Winter Bakery

14. Space

Hey
I wrote this with these songs in mind,
Arcade by Duncan Laurence and night dancer by imase .

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the chapter.

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"Jigi if you don't open this door, I'm breaking in." Fumiko stated raging fist on Jigi's door. Fumiko hears no sound nor motion from Jigi's room.

The lights of the setting sun shone underneath the door. Fumiko had this inkling feeling to open the door. The door was unlocked.

Jigi felt the bed dip as Fumiko sat down. Fumiko sighed and sadly pouted.

"This is a very bad initiation, Tomo." Fumiko softly spoke.

" What do you mean initiation?" Jigi mumbles underneath the blanket.

"You know my welcome party."Fumiko says wiggling her eyebrows.

"You going have to make up for it." Fumiko continues.

"You could start by going out for some ramen." She said.

The blanket slowly began to fall revealing Jigi and her scattered blonde hair as she longed at the beige coloured walls. She turned Fumiko with a tear stained face and bloodshot green eyes gazing at her.

"Come on. You're not going to let me go alone are you?" She asked with a sigh.

Jigi lifted herself in a way that her elbows were supported her upper body weight. Fumiko adorably pouted and blinked.

"Fine." She sniffled.
"I'm not coming because of your weird acting but you are right. Such a wrong way to 'initiate' you as you put it." Jigi sat up swung her foot onto the floor.

Fumiko squealed and grinned at Jigi. She grabbed Jigi's hand and rushed her out of the room.

They dressed in warmly, Jigi in fleece beige sweatpants with a baggy polo shirt and Fumiko in black joggers with white T-shirt and a black baseball cap underneath each were thermals. They locked the apartment behind them and began their little trek.

Jigi wanted them to take a train but Fumiko convincingly opted for a walk. The chilly breeze embraces them as they stride through the streets. The nautical twilight stretches in the sky colouring the skies with its mottled metal and ash hues.

They entered a store and made their way to the counter. Fumiko greeted the woman behind the counter in Japanese. I was obvious Fumiko regularly frequented the shop.

She quickly ordered for both of them and walked to their table with Jigi behind her. She was distant, had her fist in her pocket furiously biting her lips enough to draw blood.

They both took their seats facing each. They waited closed to ten minutes, individually tapping on their devices, before the food arrived.

She thanked the waitress as began to dig into their food. Jigi didn't notice she was that hungry. Obliviously she hadn't had anything to eat, She thought.

"Are you going to eat that?" Fumiko says breaking Jigi out her trance as she fidgets with her hair strand.

"What?" She says confused.

"Your ramen!" She said hungrily eyeing and slightly drooling. This was the second that day someone pulled her out of her trance.

"If you wanted one you could have at least ordered one for yourself." Jigi stated grabbing her chop sticks as her began slurping her noodle soup.

Jigi didn't know how much she was hungry until the spicy and delicious noodles swirled on her tongue. She couldn't help but moan at the dish.

"Talk to me!" Fumiko abruptly said out of the blue.

"What?" She looked up from her bowl and gazed into her eyes.

" You seem closed off, distant. What's happening with you? Tell me what's wrong."Fumiko says to her.

"I'm fine, nothing to worry about." She audibly mumbles.

"This doesn't look like nothing to me. What's wrong Jigi?" She asked again and Jigi sighed.

"Miss Toussaint noticed our disappearance the other night. I met her at the train station today. She threatened to fire me. I think she thinks I'm incompetent, problematic and a very useless employee." Jigi said.

" Wait! She said that?" Fumiko said a bit loudly causing head to be turned towards them. Jigi sunk into her seat.

"No, she didn't say that. I think so.  She might have implied that." Jigi explained.

"Aren't you overreacting?" Fumiko said shrugging.

"What? Seriously! Overreacting?" Jigi says raising her voice above her normally tone.

"I'm sorry. That shouldn't have come out." Fumiko apologised.

"So you were thinking that?" Jigi bitterly spat.

Fumiko winced and opened her mouth to speak but Jigi beat her to it.

"Come to think of it this is all your fault. If I hadn't gone with you." Jigi said slowly running her fingers through her hair.

"I was trying to help." Fumiko softly said.

" Maybe you should stop." Jigi said as a dark cloud loomed over them and deafening silence echoed around them.

" I'm sorry, Juniper." Fumiko sincerely apologised. 

Jigi sighed. They continued their meal in pin drop silence.

"Miss Toussaint thinks the incident was my fault." Jigi broke the silence.

"We both know it's not." Fumiko says.

" Is that what you're upset about?"  Fumiko asked.

" Not really. The woman thinks I'm trying to ruin her business." Jigi says.

"I'm worried about my father's business." Jigi continues.

"I don't see what your father has to do with this nor his business." Fumiko responds folding her arms on the table.

"In case you haven't noticed I work two jobs." Jigi said.

" I inherited my father's bakery late this September. I had just settled down here in Asnières-sur-seine, where I was actually born." Jigi said.

"We moved to United States after an incident that took my father's life. I don't know or recall what really happened my memory is hazy, do I remember, but my mother left me at a foster home and I never saw her again."

"I come back because my psychiatrist suggested that I get closure with whatever happened." Jigi explained.

"What about your mother?" Fumiko asks.

" I don't care about her. I saw this opportunity to get close to my father, through something he held dear, the bakery. I need the money from the diner, it pays more than the library does." Jigi explained.

" I was wondering why don't quit and to the diner full time then?" Fumiko asks.

"I was wondering the same. But I love working at the library. I want to renovate the bakery and continue my father's legacy." Jigi finishes.

"Is it you? Is it what you really want to do?" Fumiko asked.

Jigi paused in thought.

"Well, I lost myself for a long time. Right now. I want this." Jigi replied.

"You know I'm glad I spoke to you it great to talking to someone." Jigi breaths. She knew she needed answers but didn't know how. She knew she needed to reevaluate her situation and her stance regarding the bakery and her past.