Chapter 4 – Small World

The sidewalks of Shibuya were crowded with heavy foot traffic. It was on weekends when the shopping district was at its busiest, as people from all over Tokyo would always come to spend their free time perusing the local stores. Thankfully, although there was a chill in the air, the sky was bright and clear without a single hint of storm clouds.

Aaron, Gum, and Kon walked along the sidewalk together, each of them wearing a warm autumn coat to counteract the cold breeze, on their way to meet with Liz and Yoyo for lunch. Since none of them knew where the meetup place was, Kon used a map on his phone to guide them to it.

"I think it's just up ahead," he told the others. "Liz said they'll be sitting outside at a table."

"It's chilly out," Gum remarked. "Why are they sitting outside?"

Kon replied, "Maybe the place doesn't have any free tables inside. Besides, it's not that cold out. The ramen will warm us up, anyway."

He put his phone away as they were coming up on the ramen shop that Liz suggested they eat lunch at. Sure enough, after passing by a few more storefronts, they spotted Liz up ahead sitting at a sidewalk table with her purse on her lap. They also noticed an unfamiliar person sitting next to her who she seemed to be chatting with.

Liz looked away from her friend and noticed the group walking towards them. With a big grin on her face, she put her purse on the table and stood up from her seat to wave at them. Her friend looked to see who she was waving at.

"Yo! What's up, guys?"

The group almost didn't recognize Yoyo. His hair was no longer dyed green and instead displayed its natural red colour, and he had gained a noticeable amount of weight. He also lost his incredibly high-pitched—and somewhat annoying—voice, although there was still a slight scratchiness to it.

Liz, on the other hand, looked identical to the magazine photographs they had all seen of her before. Even her voice sounded almost the same as it did ten years ago. She embraced Gum while the others shook hands with Yoyo before they all sat down together at the somewhat-cramped table.

"It's great to see you guys," Kon said to Liz and Yoyo. "How've you two been?"

"Great!" Liz replied enthusiastically as she turned to look at Yoyo. "Things have never been better for us. We're both married and living happily together."

"Oh, that's awesome," Gum responded. "When did you guys get married?"

"About four years ago." Liz leaned into the table and playfully bit her bottom lip. "I was the one who proposed because Yoyo was too shy to."

"Was not!" Yoyo exclaimed. "I just… didn't know the best time to propose."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Well, I got tired of waiting so I just went for it. He totally tried to act cool when I proposed, but I could tell he was about ready to burst."

Yoyo's face went beet red. "You don't have to tell them everything!"

Liz giggled. "Well, that's how it happened."

Kon laughed. Liz seemed to get enjoyment out of teasing Yoyo; that hadn't changed either. He wondered if calling him by his old nickname was her other way of teasing him.

"I had no idea you became a model," he told her. "When Aaron first told me about it, I almost didn't believe him. How'd you get started, anyway?"

Liz leaned back in her chair. "I started about two years after the GGs broke up, when I was eighteen. I really needed some quick money so I took a one-time modeling gig. At first the idea creeped me out—having older men order me around to do sexy poses while taking revealing pictures of me—but I was desperate at the time. I wasn't planning on doing any more after that one photoshoot, but the company kept trying to get me back to do more. They said I was really good at modeling so I relented and did a few more photoshoots for them, and after a while I started to like it. Eventually, a modeling agency contacted me and its been my career ever since."

Gum was fascinated by Liz's story. "That's crazy, girl. It sucks that things used to be rough for you, but I'm glad you managed to bounce back. I still have a hard time picturing you as a model though."

"I know, I used to be a really strait-laced person. It's not like my worries were unwarranted though: there are a lot of creeps in the modeling industry. At least now I'm confident enough to stand up for myself when people try to mess with me."

"Good for you," Gum replied encouragingly. "Don't let those assholes stop you from doing what you enjoy."

Liz nodded with a smile. "Trust me; I don't."

Kon looked at Yoyo. "So hey, I still don't know what your real name is."

Yoyo dramatically scratched his chin. "Hmm… You know, it's been so long since I've heard it that I've totally forgotten what it was."

Liz playfully nudged him in the side. "Nice excuse." She turned her head to face the others. "He's just joking. He doesn't like telling people what his real name is."

