Megumi was getting ready for the day ahead. She looked at herself in the mirror, she decided to add a few more touches to her makeup. This day was important, she could even go as far to say it may be the turning point for this village, and with the village, her life. No, no way she muttered. She had already warned herself to not get her hopes way too high, then she would be setting herself up for disappointment. So far,ever since she had found out that outsiders would be starting a cinema business, she had spent hours daydreaming of the possibilities. Maybe, just maybe some of the staff were teenagers. Surely they were from a more civilized village at least, if they weren't from the city. Megumi wasn't in Sotoba during the school time this year either, as she had started highschool and the closest highchool was far, so she had moved in with her aunt's family who lived in a nearby village. This village had way more facilities than Sotoba , it was far more developed. She also got popular pretty quick, she had good social skills and had no trouble making friends when she wanted to. So when the summer break began she was irritated that she had to go back to Sotoba, she hadn't missed it one bit. Then she found about him.
Of course she knew Natsuno Yuuki, a classmate who had moved from the city, took the train on that route but she had never thought that he also lived in actually made perfect sense, at school Megumi had seen the Mutous around Natsuno several times. She knew the mutous because her parents and their parents had relations. In the end, their relations with each other depended on their parents. When their parents weren't ineracting they hadn't ran after Megumi, still trying to be her friend, unlike a certain someone. At first, Megumi was jealous of them all, for being able to get close to Natsuno like that. Could she have been able to get close to him had she been in Sotoba during the school year? It didn't matter anymore, besides this was big for Megumi. She couldn't get close to him during the school year but with them living in the same jammed village, she would surely have an opportunity to get closer to him. Not being sure how else to approach him she decided to continue her old method, admiring him from afar.
It was going smoothly until one day their eyes locked. Megumi's heart skipped a beat. Could it be, did he, did he see me? Ever since that day Megumi realized how he almost always kept his curtains closed. So he had seen her, she often wondered if he had recognized her. A part of her wanted him to, that would mean he remembered her from class(of course he does, we spent almost all our waking hours in the same room for months). If he recognized her ,could he have understood why she was there? He must have, he wasn't dense. One day maybe he would come and talk to her saying "hey, we are from the same class right?". She had already made it clear she liked him so he wouldn't act timid. Megumi was hopefully waiting for that day to come, it would come soon enough, she was sure, maybe it wouldn't exactly go the way she imagined but it would happen one way or another.
It seemed like that summer amazing things wouldn't stop happenning. Soon after, she also found out about the cinema that was going to open. She had so many expectations.
Maybe the owner was a theater lover who wanted to spread the cinematic experience (only that would explain them coming all the way to this deserted village), or even better, what if they were some sort of scouts looking to find talent in unexpected places. She had seen things like that on TV, even thinking about such a miracle made her heart flutter.
Of course they may as well be a simple business, this was more likely but the idea was no fun. Although even this possibility had some exciting outcomes. This was a step to rationalising after all. After this would come cafes, shops, restaurants and then a mall, train stations, AN AIRPORT!
"Megumi! The Tanakas are downstairs waiting for you!"
Ughhhh! Megumi knew what this was all about. After the rumors that Megumi was outside at late hours meeting some boy(well that's partially true she thought) her parents hadn't directly said anything but they were cautious meaning they never let her do anything by herself. They wouldn't say you can not go but they would either join her themselves or say "how about you offer Kaori to come along as well?" But it wasn't really a question, Megumi knew that much, they were demanding it.
When Kaori moved in from the city three years ago Megumi was dying to be her friend. A friend from the city would surely be different. It was very exciting at first. Although Megumi was disappointed with the news that Kaori came from the borderlands of a city(that meant wherever she came from was pretty rural as well.) she was very excited when she found out Kaori had a cellphone, even though she was a year younger than Megumi
Kaori had explained that this was because her school was in the central parts of the city so the way to school and back home was kind of complicated, her parents bought her a phone so they could always be in contact. Kaori had a phone and, well, that was about it. Kaori's house was even in worse condition than Megumi's. It was a very boring plain small house, same with her clothing, and same with her.
She wasn't bothered with the village, then she got herself an ugly faced mutt, she would take it out on walks everyday. She always looked messy,she was always jumping and running around and if anyone was worse then her, it was her obnoxious little brother. He was a geeky hyperactive 13 year old with a lot of attitude. Kaori herself was a bit geeky too, whenever she and her brother started having arguments about silly things from books and movies or how they were gonna make money to get a new video game Megumi would loose it. They had only taken one trait from city kids and it was unbearable.
It was somehow worse now. Some time ago Kaori's mutt died. After that her parents didn't let her get another dog so she started carrying around food with her to feed the stray dogs. Soon they were following her around everywhere. This made Megumi miss the ugly mutt, these dogs were dirty, big and scary.
