hiatus「 one ante meridiem 」 • TAKA

Chapter 1: Who are you?

The snow falls gently from the dark skies, and she shivers uncontrollably as the blanket of cool white flakes powder her inch short, jet black hair. Wearing only a bloodied white babydoll and matching white panties, she rubs her arms furiously to get warm.

She's in a gasoline station, shivering in a dark corner when a bus stops by. A man exits the bus and proceeds to open the fuel hatch on its other side.

She wonders if the bus had any more passengers, and thinks of climbing in to get warm and get a lift. She's about to act upon the idea, when a group of four men exits the bus and goes to the convenience store. She freezes and waits for them to get inside the establishment. Her teeth are chattering noisily, and all she wants is to get warm and away.

She jumps to her feet at the thought of getting far from where she came from. The thought of the long vehicle that would take her warms her enough that she manages to scramble to the opened door. She peers inside and listens for anyone. A small smile tugs at her cold blue lips when she hears nobody, and she makes her way up the narrow stairs. The warmth of the bus engulfs her immediately and she sighs contentedly.

She's surprised when she sees that it isn't a regular bus with rows and rows of chairs, but a moving apartment. Or what she assumed was an apartment because of its layout. She walks down the aisle and sees a kitchenette with a small couch, six bunk beds, a door with a toilet sign, and a lounging area at the end. She is amazed with the interior of the bus, and is hungrily eyeing the opened cookie jar on the kitchen counter, when she hears heavy footsteps on the stairs.

She darts down the aisle to the bunk beds, and dives in the lowest bunk to the right. She hopes fervently that nobody sleeps in the lower bunks, or she be found and shooed out of the bus. Her heart pounds in her chest as she hears the men from earlier enter the bus, and she sees four pairs of feet pass by, going to the lounging area at the end.

The bus purrs and then they're moving. She sighs again quietly because she's finally getting far and away from that dreaded place.

"Oi, Tomoya! Sore wa kouka da!" One of the men says, his voice a very distinct and husky tenor, and it makes her jump at how loud he spoke. (Hey, Tomoya! That was expensive.)

"Eh? Koukajanai yo!" A second man replies. She assumes that this is the one called Tomoya. (Huh? It's not!)

"Yasui mono o kaimasu, bakayaro." The husky voiced man says with a laugh. (Buy a cheap one, you idiot.)

"Kotowaru! Ore wa kanemochi desu no de." Tomoya says cheekily. (I refuse! I'm rich after all.)

"Kono misebirekasu. Boku wa kimi o oida." (Show off. I'll kick you out.)

"Yare." (Do it.)

"Douitashimashita." The husky voiced man says, the smile in his voice is apparent. She hears a third man click his tongue, and a fourth man chuckle at this. (With pleasure.)

"Taka! Joudan dayo. Ahahaha~" Tomoya says with a nervous chuckle and she hears the popping of knuckles. (Taka! I'm only joking!)

"Boku wa joudan o itte imasen yo." The man--who's now called Taka--says, and then there are sounds of struggling and suppressed laughter. (But I'm not joking.)

She hears them joke around but she doesn't understand what they are speaking.

Japanese.

A thought spears through her mind, and she's suddenly so afraid that she can't breathe. She remembers the back alley that she came from a town away, and abruptly she isn't in the bunk bed anymore.