It was a straightforward enough question, and all he could do was stammer in response. Miho had mentioned the bracken along the railway cutting in between Koto’en and Nigawa a while ago, and though he’d rejected that idea, he had come up with an alternative plan.
He couldn’t allow her to attempt the forty-five-degree slope alone, nor did he want to go along with her to do the thing that she had set her mind on. He suspected that the reason she wanted to pick bracken was because it was something she did with her family. Maybe she was feeling a little homesick.
‘No, I just thought it would be fun too. I’ve got nothing against going to the mountains. That’s why,’ he said, and Miho slipped her arm through his.
‘Thank you. It makes me very happy that you would do that with me.’
And now for the clincher.
‘… So, the forty-five-degree slope is off limits, right?’
He made her pinkie-swear and then he changed the subject.
‘So anyway, whatever happened with that torii gate? When we first started dating, didn’t you say that you would get up the nerve to go and ask them about it?’
‘Hmm … I think I might prefer to let that lie. I’m not sure I need to know.’
When he asked her why, she laughed.
‘Because that’s how we met. My heart goes pitter-patter whenever I think of it and I want to hold on to that feeling for as long as I can – and to keep the mystery.’
Kei’ichi pursed his lips and glared at Miho, and then he flicked her forehead with his index finger.
‘Ouch! What’s that for?!’
Kei’ichi looked away as she put a hand to her forehead.
The train stopped at Nigawa and they got off, Miho holding his hand while she rubbed her flicked forehead with the other hand.
Obayashi Station
It had been about six months since Shoko had moved to the town of Obayashi, after the elderly woman she met on the train had recommended she stop there on the way home from her incursion.
Luckily, the company where she had been working had a fairly good reputation, so it hadn’t been all that difficult for Shoko to find a new job. Whereas previously her office had been located on Midosuji Avenue in central Osaka, this time she decided to look for a job in Kobe. She now worked in sales for a boutique design firm in Sannomiya.
Her former colleagues had told her repeatedly that she shouldn’t be the one to quit, but she had protested, claiming that it was too painful.
Putting on a brave face and smiling through it had been her final act of aggression. Her superiors had regretfully accepted her letter of resignation. Shoko didn’t give a damn what happened with her ex-fiancé and the woman who had stolen him away.
Shoko’s quitting meant that the two of them got their wish and wouldn’t have to see her any more, and that her colleagues’ sympathy for her and their memory of the scandal would fade as the proverbial seventy-five days passed.
It wasn’t only the atmosphere of Obayashi that had appealed to Shoko – the neighbourhood turned out to be very livable. It was the perfect halfway point between Umeda and Sannomiya, a thirty-minute trip to either Osaka or Kobe.
There were plenty of supermarkets and convenience stores, and her rent was quite reasonable. Shoko had told the real estate broker what she could afford to spend, and she ended up having too many options to choose from.
Ultimately, the broker found her a charming studio apartment that was a five-minute walk from the station, where the rent was even lower than what Shoko had originally proposed.
Her new workplace was rewarding. Or, perhaps more to the point, she seemed to have discovered that working in sales suited her.
Depending upon her workload, her weekend schedule was sometimes uncertain, but since she happened to be single at the moment and her friends were often busy, she didn’t feel especially inconvenienced by not always having the entire weekend to herself.
Today, a Saturday, wasn’t busy so she only had to work a half-day, and since she didn’t have any particular plans for the rest of the day, she had been on her way home. Perhaps she ought to have done a bit of shopping in Sannomiya, that way she would have avoided finding herself in the same train carriage as that gaggle of older ladies.
All the same, it was a first to have one of them throw her bag onto the seat just as Shoko was about to sit down. Any anger was overtaken by shock. The young female college student sitting nearby appeared to have the same response. They were both stunned.
The female college student seemed to have a strong sense of fairness, and was about to demonstrate it, but Shoko knew that it was more prudent to steer clear of her.