Sora's Tuesday morning

Sora woke up feeling irritated. She was unsure what had caused it—whether it was the alcohol, the snake, or Yoshio—but nothing seemed to go right that day. After eating breakfast with little appetite, she sat in her kitchen for half an hour, scrolling through her feed and begging herself to get moving and finally go to work. She was already late, so there was no real rush, right?

Eventually, she closed her phone with a sigh.

I hope he comes today. I need to talk to him.

She glanced at herself in the mirror. Today, she wore a black and white striped long-sleeve under an oversized t-shirt with an anime print. Her dark baggy jeans were complemented by an additional chunky belt. Her hair was loose, falling over her shoulders and back. As she gathered her things around the apartment, she sang quietly to herself and then left, putting on headphones to listen to a song that had randomly come to mind.

When she approached the subway, she took out her danmei book, and then sat on the train, reading it proudly. There were not many people at this hour, since she was terribly late. She didn't care though, as she never felt like there was a reason for hiding any of her interests, so she was never apologetic about it. Her hobbies and book preferences would change every so often, so nobody would remember if she had ever read anything worth feeling embarrassed over. At some point, she realized she was not a teenager anymore, that she could do whatever she wanted as an adult, and never apologize for it. The moment she realized that was truly freeing. That's the power of psychotherapy for you.

As she reached the end of a romantic scene in her book, she felt a wave of sweetness wash over her. She got distracted, wondering if she would ever feel that way about someone. Her past relationships had been fine but never quite lasted. It seemed she never fully felt like she could be herself around her exes, or maybe there were other reasons. Psychotherapy had helped her overcome some issues, but she hadn’t been in a relationship for the last year or so. It felt like her dates were good but never progressed. Perhaps she had commitment issues? Her thoughts spiraled into self-compromising dialogues, and she almost missed her stop.

She stopped and looked around, after taking off from the train. Already forgetting her tormenting thoughts from a moment ago, distracted by the time. She had to move because it was getting too late and embarrassing to come to work at this hour. As she ran she made a bit of noise, due to all the anime keychains she had dangling on her bag. She did not mind it usually, but today she was irritated. She cursed under her breath, thinking she might just burn them all later.

In the office, both Himari and Mel were here today. They were working intensely, so it was a mystery whether yesterday all went well. She cleared her throat to get their attention. Himari turned her head and nodded,

"Hi."

"Himari-senpai! Nice seeing you here!" Sora greeted her cheerfully.

Himari continued typing. Mel turned in her chair, smiling.

"Hey! You are so late today, is your head hurting after the copious amounts of alcohol that you consumed yesterday?"

"Oh," Sora touched her forehead. "Don’t remind me. I feel awful today. I overslept and zoned out. Why do I even drink if I hate it so much?" She sat down heavily in her chair, pushing the button on her computer. Leaning closer to Mel, she whispered almost silently in English, "And how are you doing?" She nodded towards Himari.

Mel bent over "Everything is good! I'll tell you later." She winked, returning to her desk, while quickly glancing at Himari.

Sora showed her a thumbs up and logged into her computer.

"I need some tea to revive myself," Sora said loudly, standing up.

Mel laughed, "Don't. If you stand up now and go to the kitchen, you will lose another half an hour! Sobue-kun is there with that cute new professor guy!"

"Oh really? I wanna go even more now! His accent is a bit hard for me to understand, so I need to talk to him more!" Sora got excited, leaving the room with a cup.

"Oh, what can you do with her?" Mel looked at Himari, who glanced back at her, rolling her eyes.

"What did you expect?"

"You are right, I mean I should have anticipated it. Hey, you have been working all morning, maybe you want some tea too? I can make you some."

"Thank you, you can go by yourself, Mel. I am fine, I will have some coffee, a bit later. I need to get done with this chapter soon."

"Okay. I’ll go then. I want to see her interacting with the guy, ha-ha." Mel stood up, contemplating something. "You don’t have work today, right? Maybe we can do yoga together?"

Himari blinked. "Since when do you want to do yoga?"

"Since now? Please think about it. It’s just a trial course. I want to go. Please think about it, okay? I’ll go then. Let’s talk about it later." She left.

Entering the kitchen area, she immediately saw Sora's illuminated face. She almost had her mouth open, listening to their new professor Oshiro. Sobue stood to the side, glancing into his cup, looking perplexed. Professor Oshiro, who had been working in the Department of Social Psychology for only a few months, wore a dark brown knitted vest over a white shirt with a dark blue tie and tight blue pants. His long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he wore oval glasses that accentuated his sharp features. He was strikingly handsome, with a slightly androgynous look that matched Sora’s type. She’s a lost cause, Mel thought with a sigh.

"Professor Oshiro, nice seeing you here!" Mel bowed politely, and he nodded in response, he smiled warmly in return.

"Mel-san nice seeing you too. We were discussing an article on social isolation that Sora had just submitted, and I was telling her, I wanted to be involved in her part two of the project!"

Mel looked at Sora, "For real? Great news!"

"Yes! I never expected it," Sora added, "since his research is a bit unrelated... But it’s exciting to have someone so interested!"

Oshiro nodded. "The issue of loneliness has gained traction globally since COVID-19, and in Japan, it’s been a significant problem for even longer."

As Professor Oshiro spoke in his calm, teacher-like manner, people began to politely leave. Sora nodded, clearly in awe.

"You’re right! Loneliness has even been recognized as a public health concern by the US Surgeon General in recent years. I can send you more articles if you’d like, Professor Oshiro." Sora’s enthusiasm was palpable—when she was excited, nothing could stop her.

He smiled most charmingly, noticing that there were only the two of them left. Well, there was also Mel, who listened silently, making herself tea.

"Please do, Sora-chan. I’ll take a look, and we can discuss it with your co-authors. But I should get back to work now." He glanced at his silver watch, smiling again at both of them.

"Of course, Professor Oshiro, please take care!" Sora bowed slightly, and as he left she turned to Mel, her eyes shining.

Mel rolled her eyes, "Seriously? You know he’s older, your professor, and a colleague. That’s super inappropriate."

"What are you saying, Mel! I wasn't think anything like that! He is just, well, very handsome, and intelligent, and interesting. He is a professor, however, he is only 37! Before you came we were talking about one manga!"

"Sure, sure. Forget it. Let's work!" Mel said, tugging at Sora’s sleeve.

"Yes, mom." Sora acted sad, following slowly behind Mel, as they returned to their desks.