A week had passed since I’d been to the school’s library, which meant that today was the day of my exam. I still had a few hours to kill before my test time, so I decided to walk up to Wonderland for a bit.

“I’m going out for a bit,” I told Sana; I was weary about leaving her alone, but since Takahashi had bought her a phone, I felt a little better about it, “Call me if you need anything.”

“Will do,” she shouted from our room. I grabbed my key from the hook by the door and left, locking the door behind me. The sun shone brilliantly from the clear sky above and a gentle breeze whistled between the buildings, creating an almost summer-like atmosphere. I made my way toward Summit, weaving through alleys and streets alike. The route took wasn’t the fastest, but it shared the most streets with the route to the school. The school and Summit were closer than I had thought when we went to get clothes; in fact, Summit was directly behind the school.

As I neared the shopping complex, I noticed that there were considerably less people out; likely due to the fact that it was only nine in the morning. I jogged up the stairs to the second floor of the building and walked to the Wonderland, where a white sign on the door read the hours.

Monday through Friday: 9:00 A.M.-8:00 P.M.

I checked my phone for the time, confirming that it was just past nine, then opened the door and walked in.

“Welcome in!” A lady said from behind the counter. She was short, though not as short as Ms. Yamada, and she had soft features. “How can I help you?”

“Hi! My name’s Touma Tanaka, I was hoping to speak with a manager about applying for a job,” I explained as I walked towards the counter.

“Touma? You don’t happen to go to Asuka, do you?”

“Actually, I’m taking an entrance exam in a couple hours,”

“So then you must be the one Yua was talking about the other day,”

“I ran into her at the library while I was studying,” I explained, resting my arms on the counter.

“Well then, nice to meet you! I’m her mom, Aoi. I run this store,” Mrs. Inoue said with a smile, “If you’re looking for a job, I think I can help you out. We need help with the closing shift most days.”

“Really?” I asked, “That would be great.”

“We don’t pay very much though. Just under 1000 yen an hour,” she explained, “But you get ten percent off anything in the shop!”

“That’s alright,” I said, knowing that Takahashi would gouge me for that discount every chance he got, “Do I need to give you an application or something?”

“I’ll give you the paperwork to fill out, just make sure you bring it in by Friday,” she instructed as she handed me a thick beige envelope, “You’d better go get ready for your test.”

“You’re probably right,” I said as I turned around to leave the store, “Thank you for the opportunity!”

“Good luck,”

“That was easier than I thought it would be,” I said to myself with a sigh of relief. My phone vibrated in my pocket.

“What’s up, Sana,” I answered as I walked down the stairs.

“Can you get a drink from the FamilyMart?”

I checked my phone for the time again. I had only been in the store for ten minutes, so I had a bit of extra time.

“Sure, anything in particular?” I asked as I reached the last step.

“Surprise me,” she said, hanging up the phone.

“Oh, I’ll surprise you,” I thought to myself. She’d regret giving me that option for sure. Twenty minutes later, I unlocked the apartment door and walked in.

“Here you are,” I told her, throwing the bottle at her.

“What’s this?” She asked, looking at the bottle.

“Just matcha,” I replied; I hadn’t had the heart to get her something gross, “I’m gonna nap for a bit before I go.”

An hour later, I woke up to the sound of my phone’s shrill alarm. My eyes were really dry, and I was all sweaty.

“I’ll take a shower, then go,” I thought to myself as I walked to the bathroom.

The hot water felt really nice on my back, almost like a blanket. My moment of serenity ended abruptly with Sana yelling at me.

“You’ve been in there for twenty minutes! You’re gonna be late!”

“Twenty minutes?” I thought to myself. It certainly hadn’t felt like twenty minutes. I jumped out of the shower, dried off, and rushed to my room. Luckily, Sana wasn’t in there, so I was able to get dressed quickly. I opened the door as I put my shoes on, then sprinted to the school.

Five minutes later, I arrived at the school’s front gate; I fell to my knees, gasping for air.

“Hey, are you OK?” I looked up to the guard, Mr. Nakamura, holding an outstretched hand.

