Date Her Instead Vol. 5

Chapter One: Full Speed Ahead

With the two girls being next door neighbors for all their lives, going to one or the other's house was a pretty easy task (although, there had been times in the past where they both felt much farther apart than that). Going down her own walkway, turning to go around the fence that divided the two properties, and then walking back up a near-identical walkway, Kanako arrived at the door. On a sign next to it, the last name Endo was written in a decorative style.

Taking in a deep breath, Kanako held it for a moment before letting it out as she tried to steady her nerves. Even if her mind was determined, her body still plainly displayed her emotions. The last time the two girls had spoken, Haruna had ran away, nearly on the verge of tears, and Kanako had sat in the snow, crying. Facing the prospective of seeing Haruna again after that was nerve-wracking no matter what Kanako told herself. "It'll be okay," she thought.

Raising her hand, she knocked. One moment passed. Two moments. It felt odd that Kanako would be waiting this long. "I'm pretty sure they don't do anything for New Year's, so shouldn't they be home?" she wondered. Usually by this point, Haruna's mother would've answered the door. For a moment, Kanako wondered if she should keep waiting. If they weren't home, there was nothing she could do. However, just as she thought that, a motion caught her eye.

To the right of the door was a window, just like for Kanako's house. The window led into a small dining room area, and in the case of the Endo house, the curtains were usually closed. From what Haruna had told her, they normally didn't eat in the dining room, instead using a table near the kitchen. With the curtains closed and nobody home, it made sense that they wouldn't move. Or at least, they shouldn't have.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kanako swore she had seen the fabric waver. Taking a quick glance, it seemed like it had just finished moving, giving one last flicker of motion before coming to a standstill. Knowing the Endos had no pets, and combining that with Kanako's assumption that no one had been home, she began to develop theories.

"Is someone inside? What if someone broke in?" she thought, but quickly threw the idea out. "No, that's actually pretty unlikely around here..." Moving on from the worst-case scenario, Kanako could really only seem to think of one other possibility. "If they look like they're not home, but someone moved the curtain, then maybe..." Staring at the window covering, Kanako uttered the name that came to mind.

"Haruna..."

It was possible that only Haruna's parents had left, leaving their daughter home alone. Hearing a knock at the door, she'd go to see who it is from a distance. But, if that was the case, and Haruna had actually seen Kanako, why hadn't she opened the door yet?

"Is she..." Kanako began to wonder, but she shook her head. Instead of finishing that thought, she knocked again. "H-Haruna?" she called. "Are you home?" Her only response was silence. Kanako let out a small sigh. "Maybe I was just seeing things..."

As she turned to leave, Kanako stopped midway. Taking out her phone, she scrolled through her contacts until she reached Haruna's name. Tapping it, she began calling her. The phone on the other end rang and rang, but as the seconds ticked by, it became obvious no one would answer. When the message played telling Kanako as much, she hung up, choosing not to leave a message of her own. "...I guess I'll just try again later," she thought.

This time, Kanako completed her turn, walking away from the front door of the Endo house and heading back. As she did, she couldn't help but think on the movement she thought she had seen, "I might've just imagined it, but I'm pretty sure someone moved that curtain." It had only been for a moment, but the bit of motion that Kanako had seen was enough. "If that really was Haruna, then..." she began to think, coming back to the thought she didn't finish earlier. However, again she shook her head. "No, I don't want to think that," she thought. "I'll just come back again, and I'm sure that we'll make progress next time."