"Peeping Toms"
by S. Schumaker


Standard Disclaimers Apply
												

(AN: Hi! How’s it going? All right, now, I’m sure you’ll figure it 
out, but this chapter is in Mamoru’s POV. I will probably be alternating 
views with each new chapter, okay? So, hopefully this won’t confuse 
you too much... Just keep this in mind, okay? And, as always, reviews 
are greatly appreciated!)


Chapter Two - The Peeping Begins


      
	I'd been having a dreadfully awful day. It started off like 
any other: I showered, got ready for school and walked to the subway 
heading to the university. However, once I found myself comfortably 
seated on the train, I thought about how important it was to attend 
my biology class today and how much my grade could improve if I did. 
It was the day when our teacher was going to assign this huge project. 
Then suddenly, the train came to a halt, the lights flickering off, 
and the people becoming deadly silent. The intercom system crackled 
as a message was relayed over it. Something about a “technical difficulty” 
holding up the train and my day as a result. Of course causing me to 
lose precious lecture minutes on the most important day of the semester. 
Just my luck. I sat on that train for five hours before it finally began 
taking me to school, however, by the time I got there... all my classes 
were already over!

	But when I finally reached the campus, I was too upset to just 
turn around and go home again and so I decided to stop by the cafeteria 
to see if there was anything good to eat on the menu today. As I scanned 
the array of choices before me I actually noticed a few things that 
looked edible. I filled up my tray and headed toward the checkout line. 
I handed my student id card to the woman as she scanned in my food. “Oh, 
I’m so sorry Mamoru Chiba. It seems your card has been temporarily 
suspended due to some unresolved tuition payments.” She read off of 
her screen.

	“What?” I exclaimed, handing her a few dollars instead. I sat 
down, confusion settling over me at what the woman told me. Unresolved 
tuition payments? What in the heck did that mean? I practically inhaled 
my lunch before racing off to the financial aid office to see what was 
going on with my school loans. I pulled open the door, a little roughly, 
and stormed into the office of my financial counselor. 

	“Ah, Chiba-san, I’ve been meaning to call you in for a chat. 
Please seat down.” I fully walked into the office, closing the door 
behind me. I looked toward the voice of my counselor, but all I saw 
was the back of a large, black chair, a trail of smoke drifting up 
toward the ceiling. I scrunched my forehead in confusion. “Sit.” I 
quickly grabbed the nearest chair and settled into it. Just as I had 
taken my place in the chair, the black chair before me spun around 
revealing my counselor holding a cigarette. She was wearing a frilly 
dress with bows and wide colors all over it. Just looking at her made 
me feel dizzy. I sat back in the chair, trying to create more space 
between the two of us. 

	“So, I heard there was a problem with my tuition. What happened? 
Didn’t my loans go through?” I asked of her, my head starting to ache 
from the cigarette smoke.

	“Actually, no. Two of the loans didn’t go through properly and 
you still owe ten grand to the school. I’m sorry to have to be the one 
to tell you, but if you don’t get it in by next week, all of your work 
this semester will be wasted and the credits will not be added to your 
transcript.” She explained, taking a deep drag off of her cigarette 
before blowing the smoke in my face. I coughed a little before slumping 
down in my seat.

	“Next week? How am I supposed to get that amount of cash in a 
week?” I whispered to myself, dropping my gaze to my hands in my lap, 
completely dejected and upset.

	“You know, I might be able to help you out there.” A voice said 
from behind me. I whirled around to see my counselor standing there. I 
turned back toward her desk to find her missing from the large chair. How 
in the world did she get behind me without my knowledge? “I know of a few 
scholarships that are looking for you exactly. Orphaned child going into 
medicine. I have some applications around here somewhere.” She began 
leafing through a pile of papers. “You should give them a call.” She answered, 
pulling out a few sheets of paper and handing them to me.

	“Thank you. I’ll take a look at them.” I smiled at her in gratitude 
before walking out the door and heading back to the subway and my apartment.

