Memories of the Past

Chapter 5: Old Friends Time

Akari was absolutely exhausted. After leaving the studio she headed straight towards home. She wanted food. Specifically, she wanted a sweet, fluffy, jiggly dessert that went by the name of caramel pudding. However, as she got to her fridge, she was met with the horrifying sight of it being almost empty. 'Wow, how embarrassing,' she thought to herself. As a world renowned actress, Akari was living a life full of luxury and comfort beyond your wildest dreams. Even if that were the case, she liked to keep it simple. She bought a small penthouse in the middle of the city where she'd easily be able to get some privacy as well as easy access to the studio she worked at. Besides, she also didn't want to overwhelm Nagisa if he started dating her. Akari took a moment to slap some sense into herself. For the record, it had been a few days since the incident at the classroom. She was now nearing the one week mark for her confession to Nagisa, meaning that she was one week away from her meetup with him and an eventual answer to a question she has had for over seven long years. Back to the topic of her house, her studio was a large building just a few blocks away. Though she much preferred to drive there, she also took walks occasionally just to change things up a bit. Oftentimes she had to wear heavy clothing such as large coats or bug sun hats as well as a pair of sunglasses to keep the paparazzi from recognizing her. It was tedious and for the most part a pain in the butt, but she needed to do that or else she would be in deep trouble if a fan exposed her. Thinking about it, if she wanted to go grocery shopping, she would have no problem hiding from her fans. Since it was winter, Akari was pretty much required to wear a huge coat. Sure she'd have to hide her face, but it was overall much better than the huge, uncomfortable leather jacket she had to haul around in the middle of the day. Akari went back to her closet where she would pick out an overcoat to wear. She had an idea of what she wanted to wear, but was struggling to find it in her huge ten by ten closet. After a while she finally found the thing she wanted. It was a puffy baby blue colored jacket with a large double zipper down the middle. It had little gloves inserted into the sleeves that could be wrapped around your hands and had a hoodie that could be adjusted via straps located near the collar. Akari specifically liked this one because it seemingly kept her warmer and more hidden than any of her other jackets she owned. Funnily enough, whenever she looked at it, for some reason it always reminded her of Nagisa as well. Akari took the article of clothing and put it on herself. She then grabbed her purse and made her way to the elevator where she would ride it down to the underground level. The apartment harbored a parking garage built underneath it for the residence to use. It was also pretty convenient because no one would be able to see Akari going out of the building. She took her keys out of her pocket and signaled her car. It made two beeps, signifying that the car had been unlocked. As Akari made her way to the supermarket the sun had already made its way under the horizon, making the city streets light up with the shine of lamps and different neon signs that businesses used. The supermarket wasn't far, it only took about five minutes to get there by car. Akari could've walked there, but then she'd run the risk of being exposed to the public. This aspect of being an actress was the hardest part of it all. That, and your annoying manager seemingly tried to dictate your every move. It was tough, but it was worth it because it's what she loved to do. After pulling into the parking lot, the dark haired actress noticed two figures walking into the store. What caught her attention were the two's contrasting hair colors, one being a bright orange and coal black. 'I wonder,' Akari thought to herself. She made her way into the store right after putting on a mask (not for covid) and some sunglasses. Sunglasses were a pretty odd thing to wear in the middle of the night, but you gotta do what you gotta do. After thinking about it, she concluded that the mask really wasn't necessary so she threw it back into the car. Realizing that she had lost a considerable amount of time, she rushed into the supermarket. "Ack!" The double doors sent a chilly blast downwards causing the temperature around Akari to seemingly drop. After going through wake up calls from those machines that keep bugs out. Akari took a shopping cart and started to look around for the people who caught her attention earlier. After scanning the area, she finally spotted the two people she was looking for. "Aha!" she said while walking toward the couple. She walked up to the two unsuspecting people and tapped them on the shoulder. "Hi Hayami! Hi Chi-" but before she could finish, the two strangers turned around to reveal two people who seemed to be in their late thirties. "Um, hello miss, can I help you" the orange haired women asked. Akari, flustered and embarrassed, had stuttered her way through her answer. "U-um, sorry ma'am, I mistook you for a-another person." She said frantically. The woman nodded and went back to her shopping. 