The Color of Our Memories Chapter 2: Me and You?

The Color of Our Memories

Chapter 2: Me and You?

“Now let’s see here…”

I scanned the yellow flyers that covered the windows of a closed store. I moved my head in various directions to get a closer look at all of flyers. After a few minutes of reading a few of them, I put my hands in my jacket pockets and let out a sigh of disappointment sulking my shoulders as I did. I’m willing to do anything, but these jobs involve physical activity too hard for me to handle.

“Ahh!” How about this one! I put my finger on the piece of paper closely reading it word for word. “Miracle Bakery: currently hiring server.” I put my finger on my chin and thought about possibly working at such a place. I like food, maybe I’ll get some for free? “Jackpot!”

“We have a winner!” It’s decided then, I’ll go call them right now. But what if I don’t get the job? Once again I searched the flyers for another suitable job. In the sea of yellow flyers, I found a hot pink coloured piece of paper sticking out, the flyer close to being carried away by the wind. Atleast someone here is smart enough to use another color but yellow.

I yanked it off and read it. ” ♥Moe Moe Nyan♥: currently hiring cute girls for waitressing~.” Hey I’m cute! This is a hard decision… getting to wear a cute waitress outfit or free food? Hmm, I’ll just take these two flyers then.

After neatly folding the two pieces of paper into rectangles and putting them into my handbag, I began to walk to a nearby cafe. I could smell the aroma of fresh coffee and baked goods. I rubbed my belly and almost as if telling me to hurry up, my stomache grumbled. I put my hand on the silver handle on the glass doors of the cafe and began to pull it open. Just as I was about to enter, my phone rang.

I flipped open my phone and exhaled in an irritated manner. Please don’t tell me its- “…Reina.”

「Call Rejected.」

“Fine! Be that way! I don’t need you at school anyway!”

I turned around quickly, my eyes wide open and my mouth hanging, to see the source of the voice angrily storming away. Reina? “R-Reina! Wait!” What is she doing here??

I ran after her and grabbed her hand so that she would stop. She turned her head around…wait what? Why is she crying? I could feel my heart burn with guilt and pity. Was she really that affected by my decision?

“Reina…” I took out a handkerchief from my handbag in a hurry and tried to wipe her face, instead she whipped her head away and released her hand from my grip. She furrowed her eyebrows and gritted her teeth.

“Don’t look at me.” She cleared her throat and inhaled some air, fluttering her eyelids a bit so that her tears would cease falling. She looked down and exhaled heavily before she spoke up. “DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!” She said, um, yellled, pushing me before she stomped past. Her heels clicked and clacked against the cement sidewalk and she held her hand bag close to her. It was as if nothing happened between me and her, and she was just passing by.

I stood there, watching her disappear into the crowd as I held my handkerchief tightly. I sighed. I don’t know what to do anymore. Why couldn’t she be cold to me as usual and let me do whatever I want…

I leaned my back onto the cement wall, clutching my handbag close to me. I tilted my head up and began to sort out my thoughts.

She said ‘I don’t need you at school anyway’… what was that supposed to mean? I shook my head side to side. No way she’s- no, she’s probably just worried. Then, if she’s that worried maybe I should go back to school after all? I mean maybe what I’m doing right now is a bit selfish. But then if I do-

“Junjun. Stop. Just stop.”

I can’t go back to school. There’s no way I’m inheriting that god forsaken company. I sighed and continued to go back into the cafe.

I really didn’t mean to hurt you Reina, but for now let me do what I want.

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The train entered the subway station and a strong wind came in the opposite direction. The many people that waited for the train, all followed it with their eyes as it moved passed by them and came to a halt. The doors opened and almost immediately, the passengers made their way in. Near the front line of people that piled into the train, was Reina. She watched people go in, hoping there would still be enough space for her. She poked her head up to get a peek at who was already in the train. Seeing that space was being taken up quickly, she grunted and pushed people by as she slided in between them. She surely wasn’t in the mood to wait for the next train to come by.

“Stupid Junjun.” Reina said as she entered the train, hitting shoulders with people as she walked in.

She held on tightly to one of the poles on the train and gripped it as hard as she could, scrunching up her eyebrows. Sweat formed on her palm from the hold she had, eventually causing her hand to slip and hit the thighs of the woman in front of her. It took her a few moments before she realized what she had done and when she did, her cheeks heated up in embaressment. She bowed many times in apology as the middle-aged woman in front of her gave her suspicious looks.

