V1 - A New Neighbor: Part One

"Good morning!" The classroom door slid open and in stepped a girl with a big smile on her face.

Brad looked away from Saki to see who entered the classroom, "Oh, Nakagawa-san, good morning." 

"Jackson-kun, Ki-Ki-chan good morning."

"You're like, really happy today Yui-chan. Something good happen?" Saki asked.

Yui put a finger up to her chin and gazed upwards for a moment, thinking about a reason for her especially good mood. "Mmm, nothing in particular I guess. I'm just happy its so clear and sunny today. It's been raining so much the last week."

"Ki-Ki-chan? Haha that's a great nickname, it's so cute."

"W-what? Brad don't say that so loud. It's embarrassing…"

"Ahaha you're so red!" Brad tightly put his arms around Saki and pulled her in close.

"Ah!—" Saki covered her face by burying it in Brads shoulder. "It's probably different in America but you really shouldn't do that in public here…"

"You two… so early in the morning… hah—" Yui commented.

Saki got up and took a moment to compose herself. "A-anyway, after school I want to check out the café that just opened, can you come Brad?"

"I've got nothing going on so sure, why not. Sounds nice."

A few of the other girls saw this whole interaction and caught wind of Saki's invitation. They shot angry looks at Saki but she only smiled in return and then latched onto Brad's arm.

"Togashi-kun, Shizuka-chan good morning! How're you two?"

"Mornin' Nakagawa-san, I'm good, thanks for asking."

"Me too, thank you."

"Ah! And good morning to you too!" Yui stood behind a girl and then latched onto her. This drew the attention of a couple of the guys in the classroom.

The girl bookmarked the page in her book and set it down, "Yes, good morning Yui-chan. But do you mind?"

"Eh-heh, sorry…"

"Alright everyone, settle down, settle down." Hasegawa-sensei entered the classroom with a mug that had the text, 'I love teaching' written on it. He took a sip from it but nearly spit it out. "Damn that's hot… It's been like five minutes, what the hell?"

"Alright take your seats everyone… Uhm— Dammit it's gonna be him all year isn't it?" Hasegawa-sensei looked down at a sheet of paper before saying, "Is Murakami-san here? Murakami-san?"

Every seat in the room was filled except for, "Togashi-san, he's supposed to sit next to you, is he… not there, of course…"

"Sorry sensei, he's not here."

"Mm, thanks for pointing out the obvious."

"W-what?"

"It's nothing, don't worry. If anyone sees Murakami-san please tell him to come see me, thank you."

"Wakey wakey sleepy head, it's time for school."

"Ah!" Katsumi bolted up, breathing heavily. "What the hell? Don't do that. And please don't tell me I'm late…"

"Well, for school yesterday, yes. You slept through the entire day. But right now its five in the morning so you're fine."

Katsumi only grumbled in response to this. He got up and headed towards his bedroom where he slammed the door.

The loud electronic beeping of his cellphones alarm clock was the first thing he heard as he rolled out of bed and hit the floor. 

"Seven-thirty… Nice timing…"

He stood in front of the mirror and stared into his own brown eyes. Becoming entranced by his own blinking, he stood there for minutes, doing absolutely nothing. 

"What am I doing? No time to waste…"

As Katsumi walked through his apartment to the front door he scanned and saw that Nara had finally gone home. Moments later he slipped on his shoes and walked out of the front door. The blue sky and bright natural light was always a shock to him; He put his hand in front of his eyes and squinted.

"A little change never hurts I suppose." With bags under his eyes and a messily put on uniform he started walking down the hallway.

"Hasegawa-sensei said he wanted to see you when you get to school."

"Mm, right…" 

No, wait, not right! Who the hell is that?

A black-haired girl was leaning against the railing of the hallway. She was scrolling through something on her smartphone. Katsumi froze in front of her.

Wait… Is that the girl that sits next to me… Shizuku-san? Shizuka? I have no clue what her name is... I'll just go with Shizuka... "Uhm, excuse me… Shizuku-sa—"

"Arata."

"W-what?"

"My name, it's Mayumi Arata."

