Wakana sighed again. She stopped typing on her keyboard and headed to the break room. Opening a small drawer in the kitchenette, she found a tea bag, placed it in her mug, and poured hot water over it. Noticing the ripped tea bag wrapper, she saw a picture of Santa Claus printed on it. A limited-edition Christmas item, probably. The cute design soothed her for a moment, but a yawn escaped her as a wave of sleepiness hit. This is just the worst. She was already busy with the year-end rush. She really wished she hadn’t done what she did.
“Oh, Higuchi-san, what’s wrong?”
Wakana frowned. That voice belonged to him. Her junior coworker, Wataru Mizuno, was standing behind her. Wakana tilted her cup and simply said, “I’m just a little tired.” She just wanted to drink her tea and get away quickly. She knew this man had been watching her leave her desk and come over here.
“I’m tired too. Maybe I’ll take a break,” Mizuno said, picking up his own mug. He placed it right next to where Wakana had put hers just a moment ago.
(He deliberately put his cup right next to mine again…)
In the corner of her eye, she saw his long, bony fingers holding the cup. His slightly wavy black hair was glossy, and his large eyes were a striking feature beneath his sharp eyebrows. He was tall and slender. His personality was that of a typically trendy young man—lighthearted and talkative, sometimes saying things he shouldn’t. Still, he was considerate and quick-witted, so he was well-liked by everyone.
Even so, she found her junior coworker to be strange and wanted nothing to do with him. The most frustrating part was that she was probably the only one who felt that way.
He was three years younger than Wakana, and they had been working together since he joined the company. She had been assigned to train him, so they had a lot of contact, but it was strictly a work relationship. However, this year, he had suddenly confessed to her. She didn’t dislike him, but she remembered being incredibly surprised. Honestly, she only saw him as a coworker, and since Mizuno was popular with women, she didn’t want to cause any drama at work. She had turned him down on the spot, practically running away. But after that, his behavior toward her became increasingly strange.
Coming to her side whenever he got a chance was a regular occurrence. He would buy the same thing for lunch as her or give her gifts with a casual “This was a present for me~.” Those things were tolerable enough to let slide, since they were at work. But his activities gradually expanded.
On her days off, he would repeatedly “coincidentally” run into her on the street. During Tanabata, he hung a wish on a bamboo plant at a supermarket near her home, along with a child’s wishes, which read, “I want to be with Higuchi Wakana forever.” (She threw it away.) And the other day, on a snowy morning, she saw their names drawn inside a heart on the vacant lot in front of her apartment. When she questioned him, he just smiled and said he had gotten drunk after a party nearby.
Even though they worked together, she wondered when he had found out where she lived. His actions were slowly encroaching on Wakana’s private life. Everyone at work knew about Mizuno’s feelings for her, but because he always acted so goofy, no one took him seriously. As she thought about this and drank her tea, Mizuno pointed to her cup.
“Oh, Higuchi-san, I bought that! It’s a limited-edition Christmas one. I knew you were drinking it. You love the tea from that brand, don’t you? Yay!”
Mizuno made a peace sign and smiled happily. Her mood, which had just brightened a little, immediately soured.
“Mizuno-kun, you should do things like that for other girls…”
Mizuno looked bewildered.
“I love you, Higuchi-san, so that’s impossible. But I do my best to make sure everyone can work comfortably. Is something missing?”
His serious expression made Wakana feel drained.
“No, that’s not it. Just now, the project only moved forward because you skillfully negotiated with headquarters.”
He was undeniably reliable when it came to work, so she praised him honestly. She was his senior, but he had helped her out countless times.
“That’s great~. I love it when you praise me, Higuchi-san… My chest gets all tight. It’s so lovely. Big love.”
As he spoke, Mizuno discreetly slipped the tea bag wrapper she had torn open into his pocket. Wakana silently watched him. She no longer had the energy to call him out. Dealing with him was exhausting. As she stayed silent, Mizuno leaned in to look at her face.
“Um, Higuchi-san, I’ve been meaning to ask you something: you’ve been worried about something, haven’t you? Lately, you’ve been sighing more and stopping your work more often. You even went to the bathroom one more time than usual this morning.”
He really shouldn’t be paying attention to such things while he’s busy with work. It was creepy in so many ways. Wakana resisted the urge to snap back, “Half of it is your fault.” No, given the current situation, Mizuno’s stress was probably only about 30% of it. Wakana forced a smile and said, “It’s nothing.” She couldn’t tell anyone about this, not even someone who wasn’t Mizuno.
There might be a ghost in my apartment.
The whole thing probably—no, definitely—started at a drinking party with her coworkers at the beginning of the summer. As they approached their late twenties, more of their colleagues were getting married, and by the end of the party, some were expressing envy for the ones who couldn’t attend because they had families. Wakana didn’t care much about it, so she just listened.
Then, things got a little out of hand, and because it was summer, someone suggested they go on a test of courage at a mountain near the bar. She remembered one of the guys saying he had seen something about it online. Of course, Wakana wasn’t at all keen, but since she had never had any scary supernatural experiences, she figured there would be nothing there. She had even been forced by a friend to go to a haunted spot in college, and while everyone else was complaining about heavy shoulders and feeling sick, she had been perfectly fine.
They piled into a coworker’s car, who hadn’t been drinking, and drove up the mountain, which was supposedly a hotbed for paranormal activity. The road wound around and around to the top, and she did remember feeling a little sick from the turns. They were told there might be something at an old rest stop at the summit, but it was closed, of course. Everyone’s mood suddenly died down, and they just went home. That was it. But since then, strange things had started happening at Wakana’s house.
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