Chapter Text
"Why me..." I thought, as I was on my way to buy some groceries –as mom ordered me to do- It was freezing outside. I felt I could die any minute soon.
I had put on a pair of snow boots and a black scarf, the only one I owned… I wanted to buy the stuff as soon as possible, so my mom would stop pestering me about it and I could finish my dreadful college homework.
There were some good offers at the supermarket, so I ended up buying more food than I was supposed to… I bought some sweets, thinking I could enjoy them while finishing my homework. If only I hadn’t procrastinated on it, I would not be…
“THIS IS WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!”-someone shouted, as I was paying. A guy in a red hoodie was throwing a tantrum over the price of the beer he wanted to buy. I didn’t want to get involved in his fit, so I just grabbed my bags and left.
On my way home, I saw a strange shadow near a lamp post. I got scared at first, thinking it would be a rat or some kind of animal (which was kind of stupid since there aren’t any human-sized rats whatsoever). As I passed by the post, I could clearly distinguish it was the figure of a young man, with really messy hair and what seemed to be a purple jacket. It looked like he was crouching, but since I didn’t know why, I decided to ask.
“Umm… excuse me… sir?”
“Mmmm?” He mumbled.
“Are you alright? It seems like—“
“Why do you ask?” He answered roughly.
I thought perhaps my question was quite obvious since it’s rare to see a random guy alone in the middle of the street on a snowing night. “Well, I’m quite the same,” I thought, but at least I had a reason to be doing so, I wasn’t just wandering around like he seemed to be.
“Get lost kiddo,” he said before I was able to say something.
“Ex-excuse me? You’re terribly mistaken; I’m pretty much the same age as you—,” I said unconsciously.
"Yeah sure, whatever. I don't really care."
Now this guy had some guts. His snarky attitude really pissed me off, yet I kinda liked it. I left my bags on the snow and grabbed his arm, pulling him so he’d look at me, face to face.
“So you think you are tough, huh? Let’s see how rude you are after I finish you!” the thought came to mind. As he turned around, I saw an awkward, yet cute scene for a gloomy guy as him. On his arms, there was a small kitten.
“You… so you were taking care of the cat? On such a cold night? ” I said, while making a sign to him, asking if I could hold the cat for a moment.
“Why else would I be here for then? He said, as he handed the cat.
“Well, I don’t know you, so it’s not like I can answer that” I used my scarf to protect the cat from the cold. I felt the guy was gazing at me. Awkward, but I didn’t care much.
“Ichimatsu Matsuno,” he said out of the blue.
“What?”
“Ichimatsu. My name”.
“Oh, well… Nice to meet you, Matsuno-san. My name’s ______”. How strange of me, I don’t usually get attached to people that fast. Especially with someone I’ve just met.
“You know, you shouldn’t give your name to any weirdo. I could do anything with that info. I could even kidnap you if I wanted to…”
“Well, same goes for you, mister. And I don’t think a guy that has been taking care of a cat would be capable of doing such a thing. Also, by the way you’re dressed I guess you live near here…” Somehow, our chat had become more lively and friendly.
“Heh, so you can deduce all that? Interesting…”
“Well, kind of. Here” – I gave him the cat back- “I live over there,” I said as I pointed to my house, “If you live nearby you can return me the scarf some other day, well unless you want to keep it… Oh, right. You’ll need some sugar in your blood after being out in the cold” I said, as I took out some candies from my bag, even though I didn’t know how much time he had been there.
"Thanks. By the way...why are you doing this? I mean...helping m- the cat?"
I couldn’t find an answer, so the only thing that came from my mouth was “Why not?” I grabbed the plastic bags with the –now frozen- groceries, without noticing the faint smile I gave to him while waving goodbye. I kept on walking home.
Once I arrived, I left the bags in the kitchen and went straight into my room. By the time I was taking a bath, I realized that Matsuno-san had already caught my attention. Time flew by after that, so I just went to sleep after drinking some water.
When I woke up, I was already late for the train. I rushed to get dressed and grabbed my stuff as fast as I could, or else I’d miss morning class. At that moment, I remembered I had forgotten to finish my homework “YOU USELESS IDIOT! Okay, If I make it to class in time, I can grab a seat from the back and finish it before the teacher picks them up” I thought. I didn’t have any breakfast, as that would take a lot of time. I left home and run to the station as fast as I could. Luckily, I caught up the last train.
The only train left on the station was the one that had a route across Akihabara. Thankfully, it was the fastest one, but it was really cramped. “Just like what you’d expect in an anime”. I mean, the amount of people inside the train was surreal, and I was standing in front of the door. Beside me, was a guy wearing a green checkered shirt. He looked like Matsuno-san, so I called him without noticing.
“Matsuno…-san?” I asked shyly.
“Eh?” He turned his face to me, startled.
“It really is you! What a coincidence!”
“Excuse me, do I know you?”
“You don’t... remember me? – I could feel my face turning red- I’m the one who lend you a scarf yesterday…”
“Oh! You must’ve met one of my brothers. I’m Choromatsu Matsuno, nice to meet you.”
“Oh gosh… I’m so sorry! I didn’t know… By the way, I’m ______, nice to meet you too”.
“Don’t worry about it. We all look the same, so people often mistake one from the other”.
“How many of you are there?
“Actually, we're a sextuplet…” He said with an “I already know what your reaction’s gonna be” face.
“WOAAH, THAT’S AMAZING! I wish I could at least have one sibling!”
“Really? Actually I—“
** We have arrived to Shuuhei station. Doors will open in 30 seconds...**
“Ah… that’s my stop, gotta run to class, sorry!
“See ya later _______-san!”
I got off the train as fast as I could, and run with all my might to the university.
"HELL YEAH!" I shouted.
"Girl, what's up with you?" One of my friends asked, scared at my sudden shout.
"Can’t talk, doing homework."
"Did you stay up late again watching anime?"
"I was sent to buy food" I said while writing the essay I had to turn in.
"Okay class's starting. Everyone sit down" The teacher arrived at the same time I finished the homework, surely, I had been lucky that morning.
Because I didn’t have breakfast, I went to buy something from the cafeteria. Suddenly, I remembered something odd.
“Ah!” I shouted again.