Megumi had convinced her parents to get a cellphone this year since she was starting highschool. Now Kaori was no more of a city kid then Megumi and Megumi had no reason to hang out with her but it wasn't that simple. Kaori was clinging to Megumi like a leech. Megumi's parents liked her too. Growing up in the city Kaori had solid academical knowledge so after they started studying together Megumi's grades got better which was truly appreciated by her parents. All parents would like their kid to have a nerdy obedient friend to set up a "good example"
Megumi sighed. She would find a way to get the Tanakas off her tail somehow. She looked at the mirror one last time and gave a determined smile. Nothing was bringing her mood down, not today. She slowly made her way downstairs.
"Hey Megumi, it sure is hot today, huh"
Casual weather talk. Megumi grimaced. She didn't exactly know why but everything Kaori did and say got on her nerves more and more as time passed by.
"Come on you two, hurry up! I don't want the tickets for star wars to be sold out."
"Wait I thought we were seeing Matrix?"
Megumi wanted to scream. Then she realised that this was actually great, she would go to a different movie from them(whatever they would decide to watch would be something lame anyway.)this would be her chance to loose them. She laughed inwardly, then turned to her mom with an innocent face.
"Well, we are off now, bye mom"
Kaori was feeling pretty content while walking towards the cinema. She was unsure about it at first. That cinema. It gave her the creeps. After Akira noticed this he started making up stories about it to scare Kaori. The stories were so ridiculous that instead of filling their purpose, creeping Kaori out, they had made her feel better about the cinema. After all it was just a cinema, a weird one, but a cinema nevertheless.
Megumi seemed happy too. That's rare she thought bitterly. Then she was surprised and scolded herself for thinking that, but it was true. Megumi always seemed angry, this year even more than before. Since she wasn't in the village during the school year they had only interacted once. Kaori had sent her a birthday message. That was it. Kaori felt like they were drifting apart, or were they never close in the first place. That wasn't it. It couldn't be, Megumi was Kaori's first friend in the village, and if Kaori didn't count the dogs or Akira, she was her only friend.
When they moved she was just twelve. Everyone had just eyed her from a distance, whereas Megumi had come and talked to her. Kaori didn't know how to approach people she didn't know. She had overall good manners and could hold a formal conversation just fine but she wasn't good with casual chatting around. Especially more recently she was having trouble communicating with Megumi too, but Megumi wasn't someone she didn't know so what was this all about.
She actually had a good idea what Megumi was actually happy about. She knew that Megumi was excited more about the people inside the cinema than the cinema itself,since the cinema was being operated by outsiders. She really admired the city life and its people. Kaori didn't really want to crash Megumi's dreams but as far as she had observed from 12 years of living in the city, people were essentially the same everywhere. Gossipers and nosy people didn't only exist in the village after all. Then again the part where Kaori lived wasn't where Megumi was hoping to live and Kaori wasn't very great at reading people.
As they were walking they were all quiet,as in not speaking cause Akira somehow managed to make so much noise just while doing something as simple as walking. Megumi was texting someone on her phone. It was probably someone from the other village. She must have made a lot of friends Kaori thought. It wasn't surprising, even before starting high school Megumi was well known around not only Sotoba but in the Mizobe region and many other villages nearby as well. Akira was now playing a game on his phone instead of watching his steps. She was about to warn him but she stopped herself. Akira was as stubborn as a mule, if Kaori said something like that he would take it as a challenge and try to pull of some stutnts.
It was at times like this that she especially missed Love. It had been more than a year since Kaori's dog that she had since she was very little had died. Kaori cried about Love for weeks, she even had trouble eating and sleeping. She felt like she had lost a dear friend which was true for her but her mom thought it was stupid and got angry with her for grieving the dogs death so much. After some months when Kaori asked for another dog her mom refused saying she got too attached last time and it was better this way cause she apparently used to slack off a lot, both in schoolwork and chores, always making the dog an excuse.
Kaori really loved animals, especially dogs because they were loyal and usually they just wanted to be friends, no questions asked. They weren't picky either. They were willing to follow around whoever fed them and soon they would come even when they were full, just to play. That's when you knew you were friends with the dog. Dogs were so much easier to befriend than humans.
While Megumi was gone she had also made a lot of friends, they just weren't human. She looked around and whistled a bunch of times to see if they would come, as always she had stashed some food with herself in case they were around. Megumi swiftly looked up and gave Kaori a murderous look to which Kaori grinned sheepishly and shrugged.
"I promise you, you have nothing to worry about, none of them bite."
"Yeah whatever, just don't summon them now, we are almost there. They won't let us in if those things are following you."
With this Akira's head rose too
"Wait, for real? FİNALLY!"
Akira took of running, Kaori smiled and ran after him while Megumi inhaled sharply keeping her head straight, continuing to walk gracefully. This was it. Every move Megumi made after entering the cinemas field of vision would count. She just had to loose the Tanakas then the rest would go smoothly.
This one was kind of short heh. From here on the plot will start moving forward. Please point out if there are any mistakes. Thank you so much for reading.