April 16th, 2022, 6:49 AM
Another weekend is upon me. What am I to do?
Hang out with Minato and Hotene, like always
We decided, you know what, it’s ramen time. After I had my tutoring session, we went out for lunch afterward.
We went to the same ramen place the first day I came to Japan. We took a booth seat near the… ramen bar I guess you could call it? Minato was in the corner side, I sat next to him, and Hotene got the entire booth across from us.
Hotene was stylish as ever, wearing hoop earrings and a choker with similar patterning to her large headband that was absent today, while Minato wore… a hoodie and leggings!
“Has anything interesting happened this week?” Hotene asked, sipping on some blue marble soda.
“Not really.” Minato said as a waiter handed him a cup of tea.
“Not you either?” Hotene asked me.
“Wait, he’s lying.” I shouted a little too loud, recalling the tenko.
“What do you mean? School has been normal all week.” Minato said.
“The tenko in the woods, Minato!” I said.
“Oh, yeah.”
“The what?” Hotene got up from her seat on instinct.
“You know, the heavenly messengers of Inari.” Minato said.
“Oh. I wouldn’t know, not my god.”
“But Naoko wasn’t a messenger of Inari anymore, isn’t that what she said?” Minato said.
“You’re on a first name basis with the tenko now? And they’re not all messengers of Inari, whoever that is? Then what’s a tenko like her doing in this town of all towns?” Hotene’s eyes widened.
“I wouldn’t say that so much as I’d say she just gave us her name,” Minato explained, “And obviously she’s not a messenger anymore, she seems to be doing her own thing. Seems like she’s here to protect the people in the town.” Minato explained.
“She’s certainly not doing a good job at it if there’s all the Kuchisake-Onna sightings everywhere…” Hotene grumbled.
“We let her know about it though! I think she’s gonna do something, so that’s good.” I added.
“I sure hope so, dad is starting to get nervous about them popping out near his office building.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Our conversation was momentarily interrupted by the arrival of our bowls of ramen. Okay, I say momentarily but we were so distracted that our conversation practically ended thanks to ramen. I got tonkotsu ramen, the classic, Minato got miso and Hotene got kimchi ramen.
After eating we decided, let’s actually go to Minato’s for once. Wow, I know, shocking. Even more shocking was that the Satos were actually at home for once. You should’ve seen our faces when we saw them as soon as we opened the door. I swear Minato was even more shocked than Hotene and I thought.
“Oh! Hello Hotene and Keiko!” Mrs. Sato greeted us cheerfully.
“Hi, Mrs. Sato!” I greeted back. Hotene and I eyed Minato in a way that says ‘wait, your parents are actually home for once?’ Well, I think that’s what I was saying. With my eyes. I don’t know about Hotene. Sounds stupid when I write it out though…
“You guys can go up to my room. Mom, what are we having for dinner?” Minato said. Hotene and I went down the hallway to his room. I know I really shouldn’t have, but I may have… listened to their conversation. While Hotene actually waited in his room I stayed on the steps, watching them slightly, trying not to poke my head out too far so they don’t see me.
“No.” Mrs. Sato said. I thought it was weird, maybe she just has bad hearing or something.
“You’re not answering me, mom. What’s for dinner later?” Minato tried again as he tapped his foot. It was hard to see his face but I think he was frowning like he was disappointed. Instead of answering, Mrs. Sato just walked away. I heard Minato sigh as he went up the stairs. I panicked and went up the stairs and bolted into his room. He probably heard my footsteps anyway, but I tried to make it look like I was in his room the whole time by just… sitting? Listen I don’t know I guess I thought that would make him absolutely convinced.
“How bad is your mom’s hearing, Minato?” Hotene asked, spinning rapidly in his chair while he opened the door. My stomach dropped upon seeing him while I hoped he wouldn’t ask or somehow didn’t hear me.
“Bad…” Minato said like he was hesitating. I really don’t like this… Well didn’t then, I still don’t as I’m writing this.
“Anyway, what now?” Hotene asked.
“I don’t know, whatever you want, I guess.”
“Do you still have that apples to apples game?”
“Apples to apples? I thought that was just an American game?” I asked.
“They have it here too. Let me go get it.” Minato got up. Again, because apparently, I have weird judgment, I watched him go downstairs. I waited for him to descend fully, then I went onto the stairs. I saw his dad walking around downstairs. He looked kinda disheveled, with very messy hair, eyebags, the whole shebang.
“Dad, do you know where Apples to Apples is?” Minato asked.
“Don’t ask me again.” His dad grumbled in response.
“What? All I asked is where the game is? You can’t do one simple thing for once?” Minato protested. His dad just turned around and walked away. Minato made an aggravated noise, but somewhat silenced
Do you see what I mean though? Something is not right.
He did come upstairs, and I retreated back yet again. He had a scowl on his face, but as soon as we started talking he tried to soften his face. I could tell he wasn’t happy though. We did have a nice time but I’m concerned. I mean counting today I’ve seen them a total of three times in the span of three weeks. To be fair, this could be a temporary thing, but Minato constantly being home alone all the time? Even on weekends? Even on Sundays which are the bare minimum of days, people don’t have to work? I don’t want to make Minato uncomfortable asking him, I’ve only known him for like three weeks but I feel like this is my duty. He’s been my first friend in Japan and has been helping me with everything. I want to help him. I just don’t know how yet. Maybe alongside the Yokai investigation, I can also try to investigate this.
It’s been almost two hours straight of writing. I’m gonna shower and formulate a plan for this. I’ll update you on this later.