Adachi and Shimamura1,1,1
hose words Adachi spoke while skipping class with me, "let's go play
ping-pong", would eventually turn into a small-scale table tennis craze
between us two. A table and all the necessary equipment—rarely used these
days—had been stored on the second floor of the gym. As we obviously
couldn't open the large window, it was a little hot and stuffy up there.
A green net was stretched across the side that overlooked the first floor. It
was there to stop any stray balls from falling down, likely something from a
time when this school still used to have a table tennis club. Sitting on its
edge, chatting with Adachi in hushed voices, had been starting to get a little
boring, which is why I had agreed to her suggestion.
It was the end of October, a time when winter uniforms had already
replaced the summer ones, but the weather was still slightly too hot for their
long sleeves. The sky was clear and blue without a single cloud, and gym
classes were being held outside. Adachi and I were the only ones using the
gym, although without permission. After taking a peek down into the first
floor and confirming that that really was the case, we began setting up the
table.
"Were you in any clubs in middle school?" Adachi asked me while
struggling to install the net onto the table. Though the two of us had been
skipping class together for a month now, I suppose that school clubs just
were something that had never come up.
late practising shots."
"Wouldn't have thought", Adachi replied, probably because I was shorter
than her.
"So, should we play basketball then?"
"It's no fun playing against an amateur."
"Yeah, yeah", she smirked back. Bouncing balls around on the court
below was a quick way to draw the teachers' attention. Not that Adachi had
meant it seriously, of course. Besides, as we naturally were both wearing
school uniforms, I had a feeling we would have been way too bothered by our
skirts riding up to focus on anything else.
Ping-pong had just enough movement for an amateur to handle.
In the small, quiet space on the second floor...
Adachi and I were first year high school students, though both far from
what you'd call a model one. We hadn't known each other forever or anything
like that, but rather, had met for the first time after starting here. What I knew
about her was a puddle compared to the ocean of what I didn't. Most of those
were things that I had no need to know.
There wasn't really anything all that adventurous about Adachi's looks.
Her hair—a bit on the longer side—had been dyed light brown, but it barely
stood out, to the point that you could easily have mistaken it as her real hair
colour. Her body was slender and generally curveless. Her shoulders were
also heavily sloped, leading one to wonder if she even had any. At the same
time, as her eyes were confident and her lips thin, the expressions on her face
Though she got angry and laughed like anyone else, not once had I seen
her raise her voice.
She often wore a silver bracelet around her left wrist. It was perhaps a
little too big, and the way it rested on her wrist made it look like she was
wearing a thin handcuff on just one of her hands.
As for me, my hair was dark brown, and anyone could have seen that it
was dyed. I also spent longer putting on makeup than Adachi. Though it was
pretty ridiculous that a single small earring was all it took for people to treat
me like a delinquent, Adachi was still far more popular with the teachers.
Probably because she was the prettier one and rarely if ever acted defiant.
Don't let yourself be deceived, however: that girl was at least three times
the troublemaker I was. If you wanted proof, all you had to do was look at the
number of days she had actually attended school. Even so, being three times
as diligent as Adachi wasn't enough to make me an honours student,
unfortunately. Our test scores were also in the same range, curiously enough.
Adachi had taken off her uniform jacket and tied it around her waist.
Once the table was fully set up, I followed her lead and took mine off too. I'd
be moving my body all over and didn't want it to tear. Of course, the main
reason was how hot it was in here.
I took off the makeup I was wearing since I was going to get sweaty
anyway and held out the racket, which, from the looks of it, had mould
growing on it. The pink, spotted ping-pong ball rested on my palm. Adachi
stood facing me, in her left hand holding a racket of her own. Looking at her,
"When did you last play table tennis?"
"Hmm... Not since 6th grade."
We talked while hitting the ball back and forth. This was the kind of
vocabulary I hadn't used in ages, and a grin soon formed on my face.
"6th grade? That's like, forever ago!"
Being right-handed made it easy for me to aim for her right side. I
mercilessly shot the ball towards that area, only for Adachi to skilfully hit it
back with the back of her racket, barely moving from where she stood.
"You're pretty fast."
"I can do this too."
In the blink of an eye, she switched the racket over to her right hand and
swiftly shot the ball back, hitting it with much more strength than I had. I was
left staring in awe. Well, the ball did end up missing the table completely and
landed in the net behind me, but still, impressive nonetheless.
We killed some time like that, playing casual ping-pong with some
occasional serious back-and-forths. Meanwhile in the classroom, the third-
period class was taking place. What was it on Mondays again? Maths?
Maybe Japanese history? Either way, I was far too busy chasing the ball to
try to remember; classes and such had become a secondary issue in my mind.
Adachi and I hadn't always skipped class together. She had her own
places, and I had mine. Not that she even used to come to school all that
much anyway.
Reading manga and stuff, you often see students hanging around on their
Besides, you'd probably get sunburnt if you took a nap or something up there.
That's why I chose the second floor of the gym, because it was safe from both
people and the sun. Coincidentally, Adachi too had taken notice of it.
The second term had barely started back then, and it was still quite hot.
Perhaps that's why she had been sitting around lazily with her shoes—and
even her socks—off. I still remember the way she sprang up in panic as I
walked in, probably thinking that I was a teacher making the rounds or
something, as well as her cute, little toes which she had been wiggling
around.
Ever since then, we had often found ourselves doing the same thing by a
complete fluke. That also went for skipping class; we'd get a hunch that the
other might have come here, and when we went to check, there they were. As
for after-school stuff, well, Adachi rarely ended up staying the whole day,
and as such, I usually went with my other two friends. Those two were the
complete opposites of delinquents, though, and had probably never failed to
copy a single letter off the blackboard, much less skip a class.
Two diligent students and two not so diligent. Well balanced, or maybe
just halfway done. The ping-pong ball travelled between us, slowly enough to
cause my mind to wander off to such thoughts.
I got to take some time off the things that usually bothered me, and it felt
great.
"Too hot. I can't keep going."
enough. She placed the racket on the table and waved her hands sideways, as
if to further reinforce her statement. She wasn't the only one exhausted. I
rolled up my sleeves—now sticking to my arms with sweat—and left the
table as well. The ping-pong ball remained in my hand, though. I could have
tried tossing it on the table, but since I didn't feel confident in my ability to
land the throw, I decided against it.
Whoever was in charge of cleaning this place must have been pretty
careless. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, sticking to it like
wax. Neither I nor Adachi really wanted to sit on it, but thankfully, the net
that stopped balls from falling down to the first floor also doubled as a bench.
On it we sat, quietly.
"I want some wind", Adachi muttered, her face flushed and her cheeks
burning. Feeling the exact same way, I gave the window we weren't able to
open a bitter look.
It wasn't that the window was locked or anything, of course, and if we
tried, we could probably have opened it with ease. No, the problem was more
that if we did that, people outside might see and realize that someone was up
here.
"Should we go out? The lunch break's soon."
Adachi had rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and even pulled its tail out of
her skirt. No way could I ever wear my uniform that casually. If left alone,
she'd probably roll up her skirt too; another thing that I wasn't able to imitate.
Even if no one was watching, it was still kinda embarrassing. Just as I
and waved it.
"My, how immodest. Our school's— um, what's the word? Umm..."
"Dignity?"
"Yeah, that's it. 'Tis being degraded."
"Anyway, lunch, huh? What to do..."
Adachi glanced at me as she said this. I decided to let the abrupt change
of topic slide.
Considering that all it took for me to go back to my regular uniform was
to put on my jacket, I was inevitably chosen as the one to go do the shopping.
If Adachi were to go, she would have to first tug her shirt, roll down her
sleeves, redo her buttons, and then put on her jacket. And that was just way
too much work. She probably also wanted to fix her hair, seeing how it had
fluffed up slightly.
"Fine, fine. I'll go."
"I promise I'll go next time."
