Kaori already has her bowling shoes on as she waits at one of the tables. Her skinny jeans are ripped in that fashionable way. Her top is pastel pink baby doll dress that was cut short. She shakes her leg in impatience as her eyes go from the door and back to the menu that she holds in her hands. Where was Nobu? And what did she want to eat anyways? Might as well go with the onion rings. You couldn’t go wrong with onion rings. She gives the order to the waiter, leaving her without a menu to occupy her. Giving an exasperated sigh, she has half a mind to text him to hurry up.

Aww yiss, if there was any reason to get hella krunk, it was bowling; if your definition of 'getting hella krunk' was sitting in a chair eating nachos in a low-energy activity. Kaori sure knew him well! How could he say 'no' to such an appealing invitation? Nobu calmly strode into the bowling alley. Pleased with himself; pleased with the smell of old carpet and floor-wax, and quite pleased with the sight of his loving cousin. He approached her without any particular amount of enthusiasm or haste. It was the same amount of energy he gave everything else, why make today any different?

He was particularly quiet in his movement as he was never particularly speedy, and he hated dragging his feet. He wasn't a fan of greetings, either. He just decided to stroll up behind her and join in. He watched her for a moment, letting his mind wander in the last moments he had to himself. It was a strange moment for him. He couldn't help but feel like he was crossing a barrier between being 'alone' and being with another person. There she was, standing right before him, yet as far as she knew, she was alone. In fact, everyone in this building was technically in the same room; yet, nobody considered themselves in the company of anyone but strangers. Maybe that was what true loneliness was; it wasn't about who you could talk to -- it was who you felt comfortable with.

'What a profound thought...! That's going in the journal,' he mused.

"Shhh, let me write," Nobu insisted to his cousin, as if she were making any noise above a sigh. He didn't mean to imply that her sigh was too loud, but the first thing he needed to communicate was the value of his concentration. He flipped the tiny, note pad from the chest pocket of his navy-blue coat. His scarf drooped between his elbows as he hunched over the counter, jotting down:

'Sat, Sept 3, 2020, 12:30pm,

True loneliness is not about who you how many people you talk to,
it's the value measure of value you place on your company.'

Nobu tapped the back of his head with the pencil he carried, mulling over whether that was truly the quote he wanted to summarize his concept as a whole. Finally, he decided that he could trust his cousin to speak up on the matter. He didn't take his eyes from the paper, but he wagged the pencil between them, seeking a very specific kind of input from her.

"Okay, so help me out, here. When I spoke to you, did it suddenly feel like we were roped together? Did you think to yourself, 'There is Nobu, I should accompany him,' or, 'Nobu-san has arrived, he is now an indivi--' Uh... no, scratch that..." Nobu shook his head and rephrased the question that brewed in his stewing chaos of thoughts. "Was it, 'There is Nobu-san, I should accompany him,' or, 'Nobu-san has arrived, I now have company?'" Nobu looked at her from the corner of his eyes. His wide brown eyes locked with hers expectantly.

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS  & THQ

Staring at the ceiling, counting the tiling, Kaori doesn’t notice Nobu come in until hushes her. She rolls her eyes and gives an exasperated sigh. Of course, Nobu wouldn’t leave his notebook at home. She tries to peek at what he is writing, but it is mostly hidden from her. She’s about to stand up when Nobu asks a question.

She shakes her head at the question, her pigtails moving from side to side, before she answers, “Roped together? Doesn’t that imply that either (1) we are destined for each other or (2) we were forced into this situation? I mean, I love you, Nobu, but not in the red string kind of way. And I invited you. And you came willingly, I believe. So there was no force. And no, my thought was ‘Nobu-kun has finally showed up and now I get to trounce him in bowling’. However, if you are forcing me into one or the other, it would be the second. Generally, the first would be use if we ran into each other by accident and the second if I was waiting for someone.”

Her eyes go towards the waiter who is running around other tables and picking up orders. “I ordered onion rings. Is there anything you want? Soda? Water?”

