Chapters The Service Model Chapter 2
Asa Sumimoto struggled up the steep incline, jogging home from work. This was the home stretch, a side-effect of living on one of the many scenic hilltops in the city. The very motion of her body calmed her. Running was simple, good. She felt the sweat cooling her skin, soaking through the straps of her backpack. The evening air was still warm from the summer day, but to her it was just right, and her breathing was heavy but steady as she proceeded up past her house a couple blocks to the lookout over San Francisco and the Bay beyond. Needing a break, she slung off her tiny pack, collapsed onto a park bench, and laid her head back to look up at the late cherry blossoms above her.
This past year had felt so refreshing. Always a good kid, of course Asa had followed her baba’s advice and gone straight into college from high school, and done summer courses too to keep ahead of the curve, but the endless work combined with her running hadn’t left her much life outside. This had all changed about two years ago when her baba passed away, the last of her relatives this side of the pacific. Asa thought to herself about how alone she had felt after that, and how that loneliness in such a structured, sheltered life had eventually led her to dropping out from school (temporarily, she always told herself) to work a little bit, train as much as she could for her division championship, maybe make some real friends, and meet someone to start a relationship with. It had been a tall order for one year off, and she hadn’t quite completed all she had wanted to, but that was okay. She was still single, only playing around with a couple girls she knew from the team, and some guys she met at varsity parties, but at least she wasn’t a virgin anymore, and she wasn’t too awkward either. The last guy, Julio, a swimmer for their school, had been into some kinky shit, and even as Asa thought about their two short months together she got a little wet under her running shorts, thinking of his soft but firm hand on her neck.
Looking out over the city, she wondered if that relationship had affected her more than she knew. He had been so strong-willed but sweet, and she knew that if he hadn’t graduated and gone home, she would still be with him, maybe even living together… in their own apartment where no one could hear them – she stopped herself, a habit she had learned long ago. That was over, she knew it, but the late night runs to his place to get tied up and fucked still left her wondering where she could find that in this clean, Jamba Juice city. She had found some social kink sites online in the last couple weeks, and while tipsy had put up profiles with maybe-a-bit-too-revealing selfies and classifieds in all of them. She tried to remember what she had written, and only came up with the brand of cab-sauv she had been drinking, and maybe a blurb about wanting to be bound. “Be creative,” she remembered writing. Maybe that was the way to find the one, but until then she had to settle for the young, vanilla crowd she had settled into.
It didn’t really matter, she was going back to school in a couple months and she would be busy again, but it was good to keep an eye out now that she knew what she wanted in a partner. Maybe she would find someone fun in the rookies starting September. Oh if her baba saw her with another girl, there would be hell to pay, for sure!
That thought set her off, just a single tear, which she wiped away and jumped up to dispel. It was still a sore spot for her, but if she could get through her baba’s passing, she could get through anything. Now up from the bench and out of her reverie, she laid out on the grass to do some cool-down exercises before the short walk home. Asa threw some earphones in and started to stretch, and looking out over the city as the sun set, she was blissfully unaware of the Anything Co. Acquisition Team in pedestrian clothing, dispersing throughout the park to keep the area clear.
When she felt the tranquilizer dart in her arm, it was much too late. Within a few moments, the tiny runner was unconscious in the cool evening grass, about to be loaded into a nearby van.