Chapter Four: Discomfort

It'd been five days since Mari had first spent the night at Sohinki's house, although to him it felt as if no time had passed at all. It seemed like only minutes ago they had been sitting in his car when he invited her to stay. He could spend hours, days, probably even months with her and still feel like he never saw her enough. He wondered for a moment if that was weird, but eventually just told himself that it was only being a good friend to caring about her. He was worried, however, about her dealing with the whole situation with Peter. They had slept in his room the other night and she had gotten up at around 3 am. She didn't know that this had woken him up, and he didn't want to make her feel bad, so he had just tried to go back to bed, figuring she was just going to the bathroom. But he stayed awake when he heard her go out into the hall and start to murmur.

"…Hey. Yeah, yeah it's me…Yeah, I'm okay, everything's okay. I'm still staying with a friend…what are you doing up…?" She whispered, talking slowly and uncomfortably. He heard her sigh and he felt her secondhand discomfort. "Peter…" She murmured, her tone disapproving or disagreeing or something like that…he couldn't quite place it. He stiffened when he heard her say it, he hadn't meant to, he just suddenly felt warm…almost upset…he didn't really know why. He tried to ignore it and tried to sleep, but couldn't stop himself from listening. "Look," she said more assertively, "I want to talk, and I'm sorry I haven't been too mature about all of this…but I'd like to fix that now. Can we meet for coffee Saturday?" Her tone was formal, stiff, and almost cold. It sounded as if she were making a business transaction. He felt bad for Peter, because sure, maybe they just weren't right for each other, but having the girl you love-especially a girl as amazing a Mari-reject you must be pretty painful. "Alright, I'll text you when and where tomorrow. Thanks, Peter…I'm sorry." He heard her sigh heavily and figure she must've hung up. Instead of coming back to his bed, she walked out to the living room and laid down on the couch. He didn't know whether or not to comfort her or just try to fall asleep again, but he decided that she wouldn't want him butting into her personal business, so he tried to go back to sleep.

It was now Friday evening, almost two days after Mari's late night phone call. Sohinki had made dinner for them and Mari had made it her goal to somehow tell him that she was meeting Peter the next day. She felt…nervous, strangely enough. Not about meeting Peter so much as just having to tell Sohinki that she was. She was worried that he'd think she was just crawling back to him after spending a week out of the house. She didn't want to come off as awkward or weird—she didn't even really understand why she needed to tell Sohinki at all, but felt like it'd be wrong to hide it.

After dinner that night, Mari and Sohinki relaxed together, watching some TV in the living room. Mari absentmindedly lay on the couch with her head resting in Sohinki's lap like a pillow. They sat there quietly until the episode ended and Mari sat up and sighed, scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

"Everything okay?" Sohinki asked, looking sleepy but happy. He'd had fun day with her, they'd gone into the office and got to shoot some bonus videos together. Overall, the more time he spent with her, the happier he was, so today had been a really good day.

"Yeah," Mari replied, stretching her arms out over her head. She then pulled her feet up onto the couch and sat with her legs crisscrossed. "I just kinda have to talk to you about something." He looked up at her, confused and curious, but he just shrugged and nodded.

"I'm all ears." He said, picking up the remote to lower the volume on the TV. She looked at him and sort of half smiled. He was always so easy going and relaxed with her, it made him so nice to talk to. She looked down and tucked her hair behind her ear, trying to think of what she was going to say.

"So…" She sighed heavily and looked up at him. "So I decided to finally be kinda mature and actually deal with my problems." She smiled, trying to make it somewhat humorous, but when he just looked confused she continued. "Basically, that means that I'm gonna meet up with Peter tomorrow for coffee." She opened her mouth to keep going but when a look of remembrance came across Sohinki's face she slowly closed it, confused. He looked completely unsurprised, only changing his expression after he noticed that she was staring at him. She continued to look at him, her eyebrows coming together in confusion. "Did you already know?" She asked slowly, not angrily or even awkwardly, just purely curious. Sohinki, scared that she'd be upset or hurt that he'd heard her the other night, had no idea what to do. He paused for a second before looking down apologetically.

"Yeah…I kinda heard you the other night on the phone…I didn't want to say anything because I didn't wanna butt in or invade your privacy…" he trailed off and looked up at her. "I'm sorry." He half-heartedly smiled at her, but she could tell that he really felt bad. She smiled at him, surprising him completely.

"Honestly, I'm glad you overheard." She stated, matter-of-factly, confusing him. "It makes telling you about it a lot easier." She laughed and he did too, a little.

"Well I'm glad. But I am sorry, I should've tried harder not to listen." He gave her a little half-hearted smile and she grinned and ruffled his hair.

"Hey, don't worry about it," she answered, feeling relieved. Normally she would not be cool at all with this type of situation. But something about it being Sohinki made the entire thing better. Maybe because she felt like she didn't want to hide anything from him.

"Can I do anything to help?" He asked, sincerely wanting to make things easier for her.

"I don't really think so. I'm really just planning on seeing him so I can officially break things off. You know, figure out the house situation. We've lived together for a few years in that house, so there's a lot to figure out." She looked up at him and laughed a little, "I can't hide out in your house forever, it's not fair to you or him." She leaned back into the couch, feeling very tired.

"I wouldn't mind it so much," Sohinki answered. He looked at her with a weird expression that she couldn't interpret. He looked really happy and warm and sweet and something like butterflies happened in her stomach…

"Oh, really?" She asked, smirking and sitting up. "Then I'm gonna go use all of your fancy shampoo." She got up from the couch and playfully jogged to the bathroom.

"Mari, no!" He ran after her, "not again!"