The Shut-In Next Door [Hikikomori! Japan X Reader]

The Shut-In Next Door Part 5

"Ack—! Rain! God, it's so rainy!" You said while walking to your car. "I'm definitely driving."

The weather was a gift from hell. Rain clung to your clothes and hair, making you soaked. Your eyesight was temporarily blocked by the thousands of water droplets. You could feel the wind brush against your cheeks, which stung because of its power. The noises the gusts of wind made were almost unnatural. Plants looked as though they were frantically waving for help, tossed around and at the mercy of the wind. It was certainly stormy, and you hated experiencing it firsthand.

But you wanted—no—needed to be out. You needed to both apologize to your neighbor and you needed to find a job. Getting a job in a new area is extremely important. Your savings would run out soon, so earning more income is a must. And, meeting and socializing with your neighbors is important to you. Some of your closest friends were also your neighbors in your previous housing location. You enjoyed seeing them often, and you liked having someone nearby to talk to.

Being on your own has been kind of hard. You never realized that on your own translated to being alone. You often thought of getting a pet to weaken the loneliness. However, you didn't know if you were ready to take care of both an animal and yourself at the same time. The idea still remained in your head, though. It was a fun thought that you had daydreams about.

A gust of wind and rain struck your face hard. You were startled by the impact and felt yourself stumbling for a second. Growing irritated, you thought about having a cat or dog or some other kind of animal. Just thinking about it lessened your irritation. Yeah, daydreaming about it was fun...

After walking for what felt like forever, you finally got to your car. You swiftly grabbed your keys out of your bag to unlock your car door. After the door was unlocked, you hurried inside your car. The car was a nice refuge from the weather. You then proceeded to get yourself situated before you started driving.

You tossed your bag in the direction of the passenger seat. Doing that was always a hit or a miss. Sometimes it would land perfectly, and other times the outcome was the opposite, spilling out its contents. Though you aren't extremely superstitious, you often took the former as a sign of good fortune. You must be lucky today since it stayed put. Hopefully that luck will help you out later on.

As you pulled out of your assigned parking spot, you couldn't help but look at the one next to you. It was empty, just like the day before. You wondered about the person it belonged to, same with the other parking spots in the area. Thoughts of making friends with your neighbors filled your mind. You hoped that the people who lived here were friendly. Or that they're at least friendlier than your hallway neighbor.

As you drove, your windshield wipers kept making squeaking noises the entire time. The swiping motion was a little hypnotic and made it difficult to focus on the road. Thankfully though, you did manage to make it to your destination without any issues or accidents. You looked outside at the weather before getting out of the dry, comfortable inside of your car. You grabbed your bag and then braced yourself for the onslaught of raindrops.

The GPS on your phone earlier said that the convenience store and the flower emporium were the closest to you. Out of curiosity, you headed towards the direction of the convenience store. Soon, you were right outside of it. The automatic sliding glass doors opened up and were a welcome escape from the rain. You hurried inside the store and was quickly greeted by an employee.

"Heya! Welcome to the store!" They said cheerfully.

You nodded your head as a response. They accepted that and went back to doing what they were doing before. Your eyes browsed the aisles from where you were. Truth be told, you had no real reason to be here besides the fact that it was close by. In addition to that, you still needed to buy groceries—and a convenience store was probably not the best place to shop for that. Aren't a lot of things here incredibly unhealthy and or close to being expired? You glanced at the food situated under heating lamps. I think it's best not to eat or even touch that...