Façade (Another Post-Hanako Good End Fanfiction.)

[blade809089]

I can’t see this story being everyone’s cup of tea.This is the first thing I've ever tried to right outside school, so I’m kind-of winging it here, just coming up with it as I go along, but I do have a few basic ideas about how I want it to turn out and a few scenes that I want to write. This will not be a happy-everything-in-life-is-amazing type of story. If you can’t manage to man up and deal with the problems in life, and the obvious problems that Hisao and Hanako will run into, then leave now. Hisao/Hanako are OBVIOUSLY not a “happily ever after” couple. You can just tell that they WILL run into problems. If the writers wanted a happy-happy-kiss-kiss story they would've wrote one. But they didn't. In Katawa Shoujo, the only one of Hanako’s problems that is fixed is her feelings toward Hisao. She still has a giant Tupperware container full of emotional and mental problems that need to be worked through. Anyways, the cool ideas I have for my writing kinda just hit me as I’m writing, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or what, should all this be pre meditated, or is it okay to be mostly spontaneous? But constructed criticism is welcomed and even highly encouraged. I know my writing is really, really, really, REALLY rough around the edges and maybe even downright painful and if any of you can give advice on how fix that it would be greatly appreciated. Well, whatever, thanks for putting up with my shitty ass story… without further adieu, here is Façade.

Façade
I can’t believe the months have flown by as quickly as they have. It’s been a few months past a year since I met Hanako, a year that I have very much enjoyed. Of course, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. There have been more than enough bad times for me to know that. But I still can’t shake the feeling that all in all, it was a fantastic year. Possibly one of the better ones in my life. But, I digress, the present and future is what matters now. There is no use reminiscing, not on my incredibly busy schedule. Hanako and I both decided to shoot for uni, me majoring in physics and Hanako majoring in Journalism. We simply don’t have time to rest and relax in between work and classes, but that doesn’t stop us from doing just that.


Hanako and I have rented a small studio apartment just outside the city, and we still like to stop, take a breather (whenever we get the chance in our hectic schedules), and sit down in our beanbag of ours and enjoy a good book together, just like we used to do at Yamaku. It feels nostalgic, almost like we’re back in that school for disabled high school again. Unfortunately these times are growing increasingly far and few apart nowadays. Hanako works as a cook in a local waffle house, which I feel is an ever so fitting job for her. Little to no interaction with people, and she gets to do something she has always been passionate about throughout the time I’ve known her (granted what she cooks hardly counts as cooking.).


She seems to enjoy it, but she is always very visibly exhausted whenever I see her nowadays. It hurts deep down in the masculine part of my heart, that same part of me disgusted with myself that I have to have my girlfriend work so hard that she can hardly function as a person anymore. But I tell myself this is only for a little while. Eventually, when graduate from university, we can quit our jobs in search of better paying jobs.


I look forward to the day when- “NAKAAAAI!” A loud voice from behind me screeches, interrupting my internal monologue. I stand up and look away from the rain pouring outside and bow deeply. “Yes sir?” I look my boss deep in his eyes, looking confident but not confident enough as to be challenging. Just enough to let him know that I mean business. My boss is a short and slightly chubby man, with a very red face that makes it look as if he is permanently angry. He has a rather “police chief” type moustache and it’s a rare occurrence to catch him without a cigar dangling from his mouth. He has the type of face that just instantly pisses you off whenever you see it. I am basically this man’s personal assistant, even though technically I’m just an intern. Isn’t that basically what an intern is anyways? “Nakai, goddamn it, I asked for a latte 45 minutes ago! How somebody botches up getting a goddamn latte, I will never know. Also, the papers on the Ichinose case are nowhere near close to organized. Get your ass in gear! I gave you this job because your father promised me you were good for it. Don’t prove him wrong. It may cost both your fucking jobs!”


