Mikomi stood there with a perplexed look on his face. Just a short time ago, Serah was shy, yet, cute, and now she was standing on the front porch at Mikomi’s front door in tears. Even Mikomi’s mother emerged from the kitchen to see just what the commotion was all about. Mikomi wasted no time in asking the obvious question.
“Serah… What happened? Are you okay?”
Serah shook her head no. Much like before, her earrings jingled and her hair went everywhere. He thought it was quite adorable when she did it before but he knew that this wasn’t the time to even think about those kinds of feelings Instead, Mikomi stepped aside and invited her into his home, feeling that it would be rude to let her stay on his porch in that condition. She sheepishly stepped in and eyeballed the entirety of the living room, almost as if she were making a mental map of where everything was.
Mikomi motioned for her to have a seat on his sofa. Nobody understood why but his father loved leather furniture and the sofa was no exception. The sofa, the recliner, and even the loveseat were all made of leather that was burgundy in color. Burgundy was his father’s favorite color because he felt that it had a certain elegance and nobility about it. Mikomi detested it, especially during the summer, when it was so hot his skin would stick to it. After all, it is the true plight of any leather furniture owner.
Serah gently took a seat and looked a bit startled when she sank into the sofa but she quickly adjusted. Mikomi took a seat next to her as Karoline stepped into the living room as her curiosity piqued.
“Is she a friend of yours, Mikomi?”
“Yeah. This is Serah. She’s from my school.”
Karoline simply smiled. Aside from Ryan, Mikomi didn’t really have any friends. The fact that someone else came to pay him a visit warmed her heart; however, her distress reminded her that pleasantries would probably have to wait. For now, her motherly instinct kicked in as she made Serah an offer.
“I don’t know what’s wrong, Serah but I’ll get you something to drink if you’d like.”
“Water, please,” Serah squeaked out in her typical soft and sheepish tone.
“Sure thing!”
Karoline disappeared back into the kitchen. As she waited for her water, she began to fidget, looking a bit lost. Mikomi, instead, folded his fingers in his lap and twiddled his thumbs. He didn’t have much experience in this kind of situation and was a bit lost as to what to do here.
“This is embarrassing. I’m 24 and yet I’m being defeated by a 14-year-old girl! I already asked what was wrong, but she didn’t say anything. I should probably ask again but I’ll probably get the silent treatment. Then again, she did talk to me at school earlier today. That means something must have happened between then and now that scared her. That also brings me to another question… how the hell did she know where I lived!? I’m starting to think Ryan wasn’t crazy after all. This girl is quite creepy! Wait… did I just contradict myself? I guess I have no choice but to press the issue again. I mean she was the one who showed up on my doorstep crying her eyes out, right?”
As Mikomi finished his thoughts, Karoline came back into the room and placed a glass of water on a coaster in front of Serah.
“I hope this makes you feel better. If not, I’m sure my Mikomi will. He’s a good listener, after all.”
‘THAT’S NOT HELPING, MOM!”
Karoline shot Serah a smile before exiting back into the kitchen, figuring that the two would be best left alone to talk. Mikomi silently sighed to himself as he knew that he was going to have to jump into this head-first.
“What happened, Serah?”
Serah picked up the glass of water and began to quiver. Without warning, she put the glass to her lips and chugged the entire thing down! Mikomi jumped back slightly at the sight of her putting the entire glass away with such speed. She placed it back down and replied to Mikomi’s question.
“I lost my book.”
It was like a jarring shock shot itself directly through Mikomi’s spine!
“Wait… this is all because she lost her book!? I thought that she was mugged or worse on the way home! Who shows up at someone’s house randomly bawling their eyes out over a book!? Wait… she knew she was sitting with me at school. She must have figured that she left the book with me. That would explain why she showed up at my house. That still doesn’t explain how she knew where I lived, though. I guess I should comfort her and return her book and worry about the rest of the details later.”
“Oh yeah. You left it next to me at school earlier today. I called out to you to return it but you had already disappeared so I brought it home with me. I was hoping to see you at school tomorrow so I could return it. Hold on a second. I’ll go get it for you.”
Mikomi got up off the couch and disappeared into his room. He grabbed the book and came back out and handed it to Serah but she continued to sit there, making no attempt to even look at it. Suddenly, only her eyes moved as she glanced up at Mikomi.
“You…. you didn’t read it, did you?”
“No. I just put it in my bag and it’s been there ever since I got home. Haven’t touched it since.”
Serah then quickly reached up and snatched the book rather aggressively and held it close to her body and a warm smile formed on her face. She then looked up at Mikomi with that soft smile and muttered the words as gently as she could.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Thank you!”
Karoline returned from the kitchen and leaned against the doorway with her arms folded.
“Seems like everything is okay in here. Serah… dinner is ready and I always make extra in case Mikomi’s father comes home from work. Since it looks like he’s going to be spending another night at the office, would you like to stay and eat with us?”
“There’s no way she’s going to say yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if she made a beeline for the door and took off running down the street, clutching that book to her chest as if it were her only lifeline. Reflecting on that… that’s kind of mean. When did I become such a jerk? I’m only thinking about the obvious, though.”
