The Passengers on the Hankyu Line полностью

Kei’ichi suggested it himself. ‘Why not just leave them here? Your aunt goes into your room sometimes, doesn’t she? To clean it or something?’

Of course it would be terribly awkward if Miho’s aunt happened to find these.

‘But don’t your friends come over here to hang out?’

‘Guys wouldn’t think anything of it … If you’ve got a girlfriend, it’s totally normal to have them around. That packaging might be a little embarrassing … but it’s no big deal – it’s fine to keep them here.’

From Miho’s wide-eyed look, he realized that he’d said too much.

She raised her hand and asked quietly, ‘Do you … have some?’

It was a difficult question to answer truthfully.

‘Oh … well … just in case. It’s not as if I don’t have those desires.’

‘Um, you mean, to use with me?’

‘Don’t make me mad!’

Her question offended him. She apologized and gazed at him with upturned eyes. When used with the right person, it was the strongest weapon in any girl’s arsenal – it made her invincible. And he was the right person.

‘It’s Christmas … we could take them out of that embarrassing package and put them to use?’

Having fired the starting gun, Miho took off the necklace she had just put on, ‘just to be on the safe side’.

But neither of them had any experience with what came next.

He didn’t want to hurt her or force himself on her – whenever she stiffened up, she’d apologize and say she was fine. But he could tell by the tension in her body that she was fibbing.

‘… Sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing so do you mind if I turn on the light?’

He thought it’d be easier if he could see whether things were going all right, but she rejected his request with a yelp.

‘I don’t want you to … if we keep trying, I’m sure we’ll get there.’

Little by little, going by what didn’t seem to hurt, they finally found their way, although by that time it was long past midnight and he didn’t want to think about how many of the items from that embarrassing package they had wasted.

Miho fell asleep, whether from exhaustion or just from it being over, and as he looked at her sleeping face, he hated to wake her.

‘Miho-chan, don’t you need to go back home?’

He could not have predicted the confession that she now made.

‘It’s OK … I said that I was staying out all night at a karaoke club with my friends.’ She opened her sleepy eyes. ‘I didn’t know whether or not this would happen tonight, but even if we were just sleeping, I wanted to stay over at your place. I’m only rarely allowed to stay out, for special occasions.’

‘Just sleeping’ – he wasn’t sure that it ever would have worked out that way.

He wondered if she hadn’t concocted that story with her friends’ help, which might have explained their present.

Kei’ichi got into bed too. After the night’s desperate struggle, they would greet the morning together for the first time.

Apparently Miho had consulted with her friends about how to do it so that it wouldn’t hurt as much, which led to them teasing Kei’ichi for a little while.

Whatever it is, Miho-chan always wants to know the best way to do things, but I wish she would have thought about how awkward this is for me … Then again, it seemed that the advice Miho’s older and wiser friends had given her had helped, because she no longer grimaced during the act.

It turned out there was something to be said for finding the best way to do something.

‘OK, then.’ Kei’ichi nodded.

‘Huh, really?’ Miho’s voice was upbeat.

‘That slope is too steep, it’s still out of the question.’

Even if she could figure out the best way to do it, this wasn’t something he would ever go along with.

Her expression suddenly brightened when he said, ‘Instead, once spring comes around, we can do lots of hiking. You can forage for all the bracken and sansai, as many edible wild plants as you like. If we go deep into the mountains, I’m sure a couple of country kids like us can find them.’

‘Hooray!’ Miho clapped her hands and whooped like a child.

Is that really how college girls acted nowadays? This was something he wondered every so often, but that was also what he found so irresistible about her.

‘If we get off at Nigawa, there’s a trail at Mount Kabuto that supposedly takes about two hours. We could go check it out today? Even just walking on the dry riverbed, I bet we could find some wild rocambole and strawberry saxifrage.’

‘All right, let’s go!’

Miho paused and cocked her head. ‘But strawberry saxifrage, isn’t that only used medicinally in a tincture …?’

‘Actually, I looked it up in a foraging field guide, and it said that the leaves are surprisingly delicious fried in tempura. It seems like there are lots of hiking trails along the Hankyu Line.’

Miho stared at Kei’ichi, without blinking.

‘… What?’

‘You went to the trouble of looking it up?’