"I don't think your 'next time' and mine are the same thing."
This must have been her fifth next time already. And yet, Adachi simply
laughed.
"A danish, and... water's fine. That'll be all."
"Got it. If they're sold out, I'll just grab something."
Adachi always drank mineral water. It kinda made me jealous thinking
that that might be why her skin was so clear and without any spots. Maybe
instead of blood, she had water running in her veins.
"I might. What about you? Going home?"
"Hmm, well... Not to class anyway."
After a second of thought, she uncrossed her arms and placed her hands
on the floor. The air of nonchalance was already back on her face.
Never had I tried seriously asking Adachi why she didn't go to class. The
reverse was also true. We had simply happened to both come here at the same
time and, feeling a little bored nevertheless, tried playing table tennis to see if
that would help.
I flicked away the ping-pong ball I had kept in my hand. It made soft
clacks as it bounced on the floor before hitting a wall and stopping. Those
sounds resembled the sound of knocking on the door of another's heart.
Adachi took off her shoes and, dangling them off her fingertips, spoke.
She was completely focused on that activity, and the look on her face was
really stern. Her lower lip was curled and pushed forward, like she was really
giving it her all.
"Ping-pong is pretty fun, huh?"
"True that. Individual sports might be a better fit for me after all."
While I did enjoy basketball too, I had realized in my third year in middle
school that I just wasn't suited for it. I was the kind of person who, when it
came to competitions, always wanted to test how far they could get with their
own strength alone, and I knew well that that would just end up ruining the
dynamic in team sports. I also regularly got told off for hogging the ball.
"But, you know. If they said we were having ping-pong in gym class, I
"Same here. I'll be hiding somewhere else if that happens."
Adachi agreed while stretching her hand up. She waved it in the air
before cracking her elbow and letting out a yawn. I hear that's just how her
body was. Apparently, it always made that kinda sound when she stretched
her elbow. Strange.
"We sure agree on the weirdest things, Shimamura."
Adachi had said my name, and though she probably was unaware, just
hearing it annoyed me. I really hated my last name: "Shimamura". The first
thing that came to anyone's mind when they thought about "Shimamura" was
the fashion store by the same name, and I couldn't help but to feel that
whenever people referred to me, that's what they were imagining. Being a
"Shimazaki" or something would've be much better.
As we sat there relaxed, our legs stretched out, the chime indicating the
end of class played. It echoed through the gym which should have been
empty, and soon enough, my stomach joined in on its melody with a growl.
"There's the chime."
"Yep."
"Off you go now."
Adachi waved goodbye at me, and so, I reluctantly stood up. I put on the
jacket that I had taken off, as well as my shoes. Then, after checking that I
had my wallet, I headed to the stairs. Before I got there, I took a look back
and saw Adachi stretching for her bag to grab her phone and, not quite
reaching it, flopping back down into her original position. Though I could
protested a little by drumming the floor with her heels, but I simply shook my
shoulders and walked down the stairs.
Just who Adachi had registered in her phone was yet another in the
endless pile of mysteries that surrounded her. I had never seen her talking
with anyone in school, besides me of course. Well, I guess that made sense,
seeing how she barely came to school in the first place.
We had been meeting here a lot lately, though, so maybe she was coming
to see me.
Realizing that could actually be the reason made me feel a little uneasy.
And for some reason, it felt like if I were to bring that up with her,
Adachi would never come to the second floor of the gym again.
The next day, Adachi once again asked me if I was up for some table
tennis. She seemed slightly more enthusiastic than yesterday, and I pondered
why that might be while setting up the table and the net. Having already done
it once, we managed to get everything ready a little faster than the last time.
"Can I serve first?"
"Sure?"
She readied the ball—orange this time—and served. It wasn't any normal
shot, however. She shook the racket sharply, as if cutting the underside of the
ball, which made it spin and caused it to bounce back to her side after hitting
the table in front of me.
I was far too confused, more so by Adachi's exaggerated motions than the
"Hum."
Adachi returned my look of suspicion with a wide, childish smile, the like
of which was rarely seen on her face. It really left an impression.
"I looked this up online yesterday. I didn't have a racket, though, so I
practised with a spoon."
She spun the racket in her hand as she bragged, proud that the unveiling
of her new technique had gone successfully. It was honestly more surprising
to me that Adachi was this into ping-pong, but as the chagrin I felt was
strong, I decided to act like that didn't interest me.
"You're using curve balls against an amateur? That's low."
"It's your fault for having no ambition, Shimamura. Here comes another
one!"
Adachi took another weird pose and began serving. She hit it a little too
low this time, however, and the ball ended up flying backwards towards her
direction instead. It hit the wall and bounced back. After having picked it up,
Adachi scratched her forehead. Then, bouncing the ball on her racket, she
explained.
"You see, I'm still only good enough to send one out of every ten flying
straight forward..."
"So, you got worse after learning a new technique?" Was I really going to
win just by standing still?
Well, as it turned out, yes. Just like the previous one, her next attempt
failed too, and the ball flew off in the distance, bouncing off the floor and the
pick it up, even if it had ultimately been Adachi's fault. Just then, however, I
heard a voice coming from downstairs.
The shock I felt was comparable to a needle being stuck into my heart.
My body came to a sudden halt, and the ball I had been chasing rolled away.
Adachi reacted similarly. Someone was speaking: a girl. Adachi quickly
circled around the table and walked over to where I was, and we took a peek
down below together. If there was someone on the stage, they'd only need to
look up and they'd see us. While the piercing sensation in my heart had
already passed, I could still feel my skin tingle nervously.
It seemed that we were having gym this period. Girls from our class had
begun setting up to play volleyball. The reason why I realised this—that they
were my classmates—was due to spotting the familiar faces of my friends.
Hino and Nagafuji, to be precise. They were currently carrying the net and its
supports. We had only ever sat down and talked before, so it hadn't been that
much of a shock even when someone did walk into the gym. As such, I had
never taken the time to actually learn the class schedule.
We sat there, crouched, our hands on our mouths. The ping-pong ball still
bounced lightly on the floor, and we waited nervously to see if anyone would
react to its noise.
"Oh damn, my heart's pounding", Adachi whispered to me. It almost
sounded like she was enjoying the thrill.
"Why are you getting a kick out of this?" I laughed back, poking her with
my elbow.
As I asked her this, Adachi—with her hands still on her mouth—laughed
and turned her eyes upwards.
"Huh? But, this is the second floor. Won't we break our legs?"
I voiced my disapproval towards Adachi's proposal. Jumping out of any
window was scary, but even more so this one since I had never taken a look
at what was below it. Although, it did kinda feel like I was taking what was
meant as a joke seriously. With a short "hmm", Adachi nodded.
"So, you're saying you don't get enough calcium?"
"How is that the conclusion you came to?!"
Me getting angry might have just proven her point.
Through the wall I leant against, I could feel the chatter of my classmates.
The teacher hadn't arrived yet, it seemed, and there was nothing to stop them
from talking. Hino and Nagafuji had no clue where I went when I skipped
class, and the thought of me being in the same building as them probably
didn't even cross their minds. It was pretty funny to think about.
Crouching there, hiding, made it feel like I was doing something wrong.
Well, I obviously was, but sharing that wrongdoing with Adachi was kinda
fun. Was I into it because she was with me, or was I simply getting off on the
feeling of doing something that I shouldn't?
I knew right away, but decided to leave the question unanswered.
At some point, the orange ping-pong ball had rolled all the way to the end
of the wall and come to a stop.
"Maybe I'll drink some milk during lunch today, so that I can jump down
without breaking my legs", Adachi planned. The look on her face was
simultaneously serious and non-serious.
As school came to an end that day, Adachi had, as was the norm, already
left. She had told me before that her mom would yell at her if she came home
early, so I figured she just loitered around town, killing time.
