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Yonan University is located on top of a hill facing the coastlines. It covers an extensive area and consists of several large faculty buildings, two gyms, a few outdoor sports fields, courts, and grounds, and also a large park where students like to sit around or even nap when the weather is accommodating. It’s a prestigious school, well known for the campus’s beauty as much as its academic excellence.
Coming in from the main gate, you will see the main hall with its impressive stairwell and large doors. It’s where entrance ceremonies are held every year for new students.
It’s where they first met each other.
Well, not first but it was definitely when they first time they met properly. Where they first became friends.
That aside, walk further into the campus grounds and you will see a park and the main library right next to it. Further south and the main street should stretch in front of you long until the end, which is the south gate of the campus.
Before the south gate, however, trees and department buildings alike line up on the left and right hand sides of the main street. A few hundred meters in and you will get to the department of engineering’s main building, which sits right across the department of science’s.
He was so excited when he first found out that his department’s building is so close to his. It’d be easy for them to meet up everyday.
Now, the department of science’s complex itself is quite large. Closest to the main street is the faculty of mathematics’ lecture halls, furthest to the main street would be the faculty of applied chemistry’s laboratories. One of them has a back door which leads to a small, hidden exit out of campus grounds. It’s an unassuming exit way but surprisingly, many students use it everyday. Especially on afternoon breaks.
The exit leads to a steep staircase down the hill on which the campus is located, and Kinjou Shingo descends the narrow steps calmly on this particularly breezy day. The white coat he still had on flapping with the wind. He’s just on a break from a lab session and will have to continue afterward. Walking back to his station just to take off and put away the coat seemed like too much of a bother.
Besides, he was hungry and would like to use the extra time early dismissal gave him to beat the other students on lunch breaks in ordering his special lunch set.
Lunch set B: A plate of special karaage, a large serving of steaming white rice, miso soup, and tea with free refill service.
Kinjou descends the last step and comes across a black cat who immediately greets him cheerfully, rubbing against his legs. He smiles at it, pushes his glasses up his nose and walks on, ignoring its persistent meowing. It’s not his duty to feed the cat. It is his duty.
Or it was.
The cat lets out a sound, almost like it’s disappointed, but Kinjou gives no mind and instead leaves it with the easy smile still plastered on his face.
The pathway he’s in now has houses lining up on its sides, walls touching one another with no space in between. Some of the buildings are stores or offices. There’s a ramen shop, a fruit and vegetable vendor, an electrical repair shop, and even a small, modest bike shop. Kinjou’s feet walks him through the street and past the old buildings automatically, the path as familiar as the back of his hands. His mind remains almost blank, he is purposefully trying not to think about anything in particular.
Well, he admits that thoughts of the cat earlier plague him slightly. Seems like it has grown skinnier than the last time he saw it.
Not that it’s any of his responsibilities.
Kinjou shakes his head a bit and pushes his glasses back up his nose again, walks on and sees the intersection at the end of the road. In front of him, an old lady with hands full of grocery bags bends down to pick up her hat. Kinjou walks on with a smile still on his face and does not lend the lady a hand. He doesn’t even spare her a second glance.
It’s not his responsibility anyway.
On the intersection he turns left and soon, the small flag signaling his destination becomes visible. There’s no line formed in front of it yet, which means Kinjou is ahead of the lunch time rush and he is pleased by that, his smile growing wider.
The set meal restaurant is small and visibly very old. Rumor has it that it’s been around for more than 25 years. Even older than Kinjou himself.
Sometimes Kinjou chuckles to himself when he thinks about that. To think that he would be outlived by a small, ragged set meal restaurant.
Kinjou slides the door open and lift the flaps at the store’s entrance. The bell on top of his head rings, signaling his arrival.
“Kinjou-kun!” comes the warm, cheery welcome from the lady at the end of the counter. She puts away the piece of cloth she was using to wipe the counter down and walks over to his direction. The television on the far corner of the room is playing the news. Only one other customer is inside the small, homey place.
Kinjou notices that the lady forgot to greet one more person.
No. No she didn’t. Kinjou is the one who forgot. But it’s alright, it’s only for a moment. Only for a short moment.
It’s just a slip, everyone does that. It’s alright.
