As we watched Nazuna disappear into the faculty room, Yusuke punched me once more on the shoulder. It was his usual playful gesture, but this punch felt a little stronger than the last one.
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
“Something happen to you?”
The question was vague, but we’d known each other so long that I immediately understood what he really wanted to ask. Yusuke had a sharp nose for stuff like that.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
I tried to keep my voice as level as possible, like I hadn’t picked up on his intent. Yusuke wasn’t fooled. He struck at the heart of the matter.
“Back there at the pool. You talked to Nazuna, didn’t you? She didn’t, like, ask you out or anything like that, right?”
“Huh?! What are you even talking about?! Why would I ever do that! Don’t be stupid! And anyway, you’re the one who likes Naz—Oikawa. There’s no way I’d fall for a weirdo like her!”
“Whoa, what’s got you all pissed off?”
He was right. What was I getting upset about?
“Um, it’s nothing… Sorry.”
“Yeah, whatever. Hey, are you going to the fireworks display tonight?”
“Uh, yeah. I think so.”
“Wanna go together? Actually, can I just go over to your house after school?”
“Sure.”
“I can’t stand being at home. Lately, my dad won’t shut up about studying, and it’s driving me crazy. My last report card was pretty bad, and you remember how much my parents wanted to send me to private school.”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll come over after school—and then let’s go to the fireworks display straight from there, okay?”
Giving in to Yusuke’s excitement, I nodded. Only afterward did I realize the problem.
Crap… Nazuna said she’d be at my house at five. If Yusuke’s there when she shows up… Wait a second, am I serious about going with Nazuna now? Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s no way that’s happening. It’s not like I actually said I’d go with her, right…?
I was still busy with my internal Q and A session when we made it back to the classroom. Once inside, we heard Junichi and Minoru embroiled in some kind of argument with Kazuhiro, the most diligent and passionate student in our class.
“They’re flat!”
“Yeah, they’re totally flat!”
“I’m telling you, they’re round! Think about it! The powder inside ignites, right? And then, it explodes outward in all directions. Of course they’re going to be round!”
Normally, when they argued like that, I’d teasingly jump right into the fray. But I was still reeling from the encounter with Nazuna. I walked past without even acknowledging the argument and started gathering my things in preparation to go home.
“Hey, listen. If you see a firework explode from the side, does it still look round like a globe, or is it flat like a pancake?”
“What do you mean? Like a bottle rocket?” Yusuke replied to Junichi’s question, disinterested.
“No! Big ones, like at a fireworks display!”
“Um…flat, I guess?”
“See?” Junichi declared proudly.
Kazuhiro, outnumbered three to one now and clearly indignant about Yusuke’s lackadaisical response, was about to boil over.
“Don’t be ridiculous! They’re totally round! Norimichi, what do you think?”
His question confronted me so unexpectedly, I struggled to respond. I’d gathered the gist of the conversation: Would fireworks shot up into the sky at a professional show always look round, no matter where you were standing, or was that shape dependent on the angle you were watching from? That’s what they seemed to be arguing…but who even cared?!
I couldn’t just say that outright, so I gave a half-hearted response instead.
“Huh? I dunno.”
“Well think about it!” Junichi pressed.
“Sorry…”
Even as I apologized to Junichi, I was still thinking about Nazuna. She was coming over at five… But Yusuke was coming over to hang out, too… What was I supposed to do? I shot a glance at Yusuke. Our eyes met: He’d been staring at me. I felt uncomfortable under his searching gaze, so I pretended to concentrate on packing my things into my school bag.
Kazuhiro and the others continued their argument, no longer paying attention to us. It registered as background noise to me.
“All right, so have any of you ever seen a flat firework before?!”
“I have!” Minoru announced.
“Oh, like you’d know anything, Minoru.”
“It’s true. Last year, I watched the fireworks display from my grandpa’s yard. The fireworks were totally flat. Grandpa said it was because his house is at a bad angle for viewing the show.”