He walks off, grumbling about how useless kids like me are. Really, if my father hadn’t set this job up for me at his company, I probably would have blown up by now. People like him really tick me off. I set off for the coffee shop, grumbling “I don’t get paid nearly enough to put up with your shit.” Honestly, it really is my fault however. I should’ve filed the Ichinose report ages ago, and I shouldn’t have been waiting for the weather to clear up before I got his coffee. Rain here is a rare occurrence, but when it rains, it goes on for quite a while.


The soft pitter patter of the rain hitting my umbrella instantly soothes any anger I was feeling as soon as step outside. I gaze at the rain water carrying cigarette butts and other litter toward the drain. I am reminded of Mutou, my science teacher during my time at Yamaku and his speech about this very phenomenon that has interested young children since the beginning of time.* (Did this speech happen in Hanako’s route? If so, should I take this out or is it really not that big a deal?)


Ah, Mutou. I really was fond of his way of awkward facial movements and rambling lectures. I really do miss that Keanu Reeves look alike. I realize I have been watching the water flow for quite some time now, and I begin to walk towards the coffee shop. I feel relaxed, even peaceful… until a car drives by and splashes me with water. “Thanks asshole!” I yell after the perpetrator. I have lots of pent up anger these days. It must be the fact that I’ve had so little free time in recent months. I’ll ask Hanako if she’s up for staying up late tonight, or even up for a date this weekend. I spend a little time with Hanako, and when I'm with her, the world just melts away. It’s just what I need this week.


The prospect of a date starts my mind churning with possibilities. I think of places to go, but none really stick in my mind. The first real date I went on with Hanako appears in my mind. We had dinner at a nice, cheap restaurant. The place even had curtains to separate the booths, which is perfect for Hanako. Perfect for any couple, really. We have never been back to that restaurant, nor have we been to the same movie theater that we went to after we ate on our first date. I make it a plan. A trip down memory lane is nice every once in a while, especially when day to day life is as boring and monotonous as it is right now.


~~~~
I step out of the coffee shop with my boss’s latte and a coffee for me as well. I honestly think he doesn’t even drink the coffee he makes me go get him, just makes me do it because it’s a stereotypical job for an intern and he knows it grinds my gears. This bout of paranoia about people playing mind games leads to a bout of nostalgia about a certain deaf president. I smile to myself. Today really has been a “brooding about the past” sort of day. Shizune certainly wouldn’t be very enthusiastic to hear about me neglecting my duties at work so I can zone out all day.


I realize I’ve all but lost contact with most of the people from Yamaku, aside from Hanako of course. Hanako calls Lilly every once in a while, and sometimes puts the phone on speaker mode, but again, this isn’t an everyday occurrence and my chats with Lilly are little more than exchanges of small talk. It makes me feel a bit depressed, but life goes on I suppose. Maybe I’ll call Shizune up or something… wow it really must have been a long time since I last talked to her if I seriously just thought that. Well, whatever, maybe I’ll give Misha a call or something.


I deliver my boss his latte and sit down at my desk. Cracking my knuckles, I pull out the file containing the Ichinose case. Working at a law firm sure is boring, I can’t wait till I graduate. Sighing, I get to work on this nightmare of a case .


~~~~
I arrive home at around 8:00 P.M. Classes in the early morning, then work directly after really make me thankful to get home whenever I do. Today I actually got out a bit early, thank god. Walking up the steps to my humble apartment building, I try to insert my key into the door, but my vision is too blurry to be able to make out the key hole. Man, I just want to curl up with Hanako in my nice, warm bed. I eventually insert the key into its hole and get the door open. Sighing, I start my climb up to our apartment. On the top floor.


