We both woke at eight in the morning, to a cell phone ringing noisily. I got up and retrieved mine from my bag, but it was silent. I grabbed hers from the sofa where she’d left it the night before, and I handed it to her on the bed. The sleepy-eyed girl flipped the phone open and placed it to her ear.
I could hear the howls of the person on the other line even from where I stood.
“Sakuraaaaa! Where are you?”
The girl winced and held the phone away from her ear. Once the shouting subsided, she put it back and said, “Morning. What’s up?”
“Don’t give me that! I asked you a question. Where are you?”
Looking a little unsure, she stated, “Fukuoka.” From the sound of things, her caller was appalled.
“What the hell is going on? Why did you lie to your parents and say you were on a trip with me?”
So, this was her best friend, then. She responded to the outburst with a carefree yawn and said, “How did you find out?”
“The PTA was passing along a message about something at school. My parents are after yours on the phone chain, remember? When your mom called, I was the one who picked up. Explaining my way out of that one was a nightmare!”
“Sounds like you managed it though. Thanks, Kyōko, you’re the best. How’d you do it?”
“I pretended to be my sister—but that’s not the point! Why did you lie to your parents so you could go all the way to Fukuoka?”
“Well…”
“And if you really wanted to go that badly, you didn’t have to make up that lie. We could have gone on a trip for real. You know I’d go with you.”
“That sounds nice. Let’s go on a trip together over summer break. When do your club activities go on break?”
“I’ll check my calendar and let you know.” I could hear the dry sarcasm in her friend’s voice.
Our room was quiet enough that I’d been able to make out most of the conversation even when her friend wasn’t shouting on the other end. I went to the sink, washed my face, and kept an ear listening while I brushed my teeth. The toothpaste here had a sharper taste than the one I used at home.
“What are you doing sneaking off all alone like you’re some dying cat?”
I didn’t find the unintended joke all that funny. My companion’s reply was even less humorous, although it was true.
“I’m not alone.”
She sent me an amused glance with eyes that were bloodshot from last night’s drinking. I wanted to sink my head into my hands, but one was occupied by my tooth brush, and the other by my water cup.
“You’re… You’re not alone? Wait. Who are you with? Is it your boyfriend?”
“No, come on. You know I broke up with him.”
“Then who?”
“[Boy I’m Getting along With]-kun.”
Stunned silence came from the other end of the phone. I was beyond caring at this point, and I kept brushing my teeth.
“You… Huh?” her friend sputtered.
“Listen to me, Kyōko.”
The friend seemed to be listening.
Her voice became serious. “I know this doesn’t make any sense to you, and it must seem very strange, but I promise I will explain it to you one day. I won’t ask you to accept it, but please, forgive me. And I want you to keep this to yourself for now.”
Her friend didn’t seem to know how to respond. That only seemed natural. Why pass over your best friend to go traveling with a classmate you barely know?
The friend remained silent for a little while. The girl on the bed patiently held the phone against her ear. Finally, a voice came from the speaker.
“Okay.”
“Thank you, Kyōko.”
“That comes with conditions.”
“Of course. Whatever you say.”
“Come home safe. Bring me back something tasty. And go on a trip with me over summer break. And one more thing—tell [Classmate with an Inexplicable Connection to My Best Friend] that if he does anything funny to you, I’ll kill him.”
She laughed and said, “Okay.”
They exchanged a few words of goodbye and she hung up. I rinsed out my mouth and sat on the couch she’d stolen from me the night before. The cards were still scattered on the table, and I began picking them up. When I glanced at her, she was straightening her bed hair with her fingers.
I said, “It’s nice you have a friend thinking of you.”
“It really is,” she said. “Oh, you may have heard, but apparently Kyōko is going to kill you.”
“If I do anything funny to you, you mean,” I reminded her. “When you tell her what happened, be sure to tell her I was a total gentleman.”
“I seem to remember you carrying me to bed like a maiden in your arms.”
“Oh, is that what you call it? I just felt like a mover hauling boxes.”
“I’m pretty sure she’d kill you for thinking of it that way, too.”
She took a shower to fix her hair while I waited. When she was done, we went down to the first floor for breakfast.
Breakfast was served as a lavish buffet that underscored just how high-class this hotel was. I made my breakfast a Japanese one by filling my plate with things like fish and boiled tofu. I returned to our window-side table, and when she came back, she was carrying a tray with a ridiculous amount of food.
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” she said, but she ended up leaving about a third of her food, which I ate. As I did, I advocated the merits of being a careful planner, like me.
Back in our room, I boiled some water. I made myself coffee, and she made herself tea. Sitting where we were the night before, we watched morning TV and relaxed for a bit. The room felt peaceful, with sunlight shining bright through the curtains. It seemed like we both had forgotten her final question of the night.
I asked, “What’s the plan today?”
She sprang to her feet and sauntered to her sky blue backpack, from which she retrieved a notebook. She had our train tickets home tucked into its pages.
“Our train leaves at two-thirty,” she said. “We’ll have plenty of time to get lunch and find some gifts. Where should we go for the rest of the morning?”
“I don’t know. I’ll leave that to you.”
We checked out in no hurry. The hotel staff bowed to us as we left.
She decided we would ride a bus to a well-known shopping mall. According to the guide book, the complex straddled a canal and featured everything from shopping to live theatre. Apparently, it had become a popular destination for foreign tourists. When we got there in person, the massive, bright red buildings were an impressive sight, and every bit the landmark.
We found ourselves in the central open air atrium, surrounded by grand, curving buildings, unsure of where to go. We wandered for a bit and happened upon a street performer dressed as a clown, who was performing in an open area beside the canal. We added ourselves to the audience.
The show, about twenty minutes long, was fun to watch, and afterward the clown made a comical display of asking for money. Like the high school kid I was, I put a hundred-yen coin in his hat. She happily put in a five-hundred-yen coin.