pow pow its the pain train ٩(◕‿◕。)۶
Monday, October 20
Mai held her breath and closed her eyes. On her desk before her lay her quiz from the previous week. She slowly opened one eye and peaked at the paper. She gasped.
"Naru! Look, look! I passed!" Mai held the paper up to his face with an unprecedented amount of joy. His eyes scrutinized the paper. A red 92 in a circle was written in the corner of her paper.
"If you didn't pass after my help, you truly would be hopeless," he continued on reading in his book. She let her arm drop directly down. She blankly started at him.
"Good job, Mai!" Gene gave her a reassuring smile. Naru scoffed next to them.
"Definitely fridge material," he deadpanned.
"I'm just thinking I should just ignore him at this point," Mai rested her chin in her hands and looked at Gene who agreed with a nod.
"You two are childish," he turned the page in his book.
"Did you just hear a buzz, Gene? Is there a fly?" Mai looked around as if she were looking for the imaginary bug.
"Yeah, heard that too! For sure a fly," Gene said in a serious tone and scanned around the room too. Naru rolled his eyes and continued on in his book.
The teacher entered and cleared their throat to call attention back to the authority.
"Today, I am assigning you all a project that will be worth 40% of your final grade," Mai's head dropped. The teacher continued, "It will be due by the end of the week, so I do not advise waiting too long to begin it. You'll be tasked with choosing an intricate piece of Japanese culture, explaining the context in which it is used in now and also how it was used throughout Japanese history. Then, you will relate whatever you chose to the rest of the world and compare and contrast how they are viewed and used. You'll be required to write the last paper completely in English. You may only use primary sources as well," at this point, Mai was tempted to run and jump out of the window.
"However, I will allow you to work in groups on this project," Gene spun around and his chair and gave Mai a wink. He claimed her as his partner. She felt relieved, she knew Gene was better than her at English but-
"Groups of three, that is," The pair slowly turned their heads over to the other identical twin. He did not reciprocate their looks. A collective sigh passed between the two. The fun police had arrived.
The trio walked down the sidewalk after school, trying to come up with a time and place they could meet to do their project.
"Well, uh, I have work every day this week so…" Mai fidgeted with her fingers.
"Until what time?" Gene had an inkling it was going to be difficult to find time.
"Not until late," she scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Guess we will have to work in the café then," Gene shrugged.
Mai pulled her hair back into a ponytail and got right to work in the café. Gene and Naru sat at the counter, their books for the project sprawled across it. They talked amongst themselves while Mai served the customers. Truthfully, she wasn't going to be much help seeing how busy it was today. When she had a free moment though, she would join them at the counter and discuss what they were doing and about the information they had collected. It didn't last long though, as each time Mai was whisked away by a customer after a minute or two.
"She looks cute in a ponytail, don't you think?" Gene smiled as she walked away to help a customer. Naru rolled his eyes, took a sip of his tea, and continued writing down notes on his paper, "Hadn't even noticed," he spoke dryly.
"Suurreee you didn't," Gene stretched in his seat.
"I like the color of the hair tie too, I think it suits her well."
Without looking up from his notes, Naru replied, "Pink has never been a likable color."
"How'd you know it was pink? Thought you said you didn't notice," Gene smirked widely. The other twin ignored his brothers comment and continued working diligently.
"Someone just got buuuuusted."
"You're forgetting my abilities."
"Or maybe you're forgetting about your human emotions."
The door opened with a chime and Mai greeted the returning customer.
"John! How have you been? The regular?" the sound of Mai's cheerful voice perked the two boy's ears at the counter. She made her way behind the counter and stood in front of his normal seat and smiled as the blonde foreigner took a seat. Mai listened closely as John talked about his day and poured him a hot cup of coffee that had been freshly made. She giggled as he told her about the children at a church he had just gone to visit, and how they had made him play hide and seek with them.
A throat was cleared by someone also sitting at the counter.
"For a three-person project, it only feels as though only two people are doing anything," Naru shot her a look. Gene elbowed him in the side.
John scratched the back on his neck awkwardly, "Sorry, Mai. I didn't know you were working on something already."
"No, no, no! It's fine! Naru is just being a jerk," She shot him a venomous glance. The air became chilled and almost thick with tension.
"Do you all go to school together?" John made a guess based on the uniforms. Mai nodded and broke her stare off with Naru.
"John, this is Gene and Naru. Gene and Naru, John," Mai introduced the parties to each other. They greeted each other.
"John's here from Australia, he's a priest actually," Mai explained. Naru perked up a little. Gene looked slightly shocked, "A priest? You look too young to be!"
John smiled at him, "I'm actually 19. People have told me I look young for my age."
"You sure do!" Gene looked at him as if he didn't believe his age.
