he’s really not doing anything.

He’s just sitting there as if he owns the place, staring at Haru.

“You told me your name,” the whistler replies simply, and his tone still holds the amusement that Haru is genuinely curious to know where it’s coming from.

“How does that let you know where I live?”

“You didn’t ask for my name.”

He didn’t care, honestly. The guy almost seems hurt saying it, and Haru sighs.

He runs a hand through his hair and counts to 10 before talking again.

“What’s your name?”

There’s that grin again. But this time, Haru can clearly see it stretch across his pretty face; pretty isn’t even actually the right word to use, but for now that’s all he can say.

“Kami.”

Haru blinks. “Kami? As in—“

“Yes,” he beamed and if he wasn’t on the windowsill he’d have been bouncing by now. “Kami as in God.”

Haru already knows where this is heading. “So you mean you’re—“

“I am, yes,” he cuts him off again, the smile on his face making Haru squint once more. “I’m God.”

The sky is blue today. Haru woke up healthy today, his mother is cooking downstairs and his father is off to work. Those are all things that have happened, that are concrete and true.

And the whistler’s answer sounds exactly like that, too.

He says he’s God. Who is Haru to dispute that fact right now?

At least without proof?

“You’re God,” he asserts and Kami nods firmly. “Okay.”

And then he springs out of his bed to fully stand. “I’m going to take a shower. You can leave if you want to.”

But when he comes back, Kami is still where he was, sitting on the window with his chin in his palm.

The shower Haru took was enough to clear his foggy head and allow him to take in the series of events that happened ever since he woke up. He still needed answers and so when he came out and saw that he was still there, a part of him felt appeased somehow.

“I suppose you’re not hungry since you’re God,” he says, his tone sounding a bit deriding despite it not being his actual intention. But again, he has never met anyone bold enough to claim they were God—he thought those stuff only happened in movies.

“Not particularly, no,” Kami replies, and it seems he either doesn’t mind Haru’s tone or he just didn’t pick up on it.

“Good. In that case we have more time.”

Kami tilts his head and Haru can see a hint of a smile. “Time for?” He inquires.

Haru shrugs. “Time for you to prove to me that you’re actually God. It sounds crazy—and it’s even crazier that I’m actually considering it. But I have work in 3 hours so I think it’s enough time for you to show me, yeah?”

Something shifts. Haru doesn’t know what or how, but something changes.

Kami is no longer on the window, but now standing just like Haru and though they’re about the same height and build, Haru feels slightly intimidated. Just slightly.

But the tingling that passes through his entire body is a different story altogether. He almost wants to laugh.

He can’t believe he’s that excited about going out with a stranger who claims to be God for whatever the reason may be.

“Okay,” Kami announces.

“Okay,” Haru repeats.

He has work in 3 hours, he told him. If by the time he gets to work and his life hasn’t drastically changed, he will punch this guy in the face.

***

“What can you do?”

“What do you want to see?”

They end up at the beach, which is roughly an hour away from Haru’s place and an hour and 20 minutes away from the convenience store.

They walked, and before anything, Haru did not ask him to make them fly or teleport. For some reason he felt that it would make everything happen too fast—which would imply that he somehow believed that Kami might not be completely lying. In his defence, no one confidently goes about claiming to be God. He’s thought about that before, and each time, it digs deeper into his conscience and makes him more and more willing to hear the guy out.

By the time they get there Haru is sweaty and hungry, while Kami looks like he actually teleported to get here. Not a single hair of his is out of place and his breathing is so steady that he can take in deep breaths and exhale them with that same smile on his face.

“What a beautiful day it is,” he exclaims. “Don’t you think so?”

“Hm,” Haru grumbles. They’re close enough to the water that he can taste the salt on his tongue.

It is actually a beautiful day and once he’s had enough time to catch his breath, he can properly feel the breeze pass through his hair.

“So you wanted me to show you something?”

This gets his attention and he turns to look at him. “You said you’re God,” he reminds Kami. “So yeah, I need proof.”

Kami nods. “And then after that?”

“There’s more I need to know, obviously, but we’ll get to that eventually.”

“Come.”

Haru pays attention to the change in his tone. It’s less playful and firmer, almost sounding like an order. He’s still smiling but Haru can tell it’s different.

He still can’t put a name to what he sees when he looks at the guy; he settled for pretty but right now he wants to change his mind, use another word. He doesn’t know why he feels the need to do that but it’s just there, in his mind, and it won’t leave.

He approaches Kami and once he’s close enough, Kami takes a step back. Haru takes a step forward and Kami moves back again.

They continue moving like that, Kami backwards and Haru forward, until Kami’s back is to the sea and his feet are touching the water.

When did he take his shoes off? Was he even wearing shoes to begin with?

But Haru is wearing shoes—a pair of converse he bought himself that he feels very proud of, thank you very much—and he doesn’t want to follow Kami anymore.

“Let me take off my shoes first,” he attempts to tell him, and he prepares to move back but gets stopped by a hand to his wrist.

It’s solid, and Haru wouldn’t even have been able to pry away from the grip if he was prepared. Kami pulls him forward and Haru is about to cry bloody murder because those shoes are 2 years old and will get ruined and—

Haru can see. He sees Kami’s feet submerged in the water all the way up to his ankles. They’re both in the water and yet, yet, Haru’s shoes aren’t wet. Not only is there not a single drop of water on him, but the place he’s standing at is only sand. It would have been less astounding if he wasn’t seeing water on each side of his feet.

He wants to confirm something.

He wraps his fingers around Kami’s hand on his wrist. “Let’s go again.”

