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Ninomiya will only let himself die of one thing while being stuck in this hellhole: boredom.
It's not like he plans to kill anyone. In fact, he'd somehow do the opposite as a means of rebelling against those who brought him here. So, until someone from this group can find a door, he must find ways to pass the time. And, well… he hasn't been successful so far.
No phone, no weed, and he isn't allowed to leave the damn building. He wasn't able to get the television in the rec room to turn on, either, so that's another time-passer gone. Whoever kidnapped him provided him with a violin and some other composition-related items, but it's already difficult to feel inspired on his own, let alone in a place like this. So right now, he simply lays in his uncomfortable bed, staring at his room's dull and barren ceiling, waiting for something to happen.
And surprisingly, something does happen.
Ninomiya hears knocking coming from outside his bedroom door. He hesitates to even acknowledge it at first, considering he could be welcomed by someone holding up one of those knives from the kitchen or something. But, on the other hand, it may be someone coming to tell him that an exit's been found and he can go home. So, he takes the gamble and slides out of bed.
Luckily, the person behind the door wasn't trying to murder him. In fact, he opens it to see Ruka, the girl that he explored the building with the day before.
"Oh, Ruka," he greets the girl. "'Sup?"
He takes all of his thoughts back when he sees the words "300-piece jigsaw puzzle" on a box tucked under her arm.
Fuck. Should he have expected this after seeing her reaction in the rec room? The way she practically forgot about everything else upon seeing one?
"Ninomiiiiya~" She practically sings his name. "Wouldn't you love to do this puzzle with me?"
"Rukaaaaaaa," he groans exceptionally loud. "I told you yesterday, I'm shit at puzzles. Was no one else you asked interested or something?"
"Well, I didn't ask anyone else." She replies. "I was just going to take this one to my room, but then I realized you haven't left your room all day, and I won't let anyone become a shut-in while we're trapped here, so I thought it'd be worth a shot."
He's interrupted before he can come up with something to introject with.
"..and I do want to hang out with you some more, honestly. Yesterday, I was... well… terrified. And today isn't any less scary, but somehow, you were able to make me laugh and forget about how awful this situation is, even for just a little while. More than once, too! So, I thought working on something together like this could help us become proper friends."
Damn. She's already got him. But is the activity choice really necessary?
"…We cooould just hang out without the puzzle, y'know." Ninomiya suggests to her.
"But puzzles are fun!" Ruka exclaims. "C'mooon, I chose the easiest-looking one. I'll even show you some tricks that'll help improve your skills for the next time you're begged to do one?"
Well, whatever, what else was he going to do? Stare at the ceiling some more? This was his chance to get rid of his mind-numbing boredom. Plus, seeing how much she gets excited over small shit like this makes it hard for him to say no. And truth be told, the feeling from that little monologue of hers might have been mutual.
"Alright, yeah, fine."
"Hooray!" Ruka squeals, her legs bouncing up and down; it closely resembles a jump, but she never leaves the ground. There's a split second where Ninomiya thinks it's lowkey kind of endearing in a lame way, but he shoots that thought down immediately before it can develop further.
It doesn't take long for Ninomiya to grab his essentials: water, a hair tie, and some candy he stole from the kitchen for sugar in-take. In mere moments, he enters the hallway with the girl who has invited him out. Now, they must scout a location for their endeavor.
"Where do you wanna set up shop?" Ninomiya asks her.
She hums, taking a moment to think. "Well, we don't necessarily need a large surface, 300-piece puzzles aren't all that big…" She puts a hand to her chin. "Maybe the cafeteria? There's a lot of tables in there, so we won't have to worry about the room being entirely unavailable."
"Fine with me." Youhei replies. Much safer choice than something like the calm room, he thinks. A door that only locks from the outside? Seriously? Fuckin' creepy. "Lead the way."
Fortunately, the two of them don't have to walk too far, since Ninomiya's room is conveniently nearby their destination.
There are no clocks to be found within this place's confines, but he assumes it must be some time between lunch and dinner, which makes sense considering the cafeteria is completely unoccupied. And because of that, there's a distant voice in his head telling him to stay guarded, to look for any signs that she could be setting the scene for his murder, but it quickly becomes clear that she has zero plans to do any of that once they settle at a table.
Ruka kicks things off by setting aside the puzzle box's cover, raising the bottom half over her head and dumping all 300 pieces onto the table's surface. She groans, stretching her arms up in preparation, and then sighs in content.
