“You are not alone…”

Miki and Hisao sit leaning against each other, arms entwined, Suzu draped across their laps. Miki absentmindedly plays with Suzu’s hair, a tender expression on her face as she ignores whatever mindless reality show is currently on the television in the common room. Hisao is entranced by the sight of Miki in repose, a sharp contrast to her usual restless energy. Without warning Suzu jerks awake and cries, “She’s alone!” and starts to sob.

Suzu’s habit of waking suddenly and bringing her dreams with her still unnerves Hisao, as does the way she does not distinguish greatly between waking and sleeping experiences. Miki, who has learnt to take Suzu’s peculiarities in her stride, leans over to kiss her before asking, “Who’s alone? And what’s so sad about it?”

“Hanako! Who does she have now that Lilly’s gone? It’s not like first year, she’s got used to her little family and it’s been ripped away from her.”

Miki gently wipes the tears from Suzu’s face and makes gentle shushing noises while Hisao rubs her feet in an attempt to help calm her.

“No-one deserves that and I bet no-one will even notice her falling back into her old ways. If we don’t do something we’ll wake up one morning to her being carried out in a body bag!”

“Is that what you saw? Is that what woke you?” Hisao asks in what he hopes is a soothing tone of voice.

“Yes! No… She was alone in her room, suffocated by the black thoughts that were pouring out of her. So dark, no hope. No-one deserves that,” she repeats. “Hisao, you need to work out how we’re going to keep her from drowning in her isolation.”

Demands to do something are another of Suzu’s quirks that he is still getting used to. She will bring some crazy, impossible, idea from her dreams and expect him to make it real. And yet, none of her demands have proved to be impossible so far. Suzu’s absolute confidence combined with Miki’s drive and energy have motivated him to try things he never would have attempted before. It is exhausting, nerve-wracking, exhilarating; he has never felt more alive.

“Hey, you looking to expand your harem? We’re not enough for you?” Miki teases, keen to lighten the mood.

“What? No! It’s not like that.” A blush spreads across Suzu’s face. “You know what they always say at the start of year assembly. Well she is alone and it is up to us to be the better person. People.”

“You better not go to her with pity in your heart or any shit like that. People like us, we see it a mile off and don’t take kindly to it.”

“Where does concern end and pity begin?” Suzu asks rhetorically. “ I can’t unsee what I saw and I won’t ignore it either. They’ve said a million times that it’s a hard world for ‘people like us’, that we should look out for each other. I just want to put that into practice.”

“What’s the bridge between Hanako and us?” Hisao asks. “How do we get her to…engage? If we could find some common ground I think we’d be able to get her to open up to us with some perseverance and patience.”

“You nerds always have your head in a book, that’s got to count for something?”

Hisao kisses Miki enthusiastically. “Yes! Did you submit your review of Life of Pi to the newspaper yet, Suzu? That was the book she was reading when I first arrived, you could ask her for some feedback on what you’ve written. And I saw her with Lord of the Flies the other day, I spotted something when I read it in the hospital, I could run that by her.” He thinks for a while, rubbing Suzu’s foot with one hand and stroking Miki’s hair with the other. “Food! Miki, you like to eat and she likes to cook!”

“Yeah but her stuff can be a bit out there, I remember being in the kitchen when one of her experiments went wrong… Besides she’s into boring stuff.”

“You mean healthy food, not pizza or burgers?” Suzu giggles. “She’s low-key fashionable when she wants to be, maybe you could ask her for some tips for something other than jeans and a tank top?”

“Dude! That’s my signature look and I’m not about to change it!” She thinks for a while. “I suppose I could try to get her to go shopping with me, she’ll probably understand my take on clothes better than some people.” She shoots Suzu a meaningful look. “Anyway it’s getting late, we can’t do anything right now and Suzu here is in need of some comforting.”

“No, I don’t feel so bad, we’ve got a pla-”

“Hush you. Hisao’s looking a bit shell shocked, I bet he’s in need of some comfort.”

“Umm, not really…”

“For fuck’s sake, do I have to spell it out? Fine. Let’s go to bed, for some unknown reason I want to have sex with you dumbasses.”

“Hanako?”

She looks up from her book to see Suzu slumped over at her desk, head resting on one arm while she lazily waves a sheet of paper. “Natsume nagged me into writing a review of Life of Pi for the newspaper, could you take a look at it before I give it to her? I’d be interested in your opinion on it.”

