Two Steps Backward

“Dude Nara wasn’t lying… You really did get the shit beaten outta you.” A boy that looked a few years older than Katsumi entered his apartment while taking off a windbreaker. He leaned in towards Katsumi and inspected his eye. “How’d it happen?”

“I think that’s what we all wanna know! Would you move out of the way!” Directly behind him was a girl with long blonde hair, who looked to be around the boy’s age. “Katsumi how’re you feeling? What happened?” The girl put a hand on Katsumi’s head.

The two young adults that had just entered Katsumi’s apartment were friends of Nara’s. The boy’s name was Nobuo, and the girl’s, Maaya. They’re a few years older and not especially close with Katsumi, however, that did not prevent them from being worried for him.

“Knocking my head around like that is excruciatingly painful… Can you get off please?” Katsumi said.

Nobuo smiled and took the Maaya’s arms off Katsumi. He guided her to the living room to join Nara.

These weren’t going to be the only people visiting Katsumi’s apartment tonight, as Nara had invited most of her friends over. They were all mutuals’ to Katsumi, he knew their names and some about them, but for the most part he didn’t care to get close to them.

He asked Nara once about how she got to know these people, as they looked to be at the tail end or out of university. Her response was simply “family friends”, which concerned Katsumi so he didn’t bother digging any deeper

A precedent was set early on that all of Nara’s friends were allowed to come over whenever she wanted them to, as Katsumi never objected when they did. While they could get rowdy and excited, the group remained respectful for the most part.

Behind Katsumi another, very tall, man entered the apartment with a bag of various bottles of alcohol. The next newcomer’s name was Kenshi and he stood almost thirty centimeters taller than Katsumi.

Katsumi gave him a quick greeting before Kenshi joined the other three in the living room.

There was a short downtime before the next of mutual friends arrived.

A girl wearing a bright smile popped her head around the doorway. “Hello~!” She was covered in an overly large dark-green coat—her long brown hair had been tucked into the back of the jacket.

This girl who could usually be found in an unusually good mood was named Shouko. She unbuttoned and removed the coat, beneath it was a baggy grey sweater that almost entirely covered her skirt.

Trailing not too far behind was a man wearing a messy suit, looking as if he had just got off a long day at work.

“Here comes Makoto… Looks like someone didn’t have the greatest of days,” Shouko commented.

“Greatest of day? It fucking blowed.” Makoto struggled with removing his dress shoes for a moment before successfully getting them off.

“Come on Makoto, you of all people should know it doesn’t always work out.” Shouko responded.

Makoto grumbled, striding past the two into the apartment.

Katsumi’s situation with the girl that had just entered was similar to the rest of Nara’s group—they weren’t very close. However, it was a different case with the man. Over the last few months Katsumi found himself becoming relatively close with Makoto. He became someone that seemed reliable, at least compared to the rest of Nara’s friends.

The living room was already a lively scene. Despite the fact all these people showed up within the last few minutes, they looked and acted as if they’d been here for hours, talking and enjoying each other’s company.

From what Katsumi could gather just by observing the group, the dynamic was relatively simple. Nobuo and Maaya were dating, and presumably have been for a long time. Kenshi, the incredibly tall man, was close with everyone in the group but wasn’t dating anyone. Shouko and Makoto were close like a brother and sister, along with seeming to have known everyone in the group for many years.

Two things that were unclear though are: How does Nara know them? And how did this friend group form? However, Katsumi found himself over the months caring less and less about answers to these questions.

Nobou was sunk into the cushions of the couch, his legs stretched out onto the coffee table with an arm around Maaya who was leaning her back against him. The two of them were chatting with Shouko. At the far end of the couch in the corner was Kenshi, he had his phone screen tilted towards Nara, who was on his right. The two laughing at whatever Kenshi had on his screen.

As Makoto walked in he was greeted by a laugh from Kenshi. “Hey there he is! Makoto, how was the date today?”

