Chapter 4:
Her Dream, His Reality
THE REMAINING DAYS before summer vacation came and went in the blink of an eye. Once the end-of-semester assembly was over, we returned to the classroom to pick up our report cards, then were free to go by lunchtime. About half of my classmates quickly filed out of the classroom to go home or to their respective club meetings. The other half remained, comparing report cards as they made plans and gushed excitedly about all the fun things they were going to do over summer vacation. Beach. Barbecue. Fireworks. All the usual suspects.
As for me, however, I sort of just sat there in a wistful daze for a while, watching the action play out from the sidelines. When I considered that this could very well be the last time I sat in Classroom 2-A, I got surprisingly emotional, and I couldn’t bring myself to rise up from my desk.
As I scanned the room, my eyes happened to land on Koharu’s old friend group. The Haneda girl had taken over as leader of the pack, and they all seemed to be chatting it up as blithely as ever.
Meanwhile, Koharu, who used to be right there in the center of them all, was far off in a different corner of the room, meekly packing her things so she could go home. Yet to my surprise, instead of heading straight for the classroom door, she walked over to speak with Anzu, who was also getting ready to leave. They then pulled out their cell phones and had a brief exchange before smiling pleasantly at one another and filing out of the classroom. I could only assume they’d traded contact info.
Seeing their departure as my own cue to leave, I finally scooted my chair back to stand up, but I didn’t get that far before Shohei called out to me from behind.
“Hey, Kaoru. You got plans this afternoon?”
“Nope, not really. Why, what’s up?”
“Me and some of the guys from calligraphy club were gonna go grab a bite to eat. You wanna come with?”
Just as I was about to politely turn him down, I stopped myself. There was a very good chance that this would be the last time I ever saw Shohei as well. In that sense, maybe it would be a good idea to take him up on this offer and hang out with him one last time, just in case… Then I thought about it some more and realized that it wasn’t a good idea anyway. I wasn’t a part of the calligraphy club, so an outsider tagging along would just make everyone else feel less comfortable letting loose.
“Sorry, man. Think I’ll have to pass.”
“Wow, you actually waited five seconds before answering this time. You were seriously considering it, weren’t you?” Shohei teased. Damn, he was sharp. “C’mon, dude. No need to be shy. The other guys won’t bite, I promise. They’re pretty chill.”
“Nah, I really shouldn’t. I’m broke as a joke right now.”
“Well, I don’t mind buying for ya on account of you being the newcomer to the party!”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t feel right about that. Don’t worry about me. You guys go have fun. I’ll see you around, man,” I said, putting an end to the conversation as I stood up to walk away.
“C’mon, dude. Don’t be like that,” said Shohei, grabbing me by the arm. I could almost feel a question mark pop up over my head. He was being surprisingly persistent today. “You’re way too young to be such a grumpy old hermit. These are the best years of your life, bro. You’ve gotta go out and enjoy ’em while you still can.”
“There’s no guarantee I’d enjoy myself.”
“Well, sometimes just putting yourself out there is important too.”
“What is this, the elementary school marathon? I’m not looking for a goddamn participation trophy, man,” I snapped. Then, realizing I was getting worked up for no reason, I cleared my throat and tried to calm down a bit. “Look, I appreciate the free counseling session, but I really don’t need the advice. I’m not looking to reinvent myself, man. I’m just trying to maintain the status quo.”
“Oh yeah? Then how come you’ve been missing class so much lately?”
Now that gave me pause. I hated making people worry about me, and Shohei had never been so obviously concerned. I felt truly bad having to dissemble and shrug off his good intentions, but I couldn’t tell him the truth. The Urashima Tunnel was a secret between me and Anzu, not to be shared with anyone else. Telling Shohei would mean betraying that mutual trust, so I chose to swallow my discomfort and keep quiet.
“If you don’t wanna tell me, that’s fine. I will say this, at least,” Shohei began, leaning in close as though he was about to grab me by the collar. “Unless you wanna waste your whole life away, you’ve really gotta learn to step outside your comfort zone, dude. Stop obsessing over what you have to lose and start thinking about what you have to gain. Just my two cents.”
“…I’m not obsessed,” I said, gently pushing him away. “Besides, nothing’s ever lost forever. There’s always a way to get it back.”
Shohei looked utterly perplexed by this response, like he couldn’t begin to comprehend the words coming out of my mouth. I decided to take my leave before he had a chance to ask me what I meant.
“Well, see you in September,” I said on my way out.
Shohei let out a sigh of resignation. “…Yeah. Don’t flake on me next semester, dude.”
It was the first day of summer vacation, and I was waiting for Anzu outside the Urashima Tunnel once again. It was another scorcher of a day—hot enough to make someone go insane—but thankfully this time she strolled up at 1 p.m. on the dot, just like we agreed.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said as she descended the stairs, and I waved to greet her. She was wearing long sleeves and pants despite the searing heat, and had a wide-brimmed sun hat on for good measure. Though in all fairness, she was certainly well dressed for the occasion, considering our objective today was not to explore the tunnel itself but the mountainous woodlands all around it. The idea was that every tunnel had both an entrance and an exit, so unless the “Urashima Tunnel” moniker was a massive troll, we should hypothetically be able to find where it bottomed out somewhere on the other side of the imposing hill it ran beneath. That was our main goal for the day.
“You really think we’ll find it, though?” I wondered aloud. “I mean, it’s gonna be pretty tough to scour this entire mountainside.”
“If we can’t find it, we’ll dig a new tunnel straight into it from the side. Boom. Free shortcut.”
“…Wait, huh?”
“I’m kidding.”