I could hear a distinct, blustery exhale on the other end of the line. It sounded like my mother was smoking again.
“Sorry, I think I’ve learned my lesson about long bus rides. If we have to turn around and spend another twelve hours on the road back to Sapporo tomorrow, I’m pretty sure we’ll both go insane, so I’d really prefer to just fly back from Wakkanai…”
“Do you really think you’re in a position to be making demands?” I winced, sensing the lecture that was about to follow. “You seriously don’t realize just how much trouble you’ve already caused, do you? Can you even imagine how mortifying it was to get that call from Ms. Iyo? I could have fainted, I was so embarrassed. And on top of that, you had to go and drag poor Ushio-chan into this mess too.”
“W-wait, Ms. Iyo told you that?”
“No, but I just know this whole thing must have been your idea.”
Leave it to the woman who’d raised me from birth to have me all figured out.
“How is Ushio-chan holding up, anyway?” my mother asked, suddenly sounding a lot more concerned now that we were talking about someone other than me.
“She’s in the shower right now. We had to make a long walk through the freezing cold to get here, so we’re both pretty exhausted, but I think she’ll be okay.”
“I swear, you’d better get that girl home safe, Sakuma. Even if it means you have to stay behind and freeze to death up there.”
“Yeah, I know, Mom…”
“Don’t disappoint me, Sakuma. Even though I know that’s kind of your thing…”
She followed this up with another long exhale—though I assumed this one was just a sigh, not her having taken another drag from her cigarette.
“…I’ll wire you the money tonight. And I’ll go ahead and book your flight too, while I’m at it. Just be sure to check your inbox. I’ll forward you the details.”
“Wait, seriously?! Oh my god, thank you so much!” I cried. “Actually, hang on! Sorry, one more thing—we still want to go visit Cape Soya tomorrow before we leave, so could you please include a little extra money for that? Just five thousand yen should be more than enough!”
“Are you trying to piss me off now?”
“Look, I promise I’ll find a way to pay you back, okay?! We just…really need to do this one last thing! I’m begging you here!”
I knew this was a huge ask, so I reflexively lowered my head in deference. My mother couldn’t see this, obviously—but it seemed she could still tell how serious I was.
“Ugh… All right, fine,” she said—and I jerked my head up in surprise. “But for the record, I expect you to pay back all of this money before you graduate, so you’d better start thinking about getting a part-time job or something. And if you’re not on that plane tomorrow, so help me, I’ll sell every last video game you own.”
“Y-yes, ma’am. Copy that.”
“…Anyway, have a safe flight.”
And with that, my mother hung up the phone.
Well, that takes care of our money problems, at least. I felt like I owed my mother yet another life debt for this one… Though I had to admit, I’d had no idea just how expensive traveling to and from Hokkaido could get.
I put some hot water on using the room’s electric kettle and made myself some tea. Before I could even finish my cup, the bathroom door clicked open.
“Sorry I took so long,” said Ushio.
“Hey, no worries,” I said. “Guess I’ll—”
I couldn’t even get the rest of that sentence out.
Ushio walked back into the room garbed in nothing but a bathrobe—its belt tied tightly around her waist, its lapels hanging loosely over her partially exposed chest. Her cheeks were flushed red, and her hair was still damp.
“G-guess I’ll go take mine now, then,” I said, stumbling awkwardly over my words before scurrying off into the bathroom to conceal my bewilderment. Once inside, I locked the door behind me and took a moment to collect my breath.
J-jeez, man… She almost gave me a heart attack…
I should have known that they’d have bathrobes here and Ushio might see fit to use one after getting out of the shower, yet it had surprised me nonetheless. Man, I forgot just how revealing those things can be…
Wait, what the hell was I thinking about here? I needed to hurry and get myself cleaned up so we could go the hell to sleep.
I stepped into the shower and turned the handle, feeling the water quickly warm up as it cascaded down my shoulders. I wasted no time washing my body and my hair, then rinsed and dried myself off with one of the towels hanging nearby. Then I went ahead and donned a bathrobe of my own. I didn’t find it especially comfortable, to be honest: a bit airy down below for my liking, and I wasn’t wearing anything but underwear beneath it, so my thighs kept chafing against each other—but I didn’t really feel like sleeping with clothes on tonight either, so it was the lesser of two evils.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I found Ushio blow-drying her hair.
“Wow, that was fast,” she said.
“Yeah, everyone always tells me that,” I replied. “But I do still make sure to wash behind my ears and everything, for the record!”
“I mean, I wasn’t doubting that, but okay…”
She’d just finished up with the blow-dryer, so she handed it over to me. As I dried my own hair, she went over to the bathroom sink and brushed her teeth. Then, as if we were some sort of tag team, I heard her spit out her mouthwash at the exact moment I turned off the blow-dryer, so I took her spot at the sink and brushed my teeth as well. This was the last thing I needed to do before I could finally go to sleep.
After rinsing my mouth out, I stepped back into the room to find that Ushio was still awake, sitting with her legs dangling listlessly off the edge of the bed.
Did she want to talk about something, perhaps?
“What’s up?” I asked. “Not ready to sleep yet?”
“No,” she said. “Just wanted to ask what the plan was for tomorrow.”
“Oh, right. I still owe you an update on that, don’t I?”
I’d completely forgotten. Now I felt a little embarrassed for anticipating anything else.
I flipped open my phone and checked my messages to see that my mother had forwarded me our flight number and boarding information. We weren’t set to take off until midafternoon. Okay, cool. We should at least have enough time to check out Cape Soya, then.
“All right, so it looks like we’re gonna want to take the bus up to Cape Soya in the morning, then head straight from there to the airport for our flight,” I said. “I’ll send you the specific times and everything later so you can let your folks know.”
“Okay.”
Ushio seemed a bit crestfallen; I sat down beside her on the bed and tried to gauge her expression. “Do you not want to go to Cape Soya anymore?”