“Let’s go to Shinsaibashi, then. There’s a huge shopping district there, right?”
“Yeah... It’s near Dotonbori—near the Glico billboard, right?”
“Yeah, that’s it! Let’s get some takoyaki, yeah?”
Takoyaki... I suddenly remembered Makoto feeding me, and my face tightened.
“Didn’t you have any at karaoke?” I asked.
“Yeah, but this is where they come from! They’re completely different! Probably, at least...”
Her argument was very typical of Kansai natives like us. But either way, Minami took me by the hand and began leading me through the metro so that we could get on the subway and take it to Shinsaibashi.
It was a lot easier to navigate than the underground in Umeda. We carefully read the signs and were able to get from Yodoyabashi to Shinsaibashi without too much trouble. When we exited the station, we were met with a sight that really made it sink in that we weren’t in Kyoto anymore.
The buildings were huge and the roads were wide. The fancier areas of Kyoto had tall buildings too, but they had height restrictions. We also didn’t have eight-lane roads, maybe because of the kind of grid system that Kyoto had. This was enough to make me feel like I was seeing something new.
“Looks like it’s that way,” Minami said, looking at her phone and leading me.
We walked across the sidewalk, crossed a street, and finally reached a crowded shopping district, which made me feel much more at home thanks to the similarity to Kyoto’s sights. As Minami walked through the district’s arcade, she looked up.
“Y’know, I thought about this when we were in Okinawa too, but these kinds of shopping arcades have the same vibe no matter where. Even though they all have straight paths, they all feel really messy and chaotic.”
“Well, yeah, it reminds us of Teramachi Kyogoku. I’m sure people from here who go to Kyoto would think that it reminds them of Shinsaibashi.”
“True.”
As we walked with the crowd while casually glancing at the stores around us, we reached a point where if we kept walking, we’d reach the famous Dotonbori bridge, but we ended up making a right instead, making our way to a place called the American Village.
At first glance, there wasn’t anything American-looking about it. There were various stores, secondhand clothes shops, and the like. Overall, it just seemed a hangout place for the younger crowd, but not the more trendy kinds. The people here seemed more on the delinquent side.
“Oh, look at that building’s wall!” I said.
“Oh yeah, what’s that called. Gra... Gra...something.”
“Graf, uh... Graffiti?”
“Yeah, that’s it!”
“Really makes me feel like we’re in the city!”
Huge English letters had been sprayed onto the side of the building. This wasn’t something you ever really saw in Kyoto. Thanks to that, we were reacting like we’d hopped off the first train from the countryside.
There was a triangle-shaped park that was used in the American Village as a meeting spot, and around there were outdoor stalls like you’d see at a festival. There were all kinds of stalls lined up next to one another selling takoyaki, baby castella, and more. Among them there was one that was apparently famous, and it showed by the line that’d formed for it.
“Since we’re here, why not try the most famous one?”
And so we got in the back of the line. Though standing in a long line together was something that couples who’d just started dating would want to avoid no matter what, it was nothing at this point for Minami and me.
Mizuto Irido: I’m Not a Tsundere
We waited for the line to get shorter as the sun continued to sink into the horizon.
“I hear that couples who just started dating lose some feelings for each other when waiting in long lines,” I said as Yume looked at me, her face illuminated by the lantern light from the festival. “But do you think that’s because they test each other too much to see how good they are at small talk? Even among celebrities, there are some who aren’t good with it.”
“So in other words, you’re bored?”
“Yep.”
“Not even trying to be subtle, are you?”
We were lining up to get takoyaki. Though all of the food stalls seemed the same to me in terms of how interesting they were, I felt that since we were here, we might as well get in line for the takoyaki one. I looked at the price tag for these store-bought frozen takoyaki and couldn’t help but think they were way overpriced.
“Back then, I’m pretty sure I tried being considerate of you and figuring out how to keep you entertained. Sure, it was fun at first, but now that I’m used to doing that, I feel like I’m more prone to bringing up random topics.”
“‘Prone to’? You do jump from topic to topic way too much...”
“I’d like to think it shows how comfortable I am with you.”
“Well, I’d prefer if you sometimes were more careful and acted like we only just started dating.”
“True. I’m too careless sometimes.”
“‘Sometimes’?”
Worrying about whether the person you’re dating will like you or end up disliking you is a stage that we’d already passed. Yume was already much less selective with her words thanks to that. As a side note, Madoka-san and Chikuma were lined up at another stall. There shouldn’t have been any chance of our conversation being heard by them over the chatter of all those gathered here.
“But that being said, it’s not too bad having these kinds of conversations void of substance. It’s so much more fun than just scrolling on a phone.”
“Are you...complimenting me?” Yume asked. “Weren’t you the one who told me that you don’t expect me to be the type of person to keep a conversation going?”
“Well, that’s true. I have absolutely no hopes for you in that regard.”
“Seriously?”
“But I didn’t fall for you because of that.”
Hearing this, Yume frowned. “That’s unfair to say out of the blue like that.”
“If I don’t say something now, who knows how you’ll misinterpret things, and that scares me. You’re the type to overthink things.”
“I mean, I know I am, but...”
“Try to be more self-aware going forward. After all, you’re not a tsundere anymore.”
“When was I ever?!”
As we continued our pointless conversation, we finally reached the front of the line. I bought a tray of six takoyaki covered with sauce and aonori. The katsuoboshi on it danced in the heat. Yume put mayonnaise on hers.
After we got our food, we found a spot off to the side to stop and stand since eating these and walking was a little hard. Just as I was about to eat my second, Yume held one of hers out in front of me.
“Here...” Yume said, bringing it toward my mouth. “The flavors are different, you know? That’s why we should share, or something...”
“Didn’t take long to go back to your tsundere roots, huh?”
“Shut up,” Yume snapped, slightly pouting.
“Here comes the ‘dere’ part.”
But this was fine with me. I gladly accepted the mayonnaise-coated takoyaki as a token of her love.
“Hot!”