Echo In The Way

Chapter 2: Restart

Alarm goes off just when Katsumi falls asleep. "Not again..." sighed, getting up from his mess. He walked towards his desk and picked up the temperature gun and pointed it to his forehead. "Looks like I'm alright now." he said, taking a deep breath. "Let's go to work."

It was 7am in the morning, however it's already later than his usual day. He knew he was not getting enough sleep, but he got a whole day to go through. He walked out to the kitchen after brushing his teeth, washing his face. He thought of going for a walk outside because he thinks Hiromi did make a good point, to build up a better routine.

First of all, a nice breakfast might work.

He opened up the fringe, but there's nothing inside instead of a couple of eggs, bacon and sausages, and the other easy-to-cook-and-there's-no-way-to-burnt foods. "Maybe a sandwich?" he said to himself, "Well there's no bread," he searched the shelfs once again, "Off a 'great' start, Katsumi." Seems like a noodle would do the job.

He fried an egg and a couple of sausages, boiled a pot of water and cooked his favorite cheese flavored noodles. "This is not half bad," Compared to what he used to, a piece of bread with jams and stuff. Just right after he took his first bite, the front door opened. A soft voice, "I'm coming in..."

He looked to the front door, "'Hiromin?" "Whoa!" she screamed, "Katsumi-kun? You scared me," "What? Am I that scary?" "No, I'm just, never thought you would wake up this early." "I usually wake up this early, you know?" he said, "And probably gonna sleep early as well." "Oh?" said Hiromi, with a smug face, sitting in front of Katsumi and leaned forward with her head on her hands, doubting,

"Who can make a man like you change huh?" "I don't know," he said, looked at Hiromi, "Well, there's that one girl shouting at me to tell me to 'get healthier'," "Are you talking about me?" "Well, if you insist." He laughed, "You're the worst Katsumi," she said, "But at least you changed,"

He told her that he still cannot sleep yesterday, probably because his habit was still intact. It takes time to change, "Maybe one day, I'll get rid of it," stood up, carrying the bowl to the sink, "What was your plan today?" he asked, "Me? Nothing really," she said, "My uncle closed the shop for a couple of days because a friend of his got injured," "What's the point?" he asked, "So your uncle need to take care of his friend's business?" "That was his longtime friend," she said, "My uncle just can't leave him alone."

He nodded, but he started thinking about the word 'helping', her uncle also got a curry house to care for, he asked whether there's people there helping or not. She replied a niece of hers will come to help, but still will be very busy if there's only two of them. "Y'all can't find anyone else to help?" he asked, "Like it should take a while for your uncle before coming back." "It is, but to find people to help all of sudden, it's quite hard."

Thinking about the situation he's in right now, he has no job, no allowance, well at least right now until the near future. It might be a chance for him to earn some money. But before anything, he really needs to go for some groceries. "I'll be heading out to the grocery store," he said, "It is time for me to stock up." "Right now?" she asked. "The earlier the more we could get. Some may be out of stock if we can't get there in time." "Alright..." she said, laying on the coach.

"Hey," he said, "You wanna come along?" "Really? Aren't I giving you more pressure?" "Pressure?" he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Like, uh. You know, going for groceries and having to take me along?" "No, definitely not, why would I?" he said, "It's Friday, so I think I can show you around." Hiromi becomes really hype about it, "Let's go then! What are we waiting for!"

The grocery store was just a few blocks away from his house. A few more blocks after turning left was the famous market street in town, gathering things from places around the world. This town has everything it needs, like both indoor and outdoor stadiums, game centers, karaoke. Anything you can name it, it has it. The town is also surrounded by mountains and hills, one in specific, Katsumi pointed it out for Hiromi, there's a well-known shrine that people said will give people luck in love if they pray to the god sincerely.