LATE

I know, 4:21 p.m. on Wednesday as I finished the chapter.

BUT, there's another chapter within the week.

Promise.

Meichō was late, and it wasn't her fault.

Her stupid brother had insisted on driving and she was not happy about not making it through the traffic jam. That was last night. And she had gotten home at two in the morning. She wasn't too sure why there was even a traffic jam at that late into the night. But apparently, big parties involved lots of cars. And maybe accidents.

And she hadn't slept in a while.

So when she did, she slept like a baby.

Well, maybe not a baby, since Meichō knew they woke up several times in the middle of the night.

Log.

That was the word.

She slept like a log.

She shook those thoughts out of her head and looked at the time on her phone.

9:56 a.m.

Technically, she wasn't late.

They had agreed to meet up at 10:30 a.m.

But for the love of god she had to take the train like a normal person. Apparently normal eighteen-year-olds in Japan didn't drive. There normally wasn't a need to. But still. She wasn't familiar with the Kyoto subway system. Really, who was she kidding, she wasn't familiar with Japan after two years. She had barely managed to remember the roads to university (the only place she would let Mayuzumi drive her to) from her house.

Kaori had told her a week prior that she needed to leave her precious car at home because, and Meichō quote, it's Japan. And apparently double dates had some romance in it when they had to meet somewhere by taking the train. Meichō really didn't understand.

As far as she was concerned, Meichō hadn't even agreed to go on a double date. Not even by accident.

And when she spoke to Mayuzumi about it, he seemed equally annoyed.

Though, what he was annoyed about, Meichō could only take a wild guess.

50% because KataYuu had roped him into it and he really didn't want to. That, she was sure was the truth.

30% because he was liking Sen, who is a lot more his car than Ume ever was, and ever will be. Also verified truth, according to her 'human connection with cars' sensor.

15% because, and she suspected, he didn't want to be seen participating in a double date.

And the other 5% was because, and once again Meichō could only suspect, he didn't want to tell his mother what he was going to be up to.

According to Mayuzumi, explaining to his family the existence of Meichō in itself was mortifying. Even though, Meichō had even transferred herself into the same university as him so she seemed less suspicious. Meichō spent much of her time in Mayuzumi's lectures, since she had no need of a second engineering degree. She was, technically, a working adult. But her age didn't seem to agree with the rest of society.

Their usual dates involved Meichō lazing around in the small book shop Mayuzumi worked in. The owner of the bookshop was an old man who was a big fan of teasing them, and that one aspect guaranteed that he got along great with Yuuta. One-time Meichō had decided to invite Mayuzumi over for dinner. She cooked.

Then she decided she should never do it again because really, cooking took so much effort.

Cooking wasn't pressing '0's and '1's.

And that was too much effort.

As was heading to the amusement park on a Thursday.

It was a little before Christmas break, which meant, naturally, everyone was bizarrely festive. But it was a school day, which meant that there were less people than usual. Which improved Mayuzumi's mood, as Meichō was observing. Except, Kaori and Yuuta were both late. Actually, Meichō was later herself, since she had underestimated how long it took to get from one place to another.

She was used to speeding without the worry of tickets, not staying on one track waiting for the doors of the train to close. Really, why was she not allowed to drive again?

She shook her thoughts away and looked over at Mayuzumi, who was sitting in the seat opposite to hers at the café. He was reading, and well, they were attracting weird looks. Which really, at that point, didn't even surprise Meichō. She looked at her phone again when it buzzed in her hand, the caller ID was of Kaori.

"Mei, why is it, that you two don't talk?"

"Maybe because we were told to participate in this date without our consent?" Meichō offered. "Also, because I didn't sleep much last night?"

"Explain to me why, you are wearing clothes that makes you look like you are going to a business meeting?" Kaori and Yuuta were both standing by the table now. Mayuzumi looked up at them lazily, not even bothering to give them a greeting. Meichō just ended the call and locked her phone. "And Mayuzumi-senpai, do you have anything in your wardrobe that's not grey and white?"

