In Development: A Coalesce Short

Apartment 112

Tokyo, JPN

November 2011

Three quick knocks followed by two of the same speed. Tadashi Sato patiently waited outside the door of 112, glancing quickly at the watch on his wrist. After a mere minute, the door opened. “Am I too early?”

“Just in time,” the other replied. She walked back inside, “Come on in. I – I need some help preparing dinner,” the woman added awkwardly. Tadashi gave a quick smile, entering and leaving his shoes where the rest of her shoes were. Closing the door, he gave a cautious glance around where she lived.

“I’m surprised you haven’t burnt the place down yet.”

“Foul,” she sighed. Tadashi cocked a brow at her and the woman made a face, “Okay, okay, back to Japanese. Er – foul. Is that right?”

“Correct,” he affirmed. “What do you need help with?”

“…making Hayashi rice in general,” she admitted. Tadashi walked to her kitchen, which was still pretty spotless. There was an array of ingredients, untouched. He looked at her and caught the hesitation in the woman’s eyes.

He decided to take pity on her this time. “Get back to your studies,” he told her. “I’ll handle dinner for today.”

“W-Wait, are you sure?”

“You seem on edge. I’ll handle it.” she mumbled a quick thank you and left the kitchen, leaving Tadashi to glance at the cookbook which had been left open on the marble counter.

Hayashi rice.

The two of them had a schedule.

Every Tuesday and Friday, Tadashi would come over to her apartment merely to check up on her. The schedule seemed just right; those two days were light for her and Tadashi preferred leaving the office early on those two days as well. Eri had oriented him on what he had to do, and Tadashi accepted those duties reluctantly.

Aether was one of the two new recruits to HQ, although she first had to undergo university studies as well as training before she could officially start at HQ. At the moment, she was in her second year of college. Tadashi served as someone who could keep his eye on her; his apartment was merely a floor below and it was easy for him to check on her just in case.

Every Tuesday and Friday evening, he would end up visiting her and helping her out on what she needed to do. He would always stay for an hour or two, helping her assemble dinner or assist her with her studies, but for the first year of college, it was restricted to only that.

Aether was awkward around strangers and had weak Japanese. Tadashi was still in mourning after the loss of his old team.

Eventually, the two managed to cope. Aether began to open up rather slowly, while Tadashi had somehow managed to pick up the pieces and move on. After being given a ‘reality check’ by Eri, he had somehow accepted that he wasn’t treating the new agent the best way.

For once, he felt embarrassed and started to improve.

Whenever Aether was swamped with schoolwork when he visited, he would always take over the cooking for her. Different papers would be spellchecked. He’d take out books for her if she needed them. And perhaps the biggest help of all: he helped her develop her Japanese.

One of their other arrangements was that for the first thirty minutes to an hour of his visit, they had to speak in straight Japanese. That way, Aether would be able to practice and Tadashi would know where to help her later on. At first, her skills had been weak – as expected from a foreigner – with fragmented sentences, hesitant pronunciation and much more. Even when it came to writing Japanese, she mixed up some syllables and ended up writing something else completely.

By her sophomore year of college, however, she was improving. And Tadashi could see that.

“I’m surprised you were able to get the right ingredients,” he told her while cooking. The tips of her ears turned pink and she shrugged, though he could tell that she was embarrassed. It turned silent yet again and he hummed off-handedly, eventually taking his phone out and playing a song. He turned the volume down in case it was disturbing her, but he found that she seemed to concentrate more with music in the background.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later, he was done. Tadashi came to the living room with a tray containing the bowls and drinks, and Aether was too busy reading her textbooks to notice. He saw the glasses on her face and frowned slightly.

“You should get your eyes checked,” he told her in English. She blinked before processing the question and replied in English as well.

“I’m alright. It’s a low grade, anyway – both of my eyes are at seventy-five, I think.”

“You think.”

“It’s below a hundred,” she argued, huffing a little bit. Tadashi couldn’t help but smile, setting the tray down on the table once she had cleared her books, notebooks, and papers. Her laptop lay on the wooden floor, charging. “And it’s hardly anything to worry about, really. I can still read.”

“It’s going to get higher soon,” he warned. “Especially with all the heavy reading you’re doing for your major.”

“I can handle it. Contacts exist,” she told him, and he gave a shrug before passing her a bowl. Aether peered at it curiously.

“It’s not poisoned.”

“I know,” she mumbled. Taking the chopsticks, she murmured an itadakimasu and a smile fully reached his lips at that point. 

The two ate in comfortable silence. She had switched on the television to the news channel, and he explained to her what was going on in-between bites. While her Japanese was constantly improving, there were times wherein he needed to explain what was going on. It was part of the learning process.

“That one,” he told her, “My co-workers dealt with that. The bank robbery. Eri Nakagawa, I think you know her…she was one of the ones who led them there. It was a success.”

“She’s awfully good,” she replied. Tadashi nodded.

“She has to be. She’s been in the business even longer than I have.” The news went on and they continued watching, Tadashi explaining bits and pieces here and there. A few instances he asked her to tell him what the reporter was explaining, and she managed to get it right most of the time.

It was progress, at least.

Eventually, they had finished dinner and he had already spent over an hour in her apartment. Aether was washing the dishes and he was looking over her work, checking on if she was doing fine or not.

Unsurprisingly, she was doing well. There were a few papers marked with top scores, some others close to perfect. Eri had assured him beforehand that Aether was smart enough to begin with, but seeing her progress somewhat relieved him and made him proud at the same time.

“Are – are you looking through my papers?”

“I’m just checking,” he assured her. “You’re doing well.”

The sink turned off and he heard her pace a bit, “Thankfully. We have midterms in a few weeks or so, and that includes for my Japanese language subject,” she told him. Aether came back, rubbing her hands, and made a face. “I don’t know if I’m ready yet.”

“You’ve been studying?”

“I color-coded my notes.” Tadashi glanced at the notebook in his hands, “But…I think I need to keep practicing.”

“We can start again,” he joked, but Aether was shaking her head with a mild grimace on her features. “Kidding, kidding. We can take a break for tonight.”

“You can take a break for tonight,” she told him. Aether returned to the couch and gathered her papers, slowly sorting them according to subject. He noticed how she stuck sticky notes of different color on each. “I don’t know…you look really tired. You’ve been tired the whole week,” she added quickly, hoping that he didn’t hear her at all.  

He did, however, and was startled. “Have I?”

“Mhm. I wondered if I should have called off this week’s sessions, because…I didn’t want you to over exhaust yourself,” she mumbled awkwardly.

And then he couldn’t help but smile again.

“You worry too much for me, Aether. Focus on yourself.”

“Can’t help it. You’re one of the people who genuinely care, and…”

He waited, but she trailed off and decided to stay quiet. Tadashi couldn’t help but feel mildly disappointed, but a voice in his head reminded him: baby steps.

“Anyway,” she suddenly said, “I think we’re okay.”

“Are you sure?” he still had the notebook in his hands, and Aether took it from him slowly. “Aether?”

“I’m sure,” she replied. “I know you, Tadashi…you want to get some rest on Friday nights.” She gave him a smile of her own, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes as much as her other smiles.

He wanted to tell her: it’s not what you think. I’m not tired of you.

But he didn’t.