Much like yesterday, I attended the afternoon classes, after which I
dropped by a bookstore with Hino and Nagafuji. I normally wouldn't have
gone with them as my home was in the opposite direction, but today, there
was something that I kinda wanted to check out. Well, not that I knew if they
even had those sorts of books, considering that I had never taken a look at
that section before.
"Oh, they do."
Standing before the shelf that contained sports books, I pulled out one
that taught table tennis. If Adachi was going to look stuff up online, then I
was going to use a book. I turned it around and took a look at the price tag.
As I did, I couldn't help but gasp.
"That's expensive!"
I could see now why the internet got so popular. It was easy to look stuff
up. And cheap.
"What are you looking at?"
Hino walked up to me and took a look at what I was holding. Though we
had parted ways at the store's entrance, she had apparently seen me and come
to check out what I was doing.
"You're going to join the table tennis club, Shimamura?" she asked, tilting
her head. A pretty strange question, considering that our school didn't have
Hino was my kinda plain-looking classmate. She had never dyed her hair,
never shoplifted, and probably had never pulled the hair of a girl from
another school. Well, not that I had done the latter two either.
Her eyes were big and round, which lent a certain air of charm to her... or
maybe just simple-mindedness, as evidenced by her addition of a vocal sound
effect into the swing of her air racket. She easily got caught in the moment,
and I'm sure that if you flattered her, she'd even do a backflip or two for you.
She also often lamented about how there were no people in school who
shared her passion for her hobby—fishing—but that was a whole another
story.
"So, why table tennis? Did you watch 'Ping Pong' on TV or something?"
"No, I wasn't influenced by anything. I just... felt like it."
It would have been too difficult to explain. Well, it really wouldn't have
been. Still, the words wouldn't come out, and I ended up placing the book
back onto the shelf without so much as reading a single page of it. In the end,
it seemed that I too would be relying on the internet. In my mind, I could
already hear Adachi accusing me of copying her, and it kinda pissed me off. I
was so angry, in fact, that it'd be worse if she didn't say it.
"Guys, don't leave me!"
The last member of our group toddled over, proclaiming her presence in a
monotone-ish voice.
Nagafuji had giant breasts and wore glasses. What more did I need to
explain? Well, her hair was also really long, and when she wasn't in her
felt good to the touch.
Matching her breast size, her attitude too was all adult-like. She was
always calm and composed. But, also a little dumb.
"What are you talking about?"
Hino gave her chest a slight smack, as if to say "don't worry about it".
"Okay, I won't", she replied while giving Hino's head a tap in return. The
two had been friends since middle school, or so I'd heard. I, on the other
hand, had only gotten to know them after entering high school, and so, even
if we were all friends, it felt like the two were slightly closer with each other
than with me. Still, friendships aren't such that being close is always better.
Get too close and you might be met with opposition, and you'll realise that
you weren't ever that good of friends to begin with.
"What's your excuse for such casual sexual harassment?"
"You always worry about your boobs. I thought I'd help you ease up."
Hino wasn't at all ashamed. Rather, I had never seen her act that way. Did
she maybe have a strong sense of what was right? Or was that the wrong way
to describe it?
"You do?" I asked. Looking downwards, almost like she was a little
embarrassed, Nagafuji nodded slightly.
"Well, they're big and boys are always staring at them. Of course I
worry."
She crossed her arms, as if to hide her chest. Of course, she wasn't able to
hide it at all.
ten times a lesson, I think."
"Whoa... That's gross."
Nagafuji looked visibly grossed out as I said this. Well, that probably
wasn't all they imagined, but since I didn't want to start talking about those
sorts of things in public, I decided to leave it there. Taking a glance at the
table tennis book I had put back into the shelf, I sighed.
"That's the price you pay", Hino said, and gave her chest a tap, in the
same way that you'd tap someone on the shoulder.
"Oops, got them mixed u— Blegh! "
Nagafuji smacked her head before she could finish her sentence, and she
ended up biting her tongue.
The two continued their back-and-forth, making all sorts of noises. I
slipped away quietly so as not to be grouped with them.
Even so, the three of us ended up back together as we left the bookstore.
And I really was trying to get away...
"Hey, Shimamura. You skip class pretty often, right? What do you do in
the meantime?"
Hino, walking next to me, asked me this while holding a bag with the
magazine she had bought inside. Nagafuji's eyes also turned my way. Though
they were both the kind of students who'd never skip class, it seemed that
they were still sort of interested in it. Even so, there wasn't really anything for
me to explain. Considering that the two were capable of combating
enough to tempt them down the wrong path.
Although, that did kinda make me ask why I went there either.
"What do I do? Well, just kinda hang around. You know, sleep, lie
around, do stuff on my phone."
Playing table tennis wasn't one of the things I mentioned.
"What freedom", Hino said. She didn't seem jealous.
"We have a place like that in school? It feels like the teachers would find
you wherever you went."
Nagafuji seemed puzzled. For an honours student like her who never
wandered too far in the more deserted parts of school, it was probably
inconceivable for there to be any places there suited for a classic game of
hide-and-seek.
"Ah! I think I have a pretty good guess of where you do it."
"Huh?"
Hino suddenly proclaimed that. Though I didn't know if her guess was
right or not, it still got me pretty flustered.
"Should we go there and look for her the next time?" she then proposed to
Nagafuji, making it sound like it would be really fun.
"Knock it off..." I latched back, my warning mixed with a wry smile. If
they really did find me, that wouldn't be very good.
If it had been just me, then whatever. But, Adachi was around too now.
"Speaking of which, I met a weird girl at the fish pond last Sunday."
I rolled my eyes at Hino's sudden and inexplicably proud outburst. Just
"When aren't you running into weird people?"
All the people who Hino introduced with a phrase like that really did end
up being weirdos, and it never ceased to amaze me. Had she just been born
under that sort of a star? Although, if that was the case, then I guess that
would make me a weirdo too.
"It's better than running into a pervert", Nagafuji followed up. I couldn't
argue with that. But, was that really good enough for you, Hino?
"Let's see, who have I met lately... There was this one girl who was
wearing something that looked like a space suit, and..." she continued talking
in a gleeful tone of voice, which probably meant that it was. Well, as long as
she was happy.
Half-listening to Hino's story about the weird girl, we made our way back
to the school area and began our usual journeys home. As Hino and Nagafuji
both came to school by bus, the bus stop would be as far as we went together.
After that, it'd be me walking back home all by myself. Our family only had a
single bicycle, and since Mom used it all the time, I rarely got to ride it. Mom
had been the sports-type in her youth and still went to the gym, and so, the
speed at which she pedalled was just out of this world. It was to the point that
you could have used it for the source of an urban legend.
"Hey, look!"
As we passed by a gas station, Hino suddenly pointed at something in
front of us. After making sure that we were looking, she quickly pulled her
hand back. I strained my eyes to see what it was, and then—
It was Adachi.
Like a model delinquent, Adachi sat on the fence that separated the road
from the side walk. She was wearing her school uniform as casually as ever,
with her jacket taken off and her shirt untucked. Something about the way her
bangs sat seemed to bother her, judging from the way she was fiddling with
them with a mirror in hand.
Were she to fall backwards, she would naturally tumble onto the road. I
was more worried about that than whether or not it was good manners to be
sitting there.
Next to Adachi was parked a blue bicycle which seemed to belong to her.
For the first time ever, I learned that she came to school by bike.
Adachi noticed us too. She glared at us, which caused Hino to jump a
little. Come to think of it, Hino and Nagafuji had never spoken to Adachi. As
such, they didn't know about us two being friends either. It wouldn't have
been all that weird for them to interpret her stare as something more hostile.
Now, considering those factors...
I had never really put much thought into running across Adachi outside of
the gym. What was I supposed to do here? Seeing how she was looking at me
but not moving, it was fair to assume that Adachi was just as confused as I
was.
Either way, we couldn't just stand there staring at each other forever. I
averted my gaze.
