It could get pretty boring at work for Mitsuha. Some days were spent just playing the waiting game, as loans were getting reviewed, but her quiet and reserved nature made it hard for her to even interact with her own coworkers. She eventually got to the point where she would doodle Taki on some printer paper, the same way he himself would before. And then laugh at it when it came it to be nowhere near that which Taki could produce. You'll have to teach me someday, Taki-kun.
The phone ringing was normal; after all, she was one of the loan reps for her company, and most of the time she wouldn't even see who was calling. But this time, she happened to glance at the caller ID and see that it was Taki's architecture firm calling. Is Taki calling? What could he want? Oh, wait. Maybe it's not him. I'd better just answer normally. "Thank you for calling, this is Miyamizu, how can I help you?"
Taki tried to think of something clever to say to get her to laugh, but couldn't think of anything and just ended up stuttering. "Ha-…uhh…shoot, wait a minute."
She ended up laughing anyway at his poor effort, and became happy that she got to talk to him at work. "I KNEW it was you, Taki-kun. Hi, sweetie…"
"Hey, darling, believe it or not, I was actually calling on a matter of business."
"Oh! Okay, then."
The two had a really difficult time concentrating on what he'd actually called for, and intermixed work and personal life to make the conversation much longer than it needed to be. Eventually, Taki was able to get what he needed from Mitsuha, but only after it'd been at least 5 minutes after the last guy got off the phone. Needless to say he felt a little embarrassed.
"Tachibana, you called that representative 'darling'. Was that your wife?"
"She's my girlfriend."
"Ah. From what it sounds like, she will be your wife someday, right?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get my personal life mixed into that."
"Oh no, not a problem. The only thing I do wonder is that, since you do have an extraprofessional relationship with that rep, were you able to get anything good out of that? I know it probably goes against every single one of their corruption regulations, but maybe you were able to convince her to help us out?"
"She wasn't able to make any hard commitments, but…"
It took a lot of discipline to not sugarcoat everything Mitsuha said, and cater everything so that he could be able to work with her. Ever since he became a supervisor, he began to miss her when he was at work more and more. Naturally, throughout his conversation with the director, he found himself spot-checking what he was about to say, and evaluate whether it would jeopardize a partnership between the two companies. All so that he could have a chance to see Mitsuha during the work day.
"Well. You know, I shouldn't even bother telling you this, since you won't any objections, but stay in contact with her. I like where this is going so far."
When Taki got home, the first thing Mitsuha did was lay down ground rules for their lives, wanting to keep work and their personal lives as separate as possible.
"When we're off the clock, we don't talk about work, okay? I look forward to coming home and seeing you, and that entails not having to worry about work, alright? Listen, I'm really excited to able to talk to you during work every day. But when we're here by ourselves, let's keep it about us. Is that clear?"
"Crystal, ma'am."
"Good. Now let's figure out something to do. It's Friday."
A combination of not being able to think of anything with being genuinely content with doing so anyway led them to go back to the mall. To get dinner and drinks and whatnot, maybe browse some of the stores. Part of them was also hoping that they might run into something, or someone, that would set in motion a fun, unexpected night. But worst case they would just hang out with each other. Not that either of them had any problem with that.
"It'll be about 25-30 minute wait, is that okay?" The restaurant they chose was crowded, but neither of them exactly minded waiting. What else were they going to do?
"That'll be okay."
They went over to the waiting area and sat down, but found themselves at an impasse with how to pass the time. They'd just agreed to not talk about work off the clock, and they've basically exhausted every personal conversation possible.
"Do you…I dunno, wanna play twenty questions?"
"What's that?"
"One of us thinks of something, an object or person or whatever, and the other asks 20 yes-or-no questions. And based on the answers, use reasoning to try to figure out what they're thinking."
"Oh, okay! That sounds fun!"
"Alright I'll go first."
"Sure. Hmm…is it a…person?"
"Yes."
"Is it a real life person?"
"Yes."
"Is it me?"
"Are you kidding me…"
"You're so lame!"
"Okay, okay. For real this time. I got one."
"Alright, then. Is it me?"
"Nope. There goes your first question."
The remaining nineteen questions went by in a cinch, with very little revealed about this mystery thing.
"That's twenty already?"
"Yep! Now you gotta guess."
"I…you stumped me. I literally can't think of anything. I give up."
"It's a fork!"
"That's so stupid…"
"Mitsuha-chan?"
