She’d come to a stop right before the bedding department of a major home furniture retail chain. I couldn’t help but crack a smile as it finally dawned on me what she meant by trying something “a little different for a change.”
“Hey. What’s so funny, huh?” Akira demanded.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just find it amusing the way your brain works sometimes. Never would have thought to come here myself. Pretty cute idea, though, I have to say.”
“Aw, shut it. I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I was a little kid,” said Akira, as she dropped her backpack on the floor and fwumped onto a nearby bed. “I remember watching this old movie once forever ago where they stay the night in a department store like this. Don’t really remember much else about it, but that one scene always stuck with me, for whatever random reason.”
Wait. An old movie where they sleep in a department store…?
“Was it Modern Times?” I asked.
“Huh? The hell’s that? Nah, it was some Crayon Shin-chan movie.”
“Ohhh, gotcha… Yeah, I think I know which one you mean.”
I felt a little embarrassed; I should have known right off the bat it was that one she was referring to—not some ancient 1930s film I’d only seen because my uncle Kurehiko exposed me to it back in elementary school. There was definitely something to those old black-and-white comedies, though. Even as a distractible little kid, I remembered being utterly enthralled from start to finish thanks to Charlie Chaplin’s great physical comedy.
“How ’bout you quit standing around and sit down already?” said Akira.
“Oh, right,” I said, snapping myself back to reality before I indulged too deeply in my reminiscence. I searched the showroom floor for another comfy-looking bed. Not that I was all that picky—I didn’t mind sleeping on a couch if I had to. There weren’t very many customers in the area either, so there were plenty of places I could crash. But as I scanned the vicinity from end to end, Akira looked at me with puzzlement.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “Just come take the bed next to mine.”
“Huh?” I said. “But…i-isn’t that a little too close? I mean, there’s no partition or anything…”
“Oh, I see how it is. You don’t want to sleep next to me—is that it?”
“No, that’s not what I meant…” Granted, yes, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d be having her watch me snore or vice versa, and the thought was obviously nerve-racking for a variety of other reasons, but most importantly: “I guess I just assumed that you wouldn’t want to sleep too close to me…”
“Nah, c’mon. I know you better than that by now. What’s there to worry about?”
Akira smiled and shook her head as though I was being totally ridiculous, then kicked off her shoes and let herself fall backward onto the bed. Thinking there was no harm in it so long as she was comfortable and not wanting to insinuate anything rude by refusing, I took her up on her offer and helped myself to the next bed over. I set my things down, took off my shoes, and slipped my legs under the covers. The mattress felt very nice—but the high ceiling and overhead lights made it a bit hard to truly relax.
“Man, this is so weird…” I said. “Well, Iguma-san? How does it feel to have one of your lifelong dreams granted at last?”
“Hey, I never said it was a dream or anything. But yeah, I mean…it’s pretty cool, I guess. Wish it wasn’t so friggin’ bright in here, though.”
“Yeah, you and me both.”
As the two of us tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, we happened to roll over to face one another. Akira’s eyes went wide like those of a deer in headlights, and she quickly turned her gaze back up to the ceiling.
“F-feels kinda weird just lying here like this, huh?” said Akira.
“I thought we were trying to go to bed,” I replied.
“Well, yeah—but don’t you usually have to mess around on your phone a little bit before you can actually fall asleep? ’Cause I totally do.”
“I mean, can’t you still do that? You’ve got those batteries, don’t you?”
“Yeah… Guess I’m just not really in the mood right now.”
I could see that this conversation was going nowhere fast.
“Well, sorry, Iguma-san,” I said, stifling a yawn. “But I think I’m probably gonna pass out pretty quick here. Hope you find something to keep your mind occupied, though.”
“…Y’know, I’ve actually been meaning to bring this up for a while now, but…”
My ears perked up as Akira’s tone suddenly turned solemn. I assumed whatever this was had to be pretty important, so I mentally braced myself for the worst.
“I kinda hate my last name, to be honest,” she said.
“…What, you mean Iguma?”
“Yeah, isn’t it ugly? I mean, it’s literally got the kanji for ‘bear’ in it.”
Oh, is that all? Phew. I was relieved to hear that it was something ultimately trivial—no offense—and not anything actually heavy.
“Really? I think it’s pretty cool,” I said. “It’s unique, at the very least.”
“Nah, it’s way too clunky and masculine. I mean, not that I love my first name either. It’s pretty tomboyish too… But at least it’s better than Iguma!”
“Right, yeah… No, I hear you.”
I was so tired at this point that I was struggling to respond with anything of actual substance, so I just agreed with her by default. Still, I reached up and rubbed my eyes, hoping I could at least stave off sleep until she was finished making her point.
“So, like, I guess what I’m saying is…”
When I pulled my hands back down from my face, I saw that Akira had turned her whole body in bed to face me. Her comforter was pulled all the way up to her chin, and she had a slightly pensive look on her face. Oh boy… What is it this time?
“If you just wanted to call me Akira instead, I’d be cool with that.”
I didn’t know what to say. This casual, offhand suggestion was so unexpected—and, at least for me, unprecedented—that I was genuinely at a loss for how to respond. Surely she knew as well as I did that kids our age didn’t typically call each other by their first names unless they were very well acquainted with one another, especially when it came to members of the opposite sex. Which would imply that Akira already considered us to be much closer than I realized—and thought of me as someone she could truly trust.
I felt a strange rumbling feeling deep in my chest, but I knew right away this wasn’t the usual one. This wasn’t the bad one. Not suffocating or arrhythmic, but a warm and reassuring emotion slowly rippling out in waves from the center of my heart until it had wrapped up my entire body in a blanket more comforting than even these fancy linens—and softer too. I couldn’t help but squeeze my toes together under the covers.
“Oh… Okay,” I said. “Then…I guess I’ll try calling you that from now on?”
Akira let out a playful giggle at this. Every time I got to see those protruding canines peek out from beneath her upper lip, my mood soared like I’d just won a prize. I figured I should ride this momentum and try calling her by her first name aloud right away. I felt a little bit anxious but wet the inside of my mouth with my tongue and said:
“Akira.”
Immediately, I heard a gulp run down Akira’s throat. Then came some indistinct, guttural mumbling I couldn’t quite make out as she turned her head away—but I could still see her ears poking out through the gaps in her hair, and they were flushed bright red. She was definitely having some sort of reaction to me saying her name, though I couldn’t for the life of me say whether it was good or bad.
“Wh-what’s up?” I asked cautiously.
“…san,” she said.
“Sorry?”
“That’s Akira-SAN to you!” she shouted, then pulled the covers up over her head completely. “N-never mind, I take it back! Just call me by my last name! I’m going to bed!”