Chapter 4 – I Owe You: To Junes we Go!

"I wonder if dad's not coming home again, tonight..."

Nanako and I were watching TV together in the living room. I felt kind of bad for her, not having a father around to talk and laugh with. I guess I could kind of share her feelings, I was basically alone without my father or mother around. Though, what snapped me out of that was when I found out that that announcer got killed around Yasogami High.

What freaked out Nanako, though...

"The Inaba Police Department?!" She cried out. "That's where Dad works!"

"I'm sure it'll be alright, Nanako-chan." I reassured her. It's not like her dad was going to die from anything, right?

"I know... It's his job, so stuff like this usually happens..."

"The body was found hanging from an antenna atop a local resident's roof. Authorities are..."

"U-Uh..." I blinked. "Whoa.."

"That's really scary..." Nanako shook a bit. "To find her on the roof..."

The TV then flashed on a totally different screen. Though, we could easily figure out that it was Junes.

"Oh, it's Junes!" She pointed out.

"At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come inside, and get in touch with our products." The commercial then played the Jingle. "Every day's great at your Junes~!"

"Every day's great at-"

"Your Junes~" I had to sing along with her. It got stuck in my head the whole time we were at school, too. She giggled a little as she heard me sing it.

"You memorized it already?" She sounded hopeful. "I'm the best one in my class!"

I was watching at how she kept singing to herself to what seemed like it made her feel less alone or scared. I guess joining in wouldn't have hurt.

…

The next day, I walked to school with Nanako again before I left to go to that new High School. I had a lot of thoughts in my head, but what I couldn't get off my mind was the fact that Igor's words kept repeating like a broken record. Though, I think my thoughts shut off again when I saw that dude crashing into something again.

"Oh hell..." I put my journals into my bag and ran over to where he had crashed. His bike was found on the ground, and he was rolling around in a trash can trying to get himself out. As much as I wanted to laugh, I felt really sorry for him.

"S-Someone..." He whined. "Help?!"

I ran over to the other side of the trash can and stomped on the end of it. With my two hands, I also held it down so whenever he squirmed he wouldn't knock me off.

"Can you hear me?" I shouted to him.

"Oh, great!" He sighed in relief, "I-I'm saved!"

"Just start backing up!" I hollered back at him. "If you crawl backwards, you'll get out safely!"

"U-Uh, right!" He seemed confused by my directions, but he was able to pop out without a problem after I held him down. Though, it's not like I didn't stumble back or anything. I went to go get his bike back up while he fixed his clothes and everything.

"Whew, thanks." He took the yellow bike's handlebars from my hands. "You saved me, thank you. Um..."

He looked down, then looked back up to look directly in my eyes. "Hey, you're that transfer student, Remilia Konagi!"

"That's me!" I nodded. "Nice to meet you, uh..."

"Yosuke," He winked, "Yosuke Hanamura. Nice to meet you, too."

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked him. "That's like... the second time it's happened.."

"Yeah, I know." He looked down. "I-I'll be alright, though! Honestly, it's not like it'll hurt. Seriously, though, did you hear about that announcer?"

"That couldn't have been an accident." I replied. "It's kind of morbid to hear about that type of stuff."

"That's what I was thinking." He seemed interested in talking to me. "Who would dangle a body over a dead roof like that? That's pretty effed up if you ask me."

"True that." I sighed, but then I heard the bell ring from afar. "Oh, no! We'll be late!"

"Damn, you're right!" He checked his watch. "H-Hey, if you don't mind. I can give you a ride. It's a little squeaky, but it should be fine."

"Sure..." I looked confused, but allowed him to hop onto the seat. Though, he didn't mind standing up and riding the bike.

"Well, come on!" He waved back at me to get on as well. "You can ride on the seat."

"Okay." I nodded again, lifting myself up so I would sit sideways while he rode his bike. When he took off, I felt the wind from the acceleration blow straight across my face. I also put on my headphones and played "Angel Devil" by Megumi Ogata. I guess when I started humming, it caught Yosuke's attention, and he turned back once in awhile to catch a glimpse at what I was doing.

