Airi pulled at her suitcase nervously as she fiddled with the house keys provided to her by the property office. She had just arrived in Tokyo last week and had stayed with her family in Chiba while her friend from university helped her scout for an apartment nearer her new place of work. Today was her move-in day to the one bedroom apartment she managed to find near Shinjuku Station and her friend was kind enough to take the time to help her.
"I could not believe we will be working on JVA together now." Fumiya said as he brought in two boxes and set them where Airi told him to.
"I know, I never thought I'd be back in Japan after so long, actually." Airi sighed as she brought in her suitcases as well.
"I thought you'd stay longer in Argentina? What happened?" the man inquired, as he continued arranging boxes. Airi could not believe how much muscular her friend has become since uni.
"Ah well, I met a guy there…" Airi began and Fumiya smiled at her encouragingly. Despite keeping in touch after their graduation, Airi has never mentioned Toshiyuki to Fumiya or anyone else until she was sure that they would end up together. Now that she has marked that phase with him as officially over and considering that he was in a different time zone, Airi now felt that it is the right time to talk about him to help herself move on as well.
"That's great! At least you're not as married to your job there as you were with your job back in Brazil. How is he? Will I get to meet him?" Fumiya was so happy for his friend that he could not stop the stream of questions now that Airi has opened up the topic.
"Well, the problem is he also met someone else." Airi smiled sheepishly at her friend as she began opening up the boxes.
"Say what now?" Fumiya was confused and the look on his face made it clear to Airi that her friend wanted names on who he's going to punch if he ever went to Buenos Aires.
" Listen, Fumi. We did not date officially. It was just a situation where we both liked each other but have not really put a label into it." Airi explained. She did this to herself, so now she must answer to her concerned friend.
"And why was there no label? Are you a product to be sold?" Fumiya was staring at her now with his hands on his hips,
"No, Fumi. He said he wanted to focus on his career first and then make us official after the Olympics." Airi answered truthfully. Even in uni, there was nothing she could hide from Fumiya so she might as well pull the band aid quickly.
"But you said he met someone else. Did they say they were dating officially or was it just a situation like yours?" her friend's hand was now on his hips as he stared her down next to the piles of boxes he was taking care of. Now that Airi thought about it, maybe she picked up this habit from her friend.
"Uhm… yes, they did. He even posted about her on social media." Airi was still a bit embarrassed to admit what happened to her, but she knew that Fumiya would never judge her.
"And he did not even want people from work to know about you guys?" Fumiya raised an eyebrow after Airi had told him everything about her so-called relationship with Toshiyuki minus the names, prompting Airi to sheepishly nod in confirmation. "He's a coward, then. Please tell me you did not have sex with him? No judgment though if you did." Fumiya sighed as he too began sorting through Airi's things inside the boxes they brought in. He knew his friend was smart and sensible. However, spending his university years with her taught him that she could be so dumb when it comes to guys.
"No, we did not even kiss because I was so insistent on him putting a label on us before we do those couple stuff." Airi answered. She was thankful to her past self who was at least sensible enough to deny Toshiyuki of certain stuff because he was not officially her boyfriend.
"Good girl. I'm proud of you for setting that boundary. He does not deserve those things if he could not even ask you to be his girlfriend properly. I hope you get over him soon. I'm here now, we can work through this." Fumiya looked at her and offered a small reassuring smile. He was never one to be overly sentimental, but Airi knows that he does care for her like a big brother.
"Thanks, Fumi. Now let's get through these boxes so I can make you something to eat." Airi smiled back at her friend.
"Nice! I missed your curry rice, you know? I tried making it myself with the same ingredients, but it just does not taste the same." Fumiya cheered as he rolled up his sleeves to prepare for the task ahead.
—
Fumiya was one of the first people who reached out to Airi when they heard that she is back in Japan. He was a friend that Airi made in university when they met in one of the minor subjects they had to take. He was studying sports science while Airi was taking up a double major in international studies and finance. They were paired up by their professor and the two soon found that they worked well together. At one point, the two even tried dating each other, but they soon realized that it was weird hanging out romantically so in the end, they called it quits and decided to just stay as friends.
Fumiya had told Airi that he used to be a volleyball player from 7th grade up to his last year of high school and was pretty good at it. He decided to quit playing the sport professionally when he got into university so that he can pursue sports training instead. Fumiya said that he was inspired to take this path due to his best friend who was his team captain in high school. That friend continued playing volleyball despite a serious injury on his knee. Fumiya said that he wanted to help people like his best friend continue in the path of their chosen sport while keeping them safe from career changing injuries.
The pair also lived together for a whole summer when they both landed internships in California. Fumiya landed one with a Japanese training coach for a professional team in Irvine while Airi was also accepted as an intern for the promotion division of the same team. The two decided to rent out an apartment together to cut costs as well as avoid the uncertainty of sharing a room with people they did not know. The two would do their internships separately in the day and do stuff together in their free time like going to the gym together (the team they are working for has graciously allowed them to use the same gym as their regular staff), doing groceries, laundry, cooking or cleaning the apartment. The people at work thought that they would end up together, but the pair quickly clarified that they had tried but it did not work out well for them so they just decided to be friends.