“S-sure.” She walks over and carefully takes the review. Suzu lets her arm drop to the desk with a sigh of relief. “Umm, are you o-ok?”

“Oh, yes. Sort of. Mostly. My insomnia kept me awake last night so I ended up here early, but now the sleepies have kicked in and I’m not gonna make it through the morning. If I haven’t moved by lunchtime, call in the cavalry!”

With a quiet giggle, Hanako goes back to her desk, grabs her green pen and starts reading Suzu’s review.

“Did you spot the huge mistake Golding made?”

Hanako looks up in surprise to see Hisao smiling at her from an adjacent beanbag. “P-pardon me?” she replies nervously.

“The mistake! Piggy’s glasses!”

“W-what about his glasses?”

“He was short-sighted!” Seeing that she did not realise the significance of this he adds, “You can’t start a fire with glasses that correct short sight.”

“Oh! T-that would change so much! It would remove several points of conflict a-and that big confrontation near the end. They probably wouldn’t even have been r-rescued if they hadn’t set fire to the forest.” She shudders suddenly. “I h-hated that bit.”

“I wonder why he made such a basic error? It made me doubt the rest of the story, since he got that wrong maybe he got the boys’ descent into savagery wrong too.”

“Oh no, I found that v-very convincing, kids can be n-nasty even under normal conditions,” she replies sadly. “But I think it probably doesn’t matter that he made a mistake. Piggy had to w-wear glasses to establish him i-in the outgroup and I interpreted his s-short sight as symbolising the blindness of pure intellectualism.”

Hisao sits up in surprise. “You’re right! I didn’t think of that, I was so fixated on the science being wrong that I didn’t go any deeper. Jeez Hanako, how come we haven’t talked books before? What are you reading next? Maybe I could read it too and discuss it with you when we’ve finished.”

“I-I think I’d like that. I’m on a f-first novel kick at the moment and there’s a b-book called The Wasp Factory that sounds very i-interesting…”

Hanako pushes open the kitchen door and sees Miki staring at the microwave oven with a predatory expression on her face. She hesitates for a moment but decides to go in anyway. She agreed with her therapist to do her best to reach out to people after Lilly left and her recent interactions with Suzu and Hisao have bolstered her confidence a little. She finds Miki’s boisterous nature intimidating, but the way she has supported Suzu over the years makes her think that she has a kind heart.

“H-hi M-Miki,” she says, disappointed that her voice has betrayed how nervous she is feeling.

Miki spins round quickly and puts on a welcoming smile when she sees Hanako flinch. “Oh hi Hanako. Wow, don’t you look cute today?”

“W-what?”

“That outfit! It really suits you.” She pauses and Hanako is surprised to see a hint of embarrassment appear on her face. “Listen, do you think you could help me out?”

“M-me? Umm well yes, if I c-can.”

“I was thinking about getting some new clothes but I really can’t go shopping with Suzu, she throws money around like it’s nothing. I don’t mean to be rude but I figured that you’d understand what it’s like to be on a tight budget.”

“O-oh yes, I do. I felt the same about s-shopping with Lilly, but going with another bargain h-hunter might be fun.”

“Great! Come on then.”

“N-now?”

“You got anything better to do?”

Hanako thinks for a moment then smiles and shakes her head. “What about t-that?” she asks, pointing at the oven.

“Pffff,” Miki replies with a dismissive wave. “Microwave pizza probably isn’t the best breakfast. We can get ice cream in the city.”

“Miki! You r-really need to be eating properly.”

“Whatever mom.”

“I b-bet you’d be even f-faster if you improved your diet.”

“Really? Hmm. Maybe I should enlist you as my dietician as well as my fashion guru…”

“Hi you, did you have fun with Hanako? I don’t see any shopping bags, what have you been doing all day?” Suzu asks when Miki lets herself into Hisao’s room.

“Actually we had a great time. Shopping kinda got abandoned when we saw that the university’s cinema club were running an all-day Arjuna marathon.”

“You spent the whole day watching magical girl anime with Hanako?” Hisao asks incredulously.

“Arjuna isn’t a magical girl anime, it’s a modern day re-interpretation of an ancient saga! It’s badass.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just an excuse for you and Hanako to ogle cute anime girls? I didn’t know she swings that way,” Suzu giggles.

