(5 Centimeters) cubed
By Kaj-Nrig

Chapter 3: (5 Centimeters) cubed

Well, as you can see, Akari isn't back just yet, so I suppose it's just you and me for now. Said something about shopping because her parents wanted her to. Anyway, is there anything I can do to help you?

Us?

Well... Hah. I'm afraid of saying anything that might incriminate myself. So when you see her, make sure you don't mention anything I say, okay? Good. Hahah.

No, I'm just kidding. We both love each other very much. The worst I'll get is a quick glare or two, though usually that's enough. Tea?

Did you know we're getting married? Yes, in just a few weeks, actually. Would you like to come? I'd be delighted, actually, and I'm sure she would, too.

...oh, no, it's nothing. Trust me, once you tell her what you've told me, she'll be ecstatic.

Anyway, what was I talking about... oh, right. We're about to get married, and it's amazing when I think about it, because it seemed like just yesterday that we first met. God, I hope not! Hah!

We were in college. It was getting close to the end of the semester, and I was studying in the library, when all of a sudden, in stepped the most beautiful woman in the world. You must have been there to truly grasp what I was talking about. She walked in, very demurely, but it was as if the sun had just lit up and was forming a halo around her, she was so pretty. She came in, glanced around a bit, and, not seeing any tables open, frowned, and it seemed to me like the room suddenly got a little dimmer with that frown.

She took little steps in all directions, as if she were lost between checking upstairs, asking someone if she could sit with them, and exiting the library altogether. I was awestruck, and I took more and more glances at her from beneath my calculus text, hoping, praying that she would come and ask to sit next to me.

...but apparently she was too shy and decided to leave. So as she turned around, I – oh, I laugh every time I think about this – I jumped out of my seat and started waving for her to come sit by me, but my leg got caught on the table leg and I ended up falling down like a bird shot out of the air! Oh, man! My chair toppled, my notebook fell down, my pencils were scattered everywhere... I knew the entire library was looking at me and wondering just what all the noise had been.

But, after I crawled back up and righted my chair, feeling embarrassed and very, very self-conscious, the next thing I saw was Akari Shinohara standing across from me, smiling a gorgeous little shy smile.

"Um... may I have this seat?" she asked me, and her voice was so quiet and tiny that it took me a moment to stop staring at her like a doofus and acknowledge the question.

"Uh, duh dah dah duh... y-yes, yes you may."

Pathetic, wasn't it? But she must have thought it was cute or something, because she sat down, and I kid you not, those one and a half sentences we shared were the greatest one and a half sentences in my entire life.

But anyway. She sat down, and I was just sort of baffled by all of this. I mean, how often is it that you embarrass yourself just to get a beautiful woman to sit next to you, and then actually get that beautiful woman to sit next to you? It sure hadn't happened often to me. So when she sat down, working on her homework, I was just sort of scribbling in my notebook, not really paying attention to it, and I kept glancing at her from under my textbook.

...it's creepy, I know. I told her that, too, after we'd been going out for a while. You know what she did? She kissed me. Ah, I tell you, I'm the luckiest man in the world.

This went on for a while, maybe fifteen minutes or so, until I began to notice out of the corner of my eye that she was trading looks with me. Every time I looked up, she looked down, and every time I looked down, she looked up.

...so we were both creepy. Funny, ain't it? We were made for each other from the very beginning!

Anyway, I guess she noticed what I was working on, because she coughed, really quietly, and looked at me, turning her eyes aside just as I looked back. "Um..." she said. "I'm sorry to bother you..."

"Uh dah duh n... N-no, it's no problem. What's wrong?"

And then she said, in the quietest little voice possible, and I think I fell in love right then and there, "Um... If you're not too busy... I can't seem to understand this problem, and I noticed you were working on some advanced math, and I was just wondering if you could possibly quickly help me."

...and yeah, that's how we started talking to each other. I was so nervous at first that I kept tripping on my words, but eventually, I came to realize that she was a really normal girl. Just a bit quiet, you know?

I only liked her more from then on.

