Chapter 6 – Answer

1

After reviewing the question about the English sentence he had gotten wrong, Eita stretched out with a groan. He leaned back, putting his weight into the back of the chair. The room looked a little different upside-down.

But before all the blood could rush to his head, he righted himself.

“Haah…” Eita sighed involuntarily, forced to recognize how far behind his studies had fallen. He had almost no chance of passing a general admissions exam. But he sighed because he also knew that he had no intention of backing out at this stage. There was a lot of work in front of him.

He reached for his smartphone, pushing the power button to check the time. The display read just after 11:30 AM on January 21st.

It had been just over a week since the day of the Center Test and the heavy snowfall. Main streets had long been clear, but piles of snow still remained in alleyways and shady spots. Just like that lingering snow, there was something bothering Eita that had stuck around ever since that day…

“What is it already? She said she wanted to ask me something…”

Natsume Mio had clearly stated her intention to ask him some kind of question when the Center Test was over, but she still hadn’t asked him anything.

And it wasn’t like the timing was bad, or they had unlucky schedules. They still passed each other in the hall and exchanged messages in the group LINE chat with Haruto, Hazuki and Yoriko.

In fact, all five of them had gotten together at Hazuki’s house the day before for a congratulatory hot pot lunch to celebrate the end of the Center Test. Sure, Haruto, Hazuki and Yoriko were there, but he had been in the same space with Mio for over two hours. He even headed home from Hazuki’s house with Mio, since she had to stop by cram school on the way.

They had exchanged a few banal pleasantries, but as far as Eita could tell, they hadn’t had another serious talk yet.

Eita felt strangely distanced from Mio, and he couldn’t help thinking it was her fault. But he could think of a few reasons she would be pushing him away on purpose.

After all, on the day of the Center Test, Eita had rushed through all the heavy snowfall to get to Fujisawa Station.

Mio had been in a panic at the time, so she wouldn’t have thought much of it, but surely once she had calmed down, she would recognize what his actions meant. Once the exam was over and done with, she would no doubt discern the emotion driving those actions.

But the thought that she knew made it even harder for Eita to bring their promise back up. He could think of a million ways that it would backfire.

But he still wanted to know what she was going to ask him. He had found himself thinking about it all the time over the last week.

“…”

And there he was thinking about it again. As Eita desperately tried to think about something else, his phone vibrated.

He had received a LINE message from Komiya Ena.

Don’t forget your promise. Be at Shounan-Enoshima Station at 1 PM.

Ena had contacted him the day before saying I’d like to thank you for letting me enter your photo in the contest. Can I have some of your time on Sunday?

Eita initially told her not to worry about it, but Ena insisted that she didn’t want to come off as a transactional friend, so Eita agreed under the condition that they only meet during the daytime.

After eating some udon his mother had prepared for lunch, Eita headed out, saying, “I’ll be back in time for supper.”

He walked his usual trip down Prefectural Route 32 along the bus route. On the way, he turned at a convenience store and took a road behind the main road. The back roads tended to have less traffic, making it a faster route to the monorail station.

Coincidentally, that route took Eita past the middle school that he had attended until the winter of his second year. He could see the school gates about 50 yards ahead of him, and a quick flash of nostalgia stopped him in his tracks.

The school itself was halfway up the slope, and though the main building was blocked by trees, the grounds didn’t seem all that changed from when he used to attend.

Just as Eita thought it might be worth making a detour, someone walked into his line of sight from the Y junction in front of the school gates. It was Natsume Mio, and Eita felt his heart skip a beat.

Mio noticed Eita soon after, and her features shifted in surprise. She stopped in place for just a moment before walking towards Eita. “Where are you off to?” she asked.

“Got cram school, Natsume?” Mio was carrying her school bag stuffed with study materials.

“Well, some of us have to prep for exams.” Mio shot him a resentful glare as she mumbled, “Must be nice to be a recommendee.”

The monorail had just left Shounan-Fujisawa station, so the platform was empty.

Nobody was around but Eita… and Mio, who had tagged along for some reason. She stood a few steps away, fiddling with her phone.

“You’re going to cram school, right? Wouldn’t the bus be your best bet outta Fujisawa?”

The monorail was headed for Sounan-Enoshima Station. She could transfer to the Enoshima Electric Railway at the last stop to leave Fujisawa, but it would be a heck of a detour.

“You going on a date, Izumi?” Mio asked, still staring at her phone.

“A date? What?”

“‘An arranged meeting, typically by a romantic couple. Sometimes called a rendezvous’.” Mio went out of her way to show Eita the dictionary definition displayed on her phone screen. Eita wasn’t sure why she was acting so strange.

“…” He really didn’t know how to respond. He glanced over at Mio, trying to ask for an explanation.

Probably sensