“Good morning!” The lecture hall door slid open and a girl with a big smile on her face stepped in—her long brown hair fluttering as she did.

Jackson looked away from Saki to see who entered the classroom. “Oh, Nakagawa, good morning.” 

“Jackson, Kiki good morning.”

“You’re in high spirits today. Something good happen?” Saki asked.

Yui Nakagawa  put a finger to her chin, thinking about a reason for her especially good mood. “Mm~, nothing in particular I guess. I’m just happy it's clear and sunny today. It’s been raining so much this last week.”

“Kiki?” Jackson laughed, “That’s a great nickname, it’s so cute.”

“W-what? Jackson don’t say that so loud. It’s embarrassing…”

“You’re turning so red,” He teased.

“You two… so early in the morning…” Yui sighed.

Saki took a moment to compose herself. “A-anyway, after we get out, I wanna check out the café that just opened near campus. Will you come Jackson?”

“I’ve got nothing going on so sure, why not.” Yui walked over to two students sitting nearby.

“Togashi, Shizuka good morning. How’re you two?” 

“Mornin’ Nakagawa, I’m good, thanks for asking.”

“Me too, thank you.”

“Ah, and good morning to you too!” Yui stood behind a girl and then latched onto her. Doing this drew the attention of a couple guys in the classroom.

The girl bookmarked the page in her book and set it down. “Yes, good morning Yui. But do you mind?”

“Eh-heh, sorry…”

“Alright everyone, settle down, settle down.” Hasegawa-sensei entered the classroom with a mug that had the text I Love Teaching on it. 

Take your seats everyone.” 

Hasegawa-sensei spent the next few minutes taking attendance. “Please remember everyone that since this is your first year, attendance is part of your grade. So please show up.”

After a few more seconds of looking over his sheet he looked up, then back down, and back up again. “Is Murakami here? Murakami?”

All the students in the lecture hall blankly stared back at him.

“If anyone sees Murakami please tell him to come see me, thank you.”

Togashi raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“Hasegawa-sensei, I thought you were the Modern Japanese professor, why’re you teaching Physics?”

Hasegawa-sensei sighed, “Please don’t ask stupid questions like that, Togashi.”

Togashi stared at him with his mouth open, shocked by his response.

“Wakey-wakey sleepy head, it’s time for class.”

Katsumi bolted up, breathing heavily. “What the—”

The voice that woke him up came from someone he was far too familiar with—Nara.

“Don’t do that. And please don’t tell me I’m late…”

“Well, for classes yesterday, yes. You slept through the entire day. But right now it’s five in the morning, so you’re fine.”

Katsumi grumbled in response to this. He got up and headed towards his bedroom door where he directed Nara to leave.

The next thing he knew, the loud beeping of his cellphone’s alarm clock was piercing his ears.

The disheveled Katsumi tried to stop the noise but ended up rolling out of bed and onto the floor. 

“Seven-thirty. Nice timing.”

Katsumi stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared into his reflection. He stood there for minutes, becoming entranced by his own blinking.

As he walked through his apartment to the front door he scanned and saw that Nara had finally gone home. 

Moments later he was slipping on his shoes and walking out of the front door. Clear blue sky and bright natural light was always a shock to him. He put a hand in front of his eyes and squinted.

“A little change never hurts I suppose.” With bags under his eyes and a messily put on outfit, he started walking towards the elevator.

“Hasegawa-sensei said he wanted to see you when you get to campus.”

“Mm, right.” 

No, wait, not right! Who the hell is that!?

A black-haired girl was leaning against the railing of the hallway—the same girl that lent Katsumi her umbrella.

What was her name...? She was the umbrella girl. “Uhm, excuse me, Ms—”

“Arata.”

“W-what?”

“My name, it’s Mayumi Arata.”

“Ah— right…” Katsumi scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. “Right, Arata… Why’re you here?”

“Because I live here.” She pulled out a key with a tag on it that read 87. 

Eighty-seven… Katsumi slowly turned around pondering why that number sounded familiar. 

The number eighty-seven was on the door next to his apartment. 

“What!?”

Mayumi had already begun walking towards the elevator without Katsumi noticing. He rushed to catch up with her.

“What do you mean what? I’m your next door neighbor,” She sounded slightly disappointed in the fact that Katsumi hadn’t known this. 

The two had exited the elevator and walked through the lobby. Now on the street they were side-by-side.

“When did you move in? I think I would have remembered this.” Actually, I’m not so sure, I don’t remember much of what happened over the past week. Just that Nara had come over  almost every day.

“Clearly you don’t.”

“Alright, fine. I don’t remember. So when did you move in?”

“It’s been four days now.”

“Four? How come I’ve never seen you in the hallway?”

“That's what I was going to ask you. The past two days I’ve been going in and out of my apartment quite a bit, and I have not seen you once. However, I have seen a girl going to and from your apartment quite a lot.”

“Honestly, I don’t remember her being over at my place much at all recently.”

“Mhm…”

For a while the two carried on in silence. 

“You know you didn’t have to walk with me all the way to campus. I’m assuming you normally go with friends?”

“Oh it’s fine. I just want to make sure that you don’t get sidetracked.”

What the hell does she mean sidetracked? I don't get sidetracked… 

“Are you alright?”

“W-wh— Huh? Yeah why?” Wait, did I say that out loud?

“You were making a weird face.”

“Ah— Uhm, yeah, it’s nothing.”

