Inside Your Mind

25 - Hitoshi Shinsou

Day's dawning, skin's crawling

It was quarter to seven in the morning when they got home. Hitoshi realized that his sister - again - looked like she had been dragged through hell and back. But she didn't seem all too tired anymore. She had about 4 hours (5 if she was cutting it close and she never did) before she had to get ready to leave for class again.

"So. You wanna sleep and then go to class? Or you wanna pull an allnighter, see the kittens and then head to school with me?" Hitoshi asked his sister. She looked at him out of her almost ghostly pale face.

"How much sleep will I get if I go at the last minute?" she asked.

"Between 4 and a half hours and 5 at most. That is, if you go to bed right now and get up with 5 minutes to spare." he answered.

"Shit."

"I suppose I'll put on some coffee, then?" Hitoshi replied, an embarrassed grin on his face. He felt a little guilty for keeping her up so late and now taking even more time away from her that she could spend sleeping, but... well, he didn't feel bad enough not to suggest it. She was used to not sleeping days on end, just like he was. This was the fate of being an absolute insomniac.

"Yeah, put on the coffee, I'm gonna need a shower in the meantime." she said and walked straight into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

"Hey, don't collapse and hit your head or something." Hitoshi called out after her, hoping she'd hear it.

He took off his shoes and made his way into the kitchen. Their family had one of those old-fashioned coffee machines, but they only ever used it at the beginning of a late-night study session or whenever a lot of people were over. With a sigh, Hitoshi grabbed the smaller french press beside it and started washing it out sloppily. They used it every single day, anyway.

He started boiling up some water and put three teaspoons of ground coffee into the french press. Now he could only wait for the water to finish boiling. And he could think about how dumb he had been with Kaminari. Hitoshi honestly didn't know what it was about Kaminari that he liked so much.

Maybe it was his unwavering optimism, the way he was so energetic at all times (even though he probably was at least half as tired as Hitoshi), the way he always had this slightly mischievous smile on his lips or just how he sometimes tilted his head when he didn't get something.

Maybe it was just some sort of Florence Nightingale effect, where he felt like he had to somehow help out that poor guy, because Kaminari genuinely seemed to struggle with life. Whatever it was, Hitoshi had lost all common sense when it came to him and he hated it. He hated it with a passion. But he still hoped he hadn't ruined his chances of at least being friends with Kaminari.

Plus, his group of friends just seemed so cool. Hitoshi felt that maybe, if he played his cards right, he might be able to actually, finally fit in with someone that was not his sister. He wasn't very optimistic about that, however. His whole family had issues when it came to social situations.

Hitoshi genuinely believed that his parents only got married, because they both were the type to study late into the night and thus had similar sleep schedules and just hung around each other all the time. And then they ended up working in the same hospital, able to easily coordinate their schedules. Of course, they loved each other. Or whatever you might call this sort of fondness you develop for someone who just has been through many of the same stressful situations as you. But after all, if it hadn't been practical for them, Hitoshi didn't think they would have married.