I gazed at the ceiling fan overhead, its motor whirring softly as it spun in circles around a single fixed point, around and around and around again. I made my decision.
“We’ll postpone it for now. It’ll give us both time to think harder about what we really want.”
“…Yeah, okay.”
Paying no mind to how utterly heartbroken this seemed to leave Anzu, I lifted my coffee cup and poured its lukewarm contents down my throat.
Even after we’d settled up with the owner and stepped out of the café, Anzu looked pretty despondent: her shoulders sagged, and her eyes were fixed diagonally on the ground. The whole way home, neither of us really said a word, and the few times I did try to strike up a conversation, she only gave one- or two-word answers. Eventually, I gave up entirely, figuring it would do more harm than good to attempt to forcibly cheer her up. So we walked in silence the rest of the way to the bus stop in front of the school. Originally, I planned to say goodbye to Anzu and head to the train station right away, but I didn’t feel right leaving her in this emotionally disheveled state, so I decided to hang back and wait with her until her bus arrived.
“…I’m really sorry,” she said abruptly, breaking the silence.
“Nah, it’s cool. Not like either of us did anything wrong here.”
“But…you’ve been waiting so long to see your sister again, and now because of me…”
Anzu sniffled. She seemed to feel much worse about this than I’d realized. Scratching my head restlessly, I tried to summon the most reassuring voice I could muster.
“Aw, c’mon. Cheer up, buttercup. I hate to see a pretty girl cry.”
“Stop, I’m being serious here…”
“So was I.”
I placed my hands on Anzu’s shoulders, and she jerked back a bit. She had such a delicate frame; I could feel the exact shape of her clavicles through her skin. I squeezed her shoulders gently, and a tremor ran through her. I didn’t let go and instead brought my face closer—close enough to see myself reflected in her teary eyes, between each beat of her long lashes.
“Wh-what?” she asked.
“…You really are pretty, though. You know that?”
“Huh…?”
“I mean, you’ve got big, beautiful eyes, perfect skin, a cute little nose… That’s about as perfect as a face can get. You could be a model if you really wanted to. Hell, you’re prettier than half those magazine girls already.”
Anzu’s face went crimson, to the point that I almost expected steam to pour out of her ears. Standing this close to her, I could see each and every little shift in her expression oh-so-perfectly.
“C-cut it out, Tono-kun… What’s gotten into you all of a sudden…?”
Anzu tried to cover her face, but I took her wrists and pulled them away, holding them high over her head in a forced “I surrender” pose. Then I went on, in a voice loud enough for every teacher and student on campus to hear:
“Face it, Hanashiro! You’re a total babe! You’re both drop-dead gorgeous and irresistibly adorable! You’ve gotta be the cutest girl in the whole wide world!”
This time, I thought I really did see steam coming out her ears.
“W-would you knock it off?!” Anzu hissed, wresting her hands free so that she could use them to cover my mouth. “Wh-what the hell is wrong with you?! Have you gone completely insane?!”
“Ha ha ha… Sorry, sorry. Just thought it might be a quick and easy way to cheer you up.”
“You are literally unbelievable…” Anzu left out a sharp, huffing sigh of disdain. A moment later, just as I’d hoped, I heard a little “pfft”—and then the levee broke, and she burst out laughing. “Pfft ha ha! Ah ha ha ha! Oh God, my sides! How can you be so dumb?! I’m dying! Aha ha ha ha ha!”
Seeing her cackle uncontrollably made me start to feel pretty silly too, and before long, I busted up laughing right along with her, impervious to the judgmental glances we received from the occasional passersby. The laughter came like a raging fire from deep within; each time I thought we were finished, the coals reignited and flared all over again. Before long, it felt like we’d forgotten what the joke was in the first place and were laughing at the fact we’d been laughing for so long. Finally, when my cheeks were soft and sore, the giddiness mercifully abated. We were both drenched in sweat and wholly out of breath.
“Holy crap, I’m exhausted,” I said, still panting. “Sheesh, Hanashiro. Why’d you have to go and make me laugh for so long?”
“Me? You’re the one who started it… God, my abs hurt after that.” Anzu still snickered a little as she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. It was only a simple gesture, yet on her, for reasons beyond me, I found it oddly alluring, even seductive.
“Man, you’ve got a really attractive laugh, though,” I said. “Anyone ever told you that?”
“Oh, no you don’t! I’m not letting you get me riled up again… Get outta here, you!” Anzu turned away in a cutesy huff. I found myself thinking that it was like a scene straight out of a teen romance manga, and I savored the unique thrill of awkward, adolescent flirtation.
Then, as if right on cue, Anzu’s ride rolled up to the bus stop, and the automatic doors opened. She shot me a playful smirk and hopped aboard.
“All right. I guess we’ll be in touch.”
“Yep. See ya later.”
With a loud whoosh of compressed air, the automatic doors closed, and the bus pulled away from the sidewalk. I stood there and watched it go until it was completely out of sight. Behind the obnoxious cacophony of cicadas, I heard muffled wind instruments begin to play out of tune. It seemed that wind ensemble practice had begun. If I listened closer, I detected the sound of one of the sports teams shouting the names of different stretches as they wound down for the day. To be sure, it was about the time when club activities normally wrapped up. If I stayed much longer, I’d see a fair number of students walking out the main gate.
“…Guess I’d better get going.”
I set off down the sidewalk toward the train station. When I looked above me, the sky overhead was so unbelievably blue, it almost didn’t look real.
I felt so alive.