Chapter Text
A car went by outside, with the sirens on.
It’d been nearby. The rotating beacon shot its light on the colorful glass. Whether an ambulance or a police car, no good thing could come out of it. Not that she was going to meddle. There was no way to. Or was there?
“I owe you this one,” Shimeko said in passing. “I don’t even know how to thank you.”
“No biggie.” Lucy stopped drying a dish. She waved back. “I’ll be home soon.”
Clumsily running, Shimeko left without locking the entrance. Poor her. She had scheduled the wrong time for a delivery… and skipped mentioning what it was. Right on her day to close.
It could be Lucy at home to get the package, but it was okay. Their habit of taking turns was more informal than anything. They could trade it for another day, when her legs were killing her, and they’d be even.
Shimeko was a great roommate. Better than what Lucy could’ve asked for, and right on the first try. People were difficult. A lot could go wrong. Yet, it didn’t. Both cleaned enough, knew what earphones were, and slept at insane hours.
The only habit to frown upon was gossip. Not even about coworkers. There weren’t enough targets. Apart from the two of them, only the manager and his wife. It was about customers’ lives, about which Shimeko knew a lot. “They talk near me, and I listen. It’s not my fault,” she used to say, just to never use that intel for anything.
Dishes to the cabinet, cups to the drying rack. Espresso machines? Clean. Trash to the trash can, and washing her hands. Did they run out of some product? She opened the fridge. Doesn’t seem so.
Lucy took off her apron. Changing clothes and hairdo, then. She entered the dressing room.
A few months prior, she’d gotten fed up with her hair length. Salons with expertise on “foreigner’s hair” were pricey. Even if there are “foreigners” everywhere. She’d cut it at home, retaining it one palm below her shoulder. It still looked good in elaborate buns, and there were countless tutorials to try out.
Lucy returned to the deserted café. Her turtleneck sweater and sweatpants were like a hug at the end of the shift. It was dark outside. The sign at the entrance had the “open” side turned to her. Shimeko turned the “closed” one out. Great.
And the door opened. Then, it should be Shimeko herself.
Huh?
“Excuse me,” Kyouka said.
What’s wrong, I wonder? “Come in. I’ve stored everything already, though…”
“It’s okay.”
She knows what the closing times are. It might not be a mistake. “Did you forget something? I can check the lost and found for you.”
“No, actually.” Kyouka glanced at the darkened outside. “Do you have a moment?”
“Sure.”
She wants to talk, came alone, and knows I am, too. It’s either bad news, or something wild. She doubted the latter. The calculated steps, the precise gestures, even the slightly vacant gaze. It was the same old Kyouka, or the best impersonator ever.
“There’s no easy way, so…” Kyouka sighed. “There’s something I want to tell you.”
“…Go ahead.”
Lucy stopped herself from laughing. Are you confessing to me?
“I’ve liked Atsushi for a while.” Kyouka looked back at her. “And that’s your business.”
Yeah, it is.
“I’m telling him on Christmas, this year,” Kyouka said, “in one month and a half or so. I wanted you to—”
“Telling him”?
“What?” Lucy let out.
“Hm?”
The street was even quieter.
“So he doesn’t know?” Lucy asked.
“No.”
“Aren’t you two dating?”
“…No.”
“Seriously?” That laugh was almost breaking free. “You’re kidding, right?”
Where are the cameras for this prank?
“We have nothing going on. Never had.” Kyouka blinked twice. Her face was even blanker than usual. “You two don’t have anything going on either, it seems.”
“No. We do not.”
“Ah,” Kyouka said. My mind feels like a ball of yarn. “It worked.”
Lucy giggled nervously. “What worked?”
“I didn’t know.” Kyouka hugged herself by the elbows. “I said that to check your reaction.”
Detectives and their plans.
“If you’d arrived first, I wouldn’t get in the way.” Kyouka shrugged. “I had no clue.”
“Can we have this conversation over there?” Lucy pointed at a table. “Be right back.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll get something to drink.”
“Uh… there’s no need to. I haven’t gotten paid yet.”
“No one has to know. One moment.”
Lucy went behind the counter. Which drink gets the fewest things dirty? She stared at the cabinet, and it wouldn’t respond. What was I thinking? Is there talking porcelain now? Melon soda it is.
