Chapter 3
Only a few traces of snow remained at the bases of the street-side trees, but bands of elementary school students had already done their damage, poking at it until the snow grew muddied with dirt and started to melt. Snowballs that could hardly be called pristine were gathered at the bottom of the tree planted in front of Taiga’s condo entrance. The variously sized balls were lined up together—large, medium, small, and mini. Ryuuji looked at the “mini” one, and his lips warped into a smirk. They were shaped a bit more like beans than snowballs.
The cold air that morning seemed cleaner than normal, possibly because of the overnight snow shower. Far out of the children’s reach, bright white caps of snow perched on top of eaves and streetlamps, but their fate was sealed by the blue sky and bright sun. The edges melted first, falling in large drips to create scattered puddles on the asphalt.
Ryuuji avoided the water as he walked in long strides under the Zelkova trees. Eventually, he spotted the person waving at him from the corner of the crosswalk.
“Taaakaaasuuu-kun! Yo! Yo—”
“Ma!”
He lifted his hand and returned her greeting in earnest. He thought he heard a passing junior high school girl half-spit, half-mutter, “It’s cold!” but when she saw Ryuuji’s face, she just sped up and left him behind. Minori was at the crosswalk as usual, her cheeks red from the cold. She stood there with her sports bag over her shoulder, wrapped in her checked scarf, both her hands plunged into her peacoat pockets.
“I knew it, Taiga’s not here. I thought she’d come here like she normally does, so I’ve just been hanging around waiting for her.” The wind scattered her hair, which stuck out slightly at her chin. She narrowed her eyes like she was looking at something blinding. “She didn’t come back to the condo?”
“She didn’t. I kind of hoped she would, so I stayed up until three…but then I fell asleep. I think she’ll come to school… If she doesn’t, we’ll be in a tight spot.”
“Righty-o. What were you doing staying up till three?”
“I was cleaning the room and the kitchen drain and polishing the tarnish off the pots.”
“Whoa… What’s with that…?”
“I ate dinner, and then I tried to eat Taiga’s chocolates but gave up.”
“Oh, I tried that, too. My teeth felt like they were about to crack.”
“In the end, I melted them in milk and had some hot chocolate.”
“Hold up—what? That’s a good idea. I’ll copy you. You said you used milk? Did you actually get them to melt?”
“There was some weird oil floating on top, but it went away. I also kind of passed out…”
“What was Taiga even trying to feed us…”
They allowed the light to cycle in silence. At the next green, Ryuuji and Minori walked in step with each other. It’s so cold, but it’s nice weather. They made idle conversation for a few meters, but their only goal in doing so was using their voices.
“So, you’re running away?”
“I am.”
“Where to? Ahmin’s villa? Are you just going to disappear together, never to be heard from again?”
“What’re you saying? Are you actually worried we’d do that? You really must not trust me.”
When his eyes met with hers, Minori seemed a bit flustered. She waved her hands at him vigorously. “It’s because I’m worried!” she wailed. In other words…
“Then I wasn’t completely wrong about you not trusting me…”
“I trust you, Takasu-kun, but I started rereading The Poem of Wind and Trees because I was so anxious. If you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s terrible! Or, here’s something else, just think about that show Skins! I couldn’t really get to sleep yesterday, and I started to way overthink things. I even remembered what Ahmin said. And what Kitamura-kun said, and what Taiga said, and what I said. There were all kinds of things I was thinking about…”
“What about the stuff I said?”
“The cold wiped it into oblivion… Actually, ahh…what was that about declaring your love at the epicenter of the world? I remember that. That even made Ahmin cry.” Minori half-jokingly and half-seriously pursed her lips as she turned her face down. She rounded her back to look at her own toes and ended up going silent; she was thinking something over.
Ryuuji hesitated just for a bit before he addressed her back. “Hey, ‘Minorin.’”
He used the corner of his bag to bump Minori’s back. The bag shook a lot more than he thought it would, making a loud thump as it prodded at the back of her coat.
“Nguh…!” Minori turned around with an incredibly ridiculous expression. She looked like an upside-down candle melting from the flames of a grudge. Even Kira Kozuke no suke must have groaned when he was cut down on a snowy December day like this years ago.
“You’ve got a really terrifying look on your face right now…” Without thinking, Ryuuji accidentally told her what he really was thinking.
“How’s that now?!” Minori wriggled herself around as she shrieked.
“But you promised me you’d keep looking forward. I promised that I’d keep believing in you while you did that. You’re supposed to be looking forward, Minorin…I mean Kushieda.”
“I guess so.”
“Then don’t just stand around thinking. Let’s go. Let’s get to the next thing—the next place we’re going to is always going to be scary, but you’ve got to decide you’ll go and get it done. That’s what you taught me.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to do too, Takasu-kun?”
“I have. I’m going to run away and then come home.”
“And Taiga?”
“Taiga will, too. She’ll definitely come home. She’ll come back to where you and I and everyone else are. That’s the whole reason we’re running away.”
Ryuuji gave his finger a wide twirl and pointed at their feet. Minori’s head bobbed and swayed as she traced the path of his finger. Her face sprung up, and finally, a full, blinding smile bloomed over her face for the first time that day. In the bright morning rays, her wide-open eyes seemed to glitter more intensely than the sun.
“Okay, we’re about to be late! Let’s run for it!”
“What?! W-wait a sec!”
She started running down their usual road with long strides—nearly leaping, really. Ryuuji followed after her in a fluster. He couldn’t quite keep up in his sleep-deprived state, but when his breath leapt, the cold air that penetrated his chest felt good.
Another girl in the same uniform smiled and turned to Minori, Oh, Kushieda-senpai, good morning! Minori raised her hand, Yo! and exchanged a garbled answer with the girl. You two sure are in good spirits, the bicycling classmate said, laughing. “It’s all good!” “It’s all good!” the two of them said together, like Taiga said the day before.