Yes; but first, a snack.

“Well…” Shuichi looked around the room until he finally managed to spot a clock along the wall. “I suppose I do have enough time to go another round, but… is it okay if I get a bite to eat first? I haven’t eaten or drank anything since my dinner last night”

“Oh, totally!” Curie replied, smiling when she realized Shuichi would stay. “I’m out of eggs down here, though, and I don’t think you’d want to just have raw oranges for lunch. Why don’t you head up to Kae’s and I apartment and get some grub there; it’s apartment number 203.”

“Y-your apartment?” Shuichi stammered. “Uh… is there any way that you could go and get the food for me? I don’t want to sneak up on Kae or anything if she’s there.”

“Don’t worry about it; Kae told me that she’s going to be out visiting family all day today, so you don’t have to worry about running into her,” Curie assured him. “And besides, I’ve got a little something special planned for our next round together, but it’ll take a little assembling before it’s ready. Just go get your snack and it’ll be ready by the time you’re back.”

“Alright… thank you, Curie.” Shuichi put his pants and underwear back on and pocketed the room key. “I promise to be right back.”

“But don’t you dare eat any of my chocolate mousse!” Curie called out as Shuichi left. “That shit is expensive!”

Shuichi then made his way up three flights of stairs and came to a stop in front of room 203. He reached to insert the key into the door lock but hesitated when he noticed a familiar scent in the air; Kae’s scent.

“Is… is it really right going into her apartment without permission?” Shuichi thought to himself silently before shaking his head. “No, I shouldn’t think like that. I’m just going to grab some food and head straight back.”

Shuichi took a deep breath and opened the door, heading inside. There, Shuichi was greeted by a perfectly normal apartment, with normal furniture, pictures on the walls, and clean floors and counters. Shuichi couldn’t help but be surprised by this, though he didn’t know what he was expecting; perhaps the fact that Curie and Kae were both sex workers made him think that their apartment would be sexualized somehow, but the closest thing it had to anything unusual in it was the small black piano in the corner of the living room.

“H-hello? Is anyone there?” Shuichi called out softly to double-check that the place was really empty. When he received no reply, he closed the door behind him and went directly to the fridge in the kitchen.

Not wanting to stay for too long, Shuichi quickly gathered up all the ingredients for a basic sandwich - lettuce, tomato, turkey breast, and cheese - and threw them together between two slices of white bread. As he took his first bite, his stomach let out a loud growl of thanks as his hunger finally began to be sated.

“Ah… I needed this” Shuichi sighed to himself between bites. He quickly made his way through most of the sandwich before putting it down to get a glass of orange juice to rehydrate himself. As he put the glass down, he moved to return to his sandwich but stopped when he saw something just outside the kitchen; a closed, white door with a music note on it.

“Huh… that must be Kae’s room,” Shuichi thought to himself. “She probably has all sorts of personal stuff in there… like clothes and bills…” Shuichi stepped closer to the door. “There is probably a lot in there with her name written on it too. And if I saw, then… no one would ever know.” Shuichi’s hand raised to reach for the doorknob, but he stopped himself just before he touched it. “Gah! Get ahold of yourself, Shuichi… just because you won’t get caught doesn’t mean you can invade her privacy like that. If she doesn’t want you to know her name… that’s her decision.”

Shuichi went back to the kitchen and picked up the remnants of his sandwich, but just as he was about to finish it off he was interrupted by the sound of someone opening the door to the apartment.

“Huh?” Shuichi blinked and silently put his food back down. “Did Curie finish preparing her next invention already?”

Shuichi put down his sandwich and glanced into the living room, and the instant he did he felt his heart almost stop; because standing there in a long pink and black skirt and a red sweater was Kae, currently facing away from him and going through her purse on a small table next to the door.

“Hm hm hm~” Kae hummed one of her favorite melodies to herself as she looked through her purse, completely oblivious to Shuichi’s presence.

