The restrooms on the train platform were set off by a series of thin, wooden walls. Nazuna’s voice sounded through one of them.
“Girls can find work no matter where they are, you know.”
I stood with my back to the wall, as if on guard duty. But my brain was focused entirely on the other side of that wall. Nazuna’s voice, her breaths, and the rustle of her changing all resonated clearly on the otherwise empty platform. I heard the shuffling of fabric. One end of her obi sash was flung over the wall and dangled there.
“All I have to do is lie about my age and say I’m eighteen.”
“You don’t look eighteen.”
“You don’t think so?”
Next, the yukata flopped over the side.
Does this mean…she’s in her underwear right now?
For a moment, my mind attempted to paint the picture. I stopped in panic, fearing my silence would betray my thoughts, and searched for something to say.
“But, uh…where would you find work anyway?”
“Probably in the nightlife, I guess… At a hostess club? Or a bar?”
“I don’t think it’s that easy…”
I was having trouble containing myself. I glanced down at the gap between the wooden wall and the platform floor. I could see Nazuna’s bare feet trading her wooden sandals for a pair of bright-red leather…pumps? Is that what they’re called? Even the clumsy, obviously callow way she moved her feet struck me as alluring, and I found myself struggling even more to concentrate on the conversation.
I estimated we couldn’t be more than a foot and a half apart at that moment, despite the wall that separated us. A foot and a half away, Nazuna was taking off her yukata… I couldn’t stand it any longer and walked across the platform toward the tracks.
I heard the click-clack of the train approaching from afar. I raised my voice to make sure Nazuna could hear me beyond the wall.
“Hey, the train’s coming!”
“I know. I just finished…”
I turned to find Nazuna slowly emerging from behind the wall.
She was in a black cocktail dress. The neck dipped down far enough to reveal a slight amount of cleavage. On her feet were the red pumps I’d caught a glimpse of earlier. She’d undone her braids, and now her wavy hair hung around her shoulders, rustling softly in the wind.
She hadn’t only changed her outfit. Her lips were red, evidence of the makeup she must have applied in the little restroom. She was a completely different person from the Nazuna I’d walked into the station with moments earlier.
Nazuna seemed to know it, too. Her face carried a trace of embarrassment. She mumbled a question without looking in my direction.
“So? Do I look eighteen?”
I had no idea whether she could pass for eighteen or not, but in that moment, on the platform of the station enveloped in fading daylight, with her dress and her hair fluttering in a slight breeze, she was…beautiful.
I felt like I’d finally grasped the true meaning of the word. Beautiful.
“I do, right? I look like I’m eighteen?”
“Uh…well…um…”
I racked my brain but wasn’t coming up with any real words. Even if I’d been able to, I was scared I’d say something inane if I opened my mouth. I simply stood there, trying to burn that image of Nazuna into my mind.
Nazuna, still looking away, pulled something out of her pocket.
“Look at this.”
“Huh?”
Nazuna held out the mysterious orb from before. It seemed to appear a bit different than it had in the afternoon, but it might have been due to the dimness of approaching night.
“…Yeah, you showed me earlier at the pool…”
“I found it in the ocean this morning.”
The scene I’d witnessed from my bicycle that morning floated to mind: Nazuna, standing at the water’s edge.
“For some reason…when I found this, my mind was set. I decided to leave.”
“…”
“No, wait… That’s not quite right… It was when you won the race, Shimada. That’s when I decided to leave.”
“Huh?”
Too many things had happened to me in the span of one day. The events of just hours ago felt like distant memories. That morning I’d seen Nazuna, and later in the classroom, in the middle of my friends’ silly argument, our eyes had met. She’d shown me the orb at the side of the pool. Then, I’d smashed my foot during the race, causing me to lose to Yusuke…
No, wait. I won the race. But… Huh? What’s this weird feeling?
I’d felt like this earlier in the day, too. After school, when Yusuke and I were going home, there had been a momentary pain in my right ankle, even though I was sure I hadn’t injured it. It was the same odd sensation.
But I was sure I won against Yusuke. Then, Nazuna had asked me to go to the fireworks display with her…
And what happened after that…?
We’d returned to the classroom, and Junichi, Kazuhiro, and Minoru were talking about whether fireworks were round or flat… When I’d gone home, Yusuke was already there, waiting for me… After that, I went to the clinic, and they took a look at my…
No. I didn’t get hurt, so why would I go to the clinic…?
We’d been at my house, and Nazuna had shown up… Then, at the fork in the road, Nazuna’s mother came and took her away…
Huh? Then why is Nazuna here with me right now?
Whoo-whoo! The lonely, one-car Moshimo Railway train blew its whistle and drew near.
“Come with me.”
Nazuna looked me right in the eyes.
I looked back. I knew those pleading eyes.
“…”
I wasn’t able to reply, though. My thoughts were still all tangled up.
I seemed to be holding a mix of two days’ worth of memories. It was as if I’d lived two separate lives, one down the right fork of a road and the other down the left.