Quantum Leap - Vol. 3 I Will Wait For You On The Other Side

C004 Sweet As A Drug

Akira stared at me and was wondering how come I was shedding tears and on top of that, she knew that the nuts that she had supposedly thought that had choked in my throat could not have caused me to sob somewhat uncontrollably. 

She looked at me in bewilderment as she slowly stood up from the seat of her swing and slowly turned about and stood right before me. As I was shedding tears uncontrollably at that time, I could only be able to see Akir through my blurry and teary eyes. 

She saw my white knuckles as I held the metal chains of the swing tightly in my grip, with the flow of tears that seemed to streamed non-stop from the corner of my eyes. Fortunately, Mr Director decided not to include the snot as it would normally put off quite a number of readers. Listen up guys, this author is no longer contracted with Cloudary Holdings, so basically the contents of this series along with the rest of the novels do not include the any whitish, yellowish or even greenish snot. Hahaha...!

Akira gazed at me with a dumbfounded look as she thought that she may have offended me in one way or another or in whatever demeanour through her speech or mannerism. Suddenly, she went forward close to me as she began to clasp her hands behind my back and sunk her head in my chest. 

She literally held me in an embrace as she usually does so. Ah, that's right... It seems that this Shiro guy that I had exchanged bodies with was indeed a crybaby and easily cries himself silly until his eyes got all puffy and red.

I took one hand off the swing's chain and patted her head gently while I held her shoulders and slowly removed her from the embarrassing situation at that moment. As I knew that she was an introvert kind of person and would not openly show her feelings or actions with the opposite s*x easily, she spoke little words and somehow she thought that her words had offended me.

By the way, I decided to refrain myself from mentioning another girl's name in her presence as whatever reason that I may have given her, would all turn into a HUGE misunderstanding in the end. I looked down into her face and mouthed the following words, "It is alright, Akira."

"Everything is fine by me, You did not say anything wrong and did not do anything that upsets me. I remembered something from this situation that made me slightly sad. Don't worry about it, this situation would go away soon."

When I tried to pull her away from me when she engaged me in her embrace, she tried to pull me back in as she refuses to let me go at that time. Right after I had explained to her that the situation at hand was under control, she finally relented and released her arms that she had locked behind my back.

"Ara ma... Why are you so sad, eh Shiro? Why are you crying about? Is it because something that I have said earlier? Why did you not tell me or even stop me from continuing to hurt your feelings? Why... Ooomphh..."

I shoved and held up my right forefinger to her lips to stop her from speaking further and from spouting too many irritating questions and nonsense all at the same time. Girls, when they worry about you, they worry too much and when they love you, they would stick to you like the shirt behind your back. (just a figurative of speech)

"Come on...Let's go grab something to eat. I will try to explain to you later along the way or in between meals alright? I am famished...! So, you should be feeling hungry too, am I right...? Any places of interest that have nice meals that you would like to recommend to me...?"

I tried to avert her attention away from the incident that was unfolding before her or else there would be too many explanations that I need to think off to ensure that I had gotten everything covered, especially those little white lies that I would be cooking up later.

Finally, I guessed that the power of persuasion finally paid off.

Akira suddenly discovered that she had let one of her hidden away emotions to take control of the current situation and she sheepishly turned her face away when she buried her face on my chest. She slowly peeled herself away from the embrace and held her two hands together in front of her chest instead. Maybe she does not realise that her ample breasts were squashed between us as she locked herself in a tight embrace earlier.

Her face reddened as she realised that she had not done anything like this before. She too was wondering how come she had broken through her shyness as she embraced another boy just like how she was embracing another girl.

Although the embrace was unintentional and was a fleeting moment, it was like a drug to her now and it seemed that the addiction was growing inside her. The warmth and the comfort that she felt when she embraced me was unforgettable as she discovered that she was literally melting into my body as we were locked in an embrace a few short moments earlier. 

She blushed once again as she hoped that the embarrassing moment that had just occurred was not witnessed by someone she knew. In the worst scenario that particular someone might even report directly to her parents...! 

Fortunately, no one else in a school uniform was passing by the park that evening and no one in the district knew both her and me and felt reassured that this incident would go unreported. If she knew about this matter, maybe she would not feel inhibited and maybe she would even do something more risque. Hahaha...!

She finally mustered up her strength and told me that we should go to a Gyoza No Osho, a fusion of Chinese-Japanese budget-friendly cuisine restaurant which was situated across the Memorial to Ozone Station built by the Japan National Railway to commemorate their employees that died at their post.