“Oh no!” Shuichi gasped quietly and hastily went back into the kitchen, hiding behind the fridge there. “What’s she doing here!? I thought Curie said she’d be gone all day?” Shuichi nervously peaked out at Kae. “I… I can’t let her see me! If she finds me alone and shirtless in her apartment, she’ll think I’m some kind of stalker!”

“Man, I can’t believe that Miu left the apartment door unlocked again,” he heard Kae say as she took out her cell phone. “I keep telling her that we’re going to get robbed one day if she keeps doing that. She’s lucky that I stopped why when I did, or who knows what would have happened.”

Kae then moved to turn around, and Shuichi hastily tucked himself into a cupboard underneath the counter next to Kae’s fridge and closed it. Fortunately for him, she didn’t seem to notice the sound of the pantry door closing, but she quickly spotted something else.

“Ewwww! Miu! You left your leftovers on the counter again! Blegh!” Kae stuck out her tongue in disgust as she picked up the plate with what was left of Shuichi’s lunch and dumped it into the trash. “We are going to have a serious talk the next time I see you.”

Shuichi, meanwhile, just closed his eyes and listened as Kae made a lunch of her own outside, praying to whatever god would hear him that she’d go away and give him a chance to escape. But, just as he thought he heard Kae walk away, the wooden door in front of him opened and he was given a front-row view of the pianist's skirt and legs.

“Hmm… now where did I put those chips again?” Kae wondered out loud to herself as she reached blindly into the cupboard, her hand coming dangerously close to Shuichi’s face. Thinking quickly, Shuichi grabbed the back of corn chips that he was sitting next to and put them in front of Kae’s hand. “Ah! There we go!”

Shuichi could hear Kae pour a small bowl of chips before returning the bag to the cupboard and closing the door again. Then, as he heard Kae’s footsteps fade into the distance, Shuichi let out the breath he didn’t even know he was holding and carefully peaked back out into the kitchen.

When he saw that Kae was gone, he carefully crawled out and checked the living room, and was thankful to find that it was empty as well. The blonde pianist hadn’t left, however; glancing into her bedroom, Shuichi could see that she was currently on her bed facing away from him, feet kicking in the air behind her as she looked at her phone and ate chips with salsa.

Sweating like a madman, Shuichi silently weighed the risks of trying to get escape now, and risk getting seen on his way to the door, or staying and risk getting caught in her kitchen. Ultimately, despite how nervous he was, every minute he was spending inside Kae’s apartment - spying on her without her knowledge - tore him up inside worse than he thought possible. So, he made the choice to try to leave.

Shuichi’s steps were long and deliberate, terrified that even one wrong move could potentially cause the floor to creak and ruin everything. It was incredibly slow going, but he managed to get past Kae’s bedroom without incident. He even made it all the way to the door too, but right as he put his hand on the doorknob, he heard Kae stand up from her bed.

“Well, I suppose there’s no point in hanging around here much longer; I better get ready for work,” he heard her say.

Shuichi flinched and hid behind the closest thing he could find, which in this case turned out to be Kae’s main living room sofa. There, he watched Kae walk into the bathroom right next to her front door and change into her sex worker outfit. He’d watched her get naked several times before, of course, but the fact that he was hidden this time seemed to make the sight extra exciting for him.

“N-no! This is wrong!” Shuichi chastised himself and pulled himself back behind the couch. “Even if this isn’t my fault this is happening, I still can’t spy on her like some common peeping tom! But… still..” Shuichi peeked out again and eyed the apartment’s exit again. “If she’s in there, she might not hear me open the door.”

Swallowing silently and doing his best not to look at Kae’s rear as she worked on her makeup, Shuichi stood up from behind the couch he was hiding behind and began inching his way toward the door. Sweat poured down his forehead as he reached for the doorknob and began to turn it, hoping beyond hope that it would stay silent enough for him to leave. But, right as he was about to pull it open, the sound of Kae putting down her makeup caused him to freeze in place.

