The autumn specials were arriving in the sweets section at Tenderness. Azusa had continued her customary dessert expeditions there, solo, on Tuesday evenings.
Since she had parted ways with Mizuki and her group, Azusa had made a few changes, and various things had happened as a result. For starters, she had changed her mind about high school. Initially, the two mothers were eager for each of their daughters to attend the girls’ school where they had become such good friends, and Azusa had acted in accordance with their wishes. But now Azusa told her parents she wanted to try out for a more prestigious preparatory academy. Michiyo was highly opposed. “You need to mend fences with Mizuki as quickly as possible,” she groused, but Azusa’s father supported her ambitious plan. He insisted that parents shouldn’t limit their children’s opportunities in life, so now Azusa was studying frantically to gain admission.
Rather than maintaining a parallel track to Mizuki and the others, it seemed they were drifting further and further apart. Apparently the girls had expected a hasty apology from Azusa, but she simply continued to attend school as usual, unruffled by anything they might say to her. As the days mounted up, Mizuki became more and more irritated, and when she learned that Azusa was applying to a different high school, she confronted her.
“You’re trying to run away from me,” Mizuki said accusingly, but Azusa shook her head.
“I’m just trying to walk my own path, instead of one that someone else chose for me.” Then, for the first time, Mizuki cried openly. Afterward, she began to act as if Azusa wasn’t even there.
She led an isolated life at school, but recently some of the children had begun to speak to her.
“I got embarrassed that I was always watching you from far away, and never saying anything,” one person said, and it made her happy.
Azusa rolled up to the bike rack at Tenderness, dismounted, and headed for the dessert section as usual. When she saw the lineup of sweet-potato desserts, her face lit up. After a brief struggle, she settled on a baked sweet-potato tart and a sweet-potato cream puff, along with her usual milk drink, of course. She was checking out at the register when the store manager, who usually avoided any unnecessary interactions, called out to her.
“Excuse me!” he said. “Thank you for shopping with us so often.”
“Oh, um…Sure.”
“This may seem a little out of the blue, but might I ask you to wait a little bit before eating your pastry?”
His syrupy voice sent a shiver down Azusa’s spine. The boys in her class were always hooting and hollering in the most childish ways, and usually seemed more or less like monkeys to her. Was it possible they would grow up to give off this kind of strange appeal? No, she thought. Definitely not.
“Wait a little? But why?” Azusa wasn’t sure where this was headed. The store manager frowned slightly and made a gesture as if he was searching for the right words. Even such an insignificant motion as that was compelling, performed by him. Azusa watched, thinking absentmindedly, So this is what it means to furrow one’s brow. She had looked it up online but never really understood it.
“Well, that is…do you know the man with the beard? Not Old Red, but the other one, the man with the light green coverall?”
“Oh, you must mean Tsugi. What about him?”
“He left a message that he wanted to have dessert with you. He should be arriving at any minute.”
It was a little out of the ordinary, but Azusa nodded. It was good to eat with someone else once in a while. She paid for her treats and went to the dine-in space. Taking a seat at the counter, she cast her gaze out the window. The leaves in the trees along the roadside were changing their colors to match the season. Old Red passed by on his ever-present red cargo bike, probably on his way to distribute his tourist brochures. Noticing Azusa, he waved, and she waved back at him.
About ten minutes passed, then a mini-truck pulled into the car park. She could see the logo on the back of Tsugi’s coverall: “Whatever Guy.” He caught sight of Azusa and waved at her.
Azusa started to wave back but then gasped in shock. She couldn’t believe her eyes. In a flash, she hopped off the stool and was out the door.
“No! It can’t be!” she shouted as she ran. Tumbling out of the passenger seat of Tsugi’s mini-truck was none other than Nayuta.
“Higaki! It’s been a long time!”
Nayuta was smiling from ear to ear. Azusa pounced on her and wrapped her in a tight embrace.
“But how? Nayuta, what are you doing here? I thought you moved to Nagasaki!”
“I hitched a ride with the Whatever Guy.” Nayuta seemed a little sturdier than when they had parted. She had a healthy glow in her cheeks as she gave Tsugi a grateful look.