“Sure… I’d love to,” Serah squeaked out.
“!!!”
“Well, it’s ready whenever you are. Come have a seat at the table!”
Karoline disappeared back into the kitchen. The book that Serah had been clutching was placed back down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Mikomi was a bit surprised that she relinquished it so easily after all of that fuss she made. She got up and went into the kitchen first. Mikomi soon followed and went to sit down but Serah ended up taking the seat that was usually his. It wasn’t a big deal as he just grabbed another seat; however, since he never sat anywhere else, the kitchen table looked a tad different from a new perspective. As for their dinner, tonight was Salisbury steak night with roasted carrots, peas, and mashed potatoes.
“Thank you for the meal,” said Serah before digging into her food.
Being the curious mother, Karoline couldn’t help herself and asked Serah some questions.
“So, I overheard that you lost your book. Is it really that precious to you?”
“Yeah… It’s my favorite book. I’ve read it at least a hundred times already. When I realized I had lost it, I felt like I had lost a part of myself. That’s how precious that book is to me.”
“A hundred times? Are there no other books in the world that interest you? Also.. how are you talking to my mom normally but you can barely even mutter out fragmented sentences when you’re around me? Wait… don’t tell me Ryan was right again!? Does she…. Like me? Is she just being nervous around me because she has a crush on me or something? I wonder if I should explore this?”
“I know this is my world to reshape and everything but the whole point of this second chance is to find out who killed me and to change my future. Also, something doesn’t seem right about this entire situation. If this timeline is supposed to have a lot of similarities, then how come I never remembered the basic details about her like her name? The only thing I remember was that she was an outcast but I should have at least known who she was.”
“She’s someone so familiar yet so unfamiliar. I know that doesn’t make much sense but it’s like having amnesia and being fully aware of it… or better yet, it’s like the answer to a question that you know but it’s stuck in the back of your head and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t recall it. Could this be some sort of balancing thing that Sebastian was talking about? Gah! This is driving me nuts and what’s worse, the longer I think about it, the colder my dinner is going to get!”
“So.. what do you think of my son?”
Mikomi nearly choked on a piece of Salisbury steak when Karoline said that. He nearly coughed up a lung before he drank some water to help it go down. Once he prevented himself from choking to death on delicious meat, he shot his mother a death glare to which she simply laughed. Serah stared at Mikomi, watching him suffer through such an embarrassing question without so much as a look of concern for him. Mikomi returned to normal although his face became a bit flushed.
“He’s nice. I like talking to him.”
“Again with a quick answer… and she’s not talking sheepishly, either. What is with this girl!? Wait… she thinks I’m nice!? Oh my God… Ryan was right! No… I can’t do this… I’m 24! Well... I’m 14, but I’m still 24! This is illegal on a multi-world level!”
“You know my son is single, right?”
“MOM!” shouted Mikomi as he slammed his palms on the table and shot up out of his chair, the dishes and silverware reverberating in the aftershock.
“Haha, Mikomi. Look at you. You’re turning redder than the meat was before I started cooking it. Okay, okay, I’ll lay off the embarrassing questions.”
Serah turned away and pressed her two index fingers together a few times. Her voice returned to a soft and subtle tone as she answered the question!
“Y-Yeah…”
Mikomi’s mouth went agape and he became frozen after that. The subtle hints of a soul leaking out of his mouth could be seen as it floated up to the heavens, bags packed never to return. All he could do is sit back down and turn his head, staring off into space as if his life were about to come to an end any second now.
“I swear I’m going to die of a heart attack before I even get to find out who killed me. Sebastian is probably somewhere observing this and laughing his ass off. If you can read my thoughts, you better give me a third chance if really do die!”
After the round of emotionally damaging questions, the atmosphere returned to normal. The three of them continued to eat until dinner was finished. Karoline and Serah hit it off rather well as the two of them just continued to talk about normal everyday life. Mikomi even learned a few things about Serah, such as what her favorite color is, the food she likes, and even the type of clothes she preferred wearing. Mikomi had a feeling that all these questions were just an indirect way of feeding him knowledge about her.
Serah even offered to help clear the table and do the dishes. Mikomi was very perplexed at how she seemed like such a normal girl around his mother versus whenever she was around him. Maybe he was taking an interest in her, but for an entirely different reason. Still, Mikomi couldn’t shake this odd feeling he had about her. Something just wasn’t quite right about all of this. After the dishes were cleaned, it was nearly 7:30 PM. Serah was getting ready to leave and made sure to pick up her book this time. As she was nearing the door, Karoline made a suggestion.
“You know, it’s getting pretty dark out. Do you live near here, Serah?”
“Yeah… just a few streets away.”
“Mikomi… why don’t you walk Serah home to make sure she gets there safely?” she said with a bit of a sly wink.
“Yeah… she’s definitely trying to play matchmaker here. Oh well, I guess I have no choice.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. If I walk Serah home, I’ll have a golden opportunity to learn some more about her! Perhaps I can piece some of the puzzle back together and find those missing details! The only thing left to do is to find the best way to extract that information out of her.”