“Alright, looking pretty good so far!” he heard Kae say to herself. “Now all there is to do is see if any of my usual Johns are up for some fun.”

Realizing that he had only a few moments to hide, Shuichi dashed to the nearest hiding place he could find, which turned out to be Kae’s coffee table in front of her TV. It wasn’t a great spot - in fact, even a cursory glance underneath would completely blow his cover - but it was good enough for now and he went unnoticed as Kae sat down on her couch and began looking through the contacts on her phone.

“Hmm… what about him?” Kae mumbled to herself as she scrolled. “No, he said he was out of town today. That guy moved, that guy won’t get paid for a week, that guy’s just a total jerk… hmm, what about Shuichi?”

The man in question nearly felt his heart stop as Kae dialed his number, but then he remembered that his phone had died the previous night at the park, so it wouldn’t start ringing in his pocket. He was still safe for now.

“Hmm, straight to the mailbox…” Kae huffed in disappointment as she put down her phone. “Maybe I should just wait here for a little while before hitting the streets with everyone else.” Kae moved to grab her TV remote off the coffee table but accidentally knocked off onto the floor, right in front of Shuichi’s face. However, just as she moved to pick the remote up, Kae was interrupted by a loud and rather rude knock at her door.

“Hey! It’s me!” Curie’s/Miu’s voice shouted through the door. “Are you done in there yet, or what?”

“Coming!” Kae stood up and went to open the door, revealing Miu wearing a loose pink bathrobe.

“There you a-oh!” When Miu recognized Kae standing in front of her, she recoiled in surprise. “Er, I mean… hey, Kaede! You’re, uh… back early!” Miu straightened her posture and did her best to act casually. “What are you doing here? What happened to hanging out with your parents for the day?”

“Kaede? So… that was her real name this whole time?” Shuichi thought silently to herself. “It’s very pretty, but… shouldn’t it be more different than her street name?” Shuichi gripped his hair and tugged at it so hard it threatened to come out. “Augh! I can’t criticize her about that! I’m not even supposed to know that! I can’t believe I found out about it like this of all ways…”

“Well, unfortunately, something came up so my parents had to delay their visit to the city for a few days. So, I figured I’d just stop by the apartment for a quick bite to eat and to get ready to do some work tonight.” Kaede explained as she stood aside to let her roommate in. “By the way; what did you mean by ‘are you done in there yet?’ Were you expecting someone else in here?”

“Er, well, the thing is… I didn’t want to tell you, but…” Miu trailed off and once again Shuichi felt like he was about to have a heart attack. “I might have accidentally fucked up our toilet really bad. So bad that I… had to call in an expert.”

“Again!?” Kaede gasped. “Miu, didn’t I tell you to start using stool softeners?”

“I know, but I forget about it sometimes,” Miu replied embarrassedly. “Anyways, I could have totally fixed it myself, buuut I didn’t want to risk breaking any pipes, so I just hired a guy to take care of it for me while I did some work in my lab. If he’s gone already, then I guess that means it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

“Well, I’m glad you took responsibility for it this time, but please let me know the next time you invite someone over to our place, okay?” Kaede replied. “If he was still here I might have thought he was a burglar and attacked him or something.”

“Right, of course!” Miu nervously assured Kaede. “I promise, I’ll never invite anyone over again without telling you! You can count on me!”

“Wow, you sure are enthusiastic today, aren’t you?” Kaede said, hints of suspicion in her voice. “Anyways, I was just about to watch some TV to pass some time. Do you want to join me?”

“Uh… sure! Why not?” Miu’s eyes darted nervously around their room one more time before she followed Kaede back to their shared couch. “I’ll grab the remote and we can watch-”

Miu’s train of thought came to a screeching halt as she leaned forward to pick up the remote and she was suddenly face-to-face with Shuichi underneath their coffee table.

“Holy balls!” Miu swore and recoiled back into her seat, nearly dropping the remote again in the process.

“Holy Balls?” Kaede looked at Miu curiously. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.”

