Mob didn't quite know what to do with herself.
She usually had work today. She didn't work every single day, just most days, so to have a day off when she usually had work was…odd. Kind of like the first day of winter or summer break when she got up really early even though there wasn't any school to get up for but she was still used to it. She was used to going to work at this time and without work, well, she just did not know.
Her friends were spending time with their boyfriends, maybe she should do that.
Well Tome was, anyway, being the only friend she had with a boyfriend. She said that she had 'important personal matters' to attend to. That meant that she and Inukawa were going to be doing stuff. Couple stuff. Romantic stuff. The kind of stuff that Mob knew that she and Teru would never do. It was hard enough to get him to kiss her let alone…and she didn't even know if she wanted of that stuff, the kind of stuff that Tome talked about. Mob was fourteen, she knew about everything, and some things seemed nice, somethings seemed weird, and some things she knew that she was nowhere in the realm of ready for.
But it would have been nice to be able to figure out, for herself, what she was ready for without Teru being all 'I would never make you do anything like that'. Or maybe she should have been happier that he was like that, not pushy, because she had heard that boys could be very pushy. Mom always said that boys were only after one thing and Mob was finally old enough to know what that one thing was.
Mom also said that good girls did not even think about that sort of thing.
So maybe Mob was just weird. Or maybe not. Tome thought, and talked, about that sort of thing and so did Rei. Well Rei pretended that she didn't but she did. Mob just wished that Rei didn't think so much about Ritsu like that….ick. Rei was in love with him, which Mob had no problem with, but Rei also wanted to kiss and…other stuff…with Ritsu…and that was just…ick.
Because Ritsu was her little brother, and he was too little to even begin to think about those sorts of things, not that she didn't want him to be happy or anything like that.
Of course mob wanted Ritsu to be happy, he was her little brother, and Rei was one of Mob's best friends so of course she would be a good boyfriend for Ritsu. Then when Rei and Ritsu got married she and Mob would be sisters….which would have been just the best. Mob wished, when she was little, that she had a little sister but mom and dad said no. They said that another child would be too big of an expense, which made sense, but then Mob overheard them talking and mom said that she did not want to roll the dice on getting another Mob…
Which also made sense.
Even though Master Reigen said that it didn't. Master Reigen said, all those years ago, that she wished that she had another ten Mobs. She was always saying nice stuff like that. Well not that one time when they had that great big fight…but that was over and done with now. Sometimes people fought, even friends, and that was normal. She and Rei fought, a little, before…and Tome fought with everyone. Well not for real, that was just how Tome was. Mob missed her friends, occasional fights and all, and she wondered if it would be ok to…
Tome was busy with her boyfriend.
Rei was busy with the boy, one of the boys, who she wanted to be her boyfriend.
So Mob should be busy with her boyfriend, too.
Club was over, school was long over, so there was nothing stopping Mob from making the walk over to Black Vinegar, Teru's school. A lot nicer than hers. Bigger, newer, and the uniforms looked like actual clothes that people would maybe want to wear in daily life. They looked nice, the uniforms at Black Vinegar, or maybe Teru just made his look nice. He looked nice in everything.
Even red, sweaty, and covered in dirt he looked nice.
He was still at soccer practice. The walk to Black Vinegar was not so very long that Mob missed him. He had soccer some days, biking club others, and very rarely a day off. This was not one of those days, the days when he didn't have anything going on and she called off work and they held hands and walked and talked and went to the movies, too, sometimes because Teru really like movies and she liked whatever Teru liked...mostly just to see him happy. Like now he was happy, or at least he looked it, or at least Mob thought that he looked happy. Even if he was super red and super sweaty and super dirty, too. Mob didn't mind, not at all, which made no sense. He was all dirty and stuff but it was…weirdly nice. Seeing him like that. He was usually so very clean…but now he wasn't…and Mob did not get it. Why she felt like this just because he was all dirty from soccer practice.
Master Reigen could probably explain it to her.