“See? If his grandpa says so, it has to be true!”
The fireworks argument continued to stream by me, somehow managing to become even less interesting. I was trying to come up with a plan for the Nazuna situation when Nazuna herself walked in through the classroom’s back door. She seemed to have finished up whatever business she had at the faculty room. She walked to her desk, her hair still slightly damp.
“!!”
Thump!
It felt as if my heart had caused my entire body to jolt. Nazuna had turned straight toward my desk and was staring at me. My immediate reaction was to focus on something else: the schoolyard outside the windows. I’d spent the entire term sneaking glances at her, trying to be careful she didn’t notice. It seemed my bad habit of glancing away had stuck.
Now afraid that my evasion had been too obvious, I tried to casually turn back. She’d already finished packing and was on her way out of the classroom.
As I watched her walk away, she didn’t bother to turn around again. A strange mixture of relief and guilt flooded through me.
“Then it’s decided!! We all meet at Moshimo Shrine at five PM! Norimichi, you’re coming, too, right?”
The others seemed to have reached some kind of agreement. Junichi’s excited voice called out to me, pulling me back to reality.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
“Weren’t you listening?! We’re going to Moshimo Lighthouse! We’re gonna see for ourselves whether fireworks are round or flat!”
“We are?”
“Yeah, we are! And if they’re flat, Kazuhiro’s gonna do all our summer homework.”
“Whoo-hoo!!” Minoru raised his hands up above his short frame, giving Junichi and Yusuke high fives as he cheered.
Kazuhiro muttered something about how someone “better be serious about taking that up-skirt pic of Ms. Miura.” I didn’t really care whether fireworks were round or flat—and what in the world did that have to do with an up-skirt pic anyway?
I knew I could ask Yusuke to fill me in on the details, but I didn’t want him to know I hadn’t been listening to the conversation. I looked out the window again to try to keep them from asking me any more questions about whatever they were discussing. The baseball club was practicing in the schoolyard, and that was when I saw her. Walking right through the center of the practice was Nazuna.
She always carried herself with good posture, but in that moment, it seemed like her back was held even a little straighter than usual… Maybe it was just my imagination.
✦ ✦ ✦
The five of us split up at the unbelievably huge, age-old beech tree that marked the fork in the road.
“Five o’clock! Don’t be late! Minoru and I will start heading over early, around four.”
“Yeah, we got it!”
Junichi and Minoru sped away to the left, and Kazuhiro to the right.
“All right, so we’ll hang out at your place until then. You’ve got some cola or something to drink, right?”
Yusuke hoisted himself up onto the seat of his mountain bike.
“We might not have anything but tea.”
“Oh man. The tea at your house is always so blah.”
“Shut up,” I answered, half laughing.
When I lifted my right foot up to its pedal, a strange sensation came over me.
Huh? Didn’t something happen to my ankle…?
I reached down and felt my right ankle, but nothing seemed to be wrong. I couldn’t figure out why the thought had occurred to me. When I straightened back up, the town noticeboard flashed in the corner of my eye. A poster was stuck to it, advertising that night’s fireworks display. For some reason, the poster seemed strange, too.
It wasn’t like I’d ever stopped to look at it carefully, but the photos of multicolored firework explosions spreading across the sky seemed flatter than they should have been…
“Norimichi? What’s up?”
I’d fallen silent as I stared intently at the poster. Concerned, Yusuke peered into my face.
“Hey, did the fireworks poster always look this way?”
“What do you mean?”
I didn’t exactly understand what about the poster felt strange, and I didn’t think I’d be able to explain it to Yusuke, so I dodged the question.
“Um…never mind.”
“Whatever. I’m gonna get changed, then I’ll be over.”
“Okay.”
Yusuke and I pedaled away in our separate directions. The strange feeling in my ankle was gone when I pushed down on the pedal again. Satisfied that it must have been my imagination, I began pedaling harder. Suddenly, the date with Nazuna returned to mind.
Crap… What was I going to do about her?