After the Candles Go Out

Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to the genius of Ai Yazawa.

Summary: This chapter is based on Volume 6 of Ai Sensei’s manga, Nana. However this story is mine... this chapter is told in first person, from Hachi’s perspective.


Chapter 3: Noble Nobu


Nana, you know how impatient I can be sometimes. Trapnest will be gone on tour for six weeks. Six weeks!

Their tour ends on July 7th, with a concert here in Tokyo. What is it with us and sevens? It’s the Demon King! It must be! And it was the Demon King that brought him into my life...

Even though I have his email address and cell phone number programmed in my mobile phone, I don’t need to look at my contact list to dial it. I’ve memorized it.

He’s only been gone for one week, and already I feel like those ice cubes. You know the ones... we put an ice tray into that old freezer of ours, and it took forver to freeze. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that every time I pulled that tray out, anticipating a refreshing ice cold drink, I could see the water bubbling below a thin, fragile layer of the beginnings of ice.

Nana you told me to wait, and to leave it alone... but I never listen, do I? I wanted my tea to be iced, and I attempted to use the cubes before they had completed their metamorphisis from liquid to solid... the crystal outer shell completely dissolved within seconds of touching the room temperature tea.

Nana, I’m that fragile layer of crystal... he hasn’t called me, or emailed me, or answered his text message I sent him. You told me he was a player, and not to get too close to him.

I touched him Nana, and I dissolved.


“Nobuo” is what Nana calls him. That’s her nickname for Nobu, just as Hachi is her nickname for me. He is so carefree, and I can tell he admires Nana a great deal. The night he came tand knocked on 707’s door, he changed Nana’s life. He brought back music to her soul and played his guitar just for her.

Nobu is like me, he likes to see people happy. He makes us all smile with his self-depreciating ‘short’ jokes, and always tries to do the right thing, like stop drinking. He’s even trying to help Shin to stop smoking.

When I go to the studio and watch them rehearse, Nobu smiles at me while he plays his guitar...he’s a sweet young man, and doesn’t have a clue as to how fickle and impure I can be. I think Nobu idolizes women. He must, because he thinks I’m a good person.

Nobu... as I watch you play your guitar I notice that you’re not really that short, you just aren’t as tall as Yasu and Takumi. Takumi. Takumi. I need to forget about Takumi.

As you run your hand through your short hair I recall what Nana said to me, “Hey Hachi, Mizukoshi from the store, Takumi, and Shouji... you like long hair ne? Do you have a long hair fetish?”

I almost fell out of my chair. I over-reacted and tried to tell her I liked short haired guys, but Takumi’s hair, as he dragged it across and down my body ... and the way it curtained us off from the world as he laid on top of me and kissed me... I must forget about Takumi!

Why can’t I tell Nana about Takumi?

Why can’t I tell you, Nobu?

I can’t confide in anyone.

It’s been almost six months since Shouji... yes, Nobu, if you knew how fickle I am, you wouldn’t be smiling at me now.

******

“Ne Hachi, I’ll walk with you home.”

“But Nobu, it’s not in the same direction as your apartment, and you’ll be going out of your way.”

“Shin never comes home to the apartment anymore,” Nobu replied weakly, “It’s kind of lonesome there anyway. Is it ok with you?”

She smiled at him and nodded as they headed out together. The riverwalk was about 6 blocks from the studio, and the way the moon shimmered on the river made it look picturesque. Hard to believe I almost threw myself in that river six months ago, when I found out about Sachiko and Shouji.

Nobu kicked a pebble up the path as he walked.

She didn’t feel like she she had to span across the silence, it was comfortable just walking next to Nobu, even without talking.

“How’s your job as the food demonstrator coming for you Hachi?”

“It’s awesome Nobu, I get all the free food I want while I’m working!”

He laughed and kept kicking the pebble forward.

“I’m glad you like your new job Hachi. You seem happier now ... then before.”

