One Roof

Chapter 19

The professor explained the lessons in a presentation, pointing to some points and examples in front of the class. In front of me was Emily, writing down things with her pen. I paid attention to the professor, occasionally moving slightly because I needed to look past Emily.

Emily then rose from her seat and stretched her limbs. With a smile, she walked past me and toward someone else. She was about to raise her voice when she noticed me concentrating on my lessons. She glanced at me. I pretended not to notice and continued concentrating. She started talking in a low voice with her friends, trying her best to not bother me. Some of her words still pass, but since she wasn't talking to me, I thought of them as no more than background noise.

It was Saturday. For Emily, today was the last day of her midterms. For me, this day was supposed to be a day off, had there been no replacement classes. The class on Tuesday morning had been canceled because of some issues, and had been moved to Saturday morning. I felt slightly annoyed, but there wasn't anything I could do, so I rolled with it.

Luckily, it was just a two-hour class, and after we finished, I immediately turned for home. On the way, I stopped on the empty field where the Torii gate once stood. It was empty, like always.

"I'm going out with my friends, do you mind?"

Emily's voice came from behind me. I looked her way and nodded.

"Have fun."

"Thanks."

She smiled and walked away, while I turned my motorcycle on and went back to my apartment. I didn't really have anything to do for the day, so I decided to do some cleanup. Things had been busy, so I hardly had the chance to clean my place up. As I was tidying up my belongings, I received a notification from Yohan. Now that I thought about it, I think I heard someone calling my name when I left my class, but it was just a faint voice. I thought I was hearing things, or maybe it was Emily, but because it wasn't clear, I just left.

I checked my Fine, seeing what he was talking about. As it turned out, he asked me to go and accompany him on a shopping trip at the mall across from my apartment. I had been denying most invitations to go out ever since I got stuck with Emily. Since I didn't have much else to do, I considered the invitation. I switched and messaged Emily about my plans. Emily didn't check her phone, as she was talking with her friends, discussing one of their professors who was late to class because of a broken car. She stopped and looked at something. I used that chance to tap on her shoulders.

She looked behind, slightly surprised. I didn't do these often, so I guess she would assume it was someone else.

"Fine."

I told her about my intention. She quickly reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.

"Why are you even asking me?"

"Wouldn't it bother you if we both talk at the same time?"

"Not like we ever tried it."

I guess we couldn't continuously dodge our friends' invitations forever, and especially with my film major that required me to be in meetings with lots of people, I couldn't keep dodging others like these. I guess at the end of the day, we need to assume the worst case scenario of us being inseparable from each other, and learn to deal with it.

"Thanks."

"Not sure I did anything worth thanking for, but no problem."

"Ah, just a friend. Come on, I want to look at those."

Emily pointed toward something else, but she winked at me and walked off. I then switched my message back to Fine and contacted Yohan, confirming that I would soon be there.