A familiar smell woke me up. It wasn't coming from outside, but from inside, from where I was right now. Where was I?
"Oh, that's right... I ended up sleeping here..."
I was getting out of bed, but after sitting down, I stared at the floor, as if someone had just turned me off.
I don't know how long I was like that, but when I paid attention to the bed, I snapped out of it. It wasn't my bed, nor my room.
When I was lost in thought, my mind wasn't blank; I was thinking about everything. I got out of bed to grab my phone and check the time; it was 1 p.m.
I decided to go to my room. With the mood I was in, I didn't want to be there.
When I got inside, I went to drink water from the canteen on my counter, but it was empty. Frustrated, I went down to the kitchen to refill it.
As I was filling it out, I noticed my father was nowhere to be seen. I haven't been to his room yet,
So he can either keep sleeping, or, if you look at it from the bad side, he'll be busy.
After filling the canteen, I returned to the room I was in. I entered unconsciously; I wasn't going to stay there in the first place. For a moment, I thought the light was on, or that the window was open, but I was greeted by a dark atmosphere.
I wasted a lot of time there. I did nothing but lie on the ground, occasionally wandering around, or thinking about why I didn't want to do anything, thinking I was tired of doing nothing, but then continuing on.
I was feeling bored, but I didn't want to distract myself with anything either. I thought about taking a nap; I was sure my head would hurt when I woke up if I did.
In the end, I decided to just rummage through the room, since I didn't know what else might be lying around. Although... I feel like I'm forgetting something.
Didn't I have to bring something here? No, even more important...
" I have to change my clothes..."
Yes, I was still wearing my cosplay from yesterday. I have no idea how I was able to fall asleep wearing a tracksuit, a zip-up jacket over it, and how uncomfortable it generally is to sleep in normal clothes. Pajamas exist for a reason.
With that in mind, I started taking off my clothes, although I realized I should fix my hair first. I had to smear it with hair gel to get it the way I wanted it, and I think I went a little overboard.
As lazy as I was, I ended up taking a shower, without any music. I didn't feel like listening to anything. Showering was enough of a hassle.
As I stepped outside, while drying my hair, I looked at myself in the mirror. I was already looking at myself, but now I wasn't looking at my hair. I was looking at myself, as if I'd never seen myself before.
I was in a terrible state. I had dark circles under my eyes and slightly red eyes, I'd blow-dried my hair incorrectly, and overall, I was paler than usual.
But I felt like this body wasn't mine, at least for a moment. I felt like someone was behind me, my conscience, as if they were watching me from behind, trying to control me, but only able to see what my body ends up doing.
When the hairdryer started burning my head, I came back from my daydreams and pulled it off my head as fast as I could.
"Don't I look worse than usual?" I said, looking down at my body.
I didn't give it much thought, maybe I had just gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.
I also took the opportunity to change my clothes. I grabbed some underwear from my room and brought it to the other one, looking for something to wear. All the clothes there were my size, so I could wear whatever I wanted.
I ended up opting for a pair of sky-blue pajamas. It wasn't anything special, though I did notice it came with a separate hat. I've never understood why these things exist; the only day of the year I see these kinds of hats is Christmas, but I've never understood it for sleeping. Animals are cute when they're wearing them, but if you're wearing one, you look silly.
Even though I already had something on, I kept searching through the closets, as there were not only clothes but also seemingly random junk.
Toys, games, boxes—there was everything. Most of it was just junk, and it only had value for one reason. Every now and then, I'd remember a certain moment with a toy or a craft from there, but little else.
I ended up emptying the closet, and that's when I realized something.
At some point, I'll have to save all this. Why would I even think of putting it out in the first place?
I decided to leave it for later. I didn't want to do it.
I stared at the room after that, especially at the two bookshelves it had, which were neatly and somewhat prettily decorated.
It was clear that whoever made it organized it with love and care. There were mostly books and manga, with the occasional figurine. Everything was organized in the first one, but I wish I could say the same about the other shelf. That one was truly chaotic; it had everything you could imagine, like Doraemon's pocket.
I got bored of looking as soon as I saw that mess, so I sat down on the chair in the room, and raised my head, staring at the ceiling.
There was nothing there, just a row of wooden boards stacked together, with almost no gaps between them. They could have painted them, to make it look better.
As I stared at the planks, my mind went blank for a moment, blank, yes, blank…
" It's not worth it to play dumb like this, you know that, right?"
Huh? Dad?
I looked at the bedroom door, and it was still closed, and definitely no one had entered the room.
Ahhh, am I going crazy from boredom or what?
I jumped up from my chair abruptly, and looked around the room for something to do.
Although, it took me so long to do it, the thing to do found me first.
*Beep*
"Mh?"
I reached for my phone, thinking it was a text from &$%"! or my dad. Contrary to what I thought, it was a number I hadn't registered.
