Fikush-ON!

Ch. 39: New Year's Tea, Spiked, Part II

I'm not sure how long I walked. An hour, maybe? A bit more? It was hard to tell due to the gaps in my short-term memory. I can at least recall buying myself a drink from a vending machine, stopping by a side alley to relieve my bladder, and wishing 'happy New Year' to a few bypassers like some drunken moron... Oh, wait, I am a drunken moron, heh. In retrospect, I'm glad no one cared to report a drunk teen. In any case, the time seemed to pass in an instant, and I finally arrived at my destination; the Hirasawa residence. I stood in front of it, wobbling from side to side. The small light illuminating the front door was like a helpful guide in a video game. Or maybe I am in a video game. I could just reload a save I made before drinking that fucking whiskey, if I could just find the pause menu... Ah, fuck it, let's just go with this save. Heh, just kidding, this ain't a video game. In video games, things are always easy and go your way, but instead I always manage to fuck everything up.

I opened the door, stepping inside. The house's warmth felt pleasant, as I had just walked over an hour in that cold weather. Oh, shit, both my coat and my hoodie are unzipped. Huh, didn't even notice that... Heh, probably gonna catch a cold or something. Eh, whatever. I shut the door, taking a few steps further into the foyer.

"Yo to the house!" my yell echoed in the foyer.

I crouched down to get my shoes off, but lost my balance, and fell on my ass. My first reaction was to laugh under my breath. I continued taking my shoes off, quietly and humorously bemoaning all the way, when I could hear someone walking down the stairs. That someone turned out to be Ui. She peeked into the foyer, confused a bit.

"Eiji-kun?"

I jerked my head upwards to get a look at her. My head kept bobbing back and forth like it was attached to a spring, decorated with a stupid smile.

"Yo, my favorite girl. I-I told you I'd be coming, didn't I?" I spluttered, and grinned. A hiccup escaped my mouth.

Ui's expression became even more confused, before she realized what was going on: "Eiji-kun... are you drunk?"

"Wha? Me? Nooooo, nah, never..." I said with a chuckle, before cocking my head and clicking my tongue. "...Okay, maybe a-a bit."

Walking out of the corner into a better view, Ui frowned slightly. "Were you out drinking?"

Man, what's with the interrogation? ...Oh, wait, better not say that.

I finally managed to take off my shoes, which proved a bit difficult due to the current circumstances. "Eh, yeah, with the, uh, the guys."

"Oh, Eiji-kun..." Ui muttered, slowly shaking her head, looking a bit disappointed. If I wasn't so drunk, I guess I would've been ashamed.

Ui watched as I was setting my shoes neatly in front of the foyer's step, when she suddenly noticed something, and gasped. "W-What happened to your face?"

I stopped what I was doing, looking at her confusedly. "Huh?"

"The corner of your eye... It's bruised," she said, some shock in her voice, whilst pointing at me.

Ah, yeah, that's where that fucker punched me a moment ago. I carefully felt the corner of my eye, and found some freshly formed scab to my surprise. Huh, he actually managed to break my skin with that punch. Have I been bleeding all this time?

"...Oh, that? Yeah, I... Uh, the guys and I j-just messed around a bit," I said, my smile disappearing as I was concentrating on coming up with a lie. "Got a little carried away."

I knew I just couldn't tell Ui that I got into a fight, and I definitely couldn't tell her that it almost got ugly. Not sure how convincing I can be whilst drunk, but it seemed to do the trick, as Ui calmed down a bit. She sighed, still looking a tad worried.