Asahi debated whether to take the day off right up until her bedtime, but eventually concluded that she’d surely get another opportunity some other day, and went to work after all. Ai didn’t normally see her off at the door, but he’d only slept for two hours before some small noise had woken him, and now he couldn’t fall back asleep.
He endeavored to go about his day as usual. Before he knew it, the sun was setting, and the promised meetup time quickly rolled around. Two minutes went by with no sign of Julia. He started to wonder if she’d gotten cold feet, then scolded himself for jumping to conclusions.
The doorbell rang, and the intercom screen displayed a woman who by all accounts shouldn’t have been standing there. Instead of buzzing her in, he walked to the door and opened it directly.
“Sorry to spring this on you.”
She smiled, and contrary to his expectations, actually looked hesitant for once. He invited her in, then closed the door and went right to the staircase to show her to the room upstairs that they had turned into a walk-in closet.
“Is, er…your roommate at work?”
“Asahi? Yeah. Do you remember her?”
“Of course I do. Who could forget having their bicep bitten at a party?”
“She hasn’t changed at all since then.”
“Nor have you, it would seem.”
“I’d say ‘likewise,’ but I don’t actually know,” he admitted honestly. In response, she offered only an evasive smile—an unpolished expression that would never appear onstage or in a magazine. It felt like the first time he’d seen her clearly in ages.
When they walked into the closet, Julia gasped in surprise. He gave her the same spiel he’d once given Akane, then lined up all the clothes she had requested. Most of them were brought over from when Ai moved in, and they were in oddly good condition despite having been left behind by their original owner. In addition, he also included some pieces in her size that the old her would have liked.
“Asahi’s been wearing and repairing these, so they’re not exactly the same, but…”
“That’s wonderful. I should thank her.”
“As for the shoes, I think you two are probably the same size. I’ll show you later.”
“Thank you for all this.”
“No problem. Anything for a friend.”
“Yeah…”
“…Okay, well, feel free to get changed in here. I’m gonna go downstairs and have a smoke. Holler if you need anything.”
Behind him, as he headed down the stairs, he heard her thank him again. True to his word, he went into the living room and grabbed the pack of smokes he’d left on the coffee table. It was a comparatively nice, warm day outside considering the time of year, so he opened the window and sat down cross-legged on the floor.
As he gazed out at their tiny backyard, he exhaled the smoke upward. Asahi was the one who had found this rental house for them. Since they were both smokers, she had specifically looked for a place where the windows weren’t right next to a neighbor, and times like these he found himself grateful for his friend’s smart thinking.
By the time he finished his first cigarette, Julia still hadn’t come downstairs, so he rose to his feet, closed the window, put the kettle on, and made some instant coffee. Then he sat down with his mug, sipping from it as he scrolled through social media on his phone. He wanted to know how the other side was faring, but there was no sign of any announcement from the official accounts. They were probably hoping she could still make it in time. Ai felt similarly himself, deep down, and he wasn’t even involved.
Around the time the contents of his mug had dwindled by half, he heard footsteps and creaking stairs headed in his direction. In walked a familiar sight from days gone by.
“How do I look?”
Julia was wearing a shy smile and a wine-red miniskirt, paired with an oversized black sweater under a girly white coat. Atop her head was an off-white beret, and from the skirt down, her legs were clad in a pair of sixty-denier tights that she must have brought from home.
“Very cute.”
“That’s a relief.”
“I didn’t know you still wore those glasses,” he commented, pointing at the thin frames adorning her face. But she shook her head.
“My eyesight isn’t that bad, so normally I don’t bother. No contacts, either. Now that I’m wearing them again, it’s making my vision all wonky.”
“Then why put them on?”
“Well, I needed them to complete my old look.”
“I guess you’re right. Coffee?”
Out of politeness, he moved to stand up, but she stopped him. “No, that’s all right. Thank you, though.”
At her behest, he sat back down, then gestured to an empty chair. She took the seat across from him, as instructed.
“So.”
“Hmm?”
“What now?”
Even with a friend he hadn’t spoken to in person for several years, Ai didn’t beat around the bush. Julia giggled, seemingly enjoying his forthrightness as a change of pace. “Good question.”
“You don’t have a plan?”
During that late-night phone call, she had asked for her old clothes and not a word more. In response, he explained that while some of it had been tossed out, he could offer substitutes, so he invited her to come over. He had seen the Twitter incident, but hadn’t heard anything about what was going on behind the scenes.
At present, there were two and a half hours until the Impatiens concert was set to start—so why was she sitting here in front of him, clad in her old-fashioned style?
“Nope. Nor have I committed to quitting my job, either.”
“Then you should probably show up. I mean, you could get fired for this, right?”
“Yeahhh…”
Be it on TV, radio, or live on stage, Gotou Julia would normally never drawl like that. It further drove home the reality that his friend was right in front of him.
She looked out the window, so he followed suit. The winter sun was already on its way out, and in the distance, a child could be heard crying.
If only I could stop time, Ai found himself wishing.
“You should just follow your heart, Julia.”
“My heart, huh,” she muttered, then fell quiet.
In place of a ticking clock, their breaths steadily inched them toward the pivotal moment of decision. But he felt the silence was itself a purposeful choice on her part, so he didn’t rush her.
“All this time, I’ve never really thought about what my heart wants.”
At this, his lip curled in a half-smirk. Of course, he didn’t regard the last few years of her life with contempt or pity. “You sound like the protagonist of Girl’s March.”
“You’ve read it? Are you a bookworm now?”
“Nah. A friend recommended it, that’s all.”
Silence descended until he could hear their every breath once more. This time he was the first to move, sneaking a glance at his wristwatch. In a blink, fifteen minutes had passed while they were wallowing.
“Ai.”
Had she misread the gesture as impatience? He started to curse himself, but then he saw the look in her eyes and realized he was wrong. “Have you made up your mind?”
“Yeah. Let’s go have fun.”
It wasn’t clear what exactly she meant by that, but at the very least, he sensed she had decided to skip work for the day. “Sounds good. Where to?”
So when she unflinchingly said the name of the very district where she was already supposed to be tonight, it threw him for a loop. For the briefest of moments, he was at a loss for words.
“…Okay then. I have no idea where this is going, but if it’s what you want, then I’m down.”
When he struggled to understand something, he said so. And when he considered that he didn’t need to understand it, he found he was able to take action. Right now, solving the inner workings of her heart wasn’t nearly as important as granting the request of a friend he hadn’t seen in years.
“Thank you.”
Ai liked being the kind of guy who knew what his real priorities were. Upstairs in the closet room, he took his sweet time sculpting an outfit for a night out.
Unbeknownst to them as they left the house, however, a single announcement was cross-posted to all social media platforms.