Full of dark, but lit
Night of creaking crickets
Loud, yet serene
______
"Otsukaresama deshita, Manager-san! I shall see you tomorrow. Good night."
"Gokurosama desu, Fujiwara-kun! Good night to you as well, bye-bye!"
Manager-san said as he walked towards his bicycle. It's not everyday that this man comes to the cafe on his bike, but he once explained to us that during spring times, when it's neither too warm, or too cold, he loves feeling the morning and night wind on his face, as he cycles. I cannot fault him for that, it is one of those things that you need to experience to truly appreciate, if I was in his place, I too would choose a bike over a car. And it's good exercise too, win-win.
I watch as he cycles his way south. Once he's gone past several street lights, I turn around and head in the opposite direction, further north. Then I turn right, towards the Torii gate, onto the walkway. From there, it's a left turn, and a short walk to the main road, and then, an even shorter walk in east, to Yoshida Sakamichi Izakaya. That is the place where I'm supposed to be at, for dinner.
Although that is one way, I generally prefer going through the inner streets, via the Shigagoe michi. It is quiet, relatively shorter, and I can just hear the sound of the trailing winter winds rustling through the leaves of the bushes and trees on the street sides. This year, March is windy for a lot longer than anyone would have expected.
Although the month is ending, the wind still carries a chill with itself, so I pull up the zip of my loose windbreaker. The streets right now, are quite vacant. You wouldn't see many people walking around at 10:30 in the night, but I do pass by the occasional group of university students just walking around, and hanging out. I am pretty sure I will find more if I were to go to the Kamo river delta.
Maybe some other day.
For now, I put one step forward after the other, and get closer and closer to my destination.
*ring* *ring*
It's Alumina, from Death Note. The same ringtone that Matsuda Touta had.
I pull my phone out of my pocket, and see the name it displays. It's Subaru. I pick it up as I read the name.
"Hello.. Am I speaking to the esteemed Fujiwara Houtarou-dono?"
"Yes. I will be there soon, just wait 5 minutes."
"Oho, I see! So you have been relieved from your duties. That is good. I will get us two beers ordered till then. See you soon."
"Mhm, thanks. I'll be there."
As I say so, Subaru hangs up, and I see the call screen disappear, dropping me at the home screen of my phone. I look at my wallpaper for a second, before sliding the phone back into my jacket's pocket. It's Sakura from Fate, the wallpaper.
I continue walking ahead into the narrow street until I hear the rumble of a mini truck's engine heading towards me in the narrow street. I move aside to stand besides the street light pole, as the truck passes by me.
Today's not my day, truck-kun is not here for me. This story is not an isekai.
Once it has passed, I continue walking at my leisure, yet consistent pace, until I hit the main road. A right turn towards side walk, walk 100 more steps, and I'm there. At the izakaya.
I open the door to a noisy, relatively small restaurant. It is somewhat quiet in there, but it is not even close to being full. This place would look completely different on a Friday night. My eyes search for a familiar face as I scan through the diner, until they land on the waving hand of an esoteric individual with shoulder length hair, and ungroomed, long beard.
Indeed, that is Subaru, our locally dubbed John Lennon in the CS department.
I enter the place and close the door behind me. I look at the back, where this weirdo sits with two open cans of beer in his hands, and one on the table, untouched.
I see, I may have made him wait too long, if he had to order another beer. Maybe I should apologise to him.. or so. At least that is what someone who didn't know this man would think. I, on the other hand, do know him well enough. Indeed, he picks up both the cans, and angles them in such a way that both of them drop their contents straight into the seemingly unending maw of this beast. At least for a bit, until his mouth is full, and he tilts them to stop the flow of the liquid, which finally drips a few drops on his chin. He licks his chin, and takes in the remaining drops that were previously decorating the hair of his beard.
Truly, he is no less than an animal. Of course he ordered two cans for himself.
I sigh, shake my head, and walk towards the back. I wave to the owner of the place, Kyouma-san, who stands by the counter, and find myself sitting in front of this hobo looking man.
I need a drink.
I pick up my can. It opens with a sizzle, and I feel the sweet-bitter, but cold liquid hit my tongue, and pass down my throat.
Feels good, man.
"So, how was work?" He asks me.
"Not so bad. There weren't really many people until 5 in the evening, so I was pretty much just sitting around for an hour on the job. Although the cafe was full a few times, later in the evening, nothing I and Iruma-kun couldn't have handled. Yeah, it does feel like we are short on staff sometimes, but Manager-san cuts in too when needed. So, pretty easy day."
"I see, that is good. Good." He says as he nods to his own words, then takes another chug of beer, this time only from one can. At least he can be humane when need be.
"How about you? How was your day. Any news about the job hunt? It should be starting soon, I say."
He puts his empty can on the side of the table, and lifts his chin on his fingers, imitating the Steve Jobs pose.
"What is job hunting? You ask my friend. I'm glad you asked. It is nothing, but looking for a new source of suffering, a new source of misery, that may continue deep frying your soul in hot water." He says in all seriousness, looking up straight into my eyes, as if he has been bestowed divine knowledge from the heavens.
If I was a girl who liked guys with beards and long hair, I may have blushed. I am not.
"You know that process is called boiling, right?"
"Well, actually, I never said the water was boiling, it's just hot, so more accurate would be to call it "simmering". 'Houtarou was gently simmering his prawns in hot water.' See? That's how you use it."
