Chapter 40: 40. A Couple Since Middle School (This is a Perfect Chance to Steal!)

They took the table by the window. Ellie sat across from Mike with the focused energy of someone who had been interrupted mid-thought twelve years ago and was now finally getting back to it.

"I mean it about you looking different," she said. "Like wow...! You look completely different, but I can still remember your face shape, hahaha~!"

"It’s been ten years," Mike said.

"I know. But it’s not just older." She studied him with the frank attention of someone who had earned the right to look. "You look like you’ve been somewhere."

"A few places, actually," Mike said.

"Somewhere specific," she said. "You have that look."

She looked at him like he was someone who had become very skilled at things he preferred not to discuss.

Stanley said nothing, which was his way of agreeing.

"That’s very observant," Haruka said, looking at Mike with renewed interest.

"I’ve known him since we were five," Ellie said. "Ten years disappearing doesn’t actually erase the ten years of data."

She pointed her fork at him. "You used to do the same thing then. Sit in rooms and watch everything and say less than you knew."

"Sounds exhausting," Haruka said, genuinely.

"It’s actually very efficient," Mike said.

Haruka turned to him. "You told me that the word means something that avoids being examined closely."

"I was referring to food," Mike said.

"It also applies to people," she said.

Ellie looked between them with growing delight. "She’s been here less than a week, and she’s already got your number."

"She’s observant," Mike said.

"She’s exactly right," Ellie said. "Mikey, you are the bravest-flavored person I have ever met."

Haruka made a short, surprised sound that was the beginning of a laugh she had not anticipated, and then she pressed her hand over her mouth and looked at Ellie with the expression of someone who had just found an ally.

"I told him the same thing," Haruka said. "Not in those words."

"What words did you use?" Ellie asked.

"I said he was efficient about people."

"That’s a more diplomatic version of what I said."

"I’m still learning when to be diplomatic in a second language," Haruka said.

Mike ate his lamb and said nothing.

"So," Ellie said, turning back to him. "You just showed up on Monday. No warning and no call ahead."

"It’s only been a week, yet you already have a neighbor to walk to class with and a reputation for being efficient."

"That’s a reasonable week," Mike said. "And I have a new number now, so yeah, I can’t call both of you."

"Well, it’s a very ’you’ week," Ellie said. "Hit the ground running without telling anyone the ground existed."

"You’re upset," Mike said. "Usual Ellie, I guess."

"I’m not upset," she said, immediately.

Then, "Ugh... yeah! A little. But mostly I’m just glad you’re finally back!"

"I spent a while wondering back when we were in middle school." She glanced at Stanley. "We both did wonder what the reason was that you left the country."

Stanley nodded once, and then he said it. "We promised to be in the same high school, but then you give us some bad news that you’re moving overseas."

"I know," Mike said. "And I can’t do anything about it because of family business."

Mike, of course, lied about that. He moved countries to do a lot of crimes with all of his colleague, and he was glad that both his childhood friends didn’t know because he used a different names and appearance.

They only know him as ’Mikey.’

"Do you actually know," Ellie said, "or are you saying it the way you say things when you want to move past them?"

A brief silence.

"Both," Mike said.

Ellie looked at him. Then she exhaled, and the edge went out of it.

"Okay," she said. "Fine. I’ll take that."

She turned to Haruka. "Does he do this to you? The honest answer that somehow gives you nothing useful?"

"Almost every day," Haruka said. "This morning he told me to run an experiment on my own sleep schedule, and I still don’t know if it was good advice."

"It was," Mike said.

"You don’t know that yet," Haruka said. "The experiment hasn’t happened."

"I know the methodology is sound."

"What’s the experiment?" Ellie asked.

"Two alarms," Haruka said. "He says four is too many."

"He’s right," Stanley said, marking only the second time he had spoken at the table, and the unsolicited nature of his comment made both women turn to look at him.

"You agree?" Haruka said.

"If you set four alarms, you’re not waking up at the first one," Stanley said. "You’re waking up at the fourth."