"Ah— haha right…" Katsumi scratched the back of his head and fell silent for a moment. "Right, Arata-san… W-why are you here?"

Mayumi looked up from her phone and right at Katsumi. "Because I live here." She pulled out a key with a tag on it that read '87'. 

Eighty-seven… Katsumi slowly turned around pondering why that number sounded familiar and saw the door with the number Eighty-seven right next to his front door. 

"What!?"

Mayumi had already begun walking towards the elevator without Katsumi noticing. He rushed to catch up with her.

"What do you mean 'what'?… I'm your next door neighbor." She sounded slightly disappointed in the fact that Katsumi hadn't known this. 

The two had exited the elevator and walked through the lobby. Now on the street they were walking side-by-side.

"When did you move in? I think I would have remembered this..." Actually, I'm not so sure, I don't remember much of what happened over the past week. Just that Nara had come over almost every day.

"Clearly you don't. Plus you contradicted yourself." 

"But when did you move in?"

"It's been four days now since I've moved in."

"F-four? How come I've never seen you around the building?"

"That's what I was going to ask you. The past two days I've been going in and out of my apartment quite a bit, seeing you not once. However, I did see Takagi-san coming and going from your place quite often these past few days."

"Honestly, I don't remember her being over at my place much at all recently."

"Mhm…"

"You know you didn't have to walk with me all the way to school. I'm assuming you normally go with friends?"

"Oh it's fine. I just want to make sure that you don't get side tracked."

'What the hell does she mean 'side tracked'? I don't get side tracked… 

"Are you alright?"

"W-wh— Huh? Yeah why?" Wait, did I say that out loud!?

"You were making a weird face."

"Ah— Uhm… Yeah, it's nothing."

Katsumi slid open the door to their classroom and the two of them quietly made their way to their seats. Katsumi put his bag on his desk-hook and looked over at Mayumi. "Hey–" However she had seemed to already be tuned out of the world around her. This is the girl that went out of her way for me…? Really?

"Wow… look who showed up today."

"Actually, I really wish I could tune out the world like Arata-san."

"What was that?"

"Good morning to you too, Akito-san."

"Yes, I guess it was a good morning." 

"Hey hey, come on now Ki-Ki-chan." Yui moved closer to Saki and put a hand on her shoulder. "No need to be so rude to Murakami-kun. I mean, didn't you two used to be in the same club back in Junior-high?"

"You just helped my point. 'Used to' and 'back in Junior-high'. Did you ever talk to him during the last semester of Junior-high after he started hanging out with that girl from the sticks?"

"Mmm— I suppose not."

"Exactly— Oh, Umi-chan when'd you get here?"

"The same time as Murakami-kun I suppose."

You suppose? We literally walked in at the same time.

Yui turned around again to face Katsumi, "Sorry about that Murakami-kun, you're fine. I guess Ki-Ki-chan just holds grudges for a long time or something."

"Holds grudges!? I—"

"Come on now Ki-Ki-chan, it's fine…" Yui tried to comfort her as she walked her away from Katsumi.

Hasegawa-sensei was nowhere to be seen but the board at the front of the classroom read: 'Modern Japanese Group Project — Groups of two to three!'.

"Group project huh? Isn't that convenient for the story."

"You mean convenient for you? Because you wouldn't know what to do without a group?" 

Katsumi was resting his head on his hand grumbling to himself when Mayumi made this remark. He lazily turned his head towards her and replied, "Did I say something?"

"No, we just have a special going on today: make a snarky remark and get one back for free." Mayumi was doing the same as Katsumi and when she said this she also nonchalantly turned her head towards him. 

"Ki-Ki-chan, Jackson-kun, do you guys want to partner up with me?"

"Sure."

"Sounds good to me."

Katsumi scanned the classroom to see what the situation was. Some couples got together to form groups while other groups were just boys or just girls or some with a bit of each. 

Hasegawa-sensei entered the room with ruffled hair. "Uhm, alright… let's see… Alright is everyone in groups? Good— Ah, of course he isn't. Uhm… Arata-san, do you mind partnering up with Murakami-san?"

"Alright." 