"Alrighty, if you see any edge or corner pieces, leave them out. You can put the corners over here," she gestures to a vacant spot on the table. "Any middle pieces can go back in the box for now."
Ninomiya scoffs. "This puzzle shit gets serious, huh?" He teases, sliding a small pile of pieces towards him to begin sorting.
"It's very serious!" She replies, putting on an impersonation of a strict old man. "It's important to work as efficiently as possible when doing this sort of labor, ya know."
For what it's worth, Ninomiya's glad he's doing an activity he's not too fond of with someone like her. He plays along with the bit.
"Of course, boss. I won't disappoint you."
"I expect nothing less, Mr. Ninomiya!"
The two sort their pieces in silence for a few minutes before Ninomiya realizes he didn't actually get a good look at what they'll be making. He looks up from his pile to perceive what's supposed to be the final product; conveniently, Ruka propped up the cover to make this easier. The picture itself is of a green hummingbird, and the floral background is as vibrant as it is varied; the patches of flowers are easily identifiable from one another, though he wouldn't be able to name any himself.
"Whatcha staring at?" Ruka asks. Her eyes are still fixated on separating her pile of pieces.
"Oh, I didn't see what we're actually making, so I was just looking at the image on the box," he responds.
She nods in acknowledgment. "There weren't too many options to choose from, but this one seemed the easiest out of the 300 ones. This one has lots of diverse areas, so it's less difficult for self-proclaimed 'bad-at-puzzles' people like you to recognize the patterns."
"Nah, you're just a nerd." The boy retorts with a smile.
"Shut up!" Ruka laughs. It's a nice sound, he thinks to himself.
After a moment, he continues, his eyes drifting to his hands once again. "Well, I wasn't lying. They take a long ass time, and then I get confused and I give up because I get bored. My brain isn't built for mind games or anything like that."
"So what you're telling me is that you're impatient." Ruka teases.
Ninomiya chuckles. "Not gonna lie, yeah. Big time."
Before he can continue his train of thought, he finds a piece with what looks like a straight edge, but the length might be too short to fit the botder. "Do you think this is an edge piece?" He holds it up for the girl to see. Upon inquiry, he notices that all the pieces Ruka had in front of her vanished. Damn, he moves slow as hell.
She inspects the piece closely for a moment. "Hmm, it might be an inside one, but there's no harm in leaving it out for now." Her eyes trail down to the space in front of his table. "Oh! You're done, too!"
His eyes follow suit. She's correct. Somehow, he got too wrapped up in the previous conversation they had to notice.
"Oh, that happened fast." He states.
Ruka smirks in response. "Time flies when you're having funnn~"
"Keep telling yourself that" is what comes out of his mouth, but he can't help but sport a grin at his very obvious bluff. Admittedly, he finds that he is enjoying himself. Maybe he doesn't hate puzzles as much as he thought he did. Or maybe it's because…
The girl in front of rubs her hands together like some sort of supervillain. "Now begins the fun part."
He takes it all back immediately.
It takes several minutes to piece together the puzzle's border—the extra time accosts to Ninomiya continuously asking questions about whether this piece fits here or if that piece should go over there. He may be learning, but he's certainly no pro yet.
Once they finish, Ruka finally grabs the box that contains all of the pieces they both abandoned not too long ago.
"Okay, time for the nitty-gritty. Listen to what I say, okay?"
Ninomiya brings his hands together in a praying pose. "Oh, dear Puzzle Master, please do share more of your puzzle wisdom with me, I feel so enlightened right now!"
"Oh, stop it!" Ruka laughs. She lightly jiggles the box and places it gently between the two of them.
"So for this, what I like to do is take pieces out and sort them by section." She sticks her hand into the pool of pieces and grabs a random one to demonstrate. "See how this one has a section of the bird in it? We can place this in a collection of all the other pieces that make up the bird. And same with the flowers, and the grass… you get the jist!"
Ninomiya playfully rolls his eyes. "Wow. Even more sorting. Great."
"I promise this is much faster than trying to randomly place pieces wherever!" Ruka assures. "The process is just as important as the results."
Ninomiya swears he can hear a sense of pride in her voice.
"Nah, fuck that shit," he rebutes, quickly contradicting himself by digging his hand into the box. "Give me that instant gratification."
"But where's the joy in that?" Ruka questions, following suit.
"In the results, duh."
"You really are impatient," she scolds, nodding to herself. "I suppose I have a lot more to teach you than just jigsaw puzzle techniques."
"Oh, really? What kind of techniques will you teach me next, Puzzle Master? Crosswords? Rubik's cubes? The numbers one?"
