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Emergency! Yui looked really good in her yukata. She was absolutely adorable with her hair in an updo. Send me help, my man. Help.
Help me.
Little flowers bloomed here and there all over her pale-pink yukata. It was decorated with a vibrant crimson obi sash. Her pinkish hair looked nice in the adorable updo. She seemed unused to wearing geta. Her footsteps were particularly unsteady as she instinctively took two, three hurried steps forward.
"Oh, Hikki! I was in a bit of a rush, and now I'm late…" On god, she was trying to kill me. I swallowed my heart back into my chest.
"Yui…" my breath whistled out of me.
"Hikki…?" She cocked her head at me curiously. I swallowed again.
Tell her she looks gorgeous. Do it. Right now. Dumbass. Tell her she looks drop dead gorgeous right this second.
"Well, um… your yukata looks nice."
Idiot. Come on, man!
But Yui seemed to get the idea before I could correct myself. Her eyes darted all around as she replied, "Um…th-thank you."
"No wait! I meant-"
"We should get going," she cut me off.
Idiot!
"Okay. Yes. Sure," I agreed to her demands immediately. I caved.
I started walking and she clip-clopped behind me. We passed through the train ticket gates and waited for the train coming from Tokyo. Yui was looking at her feet the entire time and not saying a single word. Now I'm not the type to be bothered by silence but Yui is. I thought frantically for something to say. I didn't want her to get mad at me.
"Hey so why did you want to meet at a random halfway poit instead of just meeting up there?" I asked.
"Because… it's hard to meet up when there's so many people."
"You have a phone, don't you?"
"It's hard to hear though."
I guess that was true enough. It can be hard to hear someone through a phone in a crowded place.
"Besides meeting up there would just be… bland," she decided.
"Why would you need it to be flavorful? It's not seaweed."
"Wh-who cares! Do you have a problem with it?"
"Not really…" I stammered off.
So silence fell on us again. Though it was still completely bright out we were groping through the darkness, sensing nothing but each other's presence.
"So this fireworks show…" I started.
"About this fireworks show-" She began at the same time I did. Flustered Yui gestured for me to go ahead.
"...So this fireworks show," I repeated, "do you usually go?"
"Oh yeah. I go every year with friends." Right as she replied the train arrived.
"Huh," I managed.
A lot of the people on the train were probably headed out to see the fireworks. Not only were they wearing yukatas some were carrying vinyl picnic blankets and parasols. It was pretty packed and the crowd made me nauseous but I pushed through it. It was just one stop. We stood beside the door. The doors rattled shut and then the train began to move.
"Were you going to say something before?" I asked.
"Um yeah. I was gonna ask… have you ever been to the fireworks?"
I averted my eyes and checked my watch. Still only four, huh…? "I went once before when I was in elementary school. With my family."
"Really?" She asked.
I nodded.
We began to brake with the port tower in the distance.
"Eek!" Yui yelped and I heard the sound of geta clacking as a sweet scent wafted into my nose. A soft weight pressed into my shoulder. Yui had lost her balance - probably because of those sandals she wasn't used to - and had fallen over onto me. I caught her by the waist automatically.
"..."
"..."
Our faces were so close, practically touching. I stared into her eyes for a long minute. Or at least it felt that way. She blushed red and quickly backed up. The moment passed. "S-sorry," she stammered.
"Hmm. Well, it's crowded…" I turned my head away and tried to compose myself. I breathed a long sigh and hid my face from Yui. Although the moment had passed, I was breaking out in sweat.
Man that made me nervous… phew, that was close. So close. Moments like that could make a regular guy fall for her. That wasn't about to happen here. Sure she was pretty and sweet but I was me.
When a girl greets you in the morning, that's just common politeness. When she drops her handkerchief in front of you, that's carelessness. And when a girl at your part time job gives you her email address it's because she wants you to cover her shift. Don't get confused. Don't get tricked. That's how you get made a fool of.
When we emerged from the station, the area was overflowing with people and abuzz with noise. Port Tower soared over us, reflecting the world below in its mirrored walls and intensifying the light of the sunset. It was as if that light were stirring up the expectations of the crowds even more as they eagerly awaited the start of the show. They were all laughing loudly and exchanging cheery, joyful looks.
The motion sickness took me for a moment as I gazed out at the standard food stalls. I recaptured myself and saw bright lights dance in the corner of my eye. My visual hallucinations. I fought through it with a grimace.
"Everything okay?" Yui asked. Because she noticed and was sweet like that.
"I'm… I'm hallucinating a little. Flickering lights. Its no big deal. It'll pass."
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely." I blinked a few hard times and the hallucinations dissipated. "There we go. Much better."
"Do the drugs not help?"
"I haven't noticed a difference in my symptoms since I started the antipsychotic."
"I see…" she trailed off.
"I'm not at a dose where people typically start responding well to the medication," I explained. "They have to go up on it slowly to make sure there's no bad reactions."
"I understand. You'll tell me if it gets worse though, won't you?"
"Sure," I agreed.
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The station wasn't too far from the place where they'd be shooting off the fireworks. I'd even say the entire park is adjacent to the station. But the area was jammed with so many people it was hard going. Normally, the plaza was deserted, giving the area a wide open feel, but now, even from afar, I could see it was submerged under the waves of people. The air was stuffy but there was a pleasant sea breeze blowing through.
I checked my watch again. It was still only just after six. I was pretty sure the fireworks were starting around seven thirty. So what to do until then? I turned to Yui beside me and asked. "Looks like we have still some time, so what do you want to do? Go back?"
"I'm not going back! How can you just automatically suggest we go home?!"
"People who say 'go big or go home' seriously underestimate my willingness to go home," I informed her.
