V1 – A New Neighbor: Part Two

Sitting near the end of the hallway was a girl sloppily wearing their high school's uniform. She had shoulder length black hair and was intently looking down at a smartphone; this was Nara Takagi.

"Hmm? Oh, Arata-san." Nara casually said without looking up from her smartphone. She was sitting next to Katsumi's door with a cellphone in one hand and in the other she was loosely holding a cigarette in between two fingers. Along with this, she had a couple empty bottles surrounding her. 

Looking up from her phone she noticed the person she practically lived with. A grin grew across her face, "Oh! And Katsumi too! I see you've met your new neighbor!" 

Mayumi looked over at Katsumi giving him a look of disappointment. Which made him quickly break eye contact with her — he drifted his gaze over towards Nara. 

"Why aren't you hanging out inside the apartment?"

"I ran back to my place to grab a few more beers and when I got back the door was locked."

"You didn't have the spare key?"

"Nah, forgot it inside."

Katsumi paused for a moment before becoming aware that she was clad in her school uniform, realizing this he asked, "What's up with the uniform? I thought you weren't coming today."

"Ah, you see, I was heavily considering coming today, but I decided that it was simply a waste of time."

"H-hold on. You comment on her wearing her uniform, making it sound like something extraordinary but not the fact that she is casually smoking cigarettes while sitting outside of your apartment?"

"…"

"Well—" Just as Katsumi began his attempt at making an excuse he was cut off.

"And what is all of this about a 'spare key'?"

"Oh, you see—" For a second time Mayumi cut one of Katsumi's excuses short, but this time he didn't even get to say anything.

"…" Mayumi's eyes were wide open as she stared into Katsumi's.

After a moment Mayumi broke this contact and angrily walked over to Nara where she plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and threw it onto the ground, squishing it beneath the soul of her shoe. 

"C'mon man! I wasn't finished with that." Nara exclaimed in a joking tone. All the while she was reaching for her skirt pocket which contained the entire carton of cigarettes. 

"It's bad enough that you hang around Takagi-san. But at least you don't do anything like the rumors suggest—" She turned towards Katsumi. The instant she did, Nara pulled out the carton and started lighting another cigarette with a mischievous grin on her face. 

"Right, Murakami-kun?" 

What the hell is this? She's so fired up. I never thought she'd be able to show this much emotion…. Well, it's like she's fired up but still has that same dead look on her face… I don't get her at all.

"Murakami-kun?"

"Well, how do I put this—"

Mayumi's eyes opened a bit wider.

Nara, now standing, took the cigarette out of her mouth with two fingers and put her arm around Mayumi's shoulder, blowing the smoke in front of her face. This made Mayumi let out a few little coughs while waving her right hand around where the smoke hovered in an attempt to disperse it.

"Haha you see, Katsumi here—." She explained while pointing at him. 

Mayumi pulled away from Nara and glared at her, "I don't want to hear it."

"Some mornings when he wakes up he doesn't even remember that I came over last night! He still always acts surprised when he wakes up and sees me asleep on his couch."

Even though Mayumi's look didn't seem to have any emotion in it Katsumi felt as if she was freezing the hallway around her.

"And I'm surprised he hasn't tried anything on me yet, know what I mean Arata-san?" She said this with that same mischievous grin plastered on her face.

"Nara don't say dumbass things like that."

"Haha— calm down Katsumi, I was just joking around... Anyways, toss me your keys so I can get in."

"Oh yeah, sure." Katsumi reached into his pocket and his hand came out with a key on a lanyard in it. He put his hand in position for an underhand throw. He quickly lifted up his arm and the key began sailing through the air directly towards Nara. 

The key was suddenly grabbed by a hand, that hand not being the intended target however. 

"Hey, what the hell man."

"I don't want to hear that from you." For a second time, Mayumi plucked the cigarette from Nara's mouth and threw it to the ground, once again squishing it with the soul of her shoe. 

Nara quickly reached into her pocket bringing out the entire carton of cigarettes, just to wave around in Mayumi's face while sporting an ear to ear smile.

"Murakami-kun she's a terrible influence, you need to get some of your priorities straight."

"Whad-ya' mean I'm a terrible influence? I've only been helping him relax and enjoy himself a little bit. He used to be so up-tight." 

"Maybe that version of him was better."

This comment from Mayumi prompted a back and forth between the two girls. While this was going on Katsumi moved over to where Nara had been sitting and started collecting the various bottles she left lying around. 

"He used to be an upstanding student, the top of his class. And now he has difficulty getting to school on time. I don't think you're helping him in any way."

Nara just stood there, a grin on her face and with what Mayumi was saying going in one ear and out the other. 

"Hey now… Nara-san has helped me qui—" Now for the third time Mayumi had cut off Katsumi, but this time would mark the beginning of something. 

"I don't want to hear it from you either."

"…" Katsumi broke eye contact with her, opting to look at the ground next to her. 

"You know what… Tomorrow morning I'm going to get you up to make sure you get to school on time. It's about time you stop with all of this. And I better not find you in his apartment tomorrow morning. In fact, I better see you at school tomorrow too."

Katsumi was shocked by what he had just witnessed come from Mayumi, he'd never seen nor expected her to be able to blow up like that. Mayumi's normally white, soft looking face had now turned to a shade of light red. He was at a loss for words but Nara just smiled and retorted, "Geez, alright mom."

With this, she put the carton of cigarettes and her smartphone in her pocket. Nara threw her hands up behind her head while she started casually making her way down the hallway toward the elevator, "Well... Guess I'll catch ya' later Katsumi, looks like your mom is mad at you hahaha." 

"Hey, she isn—"

Nara was now in the elevator and the door started slowly sliding close, she interrupted Katsumi by shouting down the hall, "Bye-bye!" Accompanied with a wave. 

It was now just a confused Katsumi and a Mayumi with a very menacing aura about her standing in the hallway in front of their apartments. 

"…"

"I expect to see you here first thing tomorrow morning, got it?"

What's up with her? She hadn't really reacted like that when I make remarks... But once Nara got involved she worked up? I guess? And seemed like she cared and was worried about me…

Mayumi stepped on Katsumi's foot quite hard because he wasn't responding, just staring at the elevator.

"Ow! Yes yes, first thing. I got it…"

"It's for your own good."

I'm never going to understand her. There's no possible way she would suddenly start caring about me and how I live that much out of the blue like that.. Besides, how I'm living isn't that bad, and I can fix myself up whenever I choose to… 

Katsumi opened the door to his apartment and stood in the doorway. "…Yeah…" 

Mayumi, who was about to shut her door, poked her head out of the doorway and responded to his grumbling with, "Don't forget!"