From behind, the couple could hear a soft voice. That which belonged to a young woman around their age. Mitsuha almost froze in shock at the possibility of who it could be, but couldn't be too sure. After all, when she saw Taki at the top of the stairs that one day, she didn't immediately know it was him.
But when Mitsuha turned around, it took all her will to not scream out loud in joy. "Saya-chi!" The two girlfriends hugged in reunion; it'd actually been a pretty long time since they'd seen each other. Of course accompanying Saya was her fiancée, Tessie. By proximity and common relations, he became immediately associated with Taki. And couldn't help but feel a little weird that he'd been matched tick for tack, if not slightly surpassed, in terms of masculinity. Shoot. He's better looking than me…
Taki took the initiative, cleared his throat, and held his hand out for an introductory handshake. "I'm Tachibana Taki. Nice to meet you." Wait. I've totally seen this guy before!
"Teshigawara Katsuhiko. Pleasure."
When the girls finished fawning over each other, their attention returned to the boys, and of course Mitsuha already knew Tessie, and Taki was able to meet Sayaka through Mitsuha's body, but as far as she knew, Saya was meeting a whole new person.
When Mitsuha and Tessie finished exchanging pleasantries she stepped back to Taki and began to introduce him. "Guys, this is Taki. The love of my life." As she was finishing her last sentence, she looked back at Taki, partly to admire him, but also hoping he would say something cool to them and impress them.
"I've acquainted myself with Tessie already. Nice to meet you, I'm Tachibana Taki."
"Wait. Did you just call him Tessie? How did you know we call him that?"
Shoot! They don't know who I am! They have no idea I was in Mitsuha's body for a couple weeks! What am I supposed to say? "Uhh, well, umm…"
"I've mentioned you guys to him before."
Phew. Thanks, sweetheart.
"Oh! Well that makes sense then. Either way, sorry about that, I'm Natori Sayaka. Nice to meet you."
After Taki and Saya got done introducing themselves, Mitsuha chimed in and pointed out how coincidental their encounter was. Or was it? "That's so crazy, I was just gonna ask you guys if you were free this weekend!"
"Yeah, what are the odds that we'd meet in a random restaurant?"
To Saya and Tessie, it was an incredible stroke of luck, but for Taki and Mitsuha, it was just another thing in their lives. "Oh, how long have you guys been here? Are you waiting for a table for two?"
"We are. Should we go and ask if there's any tables for four?"
Of course waiting for a bigger table extended their wait time by another 15 minutes, but none of them cared; it only meant more time to catch up and, for Taki, get to know this other party better. But even though they were here as couples, the guys and girls ended up talking amongst themselves. Mitsuha and Saya talked about girl things, but Taki and Tessie had more of a casual, more introductory conversation about things like work and background and stuff.
Every now and then Mitsuha would pick out things from Taki's conversation with Tessie, and from it looked like they were getting along smoothly. Both were engineers, after all, and it wasn't long before they put their civil and mechanical engineering backgrounds together to devise some crazy idea.
Dinner passed almost uneventfully, and the foursome found themselves outside with no idea what to do next.
"Do you guys live near here?"
Oh no. Not this again. Still suffering from the mild trauma from the last time he had guests over, he was a little fearful of something like that happening again. But he remembered that these were adults, people older than him, in fact. And not a bunch of teenage girls. I guess it wouldn't hurt.
"Oh that's really close to here!"
TALK ABOUT DÉJÀ VU, THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT YOTSUHA'S FRIENDS SAID, WORD FOR WORD!
"Come back to our place! Taki-kun, is that okay with you?"
Why does it always end up being my apartment? "Uhh, yeah, sure. I don't have a problem with that."
Taki felt like the tour of his apartment complex was becoming a regular thing, and by doing so, he'd come to learn things about it that he didn't even know himself. "There's a basketball court over on that other side, before Mitsuha moved in, I would shoot around there a lot."
He wasn't sure why, but Tessie became naturally hung up on the basketball court. It was weird. He didn't play basketball in high school, or sports in general for that matter. Why did it mean so much to him that there was a basketball court?
"And some of the neighbors here are-"
"Tachibana-san."
"…uhh. Yes, Teshigawara-san?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. But I challenge you to a one-on-one basketball game!"
WHAT?!
WHAT?!
