“How is it going over there? Have you unpacked all your luggage?”
“It’s going slowly but surely. Mackenzie and the landlord gave me a hand, so I can at least settle in.”
“I see. Make sure you thank them properly.”
“Of course. How is it going for you?”
“I’m living in a dormitory for singles, you know. Even if I don’t lift a finger, I still get dinner and a hot bath. As long as I put my clothes out for cleaning, there’s nothing for me to worry about.”
“That’s good to hear. You’re even more helpless than I am, so I was a little worried myself.”
“Hahaha, that hurts to hear.”
The Satomi family consisted of just father and son, and Koutarou had been the one to do most of the housework. Of course, being as rough as he was, he wasn’t necessarily good at it. But if he hadn’t stepped up, Yuichirou surely would have starved to death. His father was a terrible homemaker.
“Living apart should be a good opportunity for you, so make sure you find a good partner.”
Koutarou wanted his father to remarry as quickly as possible. Until he did, Koutarou would worry that he might actually starve or that he would just let dirty clothes pile up in his room.
“Gwahahaha, finding someone is a bit...”
As hopeful as Koutarou was, it didn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Yuichirou was still in love with his late wife. And knowing how he felt, Koutarou couldn’t really complain.
“Hmm, well, it seems everything is going well.”
“You too, old man. Don’t forget to take out the trash.”
“I know, I know.”
“I wonder sometimes...”
It was at times like these that Koutarou understood how Kenji must feel.
“Well, I won’t hold you up anymore. I’ve still got some more unpacking to do myself.”
“Same here. Talk to you later, old man.”
“Yeah. Goodnight, Koutarou.”
“Goodnight.”
Their conversation had gone smoothly.
“I was wondering what would happen when that transfer suddenly came up, but...”
Koutarou set his phone down and plugged it back in.
“It seems to be going well for now.”
Koutarou smiled to himself and took a quick breather before starting up again on getting his room in order.
“Eleven o’clock already...”
Koutarou finally stopped cleaning up as it neared 11 PM.
“Guess I’ll get to bed early tonight. I’ll never hear the end of it from Mackenzie if I oversleep.”
The past few days, Koutarou had had his hands full with moving. And now on top of that he had work in the morning, so turning in early seemed like a good idea.
“All right, time to hit the hay.”
Koutarou slid open the wardrobe door and pulled out a futon and a cover with an uncharacteristically floral pattern on it. Shizuka had been kind enough to prepare it for him.
With some grunting, Koutarou pushed aside a few boxes and threw down the futon in the space he’d managed to clear. As he was about to casually throw himself into the bed as well, the floral cover caught his eye.
“...I guess I should lay it down the right way.”
After a change of heart, Koutarou properly spread out the futon. Since Shizuka had taken the time to prepare the duvet for him, he’d feel guilty if he treated it roughly like he usually did.
“There we go.”
After neatly laying down his futon, Koutarou turned off the light and crawled into bed.
“Goodnight.”
After saying goodnight to an empty room, Koutarou closed his eyes. He normally had a horrible time waking up in the morning, but he was quick to go to sleep. After just a few minutes, he was already fast asleep.
“Zzzzz...”
With everything still in room 106, only the sounds of Koutarou breathing and the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard. They were so quiet, however, that they were eventually drowned out by the TV that was turned on next door in room 105, and then again by Shizuka opening and shutting her door in room 206 above. The noise didn’t keep up much past midnight, however. By 2 AM, everything was quiet enough for the gentle sound of Koutarou breathing to be heard again.
But that wasn’t the only noise in room 106 now. There was small rattling sound, and it wasn’t coming from Koutarou. Being in deep sleep, he wasn’t moving a muscle.
The sound seemed to be coming from the window, but it wasn’t like it was poorly constructed or the wind was blowing. The window just continued mysteriously rattling as it gradually grew noisier. After a few minutes, it was irritatingly loud.
“Zzzzzzzz...”
But Koutarou showed no sign of waking up.
“Mmm... Mackenzie, just apologize to McKinley already.”
In fact, Koutarou began talking loudly in his sleep. If his own voice wasn’t going to wake him up, the window surely wouldn’t. Almost as if in response to Koutarou’s voice, the strange sounds suddenly stopped dead.
“Gweh heh heh...”
However, as soon as Koutarou began to mumble in his sleep again, the window began to rattle again too. While it couldn’t be possible, it was almost as if it had been startled. After laughing to himself, Koutarou’s sleep talking seemed to stop. Then there was silence. But while nothing happened for several minutes, the abnormality was far from over.
Suddenly, a high pitched sound rang out like a small glass bottle breaking. Strangely, however, there was no apparent cause for the noise. It had certainly come from inside the room, but there was nothing there that could produce it.
The sound of breaking glass continued, and a baseball inexplicably rolled across the tatami floor. The odd noise sounded as if it was coming from roughly the same area the ball had rolled, but neither the source of the sound nor the cause for the ball rolling could be seen.
The new sound persisted with increasing intensity. It was now several times louder than the rattling of the window.
“Heh heh... What, Mackenzie? You can’t handle Landlord-san? She sure is cute, isn’t she?”
Despite the commotion, Koutarou still wasn’t waking up. He only began sleep talking even more.
“You’ve got good looks, but no guts.”
As if trying to drown out Koutarou’s mumbling, the mysterious sounds grew louder still. As if urged on by that, other objects in the room began rattling too. The room was falling into chaos as the furniture and moving boxes started to shake and clatter, and the tumult grew louder and louder.
The sound even passed right over him, but Koutarou simply refused to wake up. Even Kenji, who had known Koutarou for a long time, had trouble waking him up, so something like this was nothing to Koutarou.
“Weh heh heh...”
Once again, the racket stopped when Koutarou made a sound.
If this mysterious phenomenon was caused by someone...
“Enough with the rattling, Mackenzie!”
That someone must have been amazed at Koutarou’s thickheadedness.