She always plays it so cool, but I bet inside she's embarrassed because she just got called out like that. Having to partner with me and all. Look, I bet she's trying to hide her face or it's all red or some— thing… When Katsumi looked over she was simply looking straight ahead, resting her head on her hand listening to Hasegawa-sensei.

I suppose this is more realistic…

"Alright that's all for homeroom, have a good Wednesday evening everyone. Oh and Murakami-san please come to the teacher's office. 

"Yes sensei."

"That damn teacher, 'behavior correction program' 'work with others around you'. What a load of shit."

"I can hear you, Murakami-san. These doors are pretty thin."

"Y-yes… Sorry sensei." Katsumi put his bag over his shoulder and walked down the windowless hallway alone. 

"Is that so, Murakami-kun?"

"Huh? W-what? Where'd you come from?"

"I was waiting outside the door, you passed right by me."

"You're so damn sneaky, what's up with that? I mean maybe it's just me being dense but it's like you have no presence at all…" Well it's probably me, I didn't even notice Brad opening the door to the roof.

"What did Hasegawa-sensei have to say to you?" 

"What's got you so curious?"

"Well, I guess I was the one that relayed the message to you and from what I heard—"

"Oh, that's right, paper-thin walls…"

"And from what I heard it seems you have some major issues."

"Yeah well, it would probably seem like that to someone who just heard that conversation. But it's really nothing, he's over-exaggerating a lot. 

"Is that so?"

That's a complete lie but it's not like she'd know any better. Girl just sits on her phone all day. 

When Katsumi got to the front entrance it was raining, just like his and Mayumi's first encounter there

"Come on, rain again?" Luckily I brought my umbrella this time. It should be right here— Not in my bag, and hanging on the coat rack by the front door… "Ahh…" 

He felt something tap on his shoulder and spun around. His face was met with the tip of an umbrella mere centimeters away. He jumped back slightly and let out another sigh. "Oh my god! You're still here?"

"Where else am I supposed to be?"

"Well…" Katsumi grabbed the umbrella from her and opened it, stepping out into the rain. "I don't know…" He began walking to the school's front gate. It's only my second time at school this semester and I've relied on her both times… What's with this coincidence? And now I have two of her umbrellas!

Mayumi pulled out her own umbrella and followed suit. 

Because of the wind, the rain was coming down at an angle making it so their umbrellas were only effective at keeping their upper torsos and heads dry. The harsh rain accented the city almost perfectly, the neon city lights shining through the storm like beacons. Office lights dotting monolithic skyscrapers. However, Katsumi wasn't focused on the setting at all, he was stuck in his own world of thoughts. Only being aware enough to not run into anything while walking. 

Continuing on in silence for a short while longer, Katsumi and Mayumi turned left and walked under a canopy covering the doorway of an apartment building. This awning only slightly helped keep the rain away but it still pummeled them from the side. 

"I guess you really do live here…"

"Why would I lie about living here?"

"Uh… Yeah, good point." Katsumi gave up this argument before it even started—knowing it would go nowhere. 

The two made their way through the nicely flourished lobby and to the elevator. Stepping into the compartment, Mayumi pressed the button for the Eighth floor. The door slid closed and Katsumi entered hell. He felt each breath they took, the air ever so slightly warming around them; Neither of them saying a word. This tension made Katsumi begin to sweat as his mind was furiously racing in a self induced humidity. The elevator in their apartment didn't have an A/C unit, so this caused it to become akin to a sauna during the summer months, but to him it felt like those times came early. Katsumi was standing behind and to the left of her giving him a chance at a much closer look at her. For a moment he was entranced by Mayumi's pleasant smelling scent and stood there motionless, staring a hole in the back of her head.

Mayumi slightly tilted her head back and asked, "Do you need something, Murakami-kun?"

Not even realizing that he'd been staring so intently at her, this question took him by surprise. 

"…Huh? Oh Uhm… no, I don't… sorry…"

Katsumi could see her cheek move slightly, as if she started smiling.

The display in the elevator read 'eight'. Preceded by a ding, the door slid open. Peering down the hallway someone was sitting against the wall.

"Hey, look who it is."