Tukap

Wakka

Instead of being off put by the whole situation with the Ouija board and the basement, Asirpa became obsessed with discovering the origin of the Ainu ghost that haunted her home. Sugimoto too was enthralled with finding out the origin which much to Asirpa's delight caused them to bond, plus he was over almost everyday and sleeping here on and off. Wilk elaborated that he had spoken to a relative of Sugimoto's who had explained that his father was in the hospital full time, this meant his mother would go directly from work to his bedside in a cycle that left her son without both parents. "He's all alone in that house." Wilk explained when I expressed concern if it was too frequent, I felt my heart tighten as if a fist clenched over it and the wall I put up began to come down brick by brick with Sugimoto. I began to find myself in his continuous presence, watching his hockey practices and games, it did not go unnoticed by anyone at the school because of him being the Captain of the hockey team. Ogata would frequently make sure to bump into me when he saw me, or he would make a note to openly grope and make out with whatever girl was flavor of the week in front of me. It didn't bother me though, I was just happy to not be alone for the first time in a long time. The lingering wonder of where my mother was got pushed farther to the back of my mind, it dwelled in the dark recesses where my thoughts about my father lay as well. I would only think of them occasionally when I woke up the middle of the night, I would stare at the ceiling and wonder if they were thinking of me.  

"Can we go to your house?" I asked Sugimoto when we both hopped in his truck, he had just finished practice and thrown his equipment into the pick-up. "Or we don't have to, it's just Kiroranke is over." I added seeing him pause at the mention of his home, part of me was curious and the other wanted to be completely alone with him. "It's kind of messy." He said slightly embarrassed, I shook my head quickly. "I don't care." He seemed to accept this and he started driving towards his home, we stopped along the way to grab food because he explained that there were basically no groceries in his house. I noticed when he opened his wallet to take out cash that one of the wallet sized school pictures was tucked in next to his license, I didn't remark but couldn't help but smile the rest of the drive. When we pulled in I could see that the lawn/garden area was a little overgrown, the inside of the house was more dusty and disheveled than unclean as it looked more uninhabited than anything. Sugimoto began to try to clean off the surfaces and stacks of mail his head was down as if he were embarrassed. "I'll clean up after we eat, it's the least I can do for you driving Asirpa and I around so much, and taking us out all the time." I said placing my hand over his, he looked up at me and shook his head. 

"You don't have to repay me, I want to do those things because your my girlfriend." I figured it slipped out since he then began to try to smooth it over, and his face was the same color red as the curry I had ordered. "Well then as your girlfriend I want to clean for you, is that okay?" I said clearing my throat before picking up one of the fried prawns up and popping it in my mouth, I saw relief was over his face and he gave me a nod before sitting across from me. After we ate even though he insisted helping I shooed him off to just watch television, only bothering him to ask for a vacuum and mop amongst other cleaning products. The house wasn't soiled so it didn't take long but it made a huge difference, I even ended up doing a few loads of Sugimoto's laundry that seemed to be piling up. I found another picture of me in his room, it was a polaroid he took of me in a field of wildflowers that was taken on one of our many hikes. The picture was on his bedside table next to a large bottle of lotion and box of tissues, I peered over and noticed the excessive pile of tissues balled up in the small waste bin that was on the floor. "D-Don't touch that!" I jumped and dropped one of the ones I had plucked off the floor, Sugimoto bolted over and took the bin from me. "S-sorry I just- I mean it's.." He sighed and gave me a weak smile, it didn't take him long to notice my confusion. I noticed his demeanor change to something more animalistic.