Between Him and Her

Okonomiyaki

Ryuuhei pulled into a parking space behind Ken's car. Marlene had jumped out immediately. With a quick murmur of arigato, Liya opened her door and got out. The car ride had been stifling. She smiled at Marlene's enthusiasm and laughed slightly when she the bubbly French girl jump into Ken's arms. Were they clearly in love? So fast? She thought to herself. Well, it was a feeling she hadn't enjoyed in her life so far. Maybe in the future, she would. She sighed wistfully and followed the couple walking ahead of her.

Ryuuhei had heard the slight sound that had come from Liya was in time to see a sad expression cross her face before it disappeared. He followed her into the restaurant.

The restaurant was small in size, and there were cubicles of tabled with rectangular steel plate taking over 90% of the table top. The waiter led their group to the back of the restaurant where they could sit on a tatami floor raised from the ground. Removing their shoes, Marlene and Ken sat at one side forcing Liya to sit next to Ryuuhei.

Liya and Marlene discussed what they would like to try and ordered while the men ordered. As they waited, the three got into a discussion in Japanese, and she sat there looking at the menu trying to decipher the mix of characters on the menu. Keeping her head down, she tried to make it seem like that she wasn't bothered by their conversation around her.

The food couldn't have come as quickly as she had wished. She kept an eye on her phone to keep time. If Liya could help it, she wanted to catch the last train to her town rather than go through the silence again. She opened her phone to the app that would show her the train times. One good thing about trains in Japan was that they were always on time. She got it 11.59 from the nearest station.

Ryuuhei had kept watch on his side companion bent over her phone. She wasn't taking part in the conversation. But no one noticed not even her friend, Marlene who only used Japanese to speak with both Shuu and him.

He glanced down at her phone to see her on the train schedule app looking up the time for train arrivals. Why is she looking up time for trains? Didn't Marlene say that I would drop her off? Ryuuhei thought to himself. He opened his mouth to say something only to be interrupted by the waiter. Both girls made happy sounds, and they were eating happily slicing the cabbage pancakes into bitesize.

Liya happily finished her food soon enough and decided to call it a night. She smiled at Marlene and said, "Marlene, I had so much fun tonight. I think I should get home soon."

Marlene sat up, "But Ryuuhei-san will drop you off."

Liya shook her head, "Oh no. I don't want to pull him away from having fun. I will take the train and go home. Besides I want to stop at the convenience store to buy some milk and bread for breakfast tomorrow."

Marlene clucked and gave her French way of what to do shrug. The men looked up suddenly when Liya stood up and walked away. Putting her shoes on, she turned to them and bowed to the men giving her excuses.

Any protest went to her deaf hears, and she just smiled at them in the foreign way of I don't understand, so I am ignoring you now and walking away.

Quickly paying off her share of the bill, Liya exited the restaurant. Exhaling slowly, she walked towards the direction of the train station. She shook out her thin earphones. Plugging it into her cellphone, she hummed to the music that flowed into her ears. The last two hours had been stressful and rigid painfully aware that Matsumoto-san didn't even acknowledge or talk to her. She had neither told Marlene of her acquaintance with the man nor the messages that had stopped suddenly.

Ryuuhei looked at the doors that closed behind the girl that passed through it and disappeared. Ken scratched his head and asked Marlene, "Is she okay?"

"Yes. She just wanted to get home."

"Oh, but Matsumoto-san would have dropped her off. He told me that they both live in the same town."

Marlene shrugged her shoulders and went back to eating her food. Ryuuhei quietly said, "Maybe she didn't feel comfortable because she didn't speak Japanese."

Marlene paused slightly and but kept on eating. Ryuuhei had found Marlene attitude sometimes off-putting. He had noticed that she became friendly with some people in the beginning but would ignore people once their use was done. He worried about Ken. He was sure that they were sleeping with each other. He ate his food and made his excuses as well.

Running to his car, Ryuuhei unlocked it and got in. He took off in the direction of the town's train station. The road to the train station was dark and had a rice paddy field on either side. It was narrow. Ryuuhei wondered if she was ok walking in this road alone.

He saw her walking, a solitary figure, on the narrow road. He knew that she was aware of the car behind her as she looked around to step away from the way. She walked quickly ahead and saw the dark garage door of a house, so she sided into it letting the car go ahead of her.

Liya waited patiently for the car to pass her. Some crimes took place now and then, but she felt somewhat comfortable to walk at night. However, that car stopped right next to her, and it was a very familiar car. She gasped at the sight of the man who leaned towards her from inside the vehicle through the window.