Chapter Text
It was just like Hana’s life, for a nice day to cause a long series of terrible ones.
Who would guess that Mai grinning brightly as she plugged in the last wire needed to set up a new TV was a bad omen?
She stepped back from the dresser she’d placed it atop and pressed the power button on the remote, bringing it to life. It wasn’t a huge TV by any means, not much larger than some computer monitors, but it was certainly nicer than anything she and her dad had ever owned. Mai whirled to face Hana and threw out some jazz hands.
“Tada!” she exclaimed. “Man this was such a great present. I was getting soo sick of waiting to watch stuff. Maybe I can spoil shit for Mimi now.”
Hana giggled, remembering how pissed Mai had been the last time Mimi had loudly talked about a character death in the Strolling Dead that she hadn’t known about. Her redheaded roommate wasted no time plotting revenge. Hana watched Mai flip from the channel with no signal to another that had some commercial going. Pleased that it was up and running just fine, she turned it off.
“All right, that’s done! And just in time to get some lunch.” said Mai as she clapped her hands together. “I’m starving.”
Food definitely sounded good to Hana.
They walked to the lunch hall, Hana listening to Mai’s enthusiastic chatter about other shows she was pumped to able to watch right away. It amused Hana, you’d think Mai hadn’t been finding her shows uploaded to some shady video site like an hour after they aired before now. Admittedly in bad quality, but it was almost as if she’d been completely without them before now.
The pair entered the building and made a beeline to the food, their growling stomachs demanding they go as fast as possible. With the acquired sandwiches on their trays, the pair scanned the cafeteria to see if any of their friends were around. Lunch was still served at the same time, even on non class days, but who knows which of them had decided to make the effort to go off campus for food.
Hana spotted a table of familiar faces all bearing yellow and black jackets identical to hers, and headed towards it. The Hidden Block table was almost uncharacteristically calm right now. For one thing, she couldn’t hear them from across the cafeteria. There was still some loud talking here and there, but it was far more laid back than during the week. She knew it had something to do with most of them being night owls, and that this was probably their breakfast rather than their lunch.
“Hey.” Ian said, catching Hana and Mai approaching the table. He pulled out two vacant seats next to him (conveniently right between him and Caddy) and the girls filled them in.
It looked to Hana like most alert members sitting at the table were Ian and Wallid, both clearly having had a good night’s sleep and gotten up at a reasonable hour. The rest were a much different story. Luke kept drooping and suddenly lurching up, Caddy was doing a little better but was staring blankly into a salad rather than eating it, and Jeff was kind of awake but kept closing his eyes and yawning.
“Where’s Jimbo at?” Mai asked, noticing the younger boy’s absence.
“Sleeping still. I don’t think he actually went to bed until the sun was up.” Caddy replied, jabbing a stubborn piece of lettuce onto his fork at he spoke.
Ian’s brows narrowed, evidently having some kind of beef with this fact. “Yeah I got a text from him at like 6am saying he’d have to ditch me this afternoon to catch up on sleep.”
“What were you guys going to do?” Hana asked, her question making Ian perk up
“He was gonna come with me to this second-hand electronics store I saw last time I was in the city. They were closed then, but places like that sometimes have some really cool shit and I wanted to check it out.”
That explained that. Ian was always on the look out for the old and obscure, whether it was games or bits of technology. It was funny to her that people had the impression that Ian was always grumpy and mean, when she could recall a time where he’d been over the moon about an old VCR he’d bought off someone.
“I mean I’ll still go. Fuck Jimmy and his ridiculous sleeping schedule.” He glanced at Hana, his soured frown lifting into a smile. “You wanna come instead? I don’t mind going by myself, but it’d be more fun with company.”
“I’d love to, but me and Mai were going to work on that joint essay for Shizuka.” she sighed.
“We have until like Tuesday dude, go. Look at weird old things, have fun.” Mai poked her in the cheek. “When’s the last time you left campus anywho?”
“Uhh…” Hana maybe didn’t get out as much as she should’ve. She preferred being invited rather than doing the inviting, and going off somewhere off campus her own wasn’t her style
“Eh, I don’t leave much either.” Ian said as he pushed the pasta on his place around with his spoon
“Shut-in.” Jeff mumbled. Hana wasn’t aware he was even paying attention to the conversation. She thought he’d fallen asleep at the table and hadn’t questioned it..
Ian raised his eyebrows and smirked. “I prefer to call it selective socialization.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Hana shook her head and chuckled to herself. Not getting out much was something she and Ian certainly had in common. She wouldn’t go so far as to call either of them shut-ins though. They’d be out about today at least.
Ian had brought Hana into a store that proclaimed its name (Ed Violet’s Electronics) in a neon sign that, had it been nighttime, would’ve glowed a bright purple.
She followed him around with interest. She didn’t know if the electronics and parts in this place were actually anything Ian wanted to look at, but it was sort of cool to see all this older stuff hanging around. As their time in the store wore on though, it appeared Hana was far more interested in it than Ian was.
“Man I think this place might be a bust.” he said, putting the camera he’d been examining back onto the shelf and starting to move onwards to the next aisle
As they waved through shelves and shelves of various electronics Hana’s head kept bobbing side to side. “Were you trying to find something specific?”
Shaking his head, Ian sighed “I was hoping for more retro stuff, not ten year old TVs and DVD players. They don't even have any VHS tapes here. ”
Remembering how enthusiastic he’d been for this outing, Hana felt bad. The more they walked, the more his posture slumped. As stuck his hands in his pocket with clear loss of interest,Hana was saddened by how let down he was.
Perhaps it was luck, or just that Ian was only halfheartedly skimming through the shelves now, but it was Hana who spotted something out of place among this older, but still somewhat modern technology. Something about it, perhaps the antenna, caught her eye. Curious, she turned to the shelf to pick it up and examine it closer. It was heavier than it looked.
It was a little TV, not even a foot long, that made her feel bad for calling the one Mai had just gotten small. The long handle going across the top told her it was meant to be a portable one. With interest, Hana noticed it also had a dial and several little knobs. That was the sign of a pretty old TV, right? Maybe Ian would be interested in this; it could very well just be a replica of some sort, but he still might like it for the old fashioned aesthetic.
Noticing Hana’s attention being captured, Ian stopped and went back to her. “What’ve you got there?”
She held the TV by the handle and lifted it up so that he could get a good look at it. “Some kind of TV? It looks a lot older than the other stuff here.”
“Woah you’re right…” he said as he leaned down to inspect it. Hana handed it off to him so he could have a better look and she could rest her arms.(It was heavier than it looked, especially for her scrawny noodle arms.) With his free hand he flipped the switch on and off, then started playing with the dial and knobs. As he did so, she could see his mouth turning up into an almost awestruck smile and a rare twinkle grace his eyes
“Man this thing looks like it could be from the 60s, maybe even the late 50s...” He was lighting up more and more at the mere thought of that. “Hana, I’m so glad you spotted this.”
Needless to say, Ian brought the TV up to the counter right away and bought it without a second thought. Having already found a gem like that, he saw no need to scout the rest of the store for more. Hana smiled, watching the spring in his step on the way to the train station with their find, cherishing seeing one of her best friends so happy.