…

I could go on about freaking Morooka's lectures, and how he kept talking about us needing to "Shut our traps" or "Stop talking about the murder." I seriously wanted to antagonize him again, today. Then again, getting my ass chewed out by Uncle Dojima didn't seem like something I wanted so quick. Chie passed me a few notes from time to time, asking me more questions like "Who was my best friend?" or "How was where I lived?" I guess I totally did not pay attention to King Moron-slash-Morokin's lectures.

When I was putting my stuff back into my bag, I noticed Yosuke looking at me from above with a goofy grin on his face.

"So, are you getting used to the place?" He asked me. To tell you the truth, I felt somewhat miserable here, but I didn't want to show that to Yosuke, not that early.

"Y-Yeah, a little..." I blurted out.

"Hey, it's alright." He chuckled. "It took me awhile to get used to it, too. There isn't much to do here compared to the city, but there is that... something you don't get from anywhere else."

"Hopefully I find that special something here." I laughed a bit. Only a year...

"I like the food here, and the atmosphere's pretty good as well." He explained. "You wanna know the local delicacy here?"

"What?" I asked him.

"It's grilled steak, man! I hope you don't mind having me treat you for helping me out this morning!"

"H-Huh?!" I blinked. "Y-Yosuke-san, I don't think that's really-"

Chie began to walk up to us two when she heard the word steak. "What about me, huh?" She seemed irritated. "Ugh. My 'Trial of the Dragon..?'"

Yosuke crossed his fingers and gave a sigh. "You always come around when I talk about food..."

She ignored him. "How about it, Yukiko? Don't you think he should treat us, too?"

"I'm going to have to pass on this one..." She said apologetically. "I don't want to gain anymore weight, and I have to work at the inn anyways.."

"Whoa, training already?" Yosuke blinked.

"It's not like that..." She replied. "I should be on my way, see you guys later."

"Oh well," Chie made me turn to face her. "We should get going, too!" Wait, what?

"Huh?!" Yosuke didn't look too happy. "Do I seriously have to treat two people?!"

…

We arrived at that Junes place Nanako was so happy to go to for some reason. The food court was filled with tons of tables, and maybe even some umbrellas on top of them. Yosuke was telling one of the people about what he wanted to order, and soon came back with two drinks and some cut up meat.

"This is the cheap place you were talking about?!" Chie was frustrated. "They don't serve steak here!"

I was feeling in my pocket for some spare change. I felt really bad for having Yosuke to go and pay for Chie's things, too...

Yosuke sat down. "Yeah, well, when you hopped on the freeloader train, I had to change plans."

"That's not a reason to take us here! This is your place, isn't it?"

"Uh, no." He argued back.

"Umm, not to barge in or anything, but.." I looked at Yosuke. "What do ya mean by 'his place?'"

"I never told you, right?" Yosuke turned to my direction. "Around half a year ago, I moved to Inaba from the city as well. Because this location barely opened up, my dad was assigned to manage it."

"Wow..." I felt around my pocket and found my spare 1,000Yen dollar.

"Our entire family decided to come out here." He finished up. He took his drink from the tray, and then I followed right after I stuffed the money back in. "Here, this is to welcome you to Inaba."

He looked back at Chie after I took mine. "Satonaka, yours is on me, too."

"Yeah, I know." She looked away. I just realized it was Soda... Ugh, this is going to give me the shivers after I drink it.

With that, though, we gave cheers and drank away. I plopped the cup back down on the table and began to shiver after.

"What's wrong, Remi?" Chie and Yosuke began to stare. "Something on your mind?"

"N-No, I'm just not used to drinking soda, that's all..." I chuckled, but coughed a bit. "I'll be fine, really..."

"If you told me, I would've gotten you something else." He shook his head and smirked a bit. "What're you doing with your pocket, anyways?"

"Oh, this?" I coughed one last time, and took out the green 1000yen bill to hand out to him. "I know you had to go through the trouble of this, so I wanted to give you the last bit of money I had."

"Uh, okay." He took it from me with a serious nod. "T-Thanks, I guess..."

I just smiled with closed eyes, and began to talk about how I'm basically used to a lot of havoc and hectic things happening to me. I explained to Yosuke how I used to ride a bike into town to grab some groceries before going home, and I told Chie about how I loved playing basketball and went shopping on some occasions to get a new one.