Not that she was going to call Master Reigen and ask her. She and Serizawa were working, just working, and Mob didn't want to disturb them. Just working. They were not doing any of the stuff that Tome insisted that they would. Master Reigen didn't…well Mob knew that she did…and she did like Serizawa…and he probably liked her back…but it was too soon! Mob had never even seen them holding hands. It took her and Teru weeks to go from holding hands to kissing…and that was only after Mob could not take it anymore. Even Tome said that it took years for her and Inukawa to become a couple…then a while to go from kissing to…stuff. But maybe adults were different.
Mob did not want to ask Master Reigen that.
Because it was none of Mob's business what adults did. Even though it was weirdly fascinating, what they did. How they, according to what Mob had heard, just sort of…did it. With each other. Like it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing, it was everything. Doing something like that was one of, if not the, most important things that you could do with another person. That was why Mob wanted to…if she had to…it would be with Teru. He had changed for her, been there for her when they had to save Ritsu and the others, and had even saved the world with her. He cared about her and she cared about him and she knew that he wasn't one of those boys who only wanted to do…that. He said so.
And that he would never ask that of her.
So she wouldn't ask it of him. Even though she sort of…she wanted a lot of things that she knew that she should not have wanted. She also knew that she should have been happy with what she had, with who she had, but….well there was a lot more that she could have had. Did that make her selfish?
She wasn't going to ask.
And she was going to stop thinking about this.
"Hey! Shigeko!" Teru saw her. Well he probably felt her before he saw her. Her aura was bright, he had said, bright and pretty. He said that everything about her was pretty. He always had the nicest things to say to her, which felt nice, even though Master Reigen always said to be weary of boys who buttered you up, not literally. Mob wasn't weary of Teru, not at all, even if they did fight when they first met. They were past that now, him and her, and now they were a couple and it was so wonderful…
Even if they didn't do couple stuff.
Just being with him was wonderful. He was jogging over to her now and it was wonderful and she wanted more than anything to kiss him, to just run over and kiss him like in anime…but they were in public and that would have been too much.
"Hi Teru. I have the day off today so I thought that we could spend time together…if you want to, I mean. If you don't want to then I can go home and stuff. I mean if you're too busy with practice or you have plans with your other friends or-" said Mob as Teru jogged up to her. She sometimes couldn't stop talking when he was near her. Sometimes she had trouble talking and sometimes she talked too much. He probably thought that she was awkward and weird and-
"You. I want to spend time with you." Said Teru. He said it in the way that made her insides feel like they were made out of jelly.
"O-Ok. But what about practice? I mean I just wanted to see you, I don't want you to have to-" said Mob
"It's almost over anyway. Besides, I'd rather spend time with you." Said Teru. He took her hand, then, when he said that. He took her hand and she didn't mind that he was covered in sweat and dirt. This was…this was the closest that they ever got to couple stuff, plus kissing, and it was nice. It was just…nice.
What was with her?
She wondered that the whole time while Teru got his stuff together. She should have been happy about what she had. Also mom said that girls weren't supposed to think about stuff like that…but Master Reigen said that it was ok…this was so confusing. Feelings were confusing. She almost wished that she were at work just so that she wouldn't have to feel like…this. This mixture of nervousness and happiness and excitement and also a little bit of motion sickness.
She couldn't decide if it was a good feeling or a bad feeling.
Did it get any better? Could it get any worse?
She watched him. She watched the way the sun hit his hair and made it look even more yellow than normal. She watched the way he moved through his exercise clothes. She watched…she watched him. Stared. Well of course she stared, she stared at everything, but she especially stared at him. She was so busy staring that she didn't notice a shadow fall over her.
"Mob!" shouted Tome as she came up behind her. Mob jumped in the air and hovered there for a second. The ground underneath her shook.
"Oh. Tome. It's you…and Inukawa." Said Mob. Inukawa was kind of farther off looking down at his feet and shuffling. She waved to him, he waved back. He was nice, not great friends with Mob, but nice. Tome loved him, too, so that got him points in Mob's book. Well Tome hadn't said that she loved Inukawa but she must have. She talked about him, sometimes, or a lot depending on how one saw it.