“Okay,” Kami beams. “Let’s go again.”

So he moves back and the back of his legs splashes against the water, but when Haru moves forward, the water just refuses to touch him.

And he gets it now. It creates a bubbling sensation in his stomach which erupts quickly into a full-belly laugh, causing him to bend his body forward.

“I see you’re enjoying yourself,” he hears Kami say.

“The water is parting,” Haru exclaims. He moves again and yes, the water doesn’t touch him but rather moves linearly, dividing itself for him to walk on the sand.

“Indeed it is.”

He looks up and sees that Kami is wet now, from head to toe. The waves are higher from this point and he sees one hit his back, making his hair stick to his face. But it doesn’t touch him.

“You’re doing that,” Haru says plainly and Kami answers with a smile.

“It will seem so.”

“Because you’re—“ Haru suddenly stops in his tracks and Kami stops immediately. They stare at each other—mainly because Haru can’t seem to take his eyes off Kami right now—until another wave comes and this time fully drenches Kami.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Haru fumbles. “Let’s get out.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry,” Kami says calmly.

“No, really,” Haru insists. “Let’s… do something else.”

“Whatever you want.”

Haru narrows his eyes at the statement but doesn’t say anything. He walks back to the shore with Kami in tow.

He turns around to fully take in the state that the other guy is in, and Kami just stands there, allowing himself to be analysed like it’s the most entertaining thing he can get.

“Can you get yourself dry?” Haru questions.

“Can I?” Kami finds his question funny and Haru doesn’t blame him. But at the same time, he wants to see something as simple—simple here being relative—as Kami getting himself dry. That, and also because he really didn’t plan on coming here and so the idea of walking back with someone who appears to have been assaulted by the sea doesn’t seem like a great idea to him.

Haru sits on the sand and waits. But all Kami does is mirror his position.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he suddenly declares.

“What?”

“I’d have to get undressed for that, you see,” Kami explains and Haru almost wants to tell him that they’re both boys and so there would be nothing he hasn’t seen before, but he remembers that this guy claims to be God, and he’s not sure of exactly what he’ll see once he gets naked. So Haru lets the matter drop.

“But I’m cold,” Kami pouts. Literally pouts.

“That is why I said you should do something about it.” You’re God, after all.

Kami then stretches out his hand. He waves his palm in front of Haru’s face, an indication that he wants Haru to do what he’s doing.

So Haru brings his hand out, too, and Kami clasps their hands together. Kami’s hand is wet and his palm is smooth. It almost feels like sandpaper and his fingers are as long as Haru’s. He uses them to press against Haru’s dry skin and the feeling is something Haru wouldn’t mind experiencing often.

It’s too early, though.

“What’s happening?” Haru inquires when he starts to feel his hand getting hot.

“I’m drying myself,” Kami answers simply like he usually does whenever Haru asks a question.

“How?”

“I’m borrowing heat from you.”

Haru chuckles, more in disbelief than in amusement. Kami wore a teal T-shirt and a pair of white shorts today. The water made the shirt stick to his skin and turn a darker colour, the same with his shorts.

But right now Haru can see the brightness return to the shirt and when the wind blows, the shirt moves with the initial lightness it had when it was dry.

And his hair is no longer on his face; it’s moving like it firstly had when they got here.

He’s not wet anymore.

Haru can’t even bring himself to laugh or say anything.

“All done!” Kami chirps, releasing Haru’s hand. “Is there anything else you want—“

“What do you want from me?”

Haru has seen enough now; anything more than that and he’ll believe he’s actually dreaming. The guy could be a con artist, a magician or whatever this earth can offer, but at this point he’s fine. Haru doesn’t think there’s more he wants to see.

“Ah, I didn’t tell you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Kami nods. “It’s simple, really. I want you to draw me.”

When he says everything turns silent, Haru means it. Not even the sea seems to want to make noise anymore.

Of all the things Haru expected to hear, this one was the last thing he had in mind.

And it’s as if a switch had been turned on in his head the moment Kami said what he did. His fingers are suddenly itching to do something. He doesn’t take his eyes off Kami and Kami does the same. It’s now that Haru notices the colour of his eyes, skin, hair and everything else.

It was as if he couldn’t see him that well before—as if he was constantly overshadowed by light, and now that he suddenly wants to be drawn, the light has moved to a different angle now, and it’s clearly exposing his features.

“Why?”

Kami almost looks offended. “Because I’ve seen you draw. And I want you to do to me what you do to others.”

“What do I do?”

Kami smiles. “You stop time when you draw, and your drawings feel like they have a different life.”

Haru’s heart starts beating faster. “And what exactly do you want?” He thinks he already knows the answer, but he still wants to hear it coming from the mouth of the boy who says he’s God.

“I want you to give me another life.” Chills run through his entire body when Kami speaks, his voice almost thunderous. “Not just one. I want different lives.”

Haru swallows. “You think my drawings can give you that?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that.”

“Are you—“

“I’ll give you anything you want in return.” There’s that glimpse in his eyes that easily reminds Haru of gold, or the promise of something beautiful beyond his own imagination. “You could have a place in Heaven with me. With your pencil and paper. I can take you.”

The promise of something beautiful; Haru has never felt excitement like this before. It almost makes him drool and his hands are shaking now.

“Do you remember what I told you when I first saw you?” Haru asks, his voice trembling.

And it’s amazing how Kami seems to know exactly when to mirror Haru’s expressions. “You said you’d tell Him when you saw Him.”

“Yes.”

“And what is it you want?”

Haru takes his time to think. “You know what, I won’t tell you now. I mean you’re God so you’ll know eventually.”