1:00 P.M.
“Marshmallow.”
“Workshop.”
“Pizzeria.”
“Almond.”
“Doorknob.”
“Bobblehead.”
“Doghouse.”
“…Enough.” Ushio let out a heavy sigh, then thunked her head against the window.
“Hamburger,” I said.
“No, I mean I don’t want to play word chain anymore,” Ushio told me. “Why did we even start playing it in the first place?”
“Well, because we’ve already played everything else we could think of.”
“Yeah, but word chain is, like…the most boring pastime in existence.”
She sounded pretty fed up—not just with the game but in general. And I didn’t blame her; we’d been on the road for nearly five hours now, and we still weren’t even two-thirds of the way to our destination. We were going so slow that I genuinely thought it might be faster if we just got out of the bus and jogged the rest of the way there. It was an irritatingly restless feeling, but it wasn’t like we could tell the driver to speed up when we could hardly see for more than a few meters out the window.
Sadly, the weather had only continued to get worse and worse, to the point that we were in a complete whiteout. It was a miracle that we were even making any progress at all. And aside from a couple of quick bathroom breaks, we’d been cooped up inside the bus that entire time. The only small silver lining was that because the bus was virtually passengerless, we had the entire rear of the vehicle completely to ourselves and were free to stretch and spread out as much as we wanted.
“Oh, hey. Natsuki just texted me,” said Ushio, checking her phone. She’d turned the power back on permanently at this point. “Sounds like they made it back to Tsubakioka. She says the teachers just released them to go home.”
“Dang, they made pretty good time, then.” I tried my best not to think about how Ushio and I would both be back in the comfort of own homes right about now if it weren’t for this stupid odyssey I’d convinced her to go on with me.
“Maybe I’ll give her a call…”
“Hey, good idea. I wouldn’t mind talking to her for a little bit.”
Ushio scrolled through her contacts to Hoshihara’s name, then dialed. The other girl picked up on the very first ring.
“Oh, hello?” said Hoshihara. “Ushio-chan?”
“Hey, Natsuki. We’re just kinda bored right now, so we figured we’d give you a call. Sounds like you all made it back to the school okay, then?”
“Yep! I’m heading home now. God, it’s been such a long day, though… I’m exhausted… But anyway, what about you two? Are you in Wakkanai yet?”
“No, we’re still on the bus, unfortunately… It’s kind of a blizzard out here.”
“What?! Oh no! Seriously? Ugh, I’m so sorry. That really sucks…”
“Yeah, it’s a bummer, all right,” said Ushio—and all I could do was cringe with guilt.
“Right, that reminds me! I know I already mentioned this via text, but…is it cool that I reached out to Yuki-san?”
“No, yeah—it’s totally okay. I appreciate it, actually. Thanks, Natsuki.”
Apparently, Hoshihara had gotten in touch with Ushio’s stepmother to let her know where the two of us were and what our plan was. Ushio hadn’t asked her to do this; it was something she’d done entirely of her own initiative, under the supposition that we were going to have to tell our families the truth sooner or later.
“Although I am a little surprised you had my mom’s number,” Ushio added.
“Yup, we exchanged contact info that night you had us over for dinner. But we don’t really talk all that much, heh heh…”
The unspoken implication here was that they did talk sometimes—though about what, I couldn’t possibly fathom. Now I’m actually kinda curious…
“And how did things go on the faculty front?” Ushio asked.
“Things were pretty frantic back at the airport. But in the end, they all kinda gave up and got on the bus back to Tsubakioka. Even Ms. Iyo.”
“Interesting…”
It sounded like Ushio had a theory about this.
My guess was that Yuki called Ms. Iyo and gave her the full story. Considering Yuki was Ushio’s parent and legal guardian, it only made sense that she wouldn’t just keep it a secret for us like Hoshihara had. Ushio probably recognized that as the inevitable outcome too.
“Apparently, there’s never been a case of a student going missing on a class trip before. Bet you two are gonna go down in school history, heh.”
“That’s…maybe not what I’d prefer to be remembered for, but noted,” said Ushio.
“Oh yeah—is Kamiki-kun there right now? Can I talk to him for a minute?”
“Sure thing.” Ushio handed the phone over to me.
“Yes, hello?!” I said excitedly. Her voice was a breath of fresh air from the outside world on this dismal, dreary bus ride.
“Hey there, Kamiki-kun! How are you holding up?”
“Could be worse. Just kinda sitting here twiddling our thumbs, mainly.”
“Gotcha… So how are things going with Ushio-chan?” she asked, lowering her voice.
So that was what she wanted to talk about. I couldn’t speak too frankly with Ushio sitting next to me, so I didn’t bother lowering my own voice to match and instead tried to answer her question in vague terms.
“Still relatively decent so far,” I said. “Though I think we’re both feeling kinda bored.”
“Yeah, not a whole lot you can do on a long bus ride aside from plain old chatting, unfortunately… But I’m sure things’ll start to pick up once you actually get there.”
“Hopefully, yeah…”
Hoshihara hummed contemplatively to herself for a moment, as if she was about to say something, then fell completely silent. So silent, in fact, that I wondered briefly if the call had dropped due to poor connection or something. But right when I was about to hang up and try again, I heard a groan of dejection from the other end of the line.
“Ugh! Dang it… Sorry, I can’t really think of any good advice to give you right now…”
Advice? Oh, right. Duh. For a second there, I’d almost forgotten that Ushio had told Hoshihara about the two of us breaking up, albeit in the form of a very brief summary during our last phone call. It seemed she was worried about how things were going.
“Well, I appreciate the thought either way,” I said. “Always nice to have friends who are concerned about you.”
“You sure? ’Cause, I mean, I know it’s really none of my business at the end of the day… But yeah, I dunno! Guess I can’t help being a little curious, ha ha.”
I could almost hear her fidgeting nervously through the phone speaker.
“Anyway, all I’ll say is to try not to dwell on things you could’ve done differently because hindsight’s always twenty-twenty. You’re gonna have regrets and what-if questions no matter what you do, so just own your decisions and try to focus on having a good time.”
“Hey, there you go,” I said. “That was pretty damn good advice, I’d say.”
“Wait, really? You think so?”
“Yeah. I’ll try to keep that in mind, thanks.”
“Woo-hoo! Okay, I guess we’re good, then! Could you let me talk to Ushio-chan again?”
Quite the change of tune. Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded talking to her a little longer, but I relinquished the phone to Ushio regardless. My mood was already a whole lot lighter from this brief interaction alone.
Just own my decisions, and try to focus on having a good time… Yeah.
It was exactly as Hoshihara said: We were already in this mess, so all I could really do was try to make the most of it. I should be using this overabundance of time alone with her to try to talk things over, or chat about anything and everything, and try to mend our relationship and bridge the gap between us little by little.
All right… Hope you’re ready, Ushio, ’cause I’m gonna talk your ear off!