The Woman

He heard the hinges creak in the silence of the room.

It was not an atypical occurrence. A lot of students had taken to coming to the clubroom to get solutions for their problems. The service club was in high demand. The surge in popularity was felt by each of its members. Nowadays, they were kept always busy. Even the ever cheerful and always amicable, Yuigahama Yui was beginning to show a frown on her friendly face. It was troubling. The decision to take a break from all club activities seemed inevitable. Choosing a Friday was just common sense. He chose to stay behind. Yuigahama argued. Yukinoshita did not. It was futile. Almost expected. Both the girls left him alone. They were gone. He took out a book. Began reading. It was relaxing.

Until, Hachiman heard the hinges creak.

He turned his head to the side and looked at the direction of the door. Annoyance narrowed his eyes. The disturbance clipped his tone. "The club's closed."

Having said his piece, he returned to the pages of the book. Trying to relax. Again.

He did not expect the door to open.

He should have. It was his mistake. The intrusion was to be expected. His mind feed him the details. He had heard the hinges creak. But he heard no knocks. Except for the members, almost everyone had learnt to knock before coming inside the service club room. It was just common courtesy. A proper etiquette. Also, Yukinoshita took immediate exception to those who did not and levelled them with her cold, disapproving gaze. It made them squirm, uncomfortably, on their seat. Next time they remembered to knock.

This one didn't.

It was expected.

Like he said, almost everyone knocked. Almost everyone. This person never bothered. Yukinoshita had asked her to knock on multiple occasions. But the woman would only smile, make a promise to remember for later and then casually wave it off. Her soft dismissal irked Yukinoshita. It only made him smirk. Yuigahama called him a 'meanie'. He simply shrugged. Most rules were meant for students. Not teachers.

The need to knock need not apply to Hiratsuka Shizuka.

The woman opened the door and walked in. "I know the club is closed, Hikigaya. The girls told me on their way out. But Yukinoshita did not give me back the keys to clubroom. She must have forgotten about it, I thought. So, here I was, trying to lock the clubroom for today and imagine my surprise, when I see you, sitting here, on you chair, book in hand, reading like usual. I thought I was seeing things, you know. Had it not been for your typical rudeness, I would have locked you inside. Then what would have happened, huh? You would have been stuck in school for the whole night. All alone. You should think about this, you know."

"…My rudeness saved me, is that what you think?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in derision.

The woman snorted in an unladylike manner. "How the hell would I know?"

"I guess you wouldn't." He intoned in a small voice, not meant to be heard.

The woman tapped her foot on the floor. Her impatience made evident by the tapping of her heels. Each tap rang louder than the previous one. Arms crossed beneath her breasts, the woman struck an imposing figure. "Aren't you gonna ask me to sit?"

He nodded his head to an empty chair. "Please make yourself comfortable. Would you like a cup of tea? I'm sure Yukinoshita has some biscuits here somewhere."

"No need." Her voice chirruped to a high pitch. "I brought my own drink. But thanks for asking."

He had not noticed the styrofoam cup. It was an obvious mistake to make. The act of crossing her arms made her look more intimidating. But, it also drew his gaze to her breasts. He had quickly looked away, though. He was a guy. He got distracted.

But not this time, though.

This time he watched her, closely. The small stumble in her step was telling enough. He then recalled the rambling speech from before. Hiratsuka Shizuka could talk. She could talk a lot when it was needed. It made her a good teacher. But, she did not ramble. Her previous talk had been thoroughly one-sided. This was not like her. She wanted people to participate. Communication seemed necessary. But earlier, he had heard a rant. She told him about his club mates leaving, not giving her the key, her trying to lock up the clubroom herself, stumbling open him and then, she went about on a nonsensical tangent, about accidentally locking him in, him spending the night in school alone, had he not been rude to her.

It did not make sense.

But the cup did.

The red in her cheeks, the dilated pupils, the smile on her lips, the wobbly steps, everything made sense. Like she said before, she brought her own drink. He could have not been this foolish. But he was and it made him narrow his eyes at her stumbling form. The last wobbly step had led her to the empty chair. But it was not the one he had pointed out. No. This one was the one beside him. Yuigahama sat on this chair. Still, it was quite a bit far away from him. He thought he could read again. No longer in silence, though.

The sound of the chair screeching nearer to his made him wince.

Shaking his head, he closed the book on his lap and put it on the table. No more reading for today, he thought, dismally. He watched her settle on the chair again. She was facing him now. Her elbow was resting on the table. She had taken a sip from her cup before and then, placed the cup back on the table. He got a chance to look at her beverage. The close proximity helped. He was careful not to lean too much.

"That's not coffee." He told her, unamused.

"Well to be fair, there used to be coffee in that cup not too long ago. But it ran out. And I couldn't be bothered to go to the café and get me some more of that cappuccino goodness. So, I decided to cut my losses and opened up the secret drawer in my table and poured myself a drink." She smiled, unashamed, licking her lips to savour the taste. "Vodka beats coffee everyday of the week."

"I-I will take your word for it." He mumbled, uncertain. Once again he was caught off guard. Distracted by the way her tongue came out from inside her mouth and swiped away the last droplets of her drink, he forgot to sound disapproving. "How many, um, cups have you had?"

"I didn't not have cups and cups of vodka Hikigaya. Despite what you might think of me, I am not so stupid. I don't want to get alcohol poisoning, you know." The woman giggled at his stupidity. "I had four shots of vodka. Not cups, okay."

"I don't know." He asked, uncertain. "Is four shots not too much?"

"…I can handle my liquor." Shizuka spoke, smug.

"I didn't hear a 'no', though." He spoke, disappointed. "Are you really alright?"

"…I'm fine." Shizuka spoke, defeated. "It's a Friday night. I thought I had a date. But apparently, he flew out of the country, got holed up in some rich hotel in Las Vegas and is probably getting drunk and laid tonight. He forgot to tell me about his plans though; slipped his mind probably, while he was snorting cocaine or something like that. Well, at least it is less embarrassing then getting stood up for the hundredth time. I think he sent me a text. Yeah, that's right. He broke up with me on a text. A text fucking message! And now here I am, drunk out of mind and telling you all this stuff, which you probably don't want to hear about, but I am telling it to you anyway. You know what; I will tell you the truth. I came here to cry! Okay? Are you happy? I expected this room to be empty. Those two told me they were heading out. It's Friday. Pretty self explanatory, right? I expected you to go with them. I expected you to be not here. But wouldn't you know, my expectations mean shit t this world! So, here you are and here I am and I don't know what I am doing anymore. So to answer your question, truthfully: No! I am not doing fine. There, are you happy."

"…I don't think anyone can be happy after listening to that." He mumbled, stupefied.

"Thank you!" Shizuka said, loudly. "Now you can go ahead and read your stupid book. I won't disturb your reading. Just imagine I'm not here alright and we will be fine."

"If you want some privacy, I can leave." He offered.

"No!" Shizuka protested. "…With you here, I won't cry. I don't think I have the strength for it, you know. Vodka can help only so much." She strengthened her resolve. "Think of it as a request: Stay with me and don't make me cry. You got it?"

"Okay." He replied.

He had no intention of making her cry.

Not today. Not ever.