“We’re lucky today. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen the leaves fall. I mean, it’s close, but I don’t pass by it every day, and you tend to not notice it when you’re walking by lost in thought,” Haruka mused. “Y’know, in the past, I wasn’t interested in nature at all. Shinjuku is all buildings wherever you look. There are residential areas, but it’s rare for a house to have an actual garden. And we’ve only got a few tiny parks in the first place…”
Haruka continued, losing himself a bit in the memory. “But once in the past, someone brought me here while the leaves were falling. She kinda forced me into it, saying, ‘It’s ginkgo day!’ I’ve had them in my mind ever since.”
“Kotono-san?”
Haruka was a bit flustered when Keiichi instantly said the name of the person he was thinking of but managed to feign composure.
“Yep, it was Kotono-san from Yurinoki!”
“That brings me back. How many years ago was it that we went to that café?”
When they were in high school, the two had visited the café that had had a store cat. Haruka’s real aim was to see the woman twelve years older than him who worked there part-time five days a week, but he hid his crush and pretended to be a cat lover.
Yurinoki was a café that had been in business for forty years on the west side of Shinjuku Gyoen Park, in a spot away from all the noise of downtown. It was on the street Haruka took to and from school, and he was curious about how he never saw a single customer despite it always having the open sign displayed, no matter how early in the morning or late in the evening he walked by. He wondered how it stayed open and had peeked in through the latticed sun door, only to spot something walking back and forth in front of it.
“A cat?”
As he knelt down, staring at the shadow in the glass, the door opened.
“We have seats open! Ah.”
A female employee peeked out, but as soon as she saw Haruka, her mouth closed. She had already judged that he wasn’t a customer.
He was seventeen, but he was skinny, and not very tall, so he was often mistaken for a junior high schooler. Normally, having someone mistake his age wouldn’t bother him, but for some reason he was miffed, and went inside.
There were six seats at the counter, eight two-seater tables, and not a single customer other than him. On the opposite side of the counter was a white-haired man who looked to be the owner, reading a newspaper. Right next to the entrance was a bookshelf with a paper sign that read “Free to Take.” It was lined with paperbacks, and on the very bottom shelf was a blue-eyed Siamese cat who looked very intelligent.
Haruka sat down at a table near the entrance, and the woman who’d let him in gave him a menu. She had strongly chiseled features, and light brown skin, despite it almost being winter, and seemed like she was suited for the ocean.
When he ordered blended coffee, she asked him if he liked cats. He’d never thought about whether he liked or disliked them, but answered that he did, only for her to ask if he wanted to give the cat a treat, holding out a skipjack tuna stick. It seemed she’d thought he was here for the cat.
“Her name is Alstroemeria. She’s super smart!”
“Is it because she reads a lot of books?”
“What? That’s hilarious. But maybe she does when me and the master aren’t looking. She does love sitting inside the bookcase.”
Her innocent smile, unfit for an adult, had captivated him. From then on, he kept coming to the café, and learned that her name was Kotono. He wondered why she had a job when barely any customers came there, but Yurinoki took lots of orders from nearby offices and delivered coffee and food. Kotono was the delivery staff.
Haruka invited Keiichi to come with him, telling him he’d found a café with books, and they started meeting up there after school. Taking advantage of the lack of customers, they would study for tests, read books, and loiter for hours. Eventually, the café started giving them cakes they were about to scrap or leftovers from lunch. While it was very kind of them, they felt bad every time they were given, so Haruka started helping Kotono with the deliveries sometimes, while Keiichi would help the master cook.
Once, when they were out on a delivery together, Kotono asked him, “Are you okay, coming to the café all the time? Don’t you run out of allowance?”
“Even if I didn’t come to Yurinoki, I’d just go somewhere else, so I don’t think it changes anything. I’ve been like this since junior high. But sometimes Keiichi comes over to my house, since we’re close.”
When she heard that, Kotono cried out in shock.
“Where did you go when you were in high school, Kotono-san?” Haruka asked.
“We’d all get together to chat and study a lot, so I guess food courts. We’d buy ourselves drinks and go to the park too. But around here, there’s not many places you can just sit and talk. Hanging out is different.”
If you didn’t have money, you couldn’t go out with your friends. Even if you were told to go to the park, the closest one was Shinjuku Gyoen. The other parks were small and crowded, and adults took all of the benches to smoke. So naturally, Haruka and his friends ended up going to a store when they wanted to get together.
“Haruka-kun, you can come to Yurinoki whenever you want. The café is always slow, and I like having someone to chat with. I know that the price of the coffee might make it a bit tough, but I’ll give you tons of freebies.”
“What are your hours, Kotono-san?”
“From eleven to eight.”
“That’s long!”
“The master gets in at eight in the morning. It’s normal for adults. You high schoolers have it so easy. You get an allowance, even if you don’t work.”