	Now, you’d think that getting trapped on the subway and having a 
debt of $10,000 would bring my day down to the lowest possible spot, but 
there was just one more event that really threw my mood into shambles. An 
old girlfriend. She was sitting outside my door when I arrived and the 
sight practically made my stomach do a flip. I began to feel very faint.
We dated for almost two years before I caught her cheating on me with my 
best friend. No, I didn’t catch them on a date. No, I didn’t see them 
kissing. I walked in on them doing the deed in my kitchen. My kitchen!! 
The same kitchen that I eat all of my meals in! It was mortifying then and 
was still mortifying today. She was the last person that I wanted to see, 
ever! I stopped in my tracks at the end of the hall, wondering to myself 
if I would go unnoticed if I just turned around and ran in the direction 
I came. Just when I turned around to make a safe getaway, I heard her 
scratchy voice say my name.

	“Mamoru! You finally came home!”

	I shut my eyes tightly in anger, took a deep breath, and turned 
back toward her. “Ayaka. What brings you here?” I asked, giving her my 
best fake smile before walking to my door and stepping inside my apartment. 
Unfortunately, she followed me. I had no choice but to shut the door behind 
her. She immediately sat on my couch and waited for me to do the same. 
Instead, I decided to sit in a chair across from her. She’s pure evil, even 
being this close to her makes me want to jump out my window. 

	“Look, I know this is a silly request and I have no right to be 
asking you for anything, but I have a little problem.” Here she hung her 
head, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

	“Okay, what do you want?” I said, getting impatient and feeling 
like I was about to be used for something I wouldn’t like.

	She took a deep breath. “The thing is, I have a mini-stalker.” I 
burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. Sure, Ayaka was very attractive, 
but anyone could tell by looking at her what a tramp she really was. Her 
clothing was also three main things: short, see-through, and flashy. She 
wasn’t a shy girl and was never without a harem. I silently wondered where 
her fan club was now. And, why did she need my help? “It’s not funny, Mamoru! 
Look, I promised this guy that I would go to some dance at the university 
with him if he would leave me alone afterwards. We went to the dance together 
and now he thinks he’s in love with me. Love? Can you believe that?” She 
started laughing. I hated her laugh. It sounded like Bozo the Clown after 
sucking down helium. I sank back in my chair, just waiting for the request 
I knew was coming. “Even though we aren’t very close anymore, I know that 
if you do this for me he’ll get the idea and leave me alone. I need you to 
pretend to be dating me for a few days. Can you do that, please?”

	All right, so I couldn’t help it, I burst out in an uncontrollable 
laughter. I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t have? Here was a girl that 
literally broke my heart, and now she wanted me to pretend to date her?! I 
mean, it was a crack up! 

	“Look Mamoru, you don’t have to laugh so hard.” I heard her say 
over my giggles. But, there was no stopping me now. Once I jumped on the 
laugh train, there was no stepping off. I barely even noticed when she 
stood up and started making her way to the door. I tried to calm myself, 
just long enough to tell her there was no way I would be able to help her 
out.
	
	“Ayaka, hold up a minute.” I breathed out, my chest rising and 
falling quickly. I stood and followed after her. “What kind of situation 
are we talking about here? I mean, is this really serious or are you 
just trying to get me back?” I had to know if she was being sincere or 
not, if for no other reason than to protect myself.

	“I’m being honest. This guy really freaks me out. It will just 
be for a couple of weeks, okay? Please, will you help me out here?” She 
gave me her sad, puppy dog, pleading face. The face she knew I couldn’t 
resist. And, once again, I found myself believing her and actually 
agreeing to go along with her charade.
	
	“All right, fine. But this is for two weeks tops! I mean it, Ayaka. 
If this guy doesn’t get the picture, then it’s your problem, okay?” She 
smiled and jumped up into my arms in gratitude. I quickly pushed her away, 
feeling my stomach turn over from her touch. Eventually, I got her to leave 
the apartment and head out of the building. The slamming door echoing 
throughout my apartment behind her. I flopped onto my sofa. Relief, mixed 
with a little dread at my decision, washing over me.

	A few hours later, the sun started to sink down in the horizon. I 
couldn’t exactly watch the sunset because this huge apartment building was 
just across the street from mine, blocking the sun from my view. So, instead 
of relaxing to a hidden sunset, I decided to look into some of those 
scholarships my counselor had given me. 

