Chapter 7: Let the right one in
What is she doing here? This can't be a coincidence, what sick, almighty being would come up with such a situation for me? Definitely not the God of Romantic Comedies that's for sure. Shit, what do I do? She's probably here to kill me for what I did to her! Not good, not good!
"Hikigaya. Can I come in?" she says through the glass.
Damn. She said it. Could I still feign ignorance? No, she already saw me acknowledge her existence outside my window. Oh, I know! I could play dead. Yeah, yeah! She'll probably leave if I do that. Wait… Who in their right mind would leave if they saw someone just collapse in front of them!? More so if they have feelings for that person? Then, again, I doubt she still feels that way towards me, but still… I bet if I were to collapse she'd probably break my window and get in. The best thing to do right now is to call the police! Ooooh… Relax, Hachiman. There's no need to cause a commotion, calling the police right now would be bad for me. I'll just let her in and see what she needs. As long as she, you know, doesn't kill me.
Outside my window, Shiori is staring up at the sky.
"It's starting to rain, Hikigaya. I'm going to get wet and sick, you wouldn't want that, right?"
Oh, if this was a normal situation I bet I would have loved seeing a pretty girl get wet and sick but alas I cannot enjoy such adolescent ideas. This situation is completely messed up. Screw it. Screw it all. Screw logic. Let's just get whatever this is over with.
I unlock the window and open it for her. She hops into my room and looks around.
"Thanks, Hikigaya. Oh. I can't believe your room hasn't changed much over these years."
I close the window as the rain starts rolling down from the clouds. Crap, now I can't make her leave anytime soon… Hang on, did she just say something about my room not changing? Has she been in my room before? I turn away from the window and face Shiori.
This is the girl I've been friends with in junior high? She's exploring my room and touching my stuff! This girl! It seems that she's changed quite a bit over the years, though. She's a bit taller than me and her face looks more mature compared to the vision I had of her. I examine her up and down quickly. She's got a pretty good figure, I guess. One that a lot of guys would probably fawn over, and her… ah… assets are… Not too big and not too small? Just the right size… What the heck am I thinking, damn hormones acting up again!
Shiori slowly walks towards me, bridging the gap between us. As she advances I make my retreat. She's really calm and controlled right now, it's creeping me out. She's like a hitman about to assassinate her target! Soon enough she has me backed up into a corner of my room. Uh, oh, not good. She looks at me with an unreadable expression and steps ever closer.
'W-whoah! W-what the hell are you doing?"
Crap, crap. I'm trapped? Is this it? Is she going to kill me now? Do I really deserve this? I know I did her wrong but that was childish miscommunication! Am I going to get the Bad end of some ridiculous game? I slide down the wall and sit on the ground as she proceeds to enter my personal space. Not like this! I don't want to die yet! Too close! Too close! Get away from me!
"Hahaha! You're still the same scared kid when it comes to humans." Laughs Shiori as she steps back and sits down on the ground a couple feet beside me.
Oh, thank god she's wasn't going to kill me…
Shiori leans on the wall and stares at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry for barging in like this all of a sudden."
If you were really sorry then you should have never gone here in the first place! Why are you here anyways? I thought you were in America? Is this really Shiori? Yeah, it has to be her, right? There's no possibility that it's not her. But… This is too much of a coincidence. How could she be here, today, the same day I suddenly started remembering her? But it has to be her, I mean, she looks almost exactly like the person I had in my vision. This has got to beShiori Rai. It's has to be, I mean, who else could it be?
"I can't believe I've been back in Japan for two weeks now. I thought I'd never get to see this place again so soon." She continues.
I have to make conversation. I mean, I know we had a falling out but since she visited me and is talking to me, doesn't that mean she's over it? Besides, I need answers, and what better way to get answers than to ask her personally. Although I may have remembered quite a bit about her my memory still isn't complete.
"Uh… What are you doing here?" I ask slowly while squinting my eyes at her.
Shiori looks at me and grins.
"I came here to be with you."
"W-what?" I ask incredulously.
"I'm sorry it took me this long to actually meet up. I was just waiting for the proper time."
What do you mean proper time? Do I look like a vegetable in season to you?
"Proper time?" I ask with a hint of annoyance in my voice.
"I wanted to meet you alone, in a private place. So I kept surveillance on your house so that I'd know when you would be alone here."
Scary. Scary. You're watching my house? My family? What the hell?
"Don't look at me like that. I'm sorry… I just wanted to talk to you in private." she reasons.
