500 Pages: InuOkko

Chapter 5

 Most of the week flew by after the first few days of Okkotsu's return, but it felt like the closer it came to the weekend, the less Toge could sleep. The only day he took off was Sunday. It was meant to be a rejuvenation day – a time to not cook, or clean, or leave his bed if Toge didn't want to.

Undoubtedly, the dynamic had changed. With Okkotsu's help, Toge expected business to be lighter, less work than a typical day. He was wrong. Okkotsu was good at his job, damn good. The black-haired man learned fast and was eager to start the next workday.

The thing was, Okkotsu could turn over and turn up tables like a world-class waiter. He wasn't taking notes on drinks; he was even starting to recognize regulars. All of that movement meant feeding more people; a vacant table could be seated. It was more work having him around, but at least Toge didn't have to interface.

Toge pulled the covers over his eyes to hide himself from the beady LED eyes that watched him from various devices in his bedroom. It must have been late; the living room was too quiet for Maki to be hanging around. Okkotsu was hushed as well, but it was more difficult to predict when he would return from his nightly beach walk.

The silver-haired man rustled around in his sheets. Nothing was comfortable. His arms ached more than they had, but it was a particularly busy Saturday night. Summer was just beginning, and it couldn't be over soon enough. He reached for his phone that sat on the bedside table.

If he couldn't sleep, there was no point in pretending more screen time was an issue. First, he navigated to Instagram, where he scrolled through what was essentially only advertisements. Then he pulled the covers off and turned on a lamp.

Light only met a few surfaces from the dim, soft white bulbs. They were less irritating on the eyes in a darker room, plus they added some ambiance to the faded taupe walls. Seemingly out of nowhere, a glare caught Toge's attention.

The blurred reflection gleamed off the cover of a notebook sitting on the desk adjacent to the bed. Toge grunted, moving his eyes back to his phone. But that wasn't enough. He found himself staring at the crumpled edges of the pages and the beaten cover.

One corner was bent from the time he took it in his school bag, the first day back at school after Okkotsu left. What was a red cover had been bleached by fluorescent lights and the sun to a pink, but the letters remained. When had he moved it to the desk? Had it always been there, watching him sleep?

Toge grunted, standing from the bed. Cold air hit his bare chest as he stepped closer to that 500-page notebook with a crushed spiral. His breath was so loud, filling the room with white noise as he inched closer to the jarred notebook.

With a single gesture, Toge swiped the notebook from the surface of his desk and retreated to the comfort of his bed. A pulse emanated from the slick cover, reverberating in Toge's fingers. It was a signal from the past, a sign that there was still life in that hopeless book bound with tongue-tied shallow heaving.

He opened the first page; the first few sentences were, "Dear Okkotsu, I hope this finds you well. It's the middle of the night the day you left. I figured I would give you time to get back to me with your address. Maybe we should just do email or something; that would be easier than sending letters."

Toge smiled, flipping a few pages ahead, "Dear Okkotsu, I hope you're okay. It's been a while, huh? It's been a week since you left, but I figured you'd be busy with the whole 'new life' thing. I just realized, I don't know your favorite color, or birthday, or really anything about you."

He flicked further ahead, with a larger smile, "Okkotsu, I hope you're alive. It's been almost a month since you left. Summer has been crazy! There was this guy who came into the café with a little monkey, and I got to feed it berries. I wish you were here to do it too. Once in a lifetime chance, unless you're that guy, I guess."