Work Text:
The train rumbles along the tracks as Osaka slowly comes into view of the window. Sitting were two teenagers, Sky and Natalie. Quietly, and awkwardly, beside each other. Sky’s hand holds onto the handle on the seat, while Natalie stares at the window across her. As the awkward tension lingered, Sky finally spoke.
“Did you bring the.. uhm.. notepad?”
Natalie glanced over.
“..Yeah, Of course I did”,
Sky, looking at Natalie’s hand holding the notepad,
“Oh. Okay.”
Sky asked, “Can I see what’s on it?”,
Natalie passes her the notepad. The writing is neat, but uneven in spacing. Sky writes something..
Sky passes it back to Natalie, thanking her, she nodded before looking at the window again. Nat didn’t look at the notepad yet. Sky then confidently says at Nat as the train approached the station,
“You like what I wrote?”
“Oh my god.”
The train stops.
“I’m leaving you behind”
“WHUH- NAT YOU CAN’T DO THAT?”
The doors of the train slide open, they step into the platform, and immediately see businessmen and people hurrying past them, while another Hankyu train sits on a neighboring platform.
A station announcement echoes across the platform,
「まもなく、たからづかほうめんゆきのでんしゃがまいります。」
Sky looks for a sign on the ceiling pointing to the ticket gates, taps Natalie’s shoulder, and begins to walk through the crowd as they walk towards the ticket gates. When they arrive, they line up behind other people and hold their tickets in their pockets, ready to take it out when it’s their turn. After a while, Sky slides her ticket into the gate, immediately, the gate barrier opens, and the ticket pops back out. She steps through before stopping to wait for Natalie. Natalie, however, inserts the ticket, but when she walks past the barrier, she forgets to grab her ticket. Sky quickly stops her, saying,
“Nat.”
“What?”
“Your ticket.”
She freezes.
“Oh.”
“..Dude.”
Natalie sighs in embarrassment, then awkwardly turns around, walks backward, grabs the ticket, and speedwalks back to Sky. They step out of the train station, and begin walking around as Natalie looks down at her notepad. Sky glances over.
“Soo.. shoes.”
“..? Yeah, shoes. Where do we get them”
“Well there’s Nike, Adidas, Converse-“
“I meant.. one brand”
“Oh thanks alot dipshit, I don’t know?”
“Ok, ok. no need for the language Sky, seriously tho, what MARKET do we go to..”
“.. Mizuno?”
Awkward silence..
“Well- I mean.. Yeah, but what about indoor shoes?”
“Right.. right..”
“..Nat.”
“Hm?”
“I just forgot the most HELPFUL market for this.”
Natalie scoffed..
“What?”
“ABC-MART”
“SKY.”
“I LITERALLY FORGOT THAT WAS A THING”
“OH MY GOSH..”
They burst into laughter as they walk, people passing by think what is happening with them.
As they walk to a nearby ABC-MART, they talk about some random stupid thing that their friend Jack did when they met up a few weeks ago.
“He barely grabbed on the branch..”
“REALLY??”
“YEAH, AND HE WAS REPEATING THE FACT HES GONNA DO IT, LIKE AT THAT POINT PEOPLE JUST TOLD HIM TO GO”
“OH MY GODD-“
“HE FINALLY GOT ON THE BRANCH, AND THE BRANCH JUST BEGAN BREAKING”
“O-oh”
“YEAH IT WAS.. WILD!!”
“..He’s so reckless..”
“I KNOW??”
“It”s FUNNY though so i-Its fine!”
They walk inside ABC-MART, and begin looking around for a good shoe brand, or just a good shoe in general. Sky finds a Converse All Star, and tries it out, as Nat continues wandering around. She finds Mizuno white shoes, and while trying it out, Sky says the shoes are ass. Nat has no comment. Either way, they ask the employee, where standard uwabakis are in the store. They pick out their uwabakis, pay for the shoes, and leave the store. Sky holds the bag.
“ ‘Kay..”
Nat crosses out indoor school shoes, and outdoor shoes.
“Notebooks and.. pens. Right?”
“Prretty much, yea-“
“You want me to make sure it isn’t small again?”
”..Sky…”
”Just looking out for you ;3”
They begin to look around for a bookstore, which they get jumpscared by a Nissan Skyline roaring past them in the streets.