“Huh?” Miu turned back toward Kaede, as if she just realized the pianist was still there. “Er, right; that’s because it just came out. It’s this really cool action dramedy adventure sports movie about… angels who play shot put! It’s supposed to be really good!”

“Oh, really? That sounds strange… but I think I’ll give it a shot.” Kaede smiled and stood up. “Do you mind if I make some popcorn, do you?”

“Pfft, of course not! Feel free to make as much as you like!” Miu replied. “In fact, why don’t you go ahead and make two bags? Or four? Or ten? I’m feeling really poppin’ today!”

“Uh… I think just two will be enough for us,” Kaede said as she got up to go to the kitchen. As soon as Kaede was out of sight, Miu looked back under the coffee table and shot Shuichi a nasty glare.

“You! What are you doing down there, Pooichi!?” Miu spat quietly through her teeth. “You’re not down there just to peak up our skirts or something, are you?”

“N-no, of course not!” Shuichi put up his hands defensively. “I’ve been trying to leave ever since Ka-Kaede got here, but I can’t get out the door no matter how hard I try! Please, Miu; you have to help me get out of here! I can’t let her see me like this!”

“Augh, of course this had to happen!” Miu groaned. “Look, just sit tight, and I promise I’ll think of something to get you out of here, capiche?”

“Alright, the first bag will be done in just a minute or two!” Kaede said over the sound of a microwave humming as she poked her head back out of the kitchen. “So, what have you been up to today, Miu?”

“Huh?” Miu quickly shot back up in her seat. “Oh, you know, just more experiments; refining the OWA, testing out my stimulator, testing out that new quantum tunneler I made…”

“And you’re making sure to stay safe during all that, right?” Kaede interjected. “No more uranium or nitroglycerin?”

“Yeah, yeah, I made sure not to bring in any of the fun stuff,” Miu answered. “I’ve still been making some pretty good progress, though. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll even get another patent I can pawn off.”

“That would be wonderful, Miu!” Kaede replied with an encouraging smile. Even if he couldn’t see it from underneath the table, Shuichi could still imagine it perfectly. “Don’t worry, I know you have it in you to make something really special! I’m sure of it!”

“Yeah, yeah, of course I will,” Miu said dismissively, though even she wasn’t immune to the pianist’s optimistic charm. “So, what have you been up to over the past few days? You went on a date with that one guy, right? What was his name? Luichi?”

“Why yes, I did,” Kaede replied as she poured the first bag of popcorn into a metal bowl. “We had a lot of fun together at that new restaurant downtown called the Bunny Hop. The food was good, the waitresses were beautiful, and we had some really fun conversations. Overall, I think it went pretty well for the most part.”

“For the most part?” Miu repeated. “That statement is more loaded than a guy’s nutsack after a week without porn. So, what happened?”

“Oh, nothing, it’s just…” Kaede trailed off for a moment. “Shuichi wanted to take our relationship further in a more… serious direction.”

“Ah, I see.” Miu nodded in understanding. “Let me guess; you had to put him down?”

“You don’t have to put it so cruelly, you know,” Kaede complained as she started on the second bag. “I just… didn’t think that we were ready for that kind of thing yet, sadly.”

“Hey; it happens.” Miu shrugged. “If I had a yen for every guy who wanted to be my boyfriend, I’d totally be a billionaire.” For some reason, she didn’t sound too confident when she said that. “So don’t bother feeling guilty about it; otherwise, your heart won’t last in our line of work.”

“Actually, I don’t really feel guilty for turning him down at all,” Kaede countered. “It’s just… part of me wishes that I had said ‘yes’ to him.”

“What!?” As soon as he heard that, Shuichi shot up and hit his head painfully on the underside of the coffee table he was hiding under.

“Cough cough!” Miu hacked loudly to try and cover up the noise Shuichi had just made. “Ahem, I mean; what do you mean by that? Didn’t you just say that you’re both not ready for that kind of thing?”

