We would necessarily have to go around the middle or toward the end of break. I still had to convince my parents, so I guess the timing would actually work out.
Nanami stopped in the middle of the snow and reached out her other hand toward me. I was a little confused, but then I saw her raise her pinkie—just like I did last night.
“Promise?” she said.
Dang, she’s turned the tables on me. I smiled wryly and entwined my pinkie with hers.
A pinkie swear—now we have to take the trip, no matter what. What should I do? I have to come up with a plan. Though I’m actually getting a little excited.
Nanami was smiling excitedly as well. Perhaps the promise had calmed her down somewhat.
“I’ll call you once I’m back from my grandma’s, so let’s go on a date,” she said. “Though of course I’ll call you while I’m at my grandma’s too.”
“Yeah, I’ll call you too. Though I won’t have my own room or anything,” I muttered.
“Oh, me neither. We all just sleep in one big room. It’s kind of fun, actually,” she added.
“My other relatives are gonna be there too. If they catch me on the phone with you, they’ll definitely ask me all sorts of questions.”
Whether by coincidence or the fact that all relatives’ houses in the countryside were the same, it seemed both Nanami and I were going to be experiencing rather similar living situations. We spent some time trading notes on various things we always encountered while visiting relatives.
It seemed difficult for us to call each other while completely alone, so we might end up having to be in touch with each other by text. It was fine, though, because now we had our promise; I didn’t feel as lonesome as I did earlier.
“Is there anything else you want to do over break?” I asked.
“Let’s see... Oh, I still wanna do some part-time work,” she answered.
“I’ll talk to the owner about that. We can work together...though maybe on different shifts.”
“Have fun at work, too, okay? And tell Nao-chan I say hi.”
Since I would be returning from my grandparents’ earlier than Nanami, I could fill the time by working. Maybe then I could ask the owner about Nanami. Though the last time I mentioned it, he seemed pretty into the idea—he had mentioned how short-staffed they could be, and how young people were always welcome to join the team.
“Other than that... Oh, should we go visit the shrine in the New Year together?” I suggested.
“Oh, that sounds nice. I’ll wear a furisode, so you should wear a kimono too! Let’s get gussied up together,” she said, giggling.
“Me? But I’m not even sure I own a kimono...”
I felt hesitant wearing something I wasn’t accustomed to, but since I wanted to see Nanami in her furisode... Yeah, maybe I should try wearing a kimono too, then. She looked great in her yukata before, so I bet she would look really pretty in a furisode as well.
“It’d be nice to get to spend New Year’s Eve together one of these years, huh?” Nanami said. “Maybe we can when we’re in college?”
“Yeah...being together at the end and beginning of the year seems awesome.”
“When that happens, maybe we can try going to the shrine for both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s!” Nanami remarked.
“Is that the thing where you go to the shrine and count down to midnight there? Man, I bet it’ll be cold... We’ll have to bundle up,” I murmured.
If we thought we were getting ahead of ourselves by talking about next year...now we were making plans beyond that and really getting ahead of ourselves. If that was the case, then we might as well go all out and talk about things even further down the line.
“Maybe I should think about my future over this break too,” I mumbled.
“You’ve said that before, haven’t you? Was there something you wanted to try doing?” Nanami asked.
“Not really. Though I guess I do wanna get into something practical. That would be good for the sake of our relationship, I think.”
“Well...then maybe we can think about stuff like that together too.”
We might be able to find something if we looked together. Seeing Nanami’s reassuring smile made me a lot more confident about the whole thing. Even though I still felt uncertain about the future, I began to think that things might turn out all right.
“Yeah, it’ll definitely be okay,” Nanami declared.
“Wait, was I talking out loud just now?”
When she nodded in response, I felt slightly embarrassed. It seemed uncool to be laying out my anxieties for others to hear.
“I’ll share with you when I’m feeling unsure about things, so I want you to share with me too, okay? Because we’re always going to be together, we can think about things together too,” Nanami said.
“Always together, huh? Yeah. Since we’re going to always be together...let’s work through things together too,” I returned.
And with that, we both looked at each other...and burst out laughing.
We didn’t know if this was the correct reaction to be having, but even as we confessed to each other how embarrassing this whole conversation was, we felt happy having it nonetheless.
To be able to tell each other that we would always be together...was easier said than done. But given that it was the two of us, we would probably be okay.
Even though the day had only just begun, after today we wouldn’t be able to see each other for some time. Nanami and I continued talking, as if through each word we could etch the other into our hearts.
As we prepared to welcome the coming new year, we were anxious, hopeful, and with a whole lot of expectations...and as we walked slowly, we felt the cool winter air against our skin.
In the snow that had piled up, there were two sets of footprints...side by side and close together.