Wait, I’ve got it. This wasn’t necessarily a contradiction; I could’ve explained it to her over the phone. My cell phone’s call history did have a record of me calling her that night, if I remembered correctly. I covertly pulled out my phone just to double-check, and sure enough, there was her name: two calls, back-to-back, shortly after 9 p.m. on April 1st. That was one feasible way I could have explained the Rollback phenomenon to her, for sure. But was it the way?
I tapped on the two calls for more information, thinking perhaps I could discern something from the respective lengths of each call. As it turned out, one of the two calls hadn’t gone through at all, while the other one only lasted three seconds. This pretty much nipped the phone theory in the bud. There was simply no way I could have explained all the intricacies of the Rollback phenomenon to her in a mere three seconds, and there was no evidence of me texting her either.
In other words, we were essentially back to square one. I really had to have explained things to her in person. Sure, it was theoretically possible that I’d used my grandmother’s landline, or gotten someone else to convey the message to her, but those possibilities seemed so minuscule that I felt it was safe to rule them out. Besides, the fastest way to get confirmation was to simply ask the girl herself. I put my phone back in my pocket and took a deep breath.
“Two nights ago… That would’ve been April 1st, right?” I confirmed. “Did I explain it to you in person, or just over the phone?”
“No, no. It was in person,” she answered without a second’s hesitation.
I began to feel a little bit dizzy. There was no doubt about it now—she had unequivocally stated that she and I met up on the night of the 1st, directly contradicting what she told me before.
“…Okay, thanks,” I said, practically choking the words out as my vision began to blur. Why would Akari lie to me about something like that…? Or rather, why would future Akari feel the need to lie about this one thing in particular? I had no idea, not the slightest inkling. What did she have to gain or lose? What was she hiding from me?
“Whoa!”
My manic thoughts were cut short by a sharp pain in my rear end. I’d accidentally gotten my foot caught in a sewer grate, it seemed, and had fallen backwards onto my ass as a result. It was so dark outside, I didn’t even notice it. Man, I’m such a klutz. Guess that’s one way to take the edge off of a disturbing revelation, though.
“A-are you all right, Kanae-kun?” Akari asked. “Do you need help standing up?”
“Nah, I got it, thanks,” I assured her with a smile as I pushed myself back up to my feet. There was still a stinging pain in my backside, but I had a feeling that would go away pretty quickly. At least I hadn’t broken anything. I wiped the dirt from my pants and was about to start walking again when Akari stopped me.
“Hang on,” she said. “You’ve still got some gunk on you.”
She squatted down beside me and started patting the dust off my pants—as if she were my mom or something. Feeling awkward, I told her not to worry about it and tried to step away, but she grabbed my pants by the hem and told me to hold still. There was no escape now that she’d seen me fall over, so now I had to live with the repercussions… I was so embarrassed, I could feel the sweat making my undershirt cling to my back.
“Okay, that ought to do it,” Akari said, bouncing back up to her feet with a smile.
“Th-thanks,” I said, then hurriedly shuffled off once more toward the abandoned part of town. The closer we got, the more I could feel my nails digging deeper into my palms. Damn it, man. I didn’t want to have to suspect Akari of being a liar.
Breaking into the high school yesterday had been a fairly atmospheric experience in its own right, but walking through these abandoned streets at night blew it completely out of the water. Though there were plenty of streetlights lining the sidewalks, they were all unlit, meaning the entire area was draped beneath a veil of absolute darkness. There were no sounds either, aside from the occasional mewling of a stray cat off in the distance or the pitter-pattering of a small animal’s footsteps scurrying away as we drew near. This almost suffocating silence only served to amplify the bone-chilling atmosphere.
We pressed on nevertheless, using the flashlight function on my cell phone as our only beacon through the darkness. I had to admit, I was scared out of my mind. Akari seemed to be in the same boat this time around. She’d handled our midnight venture into the school like a champ, but right now, she was clinging to my sleeve like her life depended on it.
