“Looks like everything’s falling into place,” said Tousuke, leaning against the door of the crowded subway car, with some surprise, when I later told him about Kawahara-san and how she had apparently become a legitimate member of Moai. It was the weekend, and no seats were empty in the car. As we slipped past the tall buildings that surrounded the train tracks, the bright sunlight pierced through, glinting off of Tousuke’s gaudy fashion glasses.
“We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us, though it seems like she’d made a friend.”
I recalled how sincere Kawahara-san had been at work the day before when she told me, “I’m going to hang out with someone.” I guess you’ve got a friend already, huh? I had rudely wondered, but of course I had not asked.
As I gazed at the scenery rushing by outside, I suddenly noticed that Tousuke was facing somewhere behind me and waving. I turned cautiously to look, thinking he must have spotted a friend or something. I was relieved to see he was just returning the greeting from a little girl who was waving our way.
The train, packed with couples and families, carried everyone on to their intended destinations. Most of the passengers were probably headed for the amusement park at the end of the line. As for Tousuke and me, we were headed solemnly to a station near a certain park—we had been invited there, after all.
“A barbecue club?”
“Yeah. Ten invited me. Said there would be girls there so I should come. Apparently, you just sign up with your e-mail address and as long as you pay the membership fee, anyone can attend. Guess that’s a fairly common setup, though.”
“Only a hipster of a college student like you could say that something that inscrutable is commonplace.”
“No, no, no. I’m just talking about these kinds of events where you have no idea who’s hosting them. Also, according to Ten, he didn’t invite any Moai members, so no need to worry about any of them showing up. I mean, I suppose any of them might still have some other connection that brings them there, but at least the risk is low, so I figured I would check it out. How about you, Kaede?”
Thus, gone was the conversation four days prior. In the end, I had decided it would be bad of me to leave everything to Tousuke, so I decided to go with him—so that I could collect intel from Ten in a more laid-back setting. This would be my first time going undercover with Tousuke.
Tousuke, who had suggested going undercover to eliminate as many points of worry as possible, seemed oddly fired up over this operation again.
“I knew you’d be a natural at this, Kaede,” he half-laughed.
“No way,” I refused. “If anyone we know sees me, I’m going to swallow my own tongue.”
“It’d really make it tough on the investigators if you died in a getup as ridiculous as that,” he cackled.
I took a moment to really look at what it was I was wearing. I had on a chartreuse Hawaiian shirt over a white T-shirt, with yellow shorts and stark white slip-on shoes. For accessories, a white straw hat and a necklace. Surely, from afar, no one would ever be able to tell it was me, but it was still incredibly embarrassing—I looked like I was on my way to a resort or something. Conversely, Tousuke’s more modest attire of a polo shirt and fashion glasses was just as bad.
“There’s no reason for you to be disguised too, though. What’s with the fake glasses?”
“Listen, don’t knock the glasses. They’re the easiest way to up a dude’s hotness factor.”
“Pretty sure actual vision-impaired people would take umbrage with that…”
Tousuke chuckled again. He was always rather spirited, but perhaps it was the bright sunlight that had him in even higher spirits than usual. Or perhaps it was just the prospect of meeting some girls.
We should have invited Pon-chan too, I realized as the train gradually slowed to a stop. Tousuke stepped away from the door he had been leaning against, which presently opened. We stepped resolutely out from the feeble air-conditioning of the train car into the muggy outdoors.
“Hot out here!”
“And we’re gonna be grilling meat out in this…”
It was not that I particularly disliked the outdoors, but it was only June, and my heart was not yet ready to handle this sort of heat. The thought of charcoal flames sapped the life right out of me.
As we exited the gates, I noticed a group of young people in picnicking attire headed to the intersection that led to the park entrance. It was unclear whether they were headed for the same destination as us, but just in case, I scanned the faces of everyone around us to make sure there was no one I recognized.
“Oh, there’s Ten,” said Tousuke from beside me. Instinctively, my body tensed up. “Yo!” he called out without even stopping to warn me, waving his hand. I looked up, and sure enough there was Ten, crossing a crosswalk with a bag from a convenience store in one hand and his phone in the other. Ten looked up, waving back with a smile, and waited for us on the other side of the crosswalk.