"A priest…" Naru mumbled under his breath.
After a while, John left for home. The café was closing soon and most patrons had departed out through the doors.
"Sorry I wasn't much help today," Mai placed newly cleaned tea cups under the counter.
"Don't worry about it, Mai. We understand. It can't be easy living by yourself, anyways," Gene gave her a wide grin and stood up from his stool.
"Living by yourself?" Naru echoed lightly, glancing inquisitively at his other half. Gene realized his mistake and quickly changed the subject to avoid further questioning.
"It's dark out now, do you want me to walk you home?" He leaned against the counter.
"Don't ignore me, Gene."
"Oh, no, it's fine! I normally walk home at this time so I'll be fine," she picked up her bag from the ground and pulled out her small ponytail, "I'll try to be more of a help next time! I'm going to go say bye to Ayako and Bou-san, I'll be right back," she scurried over to the kitchen.
"It's not a wise choice to keep secrets, you know," Naru placed his books into his bag. Gene scoffed, "Okay, Dr. Oliver Davis. Save your lectures for Edinburgh."
Thursday, October 23
"In regard to your project due tomorrow: It should be relatively finished by now, and tonight should be used to put on the finishing details," Mai sighed and slumped in her seat. They still had a lot of work to be done, and time was running out quickly.
The bell rang and the school day was now over. All the students quickly packed their books up and made their way out of the school. Mai, however, took her time. She gazed out the windows of the class, watching all of the teenagers make their way off school yards and home. Home to a family. She tapped her pencil on her desk while watching Yasuhara and his friends laugh and carry on as they walked.
Thankfully, Mai convinced Ayako to let her have off today so she could work on the project. Gene decided to have her come over to their house where they could all work in the study together. Mai was to come a little later so that she could visit her parents in peace. Naru was told she had to pick up something from her house.
She stood up from her desk and slipped on her jacket. Deciding she wasn't ready to leave just yet, she placed her book bag and phone on the top of her desk and walked out of the room. She made her way over to the door leading to the roof.
The brunette pulled open the door and felt a calming sense of serenity as the fresh air reached her. She walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down once again.
"What a wonderful view of the city…" The trees still adorned a few orange and red leaves, lights from shops and cars illuminated the streets. The sun hung partially hidden by the white clouds in the sky. The sound of people laughing and the wind filled her ears like a soft melody.
"What are you doing here?" Startled by the voice, Mai swung around to see a certain boy sitting against the wall.
"Oh, Naru. I didn't see you there," she took one last look at the view before walking over to the door where he sat.
"What are you still doing here?" she questioned.
"I asked you the same thing," his eyes looked up at the sky.
"I thought you had left with Gene," she leaned her back against the wall.
"Just because we may look alike doesn't mean we do everything together," his voice seemed to carry a bit of frustration.
"I didn't mean it like that," she sighed. After a moment of silence, Mai decided that was her cue to leave. Naru took his eyes off the sky and watched her walk over to the door, which she tried to open with all her might.
"Oh man, don't tell me it's locked!," she pulled on it harder. Naru shook his head and stood up. He walked over behind her and reached over her to push open the door.
"When a door doesn't open one way, most people with a brain try to open it the other," he glanced down at the girl who stood closely in front of him. Her faced turned bright red.
"You don't have to be a jerk about it," she shot him a look and walked quickly through the door he was still pushing open. It closed with a thud behind her. Her once clench fist relaxed, and she smiled as she walked to grab her things and go visit her parents.
He took his hand off the door as the spunky girl made her way through it. He stood there for a moment more, a small smile played on his lips, "Idiot." He shook his head and walked over to the edge where he saw the girl bounce down the street off to where he thought was home.
Later in the day, Mai had finished all she needed to and began to make her way to the twin's home. Along with her books, she brought some tea to make once she was there. It would be rude not to bring anything afterall. The clouds from earlier had now turned grey, a storm was approaching rapidly. She quickened her pace and hoped she could make it to her destination before the storm.
Thankfully, luck was on her side today. Just as she reached the driveway, raindrops fell from the sky onto the ground around her. She rang the doorbell which was promptly answered by Gene who warmly welcomed her inside and took her tea offering into the kitchen. After taking off her shoes, Mai followed Gene who took her to the study where they would be working for the night.
The room was large and completely lined with books expect for the large windows which brought in minimal light due to the storm. An elegant rug clothed the floor and a beautiful crystal chandelier with lights hung in the center of the room. It was immaculately clean, obviously one of the most cared about rooms of the house. Naru sat at the large table situated under the chandelier. He looked up at the girl unenthusiastically, "You're late."
"Sorry, I stopped at the café to get some tea. I can take it back though if you want," she placed her hands on her hips.
