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The light streaming in from Serizawa's kitchen window was oddly dull that morning as he sat quietly at his small, round, kitchen table, loosely gripping his mug full of tea. On the table was his breakfast, which he had barely picked at. It was just a piece of buttered toast, usually something he would wolf down in just a minute, but this morning it was hard to think about eating anything. He was too anxious for that.
“Oh Serizawa, would you be up to going to that new bar down the street this Saturday?” He remembered one of his classmates asking this earlier that week. They had just gotten out of class and he was putting his things together, just about to head out the door, when she caught him. Her name was Nakamura Koemi, and she was a part of the friend group he had hung out with on New Year’s Eve. She was a rather tall, thin, short-haired woman a few years his junior, and insisted on informality, at least toward him and the others in his friend group. She had a pleasant and quiet demeanor most of the time and was rather diligent in her studies, so when she had asked him this question it had surprised him.
“Oh, that one that just opened up last month?” He responded with a smile, now relaxed against the classroom wall with his hands in his pockets. He liked going out with his friends, it was something he never experienced in his youth. Now that he had gotten a taste for it it was rare that he said no, “Have you asked the others yet? They would probably enjoy going too, they’re always up for new things!” He saw her smile dissipate a bit. Had he said something wrong?
“Actually, Serizawa, i was hoping we could go together. Just the two of us,” said Koemi quietly, hands clasped in front of her nervously. He was a little confused for a moment, then all of a sudden, realization came to him. She was asking him out.
He was flattered, he’d never experienced this before, although the more he thought about it, the more it seemed bound to happen sooner or later. But he was stumped. He had never thought about Koemi in a romantic aspect. In fact he couldn’t remember the last time he had thought of anyone in a romantical way, or if he even had ever thought of anyone that way. He could tell that he’d been thinking for too long when he heard her clear her throat expectantly. He looked at her, she did have pleasant facial features and a sweet personality. He decided it would be best to give it a shot.
“Uh, sure. That sounds like fun,” he said, trying to be as casual as possible. He remembered her smile curve into a grin.
“Great! I’ll see you there at, say, 8 Saturday night then?” She said, there was a little glint in her eye that oozed of confidence, a trait he had not seen much of in her before.
“Sounds good to me,” he replied.
“Awesome! It’s a date! See you then!” She had then hurried out the door with a little wave. He remembered standing there all alone and unsure for a few minutes. He didn’t even know if he liked her that way, was it rude to say yes to a date if that was the case? But no. It was just a date. Just one. He could be done with it after that. His head hurt from thinking about it too much, so he left the classroom, turning out the lights as he did. As the days of that week had gone by he had gradually become more and more anxious about the whole thing. He was sure that being nervous about a date was a normal thing that most people went through, but Friday night he had barely slept, and now here he was, staring sleepily at his toast, one step away from a full-on panic attack. This couldn’t have been healthy. Or normal.
He went through the rest of the day in much the same way, panicky over the littlest of things. He hadn’t remembered his anxiety being so bad for a long while now. When it was a little past five in the afternoon, he was having a cup of tea to help calm himself down when he remembered something his therapist had said to him.
“Remember, when you’re having a bad day, reach out to your support network. Your friends love you, they’ll help you get through things.” His therapist was full of wise words like that, and he smiled whenever he thought of them. That’s right. My support network , he thought, pulling out his phone and opening up his text conversations. The last person he had been talking with was Tome, who had been helping him with his homework, but he decided against asking her for advice. He needed an adult, someone who likely had experience with what he was going through.
He opened up his conversation with Reigen, they had been texting each other regularly on Thursday evenings after getting home. They were both fans of a new show that aired Thursdays, so they would often text through the episode talking about various theories and general commentary on characters and story twists. They had been having these Thursday night conversations ritualistically for about a month now if he remembered right. They texted about things other than that as well, but their longest and most prominent conversations were had in person during the slow hours at work, or over the phone when they just wanted to chat. Reigen would be a good person to ask for support from, he knew that without a doubt.
Serizawa: hey, can I ask you for help with something
He put his phone down on the couch next to him, watching the news reporter on his television rather absentmindedly. He was a little nervous about what Reigen would say back to him, but only a little. He jumped a bit when he felt it vibrate and quickly opened the notification. That was fast , he thought, though he had been pretty vague so he wondered if he might have worried the man.
Reigen: of course. You’re not in trouble, are you?
Serizawa chuckled, a warm feeling settling in his gut. He is worried, huh , he thought.