“The usual?” The lady’s warm smile makes her look younger than she probably is. Although, Kinjou never really knew how old she is anyway but she looks like she can be as old as his mother. Maybe a little younger.
Kinjou matches the lady’s smile and says, “Yes, the usual. Lunch set B.”
At his words her smile falters. She fumbles with her apron as she struggles to put it back on her face. She says a few words, automatic, subconscious words which are lost to Kinjou’s ears, and disappears to the kitchen to prepare his order.
It still confuses Kinjou a little, that reaction of hers. What is wrong with lunch set B? Lunch set B is good. Lunch set B is a plate of special karaage, a large serving of white rice, miso soup, and tea with free refill service.
Opting not to ponder it too much, he walks to the end of the counter and sits down on the seat right beneath the TV. He can’t watch it from his spot but the droning sound of it is somehow calming to him. The news is talking about a bullet train which had an emergency stop this morning, because two of its passengers set themselves on fire.
Kinjou smiles and tunes the sounds out so that it’s nothing but noise to his ears. He focuses instead on the faded sticker pasted on the counter in front of him.
“Welcome to Okinawa!” The sticker says. Kinjou wonders if the owner of the restaurant has gone to Okinawa once. Did he go there with his family? Alone? Was he on a vacation or on a business trip?
While he’s lost in his dull thoughts, people start to trickle in as the lunch hour rush begins. Kinjou pays no mind, he’s still focusing on the faded sticker with the faded image of palm trees and a beach on it.
Why put the sticker there in the first place?
The lady’s voice, announcing his order, breaks him from his reverie.
“Lunch set B. Please, enjoy, Kinjou-kun.”
Her voice is not as cheery anymore, but still warm.
It’s only for a short moment, but Kinjou is reminded of his own mother and a pang of guilt hits him. He should give her a call soon.
Kinjou picks up his chopsticks slowly and brushes the thoughts away. It’ll be alright, he thinks, as he digs into his lunch set B.
Kinjou eats slowly while willing himself not to think about anything. The restaurant is full with customers now. Mostly Yonan University students, but salarymen, construction workers, and old people eat here too. The TV’s noise now almost unrecognizable, droned out by the hum of people’s voices. Kinjou picks up his bowl of rice and finishes its content, still staring at the faded sticker in front of him.
The lady comes back to him and asks if he needs any refill. Kinjou puts his bowl down, smiles and offers his empty cup.
“Yes, please.”
While waiting for the refill, he accidentally catches the sound of the TV for a brief moment. It’s still talking about the self-immolation case, seems like it’s become a hot news.
A few moments later the lady hands him his cup back, now filled with hot tea.
Too hot for his liking, to be quite honest.
He puts down the cup and reaches for his bowl of miso soup now, focusing back on the faded sticker and tuning everything out.
Behind him, a child cries in complain while her mother scolds her. A couple of old men argues with each other. A group of students laugh rowdily.
Beside him, a man slurps on his ramen boisterously.
Above him, the television shows clips of paramedics bringing two body bags out of a train car.
Kinjou closes his eyes and smiles. He puts the empty bowl down and focuses his thoughts on the image of a faded sticker, Okinawa, fire. His thoughts flees to the lady’s familiar smile, to the contrast between her stained white apron and his pristine white lab coat.
He thinks of the black cat.
He tries not to think about the black cat.
He tries not to think about a body bag. Especially not one hefted up by two EMTs from the middle of the road on a cold night and put into an ambulance as another pair grabbed on to his arms and directed him into another ambulance-
Kinjou opens his eyes and stands up abruptly, making the ramen-eating man besides him to jolt. He’s done here.
He raises his hand and signals for one of the workers to take away his tray. He smiles his thanks and walks over to the cash register, where the lady is now stationed.
He smiles brightly at her and pays the amount of money shown on the screen of the register’s machine. He pays the exact amount, since he had many coins stored in his wallet. He says his thanks and was about to turn around and leave when the lady stops him.
“Here.” She says, handing him a packet of tissue. Kinjou tilts his head and smiles questioningly at her. A man sitting nearby stops eating and stares at Kinjou. The lady moves her hand minutely, motioning for him to take the tissue.
He takes it, raises it in front of his face a little and says another thanks.
The man near the cash register continues eating.
The lady sighs as she watches Kinjou’s retreating back.
