Chapter Three: Rin and Koharu
…Still Saturday morning
(Mai's POV)
"Now this is the life," said Koharu as she leaned back setting down her shopping bags.
Mai and Rin agree with her.
They had just crossed the famous pedestrian crossing in Shibuya. It was before noon, and traffic was murder. The noise was almost unbearable as cars waited for the flood of walkers on the street to stop.
Mai was super tired. Her mom had freaked over the spilled milk incident, and the fact that Mai could not explain why she had dropped it. Frustrated at her lack of memory, Mai kept trying to piece together her morning. She was pretty sure she had seen a dark figure beside the refrigerator, but her mind could not picture it clearly.
The whole situation was distressful.
In the end, her dad had called her sisters to get her out of the house. A remedy was decided in the form of a therapeutic shopping trip.
Fifteen stores, three new handbags, new manicures, and an assorted of clothes later, the girls were hunting for lunch.
Koharu began to drool, "Soooo HUNGRY!"
Rin reached over to pat her stomach. "It is so tiny so you wonder where all the food she eats actually goes." She winked at Mai, who giggled.
Not expecting such a fast quick comeback, Koharu was strangely quiet. Koharu was the more antagonistic of Mai's sisters, probably due to her stature as middle child.
Mai usually hated shopping with Rin and Koharu. Only a bit older than her, they were in college with smoking hot athletic bodies. All three girls were brunettes, but Mai's sisters had longer hair. Koharu wore her hair in a curly style. Currently it was pulled back away from her face in a high pony tail with a gold ribbon. She wore tight pants and a yellow blouse Rin had bangs and straight hair down to her hips. She had a white lacy skirt on with a blue T-shirt that said "World Cup!"
Today, they seem to be going out of their way to make her laugh.
"OMG! What is that smell?" Rin gasped.
It was the smell of heaven in the form of food.
Mai's stomach was a bit queasy so she did not feel like eating.
Rin agreed, "Well exercise works up an appetited. TIME FOR A BREAK!"
People stopped and stared at her exclamation.
Mai and Koharu shrunk away from her.
Rin looked around, "Hey where did you guys go?!" Seeing the two behind her, she glared.
"I am not that embarrassing to be around." With a fling of her hair, she walked away with her sisters trailing her path.
They wandered around trying to discover the source of the tantalizing smells. A nearby café beckoned them.
Mai felt a sense of déjà vu it.
The waiter took their drink orders when they sat down.
Mai lay back and closed her eyes. Rin and Koharu chatted away. Visions of a tall glass of grape soda danced in her head. She did feel a bit dehydrated. Her lips were unbelievably parched like she hadn't drunk anything in over a day.
"Do what?" Mai murmured as she heard her name mentioned.
"It is a shame that you have to leave this to go study. Is the stress starting to get to you? Dad said you were freaking out when you got up like you had a bad dream and then you busted the milk jug when you thought you saw something dark standing close to you."
Was it dark? Mai question herself.
"Sounds like you are demented."
Koharu laughed, "Positively psycho, Mai."
Haughtily, Mai claimed, "It takes one to know one.
"Well we are family, I guess."
"Although I have not heard of anyone seeing things like you do." Rin acknowledged.
The waiter dropped off the drinks with gyoza appetizer on the house, and asked for the meal. The girls thanked him for the free food then decided on a Western dish and a chocolate cake to divide amongst themselves.
Koharu scooted her chair closer to Rin before murmuring, "Maybe it is a mutation."
They gazing wide eyed at Mai.
Koharu said, "I'm going to call it the freak gene."
In a flat tone, Mai said, "You still realize, I'm sitting right here."
Koharu and Rin grinned at each other. It was a conspiracy.
Mai started to soak her napkin with the complementary water on the table.
Two against one? We will see about that.
Rin declared, "I am glad I do not have it."
"Yea, maybe you are adopted!" added Koharu.
"Oh now you are just being mean Koharu!" Mai said as she threw the wet napkin at her sister.
"Ahh!"
Rin and Mai snickered.
Angrily, Koharu stated, "We better be carefully, Koharu. We might get neurological damage just from sitting close to her."
Mai glared before retorting, "I will give you neurological damage."
Koharu warned, "Just wait until the food comes out."
As the oldest, Rin tried to soothe the two "We were being mean. Koharu don't take it any further than it needs to go. Mai, I won't ask you to apologize even though that was childish. This is a nice place so let's try not to get kicked out."
Mai and Koharu turned and yelled at Rin in unison, "This is war!"
