“It feels so freeing to walk home after finals are over, doesn’t it?” Ai said.
School had ended, and the two of us were making our way down the street side by side.
I had intended to go to the club room and read, but over the past few days, I’d been so distracted by my studies that I’d completely forgotten to put any novels in my backpack.
Kaoru had already left. She’d been in a good mood, saying she was going to eat at a restaurant with her mother. So, in the end, I decided to just head home. Ai, who had apparently been up all night cramming, had also decided to go home early, so we ended up leaving together.
“So how did your tests go?” she asked, ambling along beside me.
I paused… I wasn’t sure how I should answer. In my opinion, tests were a normal part of school that gauged how you were doing, so it wasn’t like I’d gone all out studying.
As long as I kept my grades above a certain level, my mom never made a fuss over them, and reviewing old lessons and preparing for new ones was simply part of my routine. As long as I studied, my mom never complained. In fact, lately she’d been saying, “Don’t just sit around studying all the time, go out and have fun!”
So for me, finals week wasn’t that big of a deal. But I’d feel bad saying that to someone who lost sleep studying.
“Well… I think I answered most of the questions right,” I said. I didn’t want to lie, either, so I kept my response vague.
“What?!” Ai exclaimed. “I wasn’t sure about, like, half of them! On every subject!” She grinned sheepishly.
The sunlight hit her face, highlighting the dark circles under her eyes.
“It’s surprisingly hard to remember things when you cram,” I said.
She must’ve realized I was staring at the bags under her eyes, because she covered them with her hands and shrieked, “No! Don’t look!”
“You should really try harder in your classes, so you don’t have to cram at the last minute.”
“I don’t get bad grades if I study hard right before the test.”
“Yeah, but you do get bags under your eyes.”
“Don’t look!” She gave me an adorable pout and then relented, taking her hands away from her face. “You’re good at time management, Yuzuru. You read a lot, but you always find time to study.” She sounded a little sulky. For some reason, every girl I knew got like this when it came to the topic of studying.
“I simply have more time on my hands than you do,” I said. “I don’t have anything else to do, so I study.”
“What? That’s not true. Even if I was obsessed with reading, I’d just read a bunch and not study.”
“Ha-ha. Yeah, I can imagine that.”
Ai laughed triumphantly, like she’d somehow proven me wrong. But the truth was, I agreed with her.
I’d incorporated reading into my daily life, but I wasn’t obsessed with it. I didn’t get absorbed in books per se, I simply enjoyed the act of reading. That was why I was never tempted to read books instead of studying.
If Ai really enjoyed reading, I got the feeling she’d do exactly as she said, neglecting everything else and losing herself in the world of books.
Honestly, I was a little envious of people who could get that absorbed in something, rather than just getting good marks on tests.
In fact, I didn’t think anything of Ai’s poor study habits. I figured it wasn’t a problem as long as she wasn’t failing. She was the kind of person who could always get things done if she put her mind to it, so I wasn’t worried about her passing her college entrance exams or anything.
Ai was normally so energetic that seeing her with dark circles under her eyes was kind of charming, and I liked that part of her, too. People really did have soft spots for those they loved.
As those thoughts ran through my head, Ai cheerfully said, “Anyway, enough about tests! It’s finally summer vacation! It’s been so hectic since I moved back, time has really flown by.”
The two of us had been through a lot, but it mostly felt like that because we were still working out things that had begun in junior high. It had only been a few months since Ai moved back to town and transferred to my school.
In truth, she hadn’t been back for very long, and it had probably felt like even less time to her, since she’d had to deal with moving and a complete change in her environment.
“I’m really looking forward to the band!” she said with a grin. “I’ve transferred schools so many times, I’ve never had the chance to do something like this before.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” I said, remembering the question that had popped into my head back in the classroom. “I had no idea you could play the keyboard.”
She blinked at me several times and then made a slightly awkward expression. I wondered what it meant.
“Mm, well, I took piano lessons,” she said at last. “Classical piano, so it’s totally different from what you’d play in a band. But I think I can play whatever as long as I have sheet music.”
“You took piano lessons?! I didn’t know that, either.”
“Ah-ha-ha. I guess I never told you.”
Ai chuckled, but her expression remained tense—almost like she was hiding something. I found it hard to ignore, so I kept asking her questions.
