Hiro dove face-first into the lump of duvet on his bed. His bed would usually be tidily made, but on occasions where he was stressed out or nervous, he would sometimes bury himself in his blanket and wrapped himself like a burrito.
I guessed he had a mini breakdown before I delivered him his dinner. His pillows were on the weirdest places; like on top of his closet and under a chair. I started to wonder what brought about the destruction.
"Ugh!!! The nerve of that guy!" he grunted and threw another pillow at his bookcase.
'So, that was how they got there', I thought.
"Months-worth of work, all for nothing. I'm gonna kill him if this plan fails."
"Want some cheesecake?" I tried to distract him.
"Sure," he harrumphed.
I brought him a slice of the cake and sat next to my agitated friend.
"Thanks. I've been pretty distracted lately. Sorry for being unstable."
"No problem. I understand."
"Ms. Anderson?" Makoto knocked.
"Yes?"
The bizarre-looking butler entered and laid out a white coat on a hanger and a small sewing kit before leaving without an explanation.
"What's this for?" I picked it up from a chair.
"Oh, right. That's your Haori for tomorrow. You need to sew your name on the bottom hem of the shirt yourself. It's tradition or something."
I analyzed the material as I sat myself on the chair with a needle and a red thread on my lap. The white yukata-styled jacket was made of a thick silk-like fabric with an embroidery of a phoenix of the same color. The delicate art piece shone under the lighting of the room, otherwise, it was hard to make out the outlines of the pattern.
"Why are you staring at it like that? Is something wrong? You don't like it? I can ask Makoto to bring in another one if you want," Hiro sat up.
"No, I was just admiring it. I've never worn something like this before."
"Well, you get to put it on all day tomorrow. A plain black shirt and a pair of dark denims will do. Wear any comfortable shoes, we might need to be on our feet for a long time."
"Now that I think about it, I've never seen you in one before either. And is it really fine for me to join the ceremony?"
"We only wear them during formal family events. And yeah, it's not like my grandfather can come and choke you for visiting his ash," he joked. "Uh… sorry."
Hiro continued to finish his cake while scrolling through the content of his brother's e-mail as I struggled to thread the needle. It must had been a while, because next thing I knew, he was helping me with the whole task. He licked the tip of the thread and it smoothly went through the needle.
"There you go. Easy peasy," he passed it to me.
"Oh, thanks. I didn't know you're familiar with needle and thread."
"My parents made me sew my own stuff since I was 12. I had to sew some holes in my socks when I was living abroad; it wasn't that great of a job. But I have gotten better since," he sat on the floor and commenced with his delayed dinner.
After about half an hour, I managed to badly stitch extremely crooked letters of my name at the bottom of the jacket. It barely resembled a real alphabet; I couldn't help but cringe at my own creation.
"Do you think this will do? I know it's not perfect, but this is the best I can do with my limited skill.'
My friend dropped an ebi-fry from his mouth.
"Is it that bad?"
"Uh… I can't lie to you. You know what, I'll do it. Just feed me while I stitch your name."
"Okay, sorry to bother you again."
He brought a plate of tempura and handed it to me. The amount of shame I got from seeing him undo my wretched attempt was unimaginable. I had never been told to stitch anything in my life and as a result, I lacked the ability to.
"So, what's the Kanji for your name?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the meaning of your name."
"My foster parents picked the name from a book, but they never told me the meaning or the Kanji of my name. So, I just never bothered to look it up."
"Okay, how about I'll make one up for you? Do you mind?"
"No, go for it," I reassured.
"Hmm… Lotus?"
"Sure!"
Hiro started to stitch a character on the fabric. The contrasting color of the crimson thread drew my attention. Each strokes of the letter had its own personality as the bold lines became tapered at the end. I was so focused on cherishing his handiwork that the food on the fork would miss his mouth multiple times.
"Now, what about your family's surname?"
"Um… Anderson's the only surname I've ever had. Sorry to be depressing, but my dad's ship sunk before I was born, and my mom died during childbirth. There was no known record of them either."
"No, don't be sorry. It must've been hard. I noticed that your birth certificate was kinda unclear while I was doing my background check on you. I didn't think it was appropriate to ask you about it."
"I've come to terms with it. Whenever I feel sad about it, I would imagine that my dad died heroically in the navy."
He reached for my hand, "I'll help you look for them after we're done with this case. I promise."
"Thank you, it means a lot to me," I smiled.
"I'll let you use the Tanaka name for now. Ren Tanaka, it has a nice ring to it." He realized the double meaning behind his statement and tried to backpaddle. "I-I mean for the stitching. I didn't you can use my last name forever. I mean obviously I can't say for sure now, but it suits your first name nicely. It's a compliment, not that I'm suggesting anything– "
I stuffed a lotus root tempura in his mouth, "Hahaha… I know. Thanks for cheering me up."
He relaxed his shoulder and smiled. The night went on peacefully as he finished sewing. We went through the brief plan and prepared the tools we needed for the scenario. Hiro gave me a goodnight hug before I retired to my room, and for the first time, I didn't feel awkward or nervous about showing him my feelings. I couldn't wait to sleep and wake up as Ren Tanaka for a day.