Rin sighed, "Whatever… But can you at least act like adults while we are here and wait to finish your petty squabbles later." She calmly took a sip of her drink.
"Aren't you going to eat Mai?"
"I am just going to skip to desert." Mai admitted.
"Down, girl. You have to leave some for us."
"Yea you want to keep that figure sharp."
"So Mai, you like any boys?"
"Well there is this guy I know.
"You have a boyfriend?"
Koharu snorted a "Ha!"
Annoyed, Mai said crossly, "Why do you say that so quickly with that tone of voice? Why do you snort?"
"He is not my boyfriend. I just like him, but I don't love him. In the past, he completely aggravated me. He knew my buttons and tried to push them, but I have learned his too. Therefore it is a more even playing field now. Plus I realize it is not just me. He treats everybody the same. In fact, he probably treats me a bit better than other people."
"Sounds like puppy love?"
"You know guys are mean to girls when they want to get their attention but don't know what to say. It is called aggressive flirting."
"Really? I am not sure I want him to flirt with me."
" Why not?"
"He is very difficult to deal with."
"Then why do you like him."
"I don't know. I just do, but I would prefer…" Mai stopped
Rin said, "Prefer?"
Mai blanked.
"Uh," she laughed patting her head with her hand, "I forgot. The old noggin doesn't work well today. It just seemed like there was somebody else I preferred would flirt with me, but I can't remember anything about him."
Rin smiled, "Love triangle. Interesting."
"Imaginary triangle, you mean." Koharu snipped.
Mai slammed her fist against the table, rattling the glasses. "It is not imaginary!"
Rin made large gestures to divert the attention her way. "Uh… So is he in your class?"
"No I work for him."
The pair on the other side of the table shared a surprised glance.
"Mai you don't have a job?"
Mai frowned. "I don't?"
A small stab of pain seared through Mai's brain. Then it was gone.
"I do have a job." She insisted. Then she looked down in confusion. "Or I use to."
She couldn't remember exactly what she did at her job, but she remembered the emotions she felt. It was hard to sort out when there was nothing she could identify for certain. Mai could not even remember what her boss looked like. She just remembered thinking he was handsome.
Koharu angrily said, "Mai you need to get real about life. That is why you can't handle high school. You imagine all this crap and have fantasies about random stuff. You are getting to old for this. Look at the episode this morning! If you keep this up, you really will go crazy!" Koharu's expression softened. In a gentle voice she pleaded, "Mai I just want you to be ok. Please try to calm your thoughts. You mean so much to me that I don't want anything bad happening to you. You have never had a job. If you know this boy, he must go to your school."
"I am not crazy. Listen! I call the jerk Naru because he is completely narcissistic. When I first met him, it was at school. He was smiling but his smile did not touch his eyes. I knew he was fake. Later I had to work for him and found out he was a complete butthole. He tricked me into working for him. His ego could power Tokyo, but while he acts tough on the outside. He seems lonely, and I know he cares about people, even though he would never admit it. Why would I make up something like that? My creativity is not that good."
Quietly, Rin said, "You have a good memory of him." She had a pitying expression on her face.
Koharu on the other hand was even more furious than before. Her face had turned a blotchy red. She stared at Mai.
Mai's headache intensified.
She leaned back again. Her mind began to zone out.
What had she just been talking about?
The food came out, but Mai was not hungry. The pain in her head had lessened, but her stomach felt queasy now. She was about to fall asleep when a feeling went through her. It was vaguely familiar. Restless, she picked her up head.
Her attention became focused on a person in the distance.
Mai stood suddenly.
"Hey Mai! Are you ok?"
"It is him." Mai whispered, almost in a trance.
A boy in black was striding up the stairs beside the café.
"What?"
"The boy wearing the dark clothes, do you see that boy?"
"Who?" Her sisters twisted in their chairs trying to get a better view.
"Right there on the stairs, oh wait he is gone"
"I didn't see anything."
"He is the one! The one I 'envision' this morning by the refrigerator. I know him, but I don't know how."
"Maybe you shouldn't Mai."
Mai was already rushing out. She shouted back, "You guys pay the check, I am going to see!"
Mai ran up the stairs.
These are steps…It is so familiar to me. I have been here before, she thought.
There was a blue-gray door.
In the middle of the door was an intricate frosted glass window with the logo "SPR" Underneath the golden calligraphy were the words "Shibuya Psychic Research" and "Shibuya Sikiku Risaachi".
What does that mean?I guess they investigate ghosts here.
Mai was not sure how she knew that but like the walk up the stairs it was like a memory from long ago.
She reached for the knob when she heard someone shout her name behind her.