“So…what’s it taste like?”
I had no idea if she was chewing, but it at least seemed that her mouth was in the same place as a human’s.
“No idea. But it’s not like what you described. There really is no flavor at all. No smell either!”
She had gotten something different out of it, but either way, if neither of us could taste anything then there was no point in sharing food. Smell was out, as was taste and flavor. That was when I wondered, if it was going to be this difficult to share our cultures, what could the two of us possibly accomplish—and I started absently staring into Chika’s eyes.
“I know what you said about coming to my world was a joke, but what if there really was a possibility, however small, of us actually traveling to each other’s worlds?”
I had already half abandoned the notion, since seeing nothing but her eyes and nails meant that the probability of us actually being able to exist in the same place was quite low.
“We can’t completely throw out the possibility. We may not know how to do it, but just as you and I are connected, there might be some way to make it work.”
If that was true, then there would be nothing better. If I could have the special experience of spending time in another world, nothing could possibly compare to the discoveries I might make there, nor the things that Chika could tell me. All I could think about was how much I would want to go if I could. Not I’d like to go, but I want to go. The desire burned within me, even without any guarantee that I’d be able to return home.
And Chika would be there.
“Which would you prefer?” she asked me.
“Huh?”
“For me to come to Jappan or for you to come here?”
“I…”
It was obvious, wasn’t it? The clear choice was…
“I’d want to go there. Obviously, this world is already boring to me.”
It was only for a moment, really—nothing more than a distant, fleeting thought. However, I could now allow such a thought to cross my mind for even a second. For that moment, I thought, was there really that much difference between me going there and her coming here?
Chika giggled. I figured she had seen right through my foolishness.
“It’s probably not very interesting here either.”
For some reason, I had neglected to consider something so obvious. I supposed it was hard to imagine without much information.
“I’d be fine either way, whether I went there or you came here. I do have my room here.” Her eyes narrowed. From this distance, I could actually see the pupils clearly in her eyes.
“I’d be fine either way as well, as long as you were there,” she said.
She might have been addressing those mistaken feelings within me directly. If not, there would have been no way for her to reach that shut-off part of me.
“Still, it would be a problem if I couldn’t taste the food in your world.”
“Would be nice if maybe you comprehended the flavor a bit over time.”
“I guess it’d be like just being born; we’d probably come to understand the tastes as we adapted to the other’s world. Wonder if that day will ever come…?”
“I wonder.”
“The possibilities are boundless. If it’s impossible in either of our worlds, maybe there’s a different world where our senses of taste might adapt.”
Here we went again, wasting our time discussing a future that was unlikely to ever happen. I should have realized that while we were in the midst of the conversation, but it was unfortunately only later that this occurred to me.
Finally, without having accomplished anything productive besides comparing notes on taste, I parted from Chika again and returned to my uneventful days.
“Working sucks.”
“Well, it is work.”
Today, as always, I shared a pointless exchange with my seat neighbor Tanaka, got my characteristically awkward farewell from Saitou, and then headed home. Naturally, I went running after.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
As every single day passed by identically in my everyday life, the sense of anxiety inside me only deepened.
The food of the other world had done nothing to evolve my palate. At this rate, the fact that I had met Chika was never going to mean a damn thing. This monumental opportunity had fallen into my lap, and here I was, basic as always, sitting idle. That was more terrifying than anything.
Well, no, there was one thing that was different from before. I didn’t care in the slightest about how dull Tanaka thought her part-time job was, but when she started that job about a month ago, I changed my running route. The convenience store that I normally used as my turnaround point was the very store that she now worked at. I changed my route to avoid running into her.
However, while I’d die before I called it anything like fate, as I was running my new course the other day, I ran into a familiar face—not a human face but a canine one. As I ran past the backyard of an aging, traditional-style house, I saw a dog—one that would follow just about anyone around. I paused in my run, and the dog trotted to the end of its leash. It didn’t bark but simply hopped around my feet to beg me to pat its head. When I turned onto the main road and checked the name on the doorplate, the home sure enough belonged to Tanaka, though she would have been at work at the time.
Now that I knew the place, as an experiment for Chika, I started bringing the dog treats. It helped that I had heard that Tanaka’s parents both worked away from home. I did worry that someone might snatch the overfriendly dog if it was left alone like that, but it seemed that had yet to cross anyone’s mind. I knew this because I ran the same route almost every day.
Today, I laced my sneakers up tight and set off in my usual direction.