[ There's no reply for a good half an hour, and when it comes, it doesn't come by text but instead by nonstop pounding on his front door until he lets her in.
She's taking his offer here and now, so he's better be home. ]
[after five seconds, Mafuyu might hear the sound of feet running up
to the door (but she's probably hammering too hard to hear anything
else)
after ten seconds, the door gets yanked clear open, because frankly
there is no one else Tatsuo knows who would abuse his poor door in such a
manner except a certain tough-talking teenage girl
he makes sure to stand well back though, so as to avoid getting
punched in the neck or something]
[ Smart, because she totally would have punched him in the neck. Standing back means that it's easy to let herself in, though, so she goes ahead and pushes past him to invite herself in. ]
Yeah, but sometimes the doorbell's broken. [ Often, actually, in the case of the Kurosaki household if Mafuyu ever forgets her keys and needs to be let in, because she treats the bell the same way she does the door. ] You can't pretend not to hear knocking.
[Please, come right in Mafuyu. Mi casa es su casa. (That is about the extent of his high school Spanish.) Tatsuo just shuts the door behind her.
The apartment is small, but tidy. It isn't particularlly colorful since blue and green are still off the table, and Tatsuo happens to like blue. So the majority of his furniture is dark grey and Ikea birch.]
I'd just started. You can sit at the counter if you want.
[Tatsuo goes back to where he'd been browning the meat. The great thing about ground beef? You don't need to oil the pan. As long as you keep it moving to break it up, it doesn't stick.]
[ Mafuyu gets that "Mi casa es su casa" vibe and instead of sitting at the counter where she 1) can't see what's going on, and 2) has to sit, she follows him as far as the kitchen before doubling back to the living room, opening doors, the bedroom, bathroom... ]
It's 700 square feet. That's bigger than my last place, not that you ever saw it.
[There's really not all that much to look at. His bookcase is filled with science periodicals and various books he used in college, along with a few mystery paperbacks. A photograph of eight year old him with his mother sits on his desk next to his laptop. There's a geometric piece of artwork above his sofa and a three panel photograph of Tokyo's skyline in the bedroom.]
[ Mafuyu has no sense of area and has no idea what 700 square feet is supposed to mean to her. Is it big? Small? It's pretty small, compared to her house that has two stories and yards for her dog and cat. ]
You could save a lot of space if you threw out some junk. You've got all these books...
[ She finishes up her self-guided tour and plops down on the sofa, lying down with her legs bent over the arm rest and shouting towards the kitchen. ]
How come you didn't buy a huge house? Then you can live with lots of people!
Yes, I could subscribe to the journals online, but not everything is published in the online journals. And reading those long articles on a screen make my eyes hurt.
[oh look the noodles are done, just going to drain those in the sink]
If I get lonely, I call up my friends and tell them to come over. Or I go to where they are.
Why are you reading articles... If you have a question, just Google it.
[ The sort of person who clicks the first link instead of researching thoroughly, it's Mafuyu Kurosaki. ]
Oh! That's what I do too! So I'm always at Kaz's house— or I go Soyokaze, or the museum! [ where people work and can't escape. she doesn't exactly call ahead of time. ]
Just ask someone smart and they can explain it to you.
[ Why read twenty pages when you can get someone to summarize it in five minutes? Why think for herself when she can get somebody to tell her all the answers??
She sits up at the question about the museum, and wanders back to the living room, sitting up at the counter— kneeling on the seats so she can see what he's doing instead of properly sitting on them, but at least she's finally there. ]
It's not the museum I like. You know Mohammed? He works there, and he won't play with me otherwise unless I come to him.
[ Mafuyu has no idea what, exactly, is his position in the museum or what he's responsible for, but as a visitor, isn't he responsible for her entertainment in some way? So yeah. Playmate. ]
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but okay. i'll make you spaghetti.
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i want to watch!
at your place of kaz's?
