“Sorry,” I whispered. “Do you mind if I come in for a sec?”
“Ugh… Yeah, all right…”
She let me into her room without any further explanation, which I attributed to tiredness rather than a sudden indifference toward the events of yesterday. She probably wasn’t awake enough to even think straight yet either.
Ushio sat down on her bed. In almost no time at all, her body swayed from side to side, and it seemed like she was having an extremely hard time keeping her eyes open. She seemed cozy to the point of torpid lethargy; I remembered what she’d told me before about having low blood pressure in the morning.
“Sorry for dropping in on you without warning,” I said, remaining on my feet. “There’s something I really need to tell you.”
Ushio looked up at me with a vacant, sleepy expression. I couldn’t tell if my words were getting through to her, but I still wanted to vocalize how I felt.
“I’m really sorry about what happened yesterday,” I said. “I know you said neither of us are to blame, but I was definitely the one in the wrong. I never should have said the things I said, and I’ve been kicking myself for it all night.”
I clenched my fists and lowered my head.
“More than anything, though…I feel terrible for ruining your class trip. It was supposed to be a time for you to make really great memories with your friends, and now it’s probably going to be a painful thing to look back on, thanks to me and my inability to read between the damn lines. I really hate myself for that. If I could hit some sort of reset button and do this whole trip over again, I would.”
I lifted my head.
“But I can’t do that, obviously… So instead, I’d like to ask you to give me a chance to make things right. I’ve come up with a whole plan and everything—and I think it might be our only shot at making sure this trip doesn’t end up being a total disaster after all. Would you be willing to come with me and let me show you what I have in mind?”
Ushio blinked at me a couple of times. “Sorry, I’m really tired… I’m not sure I follow…”
This was such a rug-pull response to my earnest appeal that I could have fallen flat on my face. To be completely fair, it was five in the morning; I was the one who’d woken her up when she should have been fast asleep, so I only had myself to blame. It was just unfortunate that we didn’t have the luxury to wait any longer.
I sat beside her on the bed and took her hand in mine. It seemed this physical touch, at least, was enough to make her eyes open wide.
“There’s somewhere I wanna take you,” I said. “Will you come with me?”
“O-okay… Okay, yeah.”
Her eyes wavered restlessly, but I’d gotten the message across.
Well, that’s the first hurdle cleared. I stood up, and Ushio rose with me. She proceeded to stare at me expectantly, as if waiting for additional instructions.
“You’d better get ready to go, then,” I told her. “Don’t forget your phone and your wallet. You’ll probably wanna pack your smaller bag to bring along too.”
“Wait… Are we really going that far?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
Ushio furrowed her brow suspiciously, but she didn’t press for further details. “All right. Then just give me a few minutes, and I’ll get ready…”
“Sounds good.”
I stared at her and waited.
But she just stared back at me.
“Um, I need to get changed,” she said. “Could you look the other way?”
“Oh, my bad!” I exclaimed, whirling around.
As I heard the sound of clothes rustling behind my back, I let out a sigh of relief. Thus far, the plan was going off without a hitch. I knew going in that it was a pretty big gamble whether she’d even agree to it or not, so this was very reassuring. But I couldn’t afford to get careless either. I needed to watch my words and express myself adequately so as not to blow this opportunity.
Ten minutes passed.
“Ushio, you ready yet?” I called out.
“I think I’ll need another twenty minutes or so,” she called back from the bathroom. She’d been in there ever since she finished changing clothes.
“D-does it really take you that long to get ready?”
“Yeah, I’m putting my face on right now…”
Putting her face on…? Oh, right. Makeup, duh.
I couldn’t recall whether she did this every time she went out these days, but if she felt it was necessary to make herself presentable, then all I could really do was wait—even though we didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare.
Almost exactly twenty minutes later, Ushio emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed and prepared for the cold, with her big winter coat on and everything. She still seemed fairly tired, but I figured she’d start to wake up once we actually got moving.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get going.”
“Okay.”
We stepped out into the hallway. It was still dark outside, but no longer the sort of hour in which someone might bat an eye at us being out and about. Even if we were spotted by one of our classmates, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal—though if a teacher found us, we’d have no choice but to call the whole plan off. Guiding Ushio by the hand as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, I hurried down toward the main entrance.
“Hey, wait a sec!” she said. “Should we really be holding hands right now? Won’t that just draw even more attention to us? Plus, I mean…it’s kind of embarrassing…”
“It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “There won’t be anyone in the lobby at this hour.”
We descended the staircase and walked out into the hotel foyer—only to be immediately greeted with an emphatic “Good morning!” by the receptionist at the counter.
“M-morning,” I replied, chuckling sheepishly as we shuffled past the front desk. I tried my best to act natural, like there was nothing remotely suspicious about what we were doing. As soon as we made it outside, Ushio wrested her hand free and glared at me.
“See?!” she said. “There was someone there!”
“Yeah, I know… My bad…”
I genuinely hadn’t expected anyone to be working the front desk so early in the morning; being a receptionist must’ve been a less cushy job than I thought. At least they hadn’t accosted us to ask where we were going or anything, so all was well that ended well.
It was piercingly cold outside. When I lifted my head, I could still see stars shining vividly in the predawn darkness. It was a sight so beautiful, I nearly gulped in awe. This was my first time seeing the night sky up here in Hokkaido, come to think of it. I would have loved to stay and stargaze for a little while, if we weren’t in such a rush.
“Okay, Ushio. We’re gonna head over to the bus stop now, but it’s still dark, so really watch your step. Wouldn’t want you to slip and fall.”
“Yeah, I know, don’t worry. Wait… Why the bus stop?” Ushio’s footsteps came to a halt. I turned to see a look of abject bewilderment painted all across her face. “H-hold on a minute. We’re not getting on a bus right now, are we?”
“No, we are. Or that’s the plan, anyway.”
“Is that really such a good idea? Will we even make it back in time for our flight?”
“Nope. And we won’t need to either.”