I wondered how many encounters I had forgotten up until now.
Even when it came to newspapers, my eyes would only actually go to topics I was interested in. That was actually quite useful.
When my fingertips touched the newspaper, they came away smelling of paper. Lately, it was a smell that I encountered less often than usual.
Perhaps I should go buy a book sometime soon.
I folded the newspaper, put it away, and stood up. As I was about to leave, I took a glance at the TV on my way past. At the moment, it was showing a swimmer being interviewed as she waited her turn for a competition. It seemed that she had just come out of the pool; water was dripping from her entire body. Her exposed skin was deeply tanned, as though she had experienced summer ahead of the rest of us.
How had she gotten so burned when she presumably practiced in an indoor pool?
I was about to keep walking without giving it any further thought, until she pulled off her swim cap. Her hair came loose from the cap’s protection, falling just past her ears.
Damp, smooth-looking, silky black hair.
“………”
I stopped.
“I love swimming.”
That was her answer to why she had started swimming. It didn’t seem like a very sophisticated reason.
But perhaps it is important to have such an honest, keen awareness of what you love most.
“And also,” she went on. “In the past, I saw something very pretty in the water. So…um, yeah, I guess you could say I just really like swimming.”
She repeated herself in the latter half with an air of frustration at her own lack of eloquence, which invited a chuckle from the interviewer. Then the short segment ended, and they immediately moved on to the next topic.
I absentmindedly stared at the screen, my half-open eyes barely registering the next piece of footage.
…Hmm.
“………Hmm.”
It was like perusing an old letter you’d long forgotten you received.
“What’s wrong?” Edamoto-san was suddenly standing at my side, looking at the screen with me. “Are you that unhappy about tomorrow’s weather?”
“…What are you talking about?”
I feigned innocence at Edamoto-san’s inquiry, but she pressed on, evidently concerned.
“You just looked kinda serious.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“But you still…all right, fine. Anyway, hello, Sayaka-senpai.”
Taking a step ahead of me, my speedy underclassman peered into my face as she greeted me. I wondered whether I should point out that she was speaking a bit too loudly for the hushed atmosphere of the library.
“Hello.”
“Sayaka-senpai, wanna go to the pool?”
“What for, all of a sudden?”
“Since you were just staring at a pool athlete.”
I wondered how long she had been watching me. Also, the phrase “pool athlete” didn’t sound quite right.
“Edamoto-san, I thought you didn’t read books?” I asked, thinking it was odd for her to show up in the library.
“You can call me Haru.”
“…Edamoto.”
“For some reason, when you say my last name without the ‘san,’ it feels kinda bossy.”
Edamoto-san ducked her head but immediately straightened up again.
“But you said that you read newspapers at the library, so yeah…”
I guess she was listening to what I said at her apartment the other day.
“Sometimes I peek in, and today I just happened to find you. That’s all.”
Edamoto-san concluded and faced forward. Maybe she had actually been checking every day since then, since it seemed like I’d run into her an awful lot lately. Since we hadn’t been in touch about it either, it was difficult to just chalk everything up to chance.
But I purposefully didn’t mention that and walked side by side with her.
I supposed that in theory, whether we met intentionally or by coincidence, it was all the same.
“It is the right weather for going to the pool.”
The moment we took a step out of the library, the sheer heat prompted me to blurt that out immediately.
The cries of the swarming cicadas on the abundant trees of the college were coming from every direction.
The light beamed down on us from a sharp angle.
In the middle of July, the seething summer seemed to hang over us.
“Yeah, true. Then we should go, Sayaka-chan!”
“Don’t call me that, please.” I gently rebuked my underclassman for getting a bit carried away.
Sayaka-chan, she says… I quietly chuckled when she didn’t seem to be looking.
“I obviously don’t have the right equipment to go on the spot, but let’s do it someday.”
I wasn’t like an elementary-school kid who would just have pool stuff on hand.
But still, the pool…
When I was in high school, I went with all the members of the student council, but…my bathing suit…that might work, no, wait… I battled the flow of time in my head.
Then, as I put that aside, the heat and the hesitation both came back to me.
For some reason, we ended up turning left—nothing more than an impulse, but I had no idea where we might be headed.
As we left the library behind and passed by the co-op, I started to feel anxious about our lack of direction.
Lecture…right, I needed to get to my next lecture.
With this belated realization, I looked at Edamoto-san.
“Someday, huh… Oh, right. Would you like to come over to eat again?”
She kept bouncing from one topic to the next. And now, perhaps also noticing that we had no destination, she proposed one on the spot.
“Hmm. But I believe I was just over again two days ago…”
I had already been treated to Edamoto-san’s cooking a grand total of three times. It was delicious and close to the college, and she invited me, and…I kept searching for excuses.
As though I was trying to keep from looking at something.
“Then how about today, too?!”
“Sorry, but I already ate today.”
“Aw, darn.”
Edamoto-san, who had been gaining momentum, almost appeared to shrink with disappointment.
“But someday soon.”
“Ahaha, Sayaka-senpai, you’re so grown-up.”
I tilted my head from the sunlight, and from Edamoto-san’s shamelessly cheerful smile as she said my name.
“Grown-up?”
“Because you keep saying someday.”
Was she unhappy because I kept making such promises? She sounded amused, so it was difficult to tell.
But I wasn’t sure what she meant by “grown-up.”
Since my parents were people who didn’t make half-hearted promises, I didn’t have that kind of impression of adults.
If anything, I thought my habit of prolonging such things could be described as “cagey.”
“There are so many things happening someday that I’m looking forward to them all.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“Maybe a little. But for the most part, I’m serious, so…”
Edamoto-san trailed off, her eyes on the other side of the street. Ahead, on a thin path between buildings, there was a boisterous group of girls walking exactly opposite of us. Edamoto-san’s eyes fixed on one of the girls among them, who was watching her as well. Then Edamoto-san flashed a friendly smile, and the other girl appeared to hunch her shoulders.