halcyon days [c]

[attr="class","textie"]Soma didn't read. Not much and certainly not anything this old, usually. Be that as it may, she still found solace surrounded by books. Working as a librarian in Jinbocho got about as strenuous as stocking books, because it certainly wasn't the customers. In fact, it had given her plenty of time to get most of those books put away, summer homework finally winding down. All she had left was a sizable stack of textbooks. Surely though some kid would be here in a week or two when school started to take all of them.[break][break]

She knew cause that would've been her only 4 years ago.[break][break]

Contrary to most belief, an empty library still made plenty of sounds. Old stresses in the shelves and book bindings relieved themselves in the utterly weighty air. The little table fan by her laptop ruffled a few of her papers. Soon, there'd be the fall release season. There were a few series sequels that she'd been asked to get, new encyclopedias...but the money was just not there, even for what little there was to get. She could ask the owner about another fundraiser.[break][break]

She forced her pencil flat on her desk and swung around. Working here reminded her of high school, with the return to being frugal and budget-minded. She couldn't stand it, being hampered like that. She didn't want to continue to lose business because she couldn't get those books. She got on her feet and shut down the laptop and in the dark mirror, she could see an equally depressing sight. Now, black was a lovely color, but for her, and in this conservative turtleneck, pencil skirt outfit and small, wire frame glasses, she looked like an absolute spinster. Aside from the blond, front-braided hair.[break][break]

Then again, that was the point.[break][break]

The textbooks however, had bested her in greating this new customer. A routine question that, as Soma began raise herself to face them fully, she had answered thousands of times.[break][break]

The sight robbed her of a solemn expression and her words. That hair. The eyes. Her hands was clutched over her braid like a rosary, ready to have a stroke on the spot. The other hand went up to cover a confused smile. All those texts she'd never answered, all that life and friendship she had hoped to ignore. She'd managed to brush off the occasional "Do I know you?" but this was different.[break][break]

"Sayako." It was barely a whisper, even by library standards. It was mangled too, in the spasms that came with the tears that pushed past her glasses.[break][break]

The hand around her mouth finally fell away. It was so weak, that smile there. Hopefully Sayako could forgive her lack of cheer.[break][break]

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[attr="class","tagsie"]Sayako Asaka

[attr="class","textie"]There it was. That deep seeded understanding of emotion that Soma had come to love. How easy it was to feed happiness to her and receive it in turn. She hurt with Soma. She had laughed with Soma. They had even been paired on several projects. Back before Soma quit, when the production company wanted to make a group, they could not keep the two apart, even in the days when they barely knew one another. There was something about that unbound, earnest joy that audiences loved that Soma could supply and Sayako could amplify.[break][break]

Some, until just now, until she was forced to face it, had not realized just how big a part this sensitive rose played in her life. Between this and that damned beach debacle, signs were pointing to her that things would get rough. She was facing her mirror today.[break][break]

Sayoko though, perfect emotional looking glass that she was, did have things to do. She had come here looking for books, not for Soma obviously, she thought. It was just God playing with her wounds again, but it was something she had been used to for many, many months. Kafka on The Shore...now He was just being mean. Soma did read a bit in her spare time and that was a book she came back to time and time again. It felt so disjointed but yet so relatable. She'd taken it off the shelf on many a lazy day, but had still not figured its riddles out for herself. Sayoko could though; she'd always been smarter than Soma.[break][break]

She hadn't needed to pull up her computer again, but she had to pull herself together. She managed a smile, a strong one considering the weight of the tense air, and gestured to Sayoko to follow. She offered no words as the passages of bookshelves got tighter and tighter by the centimeter until she slipped between a row and let her perfectly manicured nails thump over a few spines.[break][break]

"We have five copies, so take however many you need; they're some of the few that stay in good condition," she cooed, eyes lingering on the spine's text. She had to take a breath before she turned her head back to...her friend? It'd been so long that she felt like she was assuming.[break][break]

"Y'know...I thought I'd at least get a hug if I ever saw you again." She meant nothing by the tease, but the words held in them a fine print. A desperate, desperate call for action.[break][break]

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[attr="class","tagsie"]Sayako Asaka