Their next endeavor felt more serious than it should be.
Honestly, what is this? Is Takemichi not trapped in the past, but a drama instead? With the way Mikey had treated this, it felt like a life or death situation, which it should not be given that the end goal here was a mere shower.
Takemichi's eyes wandered through the room, still unsure of how to proceed. The lighting gave the room a slight blue tint, and the fragrances of the multiple perfumes and lotions stored throughout the room made the bathroom feel bigger than it was. He looked at himself through the mirror and wondered what he had gotten himself into.
Well, all he had to do was shower, and wait for Mikey to come back with new clothes. So why did he feel so nervous?
It was probably the fact that this was a girl's bathroom, more specifically, Mikey's sister's bathroom on the house's upper floor. Because the other shower was clogged. Great. Takemichi sucked in yet another big breath, more annoyed than anything. A bit intimidated too, but it is not like he would admit that.
Just before pushing him inside the bathroom, Mikey threatened him to not make any sounds at all and to be as silent as possible. While showering, Mikey would go back to leave the snacks in his bedroom and come back with clothes for Takemichi to switch to.
Funnily enough, the reason Mikey looked almost as if frightened was that his sister was a very light-sleeper, and highly cranky if woken up. Takemichi wondered how it was to live with a sister, or with any other family member. He had always wanted a brother, but never stopped to wonder what living with the opposite gender would be like. He thought that, even if he had a girlfriend in the future, he would still prefer to live alone, or at least have more privacy than what a couple would normally have.
He chased those thoughts away, now bothered by having to choose whether to start showering or wait for Mikey to bring him the outfit change. Because of the doubt, he simply stood there. Once again, the strange feeling of alienation made itself present, yes it was awkward to be standing here, but he was safe. That revelation lit something in his chest, like the low hum of ember, a sensation of warmth that spread down to the tip of his fingers.
Mikey's house felt safe. Safer than his own.
Takemichi gulped, not sure what this truly meant. It would be best if he could just turn his brain off. No matter, the closest thing to that is a hot shower, he decided.
Hesitation continued to plague him as he grabbed his phone from his back pocket, summoning up all his courage just to look at it, and then leave it on the counter. He would rather think about anything else.
A shiver ran down his back as his feet met the cold marble floor. With one hand on the wall, Takemichi stepped inside the bathtub, the embarrassment coloring his cheeks red at the thought of showering in a girl's bathroom. He had given up waiting for Mikey after five minutes had passed, he could not handle standing there any longer, knowing that the phone was just sitting there on the counter. Waiting. Waiting for him to check the messages.
Because the only contact saved in that phone was Sanzu's.
Takemichi remembers it, the slight vibration of a message received. It has plagued him since he left with Mikey. It was spasmodic spamming, sometimes it seemed Sanzu left a hundred messages in less than a minute, and then it would be a blissful twenty minutes before he started going off again. Takemichi dreaded checking. Dreaded to find out what had been left for him.
God. Why can't he be bullied by normal people? Why must it always be psychopaths and criminals? He is pathetic, he gets that, but to the point of attracting people like Sanzu? There is something he must be doing wrong.
He lowered his head, and without thinking turned on the shower, only to be hit with the coldest water he has probably ever felt. The scream that left his lips was embarrassing, to say the least. One would have thought an animal was being tortured, or a baby just fell and hit his head. The skin hit by the icy water immediately turned red, but not as red as his cheeks, ashamed by the constant embarrassment that follows him like the plague.
The boy curled up on himself, trying to evade the rushing touch of death. The shower handle suddenly felt miles away, and he became distinctly aware that to stop the cold shower from running, he will have to face it directly, even for a few seconds. Those seconds would be pure torture, and he could not promise himself to hold a shriek back. He took a deep breath and summoned up more courage than he ever had before.
Meanwhile, downstairs, as Mikey was once again sneaking back up with clothes for Takemitchy, a muffled scream echoed through the walls. The leader of Toman became momentarily confused. Not sure if that scream belonged to his dearest sister Emma, or Takemitchy.
