Chapter 3: Main Station

I had a dream about falling from a tall building. I couldn't exactly remember how tall it was, but it reminded me of the office building I worked at, which felt strangely appropriate. Whether I had jumped off or fell victim to the strong breeze pushing me over the edge is something I could not remember either.

That's how dreams were, sudden, erratic and sometimes inexplicably deep. Most of all they disappeared like dust in the wind once the dreamer escaped that world. When was the last time I had actually remembered a dream? Perhaps the one with the blue haired girl? But that one was also no more than a blur. It seemed important at the time, but I don't think hanging on to dreams is very worthwhile.

Speaking of hanging on, I sure couldn't. My fall was unbroken and accelerated me rapidly towards the pavement of a busy street. It was quite something to feel the tugging of inertia hitting my stomach. Dreams were amazing like that.

With my wind-dried eyes I looked at the cars and tram moving below. The sharp sense of self-preservation was utterly lacking in me as I marveled at the changing shapes. A lot of times I was fully aware that I was dreaming, so I could enjoy this wild ride. Right now I simply wondered where I would get flattened. It seemed my destination were the train tracks to the right.

It took me unusually long to get there. Dream time fluctuated more than any day at school had. Lessons could stretch endlessly, while breaks ended in the blink of an eye. Yet this dream stretched it even more somehow. Maybe I would wake up before the crash ever occurred?

That's when the train siren began to blare in my ears. It was such an unpleasant noise that I had to hold my ears shut. As it assailed my ear drums I finally hit the tracks. My life would probably have played out before my eyes, but the dream really didn't seem to care for my dramatic flashback. Figures.

I crashed down… and then I really crashed down. A pained noise left my mouth as I held my pulsing nose. It seemed some things did get transferred from dreams after all, like fall momentum. Lying next to my bed with my blanket half wrapped around my legs, the morning sun was practically shining on my embarrassing pose.

To top it off my alarm was blaring loudly under a pile of my discarded clothes. You could say that I was sort of sloppy lately, but this time it was especially bad. With a stretched out yawn my body arched back and I grabbed my phone.

It was almost noon. What a pain…

That was the third fail safe alarm by the way. Somehow I had managed to sleep through the previous ones without as much as a stir. If we tried to put a positive spin on it, that might actually have been my special ability. I vaguely remembered ignoring my alarms during university and skipping entire days sometimes.

What a lame superpower.

Naturally with this state of affairs I had little time to prepare for my outing with Adachi anymore. Outing, hm? Yeah, that was probably a pleasant way to describe it. Took me a while to come up with such a common phrase.

While I threw my old clothes on a pile and tried to pull a fresh set out of the drawer I contemplated that ominous dream. It's not like I had read any books on dream interpretation, but I was fairly certain that falling off high places and getting squashed was not a healthy thing to dream about. To make matters worse, that wasn't the first time I had that dream. Like I said, I would rarely remember my dreams, but this one definitely repeated, of that I was sure.

"Am I alright?"

I wondered with a yawn. Strange girls and deadly falls were not usually part of my dream repertoire. This really was a weird omen, right?

Finally I had grabbed a casual outfit that I sometimes wore when going shopping and threw it over my shoulder. Definitely needed to take a quick shower and do something about my bed hair before getting dressed. This lunch may not have been anything serious, but if I looked like a complete slob in front of Adachi even I may have felt ashamed.

I passed through the empty hallway and snuck my way towards the bathroom. For just a moment I thought I had actually made it.

"Got you."

The voice appeared right from next to my ear and my defenseless sides were stabbed by long fingers. It kind of stung for real. With a groan I covered my waist with both arms and glared back. There stood the attacker, in a sneaky pose similar to mine and grinned wildly at her success. This woman…

"Why are you always poking me there?"

I complained while giving her an annoyed look.

"Just making sure how far you progressed."

She replied while spinning her index fingers in circles. The expression she gave me was insufferably smug. And just what progress was she following? Obviously it couldn't be anything good.

"I haven't gained any weight."

"Haha, I can wait."

Was she an evil witch trying to fatten me for a meal? I always found that story confusing. If you had enough food to fatten up children, then why would you need to eat them anyway? Maybe humans just tasted that good? Yeah, no. Let's not go any deeper into that.

That serial harasser over there was my mother of course. Lately she had been especially annoying and over the line. To denigrate her poor daughter at every turn and act completely erratic seemed to be her reason for living. I was powerless to stop her for several reasons. One of them was of course that she let me stay at this house and provided food for the tired me, but the other was her overwhelming physical strength. A woman of her age had no right to be this fit and toned. I had no doubt that she could overpower dad with one arm by now.