“You said ‘took’… Does that mean you quit?” I asked.
She didn’t look upset, but her gaze swam around like she was trying to choose the right words.
“Yeah. I started lessons in kindergarten and then quit in my third year of junior high.”
“Wow, you started at a really young age. Did you just get busy, or…?”
“Yeah, something like that…,” she said, nodding. But her smile seemed strained.
I probably shouldn’t pry any further.
It was rare for her to trail off like that, and it made my heart pound in a bad way. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by asking more questions. Everyone had things they didn’t want to talk about, after all.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” I said.
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Not at all! You’re totally fine! You can ask me anything, Yuzuru!” She looked around nervously, and then I felt her shoulder press up against mine. “‘Reflets dans l’eau’ by Debussy is my favorite song. I always played that one when I got sick of practicing,” she said softly. The tension from before had vanished, and she continued eagerly talking about the piano. “It starts out really calm and beautiful, like a placid stretch of water. But then halfway through, it gradually starts to intensify, like waves forming. Then, the waves subside, and the water grows still again, and it’s like I can feel the light reflecting off its surface… Yeah. I just really…really love that song.”
As she spoke, I could imagine the scene in my mind—a stretch of ocean, at times turbulent, at times calm and still. As I visualized it, I couldn’t help thinking of Ai herself. I’d never heard the piece before, but somehow I could vividly picture her playing it.
“I think I must enjoy songs about water or the sea, because I also like ‘La vasque aux colombes’ and ‘Une barque sur l’ocean’… Oh!” She suddenly raised her voice a little and looked at me.
Since we were walking shoulder to shoulder, when I turned toward her, her face was much closer than I expected. My heart skipped a beat.
“The ocean!” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.
“…The ocean?” I repeated, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“I wanna go to the beach together during summer break!”
It felt like this had come completely out of the blue. “Huh?” I said. “Th-the beach?”
“Yeah! We can invite Kaoru and Andou, too. I’m sure it’ll be fun!” She smiled childishly.
“The beach… The beach, huh?”
Come to think of it, I’d never gone to the beach with a group of friends before. I went every year, but only with my family.
Since my father was always busy and worked in another city, he rarely came home. But Mom insisted that we go to the beach as a family once a year, no matter what. Apparently, my parents had met each other at the beach one summer, and my mother always said going back made her remember falling in love.
However, none of us were particularly athletic, so we’d usually just set up a few beach umbrellas and laze around. Mom would play in the waves at the shore while Dad joined her or watched while sipping a beer. It was always fun, but going to the beach with friends sounded like a completely different experience.
I’d recently gone to one with Kaoru, but I didn’t think that counted. That would mean I’d never gone to the ocean with friends—not even once.
“Don’t you want to?” Ai peered at my face as I thought it over.
“Oh, it’s not that!” I said quickly. “It’s just… I’ve never been to the beach with friends before.”
“Hm?” She looked away and thought for a moment. Then, she gasped and cheerfully declared, “Come to think of it, neither have I!”
“Yeah… I guess that makes sense,” I said, my voice a little somber.
Because Ai was such a free spirit, she’d never had many friends. She must’ve sensed what I was thinking, because she giggled and snuggled closer, rubbing her shoulder up against mine.
“That’s right. So I really wanna go!” She looked up at me, pleading.
“Okay, let’s do it.” I nodded, and Ai raised her hands and cheered.
“Yay! It’ll be the first time for both of us!” She sounded like a happy child.
I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just muttered, “Yeah…”
As I watched her giggle and skip down the road, I thought about going to the beach with Ai and the others. It sounded like fun, but at the same time, I was a little anxious. Won’t it be kind of awkward?
Ai didn’t seem to be thinking too hard about it, but for me, it was a little more complicated than a simple trip out with my friends. After all, neither Ai nor Kaoru were just friends to me. I had romantic feelings for one of them, and the other had romantic feelings for me. And to top it all off, Sousuke had a crush on Ai.
I wanted to forget all of that and just have a good time, but I didn’t think it would be so easy. Though I was excited, I was anxious, too.
“I need to buy a swimsuit!”
Meanwhile, Ai was completely focused on having fun. As I watched her, I began to feel like I was worrying over nothing.
I decided to set aside my anxieties for the time being. Looks like I have one more thing to look forward to during summer break, I thought.