Uhh…
The other three collectively scratched their heads, as none of them were sure what he could be thinking challenging Taki to a basketball game. Taki was an all-district shooting guard in his heyday, Tessie didn't play any sports whatsoever, and Saya and Mitsuha knew that very well.
Well who knows. He could be good. Tessie was roughly the same height as Taki, and possessed a lot more bulk than him.
"Hehe. Sure. We can play some basketball later." Tessie felt a little offended, because Taki's tone and body language seemed like he took it as kind of a joke. Taki definitely didn't think of it as anything more than just something to do together.
As Taki toured them around the rest of the complex, Saya took the time to question Tessie's bold decision. "Tessie, what are you doing?!" She violently whispered in Tessie's ear, hoping that Taki and Mitsuha wouldn't notice.
"I…I wanna prove that I'm a bigger man than him."
"WHAT?!"
Her reaction got the attention of Taki and Mitsuha, who stopped in their tracks and turned around to see what was going on. "Everything okay?"
"Hehe! Uhh, nothing!"
"Hmm. Okay. Well, we're done with the complex. Tessie if you're still down to play some ball, let's do it."
Tessie knew he was out of his league, but his desire to establish himself as an alpha-male was too strong.
"Tessie, why are you doing this? This isn't like you, you never care about this kind of stuff."
"I...I dunno. There's obviously something Mitsuha really likes about him, and…"
"Katsuhiko, is there something you're not telling me?"
"No! It's just, I think he thinks he's all that."
"Are you serious, Tessie, he's such a nice guy!"
"We're about to find out, then."
"This is ridiculous!"
After seeing Taki knock down consecutive warm-up threes, Tessie prepared himself for the worst, but tried to tell himself there wasn't anything to worry about. Worst case, he beats me really bad and I can say "Hey you played in high school." Oh what am I doing…
"First to 7?"
Of course Tessie had no idea what that meant, but didn't want to make it apparent. His masculinity was already in pretty deep water. "Uhh, sure."
"Alright then. Check." Taki bounced the ball to Tessie, who just looked at it without any idea what 'check' meant.
"Wait…what?"
"Oh! Uhh, hehe, 'check' is just what you say for the other person to inbound it for you."
Tessie had never felt so clueless about anything in his life, and immediately regretted doing this. He had the blankest stare on his face and he knew it. And he expected Taki to judge him like no other. But he'd learn a lot about him soon enough.
"Hehe. Just bounce the ball back to me."
Tessie followed the order, and Taki popped up a shot the second the ball got back to his hands. And the ball ripped through the net. "2-0. Tell you what, we'll play losers."
"Uhh…"
"Haha. 'Losers' means that when one guy scores, the other gets the ball. The other way is 'winners' when the guy who scores keeps the ball."
"Ohh okay, so it's my, uhh, possession?"
"Exactly! See, you know sports!"
It was a little comforting to know Taki wasn't taking this contest seriously at all, and was more or less using it to bond with him more. I can't believe I judged him like that.
"So now, you say 'check' and bounce it to me."
"Okay. Check."
And when the ball got back to Tessie, he tried to answer Taki's bomb with one of his own, but the ball pathetically sailed out of bounds without hitting the basket.
"Hehe. Shooting threes is tough. Check."
And instead of shooting a three, this time Taki sped right past Tessie and effortlessly dropped the ball in the basket for a lay-up. "It's a lot easier to score close to the basket than from out there."
Tessie, being the fast learner that he is, checked the ball to Taki without him saying anything.
"That's good! You're getting the hang of it already! Now, a tip for you to score. You're a lot bigger and stronger than me. So if you turn your back to me, and keep backing up and pushing me back further towards to basket, you'll be a lot closer and you'll have a much easier shot."
Tessie began to implement his lesson and turned his back to Taki, and did exactly what Taki instructed him to do. And with a little bit of help from the master himself, Tessie put the ball through the hoop.
"Nice shot!"
The competitive atmosphere disappeared instantly, and they just started fooling around and jacking up bad shots. Eventually Mitsuha and Saya joined in, and the next hour or so was spent just messing around with the basketball and having a good time as a group. Taki was an athlete, and Mitsuha in a way could be considered one too, but neither Tessie nor Saya had an ounce of athletic blood in them, and were dead tired afterwards.
"If you guys need water, we've got some at our place." Mitsuha couldn't help but smile at how fast Taki had bonded with her two best friends, but at the same time wasn't surprised in the slightest.