'Oh gosh that was embarrassing' She thought. Just then a voice came from behind her. "Kayano is that you?" "Waahhh!" she yelped. After that minor inconvenience Akari turned around to see Chiba and Hayami standing before her. Hayami's hair had grown since the days of class E. Instead of two small ponytails protruding from her ginger orange hair, she now wore it down making her appearance kind of look like Bitch-sensei's. Chiba on the other hand, looked almost exactly the same. Both had grown taller since the last time she saw them, making her feel really short. Sure she'd grown a few inches, but that was nothing compared to what the sniper duo had achieved. "O-oh, yea it's me" she said back. An aura of awkwardness had slowly filled the air. Both Chiba and Hayami weren't exactly great with talking to others so Akari felt like she had to make the first move. "Well, how've you guys been?" she asked "We've been fine." Chiba answered. Another round of silence 'Why why why is this so awkward' Akari thought to herself. Even though the three had plenty to catch up on, it still felt like she was talking to two brick walls. "So um, how have your guy's jobs been." she asked. Hayami was the first to speak up. 'Oh they've been doing fine. I'm helping this guy avoid being a bum his entire life." "Hey!" Akari giggled. "Anyways, Ryunosuke now works as an owner of an architectural business and is right now not doing too bad." "Why are you talking only about me?" Chiba asked. "Because it's fun to tease you." Hayami answered with a smirk. That was a side of Hayami that Akari had never seen before. After a while she made a realization. "Wait, did you just call him Ryunosuke?!" Kayano asked loudly. The whole store started to look at her and she shrunk down in embarrassment once again. "Oh, yes I did," Rinka answered. "Wait a sec, are you two dating?" Akari asked. Both Chiba and Hayami looked at each other and shrugged. "Yea, I guess we are." Chiba said. "When did this happen?" the actress asked. "Well, we always kinda went on dates, but all of them usually ended in complete awkwardness" The architect answered. "Still do," added the receptionist. "Wait, if that's the case then when did you guys start calling each other on a first name basis?" Akari asked. "Oh, we started calling each other by each other's given names a few years into high school." Hayami answered. She couldn't believe it. Right after middle school ended Chiba and Hayami got to the point where they called each other by their first names. "Um, Kayano, are you alright?" Chiba asked "Wha-what? Oh yea, sorry I spaced out for a bit." Akari wasn't about to allow another moment of awkward silence into the conversation so she decided to try and bring up another topic. Surprisingly, before she could say anything Hayami had spoken first. "Well how are you doing in your life Kayano?" the ginger haired sniper asked. Akari thought about it for a bit. "Well yea it's going well. My job has been coming along smoothly and right now there's no foreseeable obstacles in the way." she answered "Oh that's nice" Hayami said. "I'm gonna go to the restroom real quick, be right back" Chiba suddenly stated. He left to the back of the store where the facilities were found leaving Akari and Hayami alone. "Hey Kayano, have you dated before?" Hayami asked. Akari's face started to cover itself in red. "Wh-what?" she asked. "Y'know, have you ever dated a guy or something." Akari thought back. She's never actually been on a date before. However, she'd been asked plenty of times by different co actors and such. Still, even with all those opportunities, she wanted to make Nagisa her first date, causing her to reject all the offers she was given. "Ummmm, no." she responded. "Really? I was sure that a bigshot actress like you would be getting all kinds of date offers." Hayami was right, but Kayano spoke to fix that. "Well, you're right, but I never accepted them. I'm not really sure I wanted to date any of those guys. Sure, they most were good looking, had great personalities, and some were actually fun to be around, but I don't think I'm ready to be dating just yet." she responded. Another short moment of silence passed. "It's Nagisa isn't it." Hayami claimed. Bingo! Right on target. Akari's face heated up more and more as she processed what the girl said. "Wait! what? N-n-no your wrong! It-it's not that, I just um well I uhh." She stuttered a bit before finally giving up. "Yea, it is." She said sheepishly. "Yea, I thought so," Hayami answered. "How did you even know that? I don't ever remember telling you this, much less even talking to you about it." Akari asked. "Kayano, I'm sorry to say this, but I'm sure everyone knows you have your eyes on Nagisa." Hayami said with her signature stoic face. Akari was in shock, although she really couldn't show it to her due to her already being incredibly flustered. "Am I really that obvious?" she asked. "Yea." the orangette answered. She couldn't believe this. Why did she have to be so bad at hiding her feelings? She's acted so many times falling in love, so why was this so, so hard. If she was this obvious, did Nagisa already know what she felt for him? "Guess I'll figure that out soon enough." she said to herself "Pardon?" Hayami asked. "N-nothing!" Akari answered. "Ok." Akari checked her phone. It was already nine and she still had some shopping to do. 'Well the store closes at eleven, so I suppose I could stay a little longer.' the coalette thought. "Hey Kayano, can I ask you for some advice?" Akari looked straight up to see that Hayami was facing away from her. "Umm, yea sure, what is it" she asked. Hayami took a deep breath before answering. "You've played being in love and being proposed to right?" "uhhh, yea." 