"So the first three are just noise."

Haruka sat with this. "That’s also a very efficient way to look at it."

"Stan was always like that," Ellie said. "He and Mikey both are like that, hahaha."

"You’d ask them a question and they’d give you the actual answer instead of a comfortable one." She looked at Mike. "At least Stan warned people before he did it."

"I don’t remember doing that," Stanley said.

"You did it by being quiet first," Ellie said. "People knew something real was coming because you paused."

"And Mike?" Haruka asked.

"Mike just said it," Ellie said. "No pause at all."

"He’d be in the middle of something else and he’d just look up and say it, and you’d realize he’d been thinking about it for twenty minutes while everyone thought he was somewhere else entirely."

"Oh wow... That’s still what he does," Haruka said.

"Some things are structural," Mike said.

"He just did it again," Haruka said to Ellie.

"I know," Ellie said. "I saw."

Stanley was watching Mike with the steady, comfortable attention of someone who had not lost the thread of thirteen years despite having no contact through them, which said something about the nature of what had been there before.

"How long are you here for?" Stanley said. "At Valcrest."

"Two years," Mike said. "The program is two years."

"And after?"

"I’ll see what’s worth doing after," Mike said. "But I’ll be looking for some part-time jobs from now on."

Stanley nodded. It was the nod of someone who had asked a question they already knew the shape of the answer to and had now confirmed it.

"You should come to see our house we bought," Ellie said. "It’s in district 5!"

"We bought it last year. Small, but ours." She looked at Haruka. "You should come too because I want to help people live in Erosyne better!"

Mike thought. ’So both of them have lived here for a long time, huh...? But they start college a little too late.’

Haruka looked immediately and genuinely pleased. "I would like that very much."

"Good." Ellie pointed at Mike. "But for you, Mikey, less optionally."

"Yeah, yeah, I’ll come," Mike said.

"Huh. That was too easy," Ellie said. "Hmm... Something’s wrong here."

"Nothing’s wrong," Mike said. "I want to see the house because it’s actually impressive that you two stayed in the same house now."

She studied him. "You want to see if we actually built what we said we were going to build."

"Isn’t that the same thing?"

"For most people, no," Ellie said. "For you, apparently yes."

Haruka observed them with the expression of someone quickly absorbing a language they don’t quite speak yet.

"Did you always talk to each other like this?" she asked.

"Like what?" Ellie said.

"Like you’re both reading a book the other person wrote and checking for errors," Haruka said.

Ellie stared at her for a moment. Then she turned to Mike.

"I really like her," she said. "A lot."

"She can come whenever she wants! You have to earn it."

"I’ll manage," Mike said.

"You always do," Ellie said.

"Did both of you really live in Erosyne for a long time?" Mike asked.

"We did! Since my sister is a popular guitarist here, she gave us some good suggestions that ended up making me and Stanley agree to stay here~!"

"Sister...? Oh, Elara, huh...?" Mike said while trying to remember. "I remember her and am glad to hear she finally became the popular guitarist she always wanted to be back then."

"Yep~!" Ellie grabbed her phone to search for Elara, and then she found it immediately just to show it to Mike. "See?! She’s performing on Saturday night!"

"Hehh... that’s cool," Mike said. ’And she looks fucking beautiful... like her little sister.’

Mike then asked right away with a teasing look. "You said that both of you bought a house, huh...?"

"Does that mean it’s official that both of you are..."

Stanley then lowered his head because he knew what Mike was about to say, and then Ellie raised her thumbs up. "Yup~! We’ve been a couple since the graduation of our middle school."

"Congratulations... then that means both of you lived in the same house," Mike grinned. "I do hope there’s no mistake happening."

"Mikey, you!" Ellie punched Mike’s arm a little. "Of course not!"

Stanley stayed silent because of how embarrassed he was.

"We’re saving it till marriage."

"Ahh, I see..." Mike said while looking at Stanley.

’This is fucking perfect...! I can steal Ellie from him, and knowing that she’s a virgin too makes it even better!!!’