It was 5 in the morning, Kumiko had barely slept some hours before she could feel the warm sunrays bathing her whole face and coming through her eyelids. They sneaked in through the blind holes as long thin threads of lights and painted the walls with rows of orange splashed dots that lined up in order.
Her eyes started to open slowly. She blinked more twice and then once more and then closed them again, tighly, while stretching her whole body extending her arms in the air. She then opened her eyes again and stared at the ceiling from where some plants hanged in pots held by white and beige thick braided ropes.
Opening her eyes wasn't that much of a work, although it kinda was. But getting up from bed was the real problem. Her body felt tired and limp and the first thing she felt was her heart thightening. She'd been having that feeling for a few months now. Every morning. It left her body when she managed to be so busy she could distract herself from it; then came back the moment she got home, where the silence was loud and the solitude drowned her.
The room was tidy for a 23 years old girl that overworked almost every week. There were just some, neither dirty nor clean, clothes in a chair along a desk by the window, with some papers piled up and a laptop. In a corner, a high two-column bookshelf filled with comics and books. Some collection figurines decorated the desk and the shelves, some of them still in their boxes. There was basically nothing more, a small wardrobe and just some more plants in each corner. Last but not least, an orange and white tabby cat at Kumiko's feet, stretching almost the whole bed's width.
Kumiko incorporated on herself until being sat, the moment she noticed the cat's movements.
"Luna", she called the animal with a raspy but tender voice. She started caressing the cat's back making her purr. The purring increased the more she pet her and she ended up turning herself on her back, leaving her stomach exposed. With a soft smile and moving her hand to the white fur belly, Kumiko spoke again, "Don't get angry if I tickle you then".
Some minutes later, after giving lots of belly rubs, she finally got up, followed by Luna, that tried to intertwine herself with her owner's legs with every step she took.
After giving a visit to the bathroom and clearing her face, Kumiko went directly to the kitchen, a small opened one, next to the living room, with rectangular white tiles and a mix of white and wooden furniture. Luna instantly jumped on the counter and sat on the wooden while moving her tail side by a side, harmoniously, looking at her owner with a bit of mischief on her face, her mouth curved up almost as if she was smiling.
"You really think I'm giving you my breakfast", Kumiko said with a baby vocie. "But you can't drink coffee".
She then started to prepare some wet cat food that Luna impatiently tried to eat before it was fully prepared.
They both ended up taking their breakfast at the living room. Some voices and sounds came from her phone, but she didn't really watched the video playing on the background. Her eyes kept looking at a framed photography in a shelf, on top of the TV table. In the picture was seen a woman with a baby on her lap and holding the kid's hands. The woman was not looking at the camera but, instead, with her head slightly down, her eyes were fixed on the baby with a tender smile.
She didn't have many recent pictures with her mother from the lasts years; most of the albums with her mom were from her childhood or when she was still a baby. Now, with the loss of her, Kumiko regreted not taking more pictures with her and with those possible pics, she also grieved many moments they could've lived before her parting.
She started to blank out and, when she realized the picture was already blurry, her eyes went other way and she took another sip of her, now lukewarm, coffee.
After finishing, she took a shower and prepared herself. She wore a pastel button down lace shirt, which had a floral embroidery and puff short sleeves that, along with the v-neck, were adorned with ruffles, below the chest it was tight on her torso, finished with a ruffle hem too; on the bottom, a low waist light blue denim mini-skirt with two ruffle hems and; matching her blouse, some light pink slip on low heels shoes, each with one bow on the instep.
She headed to the street door. She turned back fast after realizing she forgot something. She lifted the cat, already sat behind her, looking with those, now sad, honey eyes. She started to give her kisses in the forehead, and ultimately rubbed her cheek on the same spot her lips touched. She could hear cicadas through a small opening from the living room window, singing outside and mixing up with her cat's purring.
"I'm coming back later. I'm gonna miss you too, my little cutie". She wasn't small at all.
She then left the house.
"I can't stop farting girrl... I barely ate nothing last night", a message popped up on her phone's screen while she was almost arriving at her job, a small cafe owned by a fifty-something years old man. Then another text: "How are you feeling? You know you can tell me if you want to talk or spend some time together tomorrow or whenever you need. We can even videocall and watch a horror movie if you're not in the mood to get out".
"Good morning", a man voice said interrumping her reading. Her feet stopped and she looked up. A grey haired man was looking at her with a sweet smile, lips together without showing his teeth and some wrinkles drawing around his lips corners.
"A little more and you walk past the cafeteria. Were you going to skip work?"
She blushed a bit and her lips stretched up as a wide smile. His name was Mamoru Kubo. Mr. Kubo. He was her boss, but it sounded unnatural to even think of that word for him. Their relationship was something like an old man and a young woman friendship; a man that cares about her enough to be called a father figure, and a girl insecured to see he cherishes her that much.
"I was thinking exactly that", she responded as she sat on a chair, right next to the entrance, and put her elbow on a small circular table, resting her face on one hand, still looking at him.
The man then went to the opposite side of the table and sat on the other chair.
"Well, can I invite you to a coffee if you're not on working hours?"
Kumiko nodded slowly without separating her hand from her jaw and a smile drew on her face, her lips attempting to separate from each other the wider the smile got, showing a glimpse of her canines.
The cafe was a small one story building with two wide casement windows on each side, some plants decorating their windowsills; a half moon-window door and, hanging on it's middle, a wooden sign that now said 'Open' and was decorated with some painted flowers. There were many plants and flowers surrounding the shop and, inside, just ten tables, some shelves on the walls with different decorations including some more plants and, at the end, the counter.
They talked a lot about many things, before clients started to come and the day finally started.