Serizawa: no, no I’m fine. I’m just having a little anxiety about something that I’m doing later tonight
Reigen: oh? And what might that thing be?
Serizawa was hesitant about answering this question. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Reigen to know that he was going out on a date, it would be silly to hide that. But at the same time. It was. He shook the thought off, just tell him, you’re a grown-up you can handle it.
Serizawa: someone from my class asked me out on a date and it’s tonight. I don’t think I like her but I said yes anyway...and now I don’t know what to do
It was a good 5 minutes before he got a response from Reigen.
Reigen: ahh. That’s a pretty normal situation. And you haven’t told her any of this?
Serizawa: no, I don’t have her number so I couldn’t call it off.
That was a lie, he had just been too anxious to even attempt texting her about it.
Reigen: well the best thing would just be to follow through with it and just let her know you’re not interested later on.
He saw Reigen’s typing bubble come up a few more times after that, but in the end, it stopped and Serizawa had to reply, even though he could have come to that conclusion himself.
Serizawa: do you have any advice on uh
He paused and continued typing,
Serizawa: do you have any advice on how to let her know that?
Serizawa: in a way that won’t, like. Hurt her feelings?
Another couple of minutes of silence from Reigen passed. He was worried he might have been asking too much from him, he would usually be answering Serizawa far too wordily, but he was being unusually short now.
Reigen: there really isn’t a way to....not hurt her feelings.
Reigen: she’s going to be bummed any way you do it.
Serizawa figured that he was right, there really wouldn’t be a nice way to tell Koemi that he didn’t return her feelings, but he would have to go through the whole date feeling that way. Somehow, he felt even worse about it now than before. Maybe going to Reigen for dating advice was the wrong call. He felt his phone vibrate again.
Reigen: you’ll be fine. It’s only one date.
Serizawa sighed, he knew that he’d be fine, having Reigen say so was reassuring, but it felt like... no, he couldn’t be...upset with me could he? He rose from the couch, a mite too quickly because he felt a little lightheaded as he walked over to the TV to turn it off. He checked the time, it was a little past 6 now, he figured that he should probably get ready. A shower might help finally clear his head.
By the time he was done getting ready he was a bit past the time he’d intended to leave, “Shit I’m gonna be late unless I leave right now,” he said after glancing at his watch. He was wearing a button-down underneath a sweatshirt, messily half-tucked into his jeans, his hair still slightly wet. He figured that it would be dry by the time he got all the way to that side of town.
His night classes happened to be in the same part of town where Reigen lived, so the bar wasn’t far from him. Serizawa had felt better after his shower but he couldn’t help but think about his conversation with Reigen, especially now that he was going to be in his neck of the woods. Reigen usually gave very long-winded, well-intentioned advice, and to everyone he knew, not just Serizawa. But maybe they just weren’t to that point in their friendship. He could understand, but he couldn’t help but feel that there was something more to it.
He agonized about both that and his ever closer date the whole way to the bar. By the time he arrived, he was actually a tad bit early. I wonder how I managed that , he thought, a bit out of breath. He was loitering a few meters away from the entrance to the bar, he wondered if he should wait outside for Koemi or whether he should just walk in and wait for her, but his train of thought was interrupted by none other than Koemi herself.
“Serizawa? You’re here early,” her soft voice said from behind him. He whipped his head around in surprise and saw her laugh in response, “sorry, I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that,” she smiled and came to stand next to him on the sidewalk. She was in a blue dress that fell mid-thigh and her usually bespectacled face was glasses-free. She had several barrettes that swept her bangs to the side, he had never seen so much of her face before. She was very pretty, he had to admit, but that changed nothing about how he felt about her, nor did it change the way he felt about this date.
He forced himself to smile at her nervously, luckily she took this well too.
“Let me ask you something,” she began, taking his arm into hers and leading him to the entrance of the bar, “have you ever been on a date before?”
“Not...really,” he replied. They were seated at one of the tall tables in the corner of the bar before he could really gather what was going on.
“Really? A handsome guy like you?” She seemed to be genuinely surprised by this. He raised his hand to the back of his head on instinct, he definitely was not used to this degree of flattery.
“I had a very boring childhood. And early adulthood,” that’s one way of putting it , he thought, looking around the bar, which was already bustling, he figured it would only get busier as the night went on. He wondered how long they would be here for. How long were dates supposed to last? How long were they supposed to last if he wanted to let her know he didn’t like her? There was still so much nuance about adulthood that he had yet to fully grasp.