Don't try asking me about how the employees of the Japan National Railway died but I am sure most of you are trying to find out yourselves by trying to Google and Wiki them up right now, am I right? Frankly speaking, there is a monument there and I am sure that the memorial would be there for a reason. 

We discovered that the Gyoza No Osho that we would be heading there as suggested by Akira would be operating today as its last Tuesday that they will be operating. For the following Tuesdays would be closed for business and their operating time would be adjusted from 11 am to 11 pm. 

Guess the proprietors decided to set aside a date for the rest of the employees to take a break after all. Business had been good lately and the hours had been extended due to the demand by the customers.

Once we have decided on where we would be heading next, we picked up our school bags and walked towards our destination. As both of us were staying in separate dormitories, we were assigned and segregated by two buildings. 

At ¥280, we could have a bowl of noodles, a poached egg and some garnishing on it, prepared upon request to the landlord or landlady that runs both the dormitories. This would be an emergency meal that we students could have besides looking for those pushcart vendors that seemed to diminished through time.

(Actually, those landlord and landlady were both husband and wife and runs a simple dormitory for students for their livelihood) However, since we had decided to eat out for supper and dinner, spending a bit of time together before heading back to our respective dorms would be a good bet to get acquainted with Akira and to dig up more information about me as well.

It took us about 12 minutes to walk from Shindeki Park to the Gyoza No Osho Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant and when we reached the locale, it was already half-filled with customers ranging from singles, divorced, some students and dating couples. 

We were ushered in by one of the staffs and were assigned a 2 seater table near to one of the windows and were handed a set of the menu as we began to peer through the list and as we began to order our meals. I soon discovered that the meals that we ordered were the usual ones that we used to get from the same restaurant during the time that the original Shiro and Akira were having lunch or dinner dates.

By 7 in the evening, the half-filled quaint restaurant was almost brimming with customers. Although the place was full of customers, it was not as rowdy like an auction market for yellowfin tunas. It was quite the opposite actually as conversations among the tables were considered as hushed words which sounded almost like a whisper. 

If a foreigner was to step in right now, all he or she could hear was a buzzing kind of conversation going on instead. It was totally unlike other restaurants as most of the patrons would be talking, cheering and even joked raucously. Japanese are more cultured and like-minded, I guess.

At least in this series, I could somehow relax a little as I deduced that it would all be played in modern Japan in a modern setting, rather than being rudely abducted and taken to a remote island...!

We ate quietly and spoke little words when our food came in a short while later. Akira may be eyeing me in anticipation to dig out some answers from me on the reason why I was crying earlier on. Was it due to utmost overwhelming pressure or was it because Akira had somehow mentioned things that were not supposed to be mentioned earlier. 

After some reflection, Akira knew that she had not used any words that might have offended me in any way. Somehow, I managed to divert it as since bringing up the matter would break open the dams again.

At about 8:30 in the evening, we had finished our late dinner c*m supper and I paid up a total of ¥760 for two bowls of ramen with generous helpings of meat, egg, vegetables, and garnishing. Pay a little bit extra to get all the nourishment we youngsters needed with a bulge in our tummies and not the front of my pants, alright?

Getting home at this hour was quite alright as the trains would be half empty by then. We went to Ozone Station where it was like an interchange to transfer to other lines that services certain parts of districts. The Ozone Station also had a bus interchange where commuters could take the bus instead of in case the MRT lines ever break down. 

Orange Chuo Lines services the Kozoji and Kanayama terminals while the Purple Meijo Line counter-clockwise loop services to Sakae and down to Nagoya-Dome-Mae-Yada terminal.

The clockwise loop services to Motoyama and down to Yagayo terminal. The Red Meitetsu-Seto line services right till Sakaemachi Station.

These services run from 0435 am right till about 1130 pm. The train that we need to take was the Orange Line service and stops 2 stations away at Kachigawa Station. It would normally take about 5 minutes ride covering a distance of slightly or under 6 miles. We would then take a short walk of about 5 minutes before we reach our respective dorms.

It was quite fortunate to live near the railway stations and to a school that would take about 20 minutes of a leisurely walk. We were never late for school and we never stayed out beyond our curfew hours. 

Besides adhering to their rigid rules and regulation, we and the rest of the bed spacers or tenants had never shown any disrespect to our landlord and landlady in terms of ethics. We both were such good students and we treated both the landlady and landlord like our own parent