Kimi no Na wa: Echoes from the Future

Life Plans

Mitsuha was walking silently at a hurried pace, hand in hand with Taki, walking away from her work building. Taki was keeping pace with her, still a little dizzy from the whole previous incident, but especially from the unexpected and passionate kiss Mitsuha had just given him in front of her coworkers.

Mitsuha without thinking had taken the same route they had taken on Friday of last week when they were escaping from the building's guards.

Taki had been walking almost on autopilot following her, but he felt a strong déjà vu when he recognized the place where they were walking by.

"Mitsuha... are you okay? What are we running away from this time?" Taki asked, trying to pull himself together.

The girl slowed her pace to a stop, turned to Taki and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Is it true that they were the ones who approached you?"

"Yes, that's how it was. And they scared me a lot, because they asked me if I was expecting someone, then they called me by name, they told me they knew you and that you had told them about me... What did you tell them? Did you tell them anything... about our past?"

Mitsuha covered her face in confusion, somewhere between embarrassed and annoyed all in one.

"Aggh, I'm going to kill that Jessica!"

"Wait... were those women really your friends?"

"No... I mean, one of them, Kana-san, the black-haired one, she's a colleague in my area, she's an executive like me. Jessica-san, the blonde foreigner, she's a friend of hers, she's not my friend...

"Then you are not friends," Taki repeated, feeling relieved to be away from that place.

"Well, I know Kana-sanand we get along well. She uses to hang out with Jessica every week after work.But I've always seen Jessica from afar, until today. I was worried and waitingto hear from you, and just in that moment Jessica talked to me and started gossipingabout us!"

"How? She came to you to tell you some gossip... about you? That doesn't make much sense, you know?"

"She didn't know it was me. She's a secretary in the management office, and she told me about the story of a crazy girl from the company who was kidnapped and came to the office over the weekend with her yakuza boyfriend!"

It took a second for Taki to understand what Mitsuha was talking about, and then he burst out laughing.

"What, are you a crazy girl now?" said Taki laughing.

Mitsuha raised her head and looked angrily at Taki. She expected him to be angry or uncomfortable with being accused of being a gangster, but not that he would start laughing at her.

"Sure, it's easy for you to laugh because you don't have to go there every day. We're the gossip of the office! And I didn't realize it until now," said Mitsuha letting go of Taki's hand and crossing her arms, looking to the side in annoyance.

"Yeah, that's wrong, I know," said Taki, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "But only your boss or the guards know that is about you and me. For the others it's just an anonymous rumor, so we're safe, right?"

Mitsuha looked at Taki feeling like a fool. It was true, Jessica didn't know it before, and she wouldn't have found out if it weren't for her own revelation.

"I... I got angry because she said you were a delinquent, a yakuza... and I wanted to defend you, and I told them that it was us but that everything was fine..." said Mitsuha looking at Taki with panicked eyes. "But now the whole office is going to know!"