Monday

 Sora has just turned off her alarm after finally waking up. It's been a rough morning as she hates waking up early and has already snoozed her alarm several times. Stupid Mondays.

She had not yet heard anything from the tengu after he had left on Saturday evening. She was waiting all of Sunday for it to be Monday, as that is when he would come to take her home from the university. Thinking about it again made her more energetic, and she jumped off the bed, hurrying to the bathroom. It was today, and the quicker the time passed, the closer she would be to seeing him again. She dressed in black: a long, layered skirt with purple undertones, a white shirt with a black corset over it, and added a lot of silver jewellery. Looking in the mirror, she nodded approvingly at her reflection. The top part of her hair was styled into two buns with a black bow on one, while the rest flowed down her back.

As she ate her cereal for breakfast, she watched the latest anime episode from yesterday. Afterward, she grabbed her bag and headed for the subway, listening to her new favorite K-pop album (it’s a (G)-IDLE one), suppressing the urge to sing along.

Several stops later, she arrived at the correct platform and quickly made her way towards the university. Yasunobu Sobue, one of her closest friends was walking there too. She ran towards him excitedly. He was wearing an oversized blue suit paired with a cool, green, and pink printed tie. He had a light blue buzz cut hair and pretty blue eyes. Seeing her, he took off his big headphones, hiding them.

"Hey, Sora, new hair, huh!" Sobue waved as she bounced in front of him. “You’re looking overly excited today!"

“Hey, Sobue-kun! I am excited! I’ve been waiting for the end of the day!"

"And what will happen then?" He smiled, gesturing forward, as they started walking together.

"A secret! But, actually no, a guy I think I like s picking me up from the university.»

Sobue raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "A new guy, huh? Can he be trusted? He’s not one of those guys who seem nice but turn out to be creeps, right?"

Sora laughed, waving her hands. "No, no, nothing like that. He’s trustworthy! He actually saved me from a guy like that, you know. And we have been together, alone in my room..." She saw Sobue's eyebrows raising and hurried to explain, "No, nothing happened, he did not try anything, I promise. He is not interested in me in any way, except, protecting me from the creeps."

"Still sounds suspicious to me, honestly, why would he be motivated to do that if there is no intent?"

“I don’t know… My story seemed to resonate with him on a deeper level." Her voice turned serious.

"Sure, Sora." He looked hesitant, "I will meet him, okay? I can not let you go with some random man, alone."

"That’s fine with me!" Sora grinned. "Thank you for worrying about me."

“Well, someone has to," he said, rolling his eyes playfully. “You’re always in some kind of situation."

"Come on, you know I will be fine, specifically thanks to my friends!"

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll see after six." Sobue smiled as they walked into the building.

As they made their way down the hall, they started discussing the anime episode Sora had watched that morning. Sobue was caught up on the series too, and they animatedly exchanged opinions. Along the way, Sobue noticed a poster advertising an upcoming cultural festival.

“I was going to go with you guys," he said, pointing at the poster. “But I’m not bringing my girlfriend this time. She said our otaku conversations bored her to death."

"Oh, Sobue-kun, I am so sorry, maybe we can discuss the topics beforehand, I get it that we can seem a bit annoying, especially to the person who is hanging out with us for the first time. You should have told me then..."

"“Don’t worry about it," he replied as they stopped outside his office. “Honestly, I think she prefers doing other things than coming to these festivals anyway."

He seemed pensive for a moment, then shrugged it off. “I’m off to work. See you at lunch, Sora."

“See you!" Sora waved and headed to her office on the opposite side of the corridor.

Sitting down on his desk Sobue sighed, taking out his notebook and computer out of his bag. His desk was clean, nothing too revealing about his personality could be seen. There were just work-related scientific papers and a statistics manual. There was no particular order to the papers, though, as he was working with them. He looked at his phone, to see if there were any messages, and a drawing from his favourite manga appeared as the screen lit up. No new messages.

Meanwhile, Sora walked into her office to find Mel already at her desk.