“I found him when he was working in Nagasaki and asked him,” she explained. “I felt really awful about what happened the last time I saw you, Higaki. I needed to talk to you. So I asked him to bring me here.”
“It wasn’t easy, you know,” Tsugi said with a wry shrug. “A funny-looking guy like me, running around with a middle school girl? I needed proof of identification, and then of course, I had to keep in regular contact on the job. Which reminds me…”
Tsugi took out a phone and snapped a quick photo of Azusa and Nayuta hugging.
“Arrived safely without incident…” he muttered to himself as he texted. Apparently he was sending the photo to Nayuta’s mother.
“Sorry, Mr. Tsugi. But I really needed to see her.”
“No big deal. It’s my job,” Tsugi responded matter-of-factly. Just looking at the two of them standing there, Azusa felt like crying, but she didn’t know why. This happy face, this voice without a trace of grief—she felt like she was seeing the real Nayuta for the first time.
“Hey, Higaki?” Nayuta smiled at Azusa. “I’ve wanted to thank you all this time. I really looked forward to our Tuesday meetings. When we saw each other and had our treats, it always made me feel like I might somehow find a way to get through it all. And the truth is, I did.”
As Nayuta spoke, her eyes filled with tears.
“You didn’t make me talk about everything, Higaki. You were just there with me. You shared so many sweet things with me. That one gesture was so much help. So that I could see my father off without any regrets. Thank you…” Nayuta trailed off as her tears finally began to overflow. Azusa hugged her once more.
“Thank you, too, Nayuta. Being with you made me stronger. I’ve also been working hard to do my best, without giving up. Ever since then, my very best.”
Still wrapped in her embrace, Nayuta nodded, and before she knew it, Azusa was crying as well, and for a time the two of them just held each other.
Then they arranged themselves at the window counter seats and ate their sweets, just as they used to do. Thanks to Azusa, Nayuta seemed to have developed a real sweet tooth. “Delicious!” she laughed, through a mouthful of sweet-potato tart. Azusa laughed as well, happy to see her carefree smile.
“I haven’t got used to school in Nagasaki yet. When I’m unhappy, or if I get lonely, I always try to go to a Tenderness store. I buy something sweet, and eat it, and it feels like I’m together with you, Higaki. Isn’t that strange?” Nayuta rubbed her face with embarrassment.
Azusa didn’t think it was strange at all.
“Me too!” she replied. “While I was eating I kept thinking about what you would say at a time like this.”
“So we’re the same, right?” the two girls said simultaneously, then laughed. It was good to know that even while they were apart, they had each been thinking of the other.
“Remember when you told me before that you wanted to develop products for Tenderness? I said I thought that was fine, but now I really, really want you to do it,” Nayuta said. “Then if anything bad happens, I can always go to a Tenderness store somewhere, eat the cakes that you made, and I’ll always feel better. As long as there’s Tenderness, there will be somewhere we can meet.”
Azusa took Nayuta’s heartfelt words and tucked them away, deep in her heart, as if they were jewels in a treasure chest. She was sure she’d pull them out time and again in the days to come. She felt it.
“I’ll do it, for sure. I’m going to make sweets, the kind that will give strength to someone who’s struggling.”
“In that case, I want you to focus a little more on Japanese sweets.” A deep voice broke in from the side, and when the two of them spun around, there was Tsugi, laughing.
“I like Japanese sweets,” he continued. “I wish they’d do more of those, like ohagi and dango.”
“Of course!” Azusa exclaimed. “Japanese sweets.”
“Oh!” said Nayuta. “My mother likes Japanese sweets, too.”
“She does? Well, I’ll do my best!”
After that, Azusa and Nayuta enjoyed their cakes together, unable to stop smiling at each other. As long as the Tenderness chain was there, as long as they continued to visit it, they’d always be connected, no matter how far apart they were. This they believed with all their hearts.
“Higaki?” Nayuta said. “Next time, you should come to Nagasaki. You can stay at our house.”
“I’d love to go!” Azusa replied. “I’ll ask Mr. Tsugi to take me.”
“Now, wait just a second. I can’t play substitute parent every time you call!”
Azusa laughed out loud for the first time in a long while.