Hachi knew what Nobu was referring to, he knew about Shouji and Sachiko.

“Ah well, yeah.” she admitted, “It wasn’t easy at first. You know I guess I was just numb at first...and then I wanted to scratch his eyes out...” She recalled the hurt she felt from Shouji’s betrayal, “And then I wanted to scratch HER eyes out.” Nobu kicked the pebble, and Hachi continued, “And then... I wanted him to feel it, every time I scratched someone else’s back in the throes of passion, I wanted him to feel it.” It was the most open she had ever been with Nobu.

He paused in the pathway... staring out to the river, watching the moon’s reflection dance across the surface. “And now?” he asked her softly.

Hachi looked down onto the pathway, studying the pebble that Nobu had abandoned.

“Now... I just don’t want to see him...I don’t want to know anything about him, or have him know anything about me.” She shrugged and reached back her foot, and kicked the pebble forward.

“I see.” was his only reply.

Hachi half skipped up to the pebble, “How about you, Nobu? Any new convenience store girls in your horizon?” He smiled at her reference to an earlier conversation they had had the night when she and he went out for beer and cigarettes, when Takumi and Ren had come over to Room 707 to play Mah Jong. Takumi.

“I am going to make music my priority now, Hachi.” He carried his guitar on his back with a shoulder strap, and readjusted it, as if to confirm his decision.

“I really want Blast to succeed. We’re good. We can make it. With Nana’s vocals, and our music, we can do this.”

Nana kicked the pebble again, and it strayed a bit from the path so she ran after it and picked it off the grass, returning it to the path. “And what about your job? What about your family?”

Nobu looked down at Hachi taking aim at the pebble and sighed, “My family wants me to go home and run the inn, and take over the business. They have high expectations of me, but none of those expectactions involve music. So I will continue to work part time, odd jobs, until Blast makes it.”

Hachi waited for Nobu to kick the pebble, and as if he read her mind, he complied.

“You’ll do it. It will happen. You’re right Nobu, Blast will make it! You’ll have so many fans, and crazy girls after you that you’ll forget about your meager beginnings, about the times you ate ramen for dinner every night, or the nights you had to sell your body for money.”

“WHAT?” Nobu proclaimed, “I think you’re mistaking me for Shin-kun!”

They both laughed... but Hachi thought about the night of the Mah Jong game, when Ren and Takumi had come over, she woke up the next morning with Shin in her bed. She remembered his words when she had asked him him what he was doing there, and did anything happen between them. “No, Hachi didn’t pay me.”

She took a deep breath, and lightly tugged onto Nobu’s guitar case as passed by her, assisting their companion, the pebble with it’s journey up the path. “Ne Nobu,” she said softly, “I worry about Shin... you don’t think...”

Nobu knew what she was going to ask, and he shrugged. “Shin is 15 going on 30, Hachi. He has been on his own for quite some time now. I think we should respect his privacy.”

“Right.” She agreed, “Ok, no more questions about Shin.” She ran up to stand next to the pebble... “Nobu, every time you kick this pebble, I want you to ask me something about me, ok? And each time I kick it, I will ask you something about you. We keep asking questions until we get home, or we lose the pebble. Ok?”

Her face was glowing in the moonlight. He walked up to her and smiled gently. Hachi was very pretty. She didn’t know it, but she was. He liked her hair... and her face... and her hands when she tried to explain something, how they went up to her lips... he liked the way her eyes grew larger when she was surprised, and she would seem to stare off into space. He liked everything about Hachi.

“How personal are we allowed to get?”

She looked down at the pebble and and then up to the evening sky. It was such a clear night, sprinkled with stars blinking softly down upon them.

“Sky’s the limit!” She smiled, looking back him.

He met her smile and his eyes bore into hers. She saw a glimmer of something. They sparkled. And then he nodded, “Hachi...” it was almost a whisper... “I think we need a bigger rock.”