“Maybe I’ll try visiting during summer vacation, though.”
After we crossed, Haru turned around. Unlike me, it seemed she didn’t mind getting tanned, so her skin was thoroughly browned. The way that sunburned face turned to me, and how she walked ahead as if pulling me along, brought back a certain illusory scent from my memories. The smell of chlorine intermingled with simmering summer air.
“I think that would be good. Even if they don’t say it, your parents probably miss you.”
“I wonder if that’s true… But yeah, if you’re saying it, then it must be right.”
Haru seemed convinced. It was troubling that she put so much confidence in me, though.
I might end up pushing myself too far out of a desire to live up to that.
When I walked with Haru in my hometown, even I wound up with the curious feeling that I had come from another land. Haru, my present, was mixing with the neighborhood I had spent my past in… The outlines were blurred, as though I were looking at the scene from underwater.
I’d hoped that we could meet at Miyako-san’s café, but unfortunately she was closed today.
So, instead of going out somewhere, we went to a friend’s house.
“A bookstore?”
“This is where my friend lives.”
Going past the front of the grocery store, I led her to an independent bookstore.
Looking up at its name, Haru wrinkled here nose.
“Uh-oh…I don’t even really read comics, never mind books. I wonder if we’ll be able to even hold a conversation.”
“It’s not like a bookseller only talks about books…”
Actually, I didn’t have many memories of talking to Koito-san about books at all. If anything, we usually discussed the student council during our high school days. When we occasionally met up these days, talking about recent personal news served as sufficient conversation. Especially since I could ask about Touko and all. Hearing from Koito-san about how she was doing always led to fruitful discussions. Today, I had once again come prepared with a topic of
discussion.
I lightly touched her shoulder as reassurance. Haru just tilted her head uncertainly.
It was rather new to me to not go through the bookstore but to go around it to the house in order to visit.
Koito-san came to greet us right away. Her eyes met with Haru next to me, and she said, “Welcome.”
“I’m Edamoto Haru. Nice to meet you.”
Koito-san responded with a smile to Haru’s self-introduction.
Seeing her and the change in her hairstyle, I found myself thinking, She’s really grown up so much.
Our ages only differed by a year, but I thought of her as if I were much older.
“This is the first time I’ve actually come into your house, isn’t it?”
“Is it? Oh, right. I haven’t been to your house before either, Saeki-senpai.”
Koito-san led us to her room. Then she left to get tea, so Haru and I waited together.
As I looked around the room, my eyes paused on the small planetarium projector beside the bed. It looked rather expensive. I wondered whether it was a hobby of Koito-san’s or a gift from Touko.
“That stuffed animal is pretty cute.”
Haru pointed at the top of the shelves. There was a cute leopard stuffed animal there, and next to it was a…what?
“It’s very, erm, round.”
“Round and cute.”
Haru was grinning, but I was wondering what in the world kind of creature this plush was supposed to be.
And yet, the round and squashed creature seemed to be to Haru’s tastes.
“Hmm…”
I touched my own face. I didn’t think it was round and squashed. At least, I hoped not.
For a number of reasons, I decided to pretend I hadn’t seen it.
Touko had likely come to this room before; I wondered what she thought of it.
Perhaps she had actually been so tense that she wound up acting strangely on her first visit.
After Koito-san returned with the tea and sat down, Haru shot me a questioning glance that seemed to ask, Am I allowed to say it? I thought that action was a little cute.
But, right.
“I already told her.”
“Oh.”
Haru scratched her cheek as though it was a letdown. Then, after pausing for a bit, she looked at Koito-san.
“So you already knew, huh?!”
Koito-san’s eyes grew wide, probably in surprise at how loudly Haru spoke. That’s just how she is, I smiled and played it off.
“You’ve very energetic—just as described.”
“That’s a kind way to put it.”
If I were to say it without mincing words, Haru was sometimes quite noisy. But I could tell where her voice was coming from no matter where I was on campus, so it was easy to meet up with her. Haru’s voice was loud, but I also felt that it was easy to understand.
Perhaps that was because she spoke without hesitation. She was always moving forward, just like her words.
Although I might have been biased to think of those traits in such a positive, accepting way.
“I’m Sayaka-senpai’s girlfriend,” Haru said, straightening up for some reason. “Oh, and my name is Edamoto Haru.”
Her self-introduction had come out in the wrong order. Also, she had already told Koito-san her name when we first arrived.
After she finished, Haru looked at me with like a bashful smile on her face.
“Saying it is so embarrassing that it makes my ears feel hot, but it also kind of makes me happy.”
“My…ears feel hot, too.”
I ended up touching them to check. But the itchiness that had come about there was not unpleasant.
Perhaps this was the same feeling of happiness that Haru was describing?
As Haru and I gazed at each other, both of us continued to get fidgety and warm.
“Umm, would it be better if I weren’t here?”
“This is your room.”
“It sure is.”
Koito-san lowered her eyebrows and smiled slyly. Seeing that, Haru greeted her in a fluster, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She pitched forward with momentum and became strangely formal.
“Likewise.”
Even Koito-san had been dragged along into the formalness. Both of them were usually a lot more lighthearted.
Plus, we had already greeted each other earlier.
“So Edamoto-san—”
“You can call me Haru.”
As I listened from the sidelines, I wondered whether she told everyone that.
Koito-san started to respond with something but then paused partway through and turned to me.
“What do you call Haru, Saeki-senpai?”
I was a bit unsure what she was checking for but answered anyway. “Just Haru.”
Though I had only started calling her by that name recently.
“Let’s go with Haru-chan, then.”
I wondered for a bit what that then meant… Had she refrained from calling Haru by the same name I used? I didn’t have the impression that Koito-san added “-chan” to the end of people’s names often, so she likely was doing just that.
I wasn’t opposed to such meticulous thoughts and consideration, though.
“You can call me by my first name, too.”
“So Yuu-chan, right? We’re the same age, aren’t we?”
“I’m a college first-year student.”
As a response, Haru raised her index finger. Koito-san put hers up, too, but more reservedly than Haru had.
After that, we drank the tea she had prepared. Koito-san observed us closely as we did so. When our eyes met, Koito-san put down her cup and asked, “Which one of you was the first to confess?”