Chapter 85

LOST DAYS · 3 The upstairs room was warmed by the afternoon sunlight. Guided into a guest room—the “room you were supposed to be shown into,” as Ayano put it—I indulged in some warm tea. The bowl in the middle of the wooden table was lined with a selection of cookies, each one individually wrapped in exquisite fashion. Anything packaged like that had to be fancy. Better not wolf ’em down like I do with the full-size bags of chips I sometimes help myself to—that’s what I told myself, anyway. But man, these cookies tasted fabulous. I tried to stop myself, but it was a seemingly insurmountable task. So I started to talk about anything and everything, trying my hardest to occupy my mouth with something besides food. “Man, though, what a surprise! I had no idea Mr. Tateyama had four children…So was this ‘Shuuya’ kid the one who locked me in that room earlier?” “Yeah…,” said Ayano, sitting opposite me. “Pretty much. Oh, I don’t know how to apologize to you…” Then she bowed her head. Getting locked inside was a shock, to be sure, but I wasn’t hurt or anything, and I couldn’t drum up the will to get all angry about it. I mean, had I been angry about anything in my life so far? I really didn’t think so. “Ha-ha-ha! Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine. It was kind of like my own personal survival mission, in a way. I’ve never been locked into a room like that before, so it was sort of exciting, even!” “Uh? Survi…? Ah-ha-ha-ha…!” And so the conversation awkwardly continued. It had been about half an hour since my escape from the book room. Ayano had changed from her pajamas to a white dress with a beige cardigan on top. Taking another look at her made me realize that Ayano didn’t resemble Mr. Tateyama very much. From her hair to her dark eyes to her nose, I figured she must’ve taken after her mother’s side of the family. “I guess I’m the one who has to apologize, though—barging in like this so we can work on our school festival project…” “Oh, don’t worry about it! Dad almost never has students visit his home like this, so I’m kind of glad to see you. It can be a pretty lively place sometimes, so…” Ayano paused, staring into space for a moment. “It can be kind of dangerous, too,” she added, “but…” I had rarely been a houseguest, but still, I wasn’t expecting this kind of warning at our first meeting. Was she talking about more “pranks” from her siblings? Considering my experience in the library, that seemed plausible enough. Judging by how she’d looked when I first saw her, it seemed like they put Ayano through a hell of a lot of grief. Maybe they’re just in that awkward rebellious stage. As an only child, I found it kind of fascinating. “Hey, uh, do you think I could say hello to your siblings? I’m gonna be staying here for a few days, so I might as well introduce myself…” “Huh?! Uh, introduce yourself?! No! I mean, ummm…” My request seemed to unnerve Ayano in a rather oddly intense fashion. It was obviously pretty unwelcome. I figured saying hello wouldn’t cause any harm—but maybe there was some other reason why she didn’t want us to meet. Hmm. It piqued my interest. But this is family stuff I’m trying to meddle in. I can’t stick my nose in too far. Sparking family drama on my first day here would be kind of rude to Mr. Tateyama. Better change the subject. “Well, if I shouldn’t, then that’s just fine, too! Oh, wait…I almost forgot—I got you a little thank-you present for putting up with me. It’s reaaaaally yummy, too, so you can give it to your siblings if you like!” I opened up my bag, which I’d placed to the side, and took out a boxed German Baumkuchen cake I’d picked up. I bought two, actually, and ate one on the way here. It was exquisite. I was sure Ayano would love it. “Wha—?! This, this is from a really fancy place, isn’t it? …Oh, I really couldn’t!” “No, no, no,” I replied, halfway pushing the cake at her. “I mean, this really doesn’t cover what I owe you for letting me stay over anyway. Go right ahead.” Ayano apologetically accepted it. Then she exclaimed “Ah!” as if just remembering something. “I know! Not to repay you or anything…but did you have lunch before you came here? I’m about to start making it, but I could whip up something for you, too.” It was just a little past noon, actually. Ayano’s home cooking…? The concept immediately grabbed my attention. But where I would’ve raised my hand and said “Absolutely!” any other time, I held back for now. The curry I ate during another stop on the way here was still weighing heavily on my stomach. That was only ninety minutes ago, and even I thought it was a little soon to be eating again. Ayano still needed a reply, though. Resigning myself to my decision, I opened my mouth in order to politely decline. “…Oh, it’s fine. I actually ate before I came here, so…” Before I could finish the thought, a loud grumble all but drowned out my voice. It was from my stomach, of course. I tried to laugh it off, saying “Uhhmm…” in an extremely awkward fashion, but it was already too late. Ayano had heard it loud and clear. I could tell because she was staring right at my midsection. “Um,” she said, “there’s no need to be polite or anything! I don’t eat that much, anyway.” Ahh…This is so embarrassing. Why did my stomach have to growl right after I’d told her I already ate? Now I probably look like someone who eats and eats but always stays hungry. And I actually was hungry, a little. …Okay, actually