“Morning. If you forget your phone, don’t hesitate to ring the intercom. Even when I’m not upstairs, I can unlock the door remotely.”
“I’m sorry. I was thinking to myself that I absolutely couldn’t forget my phone, so I’m sure it’s in my bag somewhere.”
When Sumi heard a low meow from the backpack carrier, she responded, trying to slip out of Haruka’s arms.
“Anyway, come on in,” Haruka said. He slipped inside the entrance that led to both the store and his office and went inside Frère, putting Sumi on the floor. She was lurking around Rintarou’s bag, her curiosity piqued. She must have known what was inside.
Even now that he was inside, Rintarou kept on searching for his phone. “That’s weird. I really did have it.”
“Did you get changed right before you left?”
Lately, when the student had visited the store, he’d worn a down-filled jacket for the outdoors, but, curiously, today he was in a short beige jacket.
“Ah, now that you mention it…”
Rintarou stuck his hand into the side pocket of his bag. He smiled wryly when he found his phone there. It seemed he’d forgotten he’d stuffed it in there when he’d changed his coat.
“I’ll let Chiyo-san out. You go ahead with getting the store ready to open,” Haruka said, opening up the backpack’s top cover. On the other side of the mesh inner lid was a spotted cat. When he unzipped it the bag, Chiyo quickly jumped out, strutting around the store like she owned the place. Sumi ran after her like a kitten following her mother.
When Chiyo jumped lightly up onto one of the chairs at the reading counter, Sumi followed suit. She was reaching out, trying to make a pass at Chiyo’s tail. Chiyo didn’t like this and jumped back onto the floor, only for Sumi to chase her. The spotted cat fled, leaping onto Rintarou’s back as he crouched down and worked.
“Whoa, what? Is that Chiyo-san?”
Sumi wouldn’t follow her that far, just watching Chiyo as she climbed Rintarou’s back. She wanted to play.
Haruka couldn’t hide his shock, seeing the usually skittish Sumi being the one chasing someone else around.
“Having two cats around seems kinda great.” It let them play in a different way than they did with humans. “When’d they get this friendly?” Haruka asked.
Rintarou just tilted his head with an “I dunno.”
He’d thought it would take quite a long time for Sumi to get to the point where she could relax in the store. This was because Sumi was cautious and would hide inside the shelves whenever she got the chance. Maybe Chiyo’s presence was the reason she’d gotten used to it faster than he’d expected.
Rintarou grabbed Chiyo’s legs, trying to pry her off of his shoulders. But when she resisted by digging her claws into the backs of his hands, he slouched his back in defeat. When he crouched down near the floor, she finally jumped back down.
“Chiyo-san is a bit fierce and Sumi is meek, so I was a little concerned, but it looks like I had nothing to worry about. Maybe Chiyo-san just knows how to deal with lots of different kinds of cats, since she was a stray for so long.”
“Maybe she’s only fierce with you, Shirane-san?”
Haruka had been half joking, but Rintarou nodded, expression serious.
“That might be it too. I love her, but she must hate me because I don’t go at her pace. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately. Or rather, I’ve really noticed a lot of things lately.” As Rintarou spoke, he readied the cats’ meals. When he walked out from behind the register counter, they came running. “My mom’s not a bad person, but I’ve always thought she was a bit one-sided when communicating, ever since I was a kid. I always had a bit of a rough time with that, but lately, I thought, ‘Wait, am I the same way?’ I always tried to pay attention to how I was with other people, but I kinda relaxed around Chiyo-san. I was doing the same thing my mom does. Lately, I’ve been regretting it and trying to give Chiyo-san a little more space.”
“I see.”
It was not long ago that he talked about how he wanted to be out on his own soon, but something must have happened, because he seemed to be a lot more down to earth now.
“Chiyo-san needed some time on her own. Sumi’s shy, but once she warms up to you, she’ll be hanging all over you like a clingy girlfriend.”
“She was chasing Chiyo-san around too, after all. Looks like she’s become a proper store kitty before our very eyes. Whoops, I shouldn’t go stopping my hands because my mouth is moving,” Rintarou said, glancing down at his wristwatch. It was almost time to open. “I’m gonna go make up the window display.”
Taking a bunch of books off his shelf, he started lining them up on the tiered display. Lately, he’d been putting travel essays, books in various languages that he’d said he collected in different countries, and Tokyo guidebooks out. It seemed he’d realized that it was easier to get people interested in his shelf if he put things out that gave him a chance to chat with visitors.
He’d also put some extra effort into his own shelf display, hanging a little hammock from the top of it with a stuffed spotted cat inside. It was something unique that hadn’t been there when he first became a shelf owner.
Rintarou’s shelf was changing with every moment, and The Hammock Cat had gone from a shelf with books that almost never moved to one of the store’s most popular shelves. It had felt like even with work, passion moved people’s hearts more than anything else, and it seemed like it was the same with bookshelves.
“Oh yeah. Shirane-san, are you planning on going somewhere after this?”
“No, not particularly. Why?” Rintarou turned toward Haruka, giving him a quizzical look.
“I was just thinking you’ve got a different vibe today. Oh, today’s the day Kasugai-san is coming, isn’t it? You were going back and forth about it in the notebook.”