They run for the train several more times after that, but Nozaki is never satisfied with the result; they're too early, or they don't feel rushed enough, or he starts to realize no one looks beautiful and filled with love and youthful when they've just run a kilometer uphill. He's bowled over by bicycles on two separate occasions, and she catches a cold from all the running in the rain she's been doing.
"You did your best, didn't you?" Hori consoles her in the hallways when she finishes explaining where her voice has gone to. "You really went all out in the hopes of wearing his pajama top." Nozaki apparently overhears them, because he comments with a sunny smile that he actually doesn't wear pajamas to bed, and Chiyo's immune system decides that it may just be a better idea to shut down entirely and to pray for the sweet release of death.
----
The deadline for a seventy-page "ghost stories" chapter is looming, and nearly every page has been haphazardly designated as "jet black" - for mood, Nozaki insists, although Hori points out there's no way any of the characters can even see each other in this lighting; Nozaki switches the featured characters to Ose and Waka, brings in the mistaken voice identity plot point, and pretends that this was his plan all along. At any rate, Chiyo's workload has tripled, and she's been working without breaks through the afternoon and into the evening. When Hori comes in, he asks carelessly,
"Hey, Sakura, isn't it pretty late? Are you okay on time?"
Both she and Nozaki look up at the clock, then at each other, in synch.
"Ah."
Chiyo grabs her bag; Nozaki is halfway out the door. They take the stairs; pattering down, then two at a time, then four. Nozaki's legs take nearly the whole flight in stride; Chiyo's legs pull up, then stick the landing, skirt fluttering like wings. They're embarrassed by their exertions when they run up to the station only to find it closed, and Chiyo laughs sheepishly at Nozaki, sweat matting her bangs upwards. He stares back at her, implacable.
"I guess I should call Yuzuki or someone, huh?" she sighs, reaching to rummage through her bag, but he offers,
"It's pretty late, and you haven't eaten yet, right? You might as well come back first - if you call your parents, I can make you dinner in the meantime." He shrugs, "Or you can stay over, I think sempai was planning on it."
Chiyo turns scarlet and chokes on her reply; Nozaki doesn't have the sense to reassure her that he won't do anything, or to offer her the bed, so instead he just reassures her that they can pick up a clean toothbrush from the convenience store.
When they return, Hori greets them as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Nozaki gets back to sketching - a new storyboard, she notes, so he must have finally gotten what he wanted out of his train-running experience - as she and Hori return to their tasks. Mikoshiba bangs on the door and joins them in an hour or so, and she's too busy consoling him that they weren't intentionally hanging out without him to spend much thought on how he found out they were all here or how he got here when he lives several stations away.
It's always gratifying to see the results of their hard work, but several weeks later when she opens her monthly girls' magazine and sees that the new chapter is about staying together too late and running for the last train, she mostly feels tired and sore. She's suffered too much for this setup. She mainly notices mistakes in the beta, or strange perspective problems Hori was too late to fix. It's only on her second read-through that she realizes the only difference between Mamiko and Suzuki's experience and her own is that at the end, in the final dash, Mamiko is about to make it - and Suzuki reaches out for her hand, to pull her back.
3.31.2015
"You did your best, didn't you?" Hori consoles her in the hallways when she finishes explaining where her voice has gone to. "You really went all out in the hopes of wearing his pajama top." Nozaki apparently overhears them, because he comments with a sunny smile that he actually doesn't wear pajamas to bed, and Chiyo's immune system decides that it may just be a better idea to shut down entirely and to pray for the sweet release of death.
----
The deadline for a seventy-page "ghost stories" chapter is looming, and nearly every page has been haphazardly designated as "jet black" - for mood, Nozaki insists, although Hori points out there's no way any of the characters can even see each other in this lighting; Nozaki switches the featured characters to Ose and Waka, brings in the mistaken voice identity plot point, and pretends that this was his plan all along. At any rate, Chiyo's workload has tripled, and she's been working without breaks through the afternoon and into the evening. When Hori comes in, he asks carelessly,
"Hey, Sakura, isn't it pretty late? Are you okay on time?"
Both she and Nozaki look up at the clock, then at each other, in synch.
"Ah."
Chiyo grabs her bag; Nozaki is halfway out the door. They take the stairs; pattering down, then two at a time, then four. Nozaki's legs take nearly the whole flight in stride; Chiyo's legs pull up, then stick the landing, skirt fluttering like wings. They're embarrassed by their exertions when they run up to the station only to find it closed, and Chiyo laughs sheepishly at Nozaki, sweat matting her bangs upwards. He stares back at her, implacable.
"I guess I should call Yuzuki or someone, huh?" she sighs, reaching to rummage through her bag, but he offers,
"It's pretty late, and you haven't eaten yet, right? You might as well come back first - if you call your parents, I can make you dinner in the meantime." He shrugs, "Or you can stay over, I think sempai was planning on it."
Chiyo turns scarlet and chokes on her reply; Nozaki doesn't have the sense to reassure her that he won't do anything, or to offer her the bed, so instead he just reassures her that they can pick up a clean toothbrush from the convenience store.
When they return, Hori greets them as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Nozaki gets back to sketching - a new storyboard, she notes, so he must have finally gotten what he wanted out of his train-running experience - as she and Hori return to their tasks. Mikoshiba bangs on the door and joins them in an hour or so, and she's too busy consoling him that they weren't intentionally hanging out without him to spend much thought on how he found out they were all here or how he got here when he lives several stations away.
It's always gratifying to see the results of their hard work, but several weeks later when she opens her monthly girls' magazine and sees that the new chapter is about staying together too late and running for the last train, she mostly feels tired and sore. She's suffered too much for this setup. She mainly notices mistakes in the beta, or strange perspective problems Hori was too late to fix. It's only on her second read-through that she realizes the only difference between Mamiko and Suzuki's experience and her own is that at the end, in the final dash, Mamiko is about to make it - and Suzuki reaches out for her hand, to pull her back.