Her eyes shone and at the same time wavered as if nervous about this concept. Her expressions were so nuanced.
“You’re not trying to trick me, are you?”
“And what if I were?”
For example, what if someone only yearned for love and didn’t care who it was with?
“Hmm…” Edamoto-san’s eyes wandered as she showed she was considering it.
Then, she pulled her hand away from my hair and smiled as a line of sweat glittered on her skin. Her smile was jovial and determined.
“If you keep tricking me forever, then I might not mind.”
Though she hadn’t said much, I felt interested in Edamoto-san’s flexible attitude.
If I were to continue to trick her, I would need to be by her side for the whole time. I see, I thought.
I liked when things had a reason. Even if it was one as tenuous as a connection.
“Like I said before, what I can see is everything to me.”
And it wasn’t as though tricking someone was always necessarily a bad thing.
Trying to show others a better version of yourself might even be a way of tricking each other with the other person’s feelings in mind.
I wasn’t so sure that Edamoto-san had thought it through that far, though.
“Did you sleep well yesterday?”
“I don’t remember much of what happened after you left, Sayaka-senpai, so yeah, probably.”
“Are you sure that’s really…”
I was one to talk considering the day I had gotten drunk, so I let the end of the sentence fade off.
“You look a little pale, though.”
“Yes, well, I couldn’t sleep much. I think I caught whatever you had, Edamoto-san.”
The cicadas’ cries reverberated in my sleep-deprived head without mercy. It felt like they were making my heavy head wobble, and I felt like I would end up groaning if I went off my guard. I wanted to avoid doing that in front of my underclassman.
“You can call me Haru.”
“You’re right.” When she inserted our usual exchange into the conversation, I agreed with her this time. “I suppose I’ll call you Haru from now on.”
I remembered that I had practiced with classmates in order to call Touko by her first name.
Compared to back then, this name came to my lips with ease.
But I still felt resistant somehow to calling Koito-san “Yuu.” I wondered what was so different, even though they were both underclassman.
Maybe there were just names that were easier to say.
As I contemplated all this, I noticed Edamoto-san’s astonishment.
“Whoa…”
Edamoto-san, or rather, Haru staggered as she backed away. She was always very busy with all this bouncing back and forth.
“What is it?”
“Well, I thought this was kind of a running gag, I guess, so I never thought the day you would actually call me that would come, and now here it is.”
As she talked, she came straight back to my side. She reminded me of how the toy balloons on rubber bands from temple festivals bounced back to one’s hand.
“Ummm… You can call me Edamoto-san, too…?”
“You’re quite confused, aren’t you?”
Haru. It was easy to say, and the word felt good to the tongue. Perhaps it was because it was a familiar word I already said in daily life—haru, like the word for spring.
“Haru is a good name.”
“It’s summer right now, though!” Haru’s face twisted into a smile and then she immediately covered it with her hands. “Sorry, that was a really bad joke.”
“It really was…”
I thought it would be hard to come up with anything worse. It was almost impressive that she’d peaked so easily.
“Um, well, right. Okay.”
“If you’re not sure what to say, then don’t say anything.”
Haru shook her head side to side reluctantly. Then, she hopped around again.
Putting aside her awful jokes, her actions were quite entertaining.
Watching Haru, who moved constantly even when expressing remorse, left little room for boredom.
“…I see.”
I realized the identity of the ambiguous premonition I’d had.
A cute girl who was funny, never boring, and who loved me very dearly.
Looking at it objectively, there were very few reasons why I wouldn’t fall in love with her.
>>Sayaka-senpai, do you have a favorite color?<<
>Why are you asking that out of the blue?<
>It’s actually a pretty difficult question to answer.<
>>Well, I was thinking…<<
>>…that it would be nice to pick that color when I buy clothes and stuff.<<
>Wouldn’t it be better if you just bought a color you like?<
>>Wouldn’t it be even better<<
>>…if you like them too, though?<<
>I suppose, maybe.<
>But I still think that it would be best if you choose based on your own likes.<
>Because I want to fall in love with you as you are.<
>…Haru?<
>>Ohh…<<
>What?<
>>That just felt like a ball hitting me smack dab in the face.<<
>What is that like?<
>And to at least give you an answer, I like green.<
>>Green, huh.<<
>>Spring is a pretty green, don’t you think?<<
>Hmm, not yellow?<
>Or cherry-blossom pink.<
>>Oh, I like that pink.<<
>>We got it.<<
>Did we?<
>>Then do you have a favorite food?<<
>>I think I asked you before, but I feel like if I ask you now…<<
>>…you’ll actually answer me this time.<<
>A favorite food…<
>Hmm…<
>Soba noodles.<
>>Soba?<<
>>So it’s soba…<<
>>Would you mind if the noodles weren’t handmade?<<
>Make sure to practice. That was a joke.<
>>Well, if you come by today, I’ll treat you to soba.<<
>I’m looking forward to it.<
>Also, to pay you back…<
>…I’ll treat you to something tomorrow.<
>Hey, Yuu. I know we made plans for tomorrow…but can I bring someone along?<
>>Sure, Saeki-senpai. Who is it? Touko-senpai? Oh, I guess it wouldn’t be her…<<
>How would that possibly make sense?<
>>I dunno…but when I’m staring off into space alone sometimes, I half-expect you and Touko-senpai to come by together.<<
>Right… I suppose that makes sense.<
>>Oh, is this a college friend? The one you talked about before?<<
>…Kind of, yes. I’m not sure how to put this. She’s not exactly a friend anymore.<
>>She’s not a friend? Did you get in a fight? Wait, I guess you wouldn’t bring someone you fought with…<<
>I guess it does still sort of feel like a friendship, too…<
>>I don’t really get it.<<
>Um, to put it simply…I want to introduce you to my girlfriend.<
>>Ohh, I see.<<
>>Okay…<<
>>Wait, what?<<
“So this is your turf, Sayaka-senpai?”
“You make it sound like I rule over it or something…”
The area around the college was filled with an extensive number of things, but Haru was delightedly looking around at the—though I hate to say it—simple streets. Even though there was nothing terribly interesting about it, she was excited as if she were on a trip. According to her own words, it had been a while since she had even ridden on a train.
“You haven’t gone back to your parents’ house?”
“Not since coming to college. I talk to them over the phone, but it’s a pain when the house is so far away.”
Haru bounced up and down as she tried to traverse the crosswalk by stepping exclusively on the white lines. Was she a little kid? On top of that, when I widened my stride a bit to try and keep up with her usual quick pace, I ended up also stepping only on the white lines myself. Now I felt like I had regressed back to elementary school right along with her.