She resumed staring at the pole in anger, her chin lowered and her eyes lifted up. She focused all her negative energy into the pole, picturing it as the object of her anger. Many people turned their heads at the strange behaviour Reina was displaying. The many eyes that stared at her burned holes onto her back which made Reina look around the train surprised. She faced front and tried to calm herself down.

Reina lowered her eyelids and relaxed her shoulders as she looked at the passing scenery outside the train windows. The sun peaked through the trees that shielded the passing train, the continuity of its rays being broken every so often. Reina looked up once again, and behold the sun was out with nothing to hide its rays. It shined brightly over the city landscape, but only for a moment would it be given to appear as the train station up ahead awaited them. Still, her eyelids were lowered and her eyebrows furrowed.

There was a pain in her chest, a pain she couldn’t quite explain. It appeared everytime she pictured the banana loving

girl’s smile and everytime she thought about it disappearing. Looking at the sun she was reminded of how this girl loved the feeling of the sun shining on her face and remembering this, the pain in her chest only became more apparent.

“Atleast… there won’t be anyone to bug me anymore.” Reina chuckled at the thought. She tried to convince herself that everything would be alright without Junjun, that school would be just as fun with Sayu and her. She sighed and let her eyes wander around.

” ‘friend’ ” Reina said. She looked up and thought about the word and it’s association with Junjun. “A friend. That’s why I’m concerned about her…”

After a few moments she ended up laughing to herself awkwardly, almost too loudly. “S-sumimasen, sumimasen.” Reina slightly turned around and bowed her head up and down. As she did, something caught her eye.

“Geez Ai-chan, how many times did I tell you to wear a sweater in the morning?” The brown haired girl said as she looked at the girl beside her worriedly. She lightly patted her friend’s head and took out a tissue for her to blow her nose on. “Here.”

“Dankd, Gaki-dan.” The girl took the tissue and tried to quietly blow her nose, as she was too shy to disturb everyone.

“Ah, do you have a mask?” She quickly searched into her handbag, not sure if she had one or not. To her surprise she found one sticking out of a small pocket. She took it out and put it on her friend worriedly, being a bit too rough and hasty as she did.

“Dankd Gaki-dan, but I’m nod dat thick.” She smiled shyly underneath the mask and waved her hands infront of her face. In response, the brown haired girl just patted her friend’s head again and smiled at her causing her friend’s cheeks to heat up.

“You would do the same thing.” Reina stood up straight and became fixated on the two, smiling faintly to herself. She felt a strange feeling of nostalgia. When she realized what or rather who caused this nostalgic feeling, she shaked her head furiously to get herself out of the trance.

She took one last look at the two before the bell indicating her stop sounded and the crowd engulfed her. The train emptied and almost as if unnoticingly, it became full again. Reina turned around and hurriedly exited the train before it resumed its journey.

Through the corner of her eye, Risa watched Reina as she made her way out of the train. She saw Reina quite a few times looking at her and Ai-chan, but decided to dismiss it. For quite a while the three of them had taken the same train to their universities, but today was the first time Risa paid attention to her. The way Reina stared at them with such a face caught her attention and in the back of her head she wanted to know more about the girl.

“Gaki-san, Gaki-san!” Ai-chan took a hold of her friend’s shoulder and shook it. “Our stop is here.” She stood up and waited for Risa to do the same thing.

The both of them made their way out of the cramped train and proceeded to the station exit. The walk to the university was short and was only a few blocks away from the subway station. They went up the stairs, past the people that came down and made their way to their school.

“Ne, Gaki-san? Did you move into your new apartment yet?”

“When will you stop calling me that… Un, last sunday.”

“How about we go celebrate?”

“Tonight?”

Ai-chan nodded in reply with a smile.

“Wooooot!! Drunk Ai-chan! Well, what do you think we should do?”

“Let’s go out and eat! My treat! Err, don’t drink too much though hehe.”

“What are you talking about!” Risa chuckled, lightly slapping Ai-chan on the shoulder. “You know I don’t drink much. Boo. Always such a party-pooper.”

“Whatever you say Gaki-san…”

Both of them passed the entrance gates to the university and made their way to sit near the fountain in the center of the pathway. It was still early, so they had a lot of time to waste before classes started. They found a seat on the borders of the fountain and began conversing. Talking to Ai-chan, Risa couldn’t help but feel like there was something she had to do. She focused hard to figure out what it might be, holding her elbow with one hand and putting her finger on her chin with the other.

