Spirited Away: The Awkward Rom-Com After Chihiro and Haku's Reunion
A year has passed since Chihiro returned from the mysterious bathhouse, Aburaya. Now a high school student, she's bored out of her mind. The promise she made with Haku, the dragon boy, is a constant weight on her heart.
One day, a transfer student arrives. "Nice to meet you, Chihiro Ogino. I am Nigihayami Kohaku," he says with a dead serious face. He's definitely Haku, but he's acting all human and weird about it! And since he's super handsome, the whole school goes into a frenzy!
But for some
Spirited Away: The Awkward Rom-Com After Chihiro and Haku's Reunion - The Words of a Liar and the Sound of Water in a Culvert
Saturday night gave way to Sunday morning.
The moment Ogino Chihiro opened her eyes in bed, yesterday's conversation with Rin replayed in her head. The law of border-crossing, twelve days remaining, Haku's spiritual power fading—and Haku's plan to erase Chihiro's memories and vanish alone.
*(I will never forgive that.)*
Chihiro flung off her futon with force. The clock by her pillow read seven in the morning.
From her pocket, she took out the contract tag she'd picked up yesterday. The wooden tag from Aburaya held a faint warmth in her palm. As if it were proof that Haku's heart was still beating.
"[firm] I'm giving this back—and then I'm making you tell me everything."
After changing quickly, Chihiro dashed down the stairs.
"[surprised] Oh my, Chihiro, good morning. You're up early for a Sunday."
Her mother, reading the newspaper in the living room, looked up. Chihiro grabbed the milk carton from the fridge and spoke as she poured herself a glass.
"[casual] Yeah, I've got something to do. I'm going to a friend's house."
"[gentle] Oh, I see. Be careful."
She downed the milk in one go. The sensation of the cold liquid passing down her throat eased her tension, just a little.
*(It's fine. I'm angry. Because I'm angry, I'm not scared.)*
Telling herself that, Chihiro burst out the front door.
The sky was perfectly clear. The spring sunlight brightly illuminated the residential streets of Mikasa Town.
Chihiro pulled out her smartphone and opened the map Rin had given her yesterday. Haku's boarding house was an old apartment building about a ten-minute walk from Mikasa Station—Tsubaki Manor. Rin had quietly looked it up for her during the night.
"[muttering] ...Rin-chan, you work fast only at times like this."
Muttering quietly, Chihiro started walking.
Along the way, she rehearsed in her head what she would say.
*(First, I'll thrust the contract tag at him. 'You dropped this.' Then, I'll tell him I heard everything from Rin-chan. About the law of border-crossing, about the memory seal. And then—)*
"[firm] —'Don't you dare try to erase my memories without my permission.' That's what I'll say."
Chihiro clenched her fist.
Yeah, perfect. With this, Haku would have to give in.
Nodding with satisfaction, Chihiro quickened her pace.
She passed through the rotary in front of the station and circled around to the back of the old shopping district. The buildings grew older and the streets narrower as she went. It was an area lined with wooden apartments that looked at least thirty years old.
And then—she found Tsubaki Manor.
A two-story, weathered apartment building. The paint on the walls was peeling, and the mailboxes were rusted. A few bicycles were parked haphazardly in the bike rack.
"[whispers] ...Here, huh."
Chihiro caught her breath.
*(Haku's been in a place like this, all alone.)*
Something deep in her chest tightened painfully.
Chihiro climbed the exterior stairs and stood before the furthest door on the second floor—Room 203.
There was no nameplate or anything on the door. But from inside the room, she could sense a faint sound of water—no, a subtle presence of spiritual power, like the sound of water.
*(He's here.)*
Chihiro took a deep breath.
Her heart was pounding loudly.
*(It's fine. I just have to say what I practiced.)*
*(First, the contract tag. 'This is something you dropped'—)*
Chihiro reached her finger toward the intercom.
—*Ding-dong.*
No response.
Once more.
—*Ding-dong, ding-dong.*
A third time.
—*Ding-dong-dong-dong-ding-dong!*
"[angry] Hey, Haku! I know you're in there! Open up!"
