5/4/2020

It's literally a year later...

The author you love to hate has updated.

Well, once again, it's 5/5 in Japan, so happy birthday to Hibari!

Karaoke Neighbor

Chapter 22

Phases

Estell gazed out the window as her Japanese History teacher/tutor, Hayate Misa, gave her lesson to the class. The trees were green. She really missed Spring. Cherry Blossoms were so gorgeous to look at. But alas, it was now July, and really hot. The school's A/C was blowing just fine; it was home that was the problem. The young woman had to buy a fan because there was no built-in unit in her apartment, and the expense from buying her own would just be too much. Since she knew that Hibari owned one, she tried multiple times throughout the weeks to get herself invited into his apartment to no avail. She even got herself a detention in hopes that she could serve it in his room, like the first time. He made sure that she was in a classroom instead.

She sighed loudly, immediately receiving a nudge from her left after. Takahiro gave her a look before turning his attention back to the teacher. She looked at his profile for a beat before zoning out again.

She had not seen Miles in weeks. They'd communicate here and there via LINE app, but he was becoming increasingly busy after his graduation. He only got his work visa recently, but he still had to job hunt and get options beforehand. He also had to continue his language studies alone. Estell offered to help, but their schedules would barely allow for it. Besides work, he also had college to think about. Not that he was going that year or anything, but he still had to think about it. He could very well get admitted to a cheap school the following year.

College, huh?

If everything went as planned, she would be graduating next March and returning to sunny California. She hadn't thought much about college herself. Her parents wanted her to go to UCLA, but with her grades…

Probably wasn't happening. With her dad being an alum, though, he could possibly pull some strings for her. But did she even want to go…?

She sighed again.

"Estell-chan. Can you answer this question?" Hayate-sensei suddenly asked.

'Crap. Shoulda paid attention…'

"Sorry, Hayate-sensei. My thoughts were elsewhere."

"Mmm. Pay attention, yes?"

The young woman nodded. Taka glanced at her briefly before looking back at his textbook.

Instead of going to see Hibari, Estell decided to stay in the classroom for her study period. He was probably getting tired of her incessant pleas to get inside his apartment. She'd give him a break for the rest of the week (which was basically just tomorrow, as she didn't count the weekend.)

When the girl to his right hadn't moved an inch from her spot for several minutes, Takahiro stopped what he was doing (reading a novel) and turned to her.

"Estell-san. You're still here."

"I am aware of that, Taka. And drop the -san." No matter how many times she said it, he'd just ignore her. She understood that it was a cultural thing to be polite like this, from both his Japanese and Korean sides, but they were friends and she felt like he didn't have to treat her as respectful as he did.

Especially since she sure as hell didn't.

But Kim Takahiro really just did it for kicks. "You aren't seeing your enemy-lover today?"

She laughed a bit. "No. He probably wants to kill me, so it's best we don't see each other for a time."

"Mmm…"

He ended the conversation there and went back to his book, while Estell started her studying.

And then there was one. Since Miles had left a few weeks ago, Hayate Misa had kept her study sessions the same length, but with just the two of them now it felt a little odd. Outside conversations were very brief, and they mostly talked about the material. Misa actually found it a little boring, but she was being paid extra to teach this one girl, so she would be sure to give her all the attention she needed to succeed by the end of the school year.

Misa didn't know too much about her student, but her judgements based on looks seemed to be more or less correct. The girl was the delinquent type, but also very smart. She had plowed her way through her Japanese textbooks at an impressive speed. Misa believed that Estell could do anything she set her mind to.

She smiled at her student as the continued their lesson.

'Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge.' A very interesting drama. Estell had gotten into reruns of the show last week, and she was hooked. Literally 'Perfect Girl Evolution', and also 'The Wallflower'. It was about a girl who got rejected by her crush for being 'ugly', and decided to hide her face and denounce beauty standards. Also a bunch of pretty boys were tasked by her aunt to make her into a proper lady so that they could live in her mansion rent-free. Estell found out that it was a manga and anime. She didn't feel like getting into the source material just yet. The show was doing more than enough to keep her entertained, as well as a few others. She couldn't 100% understand the TV shows she watched (except for the one's for toddlers,) but she got the gist of most of the sentences she heard. J-dramas were amazing, she found out. In the few weeks that she had her TV, she watched hours and hours worth of shows and movies. She even forgot to do her homework a few times.

She got up at the end of the show and went towards the balcony. She had her sliding doors cracked open to get some of the breeze, and her fan on as well. She opened the doors further and went outside.

One of the reasons she had been so moody as of late was because she no longer had any cigarettes, and she wanted to see what her body would do without them. Her body was very angry with her and very hungry, but she tried to control it. So instead of looking outside and smoking, she opted just for looking outside. It was a quiet night. She couldn't tell if Hibari was up and about or not. If he came outside, he'd probably walk right back in if he saw her out here.

And, of course, the other reason for her moodiness was because her best friend was no longer by her side.

She felt a vibration in her back pocket and heard the chime of her notification tone. It was from LINE. She checked it. It was a message from Q. His supplier was about to discontinue sales on the model of BB gun she wanted. She needed to act fast before it was gone. She did have a bit more money saved up for the thing.

"Hmm…"

All the other models they sold were more expensive, and since Q had his middle-man pricing in there too, they would be more so. And she did really want that gun. Why? Pulling a gun on Hibari Kyoya would probably get her killed, but she was also curious as to what he would do. She needed something to defend herself when he decided to be less than civil with her. Which could be very soon.

And he wasn't going to die or anything. It was just a BB gun…

'Okay. I'll go see you tomorrow, then."

Short. I know. I would like to thank you once again for reading.

I've never really been good at this story thing. Most of my focus has been on creating games and art. Believe it or not, I've had 2 Lead Game Artist positions this semester; one of them being an internship position (that I had last semester as well.) And yes, I'm old but I'm still in college.

With that said, as always, shameless plug to go play the Karaoke Neighbor game. It's still not been remade/remastered, but it'll get done. One of these years, haha. And the most recent dating sim is a demo called Now Accepting: Roommate, where you find the perfect roommate. Links to everything I've been up to in my profile.

Shout out to Italy!

Song:

Phases - ASHLEE + EVAN