Wheezing whenever I reach our apartment, I quickly open the door. “Hanako? Oh Haaaanakooooo?” I yell into the apartment, which I know damn well was empty. I then proceed to flop on our bed. I always get home before her, but I always check if she’s home. I remember briefly that that is how Einstein defined insanity before falling unconscious. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.


~~~~
I wake up to our front door slamming shut. “Hanako?” I call out before seeing the figure of a woman with dark hair walk past my door in a hurry. I hear another door slam before I even have the chance to get up. Strange. Maybe she just had to pee really badly? I approach the bathroom door. Maybe knocking seems a little weird. I stand here for about ten seconds, trying to determine if I should knock or not. I eventually go along with it. Knock knock kno-knock knock. “Hey Hanako? You in there?” I ask apprehensively. I am greeted with a “Go away!” from behind the door. I’m kind of shocked. She’s never spoken to me like that before. Something terrible must have happened. “Okay. I’ll be here if you want to talk about it though, okay?” I respond to the door.


I have to admit, this is NOT how I expected this day going. I mean, sure, I expected to have a shitty day at work, but at my home? Getting home is always what I look forward to every day. The moment where I get to see the love of my life’s face light up with joy as she sees her boyfriend waiting for here ever patiently in our apartment is just absolute heaven. Maybe I would grab her by the shoulders and romantically shove her up against the wall, delivering a passionate kiss and after breaking away after a minute or so look her in the eyes and say “Hi.” Or even, hide when she comes in, waiting for the perfect opportunity to play the “Guess Who” trick. Sit down with her in our nostalgic little bean bag, and cuddle up with a nice book. Whatever. I guess I have been denied the one thing I crave the most today.


I just can’t handle it, I’m going to explode. I just grab a bottle of vodka from atop our fridge and two ornate shot glasses. All this was a present from Akira, of course, since I’m still not of age to drink yet. I pour two shots and set the other one to the side. I take a shot of my own. The vodka tastes absolutely terrible, and pleasantly burns my throat as it goes down. I wonder, why does that combination feels so great?


~~~~
I’ve done about six shots when Hanako comes out of the bathroom. God, she really looks a mess, but it’s strangely attractive. Her hair is all disheveled, her mascara mostly washed off but I can tell at one point it was smeared across her face. Her cheeks are all puffy and her eyes are all red. Strangely enough, she wears a waitress outfit. It is strangely seductive looking, accentuating her curves in all the right places and kind-of just appeals to the inner sexual deviant. I must be pretty trashed, because all I can think about is how everything about her is attractive. Something clicks in my mind, just now. They must’ve made Hanako play waitress today. That would naturally upset her pretty bad.


She sits down on the stool next to mine, and I wordlessly slide the filled shot glass over to her. She takes it in her hand. Lifting it to her lips, she tilts her head back suddenly, the fluid disappearing down her throat. With a “Aaahh” sound, she puts the glass on the table. She looks me in the eyes and asks “I guess you had a bad day too. You’re already drunk, aren’t you?” I nod silently as I fill up her shot glass, afraid to speak, lest I slur. She giggles slightly at this, and then we both take a shot at the same time.


I slam the ornate glass on the table. It’s actually a pretty nice little glass. It has tribal designs covering it, almost reminiscent of a tattoo. Maybe I’ll get a tribal tattoo. All up and down both my arms. Yeah, that actually sounds pretty damn cool! I’ll do that this weekend. This cycle goes on for an inconceivable amount of time. I pour us a shot, we take it together, I think about in a drunken stupor about how cool my tribal tattoo is going to be. Eventually, after I pour our shots I just stare at Hanako.
She rubs her left forearm. She catches me staring at her. She looks away, kind of embarrassed. She sighs. “Well, I guess I’m a waitress now.” She says this simple sentence with a kind of animosity in her voice. She looks me straight in the eyes, neither her voice nor her body quivering in the slightest.


I know she can’t keep this mask up for long. “Just pour it all on me, Hanako.” I say. It appears that’s all I needed to say. She flops onto my shoulder, dropping her mask of false confidence completely. She bawls on my shoulder, her tears running down my expensive shirt, but I don’t give a damn quite frankly. “H-Hisao!” She cries into my chest. I just run my hand through her hair, kissing her on the top of the head. “Shhh… just let it all out.”


