Life gets better

Morning came and the world lit up once again. Hideki's second day in this new world started but he wasn't exactly looking forward to it. 

"You better get up sleepy, that girl's gonna kick us out." Aoya said. He left the room, still looking a little tired. Hideki couldn't stop thinking about home, no matter how hard he tried it never left his mind. 

There was a little knock on the door. "Um...Hideki, are you awake yet?" Fuka's voice called for him from the other side. Just hearing her voice made him cheer up a little bit. 

"Yeah. I'm coming." He said. He met her at the door and they walked out to the others together. Hasuki was pacing in the living room with a distressed look on her face.

"My mom called last night, she's coming home this morning to check on me. She could be here any minute so you guys need to get out." She said.

"That's okay. Maybe we can come visit again some time?" Fuka asked sweetly. 

"we? You don't mean you're bringing Hideki back? Ditch the bum! Kick em both to the street if you have to," She laughed. Nobody else in the room laughed and she chuckled awkwardly until they all went silent. 

"Come on, let's go." Hideki said. Aoya followed after him and Fuka came after a moment later. He wondered what would happen to him after this. He imagined himself as a starving man begging for money on the side of the street wearing his dirty suit. Just the thought of it scared him.

Women wouldn't even want to look in my direction if I became like that, let alone let me save them. 

Just as Fuka was about to leave he grabbed her shoulder. When she looked at him he could see fear in her eyes. He quickly let go and took a step back. Was she afraid to be around him alone? Maybe he hadn't noticed it before but she had been a little jumpy around him when they were at the fruit stand. 

"You mentioned that your parents own a store." He said. "Do you think they would let me work there?" 

She exhaled and smiled. "I'm not sure, you would have to ask them yourself." She said.

"Great. Are you going there now? I'd like to go ask them as soon as possible- maybe they would pay me extra because of how handsome I am." He smirked.

"You wish. I'm way more handsome," Aoya laughed, leaning on Hideki. Fuka giggled as he imitated Hideki's smug face.

"Cut it out." Hideki said, pushing him away. "You aren't going to follow us, are you?" He asked.

"Nah, I have to go home and make sure my mom hasn't blacked out on the couch," He said, his energy mellowing. "I'd like to hang out more though. If you tell me the address I might be able to stop by later." 

"Whatever." Hideki rolled his eyes as Fuka told him her address. Then him and Fuka went on their way. He was excited to finally get a little bit of time alone with her. She looked so small and innocent walking beside him. 

"Are you here all alone? Where is your family?" she asked.

"Well- Um...Like I said, I'm not from around here. They're at home." 

"Oh that's too bad. Why did you come here then?"

"Business," he quickly lied.

"You're so mysterious Hideki," she laughed.

"Yeah, girls tell me that a lot. It's part of my manly charm," he winked.

"Sure it is," she replied, a bit weird-ed out by his odd behavior. It should have been obvious that he was a huge flirt with a large ego, but Fuka wasn't exactly the brightest when it came to picking up on people's bad traits.

Her parents' store was a sweet and cozy one. When they went inside it smelled like home. He couldn't point out exactly why, but it just did. 

"Hey Fuka, who's this?" a man with green hair greeted her.

"This is Hideki. We met yesterday in town," she smiled.

"Err- yeah! I just love your sweet little Fuka and we hit it off the moment we met."

"We did?" 

"Anyways- not to bother you or anything but I was wondering if I could work for you here?"

"Work for me?" her dad thought about it for a moment. "We don't really need any help around here but if you've got any skills I might be able to find a place to put you to work."

"I've got lots of skills sir. First of all, I'm super hot. I could attract plenty of customers from just standing outside. I do expect to be paid for that though! Good looks aren't free. Also I can...um...That's it!" he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. 

"So basically you're useless," Fuka's dad said, extremely unimpressed.

"Please don't be so mean to him dad, he really needs the money," Fuka asked. Hideki loved the way she talked to her parents so respectfully and cutely.

"Money for what?" the man asked.

"I'm not from here...and I'm stuck here for pretty much the rest of my life...and I'm completely broke," He laughed, somewhat in pain from admitting it.

"That's rough," the man frowned. "Okay, you can work here. But if you aren't useful I'll have no problem firing you." 

"Thank you sir!" Hideki grinned. 

Fuka showed him around the shop and gave him a tour of the surrounding area. He quite liked the small town she lived in. It was welcoming and had lots of fun places to check out. He just wished he could go home at the end of the day. He tried to shake the thought of his past life but no matter how hard he tried it wouldn't go away.

The lingering pain of the car that hit him never faded. Instead it transferred to somewhere else like a tingling in his hand or a sharp pain on his side. It was always there to remind him that he would never belong in this world and that he would always be lost.