She was looking at him expectantly when they made eye contact again. Right. They were at a bar. She probably wanted a drink.
“I’ll go over to the bar and grab us drinks, what would you like?” He said to her, it seemed to be the right thing because she responded with,
“Oh and a gentleman too. I’ll have a gin and tonic if you wouldn’t mind,” he could already tell he was bad at the whole, making her not like him, thing. This was going to be more difficult than he thought. He got up from his seat and made his way over to the bar. He had to wait for a couple of minutes while the bartender took other patron’s orders, and he was so consumed with remembering Koemi’s order that he remained totally unaware of anything but that and the attention of the bartender. Finally, it came to be his turn, so he ordered and immediately felt a bit of anxiety ebb from his stomach, that is until he heard a familiar voice beside him.
“Pppft...wow it’s a small world. Come here often?”
Serizawa twisted his head around so fast that he felt his neck vertebrae pop uncomfortably.
“R-reigen!?” Directly to his left, he saw Reigen, beer in hand, wearing an outfit that he could only describe as completely befitting its wearer. He had on a brightly patterned button-up, short sleeves rolled up all the way to his shoulders, and navy shorts that must have only extended to his mid-thigh. His cheeks had a rosy tint to them, Serizawa knew his alcohol tolerance was quite low, he guessed that reigen had already consumed one or two drinks and had been there for some time already.
“So this is where you’re having that date of yours?” He said, his voice had a slight drawl to it. He studied Serizawa's face curiously when he didn’t answer right away, “or am I wrong?”
Serizawa finally overcame the initial surprise of seeing his boss in a public setting and closed his mouth, which he noticed had been ajar. He gave a small glance in the direction of Koemi, who was still waiting patiently at their table in the corner.
“Yeah. I didn’t think I’d see you here,” he had a bit of an accusatory tone, he wasn’t sure what for, this, after all, wasn’t his neck of the woods.
Reigen gave him a smirk, “I live like a 15-minute walk from here, you know, this is where all the hip kids go these days,” he noticed Serizawa's little glances to the side and craned his neck to see if he could spot his date. Serizawa turned along with him and made eye contact with Koemi, who gave him a slight wave and a smile, he smiled nervously back and turned to face reigen once more, “Wow, you aren’t interested in her? You must have some high standards,” said reigen. Serizawa felt his brow furrow.
“Hey, maybe you could be a little quieter about how I’m,” he paused and lowered his voice, “not interested, hm?” He was being thrown for a loop by this whole night that was for sure, but this interaction was just the icing on the proverbial cake.
“Jeez okay, okay.” Reigen nudged the rather large man next to him, who had been chatting with another bargoer, “while you wait for your stuff I should probably introduce you to this guy, I don’t think the two of you have met.”
The other man, a shorter, round man with black hair, who seemed to be put off by the interruption, turned Serizawa's way and studied him for a moment before smiling and nudging reigen back vehemently. Reigen, who now had an annoyed expression pasted on his face, jerked his head toward Serizawa hastily, “introduce yourself.”
“Oh! My name is Banshoumaru Shinra, but please just call me Shinra. I’m a psychic from the next town over, nice to finally make your acquaintance, Serizawa,” he thrust his arm out awkwardly from behind Reigen and Serizawa took his hand to shake it.
“You know who I am?” Answered Serizawa, cocking his head and glancing at reigen who was paying no mind to either of them, but was instead soliciting the bartender for another drink.
“Oh, yeah, sorry if that sounded weird,” the man had a full, kind sounding voice, and Serizawa found it rather pleasant in comparison to the tipsy drawl of his coworker, which he was still unsure how he felt about, “Reigen here talks about you a lot. it’s hard to not know you if you spend time around him.”
Serizawa felt heat bite at the back of his neck, R eigen talks about me to his friends? I wonder what he tells them about me. I wonder...why he talks about me to his friends at all , he thought.
“I was in this part of town earlier today for a job so I asked Reigen if he wanted to join me for a drink, it’s been a while since we last hung out.” He elbowed Reigen once more to get his attention, “isn’t that right.”
“Hm? Oh yeah,” responded Reigen without turning his head. Serizawa wondered what about Reigen’s energy was so off tonight. He had never seen Reigen like this before, so casually dismissive. He figured that Reigen kept this side of him strictly under wraps while he was sober and had to keep up appearances, but here he could just be himself. Was this really what he was like, or was this behavior something else completely that he couldn’t quite place. Serizawa was close to coming to an almost conclusion when his thoughts were cut short by the bartender who had finally brought him his drinks.
