05 - Walk

"Come back and visit, anytime!" Mrs. Furukawa cheerfully said from behind the bakery's entrance as Mr. Furukawa and Nagisa stood beside her.
"Sakagami-san can come back anytime," the father proclaimed before looking at me, "I think I might ban this guy from our store for life and death, though."
"What the hell do you mean and death?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Hmph, I'm going to have an exorcist come here and purify this home to keep your spirit out if you die before I do."
"Dad…" Nagisa tugged Mr. Furukawa's shirt.
"Haha, I'm only kidding. You know I wouldn't keep your friends away. Although keeping your ghost out isn't such a bad idea..."

Was this guy for real? I just stood there on the doorstep, looking down, and shaking my head in disbelief.
"Thank you for your hospitality and food," Tomoyo bowed formally, "It was a pleasure to meet all of you, this evening."
"This girl sure has good manners! Okazaki-kun, you could learn a thing or two from her if you cleaned out your ears." Mr. Furukawa laughed as he went back into the bakery.
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you both, as well." Mrs. Furukawa said with a smile.
"See you at school tomorrow." Nagisa waved.

"Yeah," I replied, "We'll start thinking about what to do about the theatre club."

"Ok. Well see ya." Nagisa bid us farewell before gently closing the door.

I let out a long heavy sigh of relief. God, I never knew families like that existed in real life.
"I'm going home so I'll see you tomorrow too, Okazaki." Tomoyo said as she turned towards the direction towards where we came from.
Home; the very thought brought pitiless dread to my mind. I raised my head to look at the red sky and then looked down at my left wrist to check the time on my watch.

6:47PM

Still too early. I looked down the sidewalk and saw Tomoyo thankfully still in sight. "Hey, wait!" I called out. She stopped in her tracks and turned her head back to watch me catch up.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"No, but my house is in this direction, too." I told Tomoyo as we continued on.

"Oh, where do you live?"

"Genji area."

"Oh, my house isn't far from there then. I live in the Daito area."
Daito was an area where the upper-middle class lived and bordered Genji. Unlike my area which was crowded and consisted of small streets and lots of townhomes, the buildings in Daito were generally larger and some were even based on western architecture that immigrants brought with them when they came to Japan. To me, I always thought how interestingly blatant the division between rich and poor was divided by a single road between the two areas.
"I think I may have passed your house today to go to school." Tomoyo continued.
"If that's the case, how come I never see you at the local bus stations?"

"Well, I did just transfer to this school after my family moved from the district Nagisa lived. That's how we're so acquainted with her bread and my father usually takes me to school by car before he heads to work. Although, I'd rather walk since you can actually take the time to admire your surroundings and it's good exercise."
"If you really like it, maybe you should walk to school more often." I suggested.
"So I can walk with you?" she asked with a clever smile.

"No, I'd still be asleep. Today was only an exception."

Tomoyo frowned at the statement, "You're not joking, are you?"

"Nope. I don't usually come to school on time. I kind of stopped caring, really." I didn't want to lay out the exact details why.

"That's terrible. I thought you were a better person than that." She said coldly.

What Sakagami said stung me. Just what was she getting so worked up about? Was it such a big deal that I would come in late to school or maybe she was hoping for something more from me. I guess I already failed her expectations.

"That's a shame really," Tomoyo said, "You can't walk with me to school, then."

"It's a habit of mine. I can't do anything about it." I sighed.

"No. I think it's something more than that."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. There's just something different about you. For example at the Furukawa's, I noticed you were really tense around the whole time we were inside. Her father was being a bit eccentric, especially at you, but I still thought they were really wonderful and friendly people. Plus, it looked like they really bonded well together as a family which made me question whether or not you were feeling uncomfortable at such a sight. Maybe because your family is different."

I stopped in my tracks at realizing she had hit me on the dot and stared her straight in the eyes. Not only was she insanely strong and beautiful, her observation skills were top notch to the point they scared me.

"It's only your imagination," I said and resumed walking.