"You don't have to teach me with an example, I know what "simmer" means and how it's used."
I said in exasperation. I sighed and chugged a throatful of the beer from the can I had in my hand. This man.. he can be so annoying at times, his ability to get under a person's skin is second to none.
"Anyway, so what would you like to eat? Tonight's on me, since I did find myself a new source of continued suffering…"
I see, that drop came out of nowhere. It is good news though, I should congratulate him.
"Omedeto Saitou-sama! I'm glad you have found employment. Where is it, huh?"
I was happy, for this guy. The job hunting season had only recently begun, and he has already found a job. Considering his style and looks right now though.. I was willing to bet it would not have been a Japanese company, or at least the team that hired him would not be Japanese, and if they were, they would have to be some really liberal people. It's no doubt any traditional Japanese company would reject him simply on the basis of his grown up beard and hair.
"Oh, it is just Netflix. They had this really cute looking hiring manager lady, I bet she was charmed by me."
The face he made while saying this was very punchable..
I, of course, would not do that, because indeed, surprising as it might be, I am a civilised man in the end too.
"Uhuh.. certainly, no doubts about that. But, are you going to join them though?"
Although this guy already got a ludicrous offer, he was the type who would go for software jobs in quantitative trading firms, in hopes of maxing out his potential earnings from a job.
"That depends on how my Jane Street, and HRT interviews go."
"Fair enough. Did you know that Jane Street's first Asian office was in Tokyo?"
He has been a regular contributor to the OCaml project for the last one year, so he became a huge Jane Street fanboy at one point during that time. Although he would also go to Hudson River Trading, if they took him in. Then again, he worked really hard for this, so I hope he does get a Jane Street internship.
"Oh, yeah, I read about it on the internet. Apparently one of their people lived in Tokyo, so they just started a small office here. It's unfortunate they had to move away from here, Japanese financial laws are too rigid. It would be sad when 40% of my salary would go in taxes."
He put his chin on his palm, which he supported with his elbow on the table. If he didn't have all that hair, it would look like he was imitating Dazai. Although it is true, taxes in Japan are really high compared to America, or Singapore.
"So? When is your interview with them? Any update on your application?"
"Yeah.. nothing yet, Hudson River did mail me an update though. We scheduled an interview next week. Good thing it will all be online though, I am just glad I won't have to run to company offices anymore.. it's so tiring."
Yeah, I could imagine that, going here and there in a suit with hundreds, if not thousand other "Men in Black" like you, all moving for the same purpose.
"Anyway, Houtarou! What are you going to eat? Wait, let me call Kyouma-san."
"Mhm, yeah. I'll just have some Anago Tempura, and Oden. And sake. It's not really cold now, but Oden is always good."
"Hmm hmm, well said. I see why you are my comrade, o brother."
"Since when did you become a communist?"
"Huehuehue."
This guy just chuckled, making me chuckle too. What a contagious person.
Kyouma-san was soon here, and Subaru told our order to him. He chose to have Oden too, with some miso soup on the side. It would sound eccentric, but fits perfectly to his character, to have Oden with miso soup.
I finished my beer and put the can aside now, waiting for the food and sake to come. Kyouma-san will clear the cans away when he comes again.
"So, how about you? Still making half hearted attempts at open source projects? Why don't you go job hunting too? You'll need it anyway, at a later time. It's not like you can keep living on your part time job."
"Hm."
He was right, in that I do need to find a job so I won't have to struggle with my part time job when I graduate. But just the thought of going out and talking to people for employment, or anything.. just sounds so troublesome. Just the thought of it made me feel devoid of all energy.
We just sit in silence for two minutes, before Subaru speaks again.
"Well? Would you say something at least? You know I can't read your mind, right?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry. Yes, yes, you are right. It is something to think about. I am not too sure about signing up for this though, it feels so exhausting just thinking about it."
"You know you don't need to work for anyone else to earn money, right? You can work for yourself. How is your progress on shaders for webassemly coming along?"
"Not good. I haven't looked at it for the past two weeks. Yeah, I know I can do something with it, I just don't know what, or how. Or if I want to. It is all confusing."
"I don't know man. You have time, think about it, but don't think too hard. You tend to do that too often. Just think about all the games you wanna play and how you can do that without worrying about money or life. You'll figure something out."
I looked at his face, covered in beard from cheeks to neck, and a 5 cm goatee hanging off his chin.. he looked like a Shifu from some Kungfu movie.
"Honto arigatou shishou."
I said as I bowed to him in mock respect, with a blank face.
He laughed out loud, and kept laughing. Although he was loud, the izakaya itself was loud too, so nobody was really bothered.
Kyouma-san bought our order by the time Subaru stopped laughing.
"You're one funny character, my friend." He said.
"Yes, surely it is me who is a character."
______
Glossary:
1. Otsukaresama - Thank you for your hard work
2. Gokurosama - Otsukaresama, but used by superiors, towards their juniors or subordinates
3. Izakaya - A traditional-ish japanese dinner restaurant that opens in evening and operates throughout the night, where peope generally go in groups.
4. Alumina - First ending song of Death Note
5. Jane Street - One of world's best uantitative trading firms
6. OCaml - A functional programming language
7. Shishou - Master, japanese equivalent of Shifu in Chinese
8. Hontou Arigatou - "Very very thank you"