“What? Sayu’s going home?”
“That’s so sudden…”
I briefed Hashimoto and Mishima—two of my colleagues familiar with the situation—during lunch break at the office. They were both even more shocked than I’d anticipated.
“Well, I guess these kinds of things do tend to be sudden…,” Hashimoto added quietly. “Maybe it’ll be better for the both of you if the situation goes back to normal.”
He paused there and shot me a glance from the side.
“…Going by your face, though, it seems you don’t agree.”
“Nah… It’s just…”
I could feel my brow furrowing and used my first two fingers to stretch the skin back out.
If Sayu’s family environment wasn’t so messed up, Hashimoto would have had a point. As he said, the current situation was hardly normal.
But based on what Sayu told us, I couldn’t imagine that going back to her family would do her any good.
“Are you worried you’ll miss her when she’s gone?”
Hashimoto asked this question with a serious face. He didn’t seem to be joking.
“No, that’s not the problem,” I answered, shaking my head. “It’s just… You can probably tell by how long she’s managed to stay away. Her parents are a little…”
“I see.”
Hashimoto, who was always good at reading between the lines, nodded definitively despite my vague explanation. He set aside his pork cutlet for a moment.
“But are things like that really your responsibility? At the end of the day, this is someone else’s family we’re talking about.”
“Yeah… You’re right. I thought that, too,” I replied with a nod.
Hashimoto looked me right in the eye. His expression was uncharacteristically serious.
“I think the time has come. Good intentions can only go so far. There’s a limit to how much you can do for a total stranger.”
I went silent. I didn’t exactly want to argue with what he was saying, and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to accept it. A strange sensation came over me. It felt like my emotions were smoldering inside my chest, ready to catch fire.
“So what do you want to do, Mr. Yoshida?” Mishima asked out of nowhere.
It was the same question Asami had posed to me the day before.
“I understand what Mr. Hashimoto’s saying—I really do—but when it comes down to it, you’re the one who met Sayu and let her stay with you all this time, right?” Mishima said as she went about removing the bones from her grilled salmon fillet.
She nimbly picked out a large one, then turned toward me.
“The way I see it, you’re no longer a total stranger. You’re involved in Sayu’s life now. You’ve been wrapped up in her problems for a while.”
This, too, echoed Asami’s sentiments from the previous day.
Mishima cocked her head and asked me once again.
“So what do you want to do?”
“I…”
I didn’t know what to say.
Ultimately, I wanted to do exactly what I’d told Asami a day ago: protect Sayu’s smile.
However, I knew Mishima’s question was more practical than that. She was asking what I was going to do about Sayu, now that she had to go back to Hokkaido in a week.
I still hadn’t come up with any concrete plans.
I stayed quiet, and Mishima simply watched me as she brought a piece of salmon to her mouth, chewed slowly, then followed it with a bite of white rice. Once she’d swallowed down her food, she announced, “You still have a little less than a week left.”
“Huh?”
“Until Sayu leaves.”
“Oh… You’re right.”
After hearing my answer, Mishima nodded to herself a few times—as if thinking something over—then looked back at me.
“Do you mind if I borrow Sayu for the night, then?”
“Huh? Borrow her?”
Mishima’s sudden proposal had me raising my voice like an idiot.
“That’s right. Basically, I’m asking if I can take her out—on a girl-date.”
“That’s…no problem. Though Sayu will have to agree… But why now?”
“We need to have a woman-to-woman talk,” Mishima replied, dismissing my suspicions with a wave of her hand.
I felt a little apprehensive about her sudden suggestion, but then I recalled the time Sayu had ended up at Mishima’s place when she was supposed to be out shopping. Maybe the two of them shared a friendship I didn’t know about.
“Well…if it’s okay with Sayu, then it’s okay with me.”
“It’s settled, then. I’ll head home after work, then swing by your place to pick her up.”
“Don’t keep her out too late.”
“I won’t!” Mishima responded cheerfully before once again chowing down on her salmon.
As I blankly watched Mishima chew and swallow her food, I realized something.
She’s stopped speaking with her mouth full, hasn’t she?
“Here we go! First pitch of the day!”
Miss Yuzuha was in high spirits as she entered the batting cage, tightly gripping her bat.
A loud thunk rang through the air as a baseball flew from the wall. The pitch was slow enough that even an amateur like me could follow its trajectory, but it was still fast.
Miss Yuzuha swung the bat with all her might but completely missed the approaching ball.
“Whoops!” she exclaimed, turning to me and sticking out her tongue.
Another ball followed shortly after, and she took another swing. This time, the thunk was followed by the sharp clink of the bat making contact. The ball, however, went flying in the wrong direction.
“It’s been a while since I’ve tried this,” she muttered to herself before reverting into her batting stance and glaring in the direction of the next pitch.