"But maybe you are finally trying to lose some weight?"

"Huh?"

"After all you decided that you don't want to be fed anymore."

She said with a rather antagonistic smirk. I knew she would act like this… When I came home yesterday I had to get some leftovers from the fridge, because this woman had decided that they would have dinner without me. The text message I had sent about not needing dinner today was clearly rubbing her the wrong way. Explaining myself further would just be a hassle, though. I was sure she would calm down by Sunday. Hopefully.

"We will be having okonomiyaki today, I think."

"What? Why all of a sudden?"

I scowled. Okonomiyaki was my favorite dish. We had it only occasionally, no, even less. Mom said it was a pain to prepare, but the truth is that she just didn't like how quickly you could overeat on it. This fitness obsessed demon had started to drag the family into her issues.

All the more reason why this made no sense. This was a deliberate attack, wasn't it?

"Because it's your favorite."

She had made no attempt of even hiding her evil intentions. Had nobody taught her any shame? I had doubts that this woman could qualify as a mother anymore.

"Hmm."

Now she stared at the change of clothes hanging from my shoulder. My defenseless sides seemed to be safe for the time being.

"Hah!"

"Hey!"

I was wrong. She poked them one more time, which forced me to hunch over. She then grabbed the clothes with her other hand and gave them an intense look.

"You are going out?"

"So what?"

I snatched the clothes from her and sighed. Was it really too much to ask that she reduced her nosiness?

"Eating out on your own? Isn't that too sad, even for you?"

Did she really have to say that last bit? I straightened my long hair with an unenthused face and turned my eyes away. If I wanted to be on time to make it to the station I would really have to hurry it up. Ignoring this person was the quickest path to that result.

"Oh? Could this lazy daughter of mine finally have done it? Did you find yourself a boyfriend?"

The doubtful smirk on her face would have been infuriating, but instead of glaring back, I felt my heart stop for a moment. This wasn't the first time that particular topic came up. Mom had sprinkled it into our conversations from time to time, almost subtly for her standards. I was already at that age, huh? The age were parents would nag you about getting hitched up and leaving the house to make your own family.

It's not that I wanted to be a bother. My little sister wasn't saying anything, but sharing a room at our age was definitely not ideal. That's why I basically only slept in our room and nothing else. Trying to give her space was the only thing I could do right now.

But a boyfriend? That thought really never crossed my mind at all. It was not a topic I cared about in the slightest. Human relationships were heavy. Too bothersome. A romantic bond was probably ten times more suffocating, right? Mom and dad were not the type who would just push me into anything, but I knew that I was getting old enough to raise some brows about having been single all my life.

What a pain.

"It's not like that. I am meeting with a woman."

I replied curtly and turned towards the bathroom. No more time to waste on this nonsense.

"Oh? Is that right?"

Her response was strangely off to my ears. I could feel her eyes on my back all the way until I closed the door.

"You want to go to a restaurant like this?"

Of course the moment I left the bath and had put on my clothes, I was greeted by even more judgement in the living room. Mom and my little sister were watching TV together. It was some documentary about sea life, I think. My sister really loved animals and mom didn't seem to care what was on. Had she ever showed any interest in anything but the cooking channel? I couldn't remember.

"Restaurant?"

My little sister's attention was grabbed by that and she turned around on the sofa to look at me. Was she displeased with something? Maybe she wanted me to take her along. If we could switch I honestly wouldn't have minded, though. I'd also rather have had okonomiyaki than Chinese food.

Then again, Adachi was not going to be sitting at this table with me, so that was reason enough not to entertain that possibility after all.

"That one made a friend."

Mom pointed at me like some circus attraction.

"What?"

That reaction was kind of rude. My sister definitely acted way too surprised. Was it that unusual for me to meet someone? Hmm, yeah, it kinda was. I don't think I went out to meet someone a single time in all my years at university. So her impression of me was probably not completely unjustified. Probably.

"I'm just going to town for a bit. I will be back before dinner."

I tried my best not to show any reaction to their teasing, but it was pointless. They were whispering to each other behind their hands like a couple of conspirators. Weekends must have been awfully dull for them to spend it with idle gossip. With a wry expression I left the living room and prepared to go out.

"You need to listen to your mother's advice."

Of course I could not escape that easily. Mom called me back with a beckoning hand. For a moment I considered just leaving anyway, but my poor sides would not be able to take the consequences.

"What is wrong with my clothes?"

I asked with exasperation. My basic skirt and blouse combination seemed passable to me. Downright normal.

"If you want to keep that friend, you should dress appropriately. Put on the dress I bought you for grandma's birthday party last year."