“I did, and I stand by that, but… that doesn’t mean I don’t still really like him,” Kaede answered. “He’s kind, sweet, diligent, fun to talk to, and he’s really caring. Out of all the guys I’ve met on the job, he’s easily one of the best.”

“Really? Sounds like he’s a swell guy.” Miu said, rubbing her knees together. “But if you liked him so fuckin’ much, then why did you turn him down?”

“Well, like I said before, I think we just need more time,” Kaede answered. “Both so we can get to know each other more and so Shuichi gets to know himself better too. He’s a sweet guy, but I can tell there’s a lot he needs to figure out about himself first.”

“Eh? What exactly do you mean by that?” Miu asked. “You mean, whether or not he prefers sweet or salty foods?”

“No, mean like… what does he really want out of life?” Kaede replied. “What does he want out of a relationship? To get married one day? To have kids? Does he want to stay at his current job? Does he even want to keep living in this city? Where does he see himself in twelve years? I mean, I don’t have the answers to all those questions myself, but… you can tell just talking to him that he doesn’t even know where to start.”

Shuichi silently looked down at the ground as she said that. He wished he could argue with her, even just to himself, but deep down… a part of him knew she was right. He didn’t know how to answer any of those questions, and his mind was scared to even begin thinking about it.

“Well… if that’s the case, then I think you probably made the right choice,” Miu replied, catching Shuichi by surprise. “You’re too young and hot to be tied down right now.”

“Really? You think so?” Kaede questioned, now filling a second bowl with popcorn.

“Totally,” Miu assured her. “Plus, it sounds like this Shuichi guy is way too clingy for you. What he needs is a strong woman who can put him in his place!”

“Heh, and I don’t suppose you’re thinking that woman might be you, Miu?” Kaede giggled as she walked back to the couch.

“Well, if he’s half as good a fuck as you’ve claimed he is, I might just give him a shot,” Miu replied playfully, spreading her legs a little in front of Shuichi’s face.

“Oh, don’t worry, he is,” Kaede assured her as she sat down. “Just don’t take advantage of him, okay? I’d hate to see someone break his heart.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be a good girl,” Miu replied.

“Huh, that’s odd,” Kaede said as she used her remote to search through her TV’s various streaming services. “I’m not seeing any movies called ‘Holy Balls’ anywhere.”

“Uh… oh, that’s right! That movie was only released in northern Iceland! Silly me!” Miu laughed nervously. “I guess that means that movie time is canceled!”

“You do know that we could just watch something else, right?” Kaede pointed out.

“I… just remembered that my new capacitor set just came in today! I better go test them out while they’re still fresh,” Miu said as she stood up. “And you should probably get going too, Kae. You know, to stretch your legs or somethin’. You don’t want to waste all day in here, do you?”

“Actually, I just got back here and I haven’t really finished my lunch yet,” Kaede pointed out. “Plus, we have all this fresh popcorn, so I might as well catch up on my shows and-” Kaede was suddenly interrupted by her cell phone ringing from her purse nearby. She turned on the screen and was greeted by the sight of Komaru, in a navy blue sweatshirt and short black skirt, smiling happily as she hugged two dogs, a golden retriever and a German shepherd, on the sidewalk.

“Hey, Kaede!” the text that came with the photo read. “You have to get downtown RIGHT NOW! I found this girl who was walking her dogs, and they are the cutest things ever! Their owner is super nice too! Do you think you have enough time to stop by? I think you two would make great friends.”

“Aww… they do look pretty cute,” Kaede thought to herself before she let out a short sigh. “Nevermind, Miu; I guess I’ll get going after all.” She then grabbed the popcorn she made and quickly deposited it in some plastic bags for later before heading to her bedroom to change back into her casual clothes. “You have fun testing out those capacitors, but remember to stay safe, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I promise!” Miu put on her best fake smile and waved until she heard Kaede lock her door behind her. “Okay, Shuichi; now’s our chance! Let’s go!”