Golden Time: A New Beginning

Banri's Apartment

~In Banri's Apartment~

"Today, Kaga-san talked to me."

"Really? What did she say?"

"She said 'Takada-kuuuun'."

"There's an extra syllable", Yanagisawa laughed uproariously, while he slid a cutter along the cover of a cardboard box. Turning his T-shirt's back to Banri, he sat as if over an old japanese style toilet, in an orderly fashion cutting the packing tape from all four sides of the box.

This place is Banri's castle. Its name is Neo-Phoenix. This apartment, even if burnt down any number of times, would reborn from the flames... it felt like. Room number 204.

A small twenty square meter , but with a wooden floor. Not new construction, but relatively new. No need to change lines commuting to school, direct connection. Facing to the northeast, but at least a corner room. The room his mother liked was a much larger 1DK, same rent, but Japanese style, with bright southern exposure, but built twenty-four years ago. Its big closet seemed convenient and the room wasn't all that run down, but he'd been a little nervous that it was older than himself, so he'd decided on this room instead. There wasn't much furniture and other stuff yet, and maybe because of this, it was comfortable for now.

Unconsciously searching for bald spots on the top of Yanagisawa's head, Banri was sitting on a tall stool set in the combined kitchen and entryhall, his feet swinging idly. In spite of it being from a second hand shop, and costing only four hundred yen, it was stable and pleasant to sit on. There were some strange stains scattered about on the top, they bothered him, but he didn't care.

Yanagisawa grabbed the cutter again from where he had set it on the floor, cutting clean through the rest of the packing tape. Banri's mother, worried about her helpless son, had sent him a care package from Shizuoka, almost at once.

"So, when I told her that I wasn't Takada, she said 'Oh, pardon me, ta, Tanaka-kun'."

"She only got the 'ta' right. You see, that's the kind of person Kouko is. She doesn't pay much attention to others, and doesn't remember their names. She's always full of things related to herself. Let's see, it's open now. Just what kind of treasure has your mother sent?"

"I said my name is not Tanaka either, but I'll give her a hint, it's two-letters, she gave me 'Two letters...? Kaga-kun...?' That's your last name, right? I said. "

"Didn't you just make that up now? ...Oh! Look, Banri!"

Turning to face him with a delighted expression, Yanagisawa lifted the open box with some difficulty, and tilted it towards Banri to see.

"Incredible, Tada Mieko-chan, you really know how to choose! Wonderful choice!"

"What's that? And anyway, how did you know Mieko is her name?"

"Because I looked at the return address, of course! I love Mieko! Look at these ramen! Yakisoba cups! It's enough to make a guy cry... ah! Pasta! There's pasta sauce too! pastries, canned tuna, canned mackerel, sweets, and also... what's this? A film case? And there's three more."

Getting up from the stool, Banri peeked into Yanagisawa's hands.

"Ah, those. There's tea powder in them. We grind it at home, so the containers are just something random. You put about a half teaspoon into the cup with hot water and drink it as is, you don't need a teapot nor a strainer. You want one? It's super easy, and you can drink the tea leaves entirely, which is said to be good for your body too."

"Gimme gimme gimme! I'd love to do my body some good! Oh, there's a letter stuck in here."

The white envelope surrendered to him, Banri sat down again on the stool. On the front, only "From Mother" was written. Letters like rain-wetted willow leaves could be seen.

Lectures long over, it was nine in the evening.

Yanagisawa's condo was about three train stations away from here, and when he heard that a care package from home had arrived for Banri, the guy had said "see you in five minutes", and flew over, at night, by bicycle. Aiming to get something for nothing, the mooching rascal. That he really showed up in five minutes was scary... just kidding of course.

Yanagisawa seemed to have been raised in affluent surroundings; he certainly lived with a certain refinement, Banri reflected. But according to him, it seemed things had gone somewhat sour in his parent's house after he faced them down over taking the outside examinations. In any case with no hope of getting a school expense allowance, despite a long time interviewing like crazy for part time jobs, looking for a job anywhere, he still hadn't gotten one, and it was still unclear how he will pay his tuition. (he himself thought it was 'My parents or Kouko's fault!', but the real reason wasn't known). For now, as he had no other choice but to endure at a temporary job, he got a painful lesson about his future.

"What's the letter about? They are telling you to share everything among your friends, aren't they?"

The letter mentioned no such thing, though Banri of course intended to share what he got.

"Take care of yourself. Don't skip classes. Don't spend too much time on the internet. Get enough exercise. Keep in mind that there are responsibilities that go with being an adult. ...Like that."

He even showed Yanagisawa the five lines of text written on the paper, put the paper back in the envelope and stuck it in a kitchen drawer. While he wasn't looking, Yanagisawa grabbed a few packs of microwave ready meals out of the box.

"Ah! Just a second Yana-ssan, would you mind not putting your hands on him?"

He planned to share everything he got, but that was a different matter.

"As far as I'm concerned, is something special. I couldn't share that even with you, Yana-ssan."

Yanagisawa obediently said "I see...", and nodded, quietly returning the ready meals back to the box.

"Well then, what about ramen? Could I have some ramen? How many would be OK? There are four bags with five packs in them each. A total of twenty."

Up to five, he thought, but instead

"You can have half of what I've got..."

Out of kindness. At a glance, he could see three or four mosquito bites where his pal's arm extended out from his T-shirt.

"Also, if you like sweet stuff, you can have all of the cookies too..."

"Really? You're giving them to me! Why!?"

"Because you looked so pitiful, putting up with the mosquitos having a bite of you... and yet, it's only April..."

"Yeah, it got soo itchy not long ago."

"Besides, when I moved in I've brought a lot with me. There's a factory in my neighborhood that makes them, and a relative of mine works there, making so-called second class goods. I can get a ton of the stuff from them. So at my parent's house this is the only thing we can eat without limits. I don't think we've had to buy this stuff at list price in all my life."

"Really!? That 'second-class stuff' is just as good as the real thing! It's been that way since you were a kid? If I were little, I'd be dancing around for this stuff!"

"Childhood, ...well... what was that like?"

"Come on now, you had your own."

"So I did, but... So I did, but yeah, I guess I did."

Yanagisawa's laughter washed away Banri's vague response. He spread out a yellow plastic bag from , that was wrapped into a pentagon in an old-fashioned way, and immediately, chuckling to himself, started stuffing cookies into it.