Chapter Thirty-Three

Bags packed and my new apartment waiting, my mother followed me to the door. She still wasn't accepting of the move, but I needed the time away.

Kotoko watched dejectedly from the stairway as I slipped my feet into my shoes. She hadn't said much about it, although she was clearly distraught. Her eyes fell to the ground in front of her.

"Naoki, please take care of yourself, okay?" My mother said, "Make sure to eat your vegetables and…"

"I know." Yuuki came to the door to say goodbye. I couldn't say he had been very happy either.

"Good luck." He said. I nodded.

"Thanks." I snuck a glance at Kotoko who didn't appear to be coming over or wanting to say anything. She caught the glance and averted her line of sight again.

"Goodbye."

On the walk to my new apartment, I kept checking behind me to make sure I wasn't being followed. I hadn't told my mother where I was going to be living because if I did, it would almost be as though I didn't live alone. She would drop by to cook me dinner, check up on me, and make sure my fridge had food in it. Same went for where I would be working.

The apartment building was an hour walk from the house. I finally got there just past noon and dug the key out of my pocket.

Turning the lock, I felt the change. The door swung open to reveal the small stack of boxes to be unpacked. Everything had been moved here yesterday, and then I'd gone out and bought other things I didn't have, like food, towels, a bed, and the like. And then today, I'd finished packing up back at the house.

I closed the door behind me and suddenly it was final. The still air reminded me of how alone and boring the place would be.

I got to unpacking the boxes. It was mostly clothes and books, and it wasn't hard to get them put away with how small this place was. The living space was the size of a slightly larger bedroom. Off of that branched a bathroom and tiny kitchen.

I came to unpacking a smaller box. This one had awards in it… and a few other things. The dirty and broken charm Kotoko had made for me, that strange head massager she'd bought me, and two pictures: the one taken when we'd fallen asleep studying and the one taken on graduation day.

I smiled at the objects. Every last of these things had some sort of crazy memory attached to it.

I placed them in the top drawer of my desk carefully, and then the graduation picture out on the desktop. I liked the look of it there.

The rest of the boxes were unpacked successfully and my phone rang.

"Hello." I got it after the first ring. I'd been expecting a call.

"Is this Naoki Irie?" A man asked. I recognised his voice. The manager of a cafe a few blocks down who I'd recently had an interview with.

"Yes, it is."

"Hi, it's Oishi Tadayoshi from Teppan. We'd like to offer you the position you applied for. Do you think you could come in for paperwork in a bit?"

"Great. Yes, I can come in." I said, so relieved to have gotten this job.

"How about one-thirty?" He asked.

"That's a good time. I'll see you then."

"See you."

I picked up around me, took the boxes out to the dumpster, and walked the few blocks to Teppan.

Once there, I filled out all of my information in the paperwork and was handed an apron to come in the next day and start.

I went home. Night rolled in for the stillest sleep I'd had in ages.

A/N: I know, this chapter is short… maybe my shortest one. I don't like posting these brief, barely-one-page chapters, but nothing too big was happening here. The next one will be longer, I promise. :D