Divorce

iv

For life is quite absurd

And death's the final word

When Shouta Aizawa woke up the next morning he had no idea where he was and how he had gotten here and that was one of the worst feelings to have right after waking up. When he opened his eyes he was looking at a room that definitely wasn't his own room. It was quite minimalistic as well, but it just had a much more feminine touch somehow. Maybe it was the extra cushions on the couch, maybe the books that were lying around that had the nicer covers, maybe the fact that there were different sorts of empty glasses standing around and not just one standard kind of glass. (Shouta had to admit that he only owned a few mugs and a few regular glasses. None of them were wine glasses or champagne flutes or anything special.)

After mentally taking inventory of his surroundings, Shouta could start to try to reconstruct his evening. The only problem with that was that he was having trouble remembering... almost everything that had happened. He remembered the ridiculous live interview and his ex-wife crashing it and he remembered Hizashi calling him afterwards, because he had seen everything on TV and inviting him out for drinks. He remembered taking more than a few glances at that waitress that worked at their usual place, because she was really cute... and he remembered drinking a lot in a very short time, while complaining about his ex-wife and getting weirdly emotional.

And that was the last thing he remembered. For a few minutes he was wondering whether he was at Hizashi's place, but he had been there many times and this was definitely not what it looked like. Hizashi was renting a modern penthouse in the city centre - this place looked more like a student apartment. And even as such, it seemed to be a rather big and orderly accommodation for a student. Shouta knew that his place definitely wouldn't have looked like that if he was constantly trapped between assignments and side gigs that he needed to pay the rent.

Which didn't really help him with his original question - where was he and how the hell did he get here? Shouta really had no idea how to possibly figure it out. All he could hope for was that whoever lived here would show up soon, otherwise he'd have to see if his phone still had enough battery left for him to find his way home. And Shouta honestly doubted that, because he consistently forgot to charge his phone whenever he was going out. It was starting to become a problem, but usually Hizashi somehow managed to mitigate his forgetfulness. He just wasn't here right now and that was starting to be a real problem. Shouta would have to talk to him once he was back home and once he had stopped the awful headache that was tormenting him.

"Oh, good morning. Didn't realise you were awake." Shouta suddenly heard a voice from behind the couch. He turned around, almost making himself sick from all that movement and saw a young woman standing there. She had (h/c) (h/l) hair that was incredibly messy. She was wearing a pair of cotton shorts and an old shirt - probably her pyjamas - and she looked incredibly tired. She also seemed strangely familiar, but Shouta couldn't quite place her yet. He knew her from somewhere, that much was sure. But he didn't know where he knew her from yet.

"Uh... good morning. I... I'm afraid I don't really remember much of what happened last night." Shouta said. God, this was embarrassing. It was bad enough that he was in this situation, but having to explain himself... he just wanted to sink into the earth and die of embarrassment. But unfortunately that wasn't a realistic possibility right now. The girl just grinned and shrugged as if it didn't even matter that he made a complete idiot of himself last night. (Well, he didn't know if that's what happened, but he could imagine that it was the case.)

"Yeah, I'm not really surprised. You were completely blacked out last night. It was kind of a pain to get you out of the bar, to be honest." the girl said. And that's when it clicked for Shouta. He knew who she was. And the realisation just made everything about a million times worse. This girl was the cute bartender that he had an eye on for ages already. Even now after she had just woken up and looked messy and unkempt, she was incredibly cute. Shouta couldn't believe that he had made such an idiot of himself in front of her. He had been thinking of asking her out on a date, but he could easily forget that now after whatever happened yesterday.

"Right. I see. I'm sorry if I was being annoying, I literally can't remember anything and I swear, I'm not usually like this. If I did anything incredibly stupid or annoying or out of line..." Shouta started, but he was interrupted by the girl waving him off. She seemed pretty relaxed about the whole situation.

"Don't worry about it. You were absolutely fine. You just passed out and your friend left you at the bar, so when it was time to close up you weren't really cooperating and you wouldn't tell me where to send you with a taxi to take you home, so I brought you to my place. I hope that's okay with you..." she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. Shouta quickly nodded. Of course it was okay. Hell, it was more than okay. He wouldn't have expected anything like this, if he was honest. He wasn't even sure whether he would have just taken in a drunk stranger like that. This girl had to be some sort of saint to do a thing like this just because she felt bad for him.

"Of course that's okay, don't even worry about it. I'm really sorry if I was any trouble for you, I really didn't mean it..."

"Look, man, you and your friend are always pretty generous tippers and also... you were the one paying for the taxi which meant I got a free taxi ride home after a pretty exhausting shift. There's nothing to apologise for. We all drink a little more than our fill sometimes." she told him. Shouta nodded.

"Okay. Okay, that's good. Still, I'm sorry. Anyway, my name is Shouta Aizawa, in case we bump into each other again." he said with a smile, hoping that this wasn't the most awkward thing he could have said.

"I sure hope so. You better not avoid my bar because you're embarrassed or some shit. Your tips make up a good chunk of my rent." the girl muttered, before clearing her throat. She seemed to be blushing a little, as if she was embarrassed to admit that she depended on tips from guests that much. Shouta didn't think it was anything to be ashamed of. If there was anyone that should be ashamed it was whoever was paying her so little that she needed the tips to survive.

"Of course not. I promise I'll be back. And I'll tip as generously as possible." Shouta answered with a smile. The girl nodded, but she avoided looking at him. So she was actually embarrassed about what she had said. Honestly, Shouta thought it was kind of cute. He liked that she was so direct and just had said what was on her mind. He didn't really care much for women that put on a big show to make themselves look better. This was kind of refreshing.

"Thanks. Uhm... anyway, my name is Y/N. Sorry, I completely forgot to say that. I'm off to have a shower now, if you want to have one as well, you can get one after me. Oh yeah, if you need anything, let me know. I have painkillers around the place somewhere and I should have something to eat for breakfast as well. You can get yourself a glass of water, too, if you want to, just look through the cupboards and get what you need." she told him, before scratching her head nervously again. She looked a little more awake now and a little more aware of her surroundings.

"Sure... thanks. I'll probably try and get home pretty soon. I don't wanna be more of a bother than I already have been..." Shouta replied with an awkward smile while Y/N shook her head and grabbed a towel from one of the shelves around the place, before heading towards another room.

"Don't worry, you weren't being a bother at all." she said, before closing the door behind her and locking it. Shouta waited until he could hear the shower being turned on, before laughing to himself and leaning back again. He sure hoped that he was soon able to walk again, so he could get home. This was embarrassing.