Chapter 9: A Lunette
August 2nd, 200X:
Ayako was beside herself. What kind of mother was she that she had stayed so willfully blind to her own daughter's pain?
She had one arm draped over Hikari's trembling shoulder. The girl was acting strangely all day. During work, Hikari would send her looks as if she wanted to speak only for no sound to come out, as if a witch had cast a curse on her to steal her voice. She checked in with Sumomo privately to see if the older girl had any clue what was going on with her daughter. The pastry chef wore a pained expression and hinted that maybe Hikari was under too much pressure lately.
Ayako couldn't fathom why. If anything, things had gotten easier lately with the addition of Kurokawa-kun and Sumomo coming back.
While having their first late night mother-daughter tv marathon in a long time, Hikari suddenly burst into tears.
They had just been watching some mindless show where celebrities played interview games with a host. A female musician was talking about how she aspired to take over her father's production label in the future. It was quite moving.
Hikari buried her face into the armrest. She knew her recent behavior was strange. Several times this week she wanted to bring up the she glimpsed in her mother's heart, but she would chicken out at the very last second. Every time she looked at Ayako she was reminded of a mother who tried to be present for her, but could rarely do so because of the real world dilemma of putting meals on the table. There was no way she could condemn her for that. Doing otherwise would be incredibly selfish.
'We own ourselves.' Suddenly Kurokawa's words rang loud in her ears. That's right. Whatever the consequences, she owed herself this.With one loud sniffle Hikari rotated her head, "Mom, please don't hate me."
This was very concerning to Ayako. What could Hikari have done that would cause Ayako such ire?
"I could never." Ayako held her daughter as the sobs subsided.
"You don't mean that!" Hikari's voice came out strangled. It wasn't like her girl to be so downbeat. Even when she was sad.
"I swear. I could never hate you." Ayako fixed Hikari's hair which was coming undone. "Please, tell me what's hurting you?"
"You." Hikari replied darkly.
Ayako gasped. What had she done? Just minutes ago they were laughing together at the balding host's silly antics.
"Wha– what is it that I've done?" Ayako asked.
Hikari sniffled, "I'm sorry that was mean of me. It's just that — I mean I saw the tanzaku you wrote at Le Chat."
What was it Ayako wrote again? She was so taken with the zeitgeist of the Tanabata stall that she found herself participating in the custom along with their clients.
"I wish for Le Chat Gris to remain a warm place I can pass on to my daughter, Hikari." The message became more defined in her mind's eye.
"Um, I thought you would be happy to run Le Chat. You've always been so interested in sweets." Ayako tried to make sense of Hikari's tears.
"No. I learned to bake for you mom." Hikari looked down.
"But you love to bake." Ayako entreated her.
"No, that's you." Hikari said.
Ayako felt saddened by this. Were all the beautiful memories they shared something she had unwittingly forced upon her daughter? She thought back to the past. The rose-colored glasses were wearing off:
"Mommy, I got two spoons. Let's eat my parfait together and watch Cardcaptor Sakura."
"It's perfect, Hikari-chan. The gradient is amazing!" The flash on Ayako's polaroid went off. "Okay, now let's try making agar agar!"
"Oh, dear." She murmured, chewing her nails. "I'm sorry, Hikari. I should've noticed."
"I do enjoy baking. It allowed me to spend time with you," A flicker of a smile appeared on Hikari's lips. "I just can't see myself doing it forever."
Ayako was relieved that she hadn't ruined anything beyond repair. However, she felt profound remorse for the way she had treated Hikari.
"Okay, what else? What can I do to fix this?" She realized the damage that was caused when Hikari was hesitant to speak again. It was like she wasn't sure she could choose for herself.
"I mean it. We're not in freefall like earlier this year. Do you want to quit?" Ayako tried to reassure her by clasping her daughter's hands.
"No! No, it's not that bad. I like seeing everybody. Do you think I could maybe have some time off to spend with my friends though?" Hikari didn't want to get her hopes up.
"Well if you're up for it, I'd really like it if you could help out on the 6th and 7th. Those will be the busiest days. So how about the day off on the 11th and we can figure out a normal schedule from there?" Ayako ran through the dates in her head.
Hikari couldn't believe her ears and squealed in excitement. She wouldn't have to look on in envy as her schoolmates flittered about the festival streets. She would be right there with them.
She embraced Ayako, who hugged her back. Both felt like the awkwardness in the house was beginning to dissipate.
August 11th, 200X:
Their stall was located next to the taiyaki(1) stand and across from the goldfish catching game. It was easy to remember because of all the fish associations.
Since this was a casual affair, the usual uniforms were limited to just aprons. Shinji was serving with Sumomo. Mizuno-san was managing the dango. Saori had off but she prepared all the decorations ahead of time. Naoshi was taking care of the pudding assembly.
