Before Shouichi realised, it was already dawn, the clock on his bedside table read "05:37". It's too early to actually do anything, he yawned and stretched his body. Although it was not a good sleep, he no longer wanted to go back to bed.
"Hmm?!..." In the corner of his eyes caught a humanoid figure with flashing eyes. It disappeared immediately in less than a fraction of a second. He felt a bit of relief that was gone. It might have been his wild imagination again or maybe a trick of the light.
"Wait…why was my door opened ajar? I could swear I've locked it last night." He tried to justify these strange phenomena which had been occurring since yesterday. Shouichi hurriedly dressed up with a tee and jeans, completing with a jacket. Then he walked down the stairs that led to the ground floor.
"Good morning, Shouichi-kun. I didn't know you were such an early bird." His mom greeted him with the same kind smile. She was humming and eating her breakfast joyfully.
"Haha… I'm not an early bird, I just couldn't sleep well last night. It might take a while for me to adjust." Shouichi replied while taking a seat across from her.
"Indeed… do you need breakfast? I could reheat it for you, my dear." His mother replied.
"Yoko-san, did you open my room last night?" Shouichi confronted her, it's wise to clear suspicion of the only one in the house as soon as possible.
"No, why did you think that? Did something happen last night?" Yoko spoke so casually, her voice sounded natural.
"Nothing… I might have forgotten to lock it." Shouichi looked away. He would not pursue this interrogation any further as he thought it could have been a misunderstanding.
"Right… If I were to unlock your room, I'd have jumped in and slept with my sweet boy. Maybe you would like me to sing you a lullaby tonight?" Yoko jokingly teased then put out a cute giggle.
"Stop… haha… Alright! I prolly forgot it." Shouichi rejected his mom's offer with a red face. In some quick instance, Shouichi swore he could have seen a blank void from Yoko's eyes. "What the flip…" He swore in his mind, the fear rushed into his system.
"How could an ordinary sweet lady like Mom have a weird expression all of a sudden?"
"Was it all happening in my head?" Shouichi wondered and quickly gathered himself up to hide his dismay.
"Ummm…Since Seihei school starts next week, I'd pick a measuring tape from the shop so that I can measure your size. Shouichi-kun would need a uniform to go to class, right?" His mother spoke up cheerfully.
"Yeah, you are right." He replied.
"By the way, I'll leave for the shop soon. What would you like to do today?" She asked attentively.
"I dunno… Maybe I'll walk around town, exploring for a bit. Umm… What kind of work that you do, Yoko-san?" He kept the conversation going.
"Oh my! I didn't tell you. I run a cafe shop near the main street. It is about a 5-minute walk from your school. You'll see the shop once you are there." She responded and giggled softly.
"Maybe we should hang out and talk more. Between… a mother and a son." She added while walking around Shouichi and cleaned up the dining table.
"Eh?!" The hands came from the back of Shouichi. It was Yamamoto Yoko who embraced him gently. Her arms were firmly resting on his shoulders, while her head was placed on the back of his head. He could feel warm and softness as well as a sweet elderflower aroma. Shouichi didn't move or object, because he fully understood her. It's been a long time since the mother and the child parted.
"Mom…" Shouichi finally spoke up since it felt like an eternity. Although it felt nice, it was an affection that was so unfamiliar to him. His dad would never hug him. Not even once. This was something entirely new.
"Haha… sorry I couldn't help it… I'm so happy that we finally are together. " Yoko said and let Shouichi go.
"Umm… May I ask why did dad leave?" Shouichi couldn't help but ask. His thoughts fired up and searched for reasons that took this experience away from him… This motherly affection that he missed.
"Hahaha… That's why I said we needed to hang out more. We got a lot of things to talk about." Yoko smiled weakly and tapped Shouichi's nose. Yoko tied up her black hair in a single high ponytail and walked out the front door.
"I'm off. Why don't you come visit me at the shop sometime in the afternoon?" She waved and smiled one last time, Shouichi nodded in participation before she closed the door. The young man could hear the car start and drive off.
After a few minutes, everything fell silent.
Shouichi strolled around narrow streets. It was bright and not scary at all, unlike last night. The atmosphere was so different, he could see people living their ordinary lives. He finally felt a big relief. The townspeople waved and smiled at him. "What a friendly neighbourhood." He thought.
Before Shouichi knew it, he found an entire street filled with shops and stores. It was a buzzing shopping district that acted as a city centre, there were commuting people and busy traffic everywhere.
"Yoko's shop must have been here according to what she described." He thought while looking around. Shouichi spotted an old wooden bookstore and as expected it indeed gave off the odour of old books.
"It might be a great idea to read books and revisit my Japanese before school starts." He figured while rubbing his graphite-black hair. Shouichi decided to head inside and check it out.
The store was filled with a variety of genres categorised into sections. The bookstore owner was an old man, who perhaps was daydreaming about his time of youth. Although it was a quiet store, there seemed to be another customer inside. Shouichi searched for his favourite genres. "Thriller, horror or psychology" would be nice. There he found it. He quickly skimmed through the collections shelf by shelf with excitement.
"The Lady Killer by Yoshida Shuichi" Something interesting caught his eye. It was a famous psychological thriller novel in Japanese about the psyche of a mysterious and dangerous woman who committed crimes. However, the book was located on the upper shelf slightly beyond his reach. Shouichi tiptoed to reach for it to no avail. He felt a soft touch and was hit by the faint, sweet vanilla aroma. Before he knew it a girl was standing right behind him, she elegantly reached out and grabbed the book he was aiming for. Shouichi then realised she was way taller than him. "Hey, that's kinda rude…" He thought to himself.