That was almost sensible advice coming from her, but I had to wonder why she cared so much. That dress with an accompanying silk vest was definitely my best outfit. That's exactly why it felt like something you should keep in your closet for an important event. What if it got dirty?

"Dad is on his way back from the store. He will drive you to the station."

"Really?"

All of this was quite a shock to me. Not only did she take an interest in my outfit, she even gave me such unusual support (without even asking dad first of course). She must have been really bored to go this far. I had no other explanation to give. How many children were unable to understand their own mothers these days?

"Can you get me some batteries while you are in town, Sis? I need them for my controller."

My little sister chimed in thusly. Admittedly, this was pretty in line with her personality. She tended to only speak up when she wanted something from me. Ever since she entered high-school she had mellowed out a lot. These days she would mostly play video-games and watch TV with mom. Gone were the days of her energetically running around outside and being incredibly clingy to her beloved sister. Perhaps I just made that last part up. I was often told my memory was below average.

"Sure."

I agreed without hesitation and walked back into our room. That car ride was most likely dependent on me putting on the outfit mom suggested, so I hurried. After I was done changing she was standing behind me already. Seeing her face reflected in the mirror before me had nearly made me yelp in surprise.

"Your hair is too long."

"Gee, is there anything else I should take care of?"

"Fix your personality and learn to cook!"

I didn't actually want to hear more of her nagging. Could she take any social cues at all? She sure was enjoying herself today. I hadn't seen her this giddy in a while.

"At least fix your bangs. Here."

She put a white flower clip into my hair and parted my bangs with it. Admittedly, that improved things a lot. Not that I would ever tell her that directly. Instead I tapped the white lily clip with my finger and adjusted it slightly. This one was quite pretty, if you cared about such designs. Seeing myself in the mirror like that gave me strong vibes of those 'before and after' posts you could often see on social media. I had not turned into a different person, but the changes were noticeable. Hopefully Adachi would appreciate the effort.

I smiled lightly at that thought. It's not like I could ever measure up to her prettiness.

Dad had given us a bemused expression when he was told to stay in the car. It was kind of funny to see him just shrug and grab the wheel again while mom and my sister pulled the groceries out of the trunk. After I sat down next to him he gave me only one questioning look, but never actually asked anything. He was that way, always going with the flow. I'm almost certain that's where I got that personality trait from.

The ride to the station was quite short by car, so I was unexpectedly early for the meeting. If I had known it would end up like that I would have slept a bit longer. If I missed breakfast anyway, I should have gotten more rest. That being said, it was probably for the best. Being half an hour early allowed me to get the batteries my little sister asked for after all.

Once I left the small convenience store inside the station, I put the batteries into my purse and stretched my body a little. The suggishness was slowly fading from my limbs and left me with a somewhat good mood.

When would Adachi arrive? What would she wear? Where would she take me? I suddenly had so many questions floating around inside me head. Of course I had ample time to mull them over with how early I had arrived, that was a given. Spacing out was one of my strengths, so passing the time just standing around at the entrance would have been no sweat.

Hmm?

My squinted eyes saw something beyond the shining light passing through the glass ceiling. A hint of blue and white. That one tied up bundle of hair hanging over a slender shoulder reminded me of someone. Her pale arms were exposed and she was holding her bag with a casual pose. There was no way it could be her, but it would take me quite some convincing to call this an illusion.

"Adachi? Aren't you way too early?"

I spoke up with light disbelief. When I got a ride here I seriously though I was far too early and yet somehow I've earned second place? Had I wasted that much time in the store? No, no matter how you looked at it, I was definitely really early. Which meant Adachi must have arrived beyond any reasonable time.

When she turned around at my call she showed a shocked expression. Wasn't she startled just way too easily? This seemed to be a running theme with her, not that I minded. Quite the opposite. The recognition that flashed past her eyes and the resulting softening of her stiff cheeks really appealed to something inside me.

She just kept staring at me for a while, which was kind of awkward. Guess she just didn't expect me to pop up out of nowhere like that. It did look a bit weird that I would arrive from inside the station after all. That's why I pointed at the batteries I had bought to assuage her confusion. Her shifting expressions were quite funny.

But really, was she not wearing something quite nice? That dress showed off her immaculate skin and had a form-fitting aspect to it that caught my attention. Well, I just gave her a short full-body scan, it's not that important. Right.

Blue and white… my favorite colors.

Returning home together after our failed outing was certainly a weird decision on my part. I can't say that I had given it all that much thought. All I knew was that I didn't want our time together to end prematurely and that being treated by Adachi felt wrong somehow. Was the fact that there would be okonomiyaki waiting at home somehow relevant here? I guess it was.

That may have been my true motivation actually.

