"Morishige?"
It was strange receiving a call from Morishige in the afternoon. Normally his phone remains dormant on its stand, save for the occasional advertisements and commercials that goes on for hours. It even got to the point where he just leaves his phone unanswered for the rest of the day. No one ever called him. Not his parents, rarely his friends… well, his sister occasionally rings in to drop a hi or too. But other than that life was pretty still.
"Hey," rumbles the soft voice on the other end of the line. "Is this the Kishinuma residence?"
"Umm… no. It's Yoshiki's house," Yoshiki says suspiciously. "Is this Morishige?"
"…Yes. I am Sakurato Morishige. Is Yoshiki home?"
Yoshiki exhales through gritted teeth. "No. It's Yoshiki. Morishige how did you get this number?"
There is a silence. "Oh! Kishinuma! So I did get the right number."
"Morishige how did you get this number?" It is getting hard to keep his voice even.
Silence again, and Yoshiki can make out the faint clicking of computer keys. "I have my ways," Morishige says rather smugly. Again he feels the cold tingling down his spine. "So… what are you doing?"
Yoshiki glances down at the letter he was writing and quickly covers it. "Nothing. Are we done?"
"…Well… What do people do when they call others?"
"…I don't know. Not many people call me," Yoshiki adds matter-of-factly.
"Yes. I know."
Silence again. Morishige clears his throat. "Do you want to come over..? To my house, I mean."
Yoshiki is surprised. "Why?"
"I don't know… just… if. That's what people do, right?"
"…"
"…"
"….."
"Kishinuma?"
"Um… so this is your room?"
Morishige waves a dismissive hand around. "Yes. Mind the papers please. I'm still trying a way to organize all of them by date and number."
Yoshiki only sees a few loose papers, all of which are neatly stacked in piles. "Is that a file cabinet?" he says in disbelief.
"State-of-the-art model," Morishige admits proudly. "I was surfing the internet once, and I found that for a substantial price. Really helpful, that thing is…"
Yoshiki wonders around his room as the guy's musing in his thoughts. Really, he sees nothing interesting about a file cabinet. Morishige's room is, compared to his, quite neat. Scratch that. Extremely neat. You can still see the shine of the wooden floor. His bed is perfect, though there are signs of his rarely using it. Then there's the computer. The desk containing it is littered with pictures of Mayu, making it the only thing messy here.
"When did you take this?" Yoshiki asks.
"Um… Yesterday."
"…When you were spying on her?"
Morishige's face flushes. "Well… you were spying on Shinozaki first. I only wanted to ask you a question."
Yoshiki opens his mouth to say something but quickly shuts it. He knows how useless it is trying to correct Morishige. Instead he points to the door. "Your parents aren't home?"
"Why… no." Morishige pushes his glasses. "They're usually on business trips and such. They're not home most of the time, so they entrusted me in charge." He turns, facing the window, his face pensive. Yoshiki rubs his head, frowning.
"How about your parents, Kishinuma?"
This was met with a bitter scoff. "They don't need me. I live by myself, and I've been taking care of myself for years."
Morishige is silent. He turns, giving Yoshiki a peculiar expression that demands a clearer explanation. Yoshiki shoots him a glare that there would be none.
"Beep. You have email." The computer voice is the first thing that breaks the awkward silence beginning to set in. Yoshiki watches as Morishige dashes to his computer in almost inhuman speed, sits down and begin clicking away at the keys like a weaver would his loom. A shiver runs down Yoshiki's spine.
"What is it?" He asks when he sees that smile on Morishige's face. The careful part of his mind wonders if he should be afraid any minute now.
"It's Mayu!" Morishige chirps, in Yoshiki's case, too brightly. He stares as Morishige brings up a scrolling of texts, most of them from Mayu Suzumoto.
"…Do you guys send them to each other every day?"
"If I have time."
"Uh…" Yoshiki watches as Morishige brings down the latest message and opens it, excitement shining in his eyes.
"Shige…"
"Shige?" Morishige blushes and quickly scrolls down.
"Shige… I tasted the best chocolate today! I went over to Shinozaki-chan's house, and we tried the candy Mochida-kun brought us. It was heavenly!"
Yoshiki watches as the light slowly dies in Morishige's eyes. He didn't blame him.
"Mochida-kun talked about you guys, Kishinuma-kun and you. He's at Shinozaki-kun's house right now. You should come by when you have the ti—" Morishige had slammed his forehead against the desk, looking utterly defeated. Yoshiki would have joined him, if not for the fact this was not his house and he didn't want to mess up Morishige's stuff.
"…Wow. That's deep," he whistles.