Once during their summer internship, Fumiya went to Los Angeles to meet up with his best friend who Airi just learned was studying in South America. Fumiya said that his friend was stopping by the USA for a summer training camp as well courtesy of his university and that weekend was the only break he's got before they fly back to their home country. Airi forgot to ask which country his friend went to study in, but she sure could not forget the dulce de leche spread and the alfajores that Fumiya took back with him after his weekend with his best friend. The man said that his best friend insisted on him bringing those things back to the apartment as a thank you to Airi for taking good care of Fumiya while the best friend was busy pursuing his dreams somewhere else.
The pair returned to Japan briefly after their summer internship to finish up their remaining coursework and attend their graduation ceremony. After that, Fumiya returned to Irvine to train further under the same training coach from their internship. The man mentioned before that he has greatly admired the guy since he was in high school and he was glad that the coach agreed to take him on full time after graduation. Airi in the meantime was offered a job to help in the promotion of a professional beach volleyball team in Rio de Janeiro.
They promised to keep in contact even if they are miles away from each other, but they have never seen each other face to face in years as their vacation schedules where they return to Japan never matched. Fumiya was the first one to return to Japan after a friend of his from high school told him that they are looking for a training coach in JVA. He was the first one to know about Airi coming back to Japan as someone from her new department told him that someone from his university would be joining them after quite an extensive career in South America. Later that night, he decided to call Airi and that was when she broke the news to him that she just got the call from JVA and that she will be returning home in a month's time.
Now that Airi is back, it feels like Japan is home again for Fumiya.
—
Airi smiled as she stepped out of the Sendagaya station. For the first time in her life, she did not get lost on her first day at work because now, her work is in Tokyo. An added bonus was that she lucked out finding that apartment near Shinjuku station which is about a five minute train ride away from her new workplace. Somehow, getting the job here at the JVA sports promotion division felt like a blessing to her. Not only was she able to resolve her issues regarding her work visa that was soon to expire, she was also able to get away from Toshiyuki and start moving on from the disaster that she shared with him. Sure, it is possible that he may return to Japan as he still has his family there but as far as she knows, he's not from Tokyo so the possibility of just bumping into him on the streets was almost impossible. Overall, starting over in a place that feels familiar to her was just what Airi felt she needed at that moment.
"Hello, I'm looking for Mr. Kondo." Airi smiled at the receptionist as she introduced herself in Japanese.
"You've got an accent. You must be the new hire for the sport promotion division." The lady behind the desk smiled at her as she typed in something into her laptop. Airi was surprised at this. She's got an accent? But she has been talking in Japanese with Toshiyuki all this time in Buenos Aires. "Here's your temporary pass. It'll get you to your floor only so keep that with you. Mr. Kondo should have your badge ready by the end of the day." The receptionist smiled as she handed Airi a plastic badge with the word 'VISITOR' printed out on one side. The lady then pointed Airi to the elevators and taught her how to use her badge, reminding her to return it at the reception by the end of the day.
Airi stepped into the elevator leading to the floor where she's supposed to wait for Mr. Kondo. Reaching the 9th floor she stepped up into the office space it opened up to and was met with the sight of several people already going about their day and busying themselves with work on their desks while some popped out of the pantry with mugs of coffee in their hands to charge themselves up for the start of a new day. Needless to say, Airi felt a bit out of place in her blue blouse and dress pants compared to the standard OL outfits in neutral colors of everyone else. It has been a while since she was in Japan and she completely forgot that there was an unspoken dress code among the working class in order for you not to stand out.
"Ms. Kuroda?" a man in his mid-forties approached her. He was wearing a three piece suit and despite his age, looked very athletic.
"Yes, that's me. You must be Mr. Kondo?" Airi smiled, bowing at a 90 degree angle to the man and extending her hand for him to shake.
"We have been waiting for you, Ms. Kuroda. Come, let me show you where you'll be working." Mr. Kondo said as he started walking past cubicles to the other side of the room with three empty desks side by side facing the window. "This will be your desk - " Mr. Kondo began as he pointed out the rightmost desk of the three, but was interrupted by the arrival of someone.
"Oh, is this our new team member?" A tall man with a very athletic build and jet black hair that was styled with an undercut came and set his bag on the desk by the left of Airi's.
"She is. Airi, meet Tetsuya Kitazono. He's kind of my right hand here, but he really does all the hard work for this team." Mr. Kondo said, patting Tetsuya's shoulder affectionately. "You'll be working side by side from now on so please get along."
Airi stood up and bowed to the man, while offering her hand for him to shake. "Nice to meet you, I'm Airi Kondo." She introduced herself.
"Oh I know you. Everyone here does. We really lucked out getting you from Argentina's team. I promise you, we have better chances than theirs." Tetsuya said cheekily, as he bowed and shook Airi's hand as well.
"Oh I think so too. I've studied some of the team's plays before back in Buenos Aires!" Airi smiled back.
"Nice to hear that we're on the same page when it comes to the Ryujins. Now why don't I give you a tour of my favorite place on this floor, the pantry? I'm dying for some coffee right now."