The ride on the bus was mostly quiet once again, but after we reached the station we had to decide how to get to my house. Of course I tended to walk the distance each morning during the week, but the sun was quite strong today and Adachi wasn't wearing a convenient hat like I was. Calling dad to pick us up may have been an option, but I was rather apprehensive about that. In our family we had a silent agreement not to treat the family car as a taxi.

Mom's bike was standing uselessly outside the house too. She never let me ride it out of principle and I still somehow hadn't found the will to spent money on one of my own. Which left it as a vehicle reserved for trips to the gym mom frequented.

Our options had dwindled considerably, but Adachi seemed to be fidgeting about quite a lot when I brought it up. Was it the fidgeting of someone who felt bothered by the inconvenience or was it something else? I stared at her expectantly.

"Shimamura, do you mind riding a bike with two people?"

She finally managed to say what she wanted to. Well color me surprised. So Adachi came here by bike? I once again noted her flat shoes. Yeah, that made sense. Now I understood why she avoided heels.

Riding on the back of someone's bike, hm? During my school days I was known as a delinquent, whether that was an appropriate description or not. I vaguely remembered riding on the back of Hino's bike once, but that was the only time for sure. It was kind of frowned upon, both inside and outside school and this outfit was my best.

Adachi looked down at her feet with a stiff expression. She was not going to say any more. The decision was entirely up to me. For someone with such a strong aura she was quite passive.

"Well, why not?"

I finally replied with a smile. It wasn't going to be a long ride and I honestly had no better idea. Adachi seemed to be happy with my response or at least something along those lines. She hastily raised her head and showed me the way to her parked bike. It was definitely large enough for the both of us. I noted some wear and tear, proving that it saw good use every day.

"After you."

"R-right."

Adachi had waited for a while until I spoke up. It was obvious to assume that she didn't carry passengers around very often. I carelessly pulled my leg over the bike seat and positioned myself behind her. That earned me a disgruntled expression from Adachi. Had she something to criticize?

"Shimamura… aren't you lacking elegance?"

"Hmph."

So that's how it was. It was undoubtedly true that I was carefree about the way I moved, but it was not like there was an easy way to get on with a long dress. Adachi was lucky that her summer dress was only going up to her knees. Or well, that was probably the only reason she could come here by bike.

"Please hold on."

She was focused ahead on the street now. Good. Although the light tinge of pink on her cheeks was making me wonder what she was thinking of. When I grabbed her shoulders for stability the color definitely got more noticeable on her entire face. Her toned legs put some force into the paddles and she moved the bike forward with relative ease. She sure was fit. Mom would approve, but I dreaded her snarky comments that were bound to fly my way once they met.

We rode across the streets with decent speed and I had to hold on to my large hat as the gusts of warm air pushed against us. Seeing the buildings rush by over Adachi's shoulder had a certain effect on me. If you thought about it, this was a bit like a theme park ride. Alright, maybe not, but it still felt fresh. The wind was really pleasant in this late summer heat, but there wasn't quite enough. Adachi was keeping it all to herself. Considering she was carrying both our weights across the road, I definitely was not envying her though.

"How nice~"

I did something very stupid and rose up to stand on the bike behind Adachi. Her flustered reaction would have been quite entertaining if she didn't decide to look up and completely ignore the road. Was my face that interesting? More interesting than even traffic? I could have felt flattered, but I really preferred if we didn't end up in a ditch, so I looked ahead in her stead. Her legs kept the bike shockingly stable. It was like she did this regularly or something.

Onlookers were definitely ogling us as we entered the smaller streets in the residential area. Add to that Adachi's unbroken stare and I felt like I was the center of attention for once. Before you ask, it did not make me feel like a movie star. But it did make me feel all kinds of embarrassed. I had to give Adachi instructions and she followed them, but it took her seriously way too long to return her gaze to the road.

This office lady that I saw coldly looking at her watch every morning turned out to be rather eccentric. Not that I was one to talk.

Arriving at my house was quite the relief, in more ways than one. We stepped off the bike and I showed Adachi where to put it. She kept looking at our house with curious eyes. It wasn't anything special, but perhaps she lived in very different circumstances?

"Here goes nothing."

I mentally prepared myself. What kind of life did I lead where ringing on the door to my own home stressed me out so much? Because of that thought I decided to ignore my unease and just go with the flow. Whatever happened would happen.

"Hougetsu, is that you?"

Her voice was already echoing through the hallway. What volume. The door was unlocked and creaked open. Short hair peeked through the slit and a familiar eye locked on to me. Then she threw the door wide open with a surprised look.

"Adachi?"

Mom addressed said Adachi directly.

"What?"

This day really was full of surprises.