"…I have been casted aside," comes the moan from Morishige's head. "Why didn't she invite me…? And after waiting all morning for her message…"
"Why don't you just go right now?"
Morishige looks up, frowning. He props his chin against one arm. "I must admit, I feel awkward coming to other people's houses. It won't feel right if I go to Shinozaki's house, of all people, just to see Mayu with Satoshi."
"…But you called me over."
"That was different," he replies shortly. "See, it was the first time I ever called someone over, as you can see from how I acted."
Yoshiki scratches his head. "What made you call me over, anyways?" Morishige looks at him sheepishly.
"Well… I was getting bored. And… I don't know, but I thought of yesterday and… Well…" He seems to be at a loss for words. "I don't know… Maybe I wanted to invite a friend over to talk."
"You never invited Mayu?"
"Mmm…" A shy blush creeps up to his face.
"Let me guess. Too awkward?"
Morishige rises and faces him. "What made you come over, anyways? You could have declined."
Now it is Yoshiki's turn to be at a loss for words. "I guess I was pretty bored," he says slowly, the image of Shinozaki's letter flashing through his mind. "I had nothing to do at home. Might as well come over and see what you're doing." Morishige takes this with an unnaturally flat demeanor. Silence again follows, making this way more awkward than it has to be.
"Well… I better be going," Yoshiki says, gesturing to the clock. "I'm going to miss dinner."
"What do you eat at home?"
"…Cup noodles," is the reluctant, almost embarrassed answer.
Morishige scrunches his brow in concentration. He seems to be thinking something. "You say there's no one home besides you, right?"
"…No…" Yoshiki isn't sure he likes where this is going. "Why?"
"My parents aren't coming home today. Do you want to stay over and… eat dinner?" This was said very nonchalantly, as if Morishige was inviting him over some fancy restaurant. Yoshiki's jaw falls open, slack.
"Or!" Morishige exclaims quickly. "You can go home. I was just asking. Dinner around here gets pretty lonely, and seeing as you're here… might as well."
Just the thought of something other than cup noodles makes Yoshiki drool. "Um… Yeah. Yeah I can stay. Sure." Wow. Someone inviting me over to dinner!
"Splendid." Morishige gestures to Yoshiki to follow him. When in the kitchen he tells Yoshiki to sit in one of those oaken chairs. The television plays some kind of romance show popular with adults nowadays. Outside the lamps shine in the darkening night sky.
"So what can you cook?" Yoshiki asks as he surveys the fancy tabletop Morishige owns.
"Anything. Basically just give me something and I can do it for you. Except desserts. Anything but desserts." Something sizzles in the kitchen. It smells… good. Yoshiki suddenly notices how hot it was, despite the heater in the living room. A while later Morishige sets down what looked like seafood-fried rice. Yoshiki's mouth falls open in shock.
"Holy—Wow." The smell, crisp and swelling with buttering warmth assaults his nostrils. "You—How… Wow…" The rice is a golden brown, gleaming with some kind of seafood glaze. The shrimps are fat and orange, the squids cut into thin leaflets, the octopus… the chicken… embellished in cilantro and various herbs Yoshiki never knew of.
Morishige offers a small smile as he sits down. "I cook for myself every day. I had this a couple of days ago."
"I should come over every day," Yoshiki mutters, seizing his chopsticks. His hands are shaking.
"You should." Yoshiki searches Morishige's face for any signs of lying. None. He digs in. "Is it good?"
"Dude. The. Best. Thing since Udon!" Morishige's face brightens.
As the two boys ate, the television was changes to some kind of food channel where they showcase the various foods of Japan. Yoshiki asked Morishige if he can make any of the stiff they show on TV. Even better, Morishige had said.
A while later Yoshiki stayed behind to help clean the dishes. It was no sweat, and they finished in a couple of minutes. Yoshiki bids Morishige farewell.
"That was the best time of my life!" Yoshiki exclaims.
"Same here." Morishige flashes a snarky grin. "The dishes got done faster than I thought."
Yoshiki grins. "No problem." Then, as he turns to go, he calls back. "Hey, Morishige. Good luck with Mayu, all right?"
"…Of course. You too, with Ayumi."
"See ya."
"Kishinuma!" Yoshiki turns back, eye brow raised. Morishige smiles. "Thanks for coming."
The signature cocky grin spreads across his lips. "Thanks for inviting!" He walks off to the night-lit streets, one hand waving back. "And good luck on the social part!"
The lamps flicker in the crisp night sky as Yoshiki returns home. The leaves rustles in a stale breeze. Within them carries the air of fried seafood. And that was all Yoshiki needed to keep him warm. That, and their newfound friendship.