By the time I’d paid the tab and come outside, the scenery had fully turned to night.
The evening rush had begun, with more passing foot traffic in front of the station, and we stepped out into the flow basically together. Guess we go for the station first…, I thought, deciding to push my bicycle after Yuigahama and Tobe, who were walking ahead.
Then a voice called out to me from behind. “Do you have a minute?”
“Huh?” I turned back to see Hayama standing there idly. Yuigahama and Tobe must have wondered why we’d stopped, as they came back to check up on us.
Hayama gave Tobe a look and a slight nod. Tobe got whatever that message was supposed to be; he scrubbed and tugged at the hair at the back of his head as he replied, “Ah, then, I’ll walk Yui back.”
Yuigahama was confused. “Huh? Why?”
“Why?! H-huh?! Why not?!” Tobe replied.
“Uh, I mean, you live the other way, Tobecchi.” Yuigahama waved her hands. “I live close. I can just go home like normal.”
“You really get to the point! Come on, but it’s, like, pretty normal to take you back, then…”
“What? Uh, you don’t have to, seriously. I’ll be okay.”
“Dude… You’re saying it so seriously…” Tobe seemed surprised by her reaction, struck speechless.
Ignoring him, Yuigahama hopped a step over to me and waved lightly at me. “See you tomorrow, then, Hikki. And you too, Hayato.”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow,” I said with a nod.
Hayama gave her a little wave. “Night.”
As Yuigahama walked steadily off, Tobe followed after her, still confused. I watched the two of them go, until Hayama and I were alone in the throng.
Once the others were completely out of sight, I finally turned to him. “…So what is it?”
“Let’s walk a little,” Hayama said instead of answering my question. Without waiting for my response, he started moving. He didn’t say where he was going, but his back was telling me to follow.
I pushed my bicycle after him for a while.
We went along a back alley a block away from the main downtown street, coming out to a corner encircled by roadside trees. I wasn’t very familiar with this area, but from the swings and slides and such, I was guessing it was a park.
Going past the playground equipment, Hayama stopped when he reached the gazebo. “Wait here a moment.”
“Ah, hey,” I called out, trying to stop him, but Hayama rushed off. With nothing else to do, I parked my bicycle and sat down on the gazebo bench.
There was no sign of anyone else there, and the park was dead silent. Nothing stood around the big, wide park to shield it from the cold wind that swept through. I tugged the collar of my coat closer together, wrapped my scarf tighter, stuffed my hands in my pockets, and bounced my knees as I waited for Hayama.
As white puffs of breath left my mouth, there was a crunch of gravel behind me. Turning around, I saw Hayama coming back with a canned coffee in his hands.
“Heads up,” he said, just before he tossed it at me.
Panicking, I yanked my hands from my pockets and caught it in the nick of time. “Whoa… Just hand it to me normally…,” I snapped with a short sigh of relief. The heat from the can seeped into my palms. “Geez, that’s hot,” I mumbled under my breath as I tossed it up and down, and once it was cool enough to drink, I popped open the tab and started sipping at it.
Hayama smiled in satisfaction as he watched me, then took a seat one bench over. He held his canned coffee between his hands but eventually did like me and drank it. Then with a little sigh, he muttered, “I remembered the past.”
“What’re you talking about?” I looked over, just out of the corner of my eyes.
Hayama leaned a bit forward, staring at the can in his hands. There was a shadow over his profile, under the light of the streetlamp. “…I mean what happened a long time ago. You know how she was alone when she was in elementary school? She said something similar then, too… That she could handle being alone, and she wouldn’t rely on me… That she didn’t need saving.”
“Huhhh… I’ve heard that somewhere before,” I shot back.
“Yeah, that’s why I remembered it.” Hayama raised his chin and answered with a smile. But his tone quickly turned somber. “…I couldn’t do anything that time, either.” His gaze dropped. “No, that’s not right. The end result was even more cruel. I offered my help halfheartedly, which only opened the wound. I said…I would find a way, despite the limitations.” He gave me a masochistic sort of look.
It was annoying, and I shrugged. “What is this supposed to be? Penance? I think that wall over there would be more interested than me.”
“This is about the same, isn’t it?” His voice was joking, although his eyebrows were tilted down in an apologetic expression beneath the streetlamp. But the trembling of the steel can in his hand belied those gentler emotions. Another cold wind blew past, but I don’t think that was why his hand was shaking.
He was still haunted by regret, or maybe anger.
I remembered the previous summer, when Hayama and Yukinoshita had spoken a little about their past. It wasn’t like I’d heard the story directly, so I’d had to fill in a lot of the gaps myself, but I think her situation had been just like Rumi Tsurumi’s.