I only vaguely remembered what happened after that.
For the entire car ride back to Otaru, I hardly said a word—opening my mouth rarely to offer an uninterested “yeah” or “cool” to whatever Sera was telling me, though I couldn’t recall a single thing he’d talked about.
Once we made it back to town, he let me out of the car, and I headed straight for the Otaru Music Box Museum, which was apparently only a few minutes’ walk down the road. I checked the time on my phone; I was running about ten minutes late.
It was neither as cold nor as windy in Otaru as it had been at Cape Kamui. But the clouds still looked ominous, with scattered snow flurries every couple minutes. It wasn’t so bad that I needed an umbrella, but I wanted to reach my destination and get indoors as soon as possible.
After speed-walking down the street for a while, a building with an antiquated, Western-style exterior came into view, which I assumed had to be the museum. And sure enough, I spotted Ushio standing outside.
“Sakuma!” she cried out, running over as soon as she saw me. “I was starting to wonder if you’d ever show up. Is everything okay?”
“Y-yeah, just fine…”
I didn’t even know how I should interact with her right now. While I didn’t believe everything Sera had told me, it was plain as day that there was something bothering Ushio related to me or our relationship. And I was afraid to find out what that was.
Ushio leaned in a bit as if nervously gauging my expression. “Did something happen with Sera?”
“Uhhh…”
As I fumbled for words, my stomach growled, reminding me once again that I still hadn’t eaten anything. I placed a hand on my abdomen to try to rub away the discomfort, and Ushio gave me a concerned look.
“Wait, have you not eaten lunch yet? God, the nerve of that guy… Dragging you off and then making you starve too. Ugh…” Her frustrated grumblings done, Ushio grabbed me by the hand. “Come on. Let’s go get some food first.”
“Wait, but…haven’t you already had lunch, though?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I could eat a little bit more.”
I felt a bit bad, forcing us to change our plans…but I supposed it was really Sera’s fault, not mine. Yet I didn’t even have the remaining willpower to resent him for it right now.
We found a seafood restaurant nearby and sat down at the counter. I ordered a salmon and rice bowl, and Ushio got a mini tuna sashimi bowl. It was our second time getting seafood together since we’d been in Hokkaido—and while I certainly wasn’t sick of eating it, I couldn’t say I had much of an appetite despite my empty stomach.
“So where did you and Sera go?” asked Ushio.
“This place called Cape Kamui,” I replied. “Not sure if you’ve heard of it.”
“No, where is it?”
I proceeded to explain that it was about an hour’s drive out of town—and, in the process, that Sera was actually nineteen and had his driver’s license as well. Ushio’s eyes went wide and she gasped several times as I gave her the rundown of my little adventure with Sera. While I did stress that it hadn’t been an enjoyable experience for me by any means, I didn’t touch on any of the things we’d discussed regarding me and Ushio.
Once our orders arrived, it was Ushio’s turn to tell me about what she’d been up to all morning. She, Hoshihara, Mashima, Shiina, Todoroki, and Nanamori had gone on a little sightseeing tour around the city. They took a cruise down the famous Otaru canal, had an early lunch, then got dessert at the original LeTAO cheesecake bakery. Ushio showed me a picture she’d taken of Hoshihara smiling with her cheeks stuffed and a smidgen of cream on her nose. It was pretty adorable.
Loosing an exhale, Ushio set her chopsticks down. She still had more than half her bowl left, but it seemed she was already full. I couldn’t blame her for not being able to finish her food, given that she’d had a full lunch and dessert already.
“If you’re not hungry anymore, do you mind if I eat the rest of that?” I asked.
“Oh, sure,” she said. “Go right ahead.”
I took her half-eaten tuna sashimi bowl and wolfed it down. I wasn’t all that hungry anymore, but I figured it was still better than letting it go to waste.
After finishing up and paying our bill, we stepped outside and headed back to the music box museum, which Ushio had originally been planning for us to check out together (hence making it our afternoon rendezvous point). Upon stepping inside, we found ourselves in a vast, two-story hardwood hall illuminated by the warm light of hanging bulbs and vintage table lamps, clearly intended to lend the place an old-fashioned, nostalgic vibe. I could already see a huge variety of different music boxes spread out across various display tables, their delicate chimes filling the whole place with soft music.
“Whoa… It’s so beautiful,” Ushio said in wonder as she leaned down to take a closer look at one of the nearby tables. They weren’t just beautiful to listen to; many had very intricate and unique designs as well. There were jewelry boxes that played melodies when you opened them, ones with dancing wooden puppets that spun around and around, and even a fair few disguised as stuffed animals with winding keys embedded in their backs. Merely looking at them was a lot of fun.
“Dang, some of these songs are pretty recent,” I noted.
“Yeah, interesting,” said Ushio. “Though if I were going to actually buy one, I feel like I’d want it to play something a bit more classical.”
“Totally agree. Modern music usually starts to feel kinda dated and tacky after just a few years, but classical stuff is considered ‘classic’ for a reason, y’know? Those songs have already proven they can stand the test of time without ever getting old.”
“I mean, that’s not what I was trying to say, really…”
Ushio picked up a music box with glass housing, the kind where you could see all the internal components while it played. She twisted the key a few times, and it played the opening song to a popular anime from a few years back.
“It doesn’t matter if a song feels ‘dated’ or not,” she said. “Plenty of people still listen to songs from the past few decades, or from when they were teenagers. One of the most powerful things about music is that it’s like a time capsule in that regard.”
“Y-yeah, I guess that’s a good point too. My bad.”