"Spam? By LINE?"
After entering LINE, I read what it said:
["Hello! How was your night?"]
["I'm Izumi, from the convention. You remember, right? I hope you do…"]
Well, I couldn't have been more wrong... And why are you writing to me now? In any case, you would have written to me yesterday if you wanted to talk to me.
I lay down on the bed, but because it was facing in an awkward direction, with the sun shining in my face, I ended up lying on my side.
[Hello, complete stranger. I don't know who you are. If you're spam, I'll block you.]
["I know you're lying!"] She wrote, followed by an angry emoji.
[It's not like you have cameras in my house]
["Well, yes, many, I have many!"]
[Yes? So what am I doing now?]
["Taking out my finger"]
[...Hey, you're not serious, are you?]
["Are you serious? Did I get it right?"]
[Yes. I'm going to call the police if you don't turn off the camera.]
For a moment, I thought it was strange that I was so lucky to guess that, well, I just hope there really aren't any cameras around here...
["Leaving that aside, how are you? I've asked you and you haven't answered."]
[I'm fine]
["You were quick to respond…"]
[And you? Are you okay? Or are you embarrassed to answer?]
[And it didn't take long for you to laugh at me, too!!!]
[That doesn't answer my question!!] "Ah, I wish I could express sarcasm in writing, now it seems I'm angry, or surprised... And yet I prefer to talk via chat, what a kid I am…"
["It was fine!"]
[And why not now?! I'm too good for you that you get depressed knowing you'll never be like me?]
["Hahaha! You wish!!"]
Hey, am I really talking to that girl from the convention? Isn't that Ayame?
[Are you really Izumi?]
["But what is this personal attack due to now?!"]
[It was a serious question]
["Well yes, I'm Izumi, disappointed?"]
[Oh no, it just seemed weird to me]
["I'm going to tell on my sister…"]
[What?] After that, Izumi sent me a voice recording. Obviously, it was Ayame.
{"You're cyberbullying my sister, aren't you? Well, I know where you live now, so get ready, because-"}
{"-I'm going to make you a dinner so bad you're going to die!"}
{"What?!"}
Mid-sentence, Izumi, who was holding back her laughter, interrupted Ayame, who was uttering such outrageous things in a sarcastic tone, and who was also laughing a little. Oh, that's right, I told them where I lived. At least, the city.
[Well, you don't know the address, so good luck finding me!] It took Izumi a while to reply.
["Well, I've escaped from my sister!"]
[Congratulations]
["You're lucky my sister hasn't cooked anything for you yet."]
[Are you bad at it?]
["Saying that your thing is cooking badly would offend people who cook badly"]
[So I should be offended?]
["Yours is probably worse."]
[Now tell it to my face]
["I bet I do it!"]
[Mh! You have no balls!] Afterwards, she sent me a video, in which she appeared with the phone camera in selfie mode, pointing at her face, and Izumi staring at her.
{"S-surely what you do in the kitchen is a crime!"}
It was the most pathetic threat I've ever received. Not because of the message, but because of the voice... You can tell he's dying inside, hehe...
[Now without being embarrassed]
["Be quiet!"]
The rest of the conversation wasn't relevant. We threw questions back and forth, mostly about each other's personalities and all that, and occasionally we laughed at each other or said things like druggies, at least I did.
I say this as if I'd been spending hours like this, but it's not like we talked that much, since it didn't even take half an hour for the conversation to end.
[Hehe, Banana Girl]
["If you continue with that joke, I'm going to block you…"]
[Okay, okay, I'll stop. Banana girl]
You have been blocked by --------, you cannot send messages to-
"Bah, she'll unblock me… I hope so…"
I left my phone on the counter and lay back down on the bed.
I had lost the desire to speak, and had returned to how I was before, staring at the ceiling, not knowing what to do.
It was as if whatever I had planned to do at this moment had slipped out from under the mattress…
"Talking about mattresses, this pillow's gonna break my fucking neck..."
I started bumping my head lightly against the pillow, and something stopped me sooner than I expected.
It was more or less hard, or at least that's how it felt to some extent, as if something was sticking out of the mattress, or in this case, the pillow.
I unzipped the pillow and there was nothing inside. I touched it and, yes, that wasn't the problem.
I checked to see if it was just where I was, and no, it was all over the top of the mattress.
It was slightly raised, as if a lump had appeared out of nowhere.
I notice it a lot now, but I didn't even notice before. Did I really sleep in this bed?
I looked under the sheets, and, just like with the pillow, there was nothing unusual. I was too lazy to open or lift the mattress at that point.
" It's not like I have any other choice."
I lifted the mattress slightly. Looking underneath, I could clearly see what was causing the bulge to protrude from the bed. It was the same color as the wood and took up a considerable amount of space.
It was a rope.