Shinji would usually prefer to be in Naoshi's role but he figured it wasn't so bad seeing the customers' reactions to the puddings. Which had seen a lot of success over the festival week already. He wasn't lying when he said this week had been one of the most affirming experiences in his life. Everyone liked the caramel "textiles" and the Hikoboshi plum flavor. Yesterday, he heard some older ladies saying the cups were perfect to carry things in after you finished eating the pudding. He'll tell Hikari about it next time he saw her.
There were times today when he would go to make a comment to Tanabe and then he remembered it was her day off as well. He was content to hear that she worked things out with Ayako though. It made him feel better when no one was there to smack his shoulder after he laughed at a kid falling over and spilling takoyaki(2) everywhere.
Sumomo gave him a pitying look and went back to counting money. No one else paid him any mind.
He made the mistake of telling his brother about the stand. Reiji asked him all sorts of questions about what was going on.
Yes, his idea was being executed.
Sure, come if you want to.
No, they already prepared a lot of it.
Please, god no don't act like a fool in front of his colleagues.
He was watching his back all night for the moment when Reiji would jump out and embarrass him. A dark purple ponytail bobbed above the throng of people. Reiji was a stickler for punctuality. It was 6 PM on the dot.
"Shinji!" He jogged up to the stall. "I'll buy one Orihime and one Hikoboshi." Reiji slapped down some bills.
"Sumomo, one deluxe special." Shinji called out.
Sumomo appeared from behind the curtain with the puddings two minutes later.
Reiji took them eagerly, "Hi, I'm Shinji's brother Reiji. Judging by the hair color, you must be either Saori or Sumomo, right?"
"Haha, you are correct, I'm Sumomo. Saori's not in today." She put out her hand to shake.
"Sorry, I don't think I can do that at the moment." He lifted both cups to show that both his hands were occupied.
"Oh, right! Duh!" Sumomo blushed, her hand going back to her side. She sat on the stool to let the two talk. Out of the corner of Shinji's eye he saw Sumomo sneaking glances at his brother when she thought Reiji wasn't looking.
Pathetic.
"So what do you think?" He more importantly wanted to hear his brother's opinion on the food.
"Mmm, Ish reary good!" Reiji said between mouthfuls. "Did you use white chocolate for the milky way?"
"Good eye. We did." Shinji was pleased that his brother's palate was so developed.
Reiji scarfed down the rest of his dessert and talked to Sumomo, prying into Shinji's work life.
"What's he like?" he asked. "Oh, well one time we were baki–" Sumomo started, shocked that this handsome man was speaking to her. Shinji tuned them out. A new group was approaching.
Ugh, it was those loudmouths from 3-C. Satoshi Ando led the way with Shuu Haida, Kasumi Misuhara and Haruka Hayashi in tow. Tanabe was bringing up the rear.
She looked different than usual. Her pale yellow yukata(3) was covered in a blooming marigold pattern contrasting wonderfully with the vivid blue of her eyes. The silk obi that was skillfully wrapped around her midsection was an aqua hue. Her sleek navy locks were held up in an intricate braided bun by a hairpin made of flowing forget-me-nots with little white dots at the center. Against the nighttime sky Shinji thought she looked much like a star herself. Her expression was the thing that really caused her to glow. He would wager she was getting better sleep lately, not at all like looking as she had when she would aimlessly wander the store. Her complexion was clearer and her smile was brighter than anytime in his recent memory.
He didn't know why but he felt the need to tear his eyes away so as to not be caught staring.
"Ando-kun you sure are a fast runner." She stood with the others. "Kurokawa-kun, I've been doing some promotion for you. They'll have two deluxe specials with extra spoons please!"
Shinji didn't trust himself to speak and just got the party their food instead.
"Kurokawa this rocks!" Satoshi shouted.
"Where was this energy when you were my home economics partner?" Kasumi joked.
He wasn't quite sure how to deal with all the praise from his classmates, so he responded with a low, "Thanks."
"Thanks for bringing us here, Tanabe, this dish is pretty elegant." Shuu said.
"How's business tonight?" Hikari leaned against the counter.
"It's been really good. Probably the best night after the first." He answered her. She fist pumped, happy their project was doing well.
"Um, why don't you hang out with us for a bit?" She asked nervously. She knew he didn't love socializing but she wanted to share her newfound freedom with him.
"Yeah, Kurokawa-kun you should come with!" Haruka yelled.
Sumomo stopped gabbing long enough with Reiji to pick up on the conversation. "K-Kurokawa-kun. Don't worry, we'll hold the fort down for you while you're gone." She reached a hand out to squeeze his shoulder. "You've been working hard, go. Have fun!"
He looked at his brother. 'Please, brother. Throw me a rope.' Reiji motioned that thing's were okay with him too. "I think I'll kick around here for a bit longer."