“Yeah, just out of breath,” I explained as he helped me up, “I thought I was going to be late for my test.”

“You almost are,” he scolded, tapping his watch, “You’d better get up to the office, Ms. Yamada is waiting for you there.”

“Right, thank you,” I said as I started to jog to the main building.

“Oh, wait!” I turned around to see Mr. Nakamura holding the same red and white slippers I had used last time, “You’ll need these.”

“Thank you!” I repeated as I took the slippers from him. Once I reached the building, I took my shoes off and replaced them with the slippers, then entered.

“Touma?” Ms. Yamada said from the open door ahead of me, “Good, you made it.”

“Sorry for pushing it a bit, I lost track of time,” I told her, hoping she wouldn’t scold me.

“It’s fine, you aren’t late yet,” she said with a warm smile, “We’re going to have you take the test here. You’ll have one hour to finish each of the four sections. Do you have any questions?”

“Nothing comes to mind,” I said as I took a seat at the desk in the middle of the room.

“Let me know if anything you have any questions,” she told me, handing me a test packet and a pencil, “I’ll be in here the whole time.”

“Thank you,” I said, flipping through the packet, “May I start?”

“Of course,” she responded, taking a look at the clock on the wall, “You have until three o’clock.”

I opened the packet to the first page and read the first question, instantly choosing option B as the answer. I went to the next question, and to the next after that. This continued for roughly an hour, until I filled in the last question on the last page.

“May I have the next section?” I asked, closing the packet.

“Next section?” Ms. Yamada asked, looking up from her phone, “You mean you finished that whole packet?”

“Yes, I did,” I replied, puzzled at why she was confused by my question.

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“It’s only been an hour,” she stated, looking at the clock.

“That’s how long you said it would take, right?”

“For one section,” she explained, still baffled, “That packet contains all four sections.”

Suddenly, I realized that Mrs. Ikeda hadn’t been joking.

“Nothing confused you?” Ms. Yamada asked as she collected my packet.

“No, not really,”

“If you wait here for a little bit, I can give you your results,” she informed me.

About half an hour later, Ms. Yamada handed my packet back to me.

“You didn’t cheat?” She asked, “Where’s your phone?”

“In my shoes out front,” I said, pointing at the entrance, “What makes you say that?”

“Look at your grade,”

I looked at the packet. Written in red pen on the front was “100/100.” I looked back up at Ms. Yamada.

“I promise, I didn’t cheat,” I explained nervously.

“I trust you. Wait here for just a minute longer, I need to go get the principal,” She instructed as she left the room.

A moment later, Ms. Yamada re-entered the classroom, followed by a tall old man in a brown suit.

“Touma, this is Mr. Sakamoto, our principal,” she said, gesturing at the old man, “He wants to speak with you for a moment.”

“You may go back to your classroom, Ms. Yamada,” Mr. Sakamoto informed her.

Once she had left the room, Mr. Sakamoto closed the sliding door and took a seat.

“I’m sure you can understand why I would be skeptical about the authenticity of your answers, Mr. Tanaka,” he said sternly.

“I can understand why you could be,” I responded, trying to sound as respectful as possible. This man was intimidating.

“So, I’d like to give you a test of my own,” he began.

“Another test?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not written. I’ll just ask you a series of questions in an attempt to authenticate your score,”

“Understood,”

One long hour later, Mr. Sakamoto looked at me with a wide grin and said, “Welcome to Asuka, Mr. Tanaka. Starting Monday, you will be in class 2-A with Ms. Yamada.”

“Seriously?”

“As serious as a heart-attack,” he said, still grinning, “Let’s get your uniform. Follow me, if you would.”

I followed him to a storage room on the second floor, where he handed me a white button down, dark red tie, a pair of black slacks, and a black blazer with dull-gold buttons.

“You can just keep that pair,” he told me, pointing at the slippers on my feet. “You can go home for today. I look forward to seeing your progress!”

“Thank you,” I said, making a quick bow; I almost never bowed, but something about Mr. Sakamoto’s aura urged me to.