Her bangs are pushed to the side, exposing the right side of her face which is completely covered in burn scars from the fire she was in as a child. The event that defined her life. The event that killed her parents. The event that ruined her life. The event that inadvertedly brought us together. If that fire never happened, maybe she would be stronger than she is now. Maybe she wouldn’t be with me. I am saddened by the realization that the worst event of her life is the only reason why we met, until I realize it’s the same with me. If I had never had my heart attack on that snowy winter day in the woods, I never would have met the beautiful girl that lays here crying on my shoulder.


This depresses me. Who would Hanako be crying to if she had never met me? Where in life would she be if I had never met her? I cast the thought out of my mind. Now is not the time to be thinking of what-ifs. Hell, there is never a time to think of what-ifs. You only live once (im so sorry) after all.
There is too many things I would like to think about right now. I take a deep breath and clear my mind. I need to console my girlfriend. “Hanako…” I begin. She looks up at my face with glistening eyes. “I know this hard. Downright tortuous. But it’s only for a little while, I swear. Once we graduate, we’ll get good jobs; maybe buy a house or a car or something. We will have plenty of free time for each other. It’ll be great! Just have that image in your mind, just the two of us standing in front of our brand new house, holding each other close, dressed in expensive clothes.”


She away, with an expression that’s hard to read. It looks very far away, evasive. “Hey, cheer up. I’ll go have a talk with them this weekend. Tell them your deathly afraid of people and you have a severe form of social anxiety, even though your pretty much over it. They’ll have to give you your old job back, right?” She visibly brightens at the suggestion. “You’d do that?” Her eyes are glistening again. “Well, of course! We’re a team, remember? Just, uh… Remind me in the morning.” She grins. All of the sudden, she throws her arms around my neck and crawls on top of my lap.


“Hello.” Hanako says playfully. “Hey Haaanako. Welcome home.” I reply. I think I slurred the “a” in Hanako a bit. Okay, maybe more than a bit, but at least it serves to amuse her. I think now that the seriousness of the situation is gone, I feel a bit more drunk. The same probably goes for her. We sit here, just looking into each other’s eyes for a while. The alcohol gets the best of me however, and I pull her into a deep, rich kiss. Our tongues entwine for a short, fleeting second before she pulls away. “Ew, Hisao, you taste like vodka.” She says so with a disgusted look on her face. “Well you don’t taste all that great yourself, Hanako.”


I pull her back into a deep kiss. This kiss is much more lustful than before, my body wanting much more of Hanako than I can give it at the moment. Taking this downward, I place Hanako’s head on the table below me, accidently knocking over my full shot glass. I pay it no heed, lust taking priority over Hanako’s vodka drenched hair. The same goes for her, well, at least for a few moments.


Eventually I feel a faint “Mmh” vibrate against my lips. I ignore it completely, naturally. Next time louder, more urgent. “Mmh!” “MMHF!” She pushes my face away from hers. “Ughh… Jesus Hisao!” She gets a mischievous smile on her face. Uh oh. I don’t like that at all. Hanako takes my head and shoves it in the puddle of vodka that wasn’t absorbed by her hair. I accidently breathe some of it in. Some of it gets in my eye as well. “AHHG! SHIT!” The burning is instantaneous. She lets go of my hair. “Oh, Hisao, I’m sorry!” She looks really apologetic. It almost makes me regret what I’m about to do, but the train had already left the station in my drunken mind.
I take my vodka covered face and rub it on the side of her face that isn’t scarred. “EWWW! Hisao!” She cries and giggles uncontrollably. I step away from her. “Beat that!” I say as I stick my tongue out at her. She put her hand on the back of her head. What is she… oh no. By the time I realize what’s happening, she rubs her hand all over my face. After this is done I just stare at her with the most serious face I can possibly muster. We make eye contact for a short few seconds. Hanako completely bursts into laughter. She falls on the ground. She is literally laughing her ass off, pounding her hand on the ground repeatedly.