Kinjou walks out into the streets and pushes his slipping glasses up his nose. He finds that his cheeks are wet. He’s crying.
“I’m telling you the truth, Shingo-chan!”
“So you’re telling me,” Kinjou clutches his stomach and tries his best not to burst out laughing, “that you heard Machimiya sing the Love Hime theme song in the showers, while dancing?“
Arakita barks out a laugh and pushes Kinjou’s shoulder “You don’t fucking believe me, do you? It’s true! Shit, if only I had my phone with me I’d have recorded everything, but I was also getting ready to shower, you know. He was singing it, using the soap as his mic and all. It was hilarious!”
Kinjou wipes the corner of his eye and breathes out the last of his laugh. Beside him Arakita fixes his hold on the grocery bags in his hands, still chuckling a little.
Both Kinjou and Arakita are heading to Arakita’s house for a small drinking party, just the two of them. It’s to celebrate their latest win against Meiso in a race the day before, and since Machimiya is celebrating with his visiting girlfriend, the party tonight is only for Arakita and Kinjou. Not that it’s a problem for any of them.
In fact, Kinjou has been looking forward to spending a night with just his boyfriend. It’s been a long time since they last had any alone time. Not with exams and the race that followed them. But with all of that behind the two of them, and a day-off tomorrow, Kinjou is sure they’re heading off to a good night.
He feels his phone vibrating and he fishes it out of his jeans pocket. His steps slows down in the process as Arakita walks on slightly in front him.
It’s a message from his mother.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Kinjou sees the crossing light turns red.
His focus is divided, but he can hear clearly the sound of grocery bags being dropped abruptly to the ground.
He hears a person’s scream pierce through the hum of the streets.
He hears the screech of a car skidding on asphalt.
And the sound of it hitting something solid.
Or more like, someone.
He notices Arakita is no longer beside him. There’s a child laying in the middle of the road, crying but unhurt. He sees people screaming, people running to the child, to the car a few meters down the road, to the body laying limply in front of it. The body which is twisted in the way a human body was never meant to be, arm stretched out as if reaching, or pushing something away.
Kinjou sees a scene of panic and blood. There’s so much blood. So much blood, blood everywhere, blood, blood, blood.
Kinjou notices again that Arakita is no longer beside him. Where is Arakita? Where-
Losing track of time and of his thoughts, Kinjou finds himself already at the bottom of the stairs that would lead him back into campus grounds. He checks the time and sees that he still has 20 minutes before the start of lab. The black cat shows up again and greets him as if Kinjou hadn’t ignored it the first time around.
Kinjou drops his smile and frowns. He crouches down and watches as the cat meows expectantly at him, rubbing its lithe body on his legs nudging its head on his face.He puts a hand on the cat’s head and slides it down its back, making the thin cat purr.
“Being too kind will never do you any good.” Kinjou frowns deeper when the cat only replies him with a stare, almost like it’s judging him. It sits primly in front of Kinjou and waits for him. But what is it waiting for? What does it want him to do?
“You shouldn’t do things that are not your responsibility.” Kinjou continues. He feels his breath hitching as he watches the cat’s piercing stare, irises thin in the bright light of the afternoon. “It was not his responsibility to-“
The cat meows, interrupting him mid-sentence. Kinjou sighs and runs a hand over his face, which is once again wet. He looks up on the steps before him and thinks about all the time when he and Arakita would race the way up after lunch. The sounds of their laughs the only thing that could be heard in this deserted part of the area. He thinks about how he and Arakita would always finish their lunch early so they can have the time to give this black cat its lunch. He thinks about the lady in the restaurant, about his and Arakita’s usual orders.
Lunch set A for Kinjou and lunch set B for Arakita.
Another sigh and Kinjou digs into his lab coat pocket for the packet of tissue. He wipes his face dry and smiles down at the cat. He wonders if it knows how he feels right now, bitter, still a little numb but also very angry.
Even so, he makes a mental note to buy cat food on his way home tonight, so he can feed the cat after his lunch tomorrow.
In the meantime he climbs the stairs slowly, tuning out everything else but the sounds of his steps and the thought of the faded sticker from the restaurant.
“Shingo-chan, did you know? The owner is Okinawan, that’s why he has this sticker here. It’s actually everywhere if you look around. Hey, what do you say we take a trip down there one day? Just the two of us.”