"There's many kinds of puzzles with numbers, silly." She smiles. "But no—the art of appreciating the journey and not just the destination, for starters, cause that's what you seem to need the most."
"And what if I don't show up to your lessons, Master? What will you do?"
"Then I'll just knock on your door again. You… well… can't really go anywhere else, anyway." She trails off.
The vibe takes a drastic turn once the elephant in the room is addressed; considering their circumstances, the topic was overdue, anyway. Regardless, Ruka's demeanor seems to change in an instant. She stops moving her hands, causing Ninomiya to peer up at her. Her face is full of gloom, and her eyes are unable to meet his.
"Are you… actually having fun?" Ruka asks.
Ninomiya furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Uh, yeah?"
"And you're not just staying here because you're pitying me or something? Because I… I said I was scared?"
"Ruka, chill." Ninomiya reassures her. "If I didn't want to be here, trust me, I wouldn't."
"Right…" She mutters, seemingly contemplating his words for a moment. A moment later, she clears her throat.
"Sorry. I don't know what's up with me." She wiggles her arms around, like she was attempting to rid the sorrow from her body. "Hoo, alright. Let's lock in again."
Ninomiya isn't entirely sure of what to say once she resumes working. This seems to be a habit of hers; pretending she's feeling alright when she's not. He's never been good at handling vulnerable situations in the first place, let alone for someone he's only met yesterday, but the answers she seemed to be expecting weren't the truth at all. If he can't make her believe that the time they're having together is genuine, then perhaps he can compromise with her instead.
"Y'know, I'm really into punk rock."
Ruka haults. "Huh?"
"And I make my own music. Conveniently, my room for some fuckin' reason has a stereo. Later this evening, come to my room and I'll make you listen to some of my favorite records. Maybe I can even whip out the violin they've provided me too. That way, we'll be even."
She blinks, seeming to comprehend his words for a moment. Then, that signature smile creeps on her face again. "Yeah… yeah! Sure. That sounds like fun, actually."
Ninomiya reflects a similar expression. "Cool."
That smile on her face quickly turns into a sneer as she snickers. Oh no.
"Didn't know you were also a nerd."
"The hell? I'm not a nerd."
"You so are!" She points directly at her target. "A music nerd… one of the most pretentious types!"
Thankfully, she's back to her usually energetic self again, so Ninomiya can't really complain. But, he will fight back about being called a nerd.
"You don't have much room to talk."
"So you won't deny it?"
Or not.
"Jesus Christ." He exhales.
The two continue their playful banter as they work on piecing together the art of the hummingbird and surrounding flowers, watching it go from organized stacks of randomized fragments to a completed composition. Ruka claps her hands together after placing the final piece.
"Wow, isn't it pretty?" She asks, relishing in the finished product.
"It's pretty nice, actually." Ninomiya responds, crossing his arms. "Didn't take as long as I thought it would, either."
"Well, these ones don't take too much time. Plus, you had an expert here to help you out." She boasts.
Ninomiya playfully rolls his eyes. "The most qualified one there is, I'm sure."
"D'aww, you think too highly of me."
Ninomiya has already learned a lot today, but he still has one final question for his master.
"So, what do we do now?" He puts his hands in his denim pockets. "Should we just… break it?"
"No!" Ruka declares, perhaps a little too loudly; she covers her mouth, clearly unprepared for her voice's volume. "Sorry, uh, yeah, not yet. We just spent so much time on it! But we can once we get used to looking at it."
"What about the others?" Ninomiya questions. "We can't really move it, so it kind of has to stay here. What if it occupies too much space or whatever?"
"Then, everyone will just have to tolerate it!" She proudly beams.
Yeah, this Ruka is the best version of Ruka, he thinks to himself.
Ninomiya smirks at her response. "I like your spirit, Puzzle Master. Maybe I won't skip out on your lessons after all."
"Perhaps yo-"
Her words are interrupted by a loud grumbling noise.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, that is actually so embarrassing. Goddammit."
Ninomiya can't help but burst into full-on laughter. Soon enough, Ruka follows suit.
After they calm down, Ninomiya gestures to the kitchen area. "C'mon, let's grab food while we're here."
"Right!"
Ninomiya is satisfied. Sure, his opinions on puzzles themselves hasn't changed that much, but he's discovered new light in the darkness of his situation… a friend. A proper friend. One that can make something as boring and difficult as a puzzle into an appealing activity.
Maybe these days don't need to be so boring after all.