Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Bizarre Friday

“I thought you couldn’t speak japanese,” said the old man while handing my change. I looked up at him after I grabbed the coins from the counter. “were you playing with me yesterday, boy?” he followed up with a mocking smile, though with a joking undertone behind it. I could only smile wryly at him, “you know how it is..” I didn’t, really, but I also didn’t know what to say cause the situation was as strange to me as with how the guy thought I could suddenly speak japanese, which I didn’t, mind you, I was speaking english the whole time.

 

It’s just that anything I said was somehow translated to japanese or some such, based on how people react to anything I said since this morning, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought the cashier guy was also speaking english to me. But no, this is Japan, and people speak japanese here, well at least before today, apparently.

 

“Kids these days,” he said with a shake of his head. “playing with the elderly, did you find it funny watching me fumbling saying those fancy english words, huh?” he finished with a helpless smile. I nodded stiffly, “I didn’t mean to, it was habit you see, I’m not from around here,” I answered with a dry smile. I was thankful at least, because the old man gave me an easy out, it was not much of a reason if I do thought so, but this was just a friendly conversation between a buyer and a seller, to avoid the awkwardness caused by the stretched silence, so.

 

“Well, thank you for the purchase anyway, don’t be a stranger,” he said with a wave. I waved back as I turned around and head out of the convenience store.

 

I walked in the direction of my apartment while carrying my first monthly grocery purchase here with my right hand, as I was walking I saw a tall fair skinned woman with a body to die for, seriously, what I meant precisely was that she has an almost literal hourglass figure, her face was equally beautiful, with slightly slanted emerald colored eyes, a small cute nose and a pointed chin. Her long black hair was done in a ponytail, and she wore a white blouse with tight fitting pants, which made the odd round bulge in her right pants pocket noticeable, but I didn’t have much time contemplating that cause,

She was walking down the street leisurely in front of me and was staring amusingly at me, and then I realized I just stopped walking and was starring at her pointedly with a slightly open mouth. Realizing I looked like a dumbass, I quickly shut my mouth closed and gave her a smile while I stroke the back of my hair lightly, “sorry, eh..” I looked around for something to say. “the sight! yes, the sight is really distracting around here today,” I laughed lightly. Distracting?! what the fuck are you saying you dumbass. I cringe internally.

 

She frowned her eyebrows and answered, “distracting?” “the good kind of distracting,” I followed smoothly(I hope) with a winning smile. She broke into a little giggle at my words, “was that supposed to be a compliment?” she lean forward a little and smile up at me. At this point I realized I was slightly taller than her.

 

But wow, was my follow up poor, I didn’t usually broke into a mess of nervousness when I talk to people, but I usually also didn’t just found a model class beauty when I was just walking down a random street, so you have to give me a break for my apparent poor choice of words. Well at least she didn’t ran the other way as soon as I talk to her, also when did she get so close? Also why was she acting kinda(?) friendly with a random guy starring at her on the street? This situation was so weird, but so was my life from just this morning. But I chose to just wrap it up for later when I come home and could think clearly alone. Oh wait, I was talking to this girl, “of course, yes, you could say that” I answered back to her.

 

“are you new around here?” she asked curiously with a tilt of her head, her right hand on her chin, and her left on her right elbow, the classic thinking pose, gosh she looked so cute with that pose. I said internally to myself,  gosh why do I behave like a frickin teenager. I thought, oh wait, I WAS one. And then she spoke again in a tiny voice that I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear “yes you are, I would’ve known otherwise,” she mumbled beneath her breath. I was confused by that, what does she meant by that statement I wonder, so I said my thought out loud, “what do you mean?”

 

“Nevermind that, I don’t believe I catch your name..?” she deflected my question, I decided to also just shelf that for later, in my growing list of questions. “Jonathan,” I said, “Jonathan Frederick Monroe,” though at the time I didn’t know why I even bother saying my full name, cause I usually just only said my first and last name, weird, but I guess beautiful woman does that to you. I offered my hand to her while I said, “but people usually just call me John. It’s a pleasure, miss..?” I asked her back with a smile, “Mihiro, nice to meet you as well, John,” she said with a pleasant smile while she grabbed my hand in greeting.

 

I was feeling great with how our conversation goes so far(however little there is), not to mention how nice it felt like that the first person I know here in Japan was a nice gorgeous young woman, and considering I was new here, and didn’t know a lot about the local area, I thought it would be a great idea to have a company here, and maybe just to show me around, so I quickly grab the opportunity that was presented in front of me, “say, Mihiro, can I get your number? I’m from overseas you see, I just got here from a study abroad program, and I don’t know the area well yet, I also don’t have any friends or family here , so I thought, maybe a friendly face & a local would be nice to have you know,” I said to her with an easy smile, and she seemed to be considering for a moment and then said, “okay, lend me your phone a moment,” she motioned with her hand.

 

“Great, wait a sec,” I grab my flip phone from my back pocket and hand it over to her waiting hand, she grabbed my phone, but as she was doing it, I was pretty sure she held my hand for more than just a moment that was needed to grab the phone, I’m pretty sure I also felt a tingling when her hand touched mine, but I guess that was just me, again, being nervous. I didn’t put much thought in it, not more than the fact that a young woman being friendly with a random stranger was weird anyway.

 

“here you go, John. Make sure to contact me when you have time! I’m usually free at around this time, so, keep in mind, okay?” she said while handing my phone back.

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“right, thanks! guess I’ll see you soon?” I asked back.

 

“yup, at school,” she answered back with an amused smile.

 

“wait, do you mean?” I asked, already knowing the answer from seeing her face. “yes, John, the Kiyozaki Academy, which was the only school in town having the study abroad program. So yes, we’re going to the same school,” she said with a light laugh.  

 

“so don’t be late at Monday for the welcoming ceremony, cause I’ll be having front seat, and I’ll know if you’re late!” she waved her right index finger in the air in front of me, and I can only thought how cute she was while doing that, while also wondering if people really did that in real life.

 

“oh, I heard they have those in Japan, like a student council, right? what’s with the front seat and all? I assume for the welcoming party or some such” I asked her curiously.

 

“something like that, yes,” she nodded, “anyways, I have places to be and I’m sure you do too, so I’ll be seeing you on Monday, John, bye new guy!” she finished with a wave and a weird smirk, and then she walked away. Something with the way she said ‘new guy’ made me think that she meant things other than new student with that comment, but I didn’t know much so I just ignored it.

 

I sighed, shake my head, and with that I continue heading home, there’s no notable event happening so I arrived in my apartment after a 5 minutes walk as it was not that far. My room was on the first floor so it was also a close walk, I entered my room, took off my shoes, and flipped the light switch near the door, I placed my grocery on the kitchen table and go back to sit in the living room couch.

 

I sighed again, closed my eyes, and started thinking about the events of today, from the weird vision in the morning, the now non existant language barrier, until the meeting with the weirdly friendly young woman Mihiro, and then after a while, I finally said to myself, “let’s see if I’m still seeing shit in my vision.. status.”

 

At that last word, a video game windows greet my eyes.

 

“Yup, still crazy.”

 

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