In the end, we ended up pretending to not know one another.
Was she maybe mad that I was ignoring her? I looked over my shoulder and
our eyes met, and a few seconds later we turned our faces away nearly at the
same time.
"..."
What was this emotion I felt, this restlessness and embarrassment? I
mean, it wasn't like we were a couple trying to keep the fact that they were
going out a secret. Well, I suppose it might have shared some nuances.
"Who was that girl? I think I've seen her in class. Like, in April",
Nagafuji asked me while tucking her dangly hair behind her ear. Seriously,
again?
"You ask who she is every time we see her", Hino pointed out.
"Do I?" she replied back. Yeah, I guess she wasn't really the thinking
type.
"She's... Adachi. From our class."
"She's a real delinquent, one recognized by the teachers."
Hino added on to my simple explanation. You had to be recognized by a
teacher to be a delinquent?
"A delinquent, huh? So, Shimamura's comrade?"
"Who knows."
From Nagafuji's perspective, even I was a delinquent. The only difference
between us was that I came to class every once in a while, while Adachi
never did. In other words, no such thing as a diligent delinquent.
Well, there was a slight difference; Adachi looked tough like she was
was constantly spacing out, like an iguana passing the day in the sun. Just
sitting there, idling away instead of going to class.
What might a bad girl like her have been doing in a place like this?
I casually took one more look over my shoulder, only to find that Adachi
had already ridden off.
The next day was Wednesday. There was still a lot of the week left.
Adachi wasn't showing up.
Even after first period ended and the class that had been using the gym
left, I remained alone on the second floor. It was cloudy today, and no light
came through the windows. The pleasant weather made it easy to just sit
there and idle.
Nevertheless, by third period, even I was beginning to get bored. After
waiting till the period started and confirming that no one had come to the
gym, I grabbed a table tennis racket. I then picked up an orange ping-pong
ball that had been left on the floor and hit it towards the wall. It bounced
once, hit the wall, and flew back towards me. I hit it again. Wall tennis, I
think this was called.
Practising by myself in secret would widen the skill gap between me and
Adachi. Although, I suppose it had already been pretty wide with her
handicapping herself by sticking to that weird serve she had learned. I
continued hitting the ball back towards the wall, every now and then taking a
glance at the stairs and the landing.
since we'd met, so her randomly not showing up made me feel pretty restless.
There had also been that incident yesterday after school, and I couldn't help
but be a little worried. Still, it was probably—no, definitely—an unnecessary
worry.
If what happened yesterday really had caused Adachi to never come here
again, the regret would haunt me for the rest of my life. Well, if not my
whole life, then at least for half a year. After that, we'd switch classes, and the
memories would fade away like ink.
I had already parted ways with and forgotten many friends before meeting
Adachi, Hino, and Nagafuji. You come to the surface for a quick breather
before sinking deep, deep down. Then, after everything around you
disappears and you start to suffocate, you aim for the surface again. That was
my impression of human relationships.
"...Oops."
I heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs. I stopped hitting the
ball and stood still on the spot, waiting to see who it was. Maybe Adachi?
Maybe a teacher? Quite the nerve-racking moment... or so I thought until I
heard the characteristic sound of indoor shoes and realised that it was a
student.
As you'd have it, the one climbing the stairs had been Adachi. She noticed
me and smiled relievedly.
There was something slightly off about her this time: she wasn't carrying
her bag with her.
"Oh, no. I was thinking about leaving already. I just came to check."
Adachi combed her hair with her hand as she said this. "Already"? It
wasn't even noon yet.
Not only that, if she was "leaving", was it fair to assume that she'd been in
school for at least some time?
"I heard a ping-pong ball bouncing too."
Sitting at her usual spot, Adachi glanced at my hand.
Had the sounds really been loud enough to be heard that far away?
I placed the racket and ball on the table and sat down. Then, looking at
Adachi, I spoke.
"I saw you yesterday."
"Yep, you did."
She nodded back, confirming my statement. An awkward silence fell
between us. I felt strangely self-conscious, like this one time back in
elementary school when I went to eat out with my family, and a kid from my
class was there at the restaurant.
These sorts of pauses in conversation were a little more common with
Adachi, I found. Perhaps the reason for it was that I had a hard time deciding
how close of friends I wanted to be with her. That word, friend, covered a
wide spectrum of possibilities.
"Where's your bag?"
"In my bike's basket. I didn't want to carry it around, so I left it there."
From the looks of it, she didn't have her phone or wallet with her either. I
Still, that was pretty careless. I wasn't going to tell her that, of course. I
had a feeling she'd laugh and ask if I was her mom or something if I did.
"I didn't know you came to school by bike."
"Oh, we never talked about that? I played with my bike keys every now
and then, but I guess you didn't notice."
As she said this, Adachi spun the keys she had been holding around the
key chain, which seemed to be a purple dog. Or maybe a cow? I could see
that it had four legs, but the exact species was harder to determine.
"Oh, I guess you might have. I wasn't really paying attention."
We both fell silent after I said that. There should definitely have been
other things for us to talk about, but I just couldn't find the words. Adachi
seemed to be in a similar situation. She looked up at the window in front of
us and squinted.
"Well, I'm going now", Adachi said before standing up.
"Oh, okay", I replied back while nodding sluggishly.
Adachi brushed the back of her skirt lightly and began walking towards
the stairs while spinning her keys. What had she come here for, I wondered.
Well, obviously just to drop by.
"Hey, Adachi."
Still sitting, I addressed Adachi, her back turned towards me.
"Hmm?"
She looked over her shoulder, puzzled.
"Which would you prefer: attending class, or going home together?"
number of empty voids inside me which functioned as the organ of my mind.
A few of them had appealed to me to do so.
It's not enough. That feeling, resembling hunger, had gently nudged me
forward.
Well, it might actually have been hunger. It wasn't too long till the lunch
break, after all.
Adachi was taken aback slightly. That surprise quickly passed, however,
like a gust of wind, after which she returned to her calm self.
"...Well, I guess I can go somewhere and kill time until school's over."
She had chosen the latter. Well, obviously. There was no way Adachi was
going to class.
Seeing how I knew that from the get-go, there wasn't really any point
setting up two options.
"I'll wait for you at the place from yesterday."
"Okay, got it."
Adachi waved her hand, and I felt compelled to do the same.
There was something kinda strange about it, her killing time outside of
school and then going home with me.
Yeah, it was definitely weird. But, funny at the same time. The proposal
got me all excited, and I found myself laughing as I saw Adachi off.
Though I always hoped that school would end faster, today, that wish was
twenty percent stronger.
common for us two to be left behind and leave school together. Today wasn't
one of those days, however; I had something planned as well. With a quick
"see ya", I left Hino.
"I'm gonna die of loneliness, like a rabbit", she pleaded. Nonetheless, the
shoe rack was where we separated.
What I liked about those two was that even though they might have given
me advice every now and then, that was as far as it ever went. Never did they
interfere in my affairs in an attempt to rehabilitate me or anything like that.
Let the bad people be evil.
As I put my outdoors shoes on and exited school, I noticed that it had
started raining lightly. Not good. My walk quickly turned into a brisk jog. I
didn't have an umbrella or anything with me, and by the time I exited through
the school gate, that jog had further escalated into a run.
Was Adachi already waiting for me? The thought of that made me feel
bad, and even if it hadn't been raining, I still probably would have run. Of
course, I wasn't looking forward to seeing her or anything; it just wasn't polite
to make someone wait.
Just as I had passed some boys wearing school uniforms, and then the gas
station, I caught a glimpse of Adachi. There was a conflict of emotions in my
head; on one hand, I felt relieved that she had waited for me, and on the
other, sorry for making her wait.
She stood there in the drizzle, holding up an umbrella. The fact that she
carried one surprised me.
Seeing Adachi sit on the fence in the exact same pose from yesterday
made me giggle. As I ran towards her, a little out of breath, she noticed me,
hopped off it, and waited with her hands on her bike's handlebar.