a lot hungry. Great. Now what? If she’s offering, it’s all right to say yes, isn’t it? No! No, no, no, I can’t. There’s no way I could let myself eat this many times in a… “Well, I guess I’ll take you up on that after all, then. Hee-hee…” Just today. I’ll allow it just this one time today. Going through the afternoon hungry would probably affect my work efficiency or something anyway. As I gave in to the voices in my head, Ayano, apparently finding all this amusing, snickered a little. “I’ll try to make a bigger helping for you, okay?” God, she’s a good person. Especially compared to me. I’m a hopeless case. I lowered my blushing head and just gave an awkward “Thanks” in reply. “I’ll start cooking now, but before that, let me show you…” Ayano pointed to a corner of the room. There I found a folding table with a somewhat outdated computer, scanner, and drawing tablet. “I think that’s everything you need. I’m sorry; Dad set all that up for you, so I don’t really know what’s what. Do you know how to use it?” As far as I could tell, it was nothing too far beyond my comprehension. I had my phone on me anyway, so I could check online if I ran into any issues. “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said as I nodded and stood up, cake in hand. “Lemme see what we’ve got here.” “Okay! I’ll bring your food up once it’s ready.” Ayano turned to leave the room but stopped, her voice going a tad lower. “Oh, one more thing. I wanna warn you about my siblings. They, uh…Let’s just say they’ve got a few issues. I don’t think you’ll be able to say hello or talk directly with them.” The sudden conversational mood shift confused me for a moment. “Oh? Um, okay. That’s fine by me, but by ‘issues’…Do you mean they’re sick or something?” I was too far away from her to gauge her expression, but from the tone of her voice, something about this seemed to be making Ayano nervous. “Well, like, if you run into them in the house somewhere…” Ayano paused, choosing her words carefully. “And if anything kind of weird happens to you, try not to let it bother you too much.” The roundabout way she put it threw me. What did “kind of weird” mean? And what if it did bother me when…whenever whatever happened? I wasn’t sure what to think about this, but if she was being that evasive about it, it probably wasn’t anything I should poke into too much. Probably. Everybody’s got one or two things they don’t like talking much about, I guess. Even I do. Better avoid prying about it just to satisfy my curiosity. “…Uh, sure thing. I’ll try not to, so don’t worry about me.” This time, I could easily spot the relief on Ayano’s face. “Y-you sure? Well, great…Um, I’m sorry I’m bringing up all this weird stuff out of the blue. I’ll deliver your food once it’s ready.” With that, she turned back toward me, gave a quick bow, and left the room. The sounds of her footsteps as she tromped downstairs gradually faded, then disappeared entirely. “Kind of weird,” huh…? Something about the way she’d put that bothered me. No matter what kind of illness they were suffering from, why would it make “weird” things happen to me? Like, what—are they going to vanish or fly around the room or turn into monsters the moment I lay eyes on them…? “Hah. Yeah right.” I grinned a little at the sheer lunacy of my imagination. Then, realizing I was alone again, I relaxed in my seat and took a deep breath. I didn’t notice it much while we were talking, but being in a room with only one other person always had a tendency to make me nervous. Actually, how many people my age did I feel totally comfortable chatting with, really? I could only think of one person. I lay down and stared up at the ceiling. In a moment, I found myself closing my eyes and thinking about that someone. Her black hair, her anger-laden eyes, her small lips, her almost too-thin body, her kind of short stature, her eternally dissatisfied attitude, her even more eternally foul mouth, her occasional smile… …It’s strange. All I had to do was close my eyes, and I could recall all this stuff about her, down to the last detail. I’m really stupid, aren’t I? I didn’t need to borrow a photo from Mr. Tateyama at all. Just closing my eyes was enough to show me an image far more vibrant than any picture could provide. As I thought about this, I was gripped by the insatiable urge to say her name. …Nobody’s here. If I kept my voice down, I bet it’d be fine. I took a breath, brought the image back to my mind, and brought the name to my… Knock, knock, knock. “Ta—aaahhhh! Yes? Yes!! What’s up?!” The unexpected knock on the door twisted me out of my resting state, causing me some back pain as it did. Boy, was that a surprise! I was just about to do something really embarrassing. Sitting back up, I nervously prepared for whoever had knocked to enter. Ayano, maybe? Well, that couldn’t be. No way she could cook a meal that fast. “Pardon me.” But it was Ayano, excusing herself back into the room. She had nothing with her, so lunch appeared to be out of the question for now as she walked up and sat down on the other side of the table. It may’ve been my imagination, but her face seemed softer than it was when she left. “Hey. What’s up?” I asked. “Something going on?” Ayano shook her head. “No, nothing too important. I just wanted to talk a little.” “Um…Well, sure, but…” I wanted to talk about what the holdup was with lunch, but I resisted, not wanting to look too pushy.