| Period 25: Friendly Apartment Complex | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Period | 25 | |
| Volume | 7 | |
| Previous | Period 24: The Day I Became A Demon - Part 2 | |
| Next | Period 26: Scarecrow Teacher | |
Friendly Apartment Complex is the 25th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 1st chapter in the volume 7 manga.
Premise[]
A young girl moves into a new apartment complex and everyone is very kind. But after she expresses interest in leaving, things begin to seem different...
Yomi's Introduction[]
Yomi floats outside of an apartment complex and asks the Readers if they know of any where they live. It is a living space for close knit neighbors, and in a sense a singular place. This will be the theme of this story.
Summary[]
Aki heads up to apartment 305 with a box of her belongings while her mom goes to greet the neighbors. Aki observes some girls running off to school and finds herself unimpressed with her new home. Right now she doesn't attend school due to some issues that took place roughly two months ago at her old place. She got into a big fight with her friends and it was so horrendous that she was afraid of returning.
It's then she gets a call from her dad, who asks how she is handling the move. He assures Aki that if she isn't happy there she can return home to live with him. He tries to tell her that running away won't solve anything, but she doesn't want to hear it so she hangs up seeing her mom come back. Her mom smiles and tells Aki that she won't have to deal with the drama of school anymore, and her father won't be around to force her to either.
As of late, her parents relationship has been in turmoil. Aki feels a heavy burden and blames herself since it mainly revolved around her. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and they find some neighbors with greeting gifts. They apologize for forming a crowd but they all wished to come together. Aki's mother speaks with them until they see Aki and ask about school. In order to respect her wishes, her mother says some things have come up and she isn't able to attend right now. Oda, an elderly neighbor offers tutoring from her daughter, as she has been helping a girl from 207 who is around Aki's age.
They make arrangements and take off to let Aki and her mom finish unpacking. They observe the large amount of food stuffs they were given and her mom points out that they won't have to go shopping now. Aki is surprised by their neighbors generosity as she recalls the catty ones from her old home who used to gossip about her. The idea of having a fresh start fills her with relief.
The next day Aki joins Yukie and Oda's daughter for study and they quickly take to her. Aki wonders why Yukie is being tutored when Oda comes along with some lunch. Oda explains how they never waste time shopping, because they have a field they plow and tend to for fresh, healthy foods. Not only that but everyone likes it so much that they never leave, so Aki is very lucky to have gotten the recently opened apartment. Aki apologizes for being another mouth to feed but Oda claims it's fine. As one giant family, everyone is happy to help one-another. Aki perks up as her mom comes by, happy to see how well she's doing. Aki's phone begins to ring but she feels no reason to answer it.
A while later, Aki notices that her notebook is nearly full, so she will need to buy another one for the upcoming study group. She grabs money and prepares to leave when Oda and a few neighbors stop her to ask what she was doing. Aki explains that she has to run to the convenience store, and Oda goes silent. She then bluntly tells Aki not to bother leaving, which confuses her until they explain owning the supplies already. She's more then welcome to them.
It's then her phone rings again, but as Aki goes to answer Oda grabs it and smashes it with her shoe. Aki is alarmed by her sudden change in personality as they leave, and she slowly starts to realize how unusual this community is. Regardless of what one could want -food, clothing, stationery, friends- this apartment has it. She's been here for a month and has yet to actually leave.
Aki hides in some nearby plants one day when the women come by to collect her for study group. Everything is becoming scary and she isn't comfortable being around them anymore. When given a chance, Aki runs straight to her apartment; where she finds neighbors digging through the trash. She is disturbed as they chastise her for having "foreign items" like packaged pudding in the apartment. She could have just asked someone to make her some. Aki's mother arrives and Aki attempts to tell her about this, only to learn that she quit her job. Now she won't have to leave anymore.
Aki pulls away from her mother and locks the door behind her before she runs into her bedroom. She begins to cry hearing everyone threaten her from outside as they try to break in. If she doesn't want to get along with them then she isn't needed anymore. Aki begins to wonder what happened to the prior resident of her apartment, recalling what Oda said earlier, and she begins to fear the worst. Just then a phone begins to ring and Aki follows it to her mom's unpacked items. She expresses relief seeing that it is her dad and she frantically tells him what happened before begging him to come get her. When he agrees, she starts to have a panic induced meltdown, profusely apologizing for her behavior and blaming herself for not noticing anything was wrong until now. He reassures her that it will be okay, once they leave they can talk everything over.
Aki impatiently waits for his arrival when the door bell rings. She gets up to check, horrified as she sees their neighbors and her mom standing behind him. Confused, he asks her why he won't let them inside and why she would behave like this. Everyone seems to be kind, and he was so relieved when he heard she was doing better lately. He was so worried when she quit school, but she doesn't need to think about painful times anymore. He also spent a lot of time thinking things over and decided to quit his job so hat he could be with them again.
Aki thinks about those past, pain-filled memories for a moment. He is right, she can let herself be happy. It's okay to move on. She gets up and unlocks the door to be greeted by everyone's smiling faces.
- - - -
Some time has passed, and Aki is in higher spirits. She's written to her old Teacher to explain that she probably won't be returning to school. She enjoys her new home, and she's getting taught here.
A while later, a pair of women walk by the apartment complex and discuss how strange it is. Despite how friendly they are, the people from within it refuse to show the same courtesy. They never see anyone leave either, so they wonder what could be going on in there.
As they walk away, Aki smiles while observing them from the shadows of her curtained room.
Yomi's Epilogue[]
Yomi mentions how rare it is for people to all get along in an apartment complex these days. However, Aki and her family are probably really happy living in their ignorance. She asks if everyone would like to live in this kind of complex.
Characters[]
- Aki Nakajima
- Mr. & Mrs. Nakajima
- Oda
- Oda's Daughter
- Yukie
- Neighbors
