Vastly different from prior nights, Katsumi was soundly asleep on his bed—instead of the cold hardwood floor of his hallway.

A gap in his bedroom curtains allowed the blinding light of the sun to seize the opportunity and remind Katsumi of its presence.

He slowly awakened, covering his eyes with a hand and rolled over.

After lying on his bed for a moment longer, his brain began de-clouding. He patted around, searching for his cellphone. Still not finding it, he positioned himself so he could peer off the side of his bed.

Now with his head poking out over the edge, he spotted his cellphone in what seemed like arm's reach. Katsumi went for it, but he found that it was actually quite far away.

"You’ve got to be kidding me…"

He scooted more and more over the edge of his bed. Finally, when he was just about to snatch it, Katsumi slid off the bed and onto the floor with a loud thud.

This loud thud was then followed by three more, even louder thuds. What made these different though, was they came from the front door.

More thunderous pounds came from his front door. Katsumi jolted upright and powered on his smartphone to check the time—8:07 AM.

Who in god’s name could want something this early?

Katsumi recalled his and Mayumi’s parting words from yesterday.

‘I expect to see you here first thing tomorrow morning, got it?’

‘Don’t forget.’

Arata doesn’t care about me at all… she just wants me to live in a way she thinks is right. I mean honestly, eight am? Someone like you should be at class already.

Another set of thuds rang out from his front door followed by a long pause. A female voice announced itself, “Please excuse my intrusion.”

Katsumi tensed up.

He decided the best course of action was to lay back down on his bed and pray that he was just imagining things.

As Mayumi was slipping off her shoes by the front door, she suddenly gagged after getting one breath of the foul air. She quickly threw open the door and rushed back to the hallway where she leaned over the railing.

Her eyes widened, and her usual expressionless face was now one of ill-disgust. It was a completely foreign environment for Mayumi, an atmosphere like an alien world.

Over the past months, the air inside had changed from oxygen to an indefinable mixture of odors.

Now a little light-headed, but mostly recovered from the initial shock, she slowly reentered the apartment. She hesitated in the doorway, taking some time to adjust to this environment, she flicked on the lights, revealing the dump that Katsumi called home.

As usual, there were bottles, dishes, and empty containers, accompanied by a wide range of garbage scattered about.

Mayumi briefly froze up at this sight—then took in another highly regrettable deep breath. Tip-toeing her way through the ravaged living room and towards the hallway where Katsumi’s room was located.

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Mayumi stood in front of it for a moment while mistakenly taking in yet another deep breath. She coughed a couple of times then knocked on the door.

“I’m coming in now~”

There’s no way she waltzed into my apartment… This is just me dreaming... Who exactly does she think she is?

The door slowly opened up, revealing Mayumi.

She’s not standing there right now, this isn’t real.

Mayumi panned across the room, scanning everything before her gaze landed upon Katsumi—who was lying face down on the bed pretending Mayumi didn’t exist.

“Geez Murakami, you’re still in bed at this time?” Mayumi looked down at her watch. “You look like you’re dead.”

"And you just entered the apartment of a boy you barely know and went straight into his room without asking. What do you think that makes you look like?".

Mayumi grabbed hold of the light switch with two fingers and started rapidly flipping it off and on.

"Alright! I’m getting up! Okay?" Katsumi sat up and swung his legs off the bed. He put his hands to his head and looked down at the floor.

Even after the unpleasant surprise of Mayumi barging in, he was still quite groggy and wished for nothing more than to be able to continue sleeping. However, this did not seem like an option, considering that Mayumi had come here specifically to get him out of bed, not back in it.

“Do you really think that you can just barge into someone’s apartment like that?” Katsumi muttered.

"Well you didn’t answer the door after I knocked six times, so I figured you were purposefully ignoring me.” Even after the berating from Katsumi, Mayumi didn’t seem the least bit concerned by her actions.

“So you’re telling me you decided the best course of action was to barge into your neighbor’s apartment unwelcomed?”

"..." Mayumi remained silent, staring at Katsumi, not offering any sort of comeback. After a moment, she began reaching for the light switch again.

"I’m going, I’m going."

"Maybe take an extra bit of time washing your face. If you went out into public like that you’d have the police called on you because you look like a drug addict."

Ironic…

After a groan and a short pause, Katsumi got up. “Just go… wait in the living room or something.”

Mayumi expressionlessly looked out to the living room and twirled some of her hair around in her fingers. Looking back at Katsumi she said, “Where would I sit? It was hard enough navigating to your room.”

"...Out.”

"Alright~"

A little over ten minutes passed before Katsumi entered the living room. “I’m ready, let’s go.”

Mayumi was precariously sitting on the edge of the couch trying her best to avoid touching the filth.

“Murakami… how did it get this bad? Have you ever cleaned once in your life?”

She comes over here and barges in unwelcomed. And like I expected, is just here to nag me about my lifestyle.

“Have you never been happy in your life?”

Hearing this, her lips curled upward ever so slightly, forming a smile. And as quick as they did, she covered her mouth with a hand to try and prevent a laugh from slipping out.

Katsumi looked at her with a sense of disbelief that she almost just laughed. However, this sensation quickly went away. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Let’s just go…”

Mayumi got up and began re-navigating her way to the front door. “We need to do something about this.”

“What’d you mean we?”

Mayumi didn’t respond, instead, she looked around the room carefully as if she were planning something out. Then her gaze met Katsumi’s. “Alright, after classes let out we are going to be cleaning your apartment.” Mayumi looked up at Katsumi with a hint of determination in her expression.

"Once again, what do you mean we?"

He followed after Mayumi—the two walked through the apartment building and exited before Mayumi chose to answer his question. “You’ve been asking so many obvious questions.”

Katsumi took a few quick steps. Now walking side-by-side with her, he said. "That lazy comeback isn't a response to my question. What do you mean we? You can't decide stuff like this on your own."

"It's for your own good. Just like getting you up and to class on time."

Katsumi grumbled and turned his focus off of Mayumi. He looked up towards the sky—a bank of dark clouds on the horizon was coming in from the west

“I can clean myself…” Katsumi mumbled to himself.

“Then why does your apartment look like that?”

“Uh— well that’s because… I simply choose not to clean it.”

“I think it will be good for you. A clean living space can lead to a better mindset.”

I guess it couldn’t hurt to have a clean apartment. If I don't let her do this I have a feeling that she's just gonna keep nagging me about it. But more importantly, what does she know about 'my own good'? She’s acting like she knows what’s best for me. I’ve gathered that we went to high school but I don’t recall a single time we spoke, so what does she know about me?

Katsumi thought back on a few times he had some one-off conversations with girls that had black hair, but none of them were anything special. Usually relating to homework or maybe a passing word from a mutual friend.