Chapter 2

"YOU?!!!"

Allen and Yuichi, who appeared to know each other, screamed their lungs out and pointed at each other for such a moment.

"Wh, what are you doing here, four-eyes?!"

"I should be the one asking that question! And don't call me four-eyes!"

"I never asked your name before so I called you that!"

Yuichi indirectly reminds Allen. 'That is completely unnecessary!'

"W, well you could've called me a smart guy! (smiles) That'd make me happy! Haha!"

"Hey, you're supposed to be the main straight man for this web novel, you self-boasting nerd!"

"N, n, nerd?!" Yuichi seemed to be offended by Allen's words.

"What? Sensitive? No way you get butthurt from that! I mean I'm pretty sure you looked like that in high school and people called you a nerd!"

Both of them exchanged shouts at each other, so much to the point they were heard around Sekino House.

Seeing that things were going nowhere, Yuichi slightly tilted his head down and slid his glasses up to fix its position.

"Let's both calm down," he told Allen in a calm manner.

Allen slid his room door closed and agreed with Yuichi. "Yeah, this is going nowhere. Besides, if we don't stop now, Ino-san might kill us both. The old woman's a wild boar."

Allen might have jinxed his words.

Because a cleaver suddenly flew in front of him and stuck into the wall. It was so sudden and scary at the same time that his body could not react on time.

"This is…"

Allen slowly turned his head at the staircase and saw Ino and her post-throw form, in her restaurant apron like he first met her. "This is bad…" he muttered.

Ino suddenly looked at Allen furiously and shouted, "Who are you calling a wild boar, huh?!"

While Ino was approaching Allen, he with his shaking body tried to came up with an excuse, "Uh, y, you see Ino-san, I—"

Ino harshly removed the cleaver from the wall while still locking his eyes on Allen, cutting off his sentence.

Then she aimed the cleaver at Yuichi and shouted again, "And you! You're making noise first thing after you move in?!"

Unlike Allen, Yuichi looked still.

'Well, this dude looks calm,' Allen told himself in his mind.

But then Yuichi swallowed and was sweating. Allen noticed the tension inside him.

'He's not calm at all!'

Yuichi chose the peaceful route by simply bowing at Ino and apologized. "I'm very sorry, ma'am."

Himself at Ino's back, he mumbled, "Welcome to the Sekino experience."

Ino obviously heard his tenant and screamed, "SHUT UP!"

After all the ruckus that happened at the corridor, both men apologized to the landlady and Allen helped Yuichi with the packages per Ino's request—rather, order.

They carried the last of the boxes when Allen suddenly spoke, "So you're a photographer."

Yuichi asked, "How do you know that?"

Allen looked intensely at the boxes with "cameras" and "equipment" writing on them.

"Riiiiight," Yuichi realized.

'I can't tell if he's a real idiot or if the writer is doing him dirty.'

They put down the last boxes inside and wiped their sweats off. Yuichi notified Allen, "And that's the last of the boxes."

"This reminds me of when I moved here."

"Did you do the carrying on your own?"

"Yeah, but I'm used to it. Otherwise I wouldn't be fit for my job right now."

"Your job?" Yuichi curiously reacted.

"Oh, I haven't mentioned you yet. I'm an odd jobs freelancer and a one-man show of AonOdd Jobs!" Allen mentioned his job to his new neighbor while pointing himself with his thumb.

"I see. You do need strength and endurance after all."

Allen thought of rejuvenating themselves after manually carrying the packages so he invited Yuichi, "Let's get some drinks."

They got their water bottle drinks from a vending machine at the nearby park, sat down on a bench and drank bottoms up.

"Ahhh! Oh, this is so refreshing!" Allen felt relieved on drinking his bottle of water.

Yuichi also finished his bottle and stared at Allen for a moment. As he was staring at Allen, he looked back at the event.

The event of their first meeting.

Their first meeting was rather unusual one. They were on a rooftop. Yuichi was pointing a handgun at Allen's head, who was also pointing his sniper rifle at his chin.

At that time, Yuichi was wearing his JSDF uniform with his staff sergeant insignia while the man with the sniper rifle was in street clothes.

A few years later, those two men met again.

Allen noticed Yuichi staring at him. "Hey. Something wrong?" he said.

Yuichi heard the worry and answered, "Uh, no. Nothing."

Allen looked at the sky that indicated the approach of night. "I can't believe we met again. And we're even neighbors now."

Yuichi also looked up and replied, "When I told you to pretend our encounter never happened, it was easier said than done."

"You too huh? Even now I still cannot forget your face. I mean, you're the only guy who caught me on my sniping spot."

"A Japanese man serving in the US Marines… How could I forget you?"

"Weird, isn't it?"

Yuichi turned his look back at Allen and questioned, "How have things been since?"

Allen answered, "Thanks to you not selling me out, I managed to return home safely and finish my contract at the Marines. How about you?"

Yuichi looked down as he did feel like answering the question. Despite the feeling, he did not yield and responded to Allen's inquisitiveness, looking at him once again. "I thought it was finally time. I learned enough to at least defend myself."

"I see."

Allen looked away from the sky as well, faced Yuichi and let him know, "By the way, we don't know each other's name yet."

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It was a moment of silence for both men. Perhaps the fact that they met at a time like this had not registered onto their heads completely and they completely forgot to at least know their names.

"R, really?" said Yuichi awkwardly.

Allen scratched his head, also with a sense of awkwardness. "Hehe. I know you're feeling embarrassed right now so allow me to tell you my name first."

He stood up while still holding his now-empty water bottle. He locked his eyes down at the sitting Yuichi, reached his hand and began stating himself, "Odd jobs freelancer Allen Aono. Allen with two L's. Pleasure to meet you, former staff sergeant."

Yuichi heard Allen bringing up his previous position in the army.

The last time Allen mentioned that was when he saw the insignia attached to Yuichi's uniform. That was how the latter recognized the former as Japanese.

He smirked and stood up. Then he returned the greeting by holding Allen's hand with an almost similar kind of greeting. "Freelance photographer, Yuichi Okumura."

Yuichi continued speaking, "This is how Americans usually greet, right?"

"Ino-san a similar thing, though this time I'm the one who is initiating."

At that point, they were now aware of their names and let go of their hands. As they were doing so, Allen thought of something before heading back home so he told Yuichi.

"There's something I wanna show you."