I helped her study, completely forgetting my own calculus – I ended up getting a B+ on the final – and after a while, after she had finished, we just sort of sat there, talking to each other. It was nice and peaceful, and I was surprised at how easily I opened up to her.

We were in the middle of a discussion about President Oike Kazuo invading the iAT when a flier suddenly fell out of her open binder and landed near me.

It was for a lecture or presentation on the Cambrian Period. "The Evolutionary Innovations of the Cambrian Period."

"Do you like paleontology?" I asked her, and I remember thinking that it was such a strange thing for a girl like to her to be into.

"Yes. I've liked it ever since I was a child. I love the Cambrian Period especially."

Now I'll be honest. I had absolutely no idea what was so important about the Cambrian Period. Or that it even existed, for that matter. I looked it up in a paleontology book once, and all I saw were weird little crustaceans. But I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass me, and so I asked if she wanted to go together.

"You mean a date?" she asked, giving me a look that's now reserved only for me.

"Of course not!" I assured her. "I've always been interested in the Cambrian Period!" And before she could ask me anything else and find the big hole in my argument, I said, "Come on! It'll be more interesting if you go with someone, right?"

She looked at me, and I thought for sure she was going to see through it. But then she thought about it some, and I knew I'd already won. Of course, now that I look back on it, maybe it was just her taking pity on me. Hah!

Anyway, that night after we were done studying, just as we promised, we both went to see the presentation. There weren't too many people in the lecture hall – about half of the seats were empty – but it was still pretty impressive to me that there were so many people interested in this stuff.

But once we went to find a seat, I... well, you know, I didn't want to just sit down next to Akari and blow any chance I had, but thankfully, she sat down two seats in and waited there for me to sit down next to her. That was the first thing that surprised me during the lecture.

The second thing was when the professor started talking about the Opabinia. She suddenly got this excited look on her face, and she straightened up just a little bit more, and I wondered just what it was that had piqued her attention. I mean, I sure as heck wasn't paying any attention to what was being said.

After a few seconds, though, she just sort of smiled, this kind of sad but happy smile that I only saw that one time, and there was something in her eyes. I don't think it was tears – I remember freaking out a little bit wondering if it was – but... there was something there. Maybe she was thinking of something. Maybe someone. She mentioned a friend of hers she'd been close to in elementary school a few times while we went out, but I can't say whether it was him or not.

She smiled that small, sad and happy smile, and then she looked at me and her smile felt a little bit happier. I smiled back at her, and when the lecture was done, I walked her to her apartment and I was lucky enough to get her cell number.

Afterwards, I was on top of the world. Everything just seemed to work out perfectly, you know? It was... I dunno, it was like a movie! It was- Oh, wait. Sorry. It's Akari.

Akari?

...what? You what?

...yeah. Five centimeters per second. Why?

Oh. Oh, okay, then. Well, then, I'll see you in a few minutes.

Yeah.

Okay. I love you, too.

Bye- Oh, wait, Akari!

Just to let you know, there's someone here that I think you'll want to meet. Okay?

It's a secret, honey. You'll find out when you get here.

Alright. Okay, bye, Akari.

...sorry about that. She says she's on her way home right now, and she'll be here in about fifteen minutes. It was weird, though.

...what? Oh, nothing. She just said something strange on the phone, that's all.

...well, you remember the cherry blossom tree that's by the train tracks on the way here? Well, she was talking about passing it just a few seconds ago.

She said, "You remember what I told you when we passed that cherry blossom tree on our way back from our first date? About how fast the petals fell?"

Yeah, the story I just told you about. I told her, "Five centimeters per second."

And she said, "Well, I think I just kept a promise I made a long time ago, that's all."

...anyway, that's that. Some more tea, Mr. Shinkai?

(5 Centimeters) cubed END

Notes:

Oike Kazuo – the former president of Kyoto University.

iAT ("International Afternoon Tea") – every week at Kyoto University's "KI-ZU-NA"student lounge, foreign and native students gather to speak over tea and coffee. In 2007, President Oike went to one of these. Its inclusion in this story is simply for "realism's" sake and isn't meant to imply that Akari went to Kyoto University.