“Don’t grin at me.”
“Am I? Oh, Higuchi-san, you haven’t changed?”
“I didn’t want to be in my room, so I was outside until now.”
In the elevator lobby, a few residents were waiting for the elevator. A couple holding convenience store bags and a young woman who was clearly on her way to her boyfriend’s place—it made her realize it was Christmas Eve.
(And here I am, about to go ghost-hunting with a stalker of a junior coworker…)
When the elevator arrived, she got in with Mizuno. The small space was packed, and the people around them were clearly put off by Mizuno’s large amount of luggage.
“My apologies. I really should have stayed with you the whole time.”
The man said this, not seeming to mind the crowd.
“It’s fine. You had to prepare something, right? I’m the one who asked you to do this, so if anything, I’m sorry…”
“Higuchi-san…”
“Besides, I don’t want people from the company to see us together…”
“I’d love for them to see us together.”
He shouldn’t say things like that when other people were around. After inviting him into her apartment, Mizuno still looked delighted, despite the circumstances, and was looking around the room. Wakana watched him with a weary expression. This morning, she had been in such a panic that her clothes were scattered all over the place. She had wanted to come back earlier just to clean up a bit. She knew he’d make a huge fuss if he saw the mess.
“This is Higuchi-san’s room! Oh, this mini tree is cute. I have the exact same one!”
“That’s because you suddenly showed up while I was shopping and bought the same one.”
“Actually, I baked a Christmas cake. Let’s eat it together… Ah! My hands are tied up, so it might be a little messy… Ugh, I went to all the trouble of making it.”
Wakana felt a pang of sadness, wondering why he was like this despite being so smart and popular. Mizuno leaned so close to the wall his face was nearly touching it, breathing heavily.
“…I can smell Higuchi-san’s scent. It’s Christmas Eve, just the two of us in Higuchi-san’s apartment… I’ve always dreamed of being invited into your room.”
“You sound happy.”
“Yes! I’m happy!”
He beamed at her with a wide smile, and Wakana looked at him with suspicion.
“I know I asked you to come, but… this isn’t all part of your plan, is it?”
“Part of my plan?”
“Like you teamed up with my coworker, got me to go to a haunted spot on purpose, and now it’s ‘ghost phenomena chance!’ or something.”
“That sounds like a slot machine game. But I really had no idea this was happening, and I’m genuinely doing this for you, Higuchi-san.”
“I wonder about that…”
“I’m serious. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I love you more than anyone else, Higuchi-san.”
His serious tone silenced Wakana. There it was again. It wasn’t his usual cheerful facade. Feeling strangely flustered, she looked away. In the reflection on the window, she could see the closet behind her. A large, white face with a wide-open mouth was in the gap. The mouth, like a gaping hole, was moving incessantly. And below that face, another face peeked out. Wakana screamed.
“D-d-d-did you see that?! O-over there…!”
Mizuno turned around. But seeing nothing, he just groaned.
“I see. So it’s one of those ‘you can see it but can’t catch it’ types. I guess it’s time for this.”
Saying that, Mizuno turned his backpack toward Wakana.
“Sorry, my hands are full. Could you open this for me?”
With trembling hands, Wakana opened the large backpack. She froze when she saw what was inside: a large number of long, cylindrical objects.
“Flypaper!”
The room fell silent. Mizuno’s face was flushed, and his expression was strained.
“That was a bit of a flop…”
She saw more of the same cylinders in a shopping bag he was holding.
“It’s flypaper. If you hang these all over the room, you can catch ghosts right away. I brought a lot of them.”
“Huh?”
“The adhesive on these is super strong, so it’s a real pain if you accidentally get stuck.”
“No, no, no, no, that can’t be right! How could something so physical work on a ghost?”
“But it works wonders. In college, we had a car accident after going to a haunted spot, and the paranormal stuff got really bad. But my mom told me to use these, and it all stopped. Sorry, can you let go of my hand so I can set them up?”
“This is impossible, impossible, impossible! Aaaah! I was an idiot to invite you over!”
“It’s okay! I haven’t been able to… get off to anything but you lately, but I can control myself, and I only want consensual, loving sex, Higuchi-san.”
“That’s not what I mean!”
Ignoring her distress, Mizuno started humming as he put up flypaper all over the room, hanging it from the ceiling and sticking it to the walls. In an instant, Wakana’s room was covered in long, shimmering strips of paper. The ones he had brought were longer and wider than the ones she remembered seeing at her grandparents’ house, so long they touched the floor. Feeling defeated, Wakana thought they looked like a bunch of Ittan-momen yokai.
“Alright, that should do it. Higuchi-san, it’s cold, but let’s go outside for a bit.”
“It’s all over… How much does it cost to move… There goes my bonus…”
“It’s okay. I brought warm tea. It’s in a thermos, so it’s still hot. We can’t use the kitchen anymore, so let’s drink it out here together.”
Mizuno closed the curtains and went out onto the balcony, beckoning Wakana to follow. A blast of cold air hit her body as she stepped outside.
“Let’s wait here for a little while.”
“…Please clean all of that up before you go home.”
“Oh, come on! I will. Anyway, aren’t you cold, Higuchi-san?”
Before she could answer, he put a coat over her shoulders. It smelled faintly of him. He, in his black sweater, poured tea from the thermos.
“The cold air feels nice… Since we have this moment, I’ll tell you how I fell in love with you.”
“Why?”
“When I first joined the company, I was pretty disliked, right?”
Wakaba looked at him, puzzled. She fumbled for a response.
“You were? I don’t know…”
Mizuno laughed, as if he knew she would say that. It was a quiet laugh, unlike his usual one, and Wakana found herself staring at his expression. Because of his quick learning and sharp mind, he was a target of jealousy and strange rumors, like that he was a womanizer. He was actually quite good at turning them down.
“But you never cared about any of that, Higuchi-san. You treated me normally, worried about my health, and would always talk to me, like saying I could come in late if it was going to snow tomorrow. People treated me like I was a prodigy who didn’t need any help, but you taught me my job properly, even though you said you were bad at it yourself.”
“That last part was unnecessary, wasn’t it?”
“But Higuchi-san, even though you’re kind, you’re also surprisingly dry and keep a clear line between work and private life. It’s like you don’t let anyone get too close. I like that, too, but before I knew it, I wanted to get closer. I know you were only nice to me because it was your job. But it made me happy. Honestly, most things don’t matter much to me, but you, Higuchi-san, you’re the one thing that does. I’m not good at explaining it, but I truly love everything about you—the way you think, the way you approach things. Even though you think I’m creepy, you still praise me when I do a good job.”
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