"Why not?" Kon asked them.

Yoyo glared fiercely at Liz. "Don't you dare tell them!"

She giggled. "Don't worry, even I wouldn't do something that cruel to you."

Gum empathetically reached out to Yoyo. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with disliking your name. I got my name legally changed to Gum because I hated my original name. It had too many memories associated with it that I wanted to forget about."

"Really?" Yoyo pensively tapped his nails against the table. "You know, maybe I should legally change my name, too."

"No way!" Liz objected. "Your name isn't that bad. I kinda like it."

"That only makes one of us," Yoyo grumbled.

"Uh, guys?" Aaron interrupted the conversation. "We're just sitting out here talking when I haven't eaten anything all day. Let's go order our food. I'm starving here!"

"Oh, you don't have to," Liz told him. "This ramen shop only makes one kind of ramen each day and they bring it out to you automatically when you sit down. I told them to hold off on bringing us our bowls until you guys show up though, so we should be getting them pretty soon."

"Oh, cool," Aaron replied. "What have they got today?"

"Miso ramen with pepper and garlic. I hope you guys like it. This place makes it really well."

"Ugh," Yoyo moaned. "Why couldn't we just go get burgers instead?"

Liz scowled at him, annoyed by his churlish complaining. "This is a special occasion, Yoyo. We haven't seen everyone in forever."

"But everyone likes burgers!"

"Well, I'm the one paying for everyone's food so I get to decide where we all eat."

"You don't have to do that, Liz," Kon told her. "We can all pay for ourselves."

"It's fine, Kon," she assured him. "I already told you that this was my treat. Consider this repayment for all the times you bought us pizza back in the day."

A server stepped outside of the ramen shop while carrying bowls of ramen and brought them to their table, passing a bowl, chopsticks, and napkin out to each of them. He respectfully bowed before returning back into the shop. The group didn't hesitate to dig into their bowls.

"Wow, this is delicious," Gum said while slurping noodles into her mouth.

Yoyo picked at the ingredients of his bowl with his chopsticks. He was a fussy eater unless he was eating junk food.

"So Yoyo," Aaron began, "what do you do for a living?"

"Oh," Yoyo replied while aimlessly stirring his ramen. "I don't have a job."

"Really? Why not."

Yoyo looked down into his bowl. "I dunno, I just can't find one. Nobody wants to hire me because I don't really have any work skills."

Liz added, "I make enough money for the both of us so he's never really motivated to get a job."

"You really make that much?" Gum asked her. "Enough for both of you to live comfortably?"

"Yeah, we live in a nice house and can afford anything we need. It's a lot better than how we were living nine or eight years ago."

Kon was surprised. "I didn't know you got that much money from modeling. That's crazy."

Yoyo replied while Liz continued to eat her ramen, "She's all over the place. Haven't you seen any ads or photos with a blue-haired girl in them before? It's a dead giveaway."

"I probably have," Kon figured, "but a lot of people dye their hair a different colour. I just never figured that she'd become a professional model."

Aaron told Liz as an aside, "Hey, when I first saw you in a magazine, I instantly knew it was you." He slurped some more noodles into his mouth.

Liz looked up from her bowl. "Really? Which magazine was it in?"

Aaron almost choked on his noodles. He couldn't tell her that it was a lingerie magazine as that would make things too awkward. "Uhh, I don't remember."

"Was it a picture of me posing in underwear or something?"

Everyone else nearly spat out their ramen. Liz stared at them, confused by their sudden reactions.

Aaron stammered, "N-No, it was nothing like that!"

"It better not have been!" Yoyo snapped at him.

"What's the big deal, guys?" Liz asked them. "It's not a secret that I sometimes pose in lingerie for magazines. If I was uncomfortable with people seeing me like that, I wouldn't be doing it anymore."

Regardless of how Liz felt, everyone else was uncomfortable with talking about her lingerie photos so openly. They quietly continued eating their ramen, aside from Yoyo who only ate a few nibbles.

Kon finished his first, drinking the leftover soup straight from the bowl. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned back in his chair.

"Man, that was amazing. You were right about this place, Liz."