“Sorry it took me so long it’s getting busy here and I had to fill a large order, hope you enjoy,” said the bartender before hurriedly taking off to fill more orders. Serizawa looked into the brown liquid in his own drink hazily, he wanted so badly to just shut down, or run away. Dealing with his problems head on all the time was so exhausting. He waved to Reigen and Shinra, Shinra being the only one to respond, and left the pair to return to Koemi, who had now been waiting for quite some time. She didn’t seem put off though, she seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere, bobbing her head up and down to the beat of the song that was playing.
“I’m finally back, sorry it took forever,” he apologized, handing her the gin and tonic, she took it into both of her hands and gave him a peculiar smile.
“There’s no need to apologize, I figured it would be busy here, it is a Saturday after all,” she mused. She took a small sip of her drink and hung one of her arms casually off the back of her chair, “it appeared to me like you knew those guys you were talking to, though,” she looked at him slyly. Serizawa should have expected as much from her curious nature, which he already knew much about, as she was often the one to badger their friend group with what seemed to be endless questions. He recalled her saying something about how she wanted to go into journalism after finishing her high school equivalent, and it certainly seemed fitting.
“Yeah, i know them. Well. I only knew one of them up until a few minutes ago,” he said, she gave him another anticipative look, “the blonde one in the ugly shirt is actually my boss,” he felt the corners of his mouth curl up and he took a long sip of his drink. Koemi’s brows raised as she brought her own drink up to her lips again.
“You two must be pretty close if that’s how you’re referring to him,” she chuckled and took a swig of her drink, “you hardly ever talk about your work, what is it you do again?”
He was hesitant about telling her the truth but figured it might be a good way to deter her affections, “I work in a psychic consultation office. We do exorcisms, seances, curse lifting, you name it.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right! I have to say that’s a lot more interesting than, like, what 90% of our classmates do,” she rubbed her thumbs pensively along the side of her glass, which was beginning to condensate, “even my job is pretty boring, right now I’m just a receptionist at a dentist office.”
That did sound pretty dull to Serizawa, but he didn’t want to sound rude, “that can’t be all bad. There are some interesting things that happen in dentist offices.”
“Well, yeah,” she laughed quietly again, “but I would much rather be a receptionist somewhere I could get an in to my intended field you know, like at the front desk to a news outlet,” she sounded so happy talking about her dream, Serizawa found that he was kind of jealous of her in that way. He carried on listening to her talk about her various dream articles and stories that she had caught up on recently. She talked to him about books he had never heard of before, which was interesting, and problems that she was having with their math homework. He was having a good time, but it was hard to keep up indifference. He was still anxious, and her recanting things about her aspirations was starting to tinge that anxiety he felt with some depression as well; all in all, it was making him heavily distracted from the conversation.
He still had no idea what he wanted to do after he was done with school. He remembered he’d told reigen from the start that he might not work for him anymore after he finished up, but he had only said that so that there was nothing to stop him from leaving if he wanted to. He knew reigen would respect whatever he chose, which made him relieved, but right now, and for the past while he had really been enjoying his work at spirits and such. He had made so many friends through working there and experienced so much growth, he was having a hard time imagining himself anywhere else; that both excited and scared him.
He found that through his thoughts he had been staring in the direction of Reigen, who he saw was laughing raucously about something with Shinra. He noticed Koemi’s eyes on him and broke his gaze away from reigen, she looked at him curiously.
“So, Serizawa,” she began tentatively, “I Know you said yes to coming here tonight and I’m really glad that you did, but I have to wonder something,” he blinked in surprise, this was not what he had been expecting to come out of her mouth, “did you say yes because you like me as more than a friend, or because you’re a little new to this. I promise you’re not going to hurt my feelings if you answer honestly. At least not a lot.” She took another long look into her glass, “I would rather know now than later.”
He thought on her words for a little, he figured he would have had to wait until the end of the night to let her down, but now seemed as good of a time as any, “I said yes because I didn’t really...know how to say no.” He said flatly. He saw her smile fade a little, as though she had been expecting this answer.
“I see. Oh well, it was worth a shot,” she stirred the ice cubes in her glass and studied his face, “I’m enjoying spending time with you regardless.” She stopped and clasped her hands on the table in front of her, it looked as though she wanted to continue but was having trouble finding the right words.