"Umm, well, Komachi sent me an email with the list of the stuff she wanted us to buy." She tapped her phone a few times and showed it to me.
Komachi's shopping list
Yakisoba…400yen
Cotton Candy…500yen
Ramune…300yen
Takoyaki…500yen
Your memories of the fireworks…priceless
I chuckled at my little sister's antics.
Well I get that she's trying to be helpful in her own way. I'm not so dense that I can't figure out an obvious set up like this. In face, I'm on the perceptive side. I'm sensitive, I'm oversensitive, and I overreact.
The reason is because about eighty percent of boys in the world harbor feelings about a girl and think 'maybe she likes me?' That's exactly why you have to be the one to bully yourself. You always have to have that calm and cool person inside you who will shoot you that chilly glare 'of course not.' I don't trust other people much, but I trust myself less.
"Come on. Let's go get these one by one."
"Okay." Maybe it was because of Komachi's email or maybe the cheer of the festival had gotten to her but Yui had a bounce in her step as she clip-clopped in her geta. Even amid the noisy throng I could hear her footsteps and her humming.
Yui oohed, her eyes sparkling as she tugged at my sleeve. "Hey hey, what do you want to eat first? Candied apples? How about candied apples?"
"That's not on the list," I protested halfheartedly. I could tell she wanted some though. So we bought two and began to mill about filling Komachi's shopping list.
"Oh wow! You can win a PS5 here!" Just as I was about to walk away, Yui yanked on my sleeve. Her attention was glued to the treasure fishing booth. There was a PS5 and other generous prizes piled up there.
"Come on, you're never going to win that…." I trailed off. "Anway just listen to me."
"Huh? But they've got strings attached to them," she interrupted.
"Yeah, they're attached somewhere. Who knows where though." Each prize had a string attached to it. All the strings were then bunched together before splitting off in every direction. The customer would have no idea what kind of trick was between the string ends and the prizes. "Listen. Any time they show off all the good stuff like that, it's a trap. If something looks like it's gonna work out in your favor, there's always a catch. That's common sense."
"In what world is that common sense? The criminal underworld?"
Our conversation was earning us a glare from the old guy at the treasure fishing booth so I quietly hurried toward the next stall to escape.
I figured we'd get the cotton candy first. The machine at the cotton candy stand rumbled and vibrated as it disseminated its sweet scent into the air, spinning fluffy white threads and weaving them together. The cotton candy was then stuffed into bags and hung from the awning. All the bags had anime characters or superheroes printed on them - probably making Toei money.
"Which one do you want? This really takes me back." Yui must have been feeling a touch nostalgic. I pointed out a pink bag and paid five hundred yen.
After we bought the cotton candy we bought the Ramune and then the Tokoyaki. "We'll get the yakisoba next, I guess?" Yui suggested.
"Sure. I think it was over that way…"
I spun around to start toward the next stall and that's when I noticed a girl looking our way. She gave us a tiny wave and approached us. "Oh it's you, Yui!"
"Oh Sagamin!" Yui gave her a tiny wave in return and took a few steps towards the other girl. Both of them were doing the exact same thing.
So… who was this girl? At times like these it's best to fade out, to sink into the background. I'll become a tree.
"Um…" The girl trailed off and looked at me.
"Oh!" Yui exclaimed. "Yeah, of course. This is Hikigaya. He's in our class. Hikigaya this is Minami Sagami, also in our class."
Huh. So we're in the same class? Now that I think of it, I might've seen her before.
Sagami gave a faint casual bow and that's when our eyes met. It was just a flash. For a fleeting moment a smile appeared on her face.
"Oh really! You guys came together, huh? It's been an all-girls fireworks show for me. So jealous! I bet you're having a great time…"
Yui didn't seem sure how to respond but she laughed it off. "Why are you making it sound like the all-girls swimming show? And it's really not like that with us."
But I didn't feel like laughing at all. I was well acquainted with the smile on Sagami's face just then. It had been neither a grin nor a guffaw. It had been an undeniable sneer. She'd taken one look at the guy Yui Yuigahama was out with and clearly scoffed.
"Huh? Why not?" Asked Sagami. "It's summertime. That sort of thing is nice." The smile on her lips was unfaltering as she briefly scanned me for evaluation.
I looked like a charity case. That's the only reason a girl like Yui would be out with me.
"It looks like there's a line for the yakisoba. I'm going to go wait over there."
"Oh yeah. I'll be over there soon," Yui replied with a somewhat apologetic smile. She stayed where she was and I quickly left.
Anything that would earn Yui scorn should be quickly jettisoned. I could hear Yui and Sagami continuing their conversation behind me but I wasn't listening as I walked away.
I found my way to the yakisoba stall, relying only on the brief memory of its location and the scent of sauce. The sight of the stir fried noodles in the transparent plastic containers held shut by elastic bands and lit by the warm colored glow of the bare light bulb made me weirdly hungry. I paid for the yakisoba and took a container and that's when Yui showed up again.
"Sorry," she managed, looking a little awkward.
But she had nothing to apologize for. I shrugged absently. "It isn't a big deal," I informed her.
She looked me dead in the eye. "I'm not embarrassed by you."
"Oh. Oh! Oh?" I managed.
"I'm not. You're interesting but most people wouldn't know it. You have to get to know you to know that."
When one of us looked away it was me. She meant what she said.
"I think, given the choice, I'd rather be boring."
She giggled at me a little. "Well you're not. Unfortunately you're interesting. May you live in interesting times and all that rot."
I blinked at her a little. I wasn't quite sure how to process this. "Well the fireworks should be starting soon…"
"Yeah. Wanna find a spot?" She asked.
I bobbed my head in agreement.
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-WG