I quickly ran the rest of the way to her, and though I still hadn't made it
home, silently muttered: "Goal".
"Sorry. It started raining."
"No need to apologize. I mean, the rain's not your fault."
Adachi looked a little embarrassed.
"Hold this", she said, before handing me the umbrella. Then, with both of
her hands now free, she released the kickstand of her bike with her foot
before looking back to me.
"Which way's your house?"
"That way", I pointed.
"Thought so..."
Adachi's face clouded over. I gave her a questioning look, as if asking, "is
that not good?"
"No, it's just... My house is over that way", she replied, pointing in a
direction around 70 degrees off the one I had. It wasn't all that surprising
when you considered the fact that we obviously didn't share a middle school
district, but even so, we really did live far apart. There was no need for
Adachi to pass through here on her way home.
And yet, she had been here yesterday. Why? Another one on the pile of
mysteries surrounding her.
"What a novel question. Well, hmm, how about yours?" I answered.
There was no getting over the fact that one of us would have to make a huge
detour. I decided to give Adachi priority over myself, in part due to feeling
guilty for making her wait in the rain. She had no objections to this and got
on her bike.
"You're riding on the back? Okay, you hold the umbrella then."
Adachi kicked the rear wheel lightly. Not a bad idea. Still, tongue in
cheek, I pretended to admonish her.
"Two people sharing a bike is against the rules!"
"So what? We're delinquents."
"Yeah, I guess that's true. Comes with a lot of benefits, huh?"
"Definitely does."
As Adachi had suggested, I quickly hopped onto the back. I placed my
feet on either side of the wheel, and a hand on her shoulder for support.
"Ready", I told her, holding the umbrella in my remaining hand. Adachi
began pedalling. She seemed to have some trouble at first, but as the speed
stabilised, it became easier for her to keep the pedals moving smoothly.
combination with her face, looking at it on its own, it seemed kinda surreal,
like some sort of a fuzzy creature. Was my head like that too?
Had either one of us been a good, diligent student, she'd likely have
yelled something like "this isn't an okay thing to do" and attempted to pull the
other back on the right track, burning with passion to help her friend. Of
course, neither Adachi nor I were.
If anything, it felt like we were sinking in deeper.
I also felt like I was holding the umbrella way too high, and it was doing
a horrible job blocking the rain.
"You have friends, huh, Shimamura?"
Driving back the road which I had come down, Adachi spoke, facing
forward.
Her voice sounded calm, but also a bit dry. Perhaps that was due to it
coming from slightly below me.
I had a hunch that things could get pretty awkward depending on my
answer. Why? Well, that I wasn't sure about.
"I'm also friends with UNIQLO and H&M", I joked, poking fun at the last
name I hated so. Adachi's shoulders wavered lightly, as if to indicate a giggle.
"I figured that the reason you were hanging in a place like that was
because you didn't have any."
What a rare occurrence: Adachi was talking about me. Or perhaps, was
having such a view more of a comment on herself than anything? In turn, I
asked Adachi about her.
"Hmm... You, I guess?"
"That's not many."
Though I said that, I also felt a tiny bit delighted. Although, I guess it
wasn't really something to be happy about from her perspective.
The next corner was a sharp turn. Adachi steered the way she always did,
but with another person's worth of additional weight on top of it, the bike
wasn't quite as responsive as she had expected. Wobbling, we came close to
scraping against the wall of the building next to us.
Adachi turned her head upwards after regaining control. With no regard
to the road, she stared up at me.
"Wh-What?"
She didn't answer right away. The bike continued travelling forward, her
head still bent backwards. I wanted to watch the road in her stead and make
sure that we didn't crash into anything, but it was hard to turn my eyes away
when stared at.
"Earlier, while I was watching you run towards me, I kinda thought
that..."
"Yeah?"
"There's something catlike about you, Shimamura."
I could hear the bike's tires spinning under Adachi.
"A cat?"
"Not human."
Wow, mean. How had I been running to earn a comment like that? Or
"What about me makes you think of a cat?"
"The fact that you don't seem like you warm up to people."
"...You think so?"
"You don't?"
The fact that I made no effort to speak about myself, nor about the person
I was talking to.
I felt like that was what Adachi's eyes were saying. My fingers gripped
her shoulder slightly more tightly.
While I did think that there was a part of me that didn't want to let people
in, I assumed that was more or less true for everyone; just a natural part of
being a person. Perhaps it was assumptions like these which led to others
thinking that I didn't warm up to them.
However, I had to wonder: wasn't Adachi like that as well?
Not that I even knew if what she was saying was true, as I had never
owned a cat.
"I don't think someone who doesn't warm up to people would ride a bike
with another person."
"Maybe you see me as a cat or something?"
As she said that, Adachi at last turned to face forward. Back to safe
driving. I didn't feel at all relieved, however. Rather, a sensation resembling
uneasiness filled me.
I really didn't like how much we were talking about me.
Like averting its eyes, my mind, too, fled from that topic. And what better
Adachi was a cat too? Two cats, sitting silently on the second floor of the
gym.
Lying in front of the window as rays of light passed through it, not caring
that it was slightly hot and humid up there.
Chasing after a ping-pong ball as it bounced around.
That definitely was cat-like.
"I don't know the way back. Can you draw me a map to school?"
"Oh, right. Makes sense."
Without any hesitation, Adachi agreed to my random suggestion and
pulled out a notebook and a pen—both of which looked like they were
covered in dust—out from her bag. Again, I was impressed that she even had
those.
Adachi's house, located around thirty minutes from where we had started,
was white. The walls, I mean. There was a carport on the left side of the
building, though no vehicles were parked under its roof at the moment. The
walls made it hard to see, but inside, I could catch a glimpse of the tip of a
green clothesline.
In front of the main entrance stood a field, consisting of three, maybe
four, plots in total, and straight past it, a massive, factory-like building,
giving off that countryside feel. It looked a lot like where I lived.
There used to be a lot more fields in the past. You would rarely see any
houses as you walked around, just endless grass and its smell. These days, it
rare sight.
I had drawn a picture of myself walking along the side of a field in
elementary school, but that scenery no longer existed.
"Okay, done. It's the path I take when I bike to school, so you'll probably
be able to pass through it."
"What's that supposed to mean? That I'm wider than a bike?"
"If you spread out your arms, then yeah."
Laughing, Adachi handed me the map she'd drawn on a torn-off page of
her notebook. Who walked like that, with their arms spread? Looking at the
map, I traced the way back to school with my finger. It was there that I
realised something: now that I had this, I could come to Adachi's house by
myself.
Not that that would come in handy often. What was the point of coming if
I didn't know whether Adachi was home or not?
"Are you wet?" Adachi asked, patting my shoulders and hair.
"Yeah, pretty soaked."
"Right. The rain did get stronger while we were getting here."
Adachi hadn't been safe from the downpour either. Her bangs were wet
and stuck to her brow. Having perhaps noticed this from the way I was
looking at her head, she brushed them up with her hand. This revealed her
forehead, giving her a slightly different vibe from usual. She seemed more
mature this way.
"Wanna come in? I can lend you a towel or something if you want."
you. Right?"
It was like I was forcing Adachi to agree with my reason to refuse her
offer. A wry smile appeared on her face.
"Backing away? That's so like you, Shimamura."
Excuse me? Who gave you permission to decide that? I felt a sudden urge
to lash back. At the same time, I knew that there was truth to her words, and
that it definitely wasn't a good trait.
"Okay then, I'll come in."
"No you won't. Go home!"
Rejected. How mean of Adachi to pull back her offer the second I
accepted it.
Well, whatever. I turned around and began to leave. Just then, Adachi
called out to me.
"Shimamura, umbrella."
She held out the folding umbrella I had been using while we were riding
her bike here.
"It's gonna be tough without an umbrella, right?"