Liz grinned as she slurped up the remainder of her noodles. "Yeah, I love coming here and trying out their different dishes. This place taught me to really appreciate ramen and to see it as an art form. When I was younger, I didn't think about the effort these cooks put into their dishes. But then again, back in those days we'd usually just get a few pizzas delivered to the Garage. Not much artistry there, you know?"

"Actually," Kon began, "speaking of the Garage, did you hear that it's going to be demolished?"

Yoyo dropped his chopsticks into his bowl. "Really? Why?"

"I dunno, they wanna improve the city's infrastructure and get rid of old unused buildings."

Aaron put down his bowl after drinking the rest of the soup. "Well, you can't blame them for wanting to do that." He wiped his mouth with his napkin.

"Don't you think it sucks though?"

Aaron balled up his napkin and threw it onto the table. "I guess it'll be sad to see it gone considering all the good times we had there."

"Yeah," Liz agreed, "that's where we all met each other. I really loved that place."

Gum knew where Kon was leading the conversation towards. She quietly finished her ramen bowl right as he confirmed her suspicions.

"I was thinking," he began, "what if there was a way for us to stop it from being demolished?"

Aaron smothered a bemused chuckle. "Uh, I doubt there's anything we can do to stop it."

"How do you know? There's gotta be something we can do." There was a hint of desperation in Kon's voice.

Aaron gave him a strange look. "Are you serious about this, dude? You really wanna try to save the Garage?"

"Yeah. Don't you guys?" Kon looked at the others for validation.

"It'd be cool if we could," Yoyo said. "I haven't been there in forever. I wonder what it looks like now. It's probably all decayed and shit."

"Do you really think we could save it?" Liz asked Kon.

"Yeah," he replied. "As long as we get enough people on our side to help us. I don't know who else to ask though."

"What about Soda?" Aaron suggested.

Kon slowly shook his head. "Nah, I already tried but he wasn't interested in helping."

Gum finally spoke up to Liz and Yoyo. "Do you guys know what happened to any of the other GGs?" She wasn't interested in helping Kon with his plans though; rather, she wanted to reconnect with more of her old friends.

Liz's face lit up. "Yeah, Jazz and I have kept in touch over the years."

"Really? What's she up to nowadays?"

"She lives in an apartment by herself over on Hikage. She loves writing, and sometimes she sends me poems and short stories for me to read. They're pretty good."

"Hikage?" Aaron uttered. "That's a shitty street to live on."

"Yeah, but apparently it's all she can afford. She works at a convenience store and they don't pay her too much. Hopefully she can get her writing career to take off. Sometimes I give her a bit of money to help pay the bills because I feel so bad for her. She's a smart woman and she deserves better than the life she's got."

"That sucks," Gum said sympathetically.

"What's her real name?" Kon asked Liz. "Or does she prefer using her nickname, too?"

"No, Jazz is actually her real name."

"Is it short for Jasmine or something?"

"Nope, it's just Jazz. Isn't that a cool name?"

"Hmph," Yoyo interjected with a sullen expression. "It's cooler than mine, that's for sure." His look abruptly switched from sulky to excited. "Anyway, did you guys know that Combo is a pro wrestler now?"

Aaron reacted with disbelief. "No way! Seriously?"

Yoyo continued, "Yeah, he's in one of Japan's indie wrestling circuits. He even uses Combo as his ring name. I met him a few times after some of his shows."

"When's his next show?" Kon asked Yoyo. "I wanna meet him, too."

"It might be tomorrow. They do one every Sunday, but I dunno if he'll be there. I think I'm gonna go see it anyway though; I haven't been to a live show in a while."

"Cool. We should go together." Kon turned to face Gum. "You wanna come too?"

"Nah," she answered. "I don't wanna sit and watch people wrestle for two hours. I'll try to meet him some other day." She looked towards Liz. "Jazz lives pretty close to here though, right? You think we could visit her today if she's not busy?"

"Maybe," Liz replied. "I could call her and ask."

"You should. It'd be great if we could go over there later."

Kon was also very much interested in reuniting with Jazz. Ten years ago, she came up with the plan that successfully forced Rokkaku Gouji to resign as mayor of Tokyo. If she could accomplish that, he was certain that she'd be able to come up with a plan that would save the Garage.