“Mel, hey! You’re early!" Sora switched to English, her voice bright.

“So are you!" Mel turned in her chair to face her. “How’s it going?"

"Oh I am great, I am waiting for the evening." She clapped her hands, walking inside.

"Sure, of course. Did you tell Sobue already? We have to see that guy before letting you spend time with him. We will check the vibes!"

"Yes, yes, " Sora put her bag on her desk, turning around, "I told him, and yes, you are both invited to test the guy, of course."

"Good," Mel said, turning back to her computer. Sora continued talking, as she always did, "Listen, yesterday the special edition of that fantasy danmei came! I spent the whole day reading, and imagine that - I have missed all the new anime episodes because of that."

"And my texts." Mel teased, looking up at her.

"Stop, you know me, it was not on purpose!"

"Sure, Sora, I know. I just.. well. I felt so lonely yesterday. Himari worked again, late. And I was all alone, did not know what to do. And of course, I could not text or call her, so I was just there. I even tried watching some TV show, but it was a sapphic romance, so I got even more mad, you know?"

"Oh," Sora sat down, and slid closer to Mel on her chair, "I am so sorry! I should have been a better friend. Next time, just call me, okay? I mean, if there is sound on, I will not be able to miss it this way!"

Mel looked at her, smiling, "Yes, you miss calls all the time, Sora. But I am not trying to blame you or anything. I know you, so I just called Sobue."

"Oh, did he help?" Sora's eyes lit up.

"Well, not very much," Mel chuckled. "But he recommended another show?"

“That sounds like Sobue," Sora laughed with her. "Hey, if you ever feel that way again, just call me. I’m serious. Maybe you can tell me now?" She looked concerned.

"I guess, Himari is not coming today anyway..."

"Oh, really?" Sora's gaze fell onto Himari's empty desk. It was indeed empty. There were no indications that a person was occupying that space, as there were only computers and several pens there. One might say it was because Himari was almost done with her thesis, and probably had taken all her belongings away beforehand, however, it was not true, as the desk has been like this for the last four years.

While Sora's space looked very nerdy, with pictures and stickers of her friends and anime characters, some anime bubble heads, and lots of papers all around the desk. Mel's was similar in spirit and chaos.

Mel played with her phone case. "Yes, she felt too drunk yesterday, a client bought the champagne fountain for her, you know, just the most expensive thing in the club?!" Her voice raising.

"Oh, " Sora tried to be as compassionate as possible, "I am sorry about that, I know it puts a lot of pressure on the host."

"Yes, and she felt extremely tired too. She did not look at me once yesterday. I feel like she was forced to do something she did not want to do and felt guilty, or something."

"Hey, hey, maybe she was just tired, you do not have to think more about this than there is. I know the host job is not perfect, and indeed a lot of pressure is on her, but she is a grown woman, who knows how to set boundaries, I believe she managed, and was just very fatigued due to the need to be in a centre of attention for the night."

"You think?" Mel seemed to grasp for the straws of hope.

Sora leaned in, putting a comforting hand on Mel’s shoulder. "You’ve been together for years, Mel. She cares about you, I know she does. Just talk to her."

"Yes, but not as much as she does about this stupid job, apparently..." She made a grimace.

"Mel, " Sora put her hand on the other's head, "stop this, I told you, you only need to tell her that it bothers you that she does it. Before you say anything to her, she will not be able to guess it!"

"I know, " she sighed, "I know."

They sat quietly for a moment, Sora breaking the silence with “Okay, now that we’ve talked about that, let me tell you about the danmei I’ve been reading!"

Mel laughed and pushed Sora’s chair away. “Later, Sora. I need to work, later, bye."

“Nooo!" Sora groaned dramatically, laughing as her chair rolled back. “I need someone to talk to!"

"Stop it, we will during lunch, work now." Mel was unapologetic, looking at her computer, clearly working. Sora pursed her lips, and pushed the "on" button, realizing there was no way out, as there were no other people in the office she could have clung onto.