Don't Look Now

Chapter 3

In an apartment located in a busy Tokyo town, Hitoka Yachi reached in and pulled out a blouse from the dryer in the laundry room located near the kitchen. A white puppy suddenly jumped out of the basket near the dryer, startling the young blonde.

"Stop popping out of nowhere, Miyu-chan!" she gently patted the puppy's head while it happily wagged its tiny tail. Yachi stood quickly and went to the kitchen counter to continue her morning chores. After turning off the radio on a counter next to her, she shook the blouse in the air and slipped it on as she dressed hurriedly for work, concealing her skin-toned camisole.

Yachi is a busy woman in her late twenties, her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, her tired face hidden under light makeup. The sweet-looking, petite young lady hurriedly chewed on an early morning piece of toast for breakfast. She entered the kitchen through a swinging door. A bowl of rice meal and a glass of milk sat on a table in the empty room while she stared at a handful of kitchen cabinets and drawers that are open.

"Why do you have to leave them all open, Yuuto?" she sighed and shook her head while she closed them one at a time before moving to the coffee machine. The blonde female shivered a little so she leaned over the thermostat and raised the heat. She heard footsteps while she poured a cup of warm coffee.

Turning around, she saw Yuuto, her only son. "Morning..." the eight year old greeted. The boy stood awkwardly in his private school uniform while he fixed his tie.

"Your meal is getting cold," Yachi reminded her son while she checked his uniform. "And you have a spot on your tie." She unclipped the neck accessory while Yuuto remained silent. The slender little boy headed for his chair and sat facing his breakfast. Yachi walked toward the laundry room and quickly dug through the dryer for a clean, new tie. After she found one, she immediately returned to Yuuto and she let out a terrified gasp at what she encountered. The boy sat quietly, while all the drawers and cabinets she closed just a few moments ago were now open again, as if they were opened all at once, no slamming or opening sound was even heard. What puzzled her was, she was literally gone for only a few seconds, so how can all the kitchen drawers and cabinets open in just a blink of an eye? Yuuto couldn't possibly do it, he needed to climb onto one of the chairs just to reach some of them. Yet all of them are widely opened, even the high ones.

'I just closed all these a couple of seconds ago,' the mother thought, her skin turned pale white and her hands became cold. She felt a mixture of perplexity and shock. Her son, looking shaken, was staring on his bowl of rice, his hands pressed flat on top of the table.

"Is there something you were looking for, Yuuto?" Yachi was still a bit shocked, but she tried her best to hide it from her son. She spoke gently, her calm demeanor masked her feelings of alarm and confusion.

"Cookies," Yuuto replied, avoiding his mom's glance.

"They're right in front of you," she pointed at the pack of treats lying on the table.

"What are you thinking, Mom?"

The young mother sighed and approached her son, "Lots of things, Yuuto."

"Anything bad about me?"

"Look at me, son..." Yachi held the little boy's cheek as she spoke reassuringly. For a moment, she disregarded her fear, because all she wanted was to let her son know that everything was okay. Yuuto looked directly at his mom's brown eyes. "I won't EVER think anything bad about you, got it?"

"Got it," Yuuto replied with a faint smile on his face. The young lad's eyes looked sad, but he made an effort not to bother his mom with it.

As the boy was starting to grab a bite of his meal, the doorbell rang. He immediately got up and drank the milk on table.

"That's Kaito! Gotta go, mom!" he said after gulping the last drop of his milk. He quickly kissed Yachi's cheek, grabbed his bag and ran toward the door.

"Wait! Bring the cookies coz you didn't finish your meal," Yachi caught up with her son in the living room, making sure he gets the treats. "I don't want you starving in school."

"I gotta go, mom!" The boy rushed out of their apartment. "Take care... I'll see you later!" Yachi exclaimed as she went back to the pantry. She looked to check his son from their apartment window. A tough-looking eight year old puts his arm around Yuuto, in a seemingly friendly manner. The two kids turned their gaze at the window where Yachi was looking and waved the blonde young lady goodbye.

Yachi returned to the kitchen where she stood motionless as her gaze stopped on the tabletop. A faint handprint made of sweat was visible on the surface. She wrapped her arm around her shivering shoulders as the handprint slowly disappeared. She wasn't sure if she's seeing things because she was tired, or maybe those were Yuuto's handprint before he left.

The two boys, Yuuto and Kaito, begun their walk down the street to a nearby elementary school. When they were out of Yachi's sight, Kaito immediately removed his arm around Yuuto, showed disgust as he spoke to the smaller boy.

"Hey freak! How'd you like the 'arm around your shoulder' part? I just made it up! That's what great actors do," the taller boy gave Yuuto a slight push as the latter almost lost his balance, his bag fell on the sidewalk puddle. Kaito ran quickly to school after grabbing the pack of cookies given by Yachi from the slender lad. The smaller eight-year old was left standing with his stuff on the ground.

The last uniformed boys and girls rushed into the front doors of Aoyama Elementary School as the clock in the hallway struck 8 in the morning. Yuuto was the last one to go in. He slowly walked alone toward the school's main entrance, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but there. He buried his hands in his pockets and headed to his class.