I Was There For You In Tokyo: Part Three

I haven’t seen Arata today at all… She must still be recovering. I don’t blame her…

Katsumi laid on his couch. It was early evening and he had his windows open, letting in a cool breeze.

That must’ve been horrifying.

A cigarette dimly burned in an ashtray set on his living room table. A small wisp of smoke lingered up from it, dissipating in the air.

Should I check on her?

He rolled over on his side.

Does she want me to check on her…? I can’t imagine many people have been in a situation like this.

“…”

What am I supposed to do?

Katsumi laid motionless on his couch.

If she wanted to talk wouldn’t she have come to me?

He mulled over this for a moment.

No, that’s not like her. I think she’d be waiting for me to approach her… This is such a tiring thing to think about. Why can’t my brain move on?

He rolled over again.

I want to know what she’s thinking right now…

It’s not like ‘that’ though… I just want her to tell me how she’s feeling…

A few seconds after this thought he pushed himself up off the couch.

I’d finally be able to put my mind at ease if I knew…

It’s incredible, she didn’t want to get the police involved for my sake. Even though that would’ve been the right thing to do, she didn’t… It almost feels like she broke character. She cared so much about me, and I’m sitting here worrying if I should even ask how she’s doing?

You’re being pathetic, Katsumi.

He was now fully standing.

Would it not be the right thing to do?

After a quick stretch and straightening out some of his thoughts, Katsumi directed himself to the front door.

The next thing he knew, he was standing in front of Mayumi’s apartment door.

She barges into my apartment so often… then why is it this difficult for me to even knock?

Katsumi held his breath, he could feel his heart beating through his throat. His hand lingered on the door balled into a fist, ready to knock.

Come on.

He tapped three times on the door, and silence followed.
Should I have expected this?

The faint sound of footsteps began approaching the door and Katsumi’s heart began beating quicker. The closer the footsteps got the more he felt like his heart was going to explode.

I’m just here to ask how she's doing… But what exactly do I say? Do I bring up the trip right away?

The door opened halfway, and a black haired girl stood before Katsumi, gazing up at him.

“Murakami?”

The storm of swirling thoughts in Katsumi’s head died down as he looked back into Mayumi’s eyes.

He managed to get out, “Evening” before going quiet again.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

Mayumi fully opened the door and straightened herself out. She took her hand off the door-handle and stepped out into the hallway—folding her arms under her chest and slightly pushing it up.

Usually, Katsumi wouldn’t have noticed or cared if Mayumi did something like this. But now, it was something he was overly conscious about.

This was also due in part to the fact that Mayumi was dressing in a way Katsumi had never seen before. She typically wore baggier clothes, barely revealing what her figure looked like underneath.

In this hallway meeting however, she wore a short camisole-style dress, it being primarily white with pink accents on the hems—her body doing well to fill it out.

This resulted in the already apprehensive Katsumi becoming even more fidgety.

“I came here to check on you…” Katsumi attempted to sound as casual as possible. “I wanted to make sure you were doing alright.”

“Oh… thank you.”

Why am I feeling so… aware of her? I don’t understand. Before it was as simple as talking to another person, but it somehow feels a little… different. I didn’t feel like this before Tokyo… What changed?

Katsumi quickly averted his eyes, refocusing his gaze on Mayumi’s face. “W-would you mind if we talked for a bit?” He tried continuing the conversation.

“I wouldn’t mind.”

Katsumi scratched the back of his head. “Would you mind if we chatted inside…? It’s a little awkward standing out here.”

“Oh. O-of course.”

Mayumi stepped aside, allowing for Katsumi to enter her apartment.

“Pardon the intrusion,” He said, slipping off his shoes.

As they passed through the front hallway into the living room, Mayumi caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror, and froze.

“Is something wrong?”

Finally becoming aware of what she was wearing, Mayumi’s face turned a shade of pinkish-red.

“Ah— I- I’m sorry for being so indecent,” Her words were rapid-firing. “I did not realize I was dressed like this— I was about to go to bed and—”

“Arata, it’s okay… I don’t know if it makes you feel better, but I wasn’t thinking about you like that.”

Mayumi swiftly turned and disappeared into her bedroom.

Man what I am doing!? I’m making things so awkward… I’m just her to check on her and see how she’s feeling. Make it quick, and don’t get weird ideas… You’ll be no better than those guys at the mall if you do.

Katsumi shut his eyes and tried to refocus.

However when he did, there was one image he could not take his mind off of.

Stop that.

With a sigh, Katsumi looked over at the living room table and made his way over to it—taking a seat at it.

A few seconds later Mayumi reappeared, now wearing an oversized hoodie on top of her camisole-dress.

She moved to sit on the couch across from Katsumi, putting a pillow on her lap as she did so.

I think I’m supposed to start…

Mayumi’s expression appeared to be her same-old vacant one, but this time, she looked at Katsumi with an urgency in her eyes. As if she was expecting something.

“Did you do anything today?”

“...No. Not really. I spent almost all of it studying.”

“That’s not the worst way you could’ve spent it. You could’ve been like me and literally did nothing.”

Katsumi said this in a failed attempt to get some sort of response from Mayumi—but she offered nothing back.

Seriously? Nothing? Not even a comment on how I should be studying? Or at least a stern look?

“Uhm… well, how’re you feeling?” Katsumi asked.

“I don’t know.”

She is definitely off in a different world right now. I’ve never seen her like this… Again, can’t blame her though, yesterday was insane.

“Do you… do you want to talk about yesterday?”

Mayumi picked up the pillow and held it close to her chest. She gave a small nod yes.

“This is going to be an odd question.” Katsumi nervously smiled. “But excluding the… end of the trip… did you have fun?”

Mayumi looked up and made direct eye contact with Katsumi. Her eyes seemed to say, ‘did you really just ask that?’

Katsumi didn’t back down on his question though.

Some time passed before an answer came. But when it did, it was exactly the answer Katsumi was looking for.

“Yes, I did.”

“That’s why I think you shouldn’t need to worry about stuff like that happening then.”

“What?”

“I understand it must’ve been terrifying… but nothing happened, right?”

Mayumi was still visibly confused.

This is hard… I haven’t had to cheer anyone up in a long time.

“What I’m trying to say is—you don’t have to worry, because I’ll be there with you when that kind of thing happens. I may not always… act like I would or… look like I would. But if it’s fine with you, and you need someone, you can call on me.”

A small, distant smile grew on Mayumi’s face.

Is this getting through to her?

Mayumi’s smile turned into light laughter.

What!? What did I say that was funny!?

Her laughter quickly subsided. “You really will say anything, won’t you?”

Katsumi lowered his eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What you said was so corny,” Mayumi chided.

“Alright. Well if you’re going to be like that, I'll take it back.”

Mayumi moved from the couch to the floor, now sitting at the living room table with Katsumi.

“I didn’t mean it like that. It was just a little funny seeing you try to cheer me up.”

I really want to take it back now… But I guess this time I’ll just bear her jabs. “Well? Did it work?”

“Yes, it did. Thank you Murakami.”

“Y-yeah, of course.”

I think I succeeded…

“Well, it’s getting late, I gotta get going.” Katsumi stood up. “I’ll see you Monday morning for class.”

“You are saying you want to walk to campus together?” Her tone was again teasing.

Standing at the front door, Katsumi turned back and commented, “Now that you mention it, I might actually skip it instead…”

“Goodnight Murakami, I will see you Monday morning.”

He stepped out. “Yeah… see you.”


##NOTE: See illustration in chapter comments