A makeshift sign reading CLOSED FOR TODAY dangled from the storefront door. I circled around behind the shop and pulled our spare house key out from the mailbox. When I opened the door, I was met with the muggy air of a house left unoccupied during a summer day.
“Why does it have to be so hot?”
I threw my sweat-soaked button-down shirt into the laundry basket, then walked into the kitchen. I opened the fridge, expecting to see my half-finished bottle of cola from the day before. It was right where I’d left it. I reached out for it, then stopped, thinking I ought to leave it for Yusuke.
Next, I pulled open the freezer and saw a box of my dad’s favorite ice pops: Watermelon Bars. There was only one left in the box, and I decided to take it.
Whoever came up with the idea of an ice pop that looks just like a wedge of cut watermelon, with an easy-to-eat triangular shape and little chocolate “seeds” inside, was a genius… Except… Huh?
When I pulled the bar out from its plastic wrapper, it wasn’t the normal wedge shape I was used to. It was cylindrical—like a normal ice pop. Had the freezer cut out for a while, causing the bar to melt and then refreeze?
The cylinder seemed too perfect for that. The ice pop had to have been made that way. Maybe it was shaped like that for some limited-edition campaign to drum up sales, or maybe they made small batches of special shapes sometimes and mixed them in with the normal ones, and it was like finding a rare holographic trading card in a booster pack.
Still shirtless, and now biting into my super-rare Watermelon Bar, I climbed the stairs to my room. It was even hotter on the second floor. I slid open the window in my room, but the warm summer air that blew in didn’t do much to help.
Holding the Watermelon Bar between my teeth, I pulled down my elementary school graduation album from the bookshelf. I pulled the album out of its sleeve and opened it, landing by coincidence on the particular section I was looking for.
It was a page I’d looked at over and over again, filled with pictures from our school trip to Nikko. Our class had been split into groups for the field trip, and Nazuna and I had been assigned together. Our little group had gathered for a photo in front of the Toshogu Shrine. I’d just happened to be standing next to Nazuna when it was taken—well, no, that wasn’t right. I’d pretended it was by happenstance, but really I’d made sure I was next to her… In the photo, Nazuna stood expressionless, while I had a wide-open grin and was flashing a peace sign.
Nazuna and I had first met two years ago, over our fifth grade summer vacation.
Nazuna’s father was born and raised in Moshimo. He’d left to go work in Tokyo, but he eventually quit his job there and returned to open a surf shop along the coast of our little town. My own dad used to be a surfer, too, long before he took the reins of our family’s worn-down fishing shop. Back in high school, he’d been friends with Nazuna’s dad.
Shortly after Nazuna’s family moved to Moshimo, the three of them paid a visit to my dad’s shop to say hello. Nazuna had stood shyly hiding behind her parents.
In fact, I remembered I’d been eating a Watermelon Bar that day, too. I’d sunk my teeth into it as I looked at the girl from behind the doorway.
Her mother had said, “This is our daughter, Nazuna. Go on and introduce yourself, honey.”
And Nazuna had politely bowed and said hello. In contrast, I’d stayed in the living room, furtively peering out at our visitors. If my mom and dad had asked me to introduce myself like Nazuna’s parents had, I wouldn’t have known what to say. It wasn’t like we were automatically friends just because our parents were.
Nazuna had been wearing a white summer dress and a straw hat that day. Her dark hair had shone, and her milky skin had seemed almost translucent… Not to sound cliché, but it was the first time I’d seen a perfect-looking girl, like someone who could have come straight out of a TV show or a commercial.
Then, as I’d sat in the living room, staring at that perfect girl with a vacant look on my face, my dad had said the most embarrassing thing ever.
“Hey, Norimichi! You and Nazuna are in the same grade. You must be pretty excited to be going to school with a cutie like this.”
Tipped off by my dad’s comment, Nazuna had looked toward the living room, finally realizing I was there. Our eyes had met.
Mortified by my dad’s comment, I’d announced, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” and escaped into another room.
That’s right… That was the first time our eyes met…
I was reaching one finger out to touch a photo of Nazuna when I heard the drumming of feet on the stairway.
“Norimichi!”
I scrambled to close the album and tossed it down onto the floor. At that exact moment, the door slid open, and Yusuke burst in.
“Yo!”
“What do you mean, ‘Yo’?! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“You guys gotta take better precautions. The back door was unlocked.”
“That doesn’t mean you can just waltz right in, you know.”
“What were you doing anyway? Why are you standing around in your room half-naked?”
“…No reason.”
“Oh man, a Watermelon Bar. Gimme.”
Yusuke pulled the ice pop out of my hands, then sat down and turned on the Wii. Using my foot, I surreptitiously slid the graduation album underneath my bed so Yusuke wouldn’t notice it. Then, I sat down next to him. I looked at the Watermelon Bar he’d taken and was reminded of my earlier confusion.
“Hey, isn’t that bar shaped kinda weird?”
“How so?”
“It’s probably a rare special edition. Like one in ten thousand or something.”
“What’s so rare about it?”
“It’s round. Not shaped like a triangle.”
“Huh? Watermelon Bars are always round.”
Was he being serious?
I mean, I knew his grades last term had been pretty bad, but his comment made me start to worry whether his brain was working right. Yusuke, for his part, was staring back at me with the same look of incredulity. His eyes seemed to say, Is this guy serious? He fished his hand in the garbage can and pulled out the wrapper I’d just thrown away.
“What are you talking about? They’ve always been wedge shaped. That’s how it is on the wrapper!”
…Huh? The wrapper design, which I’d seen a million times since I was little, was supposed to have a wedge-shaped bar on it—one that looked just like a real piece of watermelon. But when I looked at the wrapper Yusuke held up…the bar was cylindrical.
“They’ve always been round, ever since we were kids. Are you feeling okay?”
“…”
Is this what it feels like to step into the twilight zone?
“Anyway, we’re supposed to be at the shrine at five. So if we leave here ten to five, that should be enough, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
I was reminded I didn’t have time to worry about the Watermelon Bar. The real problem was Nazuna. She’d be showing up soon… What time was it now?
I looked at the alarm clock on my desk. It had just turned 4:10.