Chino

Wait… something does not seem right.

A comfy bed? A nice smell? No garbage? And a woman… who, for some reason, is lying next to me, resting on the side of the bed, drooling? Where the hell am I? Did I die?

I rubbed my eyes and pinched myself hard to check if I was still asleep or dead.

It hurt.

So basically, after very careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I, a great and proud hikikomori who hates any form of human interaction and contact, am in a random woman's bedroom.

I cannot get my head around how I got here.

The last thing I could remember was that I, once and for all, was taking out the trash and throwing it into the dumpster on the other side of the road... so what portal did I cross on my way back to end up here?

“Oh my, you’re finally awake. I thought you were never going to wake up. How are you feeling?” the beautiful woman said, rubbing her eyes and wiping her drool away.

“I-...” no words got out of my mouth.

“Take your time. You've hit your head pretty hard. I’ll bring you a glass of water.”

She stood up and proceeded to walk out into the kitchen.

“Tha-...” Still, no words came out.

How long was I out for? My mouth is as dry as a desert. I feel like I could drink an entire waterfall at this point.

Hold on… what am I doing? I need to get out of here!

I hastily jumped out of her bed and grabbed my neatly folded clothes on her chair and got dressed all while running around scanning the room for my keys.

“You’ve been out for two whole days, y’know?” her voice echoed from the kitchen.

Oh no, no, no, no, no, where are my keys!?!

“Oh yeah, that’s right. After I dragged you inside my apartment, I took off your clothes and put them out to dry. There was a keychain with a Doraemon figurine on it. I placed it on the entryway table. It should be beside my work badge…”

JACKPOT! I ran to the entryway and swiped my hand over the entryway table, so my keys fell into my pockets while I ran out the door.

The woman reentered the bedroom with a glass of cold water in one hand and some apple boats on a plate in the other hand.

“So I was curious. What is your name?”

She looked up towards the bed where he was resting on.

“Ah… he left.”

After stepping out of her front door, something seemed off. It was as I recognised this place.
Is that my dumpster on the other side of the road? Surely not, right? I looked over to my right and saw an awfully familiar apartment door…

“No way…” I said under my breath with a very dry throat.

This has to be the worst situation possible. I will have to avoid her even more now. I must never go outside again!

I hastily reached into my pocket to take my keys so I could open my front door and immediately rushed inside along with locking the front door.

I exhaled… That was stressful.

As I took off my coat, something fell out of the pocket to the floor. It looked like some form of work identification.

Chino Nozomi… huh. That's a pretty name.

Now Chino Nozomi, where do you work at, so I can send this to your company's address anonymously in the post hehe… huh?!.

“The Asahi Shimbun…” I said, muttering under my breath.

My heart sank. The Asahi Shimbun was the very newspaper that were the first to publish everything about my rape alligations and so much more. They are the one largest companies in all of Tokyo, hell one of the largest in all of Japan. Curse my luck.

I guess it’s fine, The Asahi Shinbum is a very large company, so there are many titles and positions. As long as her job title is not journalist or something like that, I’m sure she is just some office clerk.

Oh boy was I wrong.

Chino Nozomi.
The Asahi Shimbun.
Investigative Journalist.

Right at that moment, it clicked in my head.

“WHAT THE HELL!? INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST?
WHAT IF SHE NOTICED MY FACE WHILE I WAS SLEEPING?
WHAT IF SHE ALREADY WROTE DOWN A DRAFT TO PUBLISH TO THE NEWSPAPER? WHAT’S MORE, SHE’S MY NEIGHBOR!”

They must have tracked me down and set her up to live next to me. Probably put some cameras around my room while I was out cold.

With a severely damaged voice from shouting from my panic attack, I mumbled under my breath with no voice at all. ”There goes my peaceful life as a hikikomori…” 

A single tear jerked from my eye as I realized that my life is over once again.

I’m fucked.