“Morning, Tousuke. Oh, hey, Kaede, that’s a new look for you. Guessing you’re pretty fired up! Love to see it.”
“You know, ha ha ha.” I laughed it off, though of course that was the opposite of how I felt. Ten, by contrast, seemed to be full of vigor, with his wide hat, matching shirt, and silver jewelry glittering on his fingers. Though for all I knew, this was just a normal weekend for him.
After a few rounds of pointless conversational back and forth, Ten showed us to the event site. We had purposely arrived a little bit after the starting time so as not to draw attention when there were still few attendees around, but we were told that only about half the attendees were there yet—little shock for a college student gathering. This left me faced with the nerve-racking task of having to keep an eye on everyone else who came later to make sure that there was no one who I knew.
As we moved into the barbecue pavilion, a number of groups already appeared to be setting up camp. When we asked Ten what sort of people would be coming to the function, he led us to a group that had occupied one fairly spacious corner of the site. As we approached, I was shocked—by the number of people. There were enough people there to make up a full high school class, and this was supposedly only half of them. Just what sort of a group was this?
Blessedly, we did not have to introduce ourselves to everyone. Hitches in our plans aside, I just hated having the attention of that many people at once. We were led to the man who was acting as coordinator and paid our fees, before Ten introduced us to a few acquaintances of his.
“Oh, so they go to the same school as you, Amano-kun? They must be pretty sharp! Anyway, let’s get some drinks!”
Hearing these sorts of things from the whole group, something occurred to me. Though it wasn’t a matter of whether this was good or bad, these people were all so carefree that I could see how it was that I had managed to go my whole university career without knowing about these sorts of gatherings.
As we each took a beer out from the cooler at someone’s urging, Ten, who was standing nearby to keep an eye on us, put his phone to his ear. Judging by what he was saying, someone else he had invited had gotten lost along the way.
“Sorry, guys, gotta go find one of my friends. Go find someone to hang out with.” He gave us a charming smile and jogged off in the direction we had just come from. Sure had a lot on his plate. Suddenly abandoned, Tousuke and I looked at one another, pulled the tabs on our beer cans, and clinked them.
Here beneath the sunlight, the first sip tasted of guilt.
As I sighed, glancing around us unsure of what to do, I suddenly heard an “Oh!” from beside me. I looked up to see Tousuke waving to a man across from us who was grilling meat. Before I could even ask, “Who’s that?” Tousuke explained, “I’m going to be working with him next year.” In other words, a future coworker at the company Tousuke would be joining.
“I’m gonna go say hey to him,” he said, heading for the grills, leaving me all alone. Just to give my hands something to do, I took another sip of beer. At times like these, it occurred to me that if I were the sort of person who could make conversation with strangers all on my own, I would have already known that these sorts of events existed.
After spending some time blankly watching Tousuke chattering with his coworker, I realized someone was standing beside me. Before I could turn to look, someone spoke my name.
“What’re you up to, Tabata-san?”
Just as my name was spoken, I turned and nearly jumped out of my skin. A bit of beer splashed out of my can.
“K-Kawahara-san?” I asked dubiously, but surely enough, there was Miss Yankee herself. I was sure that I had gotten a good look at the faces of everyone who had been present when I arrived. She had not been there previously. I was the one who should have been asking what she was doing.
“Howdy,” she replied. “Didn’t know you liked this kinda thing.”
“Uh, w…well.”
“Just a sec.” She glanced me over from head to toe. “Interesting style.”
Welp, time to swallow my tongue.
“Well, uh, I kind of think my friend was just messing with me…”
“It suits you.”
“Um, thanks…I suppose.” I assumed it was a compliment, but her tone now was even more lax than it was at the store. As per usual, her clothes were mainly black. More casual than normal, she wore a T-shirt and jeans.
“Same to you though, what are you doing…er.” No matter how surprised I was to see her, I was there too, so it would be wrong of me to speak as though I was questioning her right to be there. “D-didn’t know you were into this kind of thing either. Or wait, was this what you were talking about when you mentioned hanging out?”
“Yep. Came with a friend.”
I followed her gaze and saw a cheery-looking girl bowing to a man, probably the senpai who had invited her.
“Who d’you know here, Tabata-san? Someone just as fashionable?”
Apparently, she did not honestly believe that my outfit had been a prank on my friend’s part, so I had to explain myself.