"Thanks. I'll give it back tomorrow."
"If I show up to school tomorrow, then sure."
What an Adachi-like thing to say. Waving her goodbye with the umbrella
I'd received, I left her house.
It had taken us thirty minutes to ride here together. Riding by yourself, it
probably took closer to twenty. Walking took about twice as long, so forty
minutes walking home. All that added up, it would take me approximately an
hour.
"Damn."
"Shimamura."
A voice called me from above. I turned my head up, and through the
umbrella, saw Adachi. She was on the second floor of their house.
It seemed that she had rushed up the stairs to make an appearance through
the window. It was kinda absurd to think about and made me laugh.
"What is it?"
"Well, umm... First, take this towel", Adachi said as she dropped a towel
down to me. Not wanting it to hit the wet ground, I let go of the umbrella and
opened my arms wide. "That defeats the purpose", I heard her mumble. Still,
I managed to grab it.
After picking the umbrella back up and shaking the droplets of water off
it, I used the towel to wipe my face. It was lemon-yellow and didn't smell of
Adachi, perhaps due to having been washed recently. Not that I knew what
she smelled like in the first place.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"..."
"..."
She had said "first", so was there more? Thinking that, I looked up to her,
still holding the towel. Adachi simply stared back silently, however, her
be heard was that of rain.
I wiped my hair with the borrowed towel. One more thing I'd need to
return tomorrow. Just then, Adachi opened her mouth.
"Sorry."
"Hm? About what?"
"I just feel bad for making you take such a long detour."
The nonchalant expression on her face really made me question how
genuine that sentiment was.
"Want me to give you a ride back?"
"Huh? No. That'd make the whole thing pointless."
If she did that, then for what reason had I come to her house? Although,
to be fair, even I didn't know the answer to that question.
"I guess that's true", Adachi nodded, her expression still the same, and we
returned to silence.
These moments of emptiness that arose between me and Adachi made me
feel restless. I felt like I needed to say something, anything. There was
another feeling too: a desire to get away as soon as possible. I couldn't think
of anything to say, so I went with the latter this time.
"Anyway, I'm going now."
"Okay. See you tomorrow, maybe."
Another vague statement. Adachi really was keeping whether or not she'd
go to school ambiguous.
She closed the window, and I walked away, the towel hanging around my
"...What a weird day."
What might Adachi have thought about for those twenty minutes as she
rode to school, knowing that she wasn't even going to go to class?
As I walked back along the slightly longer-than-normal route to home, I
grew curious about her inner thoughts.
Today, we had talked about friends.
Maybe tomorrow we should talk about school.
"The next day, Adachi once again came to school."
"Well, I am a good student, after all."
What was she even talking about? I responded with a bleak stare while
hitting the ping-pong ball back.
Nothing special had happened that Thursday morning, and it was now
lunch break.
We finished playing table tennis, and I thought I'd go buy us some food
again. Just then, however, the cheerful sounds of two people talking, as well
as those of their footsteps, entered the gym. Not only that, they were heading
to the second floor, where we were.
"I heard a sound coming from here", I heard one of them say as they
climbed up the stairs.
"No way..."
I recognized that voice. A few seconds later, my suspicions were
confirmed as the two figures entered my vision. Instinctively, the muscles of
"Ugh."
"Don't 'ugh' your friends."
The one barging in was none other than Hino, carrying a grocery bag,
followed by Nagafuji. She quickly noticed Adachi, however, and her
enthusiasm instantly withered. Hino's eyes moved between me and her, and I
could almost hear her growling.
Adachi glanced at me as well. She was clearly confused. "Don't all look
at me", I wanted to say, but I knew that wasn't going to work. First things
first, I placed the racket down silently and sat down in my usual place.
"It's rude to sit down by yourself", Hino stated as she sat down next to
me. Nagafuji followed suit and sat down on my other side, sandwiching me
between them. Only Adachi remained standing up. She simply stood there,
playing with her hair. I gestured for her to sit down, but her response was just
to scratch her temple awkwardly. Only when I said her name did she
reluctantly walk over to us and sit down, still quite far away from me. Her
usual spot had been taken by Nagafuji.
"How did you know that this was the place?"
"I saw you looking at that table tennis book at the store, so I figured there
was a good chance."
"Oh."
It had been my fault. Feeling guilty towards Adachi, I glanced at her
sideways. She was studying us, her expression as nonchalant as ever. It didn't
seem that she was going to be taking part in the conversation.
'Adachi'?"
She should have just asked her directly, considering that the person in
question was right there.
"No matter how you look at it, yeah, that's definitely her."
"Right, right. Adachi", Nagafuji nodded. Had she forgotten again?
"You're friends with her?"
"Hmm, I guess you could say that."
Knowing that I couldn't just feign ignorance this time, I went ahead and
admitted it. Hino seemed a little surprised by my response.
"Huh? So, Wednesday... Nah, whatever."
She had clearly wanted to say something, but decided to hold her tongue.
Nagafuji gave her a glance before turning towards Adachi and introducing
herself.
"My name is Nagafuji."
"My name is Hino."
Hino followed suit. Nothing wrong with that. Still, I did wonder why they
were talking so formally to a classmate.
Adachi pointed at the girls in turn and repeated the names they'd given.
"Nagafuji, Hino. I'll keep that in mind", she said, almost as if she was
planning to go settle the scores with them afterwards. The two were a little
taken aback.
Adachi wrapped the introduction up with a short "nice to meet ya" and
leaned against the net, facing the wall in front of her in silence. Her face and
Nagafuji were unable to bring themselves to speak to her.
"Oh, right. I bought us some pastries. I thought we'd eat together."
"Do teachers not come here? There's gym classes and stuff, yet you're not
getting caught."
And so, I got stuck with these two. I really wish they wouldn't have sat on
both sides of me and spoken to me in stereo.
It made it hard to decide which one to deal with first.
Whatever. Let's just eat the pastries for now.
I shoved my hand into the plastic bag Hino had been carrying. I took out
the topmost pastry, thanked her, and took a bite of it, big enough to fill two
mouths. Then, still munching it down, I replied to Nagafuji's earlier question.
"I sit down silently when there's class. That's how I don't get caught."
"Hmm. They must all be pretty irresponsible then. Or just have bad eyes."
The tone of her voice sounded like she was admiring the teachers, even
though the contents of her remark were clearly condescending. This was a
pretty common occurrence with Nagafuji, there being a sharp disparity
between her words and deeds and her behaviour.
That sharpness was in direct contrast to the smoothness of the curve her
breasts drew.
"What would you like, Adachi?"
I nudged the conversation towards Adachi. Still facing the wall, she
moved her mouth and nothing else.
"The stuff that you like is fine."
"Thanks", she replied as she caught it, to no one in particular.
Nagafuji and Hino also took out pastries and drinks of their own and
began eating. They continued talking, and though they did bring the
conversation to me from time to time, never did they attempt to speak to
Adachi. As far as Adachi went, well, it was clear that she had no intention of
walking over to us. All I could do was sit there, stuck between a rock and a
hard place—or in this case, my two friends—and munch on the dry pastry.
It didn't seem that this lunch was going to be good for my digestion.
We continued eating and soon finished. The resulting boredom seemed to
be too much for Hino, and she started to get rowdy.
"Can we play ping-pong? No, let's play it!"
She tugged my arm and invited me to play. Looking at Adachi, I found
myself having trouble deciding how to answer her.
"I'm still eating. After I'm done, okay?"
Like Hino, Nagafuji had also finished already.
Were Adachi and I just slow?
"Okay. Nagafuji, let's play!"
"Sure, I don't mind. What are we betting on it, though?"
"Huh? Do we have to bet something...?"
Continuing in that line of conversation, the two grabbed the rackets and
ball we had been using. I absent-mindedly watched the two play while
simultaneously feeling a little out of place.
In the middle of their game, Hino spoke to me.