"Do as you please," he went back to reading the book in front of him. She clenched her fists and made her way over to the table and pulled out a chair across from the kinder twin. The two, well mainly Gene, brought her up to speed on where they were on the project, then they all went to work on their own respective sections.
Sometime past before Mai dropped her head onto her book, "Why does this have to be so difficult? I miss the times when coloring was homework."
"Don't worry, Mai. Half the battle is just understanding the words in these books," Gene gave her a reassuring smile and stood to take another book off the wall. Mai stretched her back over the chair in an attempt to crack it. She decided she needed a break.
"I'm going to go made some tea, anyone want anything?"
"Earl grey," Mai nodded.
"Gene, you need anything?"
"No thanks," He found the book he was looking for on the shelf and made his way back to the table. She turned and walked out the door, trying to remember where the kitchen was again. The house seemed like a maze to her.
After a bit of wondering, she eventually found her way. She searched through the cabinets until she found a tea pot. Turning around, she stopped in her tracks. An unfamiliar tall figure stood in the frame of the doorway, black hair covering part of his face. He stood dead still in the dimly-lit frame.
"Uh… hi?" Mai clutched the teapot she held. The figure still didn't move.
"Is that... a ghost?" A chill ran down her spine. He made a quick turn of the head and looked directly at her. At the same time, a crack of lighting flashed through the windows and a clap of thunder rumbled the house. Mai shrieked.
In a second, the lights flicked on and the once ominous figure turned out to be just a man.
'Phew, not a ghost," she placed a hand over her thumping heart.
"Mai!" Naru came running into the room with Gene not too far behind. He looked at the man, and then to Mai, assessing the situation.
"Lin, what happened?" Naru asked him.
"Lin?" Mai echoed curiously.
"Oh, I guess I should have told you about Lin," Gene rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm their guardian," Lin finally spoke. Mai laughed awkwardly.
"I thought you were a ghost!" Naru scoffed and walked out of the room. Mai went back to making her tea.
"What brings you here, Lin?" Gene leaned against the door frame.
"I have a message from your parents for Noll. He's been ignoring their messages, supposedly," Lin held a similar dead expression as Naru.
"Noll?" Mai looked down at the stove with furrowed brows.
"Let's talk about this in the study," Gene motioned down the hallway. Lin nodded and walked in the direction. Mai brushed off the foreign name and searched for a tray to carry the tea. She made four cups, one for everyone just in case they wanted it. She made her way carefully back to the study. She pushed open the door and found the three sitting at the table, the air was noticeably cooler than the rest of the house. Their conversation stopped as soon as she entered.
"Oh…sorry, am I interrupting something? I can wait in the hall- "
"No. Lin was just leaving," Naru looked highly displeased. Lin stood up and walked out the door behind Mai. The air became to warm around her. She placed the tray on the chair and each twin took a cup.
"Thank goodness I made extra."
The rain pounded on the windows, lighting occasionally flashed and filled the room with more light. Time seemed to move quickly and slowly all at the same time. Mai felt like she was getting nowhere no matter how hard she tried. Her eyelidss felt heavy and she could no longer suppress her yawns.
"If you're really that tired, it's okay to go home, Mai," Gene spoke sympathetically. She shook her head in determination.
"I can't let you two do this all by yourselves, it isn't fair," she rubbed her eyes and took a sip of her now cold tea.
"You know she's going to be out cold in 5 minutes."
"Way to give her the benefit of the doubt, Noll."
After approximately seven minutes, Mai was face down on her book, drifting off into her world of dreams. Her breathing was soft and her hair partially covered her face.
"Two minutes off," Naru closed his book and placed it back in its rightful place.
"Oh, leave her be, she probably had a rough week and needs the sleep," Gene rested his head in his hand.
"What are we supposed to do with her now?" Naru walked over to her side and bent over to look at her face. Gene shrugged.
"Let's just have Lin drive her home," He stood up straight and pushed his fingers through his hair.
"Don't wake her up," Gene gave him a 'don't you dare' look.
"We are just supposed to let her sleep here until morning?" He raised a brow to his brother. Mai moved in her sleep a bit, slightly startling the two boys.
"Yes," Gene quietly replied and closed his book.
"I still don't understand why you invited her here despite having been practically done the project since the second day," Naru finished off the second cup of tea he had and grimaced slightly at its coldness.
"She seemed to feel bad about not having contributed much," Gene shrugged and made his way over to his brother, "and she seemed a bit lonely."
"That's not of our concern," Naru crossed his arms.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Deep down, it is one of your concerns. You might be able to physically hide your emotions but you seem to forget your thoughts are too hard to read," Gene looked as if he had leverage over his counterpart.