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She's taking his offer here and now, so he's better be home. ]
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[after five seconds, Mafuyu might hear the sound of feet running up to the door (but she's probably hammering too hard to hear anything else)
after ten seconds, the door gets yanked clear open, because frankly there is no one else Tatsuo knows who would abuse his poor door in such a manner except a certain tough-talking teenage girl
he makes sure to stand well back though, so as to avoid getting punched in the neck or something]
There's a doorbell, right there, you know.
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Yeah, but sometimes the doorbell's broken. [ Often, actually, in the case of the Kurosaki household if Mafuyu ever forgets her keys and needs to be let in, because she treats the bell the same way she does the door. ] You can't pretend not to hear knocking.
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The apartment is small, but tidy. It isn't particularlly colorful since blue and green are still off the table, and Tatsuo happens to like blue. So the majority of his furniture is dark grey and Ikea birch.]
I'd just started. You can sit at the counter if you want.
[Tatsuo goes back to where he'd been browning the meat. The great thing about ground beef? You don't need to oil the pan. As long as you keep it moving to break it up, it doesn't stick.]
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Your place is so tiny...
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[There's really not all that much to look at. His bookcase is filled with science periodicals and various books he used in college, along with a few mystery paperbacks. A photograph of eight year old him with his mother sits on his desk next to his laptop. There's a geometric piece of artwork above his sofa and a three panel photograph of Tokyo's skyline in the bedroom.]
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You could save a lot of space if you threw out some junk. You've got all these books...
[ She finishes up her self-guided tour and plops down on the sofa, lying down with her legs bent over the arm rest and shouting towards the kitchen. ]
How come you didn't buy a huge house? Then you can live with lots of people!
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Most of those are reference material. I have to keep up with the latest studies and findings for work.
[He goes back to browning the meat.
Because I like living on my own. I spent eight years living with lots of people at the orphanage. That was more than enough for me.
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[ she yells up at the ceiling, but what does she know, she doesn't read all that much ]
People live with people- it doesn't have to be a hundred at a time. Won't you get lonely?
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[oh look the noodles are done, just going to drain those in the sink]
If I get lonely, I call up my friends and tell them to come over. Or I go to where they are.
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[ The sort of person who clicks the first link instead of researching thoroughly, it's Mafuyu Kurosaki. ]
Oh! That's what I do too! So I'm always at Kaz's house— or I go Soyokaze, or the museum! [ where people work and can't escape. she doesn't exactly call ahead of time. ]
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The kind of questions I might be asking cannot be googled and generally take a 20 page scientific article to answer.
[Just shaking his head. He knows his stuff is nerdy. He's okay with that.]
You like the museum?
[he could make a comment about how she must be lonely a lot... but he knows better]
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[ Why read twenty pages when you can get someone to summarize it in five minutes? Why think for herself when she can get somebody to tell her all the answers??
She sits up at the question about the museum, and wanders back to the living room, sitting up at the counter— kneeling on the seats so she can see what he's doing instead of properly sitting on them, but at least she's finally there. ]
It's not the museum I like. You know Mohammed? He works there, and he won't play with me otherwise unless I come to him.
[ And make it impossible to avoid her. ]
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[He hears the stool get pulled out and looks over his shoulder at her.]
I've seen him around, but I haven't met him in person yet.
[fight club technically doesn't count, even if they had been in the same room]
You really shouldn't be dropping in on him when he's working though.
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[ Mafuyu has no idea what, exactly, is his position in the museum or what he's responsible for, but as a visitor, isn't he responsible for her entertainment in some way? So yeah. Playmate. ]
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[Tatsuo raises an eyebrow]
Uh. No. I don't exactly know what museum employees do, but I'm pretty sure 'entertain teenagers' is not part of their job description.
[And clearly Mohammed is too nice to tell her otherwise.]
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So he takes you around the museum and makes the exhibits interesting?
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[ it was the most interesting thing in the entire museum ]
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[That... actually kind of sounds fun.]
Well, if he's making history interesting for you, I guess that's all right.
[dumps jar of sauce into the meat]
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