"Uuugh--," Nobu groaned, far from shocked that his cousin would be less than co-operative. His posture straightened as his head rolled back. His eyes closed, nearly weep with exasperation as he desperately tried to get her back on topic. His head finally turned to her, a sort of disappointed expression crying out for an honest response. "Some Nachos and a ginger-ale -- but that's not the point! It doesn't have to be 'strings.' Don't you find it strange that in a building filled with friendly, every-day people like ourselves; you find yourself bored without me?" 

Nobu's fingers spread, his hands bouncing off each other by the fingertips. "Think of it as a bubble, then. Only the people you are expecting to be with are in your bubble, yet the strangers around you aren't even perceived..! They are wonderful, free thinking people like us; yet we all choose to ignore each other. Concepts like 'intuding' and 'eavesdropping' are ingrained upon us, yet we all desperately crave meaningful relationships with other people."

Nobu shrugged, sighing. "It seems counter-intuitive to earning meaningful moments like these. It's a blessing to spend a day with loving family, but people aren't looking to meet new friends! Or, at least; there's a culture we obey that holds us from reaching out."

He started feeling guilty for selfishly turning the conversation to be exclusively about his musings of the world around him. He rubbed his arm as he apologized to Kaori. "I know you don't really care about this stuff, but you know what I've been going through, lately. This sort of stuff has been annoying me. Our world gets smaller every day; we shouldn't try to make it smaller for the convenience of management alone."

Nobu blinked twice before bending back over and jotting:

Sat, Sept 3, 2020, 12:34pm

Our world gets smaller every day;
we shouldn't try to make it smaller
for the convenience of management.

He huffed once again, growing tired of ranting about what he imagined was worthless banter to his cousin. He tried to see if he could squeeze one last insight from his cousin before going to renting a pair of shoes. "I don't really know. Do you think people are friendly enough as a whole? I mean, your focus was clearly on me, your guest; as opposed to your social standing in the room. You didn't need to stare at the ceiling; you could have met some new people while you waited! You never know; someone in this room might save the world some day!"

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS  & THQ

Kaori flags the waiter over as Nobu goes on. “Can we add a ginger ale and nachos to our order? Thanks.” Turning her attention to the crowd, she sees everyone else enjoying time with their respective friends and family. “It’s not that strange. I mean, everyone has put themselves in groups. And intruding would be awkward for everyone.”

Kaori shakes her head, “There is a time and place to meet new people. The bowling alley is not the right location. People come here with their own parties. There are unspoken rules about making new friends and acquaintances. I guess, they are all background right now.”

She leans forward on to the table, resting her head in her hands. “You are probably the only person in all of Tokyo who is concerned about that. The world is growing smaller, but we probably weren’t going to see much of it anyways. So does all this mean you want to talk to someone else and ask them to bowl with us then?”

She raises an eyebrow as Nobu says someone here could save the world. She looks over to a group of young men acting like frat boys and a few grabbing their own crotches. “Somehow, I highly doubt that. Besides, no single person could save an entire world. That seems kind of farfetched.”

"Well, It certainly feels like I'm the only one," Nobu replied, his eyes drooping shut in reluctant defeat. "The last five years have been... well; like this, really. I can't help but feel like there's a part of myself, if not the entire world that I'm missing out on. I just feel like those unspoken rules are wrong I guess."

Nobu folded his arms over the counter covering up his note pad in quiet contemplation. "I'm not saying that we should go make some people uncomfortable with baseless invitations -- but I just..." Nobu needed to pause, honestly unsure how he could explain himself without repeating himself over and over. "I'm just critiquing the culture without much expectation for change. I just thought you might find the new perspective as interesting as I do."

With that, Nobu finally gave up on trying to be a philosopher. It was tiring work to think on such a grand scale. He imagined it would be best to drop the conversation into her court. After all, they were here to catch up with each other. "... but never mind that, how's your cheer-squad practice been, lately?"

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS  & THQ

“That’s the way people are. We always have been. I don’t think anyone is about to change it. Social interactions always have unwritten laws. Feel free to break social norm if you like, but don’t expect much reciprocation for your efforts,” Kaori says, “But this conversation is getting kind of bleak.”

