She smiled and pointed ahead. I suspected that if I had walked in the opposite direction, she would have found a destination that way instead.
“There’s a gate if we walk in this direction, too.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Though this is sort of a roundabout way to get back to my room.”
“To what room?”
“To my apartment. It just seemed confusing to call it my ‘house’.”
My eyes went round with surprise at that. “You live alone?”
“Yup. Since my parents’ house is pretty far away.”
Edamoto-san lifted up her co-op shopping bag. I could see a carton of milk through the thin plastic. We had headed home from campus together in the past, but when I thought about it, I realized that Edamoto-san had always parted ways with me before we reached the station.
“Sayaka-senpai, you commute from your parents’ place, right?”
“Yes.” I already had experience commuting to school by train in my junior high years, so I was used to it. Now that I thought about it, I’d never lived away from home. I was too used to a world where my family, cats, and a room with a familiar ceiling to look up at were ever-present. Just as a creature adapted to aquatic life couldn’t come up onto land, leaving that familiar world behind was beyond me.
For some reason, I found myself thinking of a close friend of mine, who had left home quite naturally and started walking her own path.
We walked between the trees and buildings, passing several lecture halls. I’d been here an entire year, but every face we passed was unfamiliar to me. Unlike high school, the relationships that formed in college spanned frameworks and categories. Just like how I was currently walking with an underclassman, a year younger than me, whom I’d met by chance.
It was news to me that Edamoto-san was living away from home. There was still so much I didn’t know about her. I hadn’t even asked her why she’d been crying when I first met her, nor had I seen her cry again since then. I felt some belated curiosity stir within me but got the sense this wasn’t a good time to bring it up.
“Is your apartment close by?” I asked.
“Of course. That’s why I selected it.”
True enough.
“Why don’t you come visit sometime, Sayaka-senpai? We can have tea and, umm…” Edamoto-san glanced at her shopping bag. “…I can offer you some bean sprouts.”
“That’s a pairing I’ve never tried before.” I attempted to picture myself eating bean sprouts between sips of tea, but my imagination wasn’t up to the task. “Someday.”
“Someday, huh,” Edamoto-san snorted out a soundless laugh. “I kind of feel like an adult just made me an empty promise.”
With that, she looked up at me as if she was rather amused.
Since my parents were the type of people who would never give promises they couldn’t make good on, I didn’t know how that felt.
We were just talking about hanging out for a bit at a friend’s house. I was probably taking it too seriously.
I knew that, but I still felt intimidated by the thought. Was it because of my inexperience or just my very nature? Going to visit another girl’s house held no small significance for the person named Saeki Sayaka.
It wasn’t as though I felt those sorts of emotions toward Edamoto-san, of course.
Still, if our relationship deepened… But how deep exactly does a friendship go? And should I really describe it as “deepening,” rather than “building up” a relationship?
After all, going deeper meant that you were sinking.
Once we got to the lecture hall that I had been heading toward, I parted ways with Edamoto-san.
Edamoto-san shifted her weight restlessly and shot me a sly smile.
“Although if you were a bad girl, I would just invite you to hang out right now, Sayaka-senpai.”
“A ‘bad girl’?” Bemused by the expression, I tried taking the opposite approach. “Why, do I look like a good girl?”
“Very much so.”
“You don’t have much of an eye for things, then.”
I meant that sincerely, but Edamoto-san seemed to take it as a joke and kept on smiling.
Right before going through the door, I turned around to find Edamoto-san waving at me wildly from a distance. I wondered what she would have done if I hadn’t turned around—it would have become a very sad affair.
“She’s an odd one…” I muttered, but waved my hand demurely at her.
Edamoto-san seemed satisfied to have gotten a response. She turned away and jogged towards the gate, her shopping bag theatrically bouncing along up and down with her. As I wondered whether she should be more concerned about that, I watched her until I could no longer see the movement of her ponytail.
Once I got into the second-floor lecture room, I took a seat near the center and exhaled.
Though it wasn’t to the point it was actually tiring, spending time with Edamoto-san felt like I was being drawn into leaping and jumping along with her. Her movements were always on the exaggerated side, and she seemed to be not only bursting with energy but full of too many emotions entirely. I had never dealt with a personality like hers before.
“Although, if I had to compare her to someone…”
An old face I’d nearly forgotten resurfaced in my mind as if I’d tugged on a thread.
Relationships were a mess of strange stimuli.
In the interval before the lecture started, I thought for a while about Edamoto-san and the past.
At the very least, it seemed that I wouldn’t forget her name or what she looked like.
>>Sayaka-senpai.<<
>>Are you at school right now?<<
>I am.<
>>Have you had lunch?<<
>>Do you have any plans?<<
>None in particular.<
>>Come eat with me!<<
>>Will you?<<
>Sure.<
>Are you also at school, Edamoto-san?<
>>You can call me Haru.<<
>Where should we meet?<
>Edamoto-san?<
>>Whoa, you’re like a steel wall.<<
>>Right, where to meet…<<
>>At mi casa.<<
>Umm.<
>You mean your place?<
>>Oh, not at the one that’s far away, of course.<<
>>At my apartment.<<
>Well, obviously…<
>>But I thought you said calling it your “house” would be confusing?<<
>>Well, yeah, but…<<
>>I thought that calling it mi casa instead of my apartment<<
>>would be softer and wouldn’t put you on your guard.<<
“Aha ha ha.”
A dry chuckle spilled from my lips as I held my phone. She was honest but also a bit cheeky.
Still, the word guard caught my attention a bit.
What did I need to be on my guard about if I was going for a quick visit to a underclassman’s house?
What is with this girl…? I unintentionally narrowed my eyes.
>What do you mean about being on guard?<
>Are you planning something devious?<
>>I don’t have the brains to plan anything.<<
>>It’s too bad I’m lacking in that regard.<<
>>I wonder what kinds of devious things you’d be capable of, Sayaka-senpai.<<
>Who knows…<
>So, at your apartment, then?<
>>Yep, yep.<<
>I see…<
>>My place is nice and cool.<<
>>Plus drinks are on the house.<<
>>And the food’s probably tasty.<<
>What are we eating?<
>>I haven’t thought of what yet, but…<<
>>I’m planning on making something.<<
>>That’s why it’s probably tasty.<<
>You’re making it yourself?<