Later Stranger

Chapter 1

The sun refused to show itself again, hidden, wrapped, and covered among dark gray clouds. It made the whole town seemed like it had a black and white filter, gloomy, and mournful. Summer had officially ended. Dried leaves that the wind carries and the grass closed to wilting left evidence of that. The rain for whatever reason still hadn't fallen yet. It was taking its time as if it was waiting for something.

Koji stared at the torn piece of paper in his hands. It seemed too old that it would rip at the slightest movement of his fingers. Earlier when he was cleaning the house, he found the piece of paper stuck between the floor and the door leading to the attic room. He intended on throwing it away but as soon as he noticed that something was written on it, he curiously decided to keep it.

X and I are friends. I think.

He read it over and over while laying on the floor, the window above him allowed the breeze to pass through, stroking his hair. Before he could get lost thinking about who X was and why the note was written, he remembered to take out the mess he had cleaned up. He got up and carried the trashbags outside with both hands. Koji hurriedly tucked it outside the gate, looking up, he worries about the rain. The sky that had been gray since he arrived yesterday only seemed to darken by the minute. The wind wasn't any different either. Every now and then, it sends the window panes and the treetops rustling, soothing signals of the downpour that has refused to come.

"Hi!"

Koji turned to the deep yet cheerful voice. A stranger about his age, in a basketball jersey, stood a few feet from the gate with his palm up in a waving motion.

"Hey? Are you moving in here? You need some help?"

He didn't answer. Koji swiftly closed the gate and walked back inside the house, completely ignoring the stranger. Talking is the last thing he would want to do. He hasn't done it with anyone for weeks now. Not a word has left his lips. It's not that Koji suddenly prefers silence but his thoughts and the voices were extremely too loud. It had been for a few weeks now. Too loud for him to even get a word out.

He picked up the few boxes on the kitchen floor to store it in the attic room. Somehow, Koji felt bad for dismissing the stranger earlier when he did. Too late to dwell on that now. He opened the door with his free hand. The attic, Koji noticed, used to be a bedroom. The bed frame in the center of the room had stacked up boxes upon boxes. He peeked through some of it and noticed that most of its content are men's shoes, hats, and basketball trophies. He sat at the edge of the wooden bed frame, wondering how long it had been empty to collect so much dust and cobwebs.

When Koji stood up to look around some more, he accidentally elbowed a box that sent it knocking down on the floor, spilling all its content. Koji sighed. He bent down and picked up a white windbreaker jacket with a colorful stripe in the middle. It was in his hands when his eyes caught sight of a notebook. Instantly remembering the piece of torn-up paper that he had found, Koji picked the notebook up. He flipped it over, revealing a name written with a black sharpie on the back.

Mico R.

The dust that had settled on the notebook puffed away as Koji blew on it. The wire spring that bound the pages were already rusty and flattened. Koji clutched it with his hand gently, opening its pages careful not to tear anything.

The first page was mostly filled with scribbles and phrases of poems. The next page contained more information, dates, and what Koji realized were multiple journal entries on a single page. He noticed a torn section at the bottom of the page. He immediately fished out the piece of paper he kept earlier. And to his wonderful surprise, it fits. It completed the entry. Koji looked around the attic room as if to make sure no one was seeing him peeked through the private journal.