“Man, that was weird,” I thought to myself. “I’m glad I made it in though.”

I was beginning to feel hungry; probably from all of the thinking and talking I had been doing for the past couple hours. I decided to stop by Oji for a quick bite, as it was on the way home. The small building had begun to grow on me; its outward appearance was meek and bland, but the food that came from it was completely the opposite. Not to mention the friendly chef, who had talked with me each time I’d visited.

The chef, who’s name I’d learned was Kaito Fujiwara, greeted me with a smile, “Heya, kid!”

“Hi, Mr. Fujiwara,” I replied, matching his smile with a grin of my own.

“Did you take your test?” He asked me, handing me a bowl of the same vegetable ramen he prepared every other time I’d visited.

“Yeah, I got in,” I answered with a hint of pride.

“Way to go! Today’s lunch is on the house,” he said, waving away the 1000-yen bill I’d started to give him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, let’s call it a congratulations gift.”

“Well, thanks then,” I said, practically inhaling the ramen.

After I’d finished eating, I told Mr. Fujiwara about how my day had gone up to that point.

“Sounds like you got a lot done,” he said as he cleaned out my bowl. “Shame that you’ve found a job already, I was hoping to get your help around here.”

I felt bad about not being able to help out, but cleaning dishes was something I did not enjoy, no matter how much money I was paid.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said. “If you ever need help, though, I’m sure I can find the time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind!”

“Thanks for the meal,” I thanked as I stood from my seat. “I gotta get home and do some paperwork.”

“Sure, kid, have a good day,” Mr. Fujiwara said with a wave and a smile as I left the little building. This neighborhood was beginning to feel like a home, and I was able to find comfort in that feeling.

A short five-minute walk later, and I arrived back home. Takahashi’s car was parked on the street, which meant he was home from work. I climbed the now familiar rusty stairs and walked to the end of the balcony, opening the door to our apartment. I hadn’t even opened the door all the way when I heard Takahashi yell at me from the couch.

“How’d it go?”

“I got in,” I said as I closed the door behind me. “They gave me my uniform today, too.”

“Oh? What’s it look like?” He asked, eyeing the bag that stored the clothes.

“It’s just black, white, and red.”

“That’s boring.”

“It’s a school uniform, it isn’t supposed to be cool.”

“I guess.”

“I got a job,” I told Takahashi as I sat next to him. “I’m going to do the paperwork now, then I can take it up to the store before they close tonight.”

“Sounds good,” he replied, picking up a manga from the floor. “Where’s the job?”

“The bookstore at Summit.”

“Wonderland?”

“Yeah. The owner is really nice,” I explained, noticing that Takahashi had turned his face towards me and was now wearing a grin. “What?”

“You applied there because that girl works there, didn’t you?”

“So what if I did?”

“I didn’t think you’d do that. Guess I misjudged you, kid.”

“Maybe you did. Do you have a pen?”

“Yeah, let me get it for you,” Takahashi said, standing up and going into his room. “Any particular color?”

“Just black or blue,” I said as I walked into my room to get the packet; Sana was laying on her back on the floor. “Is sleeping the only thing you can do?”

“No, I’m just bored. Can I go with you when you go to Summit?” She asked, turning over to her stomach.

“If you want to, sure,” I answered. “I’m just going there and back, though.”

“Better than staying here. I haven’t done anything all day.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Shut up.”

“I’ve got your pen,” Takahashi said, tapping a pen on the doorframe.

“Oh, thanks,” I said as I walked back into the living room, snatching the pen as I did. It only took me about forty minutes to fill out the entirety of the packet, so I decided to head to Wonderland a bit early. “Sana, if you want to come, I’m leaving now.”

“You could’ve given more of a head’s up,” she complained as she dragged herself out of our room.

“We’re leaving!” I yelled to Takahashi, who was blasting an anime soundtrack in his room.

“Be safe!” He yelled back. I tried to talk to Sana on our way to Wonderland, but she had completely tuned me out when she’d put her earbuds in. School had just ended for the day, and I saw a bunch of kids my age wearing the Asuka uniform. I did my best to avoid eye-contact with anybody, though I wasn’t really sure why.

