After that, I pretended as though nothing had happened as I participated in student council work. But just as we were going home…
“You said you had three cats at your house, right, Sayaka?”
Touko raised three fingers. That was one extra cat that I didn’t know I had.
“It’s two.”
“Oh, right. Are they cute?”
“Of course. We’ve had them since I was in elementary school, too.”
Though they seemed to have grown more attached to me over the years, they would still run if I tried to seek them out. But that fickleness was another part of what made them so wonderful.
“I wish I had cats.”
I didn’t know what had happened that day, but it seemed Touko had a craving for cat contact. In that case … My mouth started to open, but I couldn’t say it and stopped.
Still unable to say it, I reached the gate and we parted like usual.
As I walked home alongside my elongated shadow, my regret followed me, clinging to my back. If only I had asked Touko if she wanted to come see my cats, we might have gotten slightly closer.
But that regret didn’t last long. That night, while I was sending messages back and forth with Touko, the tortoiseshell cat came into the room. It must have been in a good mood, since it walked around and around my chair and then nestled up to my legs. As I pet it, I impulsively decided to take a picture and send it to Touko. It took a moment for her to reply.
“Can I come by and pet it?”
“Huh…? To my house?” I replied.
“Where else would I see it?”
Right. It wasn’t as though I could scoop up two cats and meet her outside. But Touko coming to my house… All kinds of fears and hopes crashed up against me like a wall.
“All right.”
My answer was firm as a rock. Then, I realized a little late that we weren’t on a call, so it wasn’t as though she could actually hear me. I suppose I have to admit that I was nervous. I texted her back the same words.
“Then how about tomorrow?”
“That’s so soon.”
Of course, she still couldn’t hear my voice.
The following day, I waited for Touko in front of the train station. I no longer had a reason to ride a train, so I hadn’t gone to the station since junior high. I couldn’t help worrying about whether I would run into a certain person, although it seemed unlikely since this was a weekend. In the end, Touko was the one to appear first, so my anxiety had been needless.
When Touko saw the front of my house after I led the way there, she murmured, “Ooh, aah.” Was she that impressed? It seemed she was—by the gate, the wall, and also the garden.
“Is it really that unusual?”
“It is. Oh, but you were right—the garden really does look just like the area around the student council room. It’s amazing that it’s here in a normal house.”
When Touko stared up in wonder at the tops of the trees, I let out a chuckle. As we stood there, my grandmother emerged from the house and passed by us. She looked at Touko beside me.
“One of your friends?”
“Yes.”
“Hello. I’m Nanami Touko.”
When Touko greeted her, my grandmother looked at Touko with narrowed eyes and then gave a slight nod. “You be good to my granddaughter, now,” she said in lieu of a greeting and went through the gate.
Watching her leave, Touko asked me, “That was your grandmother, right?”
“Yes, on my father’s side.”
“She’s really dignified.”
“She certainly is. Though her posture used to be even more proper than it is now.”
My grandmother, whose back had always been beautifully straight, had inevitably been transformed by time. There was nothing good or bad about such changes—it was just the way things were.
Even when we went into the house, Touko didn’t stop ooh-ing and aah-ing. She was even impressed by the walls and the hallway. When I lead her to my room, she exclaimed, “Ooh, aah, ooh,” with an extra ooh for good measure.
“Which would you prefer first? The tea or the cats?”
“The cats, please.” Touko’s reply was immediate.
“Got it.” I left Touko in my room and went into the hallway. There wasn’t anything in my room that would be cause for concern if Touko found it…was there? I felt a little anxious.
I went around to anywhere I thought the cats might be while my grandmother wasn’t at home and eventually found the piebald. This one ought to do, I thought, picking it up. The piebald cat must have still been half-asleep, since its reactions were slow.
When I reentered the room with the cat in my arms, Touko turned away from looking over the bookshelf and brightened.
The bookshelf . A chill went down my back. She had probably seen the books in the corner that I didn’t actually care for. I didn’t think she could guess at anything just by seeing them, but I wasn’t sure. This was Touko, after all. And I didn’t want Touko to know about Senpai.
“Hello!” Touko gave the cat in my arms an excited greeting. The cat opened its sleepy eyes and then froze, shrinking away. When I opened my arms, it immediately hopped down and fled to a corner of the room. As I watched Touko going around and around in the middle of the room chasing after it, I couldn’t help snorting out a laugh.
Each time Touko steadily approached the cat, it gradually retreated, keeping a fixed distance between them. The piebald cat was cautious of Touko, since it had never seen her before, and didn’t make any move to approach her. Its center of gravity shifted towards its back legs, so that it could run at any moment if it was cornered.
“You have boys lining up to confess to you, but cats just can’t get away fast enough from you.”
“I wonder if my face is shunned in the cat world.” Touko joked along with me, smiling wryly. She stooped to be at eye level with the cat and show it she was friendly. As I watched her beckoning hopefully at the cat, I lost myself in my thoughts.
“………”
There was much to think about. But at that moment, as she played with the cat, Touko was beautiful. It was as though my dreams and reality had aligned—Touko was Touko. The Touko that I saw here, right in front of my eyes, was everything. Even if it was a facade, even if she was actually a coward, both sides of her were still Nanami Touko.
There was nothing fake about her. This Touko was still the one who stole my heart away. So, in this moment, I was sure that I loved her.
Touko looked up at me to lament that the cat had run away from her, paused, and then laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s just that your face looked so relaxed for once, Sayaka.”