I will get revenge for this. I pick up the bottle of vodka dramatically. I hold it over her dramatically. “Say your prayers, Hanako.” I utter dramatically. She stops laughing for a moment, looking confused. As she sits up, I turn the bottle upside down dramatically. Glug…Glug…Glug…Glug… It appears Hanako still hasn’t realized what has happened yet. That’s okay, it’ll sink in soon enough…glug…gluooop! Hanako stands up as the bottle empties. Ha. Her hair is dripping with vodka. She looks seriously pissed off. Woo, if looks could kill. Did I go too far, I wonder? It’s possible, considering the fact that I can barely think coherently.


She slaps me in the face. Hard. So hard, in fact, that all I see is red for a couple of seconds. I lift a hand up to my cheek. “….OW?!” I yell dejectedly. Hanako's face turns even more red than it is already, and she throws a look of apology onto her face. She thinks that THAT’S going to get my forgiveness? Hell, no. “You know what?” I look her dead in the eyes. “..W-what?” Man, she looks pretty scared.


She should be.


I pick her up and toss her over my shoulder with a grunt. Protesting doesn’t work whenever you’re giggling, Hanako. I carry the “very upset” Hanako back to our room. I shut the door behind us.


And that was the end of that.

[naxxar]

haha This made me laugh, there were a few mistakes but i'm too tired to bother pointing them out right now. Good fanfic keep it up!

[Guest Poster]

In the game, it's actually suggested Hanako can cook fairly well when sticking to tried and true stuff...it's just that she messes up from time to time when experimenting.

Also, why would any restaurant (or waffle house) make Hanako a waitress? Aside from her stunted social skills, her facial scarring is likely to make customers uncomfortable and in Japan inconveniencing customers in any way (real or imagined) is pretty much a no-no.

[Brogurt]

I'm sorry but I don't think I'd have an easy time reading that unless there were two line breaks between each paragraph. And if I can't have an easy time reading something, then I probably won't, and in this case, I haven't yet.

[TheSongofRaven]

Good to see nice writing but would you kindly fix the paragraph issues ?

[blade809089]

Whoo! Okay, kinda had a minor panic attack when i saw i got responses on this. The point about the waitress thing rings true. I will fix this soon enough. Thank you for the feedback. Also, the formatting issues. I wrote this is Microsoft Word and just copy/pasted without looking. I apologize, It was early in the morning and I had just done an all nighter. I will fix this. Seriously, thank you for your feedback, it means the world to me that my story brought a smile to at least one persons face, especially since this is the first thing I've ever actually written.

[Parliament]

The (I'm so sorry) after 'you only live once' made me lol and I actually enjoyed the writing itself quite a bit. Drew me in enough that I didn't even notice the formatting after the first couple paragraphs.

I'm eagerly awaiting more =)

[blade809089]

@Everybodyintheentirefuckingworld Okay is the formatting better now? I honestly wouldn't have read a story with that bad of formatting, so I commend those who did. I know its not perfect, but formatting is something I am terrible at (obviously) and maybe if its that bad, someone would fix it for me? Eh? EHH? No? Okay...

*Edit Ay ay ay, its Guest Poster! literally just finished reading Sisterhood. I deeply appreciate the advice from someone as talented as you.

[Suox]

.

[Guest Poster]

Your new formatting makes things a lot easier to read.

*Edit Ay ay ay, its Guest Poster! literally just finished reading Sisterhood. I deeply appreciate the advice from someone as talented as you.

That wasn't really advice, btw. If it's advice you want...hmmm, let's see. Well, one thing lots of people seem to forget is that they're not Indiana Jones. "Making things up as you go along" worked for him, but he's fictional. In reality, you need to have a clear idea how you want things to end and what the goals and motivations of your characters are before you even start writing. Things often do tend to fall into place if you ponder them long enough...the trick is not to have already written yourself into a corner by then. That and re-read your stuff once or twice before showing it to others. Oh and that piece about the limited impact of external motivation I posted in Brogurt's thread.

[blade809089]

I enjoyed this. I'd love to see you write more. Perhaps a continuation of this?

Well if you put it that way, I guess I have to write more. This may take a while, however. I just moved and I still have to unpack a bunch of stuff and the new school is throwing a bunch of crap at me. Also, I'm not Indiana Jones.