“I’m sorry, there are a lot of things about being independent that are still new to me,” he said.
“Oh? You could have fooled me. You seem to be so put together,” she raised a brow and looked the way of the bar, “You are sure looking his way a lot...” she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow a bit as if putting pieces of an invisible puzzle together. Suddenly her brows popped up and her mouth came slightly ajar, “ohhhh. I see now,” she said. He was thoroughly confused.
“See what?” He glanced around, It was apparent that she had realized something that was less than obvious to him. She tilted her head and grinned playfully.
“Huh, you really don’t know do you. You are new at this,” snickered Koemi, ''I think that the person you like is sitting right over there at the bar drunk off his ass.”
Serizawa froze and felt the temperature in his face skyrocket almost immediately. A new sense of realization washed over him, the reason he hadn’t felt any romantic attraction toward Koemi. Toward any girl he had ever met for that matter. He had figured before then that it was his lack of experience that drew him away from women, not an attraction to men . So many more things made sense to him now, so many more things about his childhood, about his time, shut off away from the world, and about his interactions with the people he knew.
“Don’t worry, if there’s anyone who knows how you feel it’s me,” said Koemi, “I don’t just like men, I like women too. It took me a while before I realized it, I can be pretty dense sometimes,” she looked away to the crowd next to the door and then back to Serizawa, who still sat there, red in the face and bewildered. He didn’t really know if he was romantically inclined toward Reigen, he didn't know if he wanted to know; he didn’t really want to know what it might change about his world. Everything was already so complicated.
“I can be pretty dense too, now that I think about it,” he let himself smile at her sheepishly, she returned the look with a softer smile of her own.
“You’re a pretty cool guy to be friends with, Serizawa,” she said.
He smiled a little wider, “you’re fun to be friends with too, Koemi.” As the last word of his sentence left his mouth, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his shoulders. He instantly recognized their bare paleness and boozy scent as belonging to Reigen.
“I introduced you to my friend..” he slurred, “it’s only fair that you - hhrrmm,” he felt the man sway and had to lean the opposite way to keep himself from falling off his chair, “introduce me to yours.” He saw Koemi repress a laugh, god this was embarrassing.
“Reigen—“
“No, silly, that’s my name,” Reigen said while leaning one of his arms on their small table. Serizawa could tell that Koemi was having immense trouble not bursting into full-on laughter. Serizawa sighed, at least his life was never boring.
“I was going to say that this is Nakamura Koemi, she’s one of my classmates,” Serizawa said, he was gripping onto the arm of Reigen’s that was still wrapped around his shoulder to prevent any worries about him falling.
“S’nice to meet you...Naka..mura,” he seemed to be having trouble with larger words.
“It’s nice to meet you too...” she looked to Serizawa expectantly, he took her cue and said his name, something he instantly regretted.
“Reigen Arataka—“
“Greatest psychic of the 21st century!” Reigen practically shouted this into Serizawa's ear, how he had managed to say this phrase rather slur free was a wonder to Serizawa, because right after he began to babble incoherently. Serizawa had no idea what to do at this point, and he wondered where Shinra could have gone off to as well. Koemi seemed to take note of this, so she stood and came over to Serizawa's other side.
“I know that we’ve only had one drink but we have been here for a good while, you might want to help him back home, I know I should probably be getting back before too long,” she said. He gave her as thankful a look as he could, he knew she could tell that this was pretty embarrassing for him. They were beginning to receive stares from the other bar-goers, if it continued on he knew he would panic and shut down, a whole bar full of onlookers was too many people for him to deal with.
“I had a lot of fun tonight, Serizawa.” Koemi’s words gained a lot more ground now that they had paid their tabs and gotten reigen outside. He was clinging to Serizawa's side so as to not fall and gazing off into space, laughing every once in a while.
“Really? That’s good to know. I feel like it’s hard not to at least have an interesting time when he’s around,” he jerked his head in reigen’s direction and reigen gleamed at the mention of himself.
Koemi laughed and began to walk backward in the direction of home, “well, yeah, but I mean I had fun with you, silly. I’ll be seeing you,” he watched her round the corner with a wave before he began to lead Reigen toward his apartment. He knew where it was from here, thankfully. He was glad that his good sense of direction had allowed him that knowledge because there was no way Reigen could have gotten home on his own.
“What happened to Shinra, Reigen?” Asked Serizawa while they were waiting at a crosswalk.
