Ikigai

Chapter 17: Dognapping

"Open the door! I know you're in there!"

It was four in the morning and a rather disgruntled neighbor was standing in front of Kintsugi's door pounding away in frustration. 

"Go away," a muffled voice responded from inside.

It had been a rather long night for Akari, but the moment her eyes had finally closed in blissful sleep, a rather loud, unearthly sound from the apartment above her seemed to rip apart the precious, long-awaited moment.

"I said, OPEN THE DOOR OR I WILL BREAK THIS DOOR DOWN, HINGES AND ALL, SO HELP ME I'LL-...."

"What? What do you want?" Kintsugi said as her eyes defiantly stared the younger neighbor down, the hinges on Kintsugi's door seeming to squeak as it opened further. 

"Ugh. What is that smell? You look terrible."

"I'd say the feelings mutual. Is this why you keep pounding away at my door? Don't you know what time it is?"

"OF COURSE I DO, BU-"

"And yet you keep pounding on my door like some maniac, I expect there to be a good reason for this."

"IF YOU LET ME TAL-"

"You should be the one keeping the noise down, you know," Kintsugi said with an impish grin.

They were both the same height, and yet Kintsugi had the higher ground.

"Noise! Me?!"

"Really now, it's too early in the morning for this kind of stuff. I would have thought the people in this village were more educated than that."

"FLSJDSDKLSH!"

"Yeah, I don't speak that," Kintsugi said as she stared at Akari in further disinterest.

To say that Akari was miffed the moment Kintsugi slammed the door in her face would be an understatement, especially as Kintsugi's footsteps receded deeper into her home and the noise proceeded to continue.

Little by little, her ears turned a bright pink reaching down her neck until her whole face was a fuming, tomato red.

"THAT'S IT! You like making noise, huh? I can make noise too," she said bringing her fist down through the middle of Kintsugi's wooden door in one sudden swing.

"HA-HA-HA!" she continued until all that was left was a broken frame of an entrance to Kintsugi's apartment. 

There was silence.

Slow footsteps coming from one of the rooms drew closer until an eerily calm figure emerged.

"Are you done?" Kintsugi said, staring blankly at Akari through the new opening while one hand now held a glass of cold milk. 

Her neighbor was panting heavily from the sudden exertion and Kintsugi could tell that even Akari seemed rather surprised at what she had done.

"Y-Yeah. I am."

"I'd tell you to close the door on your way out, but it seems you've done away with that solution."

"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came o-"

"Kintsugi!" interrupted a familiar voice.

"Oh great. You've summoned the nanny," she said putting her half-empty glass of milk down on the kitchen counter. "Of course this had to happen to me...now if you'll excuse me, I have to take credit for this."

"Credit? But you didn't-"

Tightly wrapping herself up in a hooded robe, Kintsugi walked past Akari and into the dewy morning.