“I’m not sure she knows which way she swings… She’s such a sweetheart though, I hope someone sees how beautiful she is, inside and out, and does right by her.”

Hisao pulls her into a hug. “She’s found her way into that big heart of yours eh?”

“Yeah. What is it with me and waifs and strays?” She returns Hisao’s hug and buries her head into his chest. “You guys better get used to her being around. She’s gonna look into high-performance diets for me and we’ve got a manga evening planned.” She glares at a sniggering Suzu. “Manga is literature too! I’m just saying that I’m not dropping her when we think her issues are sorted.”

“I’m pretty sure that dropping her wasn’t part of the plan. We’ve got some books we’re going to read and discuss.”

“And we’re going to write some reviews together.” Suzu adds. “She came with me to hand in our review of Life of Pi and seemed pretty interested in what they were doing in the Newspaper Club. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up ditching me in favour of them!”

“Getting closer to her does bring up an interesting question though. Do we tell her about us?” Hisao asks. “We could hardly call her a friend and then keep it from her, but I really don’t know how she’d react.”

“Well I want to tell her. It’s OK for you two, everyone knows you’re dating. But that leaves me feeling like the other woman, sneaking around and seeing her lovers in secret. I’m damn proud of what we’ve made together, of how far we’ve come, and I’m literally going to burst if I don’t tell someone soon!”

Miki and Hisao move to the bed and sit on either side of her. “I know it’s rough on you babe and I want to shout it from the rooftops too. But at least you’ve got a support group, telling her too soon could scare her away from us, send her back to that room with her dark thoughts.”

Suzu sighs and rests her head on Miki’s shoulder. “When did you get so smart? We will tell her when we think she can handle it, right?”

Miki kisses her forehead. “I’ve always been this smart, you just didn’t notice. We shouldn’t wait too long, I think she’d appreciate us putting our trust in her. And going by the way she was so set on improving my diet, I get the feeling that she wants to prove she can be a friend to be relied on. Convincing her that we see her that way would-”

She is interrupted by a quiet knock on Hisao’s door. They share a look before Hisao goes to open it, revealing a nervously smiling Hanako holding a book.

“I b-bought my own copy of this today s-so you can have the l-library’s.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you Hanako, the way you described it made me want to start reading right away! Do you want to come in? Miki’s here too.”

“Oh I d-don’t want to intrude.”

“Contrary to popular belief, I can keep my hand to myself. For a little while anyway,” Miki laughs.

“Hiya, Miki said you had fun watching anime instead of shopping today,” Suzu says as Hanako sits on the chair by the desk.

“Y-yes, I loved that show when I was little and it was interesting to watch it again, now that I’ve read the s-saga it was based on. I thought they did a g-good job of bringing the story up to date and the environmental i-issues it tackles are very topical.”

“See? Told you it wasn’t just cute anime girls!”

“I knew that Hanako would be paying attention to the plot, doesn’t mean that you were!”

“Hey, just cos you can never stay awake to the end of an episode, doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t!”

Hisao sees a wistful look on Hanako’s face as she watches the girls squabbling playfully. “Are you alright Hanako?”

“Oh, y-yes. It’s just that you’re all such good friends. W-why are you even bothering with me? It’s not like you n-need anyone else.”

“Hey, spending time with you is no bother! Did I look like I was forcing myself to have fun today?”

“It’s not about whether we need other people,” Suzu adds. “Friendship is like love: the more you have, the greater your capacity to express it becomes.”

“But you must have all a-agreed to start talking to me, made some sort of p-plan. Why?”

Hisao clears his throat in embarrassment. “Suzu had a dream.”

“We don’t ignore her dreams, not after that one time…” Miki says with a shudder.

“Umm w-what sort of dream?”

Suzu rushes over to hug Hanako, whose eyes go wide in surprise. “It was horrible, you were so alone. I was scared for you.”

“Scared for me or s-sorry for me?”

“Scared!” they chorus.

Hanako hesitantly brings her arms up to return the hug. “A-and now?” She is surprised to see unshed tears when Suzu leans back a little, but cannot help smiling back at her.

“Now I’m sad that I waited this long to get to know you. Think of all the fun we’ve missed out on.”

“We’ll just have to make up for lost t-time then,” she replies with a giggle. “Have you played D&D? I’ve been working on a c-campaign for years and I’d love to guide you t-through it…”