"Hey! Lady! That is my book." Shouichi claimed it and pointed at the book in her hand.
"?" The tall girl with long jet-black hair remained silent.
When Shouichi finally got to see her face. She was a beautiful and elegant girl with a face resembling a fox. The girl dressed in quite a boyish manner with a large oversized tee and dark-colour jeans. Her violet-purple eyes enchantingly stared right back at him and screamed the word 'Innocence'.
"At least, say something!?" Shouichi continued to press her.
"Umm… I'm not into shorties like you." She retaliated with a straight face. "What a rude girl with a cute face… I wasn't trying to be flirty, this girl just thought I was feeling her?... God damn it! I'm so pissed off right now… "
"Got nothing to say? Stop wasting my time then… Oh! Perhaps *Short kings* (in a broken English pronunciation)." She was quick to add salt to the wounds. Shouichi snapped back from his malicious thoughts. He had never been so humiliated by a girl before. "She also made fun of my Japanese for sure… there's no way she'd intentionally say it in English…What kind of English was that? It's so terrible…Man, I shouldn't make fun of people with their language… But she started it first!" There was an argument broke out in Shouichi's head.
"Sigh…" In the end, Shouichi let the pretty girl walk out with his supposed book. "What a great day!" He thought sarcastically as he saw her disappear.
"Come to think of it, today was quite hot and humid too." Shouichi peeked at the time on his phone, it was almost noon. Time to visit his mother's cafe, he figured it might have an air conditioning unit. Desserts and foods would definitely soothe his pain.
"I'm still growing… What do you mean I'm *Short king*" He thought and imitated her pronunciation to vent his frustration.
Shouichi arrived at Yoko's store. To his surprise, it was the only cafe in town that he had seen. The cafe was plain in design with about 15 tables. It was spacious yet felt cosy at the same time. Some customers were hanging around to chat about their random topics. Yoko eventually noticed her son and put out a big gentle smile.
"Welcome to Yoko Sweet Shop!" His mother playfully greeted him as if he was a customer. Shouichi felt somewhat disturbed and embarrassed.
"Hi, Mom!" Shouichi replied and raised his left hand as a gesture to make her stop joking around.
Shouichi took a seat in the quiet corner, close to the counter. He soon realised that his mom's cafe was doing quite well but not overcrowded. That was to be expected from the only cafe in town. On top of that, he noticed there were no other workers behind the counter. "Could it be that she runs the cafe alone?... man, it must have been tough for Yoko-san." Shouichi sympathised with her. He quietly monitored his mom working from a distance. Shouichi saw a lovely and sweet lady who enjoyed serving customers with kindness. At the same time, her customers were also kind and respectful.
"Perhaps this town isn't so bad after all." He consoled himself.
"Yoko-san! May I have another black coffee, please!" A similar voice was heard. Shouichi recognised it right away. It was that girl from the bookstore. She sat on the bean bag with one hand raised and the other hand holding a book, his book! She was so absorbed in her reading that she didn't even notice he was sitting there the whole time. Shouichi just analysed that she was comfy enough around his Mom, she'd even call her by Yoko's first name.
"What a nerd!" Shouichi thought as he saw she was actually wearing rimless circular glasses. Yet, she didn't wear it on their first encounter.
"Got it! Ayane-chan. But I think you should NOT drink more than 3 cups of coffee a day. You could become addicted to this thing you know!" Yoko replied with a bit of a serious tone.
"I know that. Just the last one, please. Sweet Yoko-san." The girl begged with her innocent eyes with a dark purple hue. Yoko eagerly complied and served her a hot black coffee, then she walked around for a bit before she beelined toward Shouichi's table.
"Mom! Who's that girl?" Shouichi rushed to inquire while keeping his voice down as much as possible, his curiosity finally got the better of him.
"Dear! Not you too." Yoko started to blush as she was going with the wrong idea.
"Not like that, Mom! Keep your voice down! I was just curious since I ran into her earlier." Shouichi clarified, this time he spoke a bit louder.
"That's Morimura Ayane-chan. She's been a regular here since she was a kid. I believe her cute presence is like the lucky cat who brings a lot of customers to my cafe… Why did you ask? Don't tell me… Did you fall for her already?" Yoko spoke proudly as it was something to boast about.
"Haaa?! Of course NOT!" Shouichi opposed the idea firmly.
"Thanks, god. I wouldn't want my Sweet Shou to get heartbroken this quickly. Although Ayane-san is a sweet young lady, I've seen her brutally reject a lot of boys in the past. I've even seen the whole thing happening in this cafe! It was such a dreadful sight…" Sweet Yoko added while also starting to nickname him 'Sweet Shou' out of sudden.
"For the brutal part, I'd believe you, Yoko-san." Shouichi agreed. "A wolf… more like a fox in sheep's clothing!" He thought.
"My! You caught on quickly. That's my smart boy. Must be nice to be young, and experience love, but love sometimes can be painful." Somehow Yoko turned this whole conversation into a 'Love' lecture. "I wonder if she still got the wrong idea about this whole thing." Shouichi pondered.
"Sigh…" Shouichi exhaled, frustrated. "Can't I just have some peace?" He asked himself.
"I'll bring some food out for you in a bit, hang around for a while, okay?" Yoko asked softly while giggling, and then she walked behind the shop and disappeared.