	I walked over to my backpack that I’d thrown by the door and dug 
through it, bringing out the pile of scholarship papers. I started going 
through them, finding that each one really did fit me perfectly. One in 
particular, however, was just for me. It read: “SEEKING: Male, orphaned, 
pre-medical student with financial difficulty. 3.0+ GPA, Junior or higher 
for $10,000 a year scholarship.” It almost seemed too good to be true! I 
quickly glanced over the application, spotting a phone number there. 

	Reaching for my phone, I quickly dialed in the digits, waiting 
for the ring. After a while, a male voice answered the phone. “Hello?”

	“Hi, I’m Mamoru Chiba. I’m calling about the scholarship. Has 
it already been awarded this year?” I asked, hoping that I still had a 
chance to apply.

	“Actually, no it hasn’t, but today was the last day we were 
accepting applications.”

	“Oh no! Really?” My heart broke. What would I do now?

	“Wait a minute, your name’s Mamoru Chiba?” The man asked.

	“Yeah.” I answered, getting a little confused.

	“I’m Dr. Takahashi and I think we can make an exception. You’re 
financial counselor told me about your circumstances. Are you free
tomorrow? I’d love to visit with you in person about this.”

	“Tomorrow? I’m definitely free!” I said, getting a flash of confidence 
again. I’d have to remember to thank my counselor later.

	“All right, why don’t we meet at the Faculty of Medicine building 
tomorrow? My office is room 238F. Say, around one?” I nearly shouted out my 
reply, “Yes, one o’clock!” before hanging up the phone with a big smile. 
Now things were finally looking up!

	Well, that’s what I thought anyway before I heard someone pounding 
hard on my apartment door. I nearly jumped in surprise when the person 
beyond the door started screaming too. “Chiba! You in there? Open this 
damn door, now!” 

	I softly walked over to the door, looking through the peep hole. 
I saw a huge guy, looked like a WWF wrestler or something! His arm was 
the size of my head, and the rest of him was even bigger. His bald head 
was covered in tattoos and his eyes were glaring into the peep hole, 
trying to see inside. Who was this guy?

	He continued to scream and pound outside my door. I tried to 
slowly back away from it, trying to be as quiet as I could. I stealthily 
made it to the phone. I needed to call the police. This guy was way too 
scary to be ignored! As soon as my hand wrapped around the phone it 
started to ring. I answered it immediately, hoping the man outside hadn’t 
heard it.

	“Mamoru?” A woman’s voice came over the line. I recognized that 
voice.

	“Ayaka? Why are you calling?” I continued to back away from the 
door, watching as it slowly began to bend inward from the large man’s 
thrusts against it.

	“Mamoru, hey, so did you meet Souta?” I scrunched my eyebrows 
in confusion.

	“Souta? Who’s that?”

	“He’s the guy that’s stalking me, hello!” She said in an 
annoying fashion. “I told him I had a new boyfriend now, you, and 
he said he was going to go have a word with you or something…” She 
trailed off a little and suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head.

	“This Souta wouldn’t have to be a big wrestler type with 
tattoos and such would he?” I suddenly felt very nervous, and very 
stupid.

	“Oh yeah, that’s him. So you did meet him, how’d it go?” The 
tone in her voice was so soft, uncaring. I wished I could have wrung 
her scrawny little neck.

	“How’d it go? How’d it go!” I whispered out angrily. “He’s here, 
banging at my door. I think he wants to kick my ass! How could you lie 
to me about this?” 

	“I never lied to you! He is stalking me. I just never told you 
what he looked like, but you never asked.” She continued. I could almost 
hear the smile in her voice. 

	“Whatever just get him away from my house!” I wanted to yell at 
her so badly, but if this Souta character knew I was home, I wouldn’t 
doubt he’d actually find a way to break in here. Man, this day was 
terrible!

	I hung up the phone, slinking over to my couch. I plopped down 
and just waited. After another couple of minutes of banging and shouting, 
it stopped. Either Ayaka had called him off, or he got bored. Either way 
I wasn’t about to go find out why he wasn’t there any longer. 

