Part-2 Ch-05 Ep-04

Maki’s POV

By the time we left the amusement park, it was already quite late at night. The two of us walked along the path leading to the station.

Our hands brushed lightly with a small tap, and without either of us saying a word, we ended up holding hands. Just that alone made it feel as though our feelings were connected, and my heart leapt. 

“Mari,” I called out, and she turned toward me with a soft, curious “Hm?”

“Um, —”

I swallowed the words I had been about to say. Had this girl always looked at me with such a gentle expression?

The warmth and softness in her gaze made my heart skip a beat. And then, as I looked more closely at Mari’s face, I noticed something else.

“…Did you cry, by any chance?”

The area around her eyes was red and puffy, and they looked slightly moist.

“Ah, well, actually, watching the fireworks made me tear up a little.”

Seeing her embarrassed smile as she said that, I nodded with a quiet “I see.”

The fireworks we had seen today really were beautiful, so moving that it would not be strange to cry. Especially since we had watched them together, alone, inside the Ferris wheel gondola.

I would like someone to praise me for not giving in to the mood and doing something reckless to her. Setting that aside, Mari spoke again.

Perhaps because it was so late, she looked faintly tired as she glanced around.

“This crowd… doesn’t it look like the train home is going to be awful?”

“You’re right…”

A massive wave of people was flowing along the path toward the station. Just looking at it made the situation easy to imagine. As expected, the train home was completely packed.

We lined up in a long queue on the platform, boarded the arriving train, and were immediately pushed deeper and deeper inside.

In the end, we were forced against the wall near the doors on the opposite side from where we entered, squeezed together like sardines. Elbows and bags bumped into us from all directions, and that alone was enough to make me tired.

Mari positioned me against the wall, then stood in front of me as if to shield me from the surrounding pressure. She was clearly trying to protect me from being crushed by the crowd.

Panicking, I tried to push her aside, saying, “Hey, wait, let’s switch places,” but she replied firmly, “Ah, no, it’s fine, it’s fine. Just stay still, Maki,” and pressed me gently but decisively against the wall, leaving no room for argument.

“Even if you say that…”

At times like this, Mari can be surprisingly stubborn. She does things like this so naturally, as if it is simply the obvious thing to do. If there is only one empty seat on a bus or train, she will say, “You can sit,” and give it to me.

If we are chatting in the classroom and I complain about a cold draft, she will casually close the window. If I show even the slightest sign of fatigue, she will ask, “Are you okay?” with a worried look.

“Maki-chan, you’re just like a princess.”

It is a phrase I have heard countless times since childhood, especially when I am with this childhood friend. Because she unconsciously treats me like a princess, and because my name, Maki, is written with characters that mean “true princess.”

Now that I think about it, I remember classmates teasing me about that back in elementary school.

That was when Mari still called me “Hime-chan.”

She stopped using that nickname once people around us started teasing her, saying it was strange.

“If I call you Hime-chan, everyone laughs at you, Hime-chan, so from now on I’ll call you Maki-chan like everyone else.”

That was how Mari changed the way she addressed me, supposedly for my sake. But I had always loved the sound of “Hime-chan,” a name that only Mari used. Mari said it was for me back then, but what did she really want herself?

There is no point in thinking about it now.

“Owah!”

I heard Mari’s startled voice, and her body lurched toward me. It seemed that even more people had boarded at another station. Apparently, events at various places had overlapped tonight. The pressure from the crowd intensified as we were pushed further.

“Mari, after all, I should—”

I was about to say we should switch places, but the words stopped. Because Mari’s face was right next to mine. Our heights are not that different. She is only a few centimeters taller than me.

But now our bodies were pressed tightly together, and I was pinned against the wall by Mari’s body.

“—It’s okay. More importantly, sorry. This must be hard for you too, right, Maki?”

To protect me, Mari braced one hand against the door and spoke in a strained voice near my ear.

Her breath brushed against it.

Through our thin summer clothes, I could feel Mari’s body heat.

Ah, this might be a little dangerous. My body heated up instantly.

“…………This might be bad.”

“Eh, a-are you okay!?”

“Uh, ah, y-yes, I’m fine, don’t worry! Not that kind of bad.”

“What do you mean by ‘that kind’? Sorry, what are we even talking about…?”

“………Sorry.”

Lowering my face, I fell silent to avoid saying anything more unnecessary. I heard something like, “It’s rare for Maki to apologize so honestly,” but I decided to let it slide today.

At the same time, I tried to divert my attention from the reality of our bodies pressed together by focusing solely on my breathing.

“There we go.”

Right after that, Mari shifted her body, creating a small gap between us. I realized she was bracing herself to avoid putting any more strain on me.

I am being protected by Mari again.

Thinking that, I looked up, and she gently patted my head, saying, “Just a little longer, okay? Hang in there.”

It is rare for Mari to do something like this to me. What on earth is going on today?

My heart felt painfully tight, as if being squeezed.

I even wondered whether it would be all right to surrender to the chaos and kiss her, struggling desperately with my own desires.

As I stared at Mari’s profile reflected in the train window and wrestled inwardly, she spoke.

“Ah, look, we’re almost there. Time to get off.”

Hearing the relief in her voice, I thought that she had been pushing herself after all, and I tugged lightly at the hem of her clothes in protest.

The walk home from the station was quiet, as if the earlier commotion had been a lie, and the two of us once again walked along the calm night road.

Today was really fun.

It was fun, but there was still something I wanted to confirm.

“Um, about earlier.”

“Earlier?”

Mari tilted her head in curiosity.

“The conversation at the amusement park. About whether you’re interested in romance.”

“…Ah.”

There was a slight stiffness in her response. It was the awkward kind of reaction someone gives when an unwelcome topic is brought up. Wasn’t it Mari who had brought it up earlier? I tilted my head in confusion.

“Did you lose interest or something?”

“It’s not that.”

“Then?”

“…It’s nothing. So, what about it?”

“…U-um, I was thinking that maybe we could have some love talk for once. So, do you have anyone you’re interested in right now, Mari?”

When I said that and glanced sideways, Mari was staring at me with wide eyes and a stiff expression. Then, as if regaining her composure, she smiled awkwardly. She did not say anything, but that alone told me enough.

So there is someone.

“Um,”

—Could it be that you like me?

…Is it okay to ask that?

I could just ask directly, the way I always do. But what if I am wrong? Her reaction is different from usual, and maybe she does not want to say.

Besides, asking that outright would not be fair. 

In that brief moment, countless thoughts swirled through my head.

“Ah, hey, hey, that couple over there looks close.”

Perhaps sensing my hesitation, Mari quickly changed the subject. Following her gaze, I saw the couple who had just passed us moments earlier. They looked about our age. The boy was walking ahead, pulling the girl along by the hand as she followed slowly.

“Mm, yeah.”

When I replied flatly, Mari smiled awkwardly once more. Why are you making that face?

After that, the atmosphere never allowed me to bring up the topic of who she liked again. Mari walked ahead of me, chatting incessantly, as if she were afraid I might return to the subject.

I could not see what kind of expression she was making. Because she was walking in front of me. Because even as she talked, she never once turned around.

The reason I had always been able to talk freely with Mari was because she created that kind of atmosphere. The reason we always walked side by side was because we matched our pace to each other.

I only realized that now.

End of Chapter 5