We continued through town, past the school, the shopping district, the various street performers, the river's bridge, and the other residential homes with a growing sense of dread grasping my insides. Along the way, I would often ask Tomoyo if she had anywhere else she wanted to go or if she wanted to see anything in the stores and shops but she would decline my request each time. If I knew my directions around town, my house would be on the same exact path as hers. Even if it wasn't I had a feeling that she wanted to follow me home just out of curiosity of wanting to know where I lived. The thought of breaking off and hiding from her occasionally crossed my mind a couple times. But I couldn't stand the guilt of abandoning Tomoyo and letting her walk alone despite knowing, of course, she could handle things if she got in a sticky situation.

But as we drew closer to my neighborhood, I would slow my pace down to delay the inevitable. Even if it was by a few minutes or seconds, I counted each one and prayed for something to arrive to keep me away from my house. Tomoyo would often glance at me with a suspicious look as if I had a strange aura emitting from my skin. I tried to stay as casual as possible but knowing her, she had already inferred something wasn't totally fine.

Eventually, we ended up in front of my tiny, two-storied, townhouse that was situated in a street corner between other surrounding buildings. Since the area was known to be pretty tightly packed, the roads were barely wide for anyone to drive through so cars would have to park in the nearby lot or garage if they wished to visit the area. Of course, living in Japan with so many sources of public transportation found it pointless for us to actually own a car.

"Aren't you gonna go inside?" Tomoyo spoke as I stood motionless in front of the old double doors.

My heart pounded loudly and deeply like a wardrum while my chest tightened with discomfort. I looked down and whispered, "I don't want to yet."
"What was that?" she asked.

"Nevermind." I replied. Questions started to rush through my head like a flood. What would happen if I told her about how my dad and I didn't get along? How would she feel knowing the truth? Would I then have to tell her about my disability? What would she say about that, as well? This is all too embarrassing for me to tell her. God, I wish she'd just leave.

"Okazaki. Are you ok? You look really tense, again." My head then turned to look at her deep, ocean blue eyes which seemed to be filled with nothing but worry. I asked myself if there was anything I could do to help put her to ease without revealing too much but nothing my mind thought up sufficed. I didn't have a choice. There were something things that some people shouldn't know about and the relationship with my father was one them.

My hands reached for the door in front of me and slowly slid it open far enough for my body to squeeze in. This was to make sure Tomoyo wouldn't be able to see the "fantastic" state the interior of my house was in. Thankfully, the lights were off on the inside and my dad didn't seem to be aware of my presence. Signs pointed out that he had gone to sleep early.
I breathed a sigh of relief. After stepping inside, I turned around to face Tomoyo from across the threshold and said, "I'll see you tomorrow," with a forced smile and began sliding the door closed.

"Wait!" she stopped me, "Is it too much to ask for you to wake up a little earlier in the morning?"

"Why?" I questioned.

"…no real reason apart from you should. It's good for your health and you won't miss anything in class."

My mind could tell she had another reason for wanting me to wake up early, "Depends on my mood but I'll see." I then considered the worried expression she had on her face a few seconds ago. Maybe it'd make her feel better if I said, "If you really want to walk with me, I guess I'll try to make the effort to wake up on time."

It worked. She smiled benevolently with content, "At least that's better than nothing." Tomoyo's face then shifted to a more serious yet kind, look. "Okazaki, if you ever have any problems or you need someone to talk to, just come to me. Matter of fact, here." She takes her slender hands and reaches into her school bag for the flip phone. "Let's exchange numbers in case something important comes up."
We did.
"Excellent. Well, if you do plan on waking up, I'll be passing your house at around 7:30."

"Ok, then."

"Ok. Well, um. Good night, Okazaki. It was nice to meet you, again."
"Good night," I returned her farewell. She then bowed and left my doorstep. However instead of closing the door, my eyes continued to watch her carefully from behind as she walked down the street before disappearing out of sight at the turn of the corner. Even then, I kept watching. Waiting. But she was gone for sure and I silently closed the door.