	“What an awful day.” I said to myself, standing up and walking to 
the window. I looked down, watching as Souta exited out of my building. 
He walked like a gangster or something, shuffling his feet slowly. I ran 
a hand through my dark hair, wishing for some peace. Why was I always such 
a nice guy? Man, I sure would pay for that decision.

	I tried to clear my mind of the mess of the day. I moved over and 
filled up a cup of coffee, taking the warm, dark liquid into my mouth. Coffee 
always had a soothing quality to it, but it wasn’t really working today. I 
sat back down on my couch, flipping open a book. It was an old classic novel, 
and a little hard to get lost in. 

	As I was reading the words on the page, I found my mind wandering. 
I thought about the class I had missed that morning. I’d probably fail the 
class now, and that would bring down my GPA…which would mean that I would no 
longer qualify for that scholarship and would be kicked out of school for 
now being unable to pay my tuition. Then, I’d be so depressed that I’d lose 
my crappy job at the arcade and be evicted out of my apartment. I’d find 
myself living on the street, only to one day bump right into Souta…get my ass 
kicked, and simply die.

	“All right. That’s it! Stop thinking about this shit!” I stood up, 
pacing in front of my window. I had to do something to get my mind off this 
wretched day! So, I decided a run would be the perfect way to clear my head.
I walked to my bedroom, taking off my white dress shirt and khaki pants and 
throwing on a wife beater and a pair of jogging pants. I headed out of the 
apartment, locking the door behind me and made my way out of the building.

	Once outside, the crisp, cool air of Tokyo seemed almost as soothing 
as I needed. I started to jog down the road, heading to a park that I frequented 
often. I ran the paths there for nearly an hour, an hour of peace. When I run, I 
leave everything behind and simply focus on my legs pushing my body forward. It 
was heaven.

	However, as the night came closer, I decided to head back home. I 
jogged my way inside the building and up the stairs, even down the hallway. I 
had to make that peace last as long as possible. But it ended a little too soon 
and I found myself standing before my apartment door. I unlocked it and went 
inside, locking myself in immediately there after. 

	The lights were off and the apartment was dark. I stumbled toward my 
bedroom, hoping to just crash and sleep, but something outside of my window 
caught my eye. It was the lights of an apartment across the street. I used what 
little moonlight that shone through to guide me a path to the window. I squinted 
my eyes, wanting to see into that apartment. All right, I was a curious bastard, 
so sue me. 

	And, when I discovered what I was looking at, it was even harder to squash 
my curiosity. A woman was walking in the apartment, a pair of short shorts on, and 
a tight little tank. She was absolutely stunning. Her hair was up in two long 
pigtails, a bright golden yellow. Her curvy figure was easily seen from the distance, 
but I just had to see it better. 

	I raced off as quickly as the darkness would allow to my bedroom closet. I 
pulled the string to turn on the light, shielding my eyes from the bright florescent 
bulb. When my eyes were properly adjusted, I reached up to the top-most shelf 
and pulled down a box. It was a box I put all the useless shit I had 
accumulated over the years, but it was also the box that I knew held a 
pair of binoculars. 

	I flipped off the light and went back to the window, hold the 
binoculars to my eyes. I focused them in on that beauty across the street. 
It looked like she had just moved in; she was currently unpacking some 
boxes. I’m not sure if it was my perverted nature or something else, 
but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. She was stunning. 

	I got more comfortable, dropping to the floor in front of the 
window and continued to watch her as she tried to straighten up a few 
of her knick-knacks. I must have watched her for a good twenty minutes 
as she raced from box to box, smiling to herself over her possessions. 
I wanted to get to know this woman. I had to. Something in my heart 
told me that my life wouldn’t be the same without her.

	Once she quit unpacking, stood up and dusted herself off, 
she flicked off the light and left my view. I sighed to myself, 
making a silent pack to watch her again tomorrow night. I made my 
way to my room, collapsed in my bed and forgot the entire day, 
dreaming of the blond beauty from across the way…


To Be Continued…


(AN: What’d you think of this one? Do you like how it jumps 
from Serena than to Mamoru’s POV every chapter or not? I hope 
you enjoyed it, and keep those reviews coming!!)