Chapter Text
It wasn’t the first time.
It wasn’t the first time it had happened to her, it was almost a natural occurrence, actually. Standing in the train, a hand up to hold a pole, when it would suddenly just stop and send her off her footing, dropping to the ground.
It wasn’t the first time that she had been stuck in commute. It was actually the third.
“Again? This week?” She heard a murmur from her right, “Isn’t this the third time this week?”
She’d only ridden the train to Nishi-Funabashi three times.
She placed the earbud back in her right ear and tried to stand, only when she did, the train moved then stopped abruptly.
She readied herself for the fall, probably with a bruise this time, but it never came.
All she felt was something holding her up from her arms and a hard but warm object pressed against her face.
“Are you alright?”
She nearly jumped when the object vibrated and she heard a deep voice of a man despite the music going on.
“Ah! I’m so sorry!” She pulled away from the object and looked up, only to see a man with his right eye covered but his left staring back at hers, “I didn’t mean to fall for you-, I mean, fall on you.”
She removed her earbuds, but she really just wanted to act like nothing ever happened. It wasn’t like it was embarrassing to fall over to a man’s torso at a packed transit filled with complete strangers. Nope, definitely not.
“It’s okay,” the man responded, “But are you okay?”
She nodded despite the sting that she was feeling on her knee, “Yeah, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. It’s not hurting much.”
“Are you sure though? You have a scrape wound on your knee,” he pointed out, “Do you want me to find you a seat?”
“No, no, it’s fine! I can stand. Really,” she declined, “But thank you for the concern,” she muttered out the last part.
He nodded without another word.
A brown headed child sitting in front of her rummaged through her bag and pulled out a square band-aid with a pink checkered pattern and a happy face drawn on it. The child stood and reached it out for her.
“This makes me feel better when I get a wound,” the child said with a sweet smile, “I hope you feel better soon.”
She smiled weakly at the child, thanking her for her generosity.
She peeled off the paper keeping the adhesive from sticking together and stretched her right leg just a little bit. The man grabbed the band-aid from her hand and knelt down, putting the band-aid on her injured knee.
“You should clean this up when you get home,” he advised, “It’s not good for wounds to be open and unclean.”
She wanted to scream.
What was he doing? Why was he so nice? Was this his natural self? Was he naturally so kind? But to strangers? It was odd, very odd, for someone to go out of their way to help some klutz stranger. They didn’t even know each other’s names for Pete’s sake! So… why?
She took a deep breath and held on to it. It wasn’t everyday that strangers were so kind to her. He was too kind though…
The man got up and stood next to her, completely unaware of the tons of questions she was screaming in her mind.
The train slowly started moving again and she quickly looked around to see if there were any poles nearby that she could hold on to (the one that she previously held on to was so far now with all the falls she had). With nothing nearby, she held onto the hope that she wouldn’t fall again.
“Highly unlikely.”
She felt a hand grab her wrist before it was pulled up to hold something. She looked up to her left and saw that the man had placed her hand on his arm which was holding on to the railings above. She blushed furiously at the sight.
“What is… what’s this guy doing?!”
She looked away and bit her lip, face turning as red as the jacket she wore.
“Please don’t let it be obvious. Please don’t let it be obvious. Please don’t let it be-.”
“Are you sick?” The man asked, “You’re turning a bit red. Are you getting hot because there’s so many people in here?”
“N-n-no,” she muttered, “I’m fine.”
There were no more words. When the train finally came to a halt at her stop, she brought her hand down, and faced the man.
“Th-thank you,” she told him, “For helping me. And catching me. And putting on this band-aid. And being my pole to hold on to.”
“It’s no problem,” he replied then turned around.
“Will I ever see you again?” She blurted out before she could think about asking it.
“What did I just say?!”
He turned around, a curious look on his face.
“I-I mean, it just… do you think we’d see each… other… around…?” She repeated like it wasn’t the most humiliating thing she had ever done.
