The Boy in the Park

Chapter Nineteen

He had a date.

Now, he didn't actually know how it had happened, but he had a date.

He was fidgeting as he gave himself another look in the mirror. It would be nothing grand: just a bit of walking around talking, the cinema and then dinner afterwards. The way the woman had expressed it, he was indebted to her for 'not having brought her back home when drunk' and 'having a lecherous gaze'.

He actually doubted he had done the latter, and for the first, he didn't even know the woman in question.

Still, he had a date.

He settled once more his clothes —he had preferred casual wear— and then walked out. He was supposed to meet the woman near the park, walk towards the Cinema and then dinner, and after that… he'd go from there. Considering the time and the good first impression and all, he arrived with half an hour of time to spend. He did just that, sitting on the bench and taking out a book from his inner pocket.

He began to wait.

The half hour passed by quickly, and soon the woman was five minutes late.

Five minutes became ten.

Ten minutes became a quarter, and that was pushing it with the cinema.

When fifteen minutes became twenty, he began to look around. The 'location' had been clear-cut, and it wasn't as if there were other benches at the centre of the park he could sit on. Furthermore, the woman was a kunoichi without a doubt; so really, she should have been able to find him without worry.

At twenty-five minutes, they were late for the cinema.

At thirty minutes, he began to tap his foot. Therefore, the cinema was out. It was a pity, because he had bought the tickets beforehand. It even was the latest film of Princess Gale, and females dug the sub-romantic plot between Princess Gale and her subordinate.

Thirty minutes became forty.

Forty became one hour.

At that time, it became a question of principle.

Maybe he had been stood up as a sort of game between Kunoichi? Maybe the woman had been a friend of the sensei of the Kunoichi class…

The fact was, maybe it was he who shouldn't have brought his hopes that high. The woman hadn't even told him her name to begin with —actually, maybe she didn't remember at all their conversation, considering how drunk she had been.

He exhaled and pushed his back against the bench. The sun was settling and the night was slowly crawling up. Soon, there would be no light left to read.

He closed the book when his eyes began to hurt, and he kept on waiting.

One hour became two hours.

At the two hour and twenty-five minutes, he actually wondered if there were people who actually dug doing these sorts of tricks to people. They weren't funny, and they wasted time. His reservation at the restaurant was just about to become moot too.

Finally, after two hours and half, the woman in question sheepishly appeared in a flicker in front of him.

"H-Hey!" she smiled. "Sorry I'm late! Work was pretty tough this time around!"

He exhaled and slowly stood up.

"If we hurry, we can still make it for the restaurant," he said then. "I'm…"

The other kunoichi simply smiled at that, before sheepishly scratching the back of his head —why did she remind him of Naruko? He hoped Naruko wasn't playing him an elaborate prank with a Kage Bunshin, a Henge and the Sexy No Jutsu.

"Oh, I'm Anko!"

"Like the red bean paste?" he blinked as he began to walk towards the restaurant.

"Yep!" she nodded. "By the way, I totally didn't think you'd wait for two hours and half, you know?"

"Well, I thought that if I left, and then you arrived five minutes later…it wouldn't be nice."

"It wouldn't be nice?" Anko snickered. "What are you, an elementary student?"

He raised an eyebrow, and then he sighed. "Sorry, you just keep reminding me of someone I know, and she prefers simple terms."

"Ohi, are you insulting me?" there was a tick mark on her forehead then.

"Well, didn't you start it?" he remarked with a smile.

The fact the woman grinned back fiercely as she suddenly had a dango stick in her mouth made him blink once from the surprise. The second time he blinked…had someone pinched his ass!?

He frowned. Nah, it had to be his imagination.

"So, tell me a bit about you," Anko began with her happy and smirking face —as if she had won some sort of lottery. The way she was brushing her left hand's fingers one against the other…had she touched something nice?

"What about?"

"No special things? Come on, every man likes to brag," Anko smiled. "It's in your genes. Like how you've got a beautiful apartment, how you earn enough money to be a Daimyo or how in truth you hide your secret ninja identity of triple S-rank."

"Someone actually says that?"

Anko chuckled. "Oh, it happened once."

"I'm afraid I'm just a normal teacher," he shrugged.

"Mah! That's boring," Anko shook her head. "Then, if you're so normal…how about you tell me something about you that is special in your opinion?"

"I make good omelettes," he deadpanned.

"And that's special how, exactly?" Anko snorted.

"I suppose…" he mulled it over for a moment. "Aha! I can read five books in a day!"

Anko's shoulders sagged down terribly.

"Really? Come on man, give me something to work with!"

"Sorry, sorry…I'm new to the 'be the rebound guy'."

Anko raised an eyebrow. "You actually caught on that?"

"Well," he sighed, "We never met before, suddenly you all but force me on a date, and then you arrive late… so I'm either the rebound guy, or you just felt pity since you spoke when you were drunk."

"Oh…" Anko smirked. "I'm not a pity drunk," she added. Sultrily, she moved her lips closer to his ears before whispering. "I'm a horny drunk."

He felt the weather suddenly heat up —really, had someone turned up the temperature?

The next morning, he woke up with a pounding headache, naked and next to a —of course— naked body of a purple haired woman in his apartment.

He actually had only one thought in mind…

What. The. Hell.

Then, of course, someone knocked at the door.

He still had his boxers on however…didn't that count for something? You can't rape someone if they have their boxers still on, right?

Right!?

Then again, why was he panicking to begin with? It wasn't as if…sheesh, he couldn't recall the day before at all. Had something happened? He remembered going to dinner, yes, then saying something when he heard some hurtful comments…Anko's surname was Mitarashi…

There had been something else about…oh yes, the woman had presented him to her favourite bar…and relative barman.

There was a fuzzy memory of him dancing on a table together with Anko, but that memory was soon erased by his logical thought process: he'd never dance on a table, drunk or not.

Then they had gone home…his was closer…

And he couldn't recall beyond that.

So, either he had forgotten 'that' or he hadn't. If he hadn't, then it meant nothing had happened.

Which actually meant he'd probably slam his head against the wall soon.

The knocking increased slightly.

Was it a Monday?

Sheesh…wait.

It was a Monday. He was supposed to be at work.

"Uhm…not so rough," Anko whispered next to him. "Ah…"

Was it normal, that he wanted to scream?