“What!? Makoto had a date today!?” Maaya blurted out in surprise.

“Yeah I set him up with one of my friends,” Kenshi responded.

“As you can see it went great, she’s here with me right now in fact.” Makoto gestured to where Katsumi was standing.

Kenshi’s smile faltered and he slightly furrowed his brows. “Well why’s that? She’s so kind and super cute. What went wrong?”

Makoto and Katsumi found their spots on the large L-shaped couch next to Kenshi.

“I think you forgot to mention ‘judgemental’ and ‘bitch’.” Makoto continued. “The whole time she was making remarks about me and random people around us. Constantly saying stuff like, ‘Oh look, isn’t that ugly?’ ‘Who would do that?’ or ‘Why are you doing that?’”

“Don’t blame me, I just arranged the date. You’re the one that went on it.”

Nobou chimed in with a laugh.

“Eh—” Makoto gave a drawn-out sigh. “Whatever… I think I should give up. For a while at least.”

“Hey don’t say that…” Shouko said. “They are plenty of girls out there. Tens-of-millions in Japan alone.” She put a hand to the back of Makoto’s head and gently patted it.

“I’ve heard that a hundred times before. Ninety-nine of those times are from you. I’m starting to believe it’s not true…”

“No, really. There are plenty of girls that would—” Shouko abruptly stopped mid-sentence, as if all her thoughts had been erased.

Makoto stared at her, his sadness becoming mixed with a tinge of hope. “Yes, go on. Girls that would…?”

Shouko’s mouth was left hanging open, the dumb look on her face shifted to a nervous smile. “That would like— that would find… Uhm… something in you?”

“Thanks Shouko, you really did an amazing job comforting me.”

Shouko was going to speak up again but before she could Nara interrupted her, “I’m thinkin’ what Shouko is tryna say is that there're’ millions of people out there and you shouldn’t give up after one bad date. Right?”

“Yes-yes, that’s right.” Shouko quickly agreed.

“One?” Makoto looked taken aback. “One bad date…? Try nine this month.”

“Oh… yeah sorry, that’ll do it…” Shouko nervously smiled and looked down at her feet. However, in an instant her demeanor changed. “Oh!”

“Huh? What is it now? Got more cheering up for me?”

“No no no, there’s a really cute girl next door! I bumped into her on the way here!”

Katsumi’s attention was instantaneously snatched by this. Are they talking about who I think?

“And…?” Makoto seemed weary.

“And~ you could try asking her out! She seemed really polite and reserved, nothing like those past girls.”

“You got all that from what? A thirty second interaction with her?”

“Yeah!”

“Uhm—” Katsumi interrupted. “I wouldn’t really recommend that.”

Shouko’s newly found good mood deteriorated after hearing this. “Why’s that…”

“She doesn’t really agree with anything we do… She’d probably report all of you to the police.”

“Oh… That’s a shame. She seemed so nice...”

I mean this works out well… Arata doesn’t need to get tangled in with this group and Makoto won’t have to face another rejection. Besides, I think Arata’s rejection of him would’ve been brutal…

Maaya looked up from her cell phone and turned the screen towards Makoto. “Okay, but what about her? and tomorrow?”

On her screen was a picture of foreign girl in a red bikini with a head of flowing blonde hair. She was leaning back on her hands, sitting on a beach of incredibly white sand—overhead a vast blue sky stretching into the horizon.

Makoto didn’t budge.

“Makoto, if you don’t go on this date I think I’ll have to.” Kenshi snatched the phone and intently zoomed in on the picture.

From the corner of his eye Makoto caught a glimpse of the picture—his attention was instantly grabbed. He sat up and peeked over Kenshi’s shoulder. “...Well… I think I could maybe make some time… You know what they say, tenth time’s the charm.”

Katsumi postured himself forward to join the other two boys in looking at photos of this girl.

Makoto redirected at Maaya, who was smiling triumphantly. “What’s her name?”

“Her family name is Jackson, but we call her Jacky.”