"Well don't look too happy to see me or anything." Said Tome. She was loathe to come between Mob and her boyfriend, if anyone needed to get laid it was Mob, but this was a matter of the most pressing importance!
"I am happy to see you, Tome, but you scared me that's all." Said Mob simply. She was both happy and not entirely happy to see Tome. More mixed feelings. She wanted to spend time with Tome but she also wanted to spend alone with Teru…and stuff.
"Hello Miss….Kurata, was it? Lovely to see you again." asked Teru as he jogged back over, bag slung over his shoulder.
"Hey Haystack, what's up? And for the last time it's Tome. Sheesh, are you always so polite." asked Tome. Teru colored a bit at the nickname. His hair had long grown back but he could not shake the memory of that damned wig!
"I wouldn't dream of being anything else, especially towards one of my girlfriend's dearest friends." Said Teru. Mob smiled and looked down at her shoes so nobody could see how red she was getting.
"I'm your dearest friend? Mob, I'm touched really….anyway! As your dearest friend I need a favor." Said Tome. Mob nodded. A favor could mean anything from lending, giving, Tome a few hundred yen to spending the night on her roof shivering and writing down telescope coordinates and findings all night.
"Are we having another sleepover?" asked Mob
"No. Well, maybe, but not now. Right now I need to borrow your key." Said Tome
"Which one? I have a lot of keys." Said Mob
"To the office…where else?" asked Tome
"I have house keys and-" said Mob
"Well I just need the office key! For…reasons." Said Tome. Her eyes shifted over to Inukawa. Mob followed her eyes and the wheels in her head started turning. She got the feeling that Tome didn't need to borrow the office key so get her charger.
"Are they important reasons?" asked Mob. She reached into her pocket and felt her keyring. Master Reigen trusted her with that key and she knew that she had to help her friend but she also knew that she could not abuse the trust that Master Reigen put in her.
"Can't Miss Reigen just let you in?" asked Teru
"Master Reigen and Serizawa are away today, that's why I have the day off." Said Mob. Teru was looking at her, now, and she liked it. She couldn't place the way that he was looking at her but she liked it.
"So your office is…empty?" asked Teru, his voice kind of low, there, the sort of low that made her inside feel like jelly. She felt a nervous sort of giggle rising in her throat. She stopped herself from laughing, though, because it made no sense. She had nothing to laugh at then.
"Yes." said Mob simply. That was the truth, a simple truth, but she was getting a lot of looks, now. She liked the long ones she got from Teru. Tome, on the other hand, gave her a look like her teacher did when she couldn't solve the equations on the board.
"Which is why I need to borrow the key." Said Tome slowly. Her eyes went over to Inukawa a few times. Mob got it. She got it and she turned red, a bright sort of red, not that she could see her own face but she could feel it.
"Tome….Master Reigen said that I have to hold onto the key at all times. She said that she was putting all of her trust in me…and I don't want break her trust." Said Mob softly
"Then just come along and open the door for me. You could, you know, show your boyfriend around…" said Tome. She didn't know how much clearer she could make herself. She wiggled her eyebrows and did a bunch of motions. Mob was superhumanly bad at reading the atmosphere.
"Teru's been to the office before." Said Mob
"Really? He's seen everything? Even the…backroom?" asked Tome
"Yes. I gave him a tour a while ago back when we first got the new office." Said Mob
"Not…recently…though. I mean, if you want me to come…with! Come with! That is." Said Teru. Mob really felt like there was something that she was not getting. She knew, reasonably, why Tome wanted to go with her boyfriend to the empty office but why would Teru want to-
Oh.
OH.
Ok.
"….sure. I can…I can do that…" said Mob. So this was what she was spending her day off doing. She was spending her day off at work…but not working…but still at work…when she wasn't supposed to be. But this was fine. She would just open the door and show Teru around and maybe even…kiss him…again….
Yes. This would be fine.
But there was no reason that Master Reigen needed to know about this blatant misuse of the office key.