“Looks like we’re gonna get rained on.”
“You think?” said Anzu. “But it’s so nice out right now.”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure. C’mon, let’s hurry and get this over with.”
We quickly headed in the direction of Koharu’s house. Just a little way down the road, we came upon a compact apartment building with an okonomiyaki shop on the first floor. Koharu’s family lived on the upper level of this building. We climbed the stairs and soon arrived at the door with the KAWASAKI nameplate beneath the covered outdoor walkway. When I rang the doorbell, a loud ding-dong could be heard echoing from inside the building, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps darting over wooden floorboards.
“Who iiiiis it?” called the occupant, swinging open the front door.
It was Koharu. She was clearly in “stay-at-home” mode, judging from her T-shirt and baggy sweatpants—as well as the thick-rimmed glasses perched on her nose. I’d known her since junior high, but this was my first time ever seeing her in glasses. I quickly deduced that she must have worn contacts at school. She seemed a little frazzled by the sight of us, but she quickly snapped back into her usual indignant glare.
“…What do you want?” Koharu demanded.
“Ms. H needed someone to drop off your summer homework.”
“And you guys volunteered?”
“Not exactly. But hey, we’re here now.”
“…Great.”
There was the slightest hint of sadness in Koharu’s eyes. Maybe she’d picked up on the fact that this likely meant that all of her usual posse had turned their noses up at the task, and was now pretty dejected about how quickly her so-called friends had abandoned her. Or maybe I was projecting.
Back to business. I held out the workbook, and she took it without a word. However, as I was gearing up to say goodbye and put an end to this strained interaction, I heard a strange sound creep up from behind me, almost like the hiss of TV static. I turned around, and sure enough, it had already begun to rain.
Great. It was a sudden downpour like I’d never seen. As I stood there wondering what the hell we were supposed to do now, a woman’s voice called out from inside the apartment.
“Koharu, it’s raining cats and dogs out there! Why don’t you invite your friends inside?”
“What?! No way!” Koharu shouted back, whirling around at the speed of light. “They’re not my friends, Mom!”
There was a loud stomping of footsteps as the woman rushed out into the entryway. She wore a simple apron and had her long hair tied up in the back. She appeared to be Koharu’s mother.
“Koharu! How can you be so rude after they came all this way?! I taught you better than that!”
“But Mom!”
“Sorry, you two.” Koharu’s mother smiled, pushing her aside. “She can be a bit of a grump sometimes. Don’t take it personally. Feel free to come on in!”
Anzu and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and then walked inside as instructed. Koharu, despite obviously being quite peeved about this turn of events, showed us to her room without any further backtalk. When we got there, she motioned with her chin for us to have a seat, so we both obeyed and hunkered down on the carpet.
Aside from my little sister’s, I’d never been in a girl’s bedroom before. There was a vaguely sweet fragrance that I’d never smelled in any of my male friends’ rooms. However, the room itself was far more austere than I would have expected from a girl as wild as Koharu: just a simple writing desk, a cream-colored dresser, and a closet. Hell, if it weren’t for the bookshelf full of fashion magazines, one might have been forgiven for not realizing this was a teenage girl’s room at all.
“Hey. Quit looking around like a snoop,” Koharu snapped.
“S-sorry,” I said, immediately turning my eyes down to the ground.
“As soon as the rain stops, you’re outta here. Got it?”
I nodded profusely, and the conversation promptly died off. Anzu simply sat there, still as a porcelain statue, while Koharu fidgeted restlessly with her phone in her chair. The only sound that pierced the silence was the pitter-patter of raindrops on the windowpane. The anxiety was stifling. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I tried to strike up a conversation with Koharu again.
“So you wear glasses when you’re at home, huh?”
“Yeah, and? Are you saying I look dumb?”
“No, not at all.”
“Good. Now shut up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Interaction attempt: failed. Once again, I cursed my lack of social skills. It seemed I had no choice but to sit quietly and wait for the rain to let up, so I hung my head in defeat—but then, Koharu herself broke the silence to address Anzu for the first time.
“What the hell are you doing here, anyway? I mean, Tono I can sort of understand, but you?”
“I’m only here because he’s here,” Anzu responded matter-of-factly.
“Sorry, what? Are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend or something?”
“Please. Tono-kun and I are kindred spirits. Don’t try to equate our relationship to a shallow, superficial one like yours.”
“Um, gross? I literally have no idea what that means, and I’m not sure I want to… Wait. What do you mean, ‘like mine’?”
“Aren’t you dating that juvenile delinquent you tried to sic on me?”
At this, Koharu clammed up.
“…We’re not dating,” she answered in a small and mousy voice.
“Wait, you’re not?” I chimed in, genuinely a little shocked. Granted, Shohei had mentioned before that the rumors were unsubstantiated, but they still seemed more believable to me than the alternative.
“He decided on his own to start acting like we were. Then I guess some genius saw that and assumed it was mutual, though I clearly wasn’t into the guy at all.”
“Huh. No kidding… Wait, but then how come you never denied it when all the rumors started swirling around?”
“I mean…why bother? People are gonna draw their own conclusions either way,” Koharu said, fidgeting uncomfortably as though there was something caught in her teeth. I could tell she was being evasive, but it was Anzu who actually called her out on it.
“Oh, I get it now. So you didn’t like him, but you also didn’t want to completely deny the possibility that you two were dating. In other words, you wanted to keep using his reputation as an intimidation factor, didn’t you? Like the daughter of a mob boss using her daddy’s name to scare off any small-time punks who might try to mess with her.”
Yeesh. I mean, I guess it’s a fitting analogy, but did we really have to go there?
“Wha… No, that’s not it at all!” Koharu barked in denial, her face going crimson.