“K-Kanae-kun? Are you sure this is the right way?” she asked.
“Pretty sure…” I replied, though it was so dark I couldn’t be a hundred percent certain. If it was, we should have been nearing our destination any minute now…and sure enough, the exit to the narrow alleyway soon came into view. That has to be it, I thought, picking up the pace until we broke through out into the clearing. Bingo. Before us lay the abandoned park, its plentiful cherry blossoms blooming in splendor despite the complete and utter lack of light. The gentle breeze plucked petals from their branches and sent them flying through the beam of my cell phone camera light, illuminating each one to twinkle fleetingly against the night sky.
“Whoa…” Akari marveled softly in wonder. Her grip on my arm loosened as she walked toward the majestic tree in the center of the park, almost as if in a trance. The sheer beauty of it all had apparently overwritten her fear. “This is incredible, Kanae-kun… To think this was here all along, right in our own backyard…”
“I know, right? I only discovered it a few days ago myself, but I still can’t believe it.”
Leaving the flashlight on, I propped my cell phone up against the jungle gym. This way it lit up the entire tree while also brightening up the surrounding area enough to see by.
“See, what did I tell ya? Nobody’s gonna interrupt our picnic here,” I joked.
“Yeah… You weren’t kidding…” Akari replied absentmindedly. She was still gazing up at the tree, spellbound by its glory. I decided to give her a moment to take it all in.
Circling around to the other side of the tree, I peeked inside the small wooden shrine and saw that the large, cracked rock was still sitting right where I’d left it. I caught myself wondering if perhaps something would change if I were to touch it again, and even began to reach out my hand, but then stopped myself, realizing that there was a good chance it would only make an already difficult situation even worse. If I knew we’d be coming here, I might have brought a small offering to lay at the foot of the shrine, I thought to myself as I walked back over to where Akari was standing. But then I saw her, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
She was holding her right hand out at about eye level, letting the petals fall right into her palm. Then, once she’d caught a few, she lowered her hand down a bit, pursed her lips, and blew them away with a single soft breath. As they fluttered down to the ground, her lips curled into a gentle but ever-so-slightly mischievous smile. It was an oddly captivating sight, both serene and adorable at the same time, and I found it so alluring that I decided to keep my distance for a while longer so as not to ruin the moment. I stood there, watching Akari from afar, until eventually she noticed me.
“…Kanae-kun? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“O-oh, sorry,” I said, snapping out of it. “I was just enjoying—”
Once again, I stopped myself short before admitting the truth.
“Just enjoying what?” she inquired, tilting her head curiously.
Man, talk about déjà vu. We had almost this exact exchange a couple of days ago. The last time, I pulled a lame excuse out of my ass and told her something about going through old photo albums with my grandmother—and I remembered Akari seemed strangely disappointed with that answer. Should I try to come up with another excuse to hide what I truly felt again? …No. This time, I would try to be brave and own up to what I really wanted to say. It was the least I could do to repay her for the unwavering affection she’d shown me up on the rooftop last night.
“I was just…enjoying the beautiful view,” I said, my tone unapologetic and clear.
It seemed I’d still chosen my words too ambiguously.
“I know, right?!” Akari gushed, her eyes aglow. “This tree is gorgeous, isn’t it?! Yeah, it definitely takes a minute to soak it all in.”
My shoulders slumped as I realized she thought I was talking specifically about the tree itself, not her. I couldn’t back down now, though, or else I’d be a real coward. I mustered up my courage and took a single step forward.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” I said.
“Huh?” she blinked.
“I wasn’t looking at the tree, Akari.”
Yet even after tacking on this dead giveaway of a hint, Akari still seemed confused at first. It took her a moment or two to catch my meaning. When the gears finally did start to turn, her face grew redder and redder by the second. She slouched over a little, fiddling with her bangs as she looked off to the side.
“Oh… W-well, uh… Th-thanks, I guess?”
“S-sure thing.”