“Jesus..”
A narrow storefront across the street named, “Tanaka Shoten” is spotted by them. They are immediately interested, and begin to walk there.
Moments later, they open the door and hear a little bell ring right when they do. 「あ、いらっしゃいませ！」the old shopkeeper says, when Sky and Nat enter the bookstore. They greet in return, and begin to look for an aisle for notebooks and pens. They get a basket to put the notebooks and pens. However.. They pass by an aisle full on mangas, and magazines.
“..Nat..”
”..uhm..”
”Do you think our parents would let us..?”
“..I-.. I don’t know”
Sky and Nat go slient as a radio quietly plays in the background.
”..Fuck it, why not.”
”Wait what?”
Sky grabs two mangas, and drops it into the basket. Nat follows. They continue to look for the notebooks and pens. And they do anyway.. So why am I saying this? I don’t know.
“Ooh! Ooh! Sky look at this pen..”
”It’s just a pen”
”Yeah, but it looks so cute and detailed!”
Sky grabs a normal pen.
“Look Nat, I love cute things but like.. for pens, it’s just ridiculous to me..”
”get it if you want though”
”YAY!!! Thank you!!!”
”Mhm.”
Sky grabs the notebooks and a couple of more pens, just incase.
“We done here?”
”No, wait I’m still searching for more cute pens”
”..imagine if we had cellphones”
”I do actually, my PHS!”
”can i have it”
”Sure!”
Natalie hands Sky the PHS and she dials.. Katie. Katie answers the phone.
”Hey Nat! What’s up?”
”It’s Sky”
”..Oh hi Sky!”
”Yo, so… Nat’s buying pens right now”
”I mean.. yeah School is tomorro-“
”No, I mean this rabbit is taking time to search for cute ones”
”..Give the telephone to Nat”
”Ookay”
Sky hands the cellphone back to Nat. As she waits, Katie talks to Nat about the cute pens. She can’t hear it though, only Nat responding. Nat ends the call, and tells Sky she’s ready, without any cute pens in her hand.
(Jesus what did Katie tell you?)
”Kay, lets go pay”
It’s ¥3,200. Which is $27. (I’m not letting you mfs search up the conversion) Not bad, they leave the store, and thank the cashier.
“So, do we.. go home?”
”..See Nat, I would but, we still have a pretty big budget!”
”Ooh.. yeah…”
”Oh really quick, cross out notebooks and pens”
“Ok!”
She unboxes the cute pen in the bag, and crosses it out.
”..Nat are we fucking serious”
“What?”
Sky sighs, and tries to change the topic.
”..Wondernat”
”Hm?”
”You wrote it on the left page.. That your nickname?”
”Oh! Yeah yeah, I love it. I don’t know what to use it for though..”
“..The world wide web?”
”Mm, that works. What would you do?”
”Oh, uhh.. Probably Skykirby cause I love kirby.. Or some random ass name like Soybean”
”Soybean sounds good!”
”I guess”
They begin to wander around, looking for a store to spend the rest of the budget on. They see a CD store down the street, and decide to go inside. They are immediately met with Lily Chou-Chou music in the background. Sky likes it. Nat thinks its.. good but not her taste. Either way, Sky goes to the back of the store, and finds an obscure CD from a shoegaze band, she grabs it, brings it to a little kiosk, and puts it into the player to give it a listen.
She zones out in the song. As the sun hits, she becomes slowly immersed in the song. She feels so…
Meanwhile, Nat is playing j-pop music, she sees Sky listening to a CD, and decides to go up to her.
She taps her shoulder. Sky immediately gets surprised and takes off the wired headphones.
“U-uhm.. What’s up Nat? You.. you need something?”
”..What are you listening to?”
”It’s.. you won’t like it”
”..Let me listen pleeeease”
”No”
”Pleaseee”
”Nat, no”
”Fine”
”Can you pay for this J-Pop CD I found though”
”You didn’t even listen to it??”
”oh yeah”
”Nat.”
“My bad, my bad”
Nat plays the CD, and puts the wired headphones on.
They listen to their music for a good while.
“Okay, I’m done”
”Soo Sky, you gonna buy it?”
”Of course I will??”
”Liar”
”nat im not those kind of teenagers”
”You’re gonna steal it!!!”