"This week?"
"Yep. Hiyah!"
She extended her arm and hit the ball as it bounced from the edge of the
table. With great strength, Nagafuji hit it back.
"Well, I don't have any plans, at least."
"Cool. Remember that girl wearing a spacesuit I talked about the other
day? She's pretty interesting. Wanna come see her?"
"Just say it straight, you want me to come fish with you."
"No, no. That's a bonus. Anyway, I talked with her about you, and she
said she wanted to meet you."
What sort of a conversation had they had? Objectively speaking, there
really shouldn't have been anything about me that would catch the attention
of a weirdo. So, what part of me had she exaggerated, and how? I tried
reading it off her expression, but Hino was far too busy playing table tennis
for that to work.
"Can't you just take Nagafuji with you?"
"I'm busy with my club", she stated back, as if to say "don't lump me with
that idler". Not that club activities weren't a waste of time as well, in my
opinion.
"There you have it, Shimamura. Come with me."
"Hmm... Well, why not. Saturday, yeah?"
"All right!"
Hino swung the racket with all her might as she shouted, and splendidly
That was enough of that conversation, I decided, and gave Adachi a
glance. She was spacing out with the pastry in hand, most of it still uneaten.
Neither Adachi nor I were of the talkative type. With other people around
talking, falling silent was inevitable for us.
But, even setting that aside, Adachi was staring off in the distance, not
looking at any one of us.
Feeling both uneasiness and a certain hunch as I stared at her eyes, I
sighed quietly.
The next day was Friday. Out of all the weekdays, this one was my
favourite since it was the closest to the weekend.
Just like on Wednesday, Adachi wasn't showing up. Ever since yesterday,
I'd had a hunch that this would happen, that Hino's and Nagafuji's presence
would affect her in some way, and she'd stop coming here.
I could wait here till lunch break, I could wait for hours after it, and I still
likely wouldn't meet her. Yeah. There was a good chance that she'd never
come here again. And if I wasn't meeting her here, the chances of me running
across her in general would drop dramatically. If I was unlucky, it was
possible that I wouldn't see her face until graduation.
"Unlucky, huh? Is that so?"
If meeting Adachi was considered "lucky", then that meant that it was a
good thing for me. Well, made sense. She was my friend, after all. It would
have been strange to consider meeting her a negative. Feeling that it was a
Definitely, no doubt about that.
Those feelings had faded when Hino and Nagafuji had come; disappeared
like smoke.
Adachi was... moping, perhaps? There was another, quite similar word
that described her perfectly, but I couldn't recall it. Either way, because of
that, she was avoiding coming here.
I thought I knew exactly what was going on in her head, yet, no matter
what I did, I still couldn't remember the word. It was like a weight on my
shoulders that I couldn't take off.
There was so much that I didn't know about Adachi, and sometimes it
annoyed me.
The only person who I understood even slightly was myself.
Yesterday, while watching Hino and Nagafuji play table tennis, it had
sunk in: that's not what I wanted.
Something about playing it with permission, your jersey on all neat and
tidy, felt wrong.
This wasn't a place for us four to get together and have noisy fun. The
atmosphere that had been in the air while Adachi and I played ping-pong with
our uniforms worn casually suited it the best, I thought. That unique sense of
relaxation that was only achievable when it was just the two of us was why
we had come here in the first place. That's how I felt, at least.
The true essence of it was beyond my grasp.
Even so, Hino and Nagafuji coming here just didn't feel right. That I was
"We're meeting tomorrow at ten. You better be there in time, because if
you're not, I won't put the bait on your fish hook for you."
"Yeah, yeah. Got it."
I casually waved off Hino's reminder. Still wondering why exactly was I
going fishing to meet some weirdo, I left the classroom. Though Hino and
Nagafuji did invite me to come with them, I declined their offer and left by
myself.
From the corridor till the shoe rack downstairs, I stared at the map drawn
on the torn piece of paper and wondered if I should go. In the end, I decided
not to. It was hard to imagine that Adachi was just sitting quietly at home.
Past the school gate, my steps were filled with caution. I did sort of hope
to find Adachi sitting past the gas station, and so, that walk turned into a light
jog on my way there. Nevertheless, the bad-mannered delinquent was
nowhere to be seen. Only the fence stood there, silently. As a test, I tried
sitting on it and almost fell backwards onto the road.
My heart still pounding from the near-death experience, I continued
walking forwards, albeit more slowly than before. I stopped, contemplating
whether or not to quickly visit the convenience store adjacent to the gas
station, before cutting across the empty parking lot of an eyeglass store. After
turning left at the green, cylindrical cramschool building and passing the bus
station where I usually parted ways with Hino and Nagafuji, I felt an impact.
"Slam!"
Something hit my back lightly and almost caused me to fall on my face.
Getting ready for a street punk or a delinquent to charge me and demand my
money, I cautiously looked over my shoulder. My prediction had been sort of
right; mainly the delinquent part.
It was Adachi. She was riding her bike, and it looked as if she had stuck
out her hand and pushed my back with it.
Thankfully, she didn't seem to have intended to ram into me with the
vehicle, which made me feel a bit relieved.
"Sorry. I tried to brake, but didn't make it in time."
"Is that why you said 'slam' when you hit me?"
Adachi got off the bike and began walking beside me while pushing it. I
hadn't seen her at all in school that day, yet she was still wearing her uniform.
Her bag was also in the basket. So was a plastic bag, filled with something.
I walked forward in a relatively quick pace, and Adachi followed.
"Huh? Are you sure?"
"About what?"
"You don't live this way."
"Hmm... Yeah, I don't."
Adachi drew her chin in slightly, but showed no signs of turning back. I
had gone to her house the other day, so maybe this time she was coming to
mine? This, too, might have been a way for her to kill time.
For a moment, we walked in silence. Every now and then, I'd sneak in a
glance at her. Both her hair and the silhouette of her face were refined, as if
feel relieved: she was alive after all.
I stared for too long, and our eyes soon met.
She took out the plastic bag from her bike's basket and handed it to me.
"Shimamura, take it."
"Umm, okay? What's this?"
I took a look inside and saw a pastry. Two, in fact. Judging from its
shape, one of them was a cream bun. The other one was a stuffed bread filled
with something white, tuna or potato perhaps. Both were the kind that you
could buy at the school canteen. There was also a bottle of lukewarm mineral
water on the bottom of the bag that made you wonder for how long it had
been there. A little much for breakfast, but not enough for dinner. In other
words: Lunch.
"I was thinking about giving these to you during lunch break."
"Lunch break?"
I tried imagining Adachi standing in line at the crowded canteen, but it
just felt so wrong.
However, hearing her say those words, "lunch break", it suddenly clicked.
"Oh. So this is the 'next time'?"
It was the first time I had ever seen Adachi laugh. Her normally fierce
stare softened, like the rays of the evening sun.
"How much was it? I'll pay you", I asked, and began pulling out my
wallet.
"No, it's fine", Adachi replied without telling me the price. Well,
water was likely the type sold in a vending machine, so that didn't take long
to recall. Now I just needed to remember how much the stuffed bread cost,
and I'd have the answer.
I rubbed my finger against my brow and groaned slightly, trying to
remember. Adachi looked at me, confused, but I ignored her and focused on
getting my brain to work. After rummaging through my memory for a
moment, it finally appeared in front of me. Good timing, because any longer
and I would've gotten dizzy.
I pulled out my wallet and started counting. It seemed that I had just the
right combination of coins with me, so I prepared the sum I had calculated
and handed the money to Adachi.
"Here's for the water and bun. The exact right amount, isn't it?" I stated,
full of confidence. Adachi, having taken the money, simply tilted her head,
however.
"Dunno. I forgot already."
"Huh? Bummer."
Feeling a little disappointed that I didn't get to show off, I twisted the
plastic bottle open. As the lukewarm water entered my mouth, I could truly
feel the remnants of the bygone summer. As usual, I had spent my entire
summer break this year just lying around.
