This finally snapped her wide awake. Ushio gaped at me like I’d gone completely insane. I’d been planning to explain everything to her once we got to the bus stop, but it seemed I’d have to stop and give her the rundown right here and now.
“I’m not ready for this trip to end quite yet,” I told her. “I want one more day.”
“Okay… And what are you suggesting we do, exactly?”
“We’re gonna go on an adventure together. Just you and me.”
Her gaze grew even more dubious at this, so I proceeded to explain.
“I know this class trip hasn’t really been that bad overall. Going sightseeing around Sapporo together was a lot of fun, and we’ve gotten to eat a ton of tasty food too. Even learning how to ski was way more of a thrill than I ever would have expected. And yet…I can’t get what happened in Otaru yesterday out of my head.”
Ushio narrowed her eyes as if wincing in pain.
“And unfortunately,” I continued, “it’s the painful memories that usually stick with us the longest. So in a few years’ time, when all of the moments we had here start to blur together, we might find ourselves looking back on this trip and only being able to remember the negative stuff. That’s the last thing I want—not just for me but especially for you… I couldn’t even sleep last night thinking about it.”
I took a step toward Ushio.
“I know I can’t just erase the bad memories, but I’d like to at least try to overwrite them with something one hundred percent positive if we can. Which is why I want to throw caution to the wind and take you on our own little Hokkaido adventure, so we can make all sorts of new memories together here before we head back home.”
My warm breath turned wispy and white in the early morning air.
“What do you say?”
I’d made my pitch, and I was mentally prepared for any answer she might give. But even so, the long silence that preceded her response was hard to bear.
“Why does everything have to be so extreme with you all the time?” she groaned, pressing a hand to her forehead as if she had a migraine. “Have you gone out of your mind? How are we ever going to explain to the faculty that we just…decided to skip out on the flight back home? It’s not like they can refund our tickets at this point either, I assume… We’d be causing a ton of inconvenience for a whole lot of people.”
She was totally right. Even I knew that what I was suggesting was stupid and irresponsible. But it was the only sliver of hope I could think to grab on to right now, given what little time we had left to make a course correction.
“You really want to do this, despite all of that?” asked Ushio.
“Yeah,” I said. “I really do.”
My mind was already made up. I knew full well that we’d get in a whole lot of trouble for it. And I did feel pretty guilty for pressuring Ushio to be my partner in crime. Nevertheless, my desire to turn this trip around for the two of us completely outweighed those concerns.
“To be clear, this isn’t a request or a demand,” I said. “Think of it as an invitation. You’re free to say no, and we can both walk back into the hotel right now. I definitely don’t want to force you into anything.”
“Oh, come on, Sakuma… You can’t do that to me…”
Ushio gripped her sleeves and lowered her head, as if she was at her wits’ end and had no clue what to do. I was asking her to make a tough decision, despite my claims of not wanting to put any pressure on her. But if we were going to do this, it had to be her decision too—or else we wouldn’t have a good time. And so I waited patiently for her answer.
Off in the distance, a motorcycle thrummed down the road. I couldn’t imagine it being some biker out on an early morning drive through the mountains at this frigid time of year, so I assumed it had to be someone on their way to work or already out on the job. If so, I had to commend their fortitude; I’d have a hard time waking up and braving this cold every single day.
So afraid was I of hearing Ushio’s reply that my thoughts wandered off to focus on random things like this. Eventually, she lifted her head as if she’d made up her mind.
“…And you promise it’ll be a good time?”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure of it.”
Her expression shifted at that. The pensive, anxious look on her face slowly blossomed into one of newfound, defiant resolve.
“Okay… I’ll go with you, Sakuma,” she said. “Because, yeah…I really don’t want things to end like this either.”
My blood raced through my entire body. It seemed my last-ditch gambit had paid off. And while I couldn’t rest on my laurels just yet, she was at least giving me a chance to salvage things, which definitely boded well. All that was left now was to make sure the journey itself was as enjoyable as possible.
“Thanks, Ushio,” I said. “Then we’d better head on over to the bus stop. If we miss this first bus, we won’t make it in time for our connection.”
“Well, you could’ve mentioned that part a little sooner! Jeez…”
We hurried down the road toward the bus stop. Neither of us said a single word along the way as we focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Which was the right call, since we barely made it in time; the bus was already waiting there on the side of the road. Almost immediately upon climbing aboard, my frozen limbs began to thaw and relax in the bus’s pleasant, heated interior. I heaved a sigh of relief as we walked down the aisle to a pair of open seats. Since this was the first bus of the day, there were hardly any other passengers.
“So where are we going, anyway?” Ushio asked while we waited for the bus to set off. “I’m guessing somewhere other than Sapporo, if we have to make a connection.”
Her voice had finally regained its usual, relaxed timbre. It was a fairly minor thing, yet seeing her comfortable was still enough to make me smile.
“Correct,” I said. “Our final destination is Cape Soya.”
“Cape Soya, okay… And where’s that?”
“In Wakkanai.”
“Remind me where that is, again?”
“It’s at the very tip of Hokkaido.”
“I’ll just look it up myself.”
Evidently, my explanation was insufficient. Ushio pulled up her phone’s GPS and did a search for “Cape Soya.” As soon as she saw its location on the map, she whipped her head toward me in disbelief.
“…You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. That’s where we’re going.”
“Wh-why did you pick a place like that? It’s way out in the middle of nowhere!”
“Just figured if we’re gonna make it an adventure, we might as well go as far as we can, right? Besides, doesn’t the thought of going all the way to the northernmost point in Japan feel kinda exhilarating? Plus, since it’s a lot farther out from the Sapporo metropolitan area than Otaru, we should be able to see a whole lot of interesting scenery along the way… At least, I’m pretty sure we will.”