”no”
”Im buying it”
”No you wont”
”NAT-“
Moments later, they walk out the store with one CD for Sky, and multiple for Natalie..
“..nat”
”What?”
”I bought one CD.”
”Ok?”
”One.”
”I’m just into j-pop whats wrong?”
”Oh, I don’t know.. you bought PLENTY??”
”NOO???”
Sky stares at her
”Nat”
”Next time we hangout, you better make sure Dani pays you, cause at this point we might just buy a PlayStation”
”Ok ok, ill be careful..”
”You sure?”
”No promises.”
“I-“
Sky sighs
”How about we waste our money on a konbini.” (convenience store)
”Oh, yeah I really want a magazine from there, as we eat. Because like, it took takes ti-“
”Are you gonna use it again?”
”..No?”
”then kiss that dream goodbye! :-)”
”..wow.”
Funnily enough, there’s a literal Lawson next door. So they just walk inside a minute later. Sky and Nat grab a basket, and begin browsing the store for lunch. Sky finds an onigiri, and Ramune. Nat finds a random chip brand, and a snack, and another, and Ramune. Oh, and desert. Way to go Natalie! As they continue browsing, Nat passes through the magazine aisle and turns around. Sky grabs her cardigan and tells her to
“Not buy it, I swear to god Natalie”
”Dang SKYLIE ok”
”Call me Sky bitch, not that.”
“Well you used my whole name so, we’re even!”
”でたらめ。。”
”ふざけんな”
After.. whatever just happened, they checkout, and find a place somewhere to eat.
“I’m so glad, Jack, Katie, Dani, and others are in the same school as us”
”Yeah I know, if it was just us going in blind at that high school, we’d be fucked”
“I’d just be glad it’s near the city, its nearby the river and all, so you can see the beautiful streets if you walk a little”
”Yeah that makes sense..”
Sky takes a bite of her onigiri
”Do you think we can go see it really quick?”
”Dotonbori?”
”Yea”
”Nah I doubt it, my dads in the city right now, if he finds us not near Umeda, it wouldn’t be pleasant Sky”
“Right, maybe we can check it out this weekend.. Anyway do you.. think we should head back to Ibaraki now?”
”.. Yeah sure! I mean, I think we got all we need for school”
”Fuck yeah lets go home”
They pick up the bags
Sky calls her parents through a payphone, and reassures them that they are fine, and are on their way home right now. After that phone call, they began walking their way back to Umeda Station, then wait for a train to Ibaraki. Sky gets bored from this, while Nat fiddles with the pens she bought. They both forgot they have manga in the bags.
The train arrives, they go inside the railroad car. As the train departs, Sky slowly falls asleep. Nat on the other hand, gets the PHS out of her pocket, and begins talking to Katie. The conversation is inaudible.
“Sky, sky”
“..”
”SKY!”
”Huh.. Wh- what?”
”We’re here”
”..Where?”
”Ibaraki you idiot, c’mon!”
”OH SHIT, yeah of course I knew!”
”No you don’t”
”Well I just woke up, so cut some slack dude”
“You didn’t cut me anything at Osaka, anyway help me get these bags.. please?”
”I feel kinda.. weak tho..”
”Sky..”
”Ill.. Uhh..”
”Fine.. fine”
”Thank you Nat.”
They get off the train as Nat carries most of the bags.. while Sky carries one. They begin walking back home.
“Nat”
”Hm?”
”Do you.. think we should..”
”crap i forgot, oh wait no”
”should.. rearrange the shit in those bags, to who belongs to whom?”
”..Great idea actually”
They look for a bench to sit on, and begin.. rearranging.. oh fuck
”This one’s yours”
”No, that’s not mine?”
”.. Nat you bought the cute pens.”
”Well.. You did too!!”
”no i didnt”
”Ok, fine whatever..”
“Oh shit, the manga”
”MANGA??”
”I forgot we had em..”
”.. Ok well this ones mine”
”finally you decided”
”..”
After that mess, they repack everything. But Sky sits there for a minute zoned out, since she slept on the train.
”..Sky.. I should.. go now”
”Hm? Oh yeah, you go yeah”
”Alright, Bye Sky!!”
Sky waves as Nat fades away.
“..I’m never shopping with her again..”