Liz dug through her purse and pulled out her phone. Everyone else was quiet as she dialled Jazz's number and put her phone up to her ear. It rung for a few seconds before she received an answer.

"Hey, Jazz! How are you?"

The others heard Jazz talking on the other end, but they couldn't make out what she was saying.

"That's good," Liz responded. "Guess who's with me right now. Beat, Corn, and Gum! Remember them?"

Again, there was another pause while Jazz replied.

"Yeah, we just finished eating lunch together. We were all wondering if we could come by to your apartment to see you. You're not busy today, are you?"

After hearing Jazz's response, Liz looked to Gum for an answer. "Right now?"

Gum and the others nodded.

"Yeah, we could come by now. We'll see you soon!" Liz hung up and put her phone back in her purse. She looked towards the others who were ready to leave. "So, we're all going over there?"

"Not me," Yoyo said as he stood up from his seat. "I'm gonna go get something good to eat and then head home."

"How are you gonna get home?" Liz asked him. "We'll be taking my car to Jazz's place."

"I'll take the train or something," he replied.

Liz looked down at his barely-touched bowl. "But you hardly ate any of your ramen. The cook's gonna be insulted if you don't finish it."

"Hey, I'll finish it," Aaron offered. "I'm still kinda hungry, even after eating mine."

Yoyo slid his bowl over to Aaron's side of the table. "Dig in, dude. I'll see you all later."

Aaron moved the bowl closer to himself and grabbed his chopsticks. "Peace out, man." Without hesitation, he began slurping down Yoyo's noodles.

"Bye, Yoyo," Gum said to him while waving goodbye. "It was great seeing you again."

"I'll see ya tomorrow," Kon reminded him. "Get Liz to give you my number later so we can text each other about the wrestling show."

"Will do," Yoyo replied. "Later."

He shoved his hands into his pockets and began strolling down the sidewalk in search for another place to eat at. Liz kept her gaze focused on him as he walked away. Kon detected a hint of disappointment in her face. He did find it strange that Yoyo wasn't interested in hanging out with them for a while longer despite having not seen any of them in nearly a decade.

Gum stood up from her chair. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom while Aaron finishes eating. When I get back, we can all head off."

Liz stood up with her and grabbed her wallet from her purse. "Alright, and I'll go pay for our meals."

They both walked into the ramen shop, leaving Aaron and Kon alone at the table. Aaron rushed to finish his ramen before the others returned while Kon stared down at his phone, searching for any recent news articles regarding the demolition of the Garage. There were none that he could find, but he didn't know whether to be thankful or worried; he had no way of knowing how much time there was left before the demolition would commence.

He put his phone away and stared at Aaron eating his ramen. It was good to see him again after all these years. He didn't seem too eager to help save the Garage, but he'd probably come around eventually once they reunited with more of their old friends. Hopefully they'd do so before it was too late.

Gum and Liz both returned to the table at the same time to see Aaron slurp up the last of his noodles. He then put the bowl to his mouth and drank the rest of the soup down. Once he had completely drained his bowl, he put it back down on the table and let out a quick belch that still tasted of miso in his mouth. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his stomach, his hunger fully satisfied.

Liz put her wallet back into her purse and strapped it over her shoulder. "Alright, let's go!"


Aaron, Gum, Kon, and Liz opened the entrance doors to Jazz's apartment building and stepped inside. Liz walked over to the dialer and entered the code that corresponded with Jazz's apartment. After a few seconds, Jazz's voice came over the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hey, we're here!" Liz spoke into the intercom.

"Alright, come on up."

They heard the doors to the building's lobby unlock. Liz opened them and directed the others inside. The look of the interior was off-putting to say the least. Lifeless potted plants greeted them to the lobby and succinctly displayed just how poorly-maintained the building was. The carpet in the dimly-lit lobby was strangely discolored and they spotted a few bugs crawling on the walls. It depressed them just to walk through it; they couldn't imagine what it would be like to actually live there.

The elevator was out of order so they were forced to take the stairs. They entered the trash-littered stairwell and ascended to the fourth floor. Once there, they walked through the narrow hallway where Jazz's apartment door resided. An odd smell permeated the air but they couldn't pinpoint its source.