She smiles as the conversation turns to familiar territory. “We’re trying to get ready for competition. It’s a month into the semester, so all the new people are beginning to understand the routine. However, I don’t think there is enough to make us stand out. I don’t really want us to fall into a crowd of dozens of other squads. I just can’t think of anything that will give us an edge though. And there is a push to do some advance stunts, but I’m a little worried some of the girls will just end up hurting themselves.”

The smell of food catches her nose and she turns her head. Onion rings and nachos. “So how about you and Taiko? When will we get to watch you perform again?”

"Taiko and I, oh; we got milk-shakes just the other day. He's a pretty great guy." Nobu answered, barely containing his laughter. "Well , honestly, though aside from 'hit drum with stick, hit drum with other stick' -- Minami Mao threw her Bachi at me last week. She missed, luckily; but that doesn't mean it was because of me. Yori-san ended up breaking up with her, so she just threw it at the first guy she saw, I guess. She was 'excused' from practice."

Nobu raised a palm as he offered his personal insights on the matter. "If she was that bothered, I don't think she should be coming to practice in the first place. We were perfecting our flams all day, anyways; so she'd probably of ended up putting both Bachi through the drum in her fit, hehehe." Nobu ended up swirling a pointed finger at his cousin, poking fun at her vague referance to 'advanced' stunts. "So what have they got you doing that's so 'advanced'? Unless they have the team trying to form a tower, and do a 'full-team' cartwheel' from it, I might have grounds to say that Taiko Practice is just as dangerous..!"

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS  & THQ

Kaori cracks a smile at the joke, but fakes an exasperated tone, “Oh. Come on, you know what I mean…” She listens to the interpersonal dynamics of the Taiko players while starting to nibble on an onion ring. “Yeah, it is hard to practice with people who are having a bad day. Do I need to rough this girl up for messing with my cousin though?” she says.

She nods when he says that the girl shouldn’t have come in. “Whenever someone on our team is having a rough time, we normally let them have a practice day off. Then a member of the team might talk to them or we’ll take them out or something. Last thing, we needs is one of the girls to be lost in thought and drop someone.”

She raises an eyebrow as Nobu says Taiko drumming was just as dangerous. “Have you ever torn your ACL while drumming? One of our girls was out for a whole semester, but probably should have taken off longer. Broken bones happen every so often and chronic pain problems are commonplace. But I can show you what I mean by advanced stunts.” She takes out her phone, finds a video, and passes it to him. The group of girls somewhat shakily practice an A-frame. “We need to do that but faster. A lot faster.”





Reference: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU7RATEPd0o

Nobu leaned in to watch his cousin's video. He didn't need to see it to know that cheerleading was dangerous. After all, he'd seen her during the sports events. It was sort of strange to attend a sport, just to cheer on the cheerleaders; but it was what he and his parents did.

"Honestly, though; kidding aside," Nobu insisted. "... I can't believe they let you do half of these things. "In sports, you can put on a helmet or something, but no matter how you look at it -- there's no real padding you can wear that protects you from," obu's palm rose to the sky, as if he were panhandling for empathy. He eventually gave up, weakly concluding, "...well, the ground, I guess! You can't cheerlead, looking like the Michelen man..!"

It wasn't until then, that Nobu truly noticed his Nachos. He popped the cheesiest one he could find into his mouth, before adding, "I really hope the school board recognizes it as a sport -- because there needs to be better safety equipment for such a thing than knee-high socks and pom-poms."

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS  & THQ

“There’s something exhilarating about it, you know? I don’t really think about the danger as I’m doing it, but when I step back, I’m like ‘whoa, I can’t believe I did that.’ As for padding… well, that’s what bases and supports are for!” Kaori jokes, laughing a little at herself.

“Some places we’ll put out mats, but there isn’t a lot in terms of safety for cheerleaders. It’s cool though. Me and the ground are well acquainted. I think I’ll invite it to my wedding whenever that happens. Besides, I look so cute in knee high socks and pom poms.” She eats a few more of the onions rings while looking at the alleys.

“What was the score between us last time? I don’t remember… I think it was close.”