“Am I supposed to do something tonight?”

“Gaki-san!” Risa felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up. One of her friends that she went to with in highschool and now university, smiled widely at her revealing the little fangs she had. Her black hair shined in the sun, shadowing her face as she looked down.

“Nah.“

———————————————————————————————————

[ The person you are calling is unavailable. Please try again later. ]

“She’s still not answering.” Eri said, pressing the ‘end call’ button disappointedly. She held her phone with both her hands and put them on top of her thighs. Looking down, she sighed and played with her fingers. “When is Gaki-san going to get here…”

For almost an hour and a half now has Eri been waiting at their meeting spot and has made six calls. Tonight, both of them had planned celebrating Risa’s first time living alone. This night also had a special meaning to it. This night was the night Eri had promised to herself to finally say something she had been wanting to say ever since her and Risa graduated from highschool. Those three sacred words that she never took the initiative to fess up and admit. She was tired of watching Risa from the sidelines, wondering what [i]might have[/i] happened if she fessed up.

“Just try one more time.” Eri said, staring down on her phone. She lifted the device up to her ear and listened to the numbers being dialed. She waited in anticipation for the voice she had been wanting to hear, causing the ringing tone to take seemingly forever to end. With each passing second she held onto her phone tighter and tighter, until finally the ringing tone stopped and a female voice came through the speakers. Eri relaxed her shoulders and immediately began to speak.

“Gaki-san!”

“Mou~ Gaki-san I told you not to drink too much!” Instead of the voice Eri had been searching for, a different one came through: Ai-chan’s.

“Ai-chan?” Eri remained silent and listened in to the conversation between the two.

“Gomen Ai-chan! I’ll pay for it later! Oh Kame! What’s up?” Still, Eri remained silent. This time in shock.

She pulled away her phone from her ears a little and closed her eyes. “G-Gaki-san, I’ve been calling you for a while. Why haven’t you been picking up?”

“I forgot to switch my phone from vibrate after class. I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright.” Eri smiled hoping Risa would be on her way over. “By the way, where are you right now?”

“Where am I? I’m here with Ai-chan celebrating! You should come over we’re ri-”

[end call. ]

“She… she forgot.”

Eri held her phone tightly and bowed her head. She clenched her jaw from the pain she felt in her chest and forced her eyes shut as tightly as she could.

“How could she forget?” She opened her eyes again and looked up at the sakura tree at the center of the park.

As she continued to look at the pink leaved tree her phone rang. “But, Ai-chan was always more important than me…“ Eri smiled to herself sarcastically.

It continued ringing. “So I guess it’s my fault for being hopeful.“

Still it rang. “It’s my fault for thinking about me and you.” and it rang, and rang. It took a slight pause and then resumed ringing, up until Eri got fed up and turned off the device.

“A rainbow forms, the winds pick up, the blue sky~♪” Koharu rode on her bicycle singing the tune to one of her favourite songs. It was 7:32 and the sun was no where to be seen, yet still, she had not finished making the last of the delivieries for her family’s bakery. Today, her co-worker Sayumi decided to take a day off since she had caught a spring cold, leaving Koharu with the small deliveries she was assigned to do, deliveries she could handle. Rather than snoozing off at the cashier desk like she did today and the days before, Koharu’s mother thought of putting her daughter to more use. Koharu welcomed the request with little annoyance and did as she was told accordingly, the problem was she was easy to become side tracked.

“Let us make memories~♪ We can openly show our feelings~♫ and say goodbye to our worries~” She sang as she pedaled leisurely on her bike. The view of the park entered her vision and she smiled at the huge sakura tree in the center. “Good evening, Tree-san!” she said her greetings and resumed singing, “bye, bye, tan tan ta~aahh? It’s Saviour-sama!“

Koharu stopped pedaling and let the wheels of her bike continue spinning. She looked at Eri with sparkling eyes and waved. Moving forward on her bike, her smile changed to a frown as she saw how down Eri looked. Completely focused on why Eri had become so sad looking, Koharu lost complete sense of her surroundings ultimately leading her to hit a thick pole up ahead.

“KYA!!” Her bicycle flipped upside down and the small cake she was delivering became untied, flew out of it’s container and onto the pavement. Koharu landed on her butt with thankfully no injuries, except with a few scrapes on her hands from rubbing with the hard ground on impact. “Ouch…”

“Kusumi-san!” Eri snapped out of her gaze and rushed over to help Koharu, “Are you alright??” Eri took Koharu’s hand and pulled her up.