The huffing and puffing couple took up Taki's offer, and tiredly dragged themselves to his nearby apartment. And even though they had every reason to be tired, both of them felt rather ashamed that they were so exhausted. But at the end of the day, no one was gonna pass any judgement for it anyhow.
And just like Yotsuha and her friends, Saya and Tessie didn't hesitate to explore Taki and Mitsuha's living space. Being the more established couple, their apartment was a lot bigger, since it was intended for 2 people. But just like Mitsuha, they found the tight space cozy.
"Mitsuha, when you move in here?"
"About a month ago."
They all gathered at the dinner table over water and some snacks, and spent more time just talking and sharing their lives.
"Oh, by the way, our wedding's in two months."
"Mmm! When was this planned?"
"We finalized the date just last week. So I bring this up now, because you, Mitsuha, are gonna be my maid of honor?"
"Maid of honor, what's that?"
"Oh! Oh, I should probably mention that we're doing a Western style wedding. So, how Americans get married is they have a group of their closest companions with them during the ceremony, friends, family members, anyone close to them. The bride, which is me, chooses her best girlfriends to be their bridesmaids, and the groom, meaning Tessie, chooses his best guy friends to be his groomsmen. Here! Check it out!"
Saya pulled out her phone, and presented Mitsuha and Taki pictures of a traditional Western wedding, and Mitsuha of course found the idea of bridesmaids and groomsmen to be very endearing; having the people most important to them right there would make the whole experience more special.
"Oh, cooool! Wait, so then is the maid of honor like…"
"Yep, the maid of honor is like the super bridesmaid. Usually a spot for the bride's best friend or closest family member."
"So does Tessie have to do the same?"
"Yep…" Tessie interjected, with a sort of depressed tone. His eyes were glued to the table, and his body language made it apparent that he wanted the topic to change. And so, it didn't take a genius to realize what the internal dilemma with the idea of a best man and groomsmen was.
"Oh…" Mitsuha looked right at Taki, hoping he would step and say or do something to not make Tessie feel so bad. He didn't, though, and instead shot back a look that said 'I just met this guy!'
He did feel for Tessie, though. He knew what it was like to be attached to the same two people, and having no one to turn to when neither of them were available. He was in a way glad that he wasn't in this spot, since he himself would have a pretty hard time thinking of who his groomsmen would be, outside of his two friends from high school. But if there was anything he learned about Tessie in the last hour or so, it's that he isn't completely at peace with himself, and he thought about offering his comradery and being his best man. But he didn't want to risk offending him and having Tessie interpret it as a show of pity. So he decided to keep his mouth shut.
So Mitsuha decided to do it for him. "Well, Taki can at the very least be one of your groomsmen."
"Really? Would you, Tachibana?"
Taki nodded his head in agreement. "Absolutely. I know we just met and everything, but I would for sure be willing to be in your wedding party."
"Oh yeah, that's right, the conglomerate of the bridesmaids and groomsmen is called the wedding party. Have you seen a western wedding before, Tachibana?"
"I've heard the term tossed around here and there."
For Tessie's sake, they called it a night, and the couple left the apartment after bidding farewell. As soon as she closed the door, Mitsuha ran back to Taki with a concerned look on her face. "Taki, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."
"Oh, don't worry. I was actually thinking of saying just that. But I didn't want him to think I was pitying him. He doesn't look like he's into this whole groomsmen thing."
"Well, I'm glad you feel that way. He just looked so sad, I wanted to make him feel better. And you saw, he perked up a little when you agreed to be one of his groomsmen. But either way, it wasn't fair for me to throw you out there like that. I'm sorry, sweetheart."
"It's not a problem at all. Now, the night is still young. Would you like to continue our date?" The night really wasn't young, it was already 12 in the morning.
But Mitsuha beamed with glee and held her arm out to hook with Taki's, and they ventured back into the night to enjoy each other, and also perhaps to evaluate where they themselves stood as a couple.
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A/N: Hey everyone! Again, nothing much from me this time. Just wanna give a huge thank you to anyone still reading. And perhaps an apology to anyone who didn't like the way I portrayed Saya and Tessie, but specifically Tessie. I know he wasn't anything like this in the movie, but it sets up his role for next chapters to come. But, yeah, that's it! Again, thanks a ton to those still along for the ride; it's 14 chapters in, and it's a lot, but there's a lot left to go! See whoever whenever. Cheers.