Chapter 10:
Staying the Night
I RETURNED HOME THROUGH THE RANDOMLY flickering streetlights and flopped down on my couch.
There was karaoke at the after-party, but I’d passed on that. Everyone was so nice to me there—maybe because Ayaka had invited me—but that was unrelated to my decision to split early.
Ayaka, Natsuki, and the other circle members at that last table showed me a great time. It was a great party. The alcohol had made me bolder too, so I stopped caring about pretense and all. That was what made it so easy to make friends at drinking parties.
“Senpaaai, laundry’s almost done. You’ve been neglecting it for a while, huh?”
“Thanks.”
Despite my telling her to go home, Shinohara was still here. She’d spent most of the evening killing time at a nearby convenience store.
They’d apparently gotten a bunch of new magazine issues today, so time had passed in the blink of an eye for her. Now I was relaxing while she did the laundry for me, but with each passing minute, the drunkenness made my head feel heavier and heavier.
When I finally heard Shinohara leaving the kitchen, I opened one eye slightly.
“Pow!” she said. Something audibly smacked my cheek.
I felt a cold palm on it and realized that Shinohara had slapped me.
“Oww…”
“Oof, you’re really not feeling good, are you? You’d normally get super mad at me right now.” She rubbed my cheek and smiled. “You’re drunk.”
“Brilliant deduction, Sherlock…” I rolled over away from her, but she kept her hand on my face. I could feel her getting closer, so no doubt she was inches away from me now.
Ugh, I really am drunk, my heavy brain thought as I realized I’d closed my eye again.
Despite my earlier argument with Reina, feeling Shinohara’s cold hand on my face kept my mind safe from painful memories.
“Senpai?”
“That feels nice.”
“Oh, yeah. I was just washing the dishes. That’s why my hand is cold.”
It occurred to me that she hadn’t eaten here today, which meant she was only washing dishes that I had made. She must’ve seen how drunk I was, realized I’d be neglecting housework again, and decided to do it all for me.
“Thank you.”
Shinohara burst out laughing. “This is just the usual. If you’re that grateful, you’d better start saying it every day.”
“I usually just let you off easy by not charging you rent…”
“Jeez, I get it, already.” She pinched my cheek a little and then lightly stroked the same spot.
There were a few seconds of silence—not awkward, but comforting silence.
“Are you staying the night?” I asked without thinking. Was it because of how drunk I was, or had part of me always wanted this?
Upon my proposal, she looked at me in surprise.
It didn’t take her very long to give me an answer.
“I didn’t bring a change of clothes. If you don’t mind…”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You know, I actually find it weirder how you’ve always kicked me out right before the last train home,” Shinohara grumbled as she rummaged through my dresser.
I was the one who’d told her to find some clothes she could wear, but the sight of my clothes piling up made me a little anxious.
She noticed this and smiled at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll fold them and put them back just right. You had them stuffed in there all willy-nilly, so all the more reason to take them out now.”
“Oh, okay.” I rolled over in bed, relieved. In that case, she could make all the mess she wanted.
I was almost tempted to tell her to throw everything out so she could organize it all for me. It was a selfish thought, but I was too languid from intoxication to get up and help anyway.
“Can I borrow one of these?” she asked right after I’d rolled over, so I reluctantly sat back up. Pinched between her fingers was a jersey I used at my basketball circle.
“Sure. Sorry I don’t have any women’s stuff.”
“I’d be weirded out if you did!” Her response made me mentally reconfirm that Reina had, in fact, taken all of her things.
I still hadn’t organized my entire dresser since the breakup, so I remained anxious, but based on Shinohara’s reactions so far, it seemed to be fine.
I often checked the closet, but my memory of the dresser was less clear.
“You don’t have a girlfriend or anything, do you? Since I’m staying the night…”
“Not right now, nope. You’re in the clear.”
Shinohara paused in the middle of folding laundry, seemingly reacting to the phrase “right now.” I still hadn’t told her that I’d had a girlfriend not too long ago.
We’d talked about our views on love and all, but I hadn’t mentioned my history with Reina even once. I wanted to avoid talking about her as much as possible to people not in the know. But her phone call from earlier was bringing so many vivid memories back to the surface, and it was getting a little difficult to deal with it all on my own. Maybe that was why I’d gone out of my way to imply that I’d had a girlfriend before—I must have subconsciously wanted her to notice.
“We broke up recently,” I explained. Telling someone who didn’t know about Reina took a lot of effort for me, even now.
If not for that call earlier, and if it wasn’t Shinohara I was talking to, I probably wouldn’t have brought it up. That made today special. The stars had aligned perfectly.
“How long did you date?” she asked casually, as if she was just trying to make small talk while she did my chores for me.
“About a year, maybe.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
“A year is a pretty long time, isn’t it?”
“Pretty normal, I think.”
High-school couples would break up in one to three months, but in university, that was considered a short time. A year seemed average to me.
Shinohara puffed up her cheeks in response. “Well, my last relationship lasted three months.”
“Yeah, but that’s you.”
“Hey! I take offense to that!”
“Don’t. It just came out wrong.” I rolled over to try and distance myself from her shouting.
Talking about Reina had lightened the burden on me a little bit. She didn’t press me about it as much as I’d expected, either, which was a relief.
Dealing with this alone might have been painful, but I’d always thought that dwelling on my past by talking to others would be worse. Relief overcame intoxication, and I started to get very sleepy. I didn’t fight it. I just let go of consciousness.