“Shinra? Hrmmmm...” it took Reigen a while to answer but he eventually got around to it, “something about...missing his bedtime,” the walk sign changed and Serizawa pressed forward, but Reigen, now deep in thought, stumbled and nearly whacked his face into the concrete. Serizawa was extremely grateful in that moment that he had powers because he had caught him in the nick of time right before he would have slammed into the pavement.
“Reigen, I think I should carry you.” He insisted.
“I’m fiiiiine. S’fineeee...just. Look,” he got up and was about to start walking again, but began crooked, and stumbled once again, this time without falling. He stopped abruptly and turned to give Serizawa a pleading look, “okay maybe you’re right.”
“I know I’m right,” said Serizawa amusedly in response. He picked Reigen up bridal style and felt him lean his weight into his chest, a rather dark expression lingering there as they continued on.
“I’m sorry. I probably ruined your n...your night,” said Reigen quietly. Serizawa figured that the lack of need to focus on his motor skills had sobered him up a little and that it had been a good 15 minutes since they left the bar. Without any more delays, they would be nearing Reigen’s apartment soon.
“Nah, if anything you made tonight a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise,” said Serizawa. He thought for a little about how odd this situation was, carrying his boss back to his house because of how plastered he was, how Koemi had helped him realize he was gay; somehow his life since Reigen and company had entered it was far more exciting than he could have ever dreamed even just a few years ago, “I was so anxious about tonight before it happened. But it turned out to be more informative than anything.”
“Informative?” Reigen asked, kicking his feet around a bit.
“Yeah. It just...helped me to realize some things. I don’t know if I should tell you right now though considering how drunk you are. I doubt you’d remember.”
“Try me.”
Serizawa pondered on this for a moment. He wasn’t sure he was ready to tell Reigen anything that he had learned tonight, he knew that he still had to reflect for far longer than just a single night on his feelings. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to reveal a little information to reigen, though.
“Hmm, well. I think one of the realizations I came to is that I think I’m ready to start treating you more as a friend than as a boss.” He said this while walking up the stairs to Reigen’s second-story apartment. He felt he had earned that place in reigen’s life, after all, now that he was literally carrying his weight as opposed to the usual figurative way he did at work.
“Is that so...” Reigen responded, digging his face a little deeper into Serizawa's chest, “I think I’m okay with that.” His voice was muffled, but Serizawa could tell that it had an affectionate tone to it. He felt a little spark of warmth in his cheeks.
“Keys?” He asked, wanting to distract himself from his body’s reaction.
“Front left pocket,” replied Reigen weakly, he could tell that he was minutes away from falling into a deep sleep. Serizawa located the keys with his aura and his powers did the work of unlocking the door for him. It swung open and the keys hung themselves on the wall hooks with one of Reigen’s suit jackets. He walked in, shut the door with his foot, turned on one of the floor lamps with his powers, and made his way over to the corner of the large room where he knew Reigen’s bed was. He was about to ask Reigen a question when he realized the man was asleep.
“Oh, reigen,” he whispered quietly, moving the covers out of the way and placing him down gently. He covered the man back up and swept away some stray hairs from his face. He admired him there for a moment, so much more peaceful now than he was normally. In fact, he didn’t think he’d ever seen reigen so relaxed. It made him happy to know that he was here and safe, he was glad he could have been there for that.
He made his way out the door, locking it before he closed it. He checked his watch, it was around 11 which checked out with how tired he felt, so he yawned and made off in the direction of his train station. When he was back home he hastily shed his clothes and hopped into bed, quickly checking his phone for notifications before he settled in for sleep. There was one from an unexpected source, his mother.
Mother: I know we haven’t talked this week, I just wanted to check in and make sure everything was going alright. Hope you know that I love you.
He read the timestamp, 8:54 p.m. He knew that she wouldn’t have been hurt from his lack of response but he still felt a tinge of guilt, he hadn’t even thought to ask her for advice. He texted her back even though he knew she was likely deep in sleep.
Katsuya: sorry for the late reply, I had a busy night.
Katsuya: thank you for checking in...it means a lot. I’m doing fine, I actually wanted to talk with you about some things.
He sat in his bed, drumming his fingers on the sheets, staring off into the darkness of his room. He took a deep breath and messaged her once more before laying his head on the pillow.
Katsuya: I’ll call you in the morning, hope you’re sleeping soundly. I love you too.
And then he drifted off, anxiety ebbing away into nothingness.