'Please, not again' Akari thought to herself. "Well, I was wondering, is there an easy way to propose to Ryunosuke?" she asked. Akari thought about it before answering. "Uhhhhh, Hayami you know that's his job right?" She asked. "I know, but I'm getting really tired of this," Hayami answered. "What do you mean?" Akari asked. "Well, we've been dating for years now right?" she nodded. "We're done with school, have jobs, and are all settled down." she continued to nod. "It's just, I'm ready to move onto the final step, but I don't know if he is." Hayami had laid her feelings out bare for Akari to assess. "He's just so dense, it's been so long and i know that there's nothing else in the way, the problem is he's not making any moves forward. Heck, he hasn't even said he loves me, even though it's obvious that he does." She kept on ranting about how stupid Chiba was and how he just always did the same thing over and over again without any change. "I just, I just want to take the last step. We're so close, but so far." She said sadly. Akari swears this was the most she's ever heard Hayami talk. Maybe even more than she has combined in the time she's known her. She thought about her situation for a while. She could kind of understand where she was coming from, it's not like her own love life was going any better. In fact it was probably a lot worse. At the moment, she needed to find the right words to say. She knew that both parts of the sniper duo could read each other like books. Both never talked that much, but by some mysterious telepathic connection they could convey each other's thoughts without even uttering a single word. Since most people talked with their voice, it was hard for Akari to relate to such a thing. Before she could say anything though, Chiba had made it back to the two girls. "Alright, sorry for making you two wait!" he said, walking over to them. "Oh it's fine. Hayami responded. Akari took a good look at the girl's face. It was a stoic as always, her eyes barely showed any emotion. She had wore a mask to protect herself. Something kind of like what Akari did way back in class E. Although Hayami always wore the same expressionless face, this time she knew what was behind the mask. "Alright, we're gonna go now." Chiba said. "Oh, ok then." Akari responded. "Here Kayano." She looked back to see Hayami handing her a piece of paper. It had both her and Chiba's phone numbers written on it. "Oh thanks. I'll text you two when I get home." The sniper duo nodded. The two then proceeded to walk to the self checkout counter leaving Akari all to herself. 'Ok now what am I gonna do' she thought to herself. She no doubt needed to pick up some pudding ingredients, as well as some packaged ones just in case she was too lazy to make any. She took her cart and started down the lanes. "Ok, I'm in the dairy isle right now. Do I need anything from here?" She asked herself. A few moments later and she was walking down the isles grabbing different items such as eggs, milk, flower, and anything else she needed for her irresistible pudding. After grabbing the final ingredient, which was the caramel sauce, she took out her phone to look at her list. She grabbed items off the shelves accordingly in a fast motion, as she was in a hurry to get home. It was already ten and she needed to get home. She was going to have a late dinner tonight, but she didn't mind. After grabbing a large sac of rice, she once again checked her list. "Let's see, eggs, milk, noodles, soup...." She kept counting until she couldn't scroll anymore. 'Perfect' she thought as she walked to the checkout aisle. *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* is what it sounded like every time an item was scanned. The store was now almost completely barren, only two or three people were there besides herself. It was already half past ten and she was in dire need of some rest after this long day. "Alright, that'll be 5,042 yen please." said the girl at the register. Akari was already incredibly tired, so she just busted out her credit card to keep things moving. "Wait, are you perchance the famous actress Haruna Mase?" the employee asked. 'Oh, no, I messed up' she thought wearily. She had to find a way to respond so she wouldn't have to stay there anymore. She decided she needed to play the part of a random civilian who just happened to have the same name as her. "Oh, sorry, I'm not, I do get that a lot though." She replied. "Oh my gosh it is you!" the girl yeld. Akari let out a groan. She knew that there was a fine line between acting like someone else and having the same exact name and appearance as someone else. "I'm sorry miss, but I'm tired and just really wanna get home. So, can we just get this done and over with please." She wasn't in the mood to be nice so she just complained. "Oh, yea sure, can I get your autograph though?" the girl asked. Akari sighed once more. If it would get her out faster, then she would do it. "If I give you it can you please just finish up and complete the transaction?" "Oh yes, sure sure." the employee replied. After writing on a blank sheet of paper and handing back, she hazily gave it back to the girl and in return got back her credit card. "Thanks for coming!" she said with a wave. Akari gave a small smile and walked out the door. She was met with another blast of cold air causing her eyes to widen and her mind to wake. She made it to her car where she packed her groceries into the back and proceeded to put the cart in the cart return. She then drove back home to her apartment and into the underground garage. "I'm pooped." she said after dropping her groceries and landing on her bed. She told herself she was just gonna take a small nap before making dinner, but ended up falling asleep till daybreak.