After Story: Desire

Chapter Eight: Connections

As I passed through the gate to enter the school grounds I angled my head from one side to the other in an effort to work out a kink in my neck that had somehow formed during my trip from home. I didn't know whether the issue was due to the stress surrounding the agreement with GGI or if I had simply slept at an odd angle; I had briefly napped in my chair during a break from working on documents. What I did know, however, is that it was really uncomfortable.

Fortunately, my efforts managed to mitigate some of the discomfort by the time I entered the school office. "Good afternoon, Himura," I greeted while giving my neck one last stretch.

"Good afternoon, Okazaki," she returned with an odd smile. "Are you okay? You look like you're in pain."

I chuckled awkwardly. "I fell asleep while working on some documents for..." I trailed off as I realized that I was going into territory that she didn't need to know about and wasn't really relevant to her question. "Just fell asleep while working on some documents."

"And your head ended up at a funny angle?" she concluded, then giggled sympathetically. "Ouch; I know what that's like. Sorry you're having to deal with that."

"Thank you," I replied, really wanting to move on from the awkward topic. "So, am I free to pass, warden?"

"Yup," she replied with another giggle. She then dropped the pen she'd used for check-in and gave me a cat-like grin as she reached up to flex her fingers at me. "Hey, if you need a neck massage, just let me know; I've been told that I have magic fingers."

"I'll...keep that in mind," I said hesitantly; I'd never known her to behave in such a manner before. Upon a second look I noticed something else different about her. "Forgive me if this is too personal a question, but... Is that a new outfit?"

"You like it?" She tugged at seemingly random parts of a cream-colored blouse with a pleasant sakura pattern. "I realized that I've been wearing that dumpy old getup for years and wanted to try something new; something prettier."

"Well, I'd say you succeeded," I said with a smile and a gesture toward her. "For what it's worth, I think that looks really nice on you."

"Thank you very much," she replied, and as she blushed lightly I noticed out of the corner of my eye that her fellow office worker – 'Nakayama' was her name if I remembered correctly – glanced over with a smile. "I know it gets harder for us older women to look nice, so I'm...I'm glad to hear you say that."

My eyebrows jumped at her statement; while I'd never consider myself an expert at judging ages, especially with women... "I don't mean to be too personal, but you don't seem that old to me."

"Really?" Himura leaned forward on her elbows to rest her chin on her hands as she fixed me with her gaze. "How old do I look to you?"

"I'm..." I chuckled awkwardly. "I'm not going to answer that, Himura; I've never known of a situation where that's turned out well."

"Fair enough," she replied with a smile as she straightened again. "Would you believe me if I told you that I'm thirty-one?"

"Yes, but only because I believe you to be an honest person. I actually had you pegged as twenty-five..." I froze, feeling the blood drain from my face as I realized what I had done. "Ah, dammit; sorry about that."

Her eyes widened in pleasant surprise. "That's...amazing, Okazaki." My expression must have appeared humorous because she giggled yet again. "You actually hit the nail on the head: I am twenty-five. I'm sorry for lying to you."

"D-Don't worry about it," I managed to reply as I worked on reassembling my nerves. "Your age is really none of my business in the first place."

"What do you think about dating older women, Okazaki?" Nakayama suddenly asked. "From what I can tell, you seem pretty open-minded."