“Was everything cool with him today?”
Mio was just softening up the sand before a long-jump attempt during after-school practice when someone approached from behind. She wanted to be alone and was crouched down with the rake.
Turning, she saw Kanbara in his tracksuit, and relief flooded through her. His tapping the toes of his sneakers against the ground, two touches with one foot and then two touches with the other, and windmilling his arms to stretch was a very mundane and reassuring sight.
“Kanbara-senpai…”
“I’ve been worried since I walked you home.”
Some third-year girls speaking with first-years nearby were briefly distracted by this, Mio could tell. Kanbara was attractive, smart, and athletic, so girls in his grade liked him, too. It was pretty easy to discern that everyone on the team liked him.
Mio shook her head. “I’m fine. Thank you for yesterday.”
“Just tell me if you ever need help. Technically, I am an upperclassman, so maybe that will convince that guy to back down.”
Every word that came from Kanbara’s mouth felt like a sweet temptation. Mio wished she could tell him everything that had happened today, but the other third-years were listening.
“I’m fine,” she repeated.
Mio had tracked down Yanai and confirmed that she hadn’t agreed to trade seats. However, her refusal had been based purely on the rules. “It’s not entirely up to the students to decide their seats,” she’d said. In other words, Yanai hadn’t criticized the abnormality of Shiraishi’s request. Mio felt a bit disappointed by that, although she didn’t have much right to complain.
Nobody was telling him off directly. Mio even asked her friends not to antagonize him because she didn’t want this to get worse.
“You sure? All right, then.” Kanbara still sounded worried. The look on his face inclined Mio to accept his offer, but she held firm.
Practice continued as usual, and in the changing room afterward, Mio heard the third-year girls speaking about something in hushed tones behind her back.
“…said he walked her home…”
She quickly finished changing, feigning ignorance, and announced that she was leaving, as was customary. It was obvious that the older girls wanted to say something, but Mio took off before they could.
“Oh, I’m glad you’re still here, Harano,” said Kanbara, leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway. Mio was gauging whether or not to reply when he pulled out his phone. “Let’s trade LINE accounts.” Kanbara hit the button that called up a scannable QR code for adding friends and held out the screen.
“Okay, sure,” Mio agreed, retrieving her phone. The act of linking messenger accounts had them leaning over their screens. Their faces felt very, very close.
Mio’s heart skipped a beat.
“Drop me a message if anything happens. Later.” Kanbara made to leave, and Mio thanked him loudly. Then he turned back. “That short hair looks good on you, Harano.”
“Huh?”
“And it’s good to hear your voice so clear when you say hi and stuff,” he added casually.
The floor beneath Mio’s feet turned light, and heat rose in her cheeks. Kanbara was walking away again.
“Th-thank you,” she stammered, voice uneven from sheer happiness. Kanbara strolled off, waving a hand but not looking back.
Exchanging LINE accounts? It was like a dream. Mio clutched her phone to her chest.
I’m glad it didn’t happen when the older girls on the team were watching.
Mio took a bus from the high school and got off at the seventh stop.
From there it was a roughly ten-minute walk to her home, a two-story building with a bamboo grove around back. It was her father’s family house, and Mio’s grandparents lived there, too. Her grandfather had passed away, though, leaving five: Grandmother, Mother, Father, Mio, and her younger brother.
A single bus ride to and from school was a big part of Mitsumine Academy’s allure for Mio. However, the actual distance involved was anything but short. Mio was the only kid in her neighborhood attending Mitsumine. She hardly ever ran into fellow students around her place.
Evening was settling in after track practice, and a pale moon rose in the autumn sky. Mio liked this plaintive time of year, when summer was over and fall began. Lots of apartment buildings had popped up in recent years, but plenty of fields still dotted the area, and the gentle, quiet scenery helped ease the day’s emotions. This had been a regular view since Mio’s childhood.
That was what had made walking the route with Kanbara-senpai so thrilling. She’d insisted that he needed only to take her to the bus stop, yet he’d asked, “Why? There’s no point unless I take you home.”
Mio had walked with her crush through the neighborhood where she had been born and raised. He’d strolled right alongside her.
Actually thinking that word—crush—made it clear that her feelings had solidified since the day before. She’d hoped that someone would see her walking with him. The idea of the local women watching and assuming he was her boyfriend filled her with ticklish pride.
Imagining her family seeing them together was still too much, and she had no idea how her father would react. But if her brother Shizuku saw and asked, “Your boyfriend, Sis?” and she said, “Don’t tell anyone,” well… Mio’s imagination was getting the better of her, filling her with a mix of elated excitement and embarrassment.
Saho, Hanaka, and Mio. The usual group.
Saho was always in relationships, and Hanaka claimed that she’d had a boyfriend in middle school. Mio was the only one who’d never been with a guy. She didn’t know how it was supposed to go. Was this how relationships started?