"My thoughts don't contain anything that my emotions don't," he turned around and made his way for the door.
"You should really call Mom back Noll, they're worried about you," Gene rolled his eyes at his brother's ignorance and followed him out of the room, whispering good night to Mai before flicking off the lights, leaving the girl in the darkness with the occasional burst of light from the passing storm.
Mai was ripped from her dreams by the feeling of movement. The faint smell of lavender filled her nose. In front of her was pure black, but a soft, warm feeling let her know everything was alright. Someone held her and moved quietly along the floor. She stirred a bit in her sleep but was restricted by the arms that held her.
"What a strange dream, this feels so real."
"Go back to sleep," a voice spoke faintly above her. Still in her drowsy state, she nodded her head and closed her eyes. A door creaked open and she was placed gently onto a comfortable bed seconds later. A blanket was drawn over her and she snuggled into her new place of rest, much more comfortable then a table and book as a pillow.
"Good night, Mai," the voice whispered.
"Geez... that sounds like Naru. Great now I'm dreaming about him."
She peaked open her eyes to see a figure adorned in complete black walk out of the door and close it softly.
"Other people get to dream about cool things, why do I get stuck with this," she thought to herself before rolling over and falling back to sleep.
Friday, October 24
Mai awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside of her window.
"That's strange. They've never done that before," she sat up and stretched her back before opening her eyes. She stopped in the middle of her stretch and realized this was not her bedroom. She suddenly couldn't remember falling asleep last night, or going home.
"There's no way I could have been kidnapped… right?"
She carefully made her way through the dimly lit room over to the door and pulled it open slowly to peak out into the hallway. Everything clicked as she saw the family portrait on the wall, she was still at the twin's house.
"Wait… how did I end up here? I fell asleep in the study…"
Memories of her 'dream' flooded back into her mind.
"My eyes must have tricked me, it was probably Gene. It was too dark to see much, anyways. There's no way Naru would do that unless he was possessed. Or maybe I was sleep walking! I did that a lot as a kid, I think."
She crept outside of her room and snuck down the hall to the steps. She made her way into the living room where she found Naru sitting with a book.
"Oh, you're already awake," she said still rubbing her eyes.
"Mostly intellectuals rise before the sun, but I guess there must be a few outliers in every set of data," he turned the page in his book.
"Wait, what?" She was too tired to understand his undercut.
"There's a clean uniform on the table for you. We leave in 30 minutes. If you're not ready, we will leave without you."
"How kind… Wait, how did you get this?" she held the uniform up at eye level.
"Lin took it from your house," Naru replied cooly. Her face turned a light pink.
"You mean some strange man rummaged through my home to find my uniform? H-How did he even get it? I never gave you a key! This is an invasion of priva- "
"I'm sure he did not get a kick at whatever else he may have found. You should be thankful you got clean clothes at all. Moreover, you should be thankful you were not forced out of this house last night and have been forced to walk half asleep through the rain home," he crossed his arms. Memories of her previous 'dream' trickled back into her memory, causing her face to turn a deeper shade of pink. She grabbed her uniform off the table and made her way back upstairs. She bumped into Gene on her way.
"Oh, hey Mai. How'd you sleep?" he questioned with a yawn.
"Good! You guys have really comfortable beds," she said with a laugh.
"Beds? You fell asleep in the study, though," he furrowed his brows at her.
"Oh, I, uh, mean the book! You know, sarcasm! Haha!" she laughed awkwardly.
"So, Gene didn't take me to the bed… that means… no way. I must have sleep walked."
"Oh, yeah, duh. If you need anything, I'll be downstairs," he shook his head and moved groggily to the steps.
After changing into her uniform and prepping for the day, Mai and the twins walked together to school. Mai and Gene filled the time with meaningless conversation, which Naru participated in every once and a while.
Handing in the project felt like the weight of the world lifted off Mai's shoulders. She was lucky to have been working with two of the smartest boys in her class, even more, two of the smartest people in their school. She promised them she would do something to make of for her lack of work on the project. While Gene asked for nothing, Naru didn't hesitate in his request for tea.
"You're going to turn into a tea leaf if you drink that stuff so often," Mai teased.
"You must have eaten a lot of stupid in your life then," Naru didn't miss a beat in his response. Gene laughed at the two's interaction.
"I know teasing is a way some guys like to show their affection, but if you do it all the time she might get the idea you genuinely have distaste for her."
"Who says I don't?"
"You really are an idiot scientist."
"Thanks, Gene."
Thanks for reading! Please review :)
I have two more chapters done and written so I'll have them up soon. Some ghost hunting is coming up in those so I hope you're excited!
I can't thank you enough for all the positive comments and support you guys say!
Have a wonderful day/night!
