After that, Akane seemed to have fully swallowed her anger. She explained that she probably wouldn’t keep playing billiards—it was fun, but not her thing. As they idled in peace, each savoring their drink and admiring the cafe interior for as long as time would allow, she suddenly piped up, “Oh!” This was immediately followed by a look of regret. Her gaze was pointed over his shoulder, so he turned to look. A boy was awkwardly shuffling to a table in the corner.
“Guy from your school?” he asked.
Akane nodded reluctantly. “He’s in my class, and we live in the same neighborhood. We’re not very close or anything, but…you could say we grew up together,” she explained with a weary sigh.
“I see…”
No offense to the kid, but it was obvious at a glance that he wasn’t even close to her league. Still, Ai knew it wasn’t his place to comment. Once they were adults, either their relationship would change or they’d never see each other again. That being said, a little teasing couldn’t hurt.
“Talk about bad luck. Poor guy came here to relax, only to run into Ms. Cocky.”
“Oh, please! Everybody in the world is cocky compared to him! He’s so pathetic, I seriously doubt he’ll ever survive in the real world.”
Ai knew there was concern behind her fierce attitude. She was a contrarian with a heart of gold, and in the time it would take for the boy to recognize this about her, their relationship would likely change completely. But of course, this opinion would never spur him to stick his nose into a friend’s business, so he decided not to pay the boy and his smartphone any mind.
More importantly, he was curious: “So where do you usually hang out?”
“What, with him? Nowhere! We do not hang out.”
Her denial was so aggressive, it made him laugh. But he didn’t have any childhood friends of his own, so he couldn’t tell if it was normal. “No, I mean…with your friends, or your boyfriend.”
“Oh… Eh, you know, the usual—we do karaoke, go shopping, hit up a purikura booth… Oh my gosh, we should totally do purikura together! Um, if you want.”
“I don’t mind, but I’m clueless about the latest tech. Last time I went with a friend was years ago.”
“Well, I’m an expert, so just leave it to me. Do you have those pics on you, by the way? I wanna see.”
“Not on my phone. The stickers might be somewhere at my house, or my roommate might’ve thrown ’em away.”
“You don’t like to look back at old memories, huh?”
“Pretty much. I don’t need to hold onto ’em as long as the other person does.”
“Wow, you’re actually really laid-back.”
“Yep. But if somebody tells me to hold onto it, I usually will.”
“Well, you better hold onto ours!”
With this unspoken agreement to go to a photo booth after they finished their drinks, Ai started sipping his a little faster. Then Akane rose from her seat to use the restroom, and that was when it happened.
He only noticed thanks partly to coincidence and partly due to the nature of his job. In the case of the latter, he always kept an eye out for rule-breakers at his workplace, so he recognized the motions and body language. As for the former, he had watched Akane disappear across the room, then offhandedly remembered the boy in the corner and turned to look.
As soon as he caught it, he rose to his feet. Then he walked over to the boy, said his piece, and went back to his seat.
Having acted purely in accordance with his own morals, Ai pulled out his phone and started scrolling on Twitter as if the whole thing had never happened. To celebrate the success of the Girl’s March movie, Impatiens had announced that they would be holding a talk show and mini-concert at a local movie theater. He would have to check his calendar app to see if he could get the day off.
Once Akane got back from the restroom, he went to smoke one quick cigarette in the smoking area. By the time he got back to the table, the boy was gone.