Meeting An Old Friend by Darach Naver

"So this is the world famous Hinata " I say as I get off the bus. My name is Darach Naver; I'm 17 years old and I currently go to Yagami High School as a sophomore student. Today I'm going to meet up with an old friend of mine. Since it's the weekend, I am deciding whether rent an apartment in the Hinata Apartments.

The Hinata Apartments is a place where it's both scenic and peaceful. It is situated between Yagami (which is obviously where I go to school) and the city of Tokyo. He told me that he went here for some time to think and hence I decided to join him for the day.

As I walk past this bridge, I see this group of monks just standing in the fog, talking to themselves. "A newcomer?" A group of monks say as I walk towards the Hinata Apartments.

I have to admit that this place has a nostalgic feel to it. It's more quiet and more serene than Tokyo, but not as scenic or lively. I look at my map of Hinata and it says here that if I keep moving forward and I turn left in the Hinata Restaurant, then I will reach a staircase… and up there lies the Hinata Apartments.

I do exactly that and as I walk upon this staircase I see someone hanging up some clothes. She has blue hair and she looks of the age of 25, she looks a little bit to young to be a 25 year old though.

I reach the top and see a man sweeping the ground. "Uhh… excuse me but may I speak to the manager?" I ask the man. The man was wearing an old-fashion glasses and a green shirt.

The man looks at me and smiles happily. "Well you're speaking to him," he says joyfully. From the looks of it, he looks like he's about 31 years old.

"Oh! Ok then… excuse me but is there a Mr. Kenji Harima booked in any of the apartments," I say nervously.

"Follow me then" the manager says as we walk inside.

"So, is this your first time visiting Hinata Apartments?" he asks me as he walks behind the front desk.

"Uhh… yes" I say nervously. This place looks so old and yet so beautiful. I look up on the plaque which was bolted on the wall; it says "Keitaro Urashima; Apartment Manager".

"So… Mr. Urashima; how do you make this apartment look so clean?, I can tell that this has been around for years and yet it looks serene"

"Well, all of the people in this apartment building help in cleaning and fixing the place around; so it pretty much stays clean everyday"

He grabs an old-looking phone, which was sitting on top of the front desk and from what he's saying, I think he's calling his wife.

"Strange, I haven't seen a phone with a cord for years and yet it still exists in this hallowed apartment" I think to myself.

"Naru, help me look for a Kenji Harima in the apartment records book", he says as a woman walks down the stairs.

"Sure," the women named Naru replies.

She looks like she's between 28-29 and she also has brown hair and brown eyes. I wait around 15 minutes for them to look for him in the records and I think to myself if I wanted to live here or not.

This looks like a good place to live, it's only a 25-minute bus ride from Yagami and it's also not far from Tokyo. As I wait… I make a choice on whether or not I want to stay here.

"While we look for the records, why don't you take a seat?" Naru says happily.

"Uh... Okay" I reply.

I walk towards the chair and as I sit down I see a photo album. I open the photo album and it's full of photos of Keitaro back when he was only 19. As I flick from page to page, I see a photo of Keitaro and Naru in at least 4 photos and at the last page, I see everyone who lives in this apartment building back in the year 2000.

As I read through the pages of their photo album, it makes me wonder what would me and Miyuki would look like as a couple. Miyuki is this beautiful and intelligent girl that I have admired for years. Miyuki has this long and flowing black hair with streaks of blue and her eyes are on of the most beautiful and enigmatic eyes I have seen in my life. I always wanted to be her boyfriend; however, I don't have the guts to ask her out, let alone confess my love to her. I tried to confess my love to her a couple of times but every time I try to confess my love, something out of proportion happens to me. So for now, I'm in her friend zone.

As I look towards Mr. Urashima and his wife and it gives me a bit of hope for love and so I decide something that would change my life. I decide to go soul searching and I move here in the Hinata Apartments.

I walk to Mr. Urashima and ask him if there is any more vacant rooms in the apartment building that I could stay in. He smiles and tells me, "Yes there is, but you have to sign in these forms and sign this contract." I thank him and before I take out my pen, I ask him if he found Harima yet in the records. "Yes we have, he's in the 3rd floor at room 305," he replies.

I thank him yet again but before I go to Harima's room, I sign in the forms and the contract. It says here in my contract that the rent is about 10,000 Yen a month.

This is cheaper than my usual rent and it makes a little bit happy that I find a serene and beautiful place like this to stay in. I give back the forms and Mr. Urashima tells me, "I'll give you the key later… and please call me Keitaro."

After thanking Keitaro, I walk up the stairs and I see this girl practising some type of ancient art of Kendo. I was pretty interested on what she was doing but I still have to meet up with Kenji.

"Man, those stairs were long," I complain to myself. "I really need to eat less sushi and work out more," I say to myself as I walk to Harima's room.

I knock at his door and he opens it. Harima is about 19 years old and he goes to the same school as me, he also wears this old looking leather jacket and these shades.

He looks at me and says, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm soul searching, and I also came here to ask you for some advice".

"Well in that case, go ahead; ask me anything you like."

"Ok then; there's this girl in my class and she's oblivious. I want to ask her out but she has an odd way of getting the idea. What should I do?"

"Hahaha, That's like my love life. Darach, here's what you do: You show her that you're cool or maybe… somewhat cool; you show her that you have what it takes to be her boyfriend. More importantly you show her that you are the right man for her."

"Ok, but what if she's not happy with me, for any particular reason?"

"Well, firstly make sure she's not happy with you and secondly… uhh…. well… I don't know." Harima replied vaguely.

"What about her happiness?"

"Her happiness?"

"Yeah, what about what she likes, what she believes in; what do I do about those?"

"I never thought about that… You know what; You just gave me an idea." He stands up, takes his piles of papers and ink and walks away from the room. I am unsure of why he went away; but I think there's a reason towards his actions.

I went back down and I talked to Keitaro and he said "Here's your key; Your room number is 302".

"Ok; by any chance… do you know who my neighbours are?" I ask politely.

"Yes I do, Your neighbours are Shinobu and Motoko." He said smiling.

"And also, why do you smile all the time; it's kinda creeping me out?" I ask as nicely as possible

"Well, it's because… Every time I walk around this building, it reminds me of what I went through, what I've experienced and also what I've learned. It also reminds me of how I've met my wife"

He looks away from me as he quietly sobs. "Oh, before I forget dinner starts at 7pm; would you like to join us?" he asks.

"Sure, I'll just move my stuff in my new apartment" I say as I walk out of the apartment.

I look towards at my apartment and I smiled to myself. "Well I got school tomorrow so I better move my stuff quickly before the sunsets" I say to myself as I walk down the stairs.