Just as the evening sky began to bleed from light orange to deep vermilion, I arrived at the bus stop where Anzu had suggested we meet. Usually, it was rare to see even a single senior citizen waiting around for the bus there, but since it was the night of the festival, there was actually a pretty long line of people at the stop, some of whom wore traditional summer yukata and jinbei. Anzu and Koharu weren’t among them, which came as a surprise given that the shuttle was supposed to arrive in five minutes. Concerned, I began scanning the vicinity, when suddenly I felt a clap on my shoulder. I turned around, and there she was: Anzu, in a breezy periwinkle sundress.
“Hey. Been waiting long?” she asked.
“Nah, just got here myself.”
“Cool. No sign of Kawasaki yet?”
“Nope. Guess she might be running late… Oh, wait.”
Just then, I spotted her, coming down the opposite sidewalk in traditional festival garb. As soon as she noticed us, she hurried toward us across the street via the crosswalk, her wooden sandals clacking against the pavement the whole way. She looked pretty cute in her soft-pink yukata, which was embroidered with a goldfish pattern, but her face quickly twisted with disgust the moment she saw me.
“Ugh. What are you doing here, Tono?”
Wait, did Hanashiro really not tell her I was coming?
“I invited him,” Anzu explained. “Figured the more, the merrier.”
“Oh, is that right? Well, if Anzu invited you, I guess it’s fine…”
“Anzu?” I asked.
“She insisted on giving me a stupid nickname now that we’re friends,” Anzu explained, clearly not enthused by this development.
Aha. So they were on a first-name basis, then. Or at least one of them was. I smiled. “Glad to see you two are getting along so well.”
I meant it too. However, Anzu evidently interpreted this as teasing sarcasm, because she smacked me hard on the shoulder. Not long after, the bus arrived, and the three of us climbed aboard. It was already pretty packed, but we luckily managed to find two side-facing seats along the window for Anzu and Koharu (though I had to remain standing). The automatic doors closed, and the engine chugged to life as the bus set off toward its next destination.
“So hey, how do you like my yukata?” Koharu asked Anzu.
“What do you think, Tono-kun?” Anzu asked, passing the ball to me.
Gee, thanks a lot.
“I, uh…th-think it looks pretty good, honestly?” I stammered.
“Then I’m inclined to agree,” Anzu declared.
“…You guys are totally dating, aren’t you?” Koharu glowered at me suspiciously.
Neither Anzu nor I said a word in denial.
The light changed, and the bus driver slammed on the brakes, causing me to lose my balance from the sudden change in momentum. I would have gone careening down the aisle if I hadn’t quickly grabbed one of the overhead straps and regained my footing. Phew, that was a close call.
Even so, Koharu gave me a look and shook her head with a disapproving sigh. “God, what do you even see in this loser, Anzu?”
“Why are you calling him a loser?”
“I mean, no offense, but he’s kind of a scrub. Not much of a personality, no real skills or sense of humor, and it’s not like he’s all that attractive eith—”
“Don’t talk about him like that,” Anzu cut in, her tone cold and sharp like an ice pick.
“Urk… A-all right, fine,” Koharu winced, shifting her attention back to me. “Then what was it about Anzu that first caught your eye, Tono?”
“Wait, huh?!” I spat out, flummoxed.
“Ooh, yeah. I’m pretty curious about that too,” said Anzu.
Now they were both looking up at me expectantly. I was officially cornered.
“I mean, it’s pretty hard to put that sort of thing into words, y’know…? Plus, you’re kinda putting me on the spot here…”
“What, you can’t think of anything?” said Anzu, furrowing her eyebrows dejectedly.
Dammit. Now I really had to pull something out of my ass, or it’d only come back to bite me later. I racked my brain and tried to come up with the safest, least corny answer I could throw together on such short notice. “…Well, if I had to pick one thing, then I guess it would be, uh…”
“C’mon, pal,” Koharu pressed. “We don’t have all day.”
“Her…scent, maybe?”
Koharu’s face twitched as she recoiled into defense mode, clutching her upper arms with both hands as though her stranger-danger senses were ringing alarm bells in her head.
Okay, yeah. Definitely could have chosen a better way of phrasing that.
“Ew, what?! I asked what caught your eye, not your nose, you disgusting creep. Is that your rubric for a girl’s attractiveness? Their smell?! Great, now I feel like I need a shower. Ugh.”
“N-no, no!” I frantically waved my hands back and forth. “You’ve got it all wrong, I swear! I don’t go around sniffing random girls or anything, I promise! Even with Hanashiro, it was just a coincidence.”
“Oh reeeally? How does one ‘coincidentally’ get a big ol’ whiff of someone, wise guy? Just what kinds of fun little activities have the two of you been getting up to lately?”
“Oh, get your head out of the gutter. It’s nothing like that… C’mon, Hanashiro. Throw me a bone here,” I pleaded.
Anzu wasn’t paying attention; she was too busy sniffing her own arms with a pensive, worried look on her face.
“I have a scent?” she muttered to herself.
We hopped off the bus and strolled toward the festival grounds. It was dark at this point, but fortunately for our purposes, there wasn’t a single cloud in the night sky—perfect weather for a fireworks show. The fireworks themselves were going to be set off from the other side of the big river, whereas all of the spectators had to stay and watch from the side where all the food stands and whatnot were lined along the river walk. It was a short trek from the bus stop to the festival grounds, so we could hear the hustle and bustle of the crowd enjoying the festivities even amidst all the loud exhaust noise from cars idling on the roadway. After crossing the street and walking a little ways, I caught a whiff of something cloyingly sweet, like castella sponge cake.
“So did you two have anything specific you wanted to do at the festival?” I asked as we ambled down the sidewalk.
Anzu shook her head.
“Yeah, me neither,” said Koharu. “Though I did want to go fishing for bouncy balls at some point before we leave.”
“Oh, yeah? Cute. I used to love doing that when I was, like, five.”