Prologue
KATAGAKI NAOMI CLOSED HIS EYES. Sinking into the darkness, he let his memories carry him away. He saw that night in vivid detail, projected like a movie on the inside of his eyelids.
The night was hot and sticky. The humid air of the Yamashiro Basin, combined with the July heat, made it feel like a sauna outside. Here and there, you could hear tourists loudly grumbling about how unbearable the weather was.
Naomi, however, had been born and raised here. To him, this was just what summer felt like—heat that stuck to your skin and windless, sweltering nights.
That was July in Kyoto for you.
Still, for Naomi, this was a special night. He was sweating much, much more than usual.
The reasons were obvious enough. First of all, there was the crowd. The Uji River Fireworks Festival was the largest in the prefecture, with an annual attendance of over twenty thousand people. The banks of the river were packed with spectators; the heat of all their bodies pressed close together was intense. You could practically see the steam rising from them. The stalls didn’t help matters either. The sound of sizzling soba noodles surrounded him. The festival was in full swing. The night was alive with energy.
That was just part of the reason Naomi was sweating buckets.
Reaching back, he wiped the palm of his hand on the back of his pants. Unfortunately, they were so damp that a single swipe didn’t accomplish much. He kept trying, and eventually his hand came away dry. But he couldn’t bring himself to move it. He knew it would be just as sweaty again in a minute.
He was trying to hold hands with his girlfriend, after all.
It was their very first date.
She was the first girlfriend Naomi had ever had, and this was the first date he’d ever been on. He needed to hold her hand, in other words, but sweating all over her was out of the question.
Why didn’t I bring a hand towel or something, damn it?!
He really, really didn’t want to screw this up. But the more he thought about that, the tighter his chest grew. His imagination ran in overdrive, filling his mind with horrible worst-case scenarios.
In real life, sometimes you messed things up. Reality wasn’t a neatly plotted story. In the books Naomi loved, exhilarating moments of anticipation inevitably led to satisfying, happy endings. But things weren’t like that in the real world. In the real world, you could make stupid mistakes that cost you dearly.
That fear held him back. He’d taken her hand earlier, but he was too anxious to try it again. His fingers trembled uselessly in the air, frozen in place. After a moment, her fingers slipped through his.
Naomi looked over in surprise to find that she was already looking at him. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat; her sharp eyebrows were furrowed with determination. This had definitely been a big step forward for her. After a moment, she nodded, as if affirming her decision.
A sudden flash of light illuminated her face.
Naomi looked up just in time to see a huge firework blossom through the air. Its sound reached him an instant later, followed immediately by another burst of light. Brilliant colors filled the sky, and the smell of smoke grew thick in the swampy summer air.
He could feel his own heartbeat in his hand, pulsing against hers.
A particularly massive firework faded away, leaving the crowd to savor its aftermath. A round of applause broke out, marking a brief intermission. The crowd exhaled in unison as they waited for the next part of the show to begin.
In the gloom, Naomi turned to look at her. She was smiling happily, basking in the afterglow of the fireworks.
He thought his heart was going to burst.
In that moment, her smile became his most precious treasure.
Katagaki Naomi opened his eyes. All they could show him now was reality. Real life wasn’t a neatly plotted story. Sometimes it took the things you love away from you for no reason at all.
Case in point: that girl was never going to smile at him again.