“Ouch! My butt!” Koharu yelled, her voice making a slight squeaking sound at the end. In response to Koharu’s high pitched voice, Eri giggled a little while putting her hand over her mouth.

“That’s good, that’s good, you’re smiling.”

Eri just looked at Koharu. Her eyelids were lowered and her face looked nuetral, not really sad like before but not really happy either.

Koharu, made a fake pouty face as she looked away from Eri. After looking into space in thought she quickly stood up and stared into Eri’s eyes, invading her personal space. Still looking into Eri’s eyes with a mock angry face, she… hugged her. Koharu nestled Eri’s head into the side of her neck with one arm, while the other was wrapped around her waist. With each passing moment she pulled Eri closer to her, burying her face into her neck.

Eri’s eyes were wide open with shock. Being hugged so suddenly like this was unusual for her, especially if it was from people she didn’t really know. After a few moments she started to calm down, relaxing her shoulders and accepting how strange Koharu was being.

“Mama said, if someone is sad it’s best to just hug them.” Koharu quietly said, her voice merely above a whisper. She stroked Kame’s hair a few times as they remained in silence. After a few moments Eri closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel the warmth from the embrace. She didn’t feel the need to resist, all she needed was comfort. She didn’t know Koharu that much, but her personality to attract people took affect on Eri. The silence between the two phased out the chatter of people in the park and the footsteps of people moving past behind them.

Eri tried to contain what she was feeling, the crushing feeling of defeat before an attempt. She was slapped in the face with a big attention sign after that phone call and was made aware of something she felt, but wasn’t quite sure of: she was forever to remain Risa’s friend.

Koharu put her hands on both of Eri’s shoulder’s and slowly moved her away from her. ”[i]What am I doing…”[/i]

Koharu paused for a moment and looked into Eri’s eyes worriedly. She looked down for a moment and looked up at Eri again. “Let’s get you home.” Koharu said firmly.

She took Eri by the hand and led her to her bicycle. She picked it up and held it with one hand so that it would stay still. She hopped on and took off the rope that she used for the cake which dangled over the lower second seat of the bike.

Eri didn’t speak. She remained silent and shifted her eyes from Koharu to the seat on the bike. She took one last look at the park and frowned. She would rather go home than stay any minute longer in that park. She sat up on the seat, her knees facing to the left closely side by side. Once Eri was comfortable, Koharu started pedaling.

“Please hold on tight… huh?” Koharu felt two arms wrap around her.

Eri hugged her tightly and slowly let her tears fall, her head laid onto Koharu’s back. She gripped on tightly to Koharu’s shirt and bit her lip so that she wouldn’t make any noise by letting out her sniffles. She nuzzled her head further, hiding her face.

“Thank you.”

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“Tana…ka-san?”

I pushed open the doors to my room slowly and to my surprise Tanaka-san was spread out on my bed eating a bag of chips. I scanned the room and saw that her jacket was tossed onto the floor, along with several empty snack bags. I let my school bag slowly slide off my shoulder and land on the floor creating a soft, muffled thump. Tanaka-san looked at me through the corner of her eye and said,

“Yo.” She took her hand and did a salute.

“Yo?? How did you get in??”

“Your mom let me in. I was hungry so I grabbed these.” Of course. It had to be mom. She lifted up the bag of potatoe chips to show me. Just like Tanaka-san, making herself feel right at home and taking out whatever she wants. Not that I mind though. It’d just be nice to get some notice once in a while. Well, usually if its like this something happened. I rather not ask, but me and Tanaka-san are really good friends so its sort of my duty I guess. If I ask her who knows how long it’ll take for her to spit it out without changing the subject matter. I rather not go through such a long battle.

“What are you doing just standing there?” She patted down on an open space on the bed, motioning me to sit. I went over to sit down.

I sat down on the bed and played with my fingers that were on my lap. I let out some more air and began to look bored, raising my eyebrows without lifting my eyelids. Maybe if I do this I won’t have to ask and she’ll just tell me.

…

This is taking a while. “Umm, you know, I have to change so if you mind…”

“I don’t mind at all.” I took a pillow and smacked her in the face with it. She laughed loudly and rolled around my bed to have her back facing me.

“PERVERT!” I laughed.

“Me? the pervert? Reading your diary makes me think otherwise…”

“Y-you, did WHAT?!”

If she read my diary then that means..!

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