Hikari looked up at him with big watery puppy dog eyes. Her hands were laced under her chin. It was sort of working. Dammit! They were all conspiring against him.
"Okay." Shinji stepped out from the behind booth.
"Hooray!" Hikari and crew cheered.
It wasn't so bad. Haruka and Shuu lost their way at some point. Two less people to deal with. 'Probably went to make out,' Shinji thought irritatedly. He sat between them in class and was forever annoyed about the lovesick looks they kept sending behind his back him.
Now it was just him, Tanabe, Mizuhara, and Ando.
"Ah! It's the shooting gallery! I'm the master at that!" Ando launched himself forward like a dog chasing a squirrel.
"Hah! I'll believe it when I see it." Mizuhara snarked from beside Hikari.
They were on their third game. Tanabe killed everyone at darts. Mizuhara also had the highest strength tester score in the group. This Tanabata, the girls were showing the boys how it was done.
This left Satoshi and Shinji itching for a game to succeed at.
"You wouldn't know your ass from your elbow, Ando." Shinji watched him pick up the airsoft gun.
Satoshi lined up his shot. He was taking an eternity to decide which milk bottle to shoot. He finally pulled the trigger. Nothing.
The girls let out an "aww."
Satoshi wasted three more tries.
"Okay, fifth time's the charm." Satoshi took out a coin from his wallet and kissed it.
'Superstitious moron.'
He re-aimed and "clink", the shot was good this time.
Satoshi flashed a peace sign at his friends.
The game operator went to see which prize Satoshi would get. He flipped the bottle around, "Pick a medium prize, son."
Satoshi was hyped over his long-awaited victory. "Sir, I'll take that really cool red hat on the middle shelf."
He put it on right away. The trendy snapback clashed with Satoshi's traditional blue yukata. "How do I look?"
"Like an idiot." Mizuhara took the words right out of Shinji's mouth. Shinji suppressed a chuckle. Perhaps there were some like-minded people in his class after all.
"How about you, young man. Wanna give it a go?" The operator said to him.
"Sure." He took the toy gun from the man.
He picked the milk bottle second from the right as his target.
"Clink!" Got it in one.
"Woohoo! Wait to go, Shinji!" Satoshi hollered next to his ear.
"Nice Job!" Hikari complimented him with her radiant smile.
The game operator examined the prize type. "Small. That's too bad son. It was a nice shot."
The size didn't bother Shinji too much. The prize was up to chance while the shooting was up to skill. He inspected the prizes. Cheap items you could buy at a discount store didn't really appeal to him. His eyes scanned the shelves. A blue gleam pulled his focus: there! a set of hair clips adorned with little metal penguins.
"I'll take those." He pointed at the bottom shelf."
"Coming right up." The good-natured operator handed him the bounty. He took one last look at the prize. Hmph, the face kind of even reminded him of her.
Hikari was surprised when the next thing Shinji did was deposit the tiny packet in her hand.
"It'll match your uniform." He said blandly.
"That sure was nice of you Kurokawa!" Shinji slung his arm around Shinji's neck. "Let's see if you can beat me at the dunk tank!"
"Get off me you dork!" The boys walked ahead to the next game.
She gazed down at the barrettes. They looked almost identical to her penguin. Something pleasant was igniting inside her chest.
Kasumi saw her friend's tender expression. "Hey, does he like you?" Kasumi lowered her voice.
Hikari was still admiring her gift, "Hmm? Oh, I think he was just being nice since he wasn't into any of the prizes." She tried to dissuade Kasumi. Shinji and her helped each other out. It wasn't much different than their own friendship.
"True, maybe it's just because I've never seen him outside of school." Kasumi told herself she was mistaken. It was Haruka who was the love expert. She thought she saw some chemistry when they visited the Le Chat Gris stall, but it was probably just because they worked together a lot. "Where the hell did they go?" She whipped her head from side to side.
They tracked down the guys to a fried chicken booth.
(A/N: Notes on Tanabata's origins located in chapter 7. Is it okay to leave the dates obscure? I just picked them arbitrarily, so they don't match any one calendar.
Footnotes:
1. Fish shaped pastry with filling like red bean, chocolate, cheese, etc.
2. Fried octopus balls.
3. A style of kimono. Worn for summer festivals or as bathrobes. Men's styles have shorter sleeves. Women can complete the look with obi(sash), sandals, and a purse or fan.
4. A paper flower made of geometric structures.
Honorifics:
-chan, title added to someone's name to show you are familiar. Usually used for women and girls. Very cutesy on anyone.
-kun, title added to someone's name to show you are familiar. Usually used for men and boys. More tomboyish for girls
-san, formal title like mister, miss, etc.
-sama, super formal title, shows major respect to the person addressed. Similar to lord, lady, mistress, etc.)