It was nine PM, and Miss Yuzuha and I were at a batting cage.
As soon as Mr. Yoshida got home, he’d surprised me by announcing, “Mishima wants to meet with you alone.”
When I asked him why, he said he didn’t know.
She’d helped me out in the past many times, so I wasn’t opposed to going with her even without a reason. In fact, I was actually pretty happy about it.
After she came and picked me up from Mr. Yoshida’s apartment, Miss Yuzuha and I walked to the local train station, then went a little farther until we reached a rickety old batting cage.
I had no idea why she’d taken me to a batting cage of all places. She hadn’t said much so far; she was simply enjoying swinging her bat.
She would occasionally manage to make contact with the ball, but so far, none of her hits were likely to qualify as home runs.
Before we knew it, the balls stopped coming, and Miss Yuzuha stepped out of the cage with a strained smile on her face.
“Wow, I don’t remember being this bad. I used to knock ’em outta the park all the time.”
“Maybe you’re just rusty?”
“Probably.”
Miss Yuzuha pouted and let out a dispirited grumble. It was a cute expression, and it made me feel like I was hanging out with a friend my age rather than an adult woman.
“Okay! You’re up next, Sayu.”
“H-huh?” I sputtered as Miss Yuzuha offered me the bat. “Am I having a go, too?”
“Don’t you want to?”
“Well, sure. But…”
“Go on, then!” Miss Yuzuha said, shoving the bat into my hands. I was surprised by how heavy it was.
“Why don’t you try a couple of practice swings first?”
“Practice swings… L-like this?”
I tried to copy Miss Yuzuha, but the bat was so heavy, I felt like it was pulling my whole body around with it.
“If you swing with your arms, you’ll do your shoulders in. You need to focus on turning your hips. Here, like this.”
Miss Yuzuha got behind me and grabbed hold of my body to show me how I should move. I did as instructed, and it was obvious my center of gravity was much more stable than before.
After I’d done a couple of practice swings, Miss Yuzuha told me to get in the cage. She inserted some coins into the box outside and fiddled with the controls.
Then I heard the machine on the opposite wall whir into action. It looked like the balls were about to start flying.
“Here we go!”
“Okay…!”
For some reason, I felt incredibly nervous.
The first ball flew toward me. It looked even slower than the balls Miss Yuzuha was hitting, but I was completely unable to time my swing and simply stood there, watching it shoot past me.
“C’mon, swing! You gotta swing! There aren’t any strikes in this game!” Miss Yuzuha teased in a silly voice.
“Okaaay…”
By the time I replied, another ball was headed my way.
This time, I swung as hard as I could, but I still missed.
“Close one!”
The same happened with the next ball and the one after that.
The baseballs blew past me at a steady rhythm, but I couldn’t so much as graze them with the bat.
I gradually grew frustrated.
Why could I never do anything right?
Another ball and then another breezed past me. I didn’t hit any of them.
“Last one!” Miss Yuzuha announced, and I snapped to attention.
The last one… At least let me hit this one.
I concentrated hard, staring intently at the ball’s trajectory.
Thunk! I heard the ball fire from the machine. For some reason, this one looked even slower than the one before.
I can hit it this time! I told myself and swung my bat as hard as I could.
Thump! I heard the final ball hit the backstop behind me.
“…Haah.” I sighed.
I missed the ball again.
I didn’t know why I was beating myself up over my poor batting—it wasn’t like I had much experience—but I felt strangely deflated. I slumped down on the ground where I’d been standing.
Before I knew it, my vision began to blur as tears welled up in my eyes.
Miss Yuzuha came straight over and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“…So you’ve gotta go back home, huh?”
“…Yeah.”
“And you don’t wanna?”
“…No.”
Her tone was so exceptionally gentle that I felt like I could tell her anything, no matter how childish.
“Do your shoulders hurt? Sorry I dragged you out here all of a sudden. I thought it’d help clear your head…but now look at you.”
“No, it’s all right…”
“Here, wipe your tears.”
Miss Yuzuha handed me her handkerchief. I shook my head and instead wiped my face on the sleeve of my top. She shot me a wry grin.
“Have a seat on the bench,” she said. “I’ll get us some drinks.”
Miss Yuzuha brought me out of the batting box and pointed to a nearby bench.
Then she smiled softly and said, “I’ll get us something hot and we can have a little chat.”
The warmth in her voice had a mysterious quality. It didn’t feel like she was compelling me to do anything, and yet, it was refreshingly firm. It was as if she was saying, “There’s no reason to refuse, is there?”
It was so disarming that before I knew it, I was nodding and saying yes.
The sense of crushing helplessness I’d felt while swinging the bat was already fading away.