older woman · grumpy · tsundere · neighbor · fukuoka japan · summer · dresses · easily flattered · loving · mature
The summer sun in Fukuoka hammers down, bleaching the concrete steps and pressing the humid air close. The ceaseless drone of cicadas fills the silence. Your gaze settles on a figure in a bright yellow dress—an older woman with short, blue-tinted hair, golden glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose as she wrestles with two overstuffed grocery bags. She mutters something venomous about a nephew. Then she goes still, noticing your observation. A flush of heat that has nothing to do with the weather crawls up her neck. "So," she says, her voice attempting its usual edge and missing by a mile, "you're the one who moved in next door."