"So your first choice was to spy on my house? Why'd it have to be in my house? Couldn't you just get me when I was biking home?" This girl, is she obsessed with me?
"I… I just thought it'd be nice you know? I mean, I came to your room once back then and you were really happy. I thought you'd like it if I was to do it again." She says sadly.
She did all of this, for me? What is up with this girl?
"So you waited until I was home alone?" I ask.
"Yeah. I saw Komachi leaving a couple hours ago and I knew your house would be empty by the time you'd get back."
I begin to be very skeptical. "How do you know Komachi?" Are you keeping tabs on my sister as well? You better not be.
"She's your sister! Of course I'd know that! We're friends! We know each other's family! You even memorized the names of all my first degree cousins for some reason!"
Huh? I did that? I actually did that? Man, I must have been crazy for this girl back then... Well, after hearing all these things she has done, I'm pretty sure that ship has burned down. There's no way this girl and I could possibly be friends now.
"So… You did all of this… For me?" I continue.
"I'm sorry… I knew I should have just came to you as soon as I could, but I wanted to surprise you in a nice way, and I thought this was a good plan."
"Yeah? Well, it was pretty crazy." I say in a slightly pissed off voice.
"I'm really sorry. I knew I should have just visited you normally…" she says dejectedly.
"Yeah, but why would you visit me?"
"Huh? What do you mean? Of course I'd visit you. We made a promise to look out for each other. Don't you remember?"
Is it just me or does she seem to not remember we had a bad falling out? Also, what kind of promise is that? How could you look out for each other when you're in different countries? I don't remember promising her anything like that! Then again, I don't actually remember everything from our past. The only promise I remember is the promise about not forgetting her, which I totally broke… Why's she acting like nothing happened? I need to question her about all this, I just have to ask gently. Real. Gently.
"Yeah, but… Didn't we have a big fight?" I blurt out.
Great job, Hachiman. That's really fucking gentle for sure. Then again, I never really did things gently. Straightforward and on point, just the way I like it.
It doesn't seem like she's fazed at all with my question. "That was years ago, Hikigaya. A lot of things have happened since then. People change. I'm over it." She says nonchalantly.
"Really?" I ask in disbelief.
Shiori slowly edges closer to me. I can smell her shampoo at this distance. It's a sweet fragrance. It's intoxicating…
"Hikigaya, you've always told me that you wanted your relationships with people to reset. That you've always wanted to start over with everyone."
Hah. Nope. You're wrong. I gave up on people a long time ago, there's no point in resetting relationships with me. I mean, it'd be great for everyone to just forget about me but that's really not so much of a wish anymore. In the end, I just want people to leave me alone.
"Uh… Did I say that?" I ask in an 'it wasn't me' voice.
"Hikigaya. Why do you think I'm only calling you by your last name now?"
Didn't I tell her to refer to me as Hikigaya when we had our fight? She should know! Why the hell is she asking me this?
"Uh… Because we aren't friends anymore?"
"Well… In a way… you're correct." She mumbles.
She stands up and walks towards the window. She stares outside, gazing at the black sky above.
"You know, Hikigaya… You're the only guy that's ever made me shy and nervous. You made me feel things that no one else did." She says.
Oh? That sounds so unlike me. Was I actually a lady's man deep down? That's a bad joke you know. Besides, make you feel things, what the heck is that all about?
"You were the only friend I wanted and needed, Hikigaya… What I did back then, it destroyed what we had. The bond we had."
I slowly stand up from my position.
"Yeah. I'm sorry about that. I was the one in the wrong." I apologize.
I have to do this. I hurt her. I lashed out at her. My mistakes… My insecurities back then. They hurt her. I did this to her. Sincerely apologizing for what I did is the least I can do in a situation like this.
Shiori looks down at her feet, her hair hides her eyes.
She laughs and says "We were both in the wrong."
"No, you were innocent. There was nothing wrong with you leaving. It was my reaction that caused problems. If I had not overreacted… Things would have been different."
"You always carry all the weight on your shoulders..."
I don't know what to say to that so I just keep quiet.
We stand in silence together. The rapid clatter of the rain hitting the window and the roof is all we can hear. Why's it so cold…
Then, Shiori speaks up.
"The reason… The reason I'm only calling you Hikigaya…"
Shiori's hands curl into fists and her body shakes.
"The reason I'm only calling you Hikigaya… Is because… Is because…"
She lifts her head and gazes at me with her watery green eyes. A mix of emotions are plastered on her face. Sadness, fear, worry, longing, and hope. Those were only a few of the emotions I recognized on her face. Such a beautiful person, it's my fault she's a mess…
"I want to reset our relationship! I want to start over!" She blurts out.