Eventually, we reached Wonderland.

“Here,” I told Sana as I handed her a 1000-yen note. “Can you go order some tea or something from next door? I’ll only be a minute in here.”

“Sure,” she said as she went into the café. I opened the door and went inside.

“Welcome in!” Mrs. Inoue said from behind the counter, looking at a magazine or some tabloid.

“Hi! I’m here to drop off the papers you gave me this morning,” I explained as I walked to the counter.

“Oh, Mr. Tanaka! I didn’t know it was you,” she said as she looked up from her reading.

“Please, just ‘Touma,’” I said. “It feels weird being called ‘Mr.’ by someone older than me.”

“I’ll remember that. Yua said you got 100 percent on the exam. Is that true?”

“Yeah, it is,” I said, impressed by how quickly news of my score got around. Ms. Yamada must have said something. “Anyways, here’s my packet.”

“Oh! Thank you for bringing it in early,” she said as I handed the folder to her. “I’ll file this and get you set up for training. Would Sunday work for you?”

“Yes, that would be perfect,” I replied. “By the way, how many people work here?”

“You’ll be the third,” she told me with a warm smile. “Yua will be helping you with your training, if that’s alright.”

“Sure,” I answered. “Is three people really enough to run a store?”

“If we could get a fourth, that would be great,” she explained, “but nobody ever wants to apply, and I don’t advertise for any positions.”

“I see,” I uttered. Maybe I would be able to recruit somebody from the school to help us out. “Well in any case, thank you for the opportunity. My sister is waiting in the café, so I’d better get going.”

“Of course! I’ll send you a text with a time for you to get here on Monday, so keep an eye out for that.”

“Thanks again!” I said as I left the store, going directly to the café next door. The air smelled so strongly of freshly baked pastries and coffee that I could almost taste it.

“I got you an iced chai,” Sana said, pointing at the plastic cup in front of her.

“Thanks,” I said as I sat down across from her. “Is there anything you want to do while we’re here?”

“Nah, I just wanted to get out for a little bit.”

“OK, if that’s all, then I’m good to go home if you are.”

We picked up our trash and put it in the bin near the door as we left the café, closing the door behind us. The temperature outside had dropped as a result of the sun dipping below the buildings, and most of the students had left the streets. The atmosphere in the neighborhood had gone from bustling to calm in the span of twenty minutes; I preferred the tranquil atmosphere to the bustling one, though.

We took our time walking home, stopping to look at some of the vendors. A long fifteen minutes later, we reentered the apartment.

“How’d it go?” Takahashi asked, still sitting on the couch with his manga.

“I start on Monday, right after school,” I said, walking into our room.

“That’s in…” Takahashi said, counting under his breath, “three days?”

“Yep,” I replied.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Takahashi said, turning around to look at me, “Which class are you in?”

“Class 2-A with Ms. Yamada,” I informed him.

“Is she cute?”

“First of all, that’s inappropriate; second of all, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with her.”

“That’s harsh,” he said ruefully.

“Sorry. I think I’m gonna get ready for bed; I’m really tired.”

“But it’s only five,” Takahashi said, checking his phone. “You’ll mess up your sleep schedule if you go to bed. Come play some USB with me.”

“You’re not going to win,” I taunted, snatching a controller off of the entertainment stand.

“We won’t know until we try,”

“I think this might be an exception to that theory,” I said complacently.

We played for three hours, though it wasn’t so much “playing” as it was me walking all over him. I didn’t know why he kept trying to beat me, but I was grateful that he gave me something to do.

“My controller was being weird,” Takahashi said, tapping his controller on the entertainment stand.

“Suuuuure,” I said with disdain. “Next time, I’ll play with that controller.”

“Ok. Let’s head to bed for the night,” he instructed.

“One step ahead of you!” Sana yelled from our room.

“Yeah, that tracks,” I muttered as I got ready for bed. “Night, Takahashi.”

“Yeah, goodnight.” Sana said.

“See you kids in the morning.”