12 Roses

18 | Life at the Fingertips

The day you were meant to leave the cabin, the old lady was no where to be found.

You searched in each room, finding no remnant of her even being in the building in the past few days, with dust all over the furniture like she wasn't doing chores every time you saw her.

"Didn't find her?" Maki asked as you walked into the living room. The luggage was all over, with each of your backpacks on the couch and all the suitcases, save for Panda's and Toge's, were open on the floor.

You shook your head and sat down next to your suitcase, folding up the last of the blankets you had and putting them in. "I wonder where she disappeared off to."

"I always just assume that she goes to the store in town."

"But she doesn't want to... send us off?"

Panda came in, throwing his hands in the air. "The food is gone!"

"Hey, airhead, Y/N's in here."

"Oh, sorry. All the food is gone!"

You tilted your head. "What?"

"I wanted something to eat before we hit the road and went to the kitchen, but there's nothing in the cabinets or fridge! The fridge isn't even on."

You and Maki glanced at each other before making your way to the kitchen to confirm Panda's findings. It was, indeed, barren of food, in spite of the fact that you definitely put at least twenty different ingredients and snacks in there when the old lady went to the shop.

You opened the fridge and, not only did the light not turn on, but the inside was empty, even of the leftovers from the night before.

With a confused hum, you closed the fridge and continued to pack up everything in spite of the mysterious disappearance of both the old lady and the food.

Soon enough, Maki's driver pulled up to the driveway.

He silently took everyone's luggage and you took it upon yourself to search the house one more time to both make sure that you didn't leave anything and to try and find the old lady. You hadn't even learned her name.

You searched every room in the house and found no one.

Strange.

You walked out to the car and climbed into the back with Toge, just like the ride to the cabin.

"Did you find the old lady?" Toge asked.

You shook your head. "You never caught her name?"

"No... she didn't talk about herself much."

"Well, now I feel rude for not asking."

It wasn't that you could ask anyway. She didn't seem to understand sign and all your interactions with her were friendly smiles.

For the most part, she wasn't even there.

You felt the vibration of the music as Panda took the aux and leaned against the window, smiling at the world going by. That was the first time you left Chisai for anything other than school.

You couldn't wait to tell Tsumiki about it.

•••

After a couple of hours, the van parked in Maki's estate's driveway and you began bringing your things inside so you could wait for your mom to pick you up.

It was a lot warmer in the city than it was out in the country. Not a flake of snow was on the ground and a chilling breeze was what told you that it was winter, except it wasn't nearly as cold as the snowflakes stinging your cheeks as they'd hit your skin.