Mia sipped on green tea from her plastic bottle, thinking that starting tomorrow, she would have to stop going to Subaru’s for dinner and subsist on a diet of onigiri and water for a while. Out of all her meager living expenses, the food costs were probably the only item she could cut down on to stay afloat.
Subaru will probably pop a vein when he hears about this, thought Mia as she halfheartedly listened to Kana’s endless monologue.
“…so, you get what I’m saying, right? My hubby, he’s, like, only thinking of me as his baby girl’s mama. You know what he’s calling me these days? ‘Mommy’, can you imagine that?! Mommy! And I’m all like, ‘I ain’t your mommy, dude’! Seriously, we haven’t had sex in ages. Well, I mean, we definitely don’t wanna wake our baby up at night, so that can’t be helped, but not being desired just—”
As Mia was lending the woman a sympathetic ear without interrupting, her soliloquy took a saucy turn, so she rushed to hush her. “H-Hold on just a minute! B-before you go any further, I would like to remind you that we are in a public place!”
“Lame. Ah, but you sure look like you’ve never had a boyfriend. They say that the high schoolers nowadays are precocious, but you aren’t experienced at all, are you?”
“Experienced? In what way do you mean? L-Let’s change the subject for now… Uh… Oh, right! I was wondering what your baby girl’s current age is!” Mia blurted out the first question that popped into her head, trying to distract Kana from the sex topic.
“Baby girl?” Kana cocked her head to the side in puzzlement for a brief moment, and then with her cheeks turning red, she bit out, “…She’s two.”
“Ah, two years old! …Is it common at this age to have the ‘no’ stage? The one you were talking to me about earlier?”
“Uh-huh! No to this, no to that! If I try to change her clothes, she runs away, if I scold her, she turns on the waterworks. And when she does, she wails ‘Papaaaa’ and clings to him like a leech! I’m the one who wants to cry here, you know! But my husband goes all, ‘Don’t be mad at her’!”
Wow, she has a lot pent up inside her, Mia sympathized with Kana. When I get married and have children, will there come a day when I’ll want to complain about life, just like Kana?
And so it went, Kana grumbling profusely with her beer and snacks in hand, and Mia listening to her in the next seat. Eventually, they reached Nasu-Shiobara Station, thus drawing a close to their train ride, most of which consisted of Kana’s monologues. The opportunity to vent did the woman a world of good, apparently, because she now seemed happy as she merrily checked the time on her smartphone with a smile.
“The bus will be here any minute now!”
Mia nodded, flooded with relief. A few moments later, the shuttle bus indeed arrived, letting the two women board and driving off down the road.
“You ever been to Nasu?”
“Mm, there was this one time we came here on a school trip. I don’t remember it that well.” Mia had a vague recollection of going to a ranch in this area; she faintly recalled frolicking with goats and cows.
“I see. So, this will be your first time at the local hot springs. Let’s enjoy it to the fullest then!”
That sounded rich, coming from someone who reserved a room at an inn with someone else’s money without telling them a word about it. Mia laughed, admitting defeat. This woman had a commanding presence about her that she just couldn’t disobey, and Mia did come all the way here—enjoying it as much as she could was indeed the better choice than grieving over all the money she had lost.
Forgetting their roles as the kidnapper and her victim, Mia and Kana relaxed into a lively conversation about Nasu’s attractions, while the bus took them to their ultimate destination. Eventually, it dropped them off at the ryokan of their—Kana’s—choice. It appeared to be a popular place, if a bit on the shabbier side; the price was very reasonable, but it reflected back in the overall look.
“...By the way, I didn’t bring anything with me.”
“Ah, right. I think I saw a convenience store close by. Let’s buy everything we need there. I’ll pay for that much myself.”
Just like Kana had said, there was a lone store standing a short way down the hill. The two girls purchased some underwear and a couple of toiletry sets, and once again set foot in the ryokan’s entrance hall.
The space the hostess led them to and showed them was, just like Mia imagined it would be, a modest Japanese-style room. It did look quite old, but it didn’t seem unsanitary; it was obviously well-maintained and meticulously cleaned. Mia plopped down at the table and immediately stretched her hand out to grab the complimentary candy. Kana, meanwhile, was staring out at the scenery stretching behind the inn’s window. Somehow, her back seemed very lonely.
However, when she turned around, it was with a grin that she proposed, “If we go soak in the hot springs right now, we won’t make it in time for dinner. Let’s eat first and bathe later!”
“Huh? …Ah, sure.” She thought the woman was crying, but that proved to be a false impression. Mia let out a breath of relief at that.
Together they enjoyed some tea and sweets until their dinner was brought, which they ate with relish. Mia wondered briefly just how many future dinners at home the money she paid would’ve covered.