Chapter Ten

The Date

I hurried home, hoping that Hanako had returned, I was eager to tell him about my tarot reading, I wanted to hear his thoughts about it, but the apartment was empty, and he didn't appear when I called for him.

"He must be out," I told myself, scared of the possibility that he was mad at me. I went into the bedroom and found the window wide open again. Sitting on my bed, was another newspaper. I froze. I felt eyes on me, boring into me with such malice and hatred that it made my bones hurt.

"Who's there?" I called into the darkness of my room. There was no answer, but the pressure seemed to lift. Whatever presence had been there, it had left. "Hanako?" I called again, terrified. But no one was there. I was left alone in a dark room with an old newspaper. I steeled my nerves. Hadn't Sakura just told me about this? This was no time to run away like a frightened child. I clenched my fists and marched into the room, picking up the newspaper. As I expected it was another article about a serial killer from the 70s. The newspapers had taken to calling the serial killer "Shadow" because he operated at night, often in alleys or on the side of the road. Picking up unsuspecting drunk girls heading home from the bar. They'd be found close to the scene of their abduction, strangled and posed in humiliating ways. The guy obviously had problems with women.

Once I finished the article I stuffed it under the mattress, I didn't want Hanako to tear it up again, I had a feeling these newspapers might be important, and I wanted to hold on to them.

It was hours before Hanako appeared, he seemed distracted, but he came back to reality once I mentioned the Tarot cards.

"You should avoid opening any channels to the supernatural realm, especially outside of this apartment. Out there, I can't protect you.

"I don't need you to protect me," I said.

"You do though, there are dangers out there that even I can't do anything about, if you mess around with that kind of stuff, you're going to end up hurt.

"Can't I just be happy about this?"

"Happy about your tarot reading? It was a terrible reading, confusion, disaster, what's there to be happy about?"

"The Lovers!" I said, I wasn't sure why, but I was getting emotional, "that means it works, that means that I'll find love."

"Is that really all that matters to you?" He asked, hurt was plain on his face.

"Yes," I said, "love is all that matters."

"More than your life?"

"More than anything."

"I see," he said, his voice dripping with disappointment, then he suddenly disappeared. I didn't see him for three days after that.

~oOoOoOo~

It took days and a lot of encouragement from Aoi for me to finally ask Kou out. It was a small thing, just a date at a coffee shop, typical. But I was still very nervous. Hanako fussed over me before the date, like a father when his little girl is going out for the first time.

"Be back by eight, not a second later, I will start making calls from this apartment to the police, they will track you down and…"

"Hanako, stop, I'll be fine."

"Do you have a condom?" He asked, bluntly. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish, stunned by the question.

"Do I have a what?"

"A condom," he fished around in his pockets, until he pulled out a small plastic wrapped square and offered it to me. I flinched back from it like it was a venomous snake. "Don't be so childish Yashiro," he scolded.

"Why do you of all people have a condom?"

"For occasions like this of course, take it, put it in your purse.

"But I don't need it! For heaven's sake it's the first date!"

"You never know what could happen, if things start getting hot and heavy this kind of thing is important to have, you aren't ready for a family and there is always the risk of STDs, and-"

"Okay! Fine! I'll take it, just please stop talking!" I snatched the condom from him and shoved it in my purse. "I'm not going to use it." I told him.

"No," he smiled vaguely, "probably not. But better safe than sorry."

~oOoOoOo~

I met up with Kou in front of the coffee shop, he was dressed nicely, but casually. Because of Hanako's pushing and prodding, I was probably over dressed, in a long black skirt and white blouse adorned with a skull brooch. Kou smiled at me, an easy going comfortable smile that instantly put me at ease. This guy was nothing like Koji. He held the door open for me as we entered the shop. A true gentleman, but something seemed...a little off. This seemed like a very platonic sort of date.

"Um, this is a date, right?" I asked him, as he sat down across from me. "I just wanted to make sure…"

"This can be a date," he said, but he seemed a little nervous, "I mean, a date between friends?"

"Between friends?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Yashiro-san, if it seems like I led you on, I didn't mean to," he fidgeted as the waiter came by to take our order. I tried to ignore the fact that my heart was sinking into my stomach as I ordered. "It's just…" he continued once the waiter had left, "Oh, I'll just come out and say it, I'm already interested in someone."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I said, mortified, "she must be very beautiful."

"He is," said Kou, turning very bright red.