"Kaori, unless you want to get me a whole new set of clothes, this is all I've got." Meichō told her. "Discount all the hoodies."

"It's like I dragged two old people out to the amusement park." Kaori complained.

"Well, let's teach the two old people what an amusement park is." Yuuta grinned. Meichō exchanged a look with Mayuzumi, and both of them shrugged.

Despite having a really bad morning, Meichō discovered that the thing called an amusement park was actually a lot more fun than she had imagined.

"Senpai, do you think it would be possible for rollercoasters to reach the speed of race cars?" Meichō mused as they sat down on a bench. Kaori and Yuuta had met some of Yuuta's friends, and they were now having an overly animated conversation somewhere to their right. Mayuzumi raised an eyebrow, his expression telling Meichō everything she needed to know about his answer. "Why not?"

"Just how strong is your death wish?" Mayuzumi asked her.

"You know, I went to a F1 race before," Meichō started. "Those can easily reach the speed of 160km/h."

"A roller coaster isn't a F1 race car, Watanabe." Meichō pouted at Mayuzumi's answer.

"One, I told you to stop calling me that," Meichō complained. "And two, it would be man-kind's single most magnificent invention if everyone can experience the speeds of a F1 race car on a roller coaster track."

"Things going that fast on land is really the antithesis of safe, much less on roller coaster tracks." Mayuzumi opted. His eyes told Meichō he didn't particularly want to have the conversation with her. Most likely for safety reasons. The gears in Meichō's head began turning, and she chose to ignore Mayuzumi, taking out her phone instead. "What are you doing, Meichō?"

"You will see senpai, you will see." Meichō replied absent-mindedly as she typed into her phone. It was only when Kaori forcibly removed her phone from her hand that she looked up. "I was mid calculation."

"For what?" Kaori asked, confused as to why Meichō was doing calculations in the middle of an amusement park, Mayuzumi looking obviously exasperated next to her. Meichō blinked, and held her hand out to get her phone.

"She wants roller coasters to go at the speed of F1 race cars." Mayuzumi told Kaori as Meichō finished the rest of her equation in her phone.

"What are F1 race cars?" Kaori asked.

"Single-seat auto racing cars." Yuuta told Kaori. "Chihiro, you really shouldn't encourage Mei-chan."

"I didn't!" Mayuzumi snapped.

"Um, how fast do they go?" Kaori asked, wondering exactly what the big deal was. Mayuzumi looked at Meichō's friend with a pointed look.

"There was a Honda that went up to 415km/h." Mayuzumi told her. Kaori's confusion morphed into horror as she quickly grabbed Meichō's phone from her again.

"Mei, let's drop the idea." Kaori suggested.

"I will do it later, give me back my phone first, Kaori." Meichō said. "It's not like I will force Kaori to go on it."

"Chihiro, 200-yen Mei-chan will definitely force Kaori onto it if she succeeds."

"I'm not making that bet."

"Come on, it's only 200-yen."

"KataYuu, you can go on it instead."

"Only if it's safe, Mei-chan."

"I will make sure they let you be the test subject." Meichō laughed.

"This is the first time I've seen someone quit their programming job to make an amusement ride." Yuuta commented as he walked into the room. Meichō sat at the desk, on the desk sat layers upon layers of paper. "When did you have time to get a physics major?"

"I don't just lazy around in the lectures I go to, KataYuu." Meichō said with a grin. "And it so happens both you and Senpai are Physics majors."

"And all this just to prove a point?"

"Well, Akihito was telling me I should do something I really want to do." Meichō started and finished yet another calculation. "Programming is something that I had to do, and this is just something I brought up by chance."

"You're really weird, you know that?"

"Thanks Sherlock." Meichō rolled her eyes and said in English.

I feel like at times this story makes me either sound really ignorant of how cars and stuff really work, or it makes me sound like a super car trash.

Murasaki xx