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Kyouka said.
“Absolutely. Can I skip the ice cream?”
“Yeah…”
Syrup first, sparkling water next, in a glass with lots of ice. It’s been years I’m living here, and it’s still a shock. It looks radioactive.
“No need for a cherry, either,” Kyouka said.
“Too late.” Lucy opened the fridge. “Where’s the jar…? I swear it was here.”
In a searching moment, it occurred to her. It could’ve been infinitely worse.
It was true; those two looked good together. They even lived together. Sooner or later, it would come up.
“Can’t you find it?” Kyouka said.
Quietly, Lucy spotted the jar by the door.
Ignoring the tray, she took the glasses to the table. Sitting down was more than welcome for her feet.
Lucy sighed, and her back was adjusting to the back of the chair. “I forgot the straws…”
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have come when it’s closed.”
“No, no. I should’ve…”
Shot my shot with him earlier?
“Are you feeling well?” Kyouka asked.
“Sorry?”
“I thought I’d seen you shaking.”
Lucy stared back. It lasted till she set her cold hands on the table. “It’s just… a lot to take in,” she pushed it out. “I didn’t see that coming.”
Is that good or bad? I don’t know. I’m on the edge of forgetting my name.
“Me neither.” Kyouka grinned. She held the glass with her fingertips. “I was ready to go home crying.”
And having to pretend nothing happened.
“If he asked me, I don’t even know what I’d say.” Kyouka looked out the glass panels. “Coming here was an entire thing.”
“A ‘thing’?”
“I had to have this talk alone, and had to do something.”
Again, she had a plan. What a habit. “Can I ask what that something is?”
“I asked Kunikida-san to give me more work. Anything. Even separating trash. So I’d stay a little longer.” Kyouka drank her soda. “Also…”
“Also?”
“I set something up in the morning. I used the flat iron on my hair and left the plug in the socket.”
“And left it on…?” Did you risk setting the apartment on fire for this?
“Off. I told Atsushi I wasn’t sure, tho. He panicked, but went home to check.”
“Let me guess,” Lucy said. “He was like, ‘it’s okay, it’s not your fault, you just made a mistake, these things happen to everyone’…”
“Pretty much.” Kyouka stopped herself from a giggle. “And ‘it’d be dangerous if it were on, and we ignored it’.”
“I’ve heard that in his voice.”
“It was a text, and even I did.” Kyouka pinched the cherry by the stem and ate it. “He believed it. Didn’t even think twice.”
Indeed, he’s very gullible. Lucy found herself grinning back.
Why don’t I hate you?
Wasn’t it supposed to be like that? In theory, yes. All stories like that shared that point. There she was, being polite, offering a free drink.
Why have I never hated you?
“I don’t hate you, on the contrary” doesn’t cut it. Neither did friendship. They had agreed in one-off moments. Most of the time, poking fun at the same target.
“Does someone know we’re here?” Lucy asked.
“Only if you tell them. I’m not saying anything.”
“Not even Kunikida-san?”
“I didn’t tell him why I wanted more work. If he figured it out on his own, I can’t say.”
“Perhaps.” Lucy drank the first sip of her soda. “He’s married, after all.”
“It’s been months.” Kyouka twisted her nose. “How time flies.”
It does. That was earlier this year.
“I mean. Perhaps, he picked it up,” Kyouka continued. “I didn’t name names, but I kind of texted him about it.”
“How did it go?”
“Ah… Well.” Kyouka drank more. “He said something along the lines of ‘not even I know how I ended up married’.”
“And who the partner is.”
“That’s evil.” Kyouka hid a grin with her hand and looked away. Atsushi has the same quirk. “I’ll give him credit, tho. He helped a little.”
“What did he tell you?”
“It’s easier if you read it yourself.”
Kyouka handed her phone with the messaging app open. It’d been a while it wasn’t her old flip model, her parents’ memento.
Kunikida:
If I have useful advice, it’s something I’d like to have told myself.
Things can go amiss, and frequently will. It’s not the end of the world.
That isn’t hard to understand. But it’s hard to make yourself understand.
Life goes on after you make a mistake, and you’re going to recover.
Using myself as an example. I can’t see myself with someone else.
You:
(giggling sticker)
Seriously?
Kunikida:
Yeah.
