Dear Tokyo

Week 32

To compensate for the closing of the lounge, our group had resorted to meeting on the second floor for the sake of continuing our Terrace House viewings and, frankly, for the sake of maintaining some sanity.

I had been doing fine. I had no qualms staying in my room, in my bed, all day everyday. I also wasn't missing human contact that much considering Niko was a few steps away and Cat and I had taken to having weekly hangouts in which I would spread a picnic blanket on the floor of my room and we would lay our drinks and snacks and talk into the night about nothing in particular.

We did, however, take pity on Edu. Not only was he the only guy in our group and so was isolated from the rest of us, he spent so much time hanging out with us that he wasn't that close to any of the other guys in the dorm.

We were all friendly with each other, of course. We all had the thin connection of living in the same place and being international students together, and Edu was the type of guy who said hello to people he walked past, even though he insisted he only did it out of fear that not doing it would be awkward, but he didn't hang out alone with any of them.

For the most part, the dorm managers and security guards were fine with it. We didn't know if other groups had found other nooks in the building to hang out in and so they had given up on trying to stop people from gathering, but we hadn't ever broken any rules before so the manager told us that she understood it was a hard position we were in and we could stay as long as we didn't make too much noise or bring messy food to the hallway.

There was a bench pressed up against the wall that Cat, Edu and Yui sat on. Niko, Ingrid and I then used Yui's fancy, cushioned yoga mat to make ourselves comfortable on the floor, one of our laptop's propped up on a small table we had pulled over that was usually just there to hold hand sanitiser.

We were seated in such a way that Niko was in front of Cat, I was in front of Edu, and Ingrid was in front of Yui. Sitting on the floor with nothing to lean back against was taking its toll, no matter how plush Yui's yoga mat was and how many times I shifted into a different position, which was quickly getting old for the girls sitting on either side of me.

So, I took a chance.

I leaned back, resting against Edu's legs. He didn't do or say anything at first and I got comfortable, but gradually over the course of the episode we were watching, Edu's legs kept shifting and I soon found my back against the seat he was on instead, between his legs now.

After the episode, as we were cooling off and checking our phones, we all got notifications of an email from the university.

"No way," Niko said.

"What?" Edu asked.

"The semester is being delayed again," I said, skimming the email, "and will probably be held online."

"Are you serious?" Cat said.

"No," Yui whined as Ingrid sighed.

"It's getting pretty bad, huh," she said.

I texted the group chat I had with my parents and brother, letting them know what the university had announced.

"My brother wants me to just go back to Australia and take classes from there," I said. I mostly took it as a joke, but I did wonder what would happen. This virus didn't seem to be going away. In fact, it was only getting worse.

When we went back to our rooms, my phone pinged with a text from Edu.

'Would you really go back to Australia?'

'I don't think so,' I replied. 'Not unless my family felt really strongly about it.'

'Do you think they will?'