the girl in the corner.

episode 22: sudden events.

it's been a little over three months since riki befriended me. we had our midterm exams during that period, and so we were given a one-week break. riki and i spent almost every night meeting up. my parents somehow found out about me meeting up with him one day, so they calmly—to my surprise—demanded to know who he is and asked me questions about him.

initially, i thought they'd blow up and yell at me for sneaking out and meeting a boy—my mother had warned me not to talk to any boys—but they were actually quite... normal, with it. i think it was the fact that i rarely go out and that i didn't have any friends before him, but nevertheless i was thankful they didn't yell at me. they expressed their disappointment that i didn't trust them enough to tell them, though, but they let me be.

now that my parents knew of my friendship with riki, i started meeting up with him normally. as in, not middle-of-the-night sneak outs. we'd meet during the evening, or at eight at night, usually. my parents allowed me to be out until half past nine at night, and if i want to spend more time with him, i have to tell them and they'll extend the curfew up to ten. they're not very worried for me because i'm only going out to meet riki and he lives close by, so they're sure he can walk me home if it's too late for me to be out alone.

due to my giddiness with riki and his existence, i failed to realize how my family was in a rather...hard situation. i don't know if sayaka knew, but i think she was just as oblivious as me. one time, i spoke too much to my father and he grounded me for two days, taking away my phone and confining me to the house. i didn't know what i did wrong, but i just obeyed my father and remained in our apartment. for that, i couldn't meet or talk to riki for two days, and he definitely grew worried.

on the evening of the second day, sayaka was taking a nap and i was on my bed bored out of my mind. i suspected both or one of my parents were asleep, so i quietly snuck out of my room to grab a snack from the kitchen. my parents' bedroom is quite close to the kitchen, and the walls are pretty thin, so i could hear them a bit too well.

my father was saying something about my and sayaka's tuition fees being too expensive, or him not being able to pay for both of them combined—we go to different schools—and i heard my mother say she could look for a job. that conversation rendered me frozen in the middle of my way to the kitchen. i didn't want to eavesdrop, but i was curious. this sounded like it could affect my and my sister's education, so i had to listen.

i heard my mother mention tokyo, but i couldn't quite make out the other words that were before or after the name of the city. immediately, one thought struck my mind, that we're moving to tokyo, which inevitably meant that i had to leave riki. well, we could still talk with the phone, but it's not enough...

i decided to forget what i managed to overhear and leave the matter in the hands of fate. after all, i can't do anything but hope for the best.

the following morning, my father had given me my phone and everything was back to normal. everything went well until the afternoon. at about a quarter to four, my father called me and sayaka to come out into the living room. sayaka was showering then, so i went to the living room alone. i asked my parents what was up, and they told me to wait for sayaka. i suspected what they wanted to tell us was related to what i heard yesterday, but i quickly dismissed that thought. i sat in the living room with my parents in a suffocating silence.

soon, sayaka emerged from our room after applying her skin care and sat next to me. my father was quite a straightforward man, and so he announced the news right away.

"we're moving to tokyo."

the words i dreaded left my father's lips in a flat, robotic voice. i shuddered at the coldness in his voice and looked at my parents with fright, while sayaka was rather excited in comparison. sayaka had always wanted to go to tokyo, so moving there was rather a dream come true for her.

i was leaving riki.

i heaved a shaky sigh and nodded, and the question that was flying around my mind the moment i was told we were moving slipped out of my mouth.

"when are we going?"

my mother shifted in her seat. "we don't know, suzuki. but it'll most likely be in a few days."

great, i can't even have another week in okayama.

i sighed and pursed my lips, trying to contain my agitation that sayaka was obnoxiously celebrating the dreadful thing right next to me.

"can i go now?"

my words were much more sour than i'd intended, and they'd left my mouth in a forced whisper. my father permitted me to go, and i walked quickly back to my room.

why'd we have to go...?