3 Chapter 3 | Between Kamei and a Hard Place

The alarm was going off constantly, but Hoji was frozen in terror. He was in bed with another woman, and not even wearing his original clothes. Mao was fast asleep, hugging his side as if it was her favorite toy.

"What is going on..." he silently shouted at himself, "WHY AM I WEARING HER SHIRT!"

Mao turned over and his worst fears were brought to light, she was indeed only wearing his shirt. He covered her with his blanket and pried himself from her grasp, turned off his alarm, and crept away from his bed.

"W-Where are you going?" Mao said, rubbing her eyes, waking up.

"I...have work," he paused for a moment, then quickly walking out of his room and shutting the door.

He leaned on his door and shrank down till he was sitting, his hands over his face, "What have I done..."

There was the sound of his sheets being rustled, then footsteps walking towards the door.

[Knock] [Knock]

"Are you okay?" Mao asked, slightly confused.

Hoji sat in silence, it was an out of body experience at this point. He could not face himself, much less Kamei at this point.

"Helllooo?" she chimed in again, "I'm gonna open the door if that's okay, I need to use the bathroom."

The door opened and he rocked onto his back, laying on the ground. Mao casually walked over him, causing him to weep further, and made her way to the bathroom.

"I'm done for," he sobbed to himself.

"Oh, will you stop," Mao shouted from the bathroom, "Nothing happened, you big baby, the most I got from you was your shirt, and you kept going on about how you were cold now and took my shirt for some reason."

He sat up after hearing that and tried to collect him, realizing he still needed to head to work. There was the sound of brushing coming from the bathroom now and he walked up to the door, knocking on it.

"Are you brushing your teeth?" he demanded, "How are you brushing your teeth!"

"With your toothbrush, duh," she snapped back.

He did not have time to be worrying about any of this, he needed to be at work soon. As concerning Mao having slept in his bed, naked, was it would have to be addressed later. He threw on his clothes and skipped trying to get into the bathroom, rushing out the door. Hoping on his bike he raced to the train station, hoping to catch the next train before it was too late.

"None of this can be real," he muttered to himself, throwing his bike into parking and locking it, "I'll get to work, focus on getting my projects done, and when I get home, I'll realize this was all just some sort of illusion. My life isn't this crazy, I am not God."

As he sat down on the train, traveling to work, he took out his phone and went through it. First looking at his emails, then noticing he had gotten a message from Kamei;

'Thanks again Hoji for such a great morning! I'm glad we are still able to find time for one another even with how busy your job has been. I was thinking that maybe I could come up and see you for lunch tomorrow? I know its a bit out of the way, but I only have one lecture in the morning and could be by you for lunch.'

He sighed and thought about it for a moment. Having her up by him for lunch would be nice, there was a nice restaurant that had opened up recently that he had been wanting to go to with her;

'That would be great, I'd be out for lunch at 13:00 if that's still okay.'

He hit send and leaned back in his chair, looking up, and resting his head on the window of the train. As he closed his eyes, someone had made their way over and sat in the seat next to him. His phone chimed, it was a text from Kamei;

'13:00? That's perfect! I'll be by you a little before, okay?'

He laughed a little reading the message, she had sent a little pairing of cute emoji's following her message. The person next to him took his phone from his hands and stared at the screen.

"Aw, isn't this cute," the person said.

Hoji looked over slowly, the voice being familiar. It was Mao, in an entirely new outfit. She looked trendy, sporting a light jacket with a mini-skirt.

"This isn't supposed to be real!" he whispered, "What are you doing here?"

She scowled at him and handed him his phone back, "I was lonely at our apartment."

"Our?" he almost shouted, "You don't live there!"

Her eyes became real coy and she put her hand on his thigh, "Hoji, you're going to say that after you laid with me in bed?"

His face turned to beat red and he slapped away her hand, "Can you keep it down!"

She was laughing hysterically and stood up as the train came to a stop, "I'll see you around, Boyfriend"

Standing up from his seat, he fumbled to put his phone away. Mao had vanished as quickly as she appeared.

"What is wrong with that woman," he sighed, getting off the train.

He made his way to work and was able to work in peace, getting most of his projects completed for his team, despite all the insanity he was still trying process from this morning.

"Hoji, you have a delivery," his coworker said, trying to get his attention.

Hoji looked up from his laptop and looked in the direction of where his coworker was pointing and saw a person standing at the front desk with a package. Looking at the clock, he noticed it was already 12:40 and he grabbed his jacket, making his way toward the delivery person.

"Hi, Hoji," the woman said, stopping him in his tracks, "Can you sign for this?"

He stared at her for the longest, she was wearing an actual delivery outfit, her hat hiding her face.

"Mao..." he said reluctantly.

The girl jumped in excitement, holding out the form for him to sign, "Bingo! Now sign."

He hesitated and slowly signed his name, "What's in the box..."

"Nothing, I just wanted an excuse to see you at work," she laughed and he rushed her out of the office into the hallway.

"Mao, Kamei is going to be here soon, what are you doing here!" his voice instantly becoming exhausted having to deal with Mao once again.

"I know, I figured we could go on a group date, those are popular among young adults these days, right?" she said in earnest.

"That would require YOU to have a date!" he snapped.

"Oh, that makes sense, haha," she said, aloof.

He put his hands on Mao's shoulders and walked her to the elevator to the building. He was exhausted dealing with her and wanted to get into a better mood before he had to meet up with Kamei. The elevator had dinged and Mao turned around in an attempt to stop Hoji from ushering her away, wrapping her arms around him, beginning to sob dramatically. As the doors opened, Kamei was standing in the middle of the elevator and Hoji's face lost all life.

"Hoji?" Kamei said, startled looking at him with Mao's arms wrapped around him.

Mao gave a sinister grin, burying her face in his chest.