Staring over… A certain blonde bastard once told me that relationships don't reset, even if you move up a grade and all, but he did say that I was an exception. Resetting relationships… In my eye, a reset is no different from a deletion. This is a philosophy of mine that will never change. Unknowingly, what Shiori was asking for, is a deletion.
There's just one thing I need to do now. Accept her request. Then once our relationship resets, stay away from her. Knowing her, she'll keep her word about this "reset". If I give her the cold shoulder she'll get the message and that'll be the end of that. She'll be free from me, and I from her.
"Sure. Let's reset."
Shiori wipes her face with the sleeves of her long-sleeve shirt. She looks pretty red, but I can see that she's smiling.
"Thank you, Hikigaya."
"No problem." I reply.
We stand in silence again. This time, we hear dead silence. The rain has all of a sudden stopped.
"Hikigaya." She says.
"Yeah?" I ask.
"I'm transferring to Soubu soon."
"Oh."
"We'll see each other more."
"Yeah."
"That's good, right?"
"Yeah."
I suddenly hear a sound of a door closing downstairs. Crap! My parents must be home! Not good! Whenever they get home they do this routine where they check Komachi's room and mine! If they see a girl in my room this'll be really bad.
"You have to get out here!" I hiss quietly at her.
"Hikigaya." She whispers, as if trying to tell me something.
Not now, woman! You have to go! You have to go now. Shit, are they climbing the stairs? Fuck. I don't know!
"Hikigaya. Before our relationship resets… Can I do one more thing?"
I'm not really sure what you mean by "before our relationship resets", you didn't exactly give me a date or time.
"Sure. Whatever. But make it quick." I say.
Without a warning, Shiori Rai pulls me towards her.
I feel her embrace me. She's gripping me tight, as if she doesn't want to ever let go. I can feel her hands on my back, holding me with force but not enough to hurt. Her hair hits my face and I smell her sweet shampoo. She whispers in my ear.
"Thank you."
Before I can react she heads over to the window and opens it. The breeze of the cold night air makes my skin shiver. Shiori climbs out of the window, gives me one last hurried smile and jumps down.
Holy shit. My room's on the second floor! What the hell's that girl thinking? I rush over and stick my head out the window. I scan the surroundings for any sign of her. I expected to see her directly below me, injured or something. Luckily, only the wet pavement and puddles of rainwater are to be seen. Daaaamn… She just jumped down from the second floor and disappeared? Could she be another demon super woman?
I withdraw my head from the window and shut the window quietly. I stealthily tiptoe back to my bed and hide under the covers, pretending to sleep. A couple minutes pass by in silence, my parents have not opened my door yet. Maybe they were so tired that they just decided to skip their routine? Yeah, that's probably it. Although, just to be sure I still stay in my position for a little longer.
Shiori Rai. She's one crazy girl, isn't she? So she's been in Japan for two weeks? Even though she had plenty of time to contact me she wanted it to be a "special" reunion. This girl, she's such a romantic… I can't believe she even kept tabs on my family and the house! She waited for the perfect time to strike. She waited until I was completely alone at home before she made her move. This girl is sly and cunning. I have to be careful around her. She's also entering Soubu… Fuck. This is such a nuisance.
After a while my eyelids begin to droop. Ah… Finally. After a long day… I'm finally going to sleep. I close my eyes and listen to my own breathing. Inhale...Exhale...Inhale...Exhale...I don't know how long I stayed like this but at some point I fell asleep.
Here's chapter 7! I hope you guys liked Shiori's debut in the fanfiction! It may be too sudden or early but I felt that this was the way to go.
Also, this chapter will be the last quickly posted chapter. My updating pace will probably be slowing down starting now but I'll try to update every week. I need to properly fine tune the plot and Shiori's character. I'm also going to be busy with other things. But don't worry! I'll make sure to update as much as I can!
You guys might be a bit shocked because of the obsession/clinginess Shiori's showing to Hachiman. Don't worry this is all part of the plot/story. You'll see what happens in future chaps.
Did anyone get the reference I made with this chapter's title? Hahaha! I hope some of you did! If no one did, it's a vampire movie… Ask sir Google if you're interested! :)
Again, if anyone sees anything wrong with grammar or mechanics, if you have time please let me know. I'll edit it as soon as I can!
That's all for now.
This is Veltus, signing off.