Liz led them to Jazz's apartment and knocked on the door. They waited a moment for the door to unlock and open to reveal Jazz on the other side.

"Hi, guys," she greeted them. "Long time no see. Come on in."

She shook each of their hands as they stepped into her apartment, aside from Liz whose familiarity didn't warrant any further acknowledgement.

Her apartment was cramped, but compared to the rest of the apartment building it was relatively tidy. It consisted of one main room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. There was no separate bedroom, so her bed and closet were out in the open for each of them to see. A solitary window brought some natural light into the room, but the group still felt like they were standing in the dark. There was a floor lamp in the corner of the room but it was left off, perhaps to save money on the electricity bill.

Jazz closed the door behind them and sat down on a chair next to a desk covered with papers. "You all can go ahead and sit on my bed," she told them, "since there's nowhere else for you guys to sit. Sorry about that."

They all glanced at each before sitting down side by side on her bed. The mattress springs squeaked as they all sat down at once.

Jazz didn't look much different from how she did years ago. She hardly grew in stature and was therefore noticeably shorter than the rest of them, and she had kept her bleached white hair.

"So," Jazz began, "your names can't all be the same as they were a decade ago."

"Mine wasn't," Gum said, "but I actually had it legally changed to Gum a few years ago. I'm the only one here who did that, though."

"Interesting," Jazz replied. "As for the rest of you, though?" She looked towards the others who both revealed their names in turn.

"My real name's Kon."

"And mine's Aaron."

"Well, it's good to see you guys again," Jazz said. "Liz is the only person who I've kept in touch with since the group broke up. Not that I was trying to avoid the rest of you; that's just how things ended up."

"I know what you mean," Kon replied. "I didn't keep in touch with anyone, other than Gum whose now my wife."

The revelation made Jazz smile. "Really? That's great."

Gum leaned forward in her seat and bowed as a sign of gratitude. "Thanks. So, how've you been?"

Jazz turned her head to look around her apartment. "Well, as indicated by the state of my living space, I've not been too well-off."

"Yeah, Liz told us about your situation," Gum mentioned. "I hope things get better for you."

"Thank you, but there's no use in me dwelling over my circumstance. I prefer to focus on my writings. I'd rather my accomplishments define my life than my misfortunes."

Despite her unfortunate living affair, Jazz appeared dignified in both her mannerisms and speech. The others always considered her to be the most mature of the group, but it seemed like she went through an even greater personal growth over the years.

She shuffled through the papers on her desk and grabbed four of them.

"Perhaps this is a bit egotistical of me, but I'd love it if you guys read some of the things that I've worked on."

They all gladly agreed to read some of the things she had written. Jazz handed each of them a piece of paper with either a poem or a short story written on it. They read through them while Jazz sat and watched attentively for their responses.

On Aaron's piece of paper was a poem about two girls walking together through a cherry blossom park at midnight while surrounded by cicadas. He was impressed by her writing talent. Although short, the poem was replete with clever wordplay and evocative imagery. Many of the lines were oblique and seemed to have a double meaning to them, but the poem as a whole was still accessible enough for him to understand and be absorbed by.

"This is really good," he told her. "How do you come up with this stuff?"

"Thank you," she replied. "As for how I come up with my words, it all depends. Often times, I get a vision of something and start putting it down to paper. A lot of my writings come from things I've personally experienced, or are at least inspired by them."

Aaron stood up and handed the poem back to her. "So was this one based on something that really happened?" He sat back down next to the others.

Jazz held the poem in her hands and skimmed through it with a faint smile on her face. "Oh, yes, this one has some autobiographical elements. I used to have a friend who I'd go on midnight walks through the park with. Something about being surrounded by cherry blossoms under the moonlight was always so magical to us." She stared at the poem with warmth in her eyes. "Those are fond memories. Of course, we were never relentlessly attacked by cicadas on our walks like in the poem. That was more of a metaphor."

"Oh, is that what happened in the poem?" Aaron replied sheepishly. "I didn't really understand some of the lines."