"Speaking of shopping," She pointed out. "It's only been half a year since this place opened up, and I haven't been to the Shopping District since then."

"Really?" I asked her. "How come?"

"A lot of the stores started closing, and... Oh.." She held her head down.

"You can't blame it all on Junes, can you?" Yosuke asked her. "Jeez..."

We heard a girl walk over to the chairs and sit down. Yosuke seemed pretty interested, though.

"Oh, it's Saki-senpai!" Yosuke smiled a bit. "Sorry, I'll be back."

I leaned over to Chie. "Is that Yosuke-san's girlfriend?"

"Hah." She laughed. "He wishes. That's Saki Konishi. Her family owns a liquor store in the shopping district, but I think she's working here part-time."

"Oh, okay." I chuckled. Yosuke had a crush on someone, didn't he? I swear, he was blushing a bit when he was talking with that Konishi chick. And then, that's when she met my eyes and walked over to me. Her hair was a greyish color, and her skin was pretty pale. She had a smile that seemed sorta fake, but I gladly shook her hand.

"Hey, are you the transfer student?" I nodded. "Oh, so you've probably heard about me already, huh? Isn't it nice to have someone from the big city to talk to?"

"Yeah." I smiled. "It's pretty nice.

"I don't see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys as much." She noted to me. Yosuke scratched the back of his head.

"N-Not necessarily..." He chuckled nervously.

"He doesn't have that many friends, so I hope you guys get along good." She smiled. "Hana-chan's a good guy, but he can get really nosy sometimes. You should always tell him up front of he's annoying you."

"I wouldn't think that." I laughed. "He's a great guy."

"Huh?" He turned to me for a second, but Saki just chuckled.

"Well, my break's over.." Saki nodded to us all. "Back to work I go. Later!"

"S-Senpai-!" But, Yosuke-san, was too late. She had already walked back into the store, and he had sat back down where he was at. "Heh, she says I'm annoying, but she's the one that's nosy!"

"Oh, really?" I crossed my arms like he did.

"She has a younger brother, so she kind of treats me the same way."

"Oh, you don't want her treating you that way, huh?" Chie gave a grin. "Oh, I see... So that's how it is! The daughter of a liquor store... and the man of Junes...! The flame of forbidden love~."

"D-Dude, it's not like that!" Yosuke had some blush running down his cheeks.

"Sure..." She teased. "Though, I know one thing to cheer up that lovesick heart! Have you ever heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"Huh?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"You're supposed to look at a TV that's switched off, alone, at midnight on a rainy night." Chie nodded. "While you're staring at your own image, another person will appear. Apparently, that'll be your soul mate!"

"What?" Yosuke shook his head. "I seriously thought you were going to say something useful. How can you get so excited over something as fake as that?"

"I'm kind of shivering.." I felt goosebumps touching my skin. That didn't seem so good.

"Childish, huh?!" Chie got angry. "You don't believe me, do you?!"

"Duh."

"Well, it's raining tonight!" She glared at me, too. "Let's all try it out then you'll see!"

"Try it out..?" Yosuke scoffed. "So you haven't even done it yourself? When was it that I heard something this stupid?"

"Guys..." I tried to stop them from arguing any further.

"Anyways," He looked down, "What do you guys think of that incident yesterday? You guys think it was murder?" He then looked at me. "Ooh~ What if he's still lurking about here? Heehee..."

"Real nice, Yosuke." Chie said sarcastically. "Look who's childish now? Joking about murder..." She turned away. "Anyways, you guys better try it out tonight."

"I'll see what I can do.." I nodded, but in a way, I knew I was going to force myself to do it.

One of my favorite scenes in the game so far is the fact that Yosuke runs into a trash can, XD.

I kinda made a reference to the Japanese version of Persona 3. Ken Amada's Seiyuu is Megumi Ogata, and Angel Devil is one of the songs she sang lol.

So Remi-chan learns about the Midnight Channel, huh? You'll just have to wait and see for what comes next.

Persona 4 (C) ATLUS

Remilia Konagi (C) Me

Angel Devil (C) Megumi Ogata