- - - 

His job training was pretty easy. All he had to do was stand on the corner and hold a sign. He was supposed to call out to people and invite them to try some of the new products the store was offering that week, but he only called out to the women. 

"Mam! We have new perfume at Showakusei Trade-Ships! I think lovely scents like cherry blossoms would match the beautiful face you have," he said to a random girl on the sidewalk. She stopped and looked at him with disgust. "What?" he asked nervously.

"You think you're just the greatest, don't you. I hate boys like you," she said. He recognized her voice but couldn't remember where from. Then it hit him, she was the tall woman he'd bumped into at the rehab center. She had medium length red hair and brown eyes.

"Oh! It's you! Did you finally come to your senses and realize that you couldn't live without me?" he smirked. She looked at him with disgust and crossed her arms.

"You need a reality check," she said harshly. "Anyways, goodbye."

"Wait! Please, just check out the store, will ya'?" he begged. "I'm trying to get paid here, so I just need to get them some more customers."

She sighed and looked at him with pity. "Fine. But if you do anything weird I'll tell your boss about it."

"Thank you! Thank you!" he smiled. "What's your name?" he asked with a wink. She was a little older than him but he didn't mind. He thought older women were also pretty hot. 

"Moriko," she frowned and went into the store. 

Moriko, huh? Nice name I guess. She isn't anything special compared to Fuka though. I don't really like women who are taller than me. 

At the end of his shift he went back inside the store and saw her chatting with Fuka's mom. 

"You're still here?" he asked, walking over to them.

"Yeah, I didn't know that Ms.Ikehara worked here. She's been a friend of mine for a few years," she explained. He groaned. 

"Why does everybody in this weird place seem to know each other?" he glanced around the store but didn't see Fuka. "Um, where's Fuka?"

"She's in her room," her mom said. 

"Can I go talk to her?" he asked. He didn't want to seem like a creep for wanting to go to her room, but they were the same age so hopefully he didn't come off as some type of creepy stalker. 

"Of course. You're Hideki, right? She told me that you're a friend of hers," her mom smiled and led him to a room at the back of the shop. The back of the shop was sectioned off from the front and held two separate rooms. 

He knocked on her door and then went in. Fuka was laying cutely on her bed with her feet in the air. She was reading a book. "Um, hey Fuka," he said.

"Hideki? Oh! Are you done working?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm a minor so they can't really make me work all day anyways," he frowned. He was a little scared of being in her room for the first time. She was the cutest girl he'd ever seen after all. Her room was girly, what you'd expect from a petite girl like her. There was one thing that stood out to him though. She had multiple posters of some sort of shooting stars on her wall. He'd never seen anything like it before. They looked magical like something out of a fairy tale.

"What are those?" he asked, pointing to one of the posters.

"The Eternia shooting stars! I've always wanted to see them," she giggled "Have you heard of them before?"

"Nope."

"Ah~ Aren't they so pretty? I've wanted to go since I was little, wanna know why?" she said. 

"Hm? Why, tell me." 

"They say that if you see the stars in person, your soulmate will be able to find their way to you," she said with a cute smile. "It's probably just a story told to get Eternia more tourists, but wouldn't it be nice if it were true?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he lied. What's the point in having one soulmate if I could have as many girls as I want? Seems a bit limiting to me. 

"My parents would never take me to Eternia. Even though it's the Kingdom closest to us, they insist that it's our enemy," she said sadly.

"They probably are. I don't know much about these kingdoms of yours, but you said that they're always at war. I wouldn't be surprised if Eternia was Showakusei's enemy," he shrugged.

"Hideki, would you go see them with me someday?"

He was a little startled by the question and didn't know how to reply. Did she really want to share her dream with him? She looked serious about it. He didn't want to let her down, but he knew it would probably be impossible for him to take her there. First of all, he didn't know anything about this world or where any of these places were. Second, if her parents didn't want her to go there that wouldn't change just because he was going with her. If anything, that would make them more reluctant to let her go. What parent's would want their daughter to go on a far away trip with some random poor guy who showed up out of nowhere?

"I'd like to. But that's never going to happen," he said. She looked a little disappointed. 

"I know we can find a way! I want to see them with you!" she said, jumping up and looking at him with enthusiasm.

"With me? Oh~ I see how it is. You want to go on a trip with me all alone?" he smirked. She shook her head.

"You seem strong Hideki. Nobody could hurt me if I'm with you," she said.

She thinks I'm strong? heh, I'm pretty awesome.

"Okay then- but only because you're so cute. I'll take you, I promise." he said. She smiled at him, which made his heart almost melt.

She's so cute!! I can't believe how lucky I am! Screw you Hasuki, I'm the winner! Here I come, death!