“Yes. Today there was a Purple Sanga match. I wonder if they won. I’m curious,” she said, prompting me to take out my smartphone from my pocket.
“I’ll check.”
As I was about to launch Yahoo, her face drew close to mine.
She’s so close.
My heart skipped a beat. I instinctively leaned back.
“I’m checking now,” I told Saki, who was fixed on my phone screen.
She must really love soccer to lean forward like that out of curiosity. I felt a mix of happiness that Saki was close and worry that she could hear my heart pounding incessantly in my chest. I mustered the courage and swiped the screen with my trembling fingers, and Saki asked with a serious expression, “What is that?”
“What? It’s a smartphone.”
“Smart… phone?” she emphasized the s.
“Don’t you know what it is?”
“It’s my first time seeing one.”
Is she joking?
Maybe she’s unfamiliar with these devices because her dormitory doesn’t allow cell phones. With that in mind, I glanced around. There were about thirty seats on the riverside platform, and they were all occupied, yet no one had a smartphone.
Everyone with a phone had a flip phone. There were also a few people engrossed in their screens.
I’ve heard that in Tokyo cafés, many people are glued to their smartphones while sipping their coffee. I wondered if flip phones were popular in Kyoto.
My curiosity piqued, but when I tried to look up the soccer results online, it wouldn’t work. My smartphone seemed unresponsive.
Could it be that the smartphone I bought in Tokyo is incompatible in Kyoto? No, that can’t be true. Didn’t I talk to Yuuya at Grandma’s house this afternoon?
So, is there no signal here? In the middle of the city like this? It shouldn’t be like that, right? I pondered but couldn’t comprehend the reason.
At that moment, one of the digits on the screen changed. It was already that time.
“Sorry, Saki. I couldn’t find much due to the poor reception, but I hope Sanga is winning.”
“Yeah! They’ll definitely win. I believe in them,” she responded with a smile, clenching her fist.
Seeing her enthusiasm, I imagined how delighted the players would be to have such supportive fans.
“Well then, shall we head off soon?” I stood from my seat and said.
“Okay.”
We left the establishment. We were so at ease there that we almost ended up spending the entire night there.
Afterward, following Saki’s suggestion, we arrived at Shinkyōgoku.
“I wanted to come here once…”
Was she really a Kyoto native? Everything seemed fresh and new to her. Her clear eyes shined brightly. We entered a store that sold traditional Japanese goods. The vibrant Kyoto-yuzen purses and handkerchiefs were pleasing to the eye.
They seemed to tickle Saki’s girlish heart, and her smile grew wider and wider.
“I want to buy something as a keepsake. Hmm, I can’t decide. Keiichi-kun, can we look around a bit more?”
“Sure.”
We embarked on a shopping spree at the Japanese goods stores in Shinkyōgoku, fulfilling Saki’s request. Lacking local knowledge, we unintentionally wandered away from the shopping district through a parallel street, Teramachi-dori. We found ourselves in a sprawling market adorned with the words Nishiki Ichiba overhead. But it had already closed.
“This isn’t it, right?”
“Yeah. Looks like we got lost.”
As I was about to turn back from the market, where the smell of food wafted, I made eye contact with a guy cleaning up in front of a pickled vegetable shop at the entrance of the arcade. When I lowered my head, he said, “Hey bro, sis, take this,” handing me a skewer of lightly pickled cucumbers.
“Is it okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s no good if it’s left over, anyway,” he replied.
“Wow, I love lightly pickled cucumbers. Thank you very much.” Saki held the skewered cucumbers in her hand and innocently rejoiced.
I made a mental note that she loved lightly pickled cucumbers.
“And how about you, bro?”
“I like them too,” I replied.
“Really?” asked Saki.
“Actually, it’s my first time eating them,” I admitted.
“These are delicious. You should bring them on a date,” he said.
Cucumbers on a date?“Did you think, ‘Why are we eating cucumbers on a date?’”
“Uh-huh.” I laughed, trying to cover up what was in my heart.
Then the guy secretly whispered, “Hey, sis, you’re pretty. Is this your first date? It’s so cute that I couldn’t resist giving these to you, even though I don’t usually do that. The god of cucumbers is with you, so do your best! Bro!”
We shook hands tightly as our eyes met. I strongly felt that Kyoto was not only elegant but also vibrant and interesting.
After eating the cucumbers, we enjoyed visiting shops that seemed to be found only in this town, such as a fan and folding screen specialty store in Teramachi-Sanjō, a handmade soap store, and a small bookstore that Saki found on the way. She bought a paperback book to put into the chirimen -patterned book cover she had purchased earlier.
She happily said, “I’ll read this with the cover on.”
“Hmm? Do I like books?” I asked. I remembered she had said she only read manga.
“Actually, this is the first time I’ve bought a paperback,” Saki said, looking a bit embarrassed.
“I see. What brought about the change of heart?”
“Well, manga doesn’t fit in this book cover, does it?” she replied.
“That’s true.”
Apparently, she was drawn to the silk pattern on the book cover. The paperback book she bought was a romance novel.
“I’m not sure why, but I was attracted to this book,” she said, taking the book out of the plastic bag.
The book’s obi had words of love written on it and a beautiful cover. The cover illustration was a bit similar to Saki’s drawings.
“The cover is beautiful,” I said as I peered into the paperback book in her hand.
“Yeah. The illustration is so beautiful that you want to keep looking at it.” I truly believed it was a magnificent illustration that attracted people.
“Moreover, the words on this obi are also lovely.”
Obi?
At Saki’s words, I looked at the obi.
“To the one and only you in the world.” I read the words on the obi, and she smiled happily.
“Don’t you think these words are meant for one’s destined partner?” She spun the words gently and kindly.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“I hope that someday, I can fall in love with someone I feel this way for.”
“Yeah.”
“To the one and only you in the world.” I could feel my heart slowly warming to those words.
What are the chances of finding someone in this vast world as drawn to you as you are to them, as if it were a miracle? If there’s a book that can make that miracle come true, I would like to read it. I want someone to teach me how to make destiny bring me true love.
“I wonder what kind of book it is. I’m looking forward to it,” Saki murmured as she looked at the paperback affectionately; then, she put it in the plastic bag she had been carrying and looked at me.
“Come to think of it, Keiichi, are you someone who reads books?”
“Yeah. Only the popular ones though.”
“Can you recommended any books?”
“I’d recommend…”
As I told her about the books, we walked the streets of Kyoto. Time passed slowly but surely. Fun times always seem to go by too fast.
As a souvenir, we went into a game center and took some purikura photos together before leaving. The clock tower on the shopping street showed nine o’clock, and the once-bustling street shuttered as the stores closed.
The night in Kyoto’s streets, which should be longer than the night in Arashiyama, had already come to an end. As I felt lonely in the town that had changed its colors, I heard a voice saying, “It’s already this late. I’m going to miss it.” At the same time, I felt a thud on my back.
“Kyaa!”
I looked down and saw a girl I didn’t know who had bumped into me and fallen. She looked around the same age or a little younger.
“Are you okay?” I reached out my hand to her.
She looked up at me, sitting on the ground with a red face, and said, “Thank you.”
While saying that, she took my hand. I put some strength into my arm and helped the girl stand up.
“Um, sorry. Come on, Nana, what are you doing? Let’s go!”
“Yeah. Sorry. Um, excuse me.”
Together with a friend who came later, the two ran off through the shopping street.
“Did you see that person earlier?”
“He was cool,” they talked like that.
That’s right. It’s better for them to go home…
Watching them run away, I felt a gaze from next to me. When I gently shifted my gaze, I found Saki staring at me.