Kazuma woke up in his apartment. It seemed he had had a horrible nightmare since he was covered in sweat but he couldn't remember what it was about. he reached out his hand to the sealing and looked upon the numerous scars on his arm that were a constant reminder of the guilt he felt. his room was small and cramped, the window was so dirty that you would think it was still night time, and the light that did come in had a horrible brown tint. there was a desk next to his window covered in unfinished pages of manga that he had written. He looked at his phone, it was Thursday. Kazuma swore under his breath. He got up, drearily attempted to comb his messy grey hair before putting his work clothes on and going to the train station.
As he got on the train he made eye contact with a woman he had seen at his work. he swore under his breath, and swore again when he noticed she was walking over to him, squeezing past all of the passengers in her way. "sorry, excuse me, sorry"
she muttered to the people she was pushing past. Kazuma rolled his eyes. "Excuse me" she stared at him for a second waiting for a reply. Kazuma desperately attempted to ignore her. "My name is Kira, don't you work for 'Airi help line and call center?'" she said. Kazuma sighed, he had no choice but to engage with her. "Yes I do as it happens" Kazuma looked up to see a young woman, probably 19 with short, bobbed brown hair and a friendly, gentle smile on her face. So much kindness in her eyes. "What's your name?" she asked cheerfully. "Kazuma" he replied. that was it, they were on name to name terms now, there was no getting out of this he thought. "how old are you?" Kira asked. "20 if you must know, I've been working for Airi as a computer guy for 2 years"
"oh really, I'm on the helpline team, it's fun. But oh my god some of the people we get on the phone ha ha ha" Kira giggled. Kazuma hated the place but it got him money so it was worth it.
The two chatted for a while before arriving at the office and getting to work. On Kazuma's lunch break he pulled out his lunch at his desk and began to eat. "Hey!" Kazuma nearly dropped his sandwich in shock before looking up to see Kira leaning over his desk. "sorry did I scare you? look I'm going to the mini café downstairs, I gather you don't have many friends so your probably the quiet type so it will just be the two of us" Kira smiled and so Kazuma agreed to go with her.
they went to the café and began talking. they were sat in a quiet corner. "So why exactly are you being so friendly?" asked Kazuma. "Well you seemed... lonely" Kira replied. "I just wanted you to have a friend, someone you can talk to" she said calmly. "You seem like a nice guy"
"thanks" Kazuma replied. "So tell me about yourself, what do you do in your spare time?" she asked without hesitation. "I write manga"
"Holy moly, really! What have you written?!" Kira began to lean in. "Ur, well the only one that's been published is 'Trains'"
"oh my god you wrote Trains?!" Kira leaned in even more.
"so I'm guessing you're favourite flower is sakura blossoms" she said smiling. Kazuma flinched. "why do you say that?" he asked. "well the main character of Trains is called Sakura and almost every volume has a blossom tree on the cover." Kazuma was confused, he must have unconsciously done all those things because of his traumatic past, well the book was inspired by that past after all. Struggling to think of something to say he just blurted out "no I hate Sakura blossoms."
"So what about you, what do you do in your spare time?" asked Kazuma. "Oh I like to read manga and play video games, my favourite manga and game is Fairy Quest" she said. Kazuma's eyes lit up. "a-I like Fairy Quest too!" he said before composing himself and hiding his face in embarrassment. "Te he, no way. hey we should meet up tomorrow after work!" Kira said excitedly. "Oh shoot, I need to get back to work, I hope you don't mind" Kira said. "Oh don't worry I have to fill out some forms so..."
"I had fun talking to you" Kira smiled at Kazuma for a few seconds before remembering again she needed to go and rushing up the escalator. Kazuma hadn't spoken to someone like that in a long time, but it was nice. I suppose Kiah would be just like her if she was still here Kazuma thought.