After a few sips, I held out the bottle to Adachi.
"Wanna drink?"
She took the bottle and gulped down about one third of it. After it left her
"I'm glad that you didn't go home with your other friends. I would've
missed my chance to give you these."
I didn't really see how them being around would've stopped her from
doing that. Right as I was about to put those thoughts into words, I noticed
the look on Adachi's face. It was the expression of a child. Her eyes were cast
slightly downwards, and her lower lip faintly pouted. Those two minor
changes alone altered her usually nonchalant appearance massively. She
looked like a child sulking quietly.
Looking at her face, I finally found the word I had been looking for
earlier, the one close to "moping", but not quite.
"Sulking".
Sounds kinda similar, don't you think? No? Well, I suppose that's
subjective.
Adachi had said that I was her only friend. In other words... Yeah, I think
I understood what was happening.
If I said that to her face, Adachi would likely get mad. Then deny it. Then
leave me and go home. I'd get embarrassed too and have trouble looking her
in the eyes.
Even when it wasn't easy to admit things, even when things bothered me,
at times, I still faced forward.
We didn't need to clear it all up. Just one, single thing was enough.
"Adachi", I called to her, and she turned to look at me.
Staring back at her, as if refusing to avert my gaze, I pointed straight
"Are you walking with me to my house?"
For the current me and Adachi, this was all that I could ask, and all that
she could answer.
We still needed practice to put curve into the ping-pong ball bouncing
between us.
"Yep, that's the plan."
I smiled at her reply.
"I'll need to make you a map, won't I?" I said, swinging the plastic bag
lightly from side to side.
And so, the four of us formed a strange connection.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a perfect circle or anything like that. More
like a bunch of warped lines, with me as their centre.
Would a day ever come that Adachi and Hino went out fishing together?
That, I didn't yet know.
I knew the chances were low, but at the same time, I couldn't help but
look forward to it, even if just a little.
That slight sense of elation alone gave me wings.
"I'm an airplane. Whoosh!"
I went ahead and spread out both of my hands.
How many more steps would it take before I started feeling embarrassed?
Shimamura Nation."
"Sounds like a nice place. Where can I find it?"
I grabbed the tips of my culotte and stared at them. Did my outfit really
look that much like something bought from Shimamura? Honestly, I didn't
even shop for clothes there all that often. And yet, due to my name alone,
everyone treated me like I had been born there.
It was Sunday, and I had gone to the fishing pond with Hino. We had
originally agreed to go on Saturday, but due to the rain that day, we ended up
postponing it till today. Didn't really matter to me; I had nothing else to do
either way.
I didn't have fishing equipment or anything with me. Hino, too, was
dressed up like normal. I honestly had expected her to come wearing one of
those fisherman's vests with a bunch of pockets.
If anything about her stood out, it was the large straw hat on her head. As
she fiddled with its brim, a look of pride appeared on her face.
"You can call me Fisherman Sanpei."
"Fisherman Who?"
"Huh? You don't know that one? Oh kids these days", Hino grieved,
shaking her head. Then, approximately two seconds later, she came up with
something else, and her expression returned to cheerful.
"Shut up."
The proud-looking shorty had been bugging me for a while now to join
her, and since I had nothing else to do, I had decided to at last accept her
offer. This was where we had met, behind an elementary school. Never had I
known that there was a fishing pond here. Not all that surprising, honestly; I
did live in a totally different school district. Next to the pond, there was a
small shop that sold school uniforms and the like, and there, in the shadow
that it cast, the two of us stood. The sky was mostly clear—only a few
autumn clouds could be seen—and the temperature was mild. Yet, the sun
still shone intensely. It had been the right choice to bring a parasol with me to
combat its glare.
"Is Nagafuji coming? I know she had club on Saturday, but she should be
free today."
"She's not. She said she hates fish."
This was the fifth time, Hino told me, sounding happy for some reason.
She spread her hands wide open to emphasize the "fifth".
Right, what Nagafuji liked were hamburgers and curry. Only sweet curry,
though. Two big reasons right there why she couldn't be enticed with fish.
What about Adachi? I was instantly reminded of her pale face as she drank
water and grew a little worried.
"I present to you: a fishing rod I bought from a priest at the flea market
for 300 yen. Take it."
"Antique, huh? Thanks."
and simple, like a twig that had been painted black. If she hadn't told me, I
felt like I wouldn't have even recognized it as a fishing rod. Hino's, on the
other hand, was made of bamboo and was a little shorter than mine.
"Just so you know, I'm renting mine for 500 yen per day."
"Renting? Haven't you always had that?"
"Mysterious, isn't it?"
That was as far as her explanation went. Hino shoved her hand inside of
her bag and began searching for something.
"By the way, Shima."
"What?"
"You're not the kind of girl who refuses to bait her own hook, right?"
She pulled out a small box from the bag she had been carrying on her
shoulder and opened it, revealing it to be full of live earthworms. I nearly
leapt out of my skin, but also literally leapt backwards.
Pinching a worm between her fingers, Hino smiled, clearly a little
troubled by my reaction.
"Huh? Worms are a no-go for you too, Shimamura?"
"Definitely. No way. Impossible", I repeated, shaking my hand multiple
times. Looking at them without screaming was the furthest I could go.
"Well, not like I can force you."
Hino put the worm box back and took out a different container. My body
instantly tensed up, but soon relaxed; instead of bugs, this one was filled with
what looked like yellow clay. Was that a type of bait as well?
"Paste? I don't really get it, but sure, thanks."
I was fine with anything as long as it wasn't alive. Better than touching an
earthworm.
"What's this made of?"
"Wheat, water, and eggs, mostly. And then some other stuff for flavour.
Caviar's pretty good, too."
"Caviar? For the fish?"
I'd rather eat that myself, personally.
"Also, since you're obviously going to catch a whole bunch of fish, I
made sure to prepare a big bucket."
Lifting her thumb, Hino handed me a bucket made of metal.
Being sarcastic, were we now?
After the baits had been set, the two of us stepped up onto the bamboo
platform that had been built around the pond and began to fish.
Though called a fishing pond, it would have been more accurate to
describe it as a big, deep puddle. It was small, is what I'm trying to get at.
Even smaller than our school's pool, from the looks of it. The water was
pretty muddy, though, and I couldn't see the bottom.
"It'd be faster to jump in there and catch the fish by hand, I think."
"You're gonna get bitten by leeches all over, but if you want to, then sure,
go ahead."
I extended my foot as a joke, but immediately pulled it back. There was
no getting around it: this was going to be slow. Having accepted my fate, I
hand holding the parasol was as well. I spun it around, and around and
around.
How much time had passed since we started? Like, five minutes?
"What kind of person is Adachi?" Hino suddenly asked. I was a little
taken aback by her bringing up Adachi without any context and tilted my
head slightly, as if to ask why she had done so.
"What kind? Like, normal?"
"That's not an answer, Shimamu."
Stop giving me weird nicknames. Although, if I had to choose, I think I
preferred that one.
"Why do you want to talk about her?"
"Delinquents are pretty rare. I'm very interested."
Hino ended her sentence with a laugh. Not that Adachi really did
anything bad enough to be called a delinquent. She did skip class pretty often,
but other than that, she was the same as the rest of us. No wild stories or
anything.
I did think she'd jump even higher than me at the sight of worms, though,
and straight up run away.
"You're like her best friend, huh?"
"Hmm, I don't really think so."
Well, Adachi had said that she didn't have friends other than me, so...
"Actually, you're probably right."
"Fickle, aren't you? Anyway, since she's your friend, I want to get on
"Hmph."
"The fact that she made a friend means that she's not a bad person, in my
opinion."
"Right..."
I did like Hino's way of thinking, how she always tried looking at things
positively. But, would Adachi want to be friends with her? That was a whole
other question.
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