Jazz smirked. "Yeah, the cicadas eventually annoy the pair to the point that they stop going on those walks." She placed the poem back onto her desk. "Maybe my writings can be a bit too esoteric and pretentious for their own good, but it wouldn't be poetry if you could understand all of it the first time around; it would just be prose."

"Do you still go on late night walks in real life?" Aaron asked her.

Jazz lowered her eyes. "No. Not with her, at least. We split apart some time ago. In that aspect, the poem is accurate to real events."

Liz looked up from the piece of paper she was reading. "Oh, I remember that girl. Why'd you guys stop hanging out, anyway? I thought you two were pretty close."

"We were, but…" Jazz paused to find the right words to articulate her explanation. "Let's just say that a rift formed in between us that couldn't be mended. We have no ill feelings towards each other, but there's a reason our relationship with each other had to end. Let's just leave it at that."

Liz respected Jazz's request and didn't ask for further clarification. The rest of the group finished reading the papers they were given and handed them back to Jazz who placed them with the rest of the pile on her desk.

"You're really talented," Gum told her. "You should put your work out there. This stuff needs to be seen."

"Thank you. I'm currently working on a novel and I'm hoping to get it published, but we'll see what happens. Success doesn't always come to those who deserve it." Jazz caught herself slightly too late and became apologetic. "Oh, there I go being pretentious again."

"No, I know exactly how you feel," Gum replied.

There was a pause in the conversation which Kon saw as an opportunity to mention his plan to Jazz.

"Hey Jazz, did you hear that the Garage is gonna get demolished?"

Gum resisted the urge to slap her palm across her forehead. She knew that he'd eventually bring up the Garage to Jazz, but not so bluntly.

Jazz replied, "I believe I heard something about that, yeah. It's remarkable that it took them this long, don't you think?"

"Well, I was wondering if you'd be interested in helping us save it from being destroyed. You were invaluable when it came to taking down Gouji all those years ago, so you'd be a major help here, too."

Jazz gave him a look of confusion. "What? Why are you guys trying to preserve that old dump?"

"Because," Kon attempted to explain, "we've all got great memories of the place. I'd just hate to see it go, you know? I feel like if it were demolished I'd feel a little bit empty inside, like something important to me is lost forever and can never be replaced."

Jazz shook her head. "Kon, this may sound insensitive but that 'thing' you're feeling is nothing but emotional baggage. It's been years since any of us have had a good reason—or any reason at all—to care for that place. Those who incessantly cling to the past never learn to do without it."

"I'm not incessantly clinging to the past," Kon retorted. "I've totally moved on from the days of skating and spraying graffiti, but… the Garage is special. It's a memento of one of the most important stages of our lives."

Jazz chuckled under her breath. "If you want a memento, write a poem; it'll last longer and be a far more romanticized reminder of the past than the forced conservation of that old decrepit place."

Liz interjected herself into the discussion. "I dunno, Jazz," she said, "I think your viewpoint is a bit too cold. I get the same wistful feeling that Kon does whenever I think about the Garage. Maybe it doesn't make much sense, but a lot of the things humans feel don't make much sense! We're a strange and complex species, you know? So what good will it do if we ignore our feelings? Kon and I are passionate about this, and whether it's crazy or not we still think that trying to save the Garage is worth a shot."

Jazz reclined in her chair and shrugged. "Fair enough. I doubt anything I say could stop you guys, but I've laid out my reasons for why I have no interest in being a part of whatever it is you guys intend to do."

The light in the room suddenly dimmed as the clouds outside rolled in and blocked out the sun. Jazz got up from her seat and finally turned on the floor lamp in the corner of the room to properly illuminate the apartment. This helped to ease the tension in the room. She sat back down and started a different topic of conversation.

The group stayed at her apartment for a while longer, but Kon's spirits were slightly deflated after her dismissal of his proposal to save the Garage. He promised himself that he wouldn't let doubters like Kodi faze him, but he was relying on her to come up with a strategy to save the Garage, and without her on board a major blow was dealt to his mission. Still, he appreciated Liz coming to his defense and was glad to have her on his side; her star power could prove valuable to their plan and help bring in some outside support. Hopefully Combo would prove to be a valuable asset as well.