That poem perfectly summed up the way I was feeling right now. I had tea, a good book, and Hachijo-kun. I was perfectly happy in this space. Not even the caliph, who had gathered up all the riches in the world, could feel as satisfied as I did in this moment.
“That’s really nice,” he said with a soft smile after he read the poem.
◊◊◊
After our rest at the café, we continued exploring the festival. There were carts full of books lined up on the small road next to Jimbocho Book Center too, and I just had to stop and look. All the books here were so old and yellowed. Not only that, but they were written in Classical Japanese so it was hard to even tell what they were about. And yet I still wondered what kinds of books they were. I felt bad for Hachijo-kun because I was walking at a snail’s pace, but I couldn’t help it—I loved books.
We finally made it out to Sakura-dori and saw a bunch of food stalls set up there.
“How about we have lunch here?”
“Sure.” I nodded. I was pretty hungry, and it was already way past lunchtime. We decided where we would meet each other and then went around buying the things we wanted to eat. Now, what should I get? Maybe I should get curry since we were in Jimbocho, but there were vendors who had come from all over for the festival. There were kebabs, steamed buns, Okinawan soba... Wait, Okinawan soba?! Now that I think about it, I’ve never tried it...
I knew what it was, but I’d never had the chance to eat it before. So maybe this was the perfect opportunity. I went ahead and bought some, and then went to our meeting spot.
“Huh? Why’d you get soba when we’re in Jimbocho?” Hachijo-kun gave me a puzzled look once he returned.
“Why not?”
“Because we’re in Jimbocho. The city of curry! Although they do serve a lot of ramen here lately too...”
“Well...” I just wanted to try it, I thought.
“Sorry, sorry. Let’s go ahead and eat,” he quickly apologized. I supposed I could forgive him.
We sat down on a hedge by the side of the road and ate our food. My impression of eating Okinawan soba for the first time was that it was a bit fatty, but overall pretty good. I gave Hachijo-kun a bite and he said, “Oh, not bad.”
See? It’s nice to eat delicious Okinawan soba in Jimbocho instead of curry for a change, isn’t it?
He gave me a bite of meat from his curry in exchange. Hmm, hmm... Delicious. No wonder they call Jimbocho the city of curry.
◊◊◊
After finishing lunch, we threw away our trash and decided to cross the street to check out the special sales on Suzuran-dori. But when we got there, people were packed like sardines by the book carts. I wasn’t a fan of crowds, so I didn’t last very long.
Ugh...
“Hey!” Hachijo-kun quickly grabbed my hand as I stumbled in the crowd, and pulled me back towards him. “You okay?”
“Y-Yes,” I nodded hastily. We were so close I could hear him breathe. He’s so close to me... And my cheeks feel so hot! But at the same time, I didn’t want to pull away. I just grasped onto his arm tightly, urging him to guide me through the crowd.
I wasn’t sure if he picked up on my unspoken request or not, but he said, “You wanna just take a quick look and get out of here?” and didn’t shake off my grip.
“Sure.” I nodded after a pause, still holding tightly onto his arm.
We stayed close as we held hands, slowly walking against the flow of the crowd. I finally felt confident enough to start looking around. There were lots of vendors selling books, of course, but there were also plenty of food carts out here. I wondered if the greasy smell of chicken frying right next to the books would stick to the pages.
When we went back out onto Yasukuni-dori again, we had seen all that we’d set out to see today.
“What should we do? Go back to Jimbocho Station?” Hachijo-kun asked. We’d already done everything I had planned to do today, but I still wanted to spend more time with him.
I hesitated for a bit, then pointed down the street. “I just wanna keep walking for a while.”
He gave me a confused look. “You want to walk all the way down to Akihabara?”
Yes, I do. I nodded emphatically. After spending the day digging through general fiction and old books, I wanted to check out some brand-new light novels. Then we can spend more time together... I tugged on our joined hands as if to say “Hurry up!” and we began walking. He didn’t seem to mind at all.
“Oh, can we go to the sports goods shop on the way there? There’s some kind of sports festival going on and I want to look at the bike stuff they have,” he said.
“No.” I giggled and shook my head. He had promised to go wherever I wanted to go today.
He shrugged with a sheepish grin. “All right, all right. I got it, Princess.”
I nodded as if to say, “Good.”
All in all, it was a very good day.
◊◊◊
I woke up the next morning feeling happy. Yesterday’s Used Book Festival was so fun...
Hachijo-kun had done a great job escorting me everywhere and letting me do whatever I wanted. Though I still wasn’t great at expressing myself verbally, so it was more accurate to say he guessed what I wanted and then let me do it. I was starting off this week feeling elated.
“Hey, you. You’re Yashiro, right?”
All of a sudden, a girl who looked like she had a really strong personality approached Hachijo-kun. I’d seen her hanging out with Hanamizawa-san a lot in class. She was pretty, but like I said, she came off as really forceful. Her name was Ido-san, I believe? She was one of the popular girls.
Hachijo-kun closed his book and gave her a puzzled look. “Who are you, again?”
“Chikaze Ido. Kanon’s friend.”
I listened in and learned that Ido-san had grown suspicious of Hanamizawa-san and Hachijo-kun talking so much lately. I could definitely understand that feeling—the curiosity one had when they saw someone close to them interacting with someone else they didn’t know too well.
“She’s the one who keeps talking to me.” Hachijo-kun didn’t seem pleased with the implication that he’d started it.
All of a sudden, Ido-san slammed her hand on his desk with a bang. Even I jumped a little from how much it startled me.
“I heard, you know. That you’ve been doing some pretty sketchy things to Kanon.”
“Huh? What do you mean, ‘sketchy things’?”
“L-Like you took a bath together and slept together!”
What?! They did?! Oh, wait... She was just talking about how they went to the spa together. Man, that scared me for a second. Apparently Hanamizawa-san had been very misleading when she told Ido-san about it, which had made her concerned. She was such a pain.
After that, they two of them argued back and forth awhile before Hachijo-kun agreed to show Ido-san how he’d been teaching Hanamizawa-san ways to spend time alone. Um, we’re supposed to go buy library equipment together today, though.
It was looking like once again, Hachijo-kun and I wouldn’t be walking home together today. But he’s my boyfriend. I felt pathetic because I couldn’t assert myself by saying that to them out loud.
◊◊◊
I was getting ready to go home after school when I got a text from Hachijo-kun. He was sitting right in front of me, but apparently he was still following my wish of not talking to me in the classroom.