Now I’d made her suspicious, and she drew steadily nearer, her face set.
“Are you hiding something out there? Why is Baron barking so much?”
“I-it’s Shirayuki! Shirayuki is pressed up against the window.”
“What?!”
Tohko paled instantly and drew back.
Ha! She won’t be ripping the curtains open now!
“O-oh no. What’re we going to do, Konoha? But I have to confirm it with my own eyes.”
Her face took on a certain determination, and she reached out her hands and threw the curtains open to either side.
I’d relaxed completely and let my guard slip, so there was nothing I could do to stop her.
“Ack!”
The curtains were wide open and the spectacle outside was exposed.
Ryuto was still right in the middle of his make-out session. A kiss on the lips moved from the cheek to the ear, then went back to the cheek, then turned toward the neck.
Tohko plastered herself against the window and trembled.
Then she threw the window open and leaned out of it to scream.
“Ryuto!! What’re you doing?!”
“I just don’t get you! Why can’t you arrive like a normal person?!”
When Tohko had finished changing and rebraided her hair, she came and pounded on Ryuto with a silver tray.
“But Tohko, you badgered me to do this super-urgent investigation and get my butt out here. But it’s not like I got a license, and the trains don’t run out here, either. And it looked pretty pointless to try hitchhikin’ in the middle of the boonies. The only option I had left was to ask a favor of someone I know who has a ride.”
“Y-you have a point—but you didn’t have to smooch all over her, did you?! You can’t do things like that in public. I’ve told you that millions of times since kindergarten. Why haven’t you gotten any better?!”
Actually, you’re the marvel to keep saying that millions of times since kindergarten, Tohko.
The woman who’d been kissing Ryuto got on her bike and went home. As she was leaving, she casually pressed her lips to Ryuto’s with a “See ya,” enraging Tohko even further.
“But you can’t just be like, ‘Okay, bye,’ when someone gives you a ride. Nobody even thinks twice about somethin’ like that in other countries.”
“This is Japan and you’re Japanese!”
She smuuuuuuuuushed a tray into Ryuto’s face.
“T-Tohko…! Yer smashin’ my nose! I can’t breathe. Save me, Konoha…”
I believed he’d only brought this on himself, but I limply grabbed Tohko’s arm from behind her.
“Let’s leave it at that. He did come all this way for you.”
“Mrr…”
Tohko looked from me to Ryuto’s twitching form, pursed her lips a little, then lowered the tray.
“Whoo! That was rough. I owe ya, Konoha.”
“The next time I catch you doing lewd things, even Konoha’s pleas won’t save you.”
Tohko glared at Ryuto and sat in her chair. The breakfast the housekeeper had brought us a few moments ago was arranged on a round table. There was a cold ratatouille of boiled summer vegetables like eggplant and tomatoes and paprika seasoned with olive oil, plus freshly baked baguettes, herbed cheeses, and runny omelets. Hot tea in a pot. Cool Perrier in glass bottles.
Ryuto and I sat down, too, and served ourselves breakfast.
Tohko opened Fouqué’s Undine, tore in from the edge, and took a bite.
“Friedrich Fouqué was a German author born in 1777. He came from an old line of nobility, and his grandfather had even been a Prussian general. Fouqué changed careers, leaving behind the military life to become an author, and in 1811, his most famous work, Undine, came out.
“Undine the water spirit falls in love with the knight, Huldebrand, and becomes his wife, but Huldebrand breaks a prohibition and speaks badly of Undine on the water, and so unable to stay in the world of humans, she returns to the world of water.
“Having lost Undine, Huldebrand tries to marry another woman.
“But that was an unforgivable act in the world of water. Undine was bound by their laws to deliver death upon Huldebrand with her own hand.
“It’s rustic and fondly familiar and a little bitter…a little tender…like biting into hard rye bread that’s full of raisins. The more you chew, the more the sourness of the rye develops and melds with the natural sweetness of the raisins, leaving a poignant echo on your tongue…”
She munched on the shreds of the page with a slight rustling noise, and as she swallowed, Tohko let out a sigh.
“That’s awesome. I’m crazy for things where the girl tries to kill the guy she fell for and make him hers,” Ryuto said as he efficiently cleaned his own plate and then pulled Tohko’s omelet over without a thought. Tohko frowned and glared at Ryuto.
“This is not a story about that kind of dirty vortex of emotion. It’s the tale of the melancholy love of the water spirit who is bound by an inescapable law.
“On his wedding night with his new wife, Undine appears wearing a white veil and Huldebrand tells her, ‘I want to die with my lips on yours.’ The scene where Undine gives him a kiss and lets loose her tears is so poignant and beautiful, your heart just swells. It’s totally different from your casual smooching.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Looking blasé, Ryuto loaded some omelet onto a buttered baguette and bit into it.
As I listened to their uninhibited conversation, it struck me again that these two had known each other since childhood and lived in the same house. So Ryuto had been the one Tohko meant when she said she’d made a phone call. And Ryuto had also investigated the things Tohko had asked of him and hurried here. Would most people go that far for a childhood acquaintance who was like a sister to them?
Deep in my heart, I felt something hazy.