Chapter 464: Lake
The ride to Natsumi-san’s house was pretty uneventful. When we were close, a familiar neighbourhood came into sight, and I couldn’t help but feel slightly nostalgic about the place. I haven’t been away from this place for too long, but coming back here with the intentions of staying for months at least made me feel that nostalgia.
Ai didn’t look like she had any idea about this place, and I could see her looking at it with familiarity, too. I’m pretty why that would have been the case. Our stuff was in the truck following us while Iwaguchi-san drove Natsumi-san’s SUV. She has always been a big fan of bigger cars. The sporty or sedan ones never really interested her much. She would always say they were nice to look at, but didn’t have much practicality towards them when I came to her with cutouts of cars I really liked. I still this day don’t understand what "practicality" she meant back then, and knowing what she does for a job, I’m too scared to ask.
"We’re here," she said as we stopped in front of a familiar two-story house. I stepped out of the car and stared at it for a bit, taking in the familiar sight of my childhood home.
"Stop staring at it like an old man," Natsumi-san said, lightly hitting the back of my head.
"This also brings back memories," I said, rubbing my head, though it didn’t hurt.
"It’s so nice seeing this place from this close," Ai said, looking at the house with excitement. "I can finally be in Kazu-kun’s room for as much as I want! It’s going to be so fun, hehehehe."
We three looked at her, two of us knowing full well what she meant. From what I understand, Natsumi-san was fully aware of Ai constantly being in my close vicinity, but decided not to personally step in unless she deemed it fully necessary, which luckily never came to be. We helped Iwaguchi-san with taking our bags out of the car, even though he seemed like he had no issues holding four giant bags full of clothes in his hands. Strong or not, he sure had good control over his body, being able to grab two in each hand by their handles.
The truck stopped behind us, and the men already stood behind us with the boxes in their hands, waiting for Natsumi-san to unlock the door. She opened the door and walked in, and we all followed. While I knew what room the clothes were going to go in, the others seemed to already know where to put everything they brought.
"I explained to them beforehand. It is less hassle that way," Natsumi-san said, looking at my impressed look. "Don’t think you will be moving into your old room though."
I scratched my head, looking a little embarrassed. "Well...I doubt Ai is going to want to sleep anywhere else except next to me."
"We can move into Kazu-kun’s room!" Ai said excitedly. "The bed is big enough to squeeze both of us in it. If it gets too cramped, I can always be...on top...of, hehehehehehe." She started to drool.
"That’s it, you are moving into the spare bedroom," she said, much to Ai’s displeasure. "I knew that would be the case, so I cleaned it out for you guys; you can handle the decoration yourself."
Standing in the same place I had stood many times before, I took in the air of nostalgia. The place was the same; nothing about it had changed. It looked just like it did when I first moved out. The only thing changed now is that I am going to be living here with one more person I deeply care about. I couldn’t help but feel warm inside and happy about being able to do this. I did want to come here with Ai during festivals so she could bond more with Natsumi-san, but that time came earlier than expected. Not that I have any complaints.
I walked upstairs to the floor where all the bedrooms were with Iwaguchi-san. Walking past my old room and Natsumi-san’s room, I opened the door to the other spare bedroom that was originally a guest room, though it was rarely used. I set the bags down, and I looked around. It had a queen-sized bed in the middle with bedside stands on either side. A giant walk-in closet was on the left wall, and the other side had the balcony separated from the room with a glass door and curtains. There was a desk and chair in the corner of the room with a night lamp, where I remember sometimes studying when I wasn’t in the mood to study in my own room. I traced my fingers against the familiar wood that rested against it. So, this will be our room for some time now. Honestly, it was perfect.
I stared at the door, wondering why Ai had not entered the room yet. I think I know full well where she was. I stepped outside and entered my old room, and saw the girl covered in my old blanket, tossing and turning around in my bed, giggling happily. It kind of sends me back to the time when I rolled her up in the futon that she ended up tearing open.
Looking around the room, a smile made its way to my face. Nothing in this room ever gets changed. It still had my old bookshelf with all the books I liked too much to ever throw away. The novels, the manga, the light novels, wait, don’t tell me.
"I thought I lost them," I muttered, staring at my old stetch books. Opening it, I found the horrible attempts to copy the characters I liked, the awful tracing from the pages of some manga as a kid, and the terribly freehand-drawn popular characters. Luckily, by practicing it enough, I got a lot better so that they ended up resembling the characters later on.
"This is your old sketchbook?" Ai said, peering from behind my shoulder as I quickly closed the book, holding it close to my chest.
"Um...no...?" I tried to lie.
"Kazu-kun, I have seen you trying again and again, getting the eyes perfect on characters day after day," she said, wrapping her hands around my neck. "You seriously think I would have fun with something you spent so much time on trying to perfect?"
"It’s...not that. Sigh, it’s just a little embarrassing, that’s all," I said, and she kissed me on the cheek.
"No worries, I already have every page of that book memorized." Oh, come on! What about me does she not know??
"You both don’t know when to stop, do you?" I heard Natsumi-san’s voice beside us and turned to see her standing at the door of my room.
"Where did you even find these?" I asked, holding up the sketchbook.
"I had it stored away in the storage room after you tried to throw it away out of frustration," she said, walking into the room and opening my other sketchbook, and flipping through the pages. "You did want to become a mangaka so bad back in the day, but thought you couldn’t make good progress, so ended up quitting after a while."
"I mean, I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t get the handle over panelling and how or why that worked. Nor when I tried to make characters of my own, they never ended up looking that great," I said, staring at the book. I originally wanted to get into it since I used the medium as sort of escapism whenever I started thinking about my parents. I didn’t want to trouble Natsumi-san that much, so I would distract myself with stories written by others. I imagined myself as these formidable and strong heroes walking on their righteous paths, fighting for what they believed in. I wanted to create something similar, but always ended up disappointed with the final product.
"I mean, you were a kid, so you won’t get everything right away, right? No matter how much I tried to convince you, and you were quite short-tempered when you lost patience," she said. "I had to restrain this idiot from hitting himself in the head so many times. He is too hard on himself."
Can’t say that the habit has left.
We all then walked out of the room and found Iwaguchi-san helping the other with setting everything where they needed to be. The food was all moved into her fridge along with the blood bags. If I did drink them all like Ai said, I can only think of one way there were still a full bunch of them. Sigh, I am seriously being such a pain in the ass. I hope Ethan finds another way to make me stronger than this.
We joined to help place everything, and once we were done with it all, they thanked Natsumi-san for some reason and left. Iwaguchi-san rested on the couch, and Ai was standing in the kitchen with me. I had my head in the fridge thinking about what I should be making. Since they all helped so much, I do want to treat them, but I am not quite sure what to make. Something I can make in a large amount, and it won’t take that long to cook.
"Anyone in the mood for some curry?" I asked and heard two yes. "Iwaguchi-san, you are eating here today."
"Oh, don’t worry about that. I can go e- "
"If you will not eat, then I won’t be cooking. I don’t think Natsumi-san would be too happy if that happens."
"I’ll be in your care!"
After a long time, the dining table will have no empty chairs.
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