Post by Kohaku Fujihara =^.^= on Oct 1, 2020 21:45:47 GMT -5
Ja matta ne, pt. 1
OOC: Thank you so much to @adriennelevi for their contributions to this piece. pt. 2 to follow soon. 
Midnight.
Kohaku Fujihara gave a look around. Most of what he’d acquired during his time here was staying- a few things were coming with for old time’s sake. A couple of t-shirts, some odds, and ends. A frequent diner punchcard to his favorite noodle place. A single playing card depicting a laughing jester on one foot juggling black and white balls. These things were jammed into a backpack with plenty of room to spare.
Taking a deep breath, he slipped out of the bedroom, trying to be as stealthy as possible… and promptly failed, the sole of his sneaker slipping on the hardwood, producing a sharp squeak, not unlike one would hear on a basketball court.
His current tenant, for the lack of a better word, stirred in the midst of a cocoon of blankets and sheets. For a moment, it looked as if the disturbance had woken Adrienne Levi but instead, she just rolled over. Facing Kohaku, but still, fast asleep.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Kohaku unfroze from the position he’d stuck himself in and continued to pad toward the door. His fault for wearing shoes inside- usually a major faux pas in Japanese etiquette but disregarded for the sake of a quicker exit.
Padding across the room on tiptoe, he laid his hand on the doorknob, casting a glance behind him with a melancholy look before twisting the knob and slowly opening the door- only for the hinges that should have been immaculately silent to let out a creak worthy of a haunted house.
“...kuso.”
Out from the darkness came a sleepy, “Ko?”
Wincing, Kohaku looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t possibly have looked guiltier- backpack on his back, hand on the doorknob, fully clothed in the middle of the night with a very sheepish expression on his face. Caught red-pawed.
Shutting the door, he turned around, removing his cap to run his fingers through his hair.
“...yeah?”
Sitting up, Adrienne sheds the outer layer. Feeling for her phone on the coffee table next to her, she finally secured it and turned on her flashlight. Shining it on Kohaku, her eyebrows raised quizzically. However, there was a perfectly logical reason that there was a bulging backpack slung over his shoulders.
“You going over to Sil’s?” Ade asked curiously.
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t a lie. He could leave it at that.
But he couldn’t.
“...but after I do, I won’t be coming back.”
Again, Adrienne sat back up. Eventually, on wobbly legs, she stumbled towards the proximity of Kohaku. She had an oversized nightshirt and a pair of boxers on. Somehow not managing to trip over something. Wiping away the sleep from her eyes, her vision played tricks with her. The moonlight trickling in through the large windows projected a silhouette that wasn’t his. Blinking a few times, she realized the strange wavy shapes emanating from his body were just aberrations.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. … I mean you don’t need to panic about a place to live, this place is paid up for a few months and if you wanna keep it I kinda ‘negotiated’ the rent down real cheap, I just… I…”
He sighed, looking down, almost ashamed of himself.
“...I can’t stay here anymore. I’m miserable. Everyone around me is miserable, and it’s a good part my fault. I can’t have been that fun to live with the past few weeks, I know that much.”
The young woman shook her head. This was a delicate situation. They had spoken briefly about all of their complicated feelings for Axton Gunn. Ko’s circumstances were wholly different.
“You’ve seemed distant, sure.”
Circling back around to the crux of the issue, Adrienne contemplated what had just happened to her all of a sudden. She wasn’t exactly sure how she would handle this. How to even handle this as a matter of fact. A tiny voice in her subconscious reassured her that this was okay. So…
“...but, I understand.”
“I’m sorry. This isn’t fair to you. And I don’t want to leave you, you’ve been a great friend, a great… everything. I wish this hadn’t all happened this way, and who knows. Maybe once I’ve been home for a while, grown up a little, I’ll come back. And maybe when I do…”
He grinned, the sort of impish smile he used to flash all the time before all this.
“...I’ll have a friend gracious enough to let a vagabond ol’ fox like me crash on her couch.”
Adrienne nodded and smiled in return. She noticed that his canines were rather pointed. Or maybe she was just making stuff up. Lately, she had a pretty active imagination.
“Don’t dwell on it. I’ll be okay.” Adrienne sniffled. She stepped towards him.
Leaning forward, Kohaku pressed his lips to her forehead gently.
“It will. You’re going to be fine. Whatever place you’re searching for, you’ll find it. I believe in you.”
Pulling away and running a hand over his eyes, he paused once more, unzipping a pouch of his backpack and handing Adrienne a small, worn old book.
“A book of Japanese folklore. To remember me by while I’m gone. Sayonara for now, dear little queen.”
Bowing, he vanished into the night, leaving behind him the scent of fresh rice and, perhaps, a flash of russet fur.