It would bring nothing positive.
It’d be dreaming of a life that isn’t mine.
It’s unfair to him, and unfair to myself.
I wouldn’t like him to dream of a life that isn’t his, either.
It’s not what I’d like to offer. We committed to make one another happy.
You:
You two get along so well…
Kunikida:
As well as possible.
(shrugging sticker)
The thing is, there is no life without problems.
I had things to complain about even when single.
Or mainly at that time. lol
Does that help?
You:
Yes, kind of!
Thanks.
(grateful sticker)
It went amiss. That’s for sure. Lucy gave the phone back. I could never have plans for some things.
People joke about it. How I act around him and such. I never told anyone. I’m not ashamed. But… It has to stay as is.
Or else, I’ll ruin everything.
Kyouka swung her glass a little and drank. “Kunikida-san is right.”
About what?
Kyouka stared back in doubt. “What’s wrong?”
“Ah,” Lucy stuttered. I thought that much and said nothing. “My bad. It’s that thing.”
“Thing?”
“Like. ‘Hey, Merry, why that face? You’re silently talking to yourself’ or something.”
“It sure looks.” Kyouka went back to her blank expression. She thinks it’s funny. “Why don’t you just… talk?”
“People are gonna think I’m crazy.”
“Everyone talks to themselves. It’s normal.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Of course it is.” Kyouka tilted her head to the side. “Isn’t it normal abroad?”
“I don’t think so.” I guess…? “Well, anyway. Isn’t it late?”
“Likely.” Kyouka waved a dismissing hand. “The danger should be scared of me.”
That’s right. “I’ve been followed on the street here. I got inside Anne’s room and played on my phone.”
“Robber or stalker?”
“No idea. Stalker, methinks. Some are nuts about foreigners.”
“If I walk alone, it happens all the time. Losing them is the easiest thing.” Kyouka drank more. “Bunch of amateurs.”
Well-trained one. I doubt people can tell. She didn’t grow up a lot, from what I remember. “Has the rest of the office gone home?”
“Most of them. I’m not in a rush. Nothing to do today.” Yeah, same. Kyouka put her face on her hand, and her elbow on the table. “At least, nothing I want to.”
“Too much work these days?”
“It’s been worse. The most difficult case was the one we called you.”
“Last month, then.” A masquerade ball, smuggling… I snuck the entire Agency in. “That was one hefty payment.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
“Is it lame if I steal your quote?”
Kyouka laughed too. “There has been talk of hiring you.”
“Serious talk or not very?”
“I’m not sure. It was more than once.”
“I don’t know if I’d accept it.”
“Hm… Yeah, I get that.” Kyouka looked outside. There was little to be seen, even with the lampposts on. “It isn’t always a piece of cake, but… Is there someone who feels like working every day?”
…I think my face says it all.
“That’s because it’s work.” Kyouka drank the rest of the soda. “The nature of the beast.”
I’d better do a bottoms up, then. Or else, it gets warm. Lucy chugged it, too, and left it on the table. What an odd moment.
“I won’t hold you back any longer.” Kyouka stood up. “I don’t mean to be more of a nuisance.”
Someone’s waiting for you, after all.
“Can you wait for me to wash this?” Lucy stood up. “Otherwise, it piles up for tomorrow.”
Lucy turned around the counter. Complaining or not, they needed clean dishware. Glass was the easiest type. Two cups, used only once. A task for the sponge, not the dishwasher.
Kyouka typed on a conversation in the meantime. Even from afar, the profile picture gave it in. You two work together. You share your entire life with him. You sleep and wake up beside him, every single day. It sounds good when I put it like that.
How can you survive it?
“Would you like company to the station?” Lucy asked.
“It’s up to you. I’ve said it already. Danger and such.”
“What if we catch someone red-handed on the way?”
“Or just because we’re going the same way.” Kyouka grinned. “Do you have my number?”
“I’m not sure.” Why? “The one in the group chat? From last month.”
“I have two. It’s an Agency thing. Clients don’t get our personal numbers.”
Kyouka tapped on her phone with all concentration. Lucy’s phone vibrated.
“I texted you from the other one.” Kyouka locked her screen. “Save it when you can.”
You don’t hate me. Lucy wasted a moment. Then, she nodded.
It’s fine by me, I think.