Before she knew it, Chihiro was pounding on the door with her fist. The scenario she'd rehearsed in her head had flown somewhere far away.
"[angry] I heard everything from Rin-chan! About the law of border-crossing, about the memory seal—I'm never going to forgive that!"
The sound of banging on the door echoed through the narrow hallway.
"[angry] If you're planning to disappear in twelve days, why are you trying to take my memories too?! My memories are mine! You have no right to just erase them!"
*Bang, bang, bang.*
"[angry] ———Haku!!"
Just as Chihiro shouted once more—
*Click.*
The sound of a lock turning, and the door quietly opened.
Chihiro's fist swung through empty air.
Standing beyond the door was, without a doubt, Nigihayami Kohaku. Deep greenish-black straight hair. Swaying faintly even though there was no wind. And—cold emerald-green eyes that betrayed not a single fragment of emotion.
"[cold] ...You're noisy, Chihiro."
A low, flat voice.
At that voice, something cold ran down Chihiro's spine.
But—like hell she'd back down.
"[angry] Noisy is fine! I want to talk to you!"
Chihiro pulled the contract tag from her pocket and thrust it before Haku's eyes.
"[angry] This is yours, isn't it! You dropped it! I'm returning it!"
Haku's gaze flickered toward the contract tag for just an instant. But it immediately returned to Chihiro's face. His expression was as cold and hard as a marble statue.
"[cold] ...You came all this way for something like that?"
"[angry] What do you mean, 'something like that'?! This is what you—at Aburaya—"
"[cold] I don't need it anymore."
"[surprised] ...What?"
Haku snatched the contract tag from Chihiro's hand and—
*Snap.*
Without hesitation, he broke it in two.
"[surprised] Wha—what are you doing?!"
Before Chihiro could even finish shouting, Haku dropped the broken tag onto the floor. The wooden tag, which had held a faint glow, lost its power in an instant and became nothing more than a piece of wood.
"[cold] This is over. Go home."
Something began spinning wildly inside Chihiro's head.
*(Just now, Haku—broke—the contract tag?)*
*(That was his connection to Aburaya. Proof that Haku still belonged to the spirit realm.)*
*(He—broke it?)*
"[angry] ...Why."
Her voice trembled.
"[angry] Why would you do that?! Without that, you—"
"[cold] It doesn't matter."
Haku's voice was cold as a blade.
"[cold] I'll disappear soon enough. With or without the contract, it's the same."
"[angry] That's why—that's why you're just deciding you'll disappear?! There are still twelve days left! If we look for a way during that time—"
"[cold] There is no way."
Haku said it with finality.
"[cold] The law of border-crossing is absolute. Once the enforcer Ubara moves, any resistance is meaningless. That's why—I will seal your memories. If you don't remember me, you won't have to be hurt."
"[angry] That's—that's insane!"
Chihiro's voice rang through the hallway.
"[crying] Whether I get hurt or not is for me to decide! It's not something you get to decide on your own! You're always like this—even back at Aburaya, you shouldered everything alone! Without telling me anything!"
Tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
But she wouldn't cry yet. Absolutely not. Not in front of him.
Chihiro bit her lip and glared at Haku.
"[cold] ...Chihiro."
Haku spoke her name for the first time.
In that voice, for just a moment—just the briefest moment—she thought she sensed emotion mixed in.
But in the next instant, it was gone.
"[cold] I'll be honest."
Haku looked straight into Chihiro's eyes.
Deep emerald-green eyes pierced through her.
"[cold] —I have never thought of you as someone I like."
Sound vanished from the world.
"[cold] I came to the human world to prepare for the memory seal. Even when I was at Aburaya, you were just a colleague in a contractual relationship. Nothing more, nothing less."
*(—Liar.)*
Something inside Chihiro was screaming.
*(Liar. Liar, liar, liar. Because, because—)*
Haku's voice was trembling faintly. The same way it trembled that time behind the school building when he told her to forget him.
*(When you lie, your voice trembles.)*
*(I—know that.)*
But.