“Well…” he started, “This city’s big.”
She frowned a bit at the response. She shouldn’t even be though. He was just another person at the train.
“But I guess we live in the same place so we’ll see each other someday,” he continued.
“Oi! Iishiro!” Another man called from behind him, “We gotta go!”
The man nodded at the other before leaving her on her own, still standing inside the mix of crowd.
The doors of the train closed as soon as he had walked out, her eyes still trained at his back.
“Please turn around. Please look at me again. Please. One more time.”
He turned back around and their eyes met for one more second before she snapped out of the stupor, breaking eye contact.
The train moved once more and an announcement that they were headed to the next stop was heard.
She held a breath that she didn’t know then peered outside again, seeing the signs outside.
Signs welcoming people to Nishi-Funabashi.
“Nishi-Funabashi!” She shouted, “This is my stop! This is my stop!”
•••
After all the convincing she did to almost every staff in the train and apologies to all the people, she was allowed to go off the train and not miss her stop. She sighed deeply then started walking away from the tracks when she was called.
“Reimi!” A brunette looking a few years older than her called, a wide smile on her face, “Reimi over here!”
She grinned wide and ran over to the woman calling her, “Eiko! I missed you so much! It’s nice to see you here.”
“I was waiting for someone and then I saw you,” Eiko answered, “Are you getting the hang of the job?”
She nodded, “I really really love this job. Thanks for referring me.”
“Let me see the letter,” Eiko said, reaching out her hand.
Reimi pulled out a white envelope from her duffel bag and handed it to Eiko. Once the brunette saw it, she frowned.
“You…” Eiko started, “You’re off by one station. This letter’s for Fuchūhommachi.”
“What?!” Reimi snatched the letter from her friend’s hand, reading the text on it, “B-but it says-.”
“Fuchūhommachi is a nearer stop than this one. You have to go around just so you can deliver this,” Eiko replied.
Reimi groaned in frustration, looking back at the empty tracks, “I knew it! It was going too well.”
Eiko patted Reimi at the back, “It’s okay. I was once like that too. You’ll get the hang of it.”
“I only have a few things that I have to deliver and yet I can’t even do it right,” Reimi pointed out.
“But you will. Somehow.” Eiko gave the girl a smile, “You always do. I trust you with that. Cheer up, Reimi. You’re still doing good.”
Reimi sighed again before giving back a small smile, “Well I better get going. Have to deliver this today. Thanks, Eiko.”
•••
“So what was that?”
“What was what?” Iishiro turned to the younger man.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. The girl in the train,” the man replied.
“Who?” Iishiro asked.
“The cute girl with the red hair and the red jacket! Don’t act like it happened last decade,” the man replied.
“I was just being helpful, Haku,” Iishiro responded, “Can’t I be nice?”
“Okay.” Haku chuckled, “First of all, you’re not nice.”
This earned the younger man a glare, “I am nice.”
Haku rolled his eyes, “Second, you don’t just talk to anybody. You’re… it was really odd.”
“Reimi!”
The two men turned to their right and saw the girl from the train with the red jacket.
“Reimi over here!”
“So her name’s Reimi,” Iishiro muttered.
“So her name’s Reimi,” Haku imitated with a teasing tone, “You’re interested in her.”
Iishiro turned around then continued walking, “No I’m not.”
“Oooof course you aren’t.” Haku smirked, following Iishiro, “I feel so honored to be the first one to see you like this.”
“Like what?” Iishiro asked.
“To see you so in love,” Haku teased.
“In love? With who?” Iishiro questioned.
“The girl!” Haku replied.
“Which girl? I saw a lot of girls today,” Iishiro responded.
“Reimi! The cute Reimi whom you met at the train! The one that fell over and you helped her and you patched up her wound,” Haku explained.
“Oh, Reimi,” Iishiro paused, “What about her?”
Haku groaned in frustration, staying silent instead.