We started grilling, as directed, when finally, we heard the front door open again, followed by a, “I’m back!” and for some reason a, “Thanks for having me.”
The door that led in from the hallway opened, and we looked up to see Tousuke, followed by Kawahara-san, still dressed in her black work shirt. I nearly spat out the happoshu that was in my mouth.
“Oh G—wha?! Uh, K-Kawahara-san?” Recalling her sudden appearance at the barbecue, I just barely stopped myself from shouting, Oh God, there she is again! but I managed to rein it in in the nick of time, along with my happoshu.
“Good to see you,” she said, bowing as always with only a polite bend of her neck.
“Oh, Kawahara-san, nice to meet you! I’m one of Tousuke-senpai and Kaede-senpai’s juniors. You can call me Pon-chan!”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Kawahara.”
After the two of them made introductions, Kawahara-san vanished into the restroom at Tousuke’s invitation. I looked as suspiciously as I could at Tousuke, who now stood alone in the living room.
“Yo, what the hell?”
“Hmm?”
Tousuke was grinning widely. I could tell by his smile that he was scheming something annoying, and what that something was, but what I found peculiar was that he’d been in contact at all with Kawahara-san. I hadn’t seen them exchange information at the barbecue.
When Kawahara-san returned, Tousuke invited her to sit, and she took the open spot beside me. I suddenly wondered if even Tousuke leaving that place open had been intentional. Kawahara-san was encouraged to have some drinks and introduce herself, telling us her school department and where she was from, as though nothing was going on. This was the first time I was made clearly aware that she was from Kansai. Apparently, her intended department and the subject matter of the exams had been a large factor in her deciding to move here. Though it was perhaps a bit rude of me, what I was more concerned about was why she was here, which Tousuke thankfully explained after another toast.
“So actually, I went by the drugstore the other night to come and heckle you, Kaede. I didn’t say anything because I wanted it to be a surprise. But when I got there, you weren’t there. Kawahara-san was there though, and I told her we’d be having a takoyaki party soon and asked her if she wanted to come. She said she would, so I invited her.”
“So you did.”
“I’m glad that Kaede gets to work alongside such an agreeable kouhai.”
After nodding fervently at his own statements, Tousuke drank some happoshu. “Pretty smooth senpai move, just casually talking to a cute girl,” Pon-chan teased. For the second time now, I was surprised to see such an agreeable side of Kawahara-san. Then, it occurred to me once more that this might in fact be her actual nature.
I suppose the problem here was whether or not I could be objective about the fact that Kawahara-san had arrived—she was here whether I liked it or not, so I had to just deal with it. It wasn’t as if I could just tell her to go home, so I made up my mind to simply go on with my evening. Such was my primary way of living.
As we dryly explained the connection between Tousuke and myself then Tousuke and Pon-chan to Kawahara-san, the takoyaki batter began to bubble, finally firming up. We each took our turns turning them over with skewers. Kawahara-san and Tousuke did quite well, Pon-chan and I so-so. Sadly, we were not quite bad enough to be laugh-worthy, so it was lacking in entertainment value.
We passed around the takoyaki sauce and mayo and tasted them. It turned out to be pretty good for amateur work.
The first round vanished with surprising quickness. We snacked on the side dishes Tousuke had made and the junk food Kawahara-san had brought with her until the next round was ready. After a while of vapid conversation, Pon-chan started asking about Kawahara-san’s university experiences.
“Has the drugstore been your only part-time job?”
“So far, yeah.”
Then, naturally, the conversation eventually trended that way.
“In any clubs?” Pon-chan asked.
Kawahara-san answered plainly and immediately, “I joined this one called Moai.”
“Seriously?! Me too!”
Kawahara-san’s slitted eyes opened wider as she let out a, “Oh. really?”
“I mean I don’t really attend meetings, so I’m not surprised we haven’t run into each other.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
Kawahara-san, who took this at face value, did not expand on the topic further. Perhaps anticipating this, Pon-chan pressed, “Do you go a lot?” I recalled having mentally compared the two of them before. Where Pon-chan was shrewd, Kawahara-san was not quite so much. Still, the Moai-centric conversation between the two did not make me nervous. I could not imagine the shrewd Pon-chan ever saying anything disparaging in front of an active Moai member like Kawahara-san.
“I go to a lot of the meetings, even the smaller ones. I like hearing what people have to say.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of stuff do they talk about?”
I had to thank Pon-chan for broaching the topic for us. Kawahara-san hummed in thought, looking up into the air.
“Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the business of war. The other day, we had an alumnus from the architecture department come in and talk about revivals and the architecture industry.”
“Have any fun?”
“It’s fun, especially when there’s a lot of passionate people there.”
Kawahara-san was a passionate person where Pon-chan was not. A simple question came to mind.
“I assume there’s some less passionate people at those smaller meetings too?”
“Well, I say small, but there’s usually about a dozen people, so there’s definitely people who show up just to hang out and get lunch afterwards. Not that I think that’s a bad thing, though.”
Kawahara-san was a lot more laid-back in philosophy than I assumed her to be. I wondered why then it was that she was not better at dealing with unruly customers, but of course I could not ask her that. Thankfully, she herself explained it.
“Of course, every once in a while some guy shows up who is so obvious about just being there to assess the girls that I wanna kill him.”
“Oh? How would you do it?”
“Well, if the only thing I had on me at the time was a pen, I’d just jab it in his eye, like this,” Kawahara-san said, jabbing a skewer straight into the middle of a takoyaki to demonstrate. Of course, that was the Miss Yankee I knew and loved. No need to show flexibility towards someone she had deemed an enemy. Even if it was violent and extreme.
“I’d assume it’s pretty easy for people to hook up at these sorts of things though, right? If there’s someone there who shares their philosophies, then even if they don’t have any sort of romantic feelings at the start. I’m sure they’d be able to find some extra time for each other.”
“That’s very true,” Kawahara-san said, her expression ambiguous, as though she found the idea abhorrent but did not wish to criticize it.
“I’m guessing you don’t have any interest in that sort of thing though, right, Kawahara-san?”
For some reason, Pon-chan seemed intent on needling Kawahara-san.
“Yer right. I always say everything I’m thinkin’ while I’m at the meeting.”
“Oh, no I mean, I’m guessing that you’re not interested in any of the Moai boys.”
Kawahara-san smirked and shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
“Well then, anyone you’ve got your sights set on?”
“Nah, I mean…not really.”
For the smallest fraction of a second, such that I was sure she had purposely done it so that only I would notice, I saw Pon-chan glance at me. Okay, yep, I got it now. The two of them had been colluding to set me up.
Naturally, though I would not let it show on my face, one part of me was about ready to laugh the whole thing off, though another part of me was suddenly not feeling so well.
I wondered if Kawahara-san would be annoyed. Thus, feeling slightly malicious, I decided to toss a pickoff pitch.
“Pon-chan, you’ve had a boyfriend since high school, haven’t you?”
“Wha?! Hey, Tousuke-senpai, what have you been telling them?!”
She pointed a skewered takoyaki at him, Tousuke laughing and warning, “Hey, careful with that thing!” followed by, “Well, it’s fine, since it’s true.”
“Since high school, huh? That’s a long time, Pon-chan-senpai,” said Kawahara-san.
“Pon-chan-senpai?! That’s totes adorbs!” Pon-chan chuckled.
Kawahara-san replied and said, “It suits you.” It occurred to me then that perhaps she actually was not shy—maybe just a bit more introverted than other people.