 

Katsumi slid open the door to their classroom and the two of them quietly made their way to their seats. He put his bag on his desk-hook and looked over at Mayumi. “Hey—” 

She seemed to already be tuned out of the world around her. 

This is the girl that went out of her way for me? Really?

“Wow~ look who showed up today.”

“Actually, I really wish I could tune out the world like Arata.”

“What was that?”

“Good morning to you too, Akito.”

“I guess it was a good morning.” 

Yui Nakagawa approached the two and joined the conversation. “Hey hey, come on now Kiki, no need to be so rude to Murakami. I mean, didn’t you two used to be in the same club back in high school?”

“You just helped my point. Used to and back in high school. Did you ever talk to him during the last semester of high school? After he started hanging out with that girl from the sticks?”

“Mmm~ I suppose not.”

“See? Then I don’t think you’d be a good judge of Murakami.” Saki crossed her arms.

Yui turned around again—this time to face Katsumi. “Sorry about that Murakami, you’re fine. I guess Kiki just holds grudges for a long time or something.”

“Holds grudges!? I—”

“Come on now Kiki, it’s fine…” Yui tried to comfort her as they walked away from Katsumi.

  Hasegawa-sensei was nowhere to be seen, even though class had started. 

The chalkboard at the front of the classroom read: Modern Japanese Group Project — Groups of two to three!

Group project huh? Isn’t that a convenient way of saying I don’t want to teach today.

“Kiki, Jackson, do you guys want to partner up with me?” Yui asked.

“Sure.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Katsumi scanned the classroom to see what the situation was. Some couples got together to form groups while other groups were just boys or just girls—some with a bit of each. 

Hasegawa-sensei entered the room with ruffled hair. “Uhm, alright let’s see… Okay, is everyone in groups?” 

After a moment of scanning the classroom, Hasegawa-sensei’s gaze landed on Katsumi. He sighed and then directed his attention to Mayumi, “Arata, do you mind partnering up with Murakami?”

“Alright.” 

She always seems to play it cool, but I bet inside she’s embarrassed because she just got called out like that. Having to partner with me and all. Look, I bet she’s trying to hide her face because it’s red or something. Isn’t that too self-deprecating?

When Katsumi looked over, she was simply staring straight ahead, resting her head on her hand listening to Hasegawa-sensei.

I suppose this is more realistic…

A boring hour passed with Katsumi almost falling asleep twice.

“Alright that’s all for class today, have a good Wednesday evening everyone. Oh and Murakami, please come see me in my office. 

“Yes sensei.”

 

“That damn teacher, behavior correction program… Work with others around you. What a load of shit.”

“I can hear you, Murakami. These doors are thin.”

“Y-yes… Sorry sensei.” Katsumi put on his backpack and walked down the windowless hallway—alone.

“Murakami?”

“Huh? W-what? Arata?” 

Katsumi spun to his right, where the voice had come from. But the next time Mayumi spoke her voice came from his left.

“Where’d you come from?”

“I was waiting next to the door, you passed right by me.”

“You’re so sneaky, what's up with that? I mean maybe it’s just me being dense but it’s like you have no presence at all…” Well it’s probably me, I didn’t even notice Jackson opening the door to the roof.

“What did Hasegawa-sensei have to say to you?” 

“What’s got you so curious?”

“Well, I guess I was the one that relayed the message to you, and from what I heard—”

“Oh, that’s right, paper-thin walls.”

“And from what I heard, it seems you have some issues.”

“Yeah well, it would probably seem like that to someone who just heard that conversation. But it’s really nothing, he’s over-exaggerating.”

“Is that so?”

That’s a complete lie, but it’s not like she’d know any better. Girl just zones out all day. 

When the two got to the front entrance it was raining, just like his and Mayumi’s first encounter there.

Rain again? Luckily I brought my umbrella this time. It should be right here— Katsumi reached for the side of his backpack where he should’ve put his umbrella. However, he felt nothing.

A sigh escaped his mouth.

He felt something tap on his shoulder and spun around. His face was met with the tip of an umbrella, mere centimeters away. He jumped back slightly and let out another sigh. 

“Quit sneaking up on me.”

“Are you sure it’s not you being unaware?”

“Well…” Katsumi grabbed the umbrella from her and opened it, stepping out into the rain, “I don’t know…” He began walking to the campus’s front gate. 

It’s only my second day at school this semester and I’ve relied on her both times… What’s with this coincidence? And now I have two of her umbrellas!

Mayumi pulled out her own umbrella and followed suit. 

Because of the wind, the rain was coming down at an angle making it so their umbrellas were only effective at keeping their upper torsos and heads dry. The harsh rain accented the city incredibly well. Neon lights of the city shining through the storm like beacons, office lights dotting skyscrapers that rose up into the cloudy sky. However, Katsumi wasn't focused on the setting at all, he was stuck in his own world of thoughts. Only being aware enough to not run into anything while walking.  

Continuing on in silence for a short while longer, Katsumi and Mayumi turned left and walked under a canopy covering the doorway of their apartment building. This awning only slightly helped keep the rain away, as it still pummeled them from the side. 

“I guess you really do live here…”

“Why would I lie about living here?”

“Uh… Yeah, good point.” Katsumi gave up this argument before it even started—knowing it would go nowhere. 

The two made their way through the nicely flourished lobby and to the elevator. A short ride later, the display in the elevator read eight, and preceded by a ding, the door slid open.

“Hey, look who it is,” Mayumi said.