Even so.
Words are blades.
Blades pierce, regardless of the other person's true intentions.
"[cold] Don't waste your time on me. Forget, and live a normal—"
"[crying] —Enough, already."
A hoarse voice escaped Chihiro's lips.
Her vision blurred.
Something hot ran down her cheeks.
*(Ah—)*
*(I'm crying.)*
*(I'm crying, in front of Haku.)*
Once the dam broke, she couldn't stop it.
Large tears spilled down, one after another. The back of her nose stung sharply, her throat tightened, and she couldn't produce a voice.
"[sad] ...Nn, u..."
She wanted to retort, but the words wouldn't form.
*(I know it's a lie, but—)*
*(But, this is—)*
"[crying] ...Liar."
She forced the word out, then turned her back.
And—she ran.
She dashed down the exterior stairs.
Her vision warped with tears. Her feet nearly tangled beneath her. Still, she ran. Through the alley in front of the apartment, toward the shopping district.
Haku might have said something. He might have chased after her.
But she couldn't tell.
Deep in her ears, only the sound of her heartbeat pounded, *thump, thump.*
—Haku watched Chihiro's retreating back.
He stood motionless in the second-floor hallway, his hand still on the doorframe.
His expression—he hadn't managed to kill all emotion.
His deep emerald-green eyes narrowed. A wrinkle formed between his brows, and his lips trembled faintly.
"[whispers] ...Chihiro."
The voice that spoke her name was hoarse and trembling, as if the coldness from moments before had been a lie.
Scattered at his feet, the broken contract tag.
Looking down at it, Haku—quietly closed his eyes.
Chihiro kept running.
Through the shopping district, through the residential area, toward her own house.
The wind stroked her cheeks. The lukewarm spring wind felt cold against her tear-wet skin.
Inside her pocket—something was growing warm.
The contract tag.
The one Haku was supposed to have broken just now.
*(That one—was a fake.)*
Haku had switched it the moment he took the tag from Chihiro. She still had the real one. What he broke was just a piece of wood.
But—right now, Chihiro didn't have the capacity to accept that warmth.
"[crying] ...Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot."
She muttered to no one in particular as she ran.
*I've never liked you.*
*Just a colleague.*
*I only came for the memory seal.*
Haku's voice repeated over and over in her head. She knew his voice had trembled. She knew it was proof he was lying. She knew all of it—and still, the words pierced her.
*(If you're going to say things like that—)*
Chihiro bit her lip.
*(—Then don't disappear.)*
She arrived home.
When she opened the front door, her mother was folding laundry.
"[surprised] Oh, Chihiro—wait, huh? What happened?!"
Her mother stood up with a startled expression.
Chihiro kept her head down and took off her shoes.
"[sad] ...I'm just a little tired."
Saying only that, she dashed up the stairs.
She burst into her room and shut the door.
Collapsing onto her bed, she pulled the futon over her head.
Dark.
Her vision was pitch black, and she could hear only her own breathing.
*(—I have never thought of you as someone I like.)*
Haku's voice surfaced again.
Curled up under the futon, Chihiro drew her body into a ball.
*(Is that so. So that's how you're going to play it.)*
*(But I know.)*
*(The way your voice trembles when you lie. That you're actually kind.)*
*(—I know.)*
But—.
Tears overflowed again.
She pressed her face into the pillow and cried, stifling her voice.
*(If you're going to—hurt me that much—)*
*(Then don't say you'll disappear—)*
Only her lips formed words that made no sound.
How much time had passed?
—*Ding-dong.*
Suddenly, the sound of the intercom came from downstairs.
She sensed her mother going to answer it.
*"Chihiro-chan, it's a friend of yours—"*
Her mother's voice called from the bottom of the stairs.
But Chihiro couldn't bring herself to leave the futon.
*(A friend—who?)*
—*Thud, thud, thud.*
Footsteps racing up the stairs.
And then—
*Clatter.*
Without any hesitation, the door to her room was flung open.
"[angry] Chii-chan, I know you're in
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