Help Me Remember

Chapter 13

Jun, or that’s the name everyone called him while Nino was the only one allowed to call him J, dropped the box on the floor and wiped the dust of his hands on his shirt. It was a long day, a very long day since Nino told him they were moving to an apartment. He found it strange that he agreed to this in the first place, but after seeing a signed contract in Nino’s hand, he saw that he wasn’t lying.

At first, he thought that Nino was a strange adult, someone who loved to be clingy and annoying. After a day of explaining everything that he was supposed to remember and must have lived through, half of him believed Nino. He was even dragged into the bathroom, was forced to look into the mirror to compare the child and teenager in the photos he apparently must have taken with Nino. Though he still couldn’t remember, half of him told him to listen to this crazy talk.

“J, are you finished?!” Nino yelled, his voice ringing loudly through the empty hallway.

“Yeah,” he responded slowly, his eyes still overlooking the wonderful view huge window in their living room. It was really wonderful. He never imagined the city Nino told him he was born in was this big and breathtaking.

“J? Did you hear me?” This time, Nino was behind him his breath tickling his exposed neck.

Jun jumped forward in surprise, almost attaching himself to the window until Nino pulled him away from it. He caught a small glimpse of worry on Nino’s face but disappeared when he caught himself in the act.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, “I was just looking at the city.”

“It’s ok,” Nino shrugged, “Now are you finished or what? There are still boxes outside you know and I can’t handle it all.”

Jun rolled his eyes. Despite his friend having so many memories of them together, he didn’t have much muscle in him. Pushing past Nino he grabbed the rest of the box, which was surprisingly light, and placed them all with the other boxes in the kitchen. “There,” He clapped his hands together to get rid of the dusts, “Finished. You know, you could have helped.” Instead of finding his friend lazing around the empty living room, he found him sitting on one of his boxes with his DS in his hands.

“Sorry,” Nino apologized, “Too busy playing. I need to defeat this boss before tonight.”

“That’s not important,” Jun told him disappointedly, “What you need to do, is unpack all your stuff before tonight.”

“Don’t worry,” Nino smirked, his eyes never leaving the small screen, “I’ll have this finished before tonight.”

“Whatever,” Jun scoffed, “I’m going to shop for groceries.” With that said, Jun grabbed his wallet and put it in his back pocket before leaving Nino all by himself. He couldn’t understand why his friend was so interested in those video games. All they ever did was strain your eyes, and have characters that the real world can never have. Closing their new apartment door behind him, he headed towards the market he and Nino passed by earlier.

Jun pondered. He didn’t know if he should pick between two brands: the Vermont curry or the Golden Curry. But it didn’t matter right? Since they were all curry. Picking the one called Vermont, he pushed it on the basket before moving to the produce section of the market. They all looked very fresh and he was tempted to buy every single one. However, he just needed the ingredients for curry and some for Nino’s hamburger (he’s heard him mention a thousand of times that he liked it) just in case. After picking up every ingredients, he was about to leave for the cash register when he saw a man clumsily drop the oranges from his basket; he didn’t seem to notice so Jun went after him.

“Sir,” Jun called for the man after picking up all the oranges off the ground, “You dropped this.”

“Oh thank you,” the man turned around, grabbing every single oranges from his hands, “I-- Oh! Matsumoto-kun!”