Fall from grace
By hye-kyo
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.
Author's Notes: This one, like all the rest of the fics here, is random. I will most probably add another chapter after this.
Title: Subjectivity
Rating: T (for the theme)
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She was the elusive void in the subjectivity he has been searching. Sano says he has been thinking too much - he has too much money, too much time on his hands, that he spends his day and night thinking about what to do with his life. Think about the people in the not-so-economically developed countries, Sano says, they don't have time to think about those things like satisfaction or quality of life because their bellies are empty.
Probably, he answers, but what can he do? He donates and sends stuff abroad, he regularly donates blood, he joins social welfare activities. Probably, probably he needs to be hungry and poor and cold and alone to realize what it is that he really wants. Probably he had it too easy.
She was working as a part-time social worker in one of the nursing homes he frequents. He usually comes there, and to some other social work places as well, to bring over some stuff he rarely uses, to give money for the nursing home. There is a shortage of funds; the local government cannot pay for these social services anymore, in fact a non-profit organization has actually taken over it.
Her name is Kaoru. He thought her a boy when Mina-san, the head social worker, said someone new will be working with them. His heart stopped when he finally saw her.
She was wearing some plain working clothes, her hair up in a messy ponytail. She was wearing no make-up that day, a messenger bag was slung carelessly down one shoulder. She looked pale over all. Yet his heart stopped the moment she said good morning.
Takumi-kun, the university student working as a volunteer, said Kaoru started two weeks ago. He was in Venice that time; he had promised his girlfriend they would go there to make up for whatever he doesn't really know – it's not as if they were losing time or something like that, or even something like he was keen on making her happy or something to that effect. (Well she wasn't really his girlfriend, the arrangement that they have is more of a friends-with-benefits type).
He approached Kaoru that lunch – he prepared bentos for everyone. He was good at those kinds of things. He thought doing those for other people would make him fulfilled, but it never did – until that day when she smiled as she received his homemade bento. His heart went tokidoki.
She ate fast and before he could even tell her he was working as a company president (on name and salary only, his uncle still runs the entire thing and leaves him be and lets him do whatever he wants) she had gone back to feeding and changing the beddings. By 7 pm, she had gone home.
Every Wednesday he sees her in the nursing home. He heard from Mina-san that she was working as a part-timer in many places. She has one little brother whom she supports and she has no parents. She rents a room in south Tokyo. She is a university graduate Mina-san said. She doesn't talk much. She talks to no one actually. One Wednesday he saw her reading a thick stack of papers. She was highlighting some words and writing notes.
"Studying?" he asked even before he could think about think.
She nodded, "Term papers. For grad school."
He didn't say anything afterwards.
Three months and he hadn't made any progress. Things at work haven't change that much. More or less he was still the same restless person that he was three months ago. Except that he knows what he wants now. Today he will ask her out.
"You like me?" Kaoru suddenly asks as he hands her a bento.
"Huh?"
"You want to sleep with me?"
"Huh?" he looked down. He wasn't used to girls being so direct towards him. "Kamiya-san...you see..."
"You're always looking at me. You want to sleep with me?"
"Ka-Kamiya-san..."
"Ok, wait up for me after today. Let's go somewhere. You're paying." She grabs the bento, walks over to a corner, opens a book she had been holding and begins to eat.
A/n: So what do you think?