By the night, Kubo had already gone home some hours ago. The shop was closed and Kumiko sat on a chair near the counter almost dropping her body. The aroma of coffee flooded the shop even after closing time. She looked at the time on her phone. The food and supplies deliver hadn't arrived yet and was late already by an hour. She opened her messages again and re-read the earlier texts she received from her friend. A laugh escaped her mouth when she read the first one and started replying fast:
"I bet you ate soup... or anything... you're always farting even if you eat one rice grain". She added a pair of laughing with tears emojis.
"Ding dong!" the back doorbell sounded and, before she could stand up it rang again, this time a longer sound.
"Comiiiing!".
"Hi! I'm sorry for the delay. I had some inconvenience with another shop and I couldn't come earlier. In fact, I'm super late", a young man started to explain super fast the moment she opened the door, without giving her the chance to even greet him.
"Don't worry!", she interrumpted waving both hands as if it's really no problem. "Let's just start and finish fast. I guess you're also getting late home today".
They went out to a dead end alley, where a big white truck is parked. The young man opened the back door of the vehicle and started to take out some cartoon boxes and piling them up near. Kumiko already knows what she had to do. She took the boxes inside the shop, one by one. Some of them she took them directly to the refrigerstor, and took her time to put them in order, while the rest were left piled up again in the salon.
Before she realized, there was no more boxes outside and after stamping a couple of papers, she wished goodnight to the delivery man and entered the shop. She took a time to rest, putting both hands in the her waist while sighting. Then she lifted her head and looked at the clock in the wall behind the counter.
"WHAT? It's already this late!! I'm not making it to the train!!"
She took her backpack and hurried to lock the doors. When she finished checking that everything was okay, she started to run as fast as she could. But, after running four blocks, she run out of breath and her legs started to feel really sore. She started to pace out, but still walking as fast as she could while trying to recover her breath. Her face was red and her heart was pounding so fast she could feel the sensation and hear it in her ears.
The last train departed at 00:00 and she knew she wasn't going to make it, but she didn't want to just not try. She looked at the time on the phone, many times before arriving and each time she tried to walk faster. She arrived at the train station and started to run again to the turnstiles, then she heard the public address:
"Last train is departing soon. Last train is departing soon".
She passesd the turnstiles and run to her platform. There were no people on the station. She was probably the only one trying to take the train or maybe people were already inside.
She heard the sound of the rails as she arrived to the platform and saw as the train left her behind. She stopped and bent down a little putting her hands on her knees and tried to calm down her breathing. A sweat drop started to go down from her temple.
"Last train is departing soon", was suddenly heard again through all the station and startled up Kumiko. Then it was repeated: "Last train is departing soon".
She straightened out and looked behind her as she saw a train slowing arriving. Maybe she heard wrong before or maybe it was a public address system mistake and the one that left a minute before wasn't really the last train. The train stopped and some seconds after the doors automatically opened. The lights were off inside and it didn't seem like there were any people inside, but Kumiko couldn't clearly look at every wagon. She hesitated a bit before passing through one of the doors. She heard then the same voice announcing the last train leaving, twice and, then, the doors closed before she took a sit. At her back, outside the wagon was seen a analogue wall clock. The clock hands marks 00:02.
She turned back and looked the door now in front of her and stayed that way until the train started moving and the place she was leaving behind started to move too, slowing acelerating and becoming more blurry.
She finally decided to sit down, still a bit confused with a strange feeling in the chest. She didn't know how to describe the feeling nor why she felt that way, but she couldn't be at ease. She kept her eyes locked to the window in front of her, watching what was behind the glass, moving fast, as if suddenly the reality outside would completely change and she would appear in a total different world.
She then shook her head and started to look for something in her backpack. Headphones. She connects them to the personal discman and puts them in her ears. Her thumb presses a button and then a different one, multiple times, that passes through the songs. Then stops. Kumiko remember the text she was about to send her friend. She runs her free hand through her brown hair. A strand of hair is left loose, falling down her face. The dark indigo sky color mixed with the moonlight came through and gave her hair a shiny blueish white. She took the strand and tucked it behind her ear, leaving her whole face bathed with the night sky light.
The message was left unsent again and the finger started its searching again. Suddenly some drops of water hit the windows and the sound intensived as a song finally started to play in the young girl's ears.
"After the summer rain
in the town,
lights start to blink softly", a woman sang with a soft and vibrant voice as if she was actually vibing with the actual rainy mood. The style sounded like an old song from the 80s or 90s.
Kumiko just watched the raindrops hit the glass and slowingly fall down. Finally felt relaxed, almost too much when her eyes tried to close and she had to fight by opening them hard, then blinking two times, opening them widely each time. This last time something caught her glance, it was small and fast, almost fleeting.
"What was that light? A firefly?", asked herself in her mind, "No, it wasn't that bright..."
Then she saw it. A butterfly flew by in front of her face, moving fast in all directions without going to far from her and came back again. Its wings flapped pretty fast and their blue color shone, making it look almost like a blinking light. The butterfly flew lower and suddenly stopped to rest in Kumiko's leg. The animal opened and closed its wings really slowly, more than twice, letting her see them clearer. They were covered in a velvety thin light blue hair and a white line painting the edges.
"How did you come inside, little girl?", she tried to caress the wings now left open, but the butterfly flapped them to the touch on reflex. However, it didn't fly away. Kumiko smiled and as she admired the beautiful creature her eyes started to close. The song kept going as it was the last thing she heard before completely falling asleep.
"From tomorrow on,
we will spend our days
separated somewhere
in this town.
So, as long as we're alive,
I feel that we can meet
And I think about it
with a smile.
Baby, love me again
Although our love
won't come back
Baby, love me again
At least I don't want
to hate you.
I don't want to hate you..."
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