It was only ten in the morning and Hachi felt like her skin was melting off with the heat. Even now, no amount of fans and cool face cloths against her forehead could make the weather any more bearable. As she laid down across one of the benches, Hachi tilted her head backwards, longingly looking at the place where Nana had suggested purchasing a small wall air conditioner for days like that. Hachi, of course, had insisted otherwise. After all, it had never been this hot before—though the town she grew up in certainly had more breezes during the summer.
Hopelessly she whined and kicked her feet against the side of the chair, feeling the way the leather stuck to the back of her legs. Minutes passed before Hachi sat up, letting the now warm towel drop from her face.
If only Nana were here, her mind wandered as she puttered around apartment 707 in search of anything ice cold to cool her down. She opened the fridge to find it barren, save for a few half-used bottles of condiments, and some eggs. There was also half a bottle of wine left over from the ‘girl’s night in’ her and Nana had two nights ago but even just the thought having alcohol right now turned her stomach over. Even if it was only a few days old, the memory of the ‘girl’s night in’ still made her heart warm.
Nana protested the naming of it as such, asking loudly as she flung herself and her bag onto the bed that the pair had somehow began sharing a few weeks back, “Why do we have to call it that if it’s just like every other night where we drink and listen to music?”
“Because I bought us some wine and I want to make it special,” Hachi responded from the other room with finality before pulling down their two glasses and pouring a hefty amount into each. Wine glasses had seemed like such a superfluous and unnecessary purchase all those months ago. Staring back at her was the same kind of purchase, but the one that Hachi had insisted on and Nana had relented.
Bringing the filled strawberry cups into the bedroom, she saw Nana shake her head in amusement and reach out to grab onto one of the cups. And if Hachi lingered on the feeling of Nana’s long, jewelry-clad hand briefly pressed against hers, so be it.
It was so easy to stay like this with Nana, for Hachi to let her body fall related against the plush pillows of Nana’s bedroom. She had only a few littered across her unkept bed, but if Hachi tilted her head just the right way she could know for certain that it was Nana’s—the smell was far too distinct.
By the time that Hachi had found her lounging position on the bedspread, Nana was already up and filing through the records in the corner of her room. Hachi wondered what those long fingers would truly feel like wrapped around hers, what it would feel like to have Nana gaze at her with the forlorn, desperate eyes. She wondered how different it would feel to be a record under Nana’s control, to be one that Nana revered.
Finally, Nana threw her body back down onto the couch as an unfamiliar song pricked to life in the player. Horns would have overwhelmed the statue had the rest of the orchestrations be there. It was by no means punk, but on the outset it was at least interesting.
‘You’re just to good to be true
Can’t take my eyes off of you’
“It’s a nice song,” Hachi insisted, leaning backwards against the pillows of Nana’s bed until the pair were nearly nose-to-nose.
“Yeah,” Nana confirmed with a particular glint to her eye, “Romantic, even.”
‘You’d be like heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much’
“Well,” Hachi huffed out a breath of air and yet still felt Nana’s physical advances more forward, though to consider it as anything more than friendship felt as if they were crossing an invisible boundary that barely kept them apart, “Romance is always an interesting topic.”
“How so?” She could not help but feel the light touch burn brighter at the contact, slender fingers barely ghosting over her bicep.
“At long last, love has arrived
And I thank God I’m alive."
Hachi kept her eyes softly gazing at Nana though, feeling her face heat up as she spoke, “It makes you feel so much at once, isn’t that interesting? All of us feel it so differently but we know it when we hear it, we know it when someone sings it to us.”
“Huh,” Nana’s hand disappeared as quickly as it had been there, as the singer flopped onto her back with a short breath of laughter, “You think a hell of a lot more about love than any other girl I’ve met, Hachi.”
She flushed even harder, sitting up on one elbow, the other hand reaching out to gently push Nana, “Oh like you aren’t just as lovesick as I am!” Pointedly, she did not mention about whom. Nana would know she meant Ren—wouldn’t she?
The way Nana’s eyes looked over her, though, Hachi could no longer be too sure. The songstress’ lip quirked up, “Yeah, just the same.”
The song petered out to its final chorus, and Hachi found herself unable to tear away from the dark, intense eyes. Finally though, both women sat up to down the remainder of their wine glasses and pour another.
Glasses poured and songs were played and all the while Hachi found herself already wistful for this time. It would be lovely to have this again, to know this closeness to Nana from here on out. Perhaps it was unrealistic, though.
Falling asleep in the bed together, a pillow shared between them and legs tangled together—Hachi considered the fact this was not an unrealistic future.
Hachi shut the refrigerator door, a small handful of ice in her hand, brought back from the memory with a click at the front door. She glanced over, already knowing of course who was there.
Nana stood in the doorway, a bottle of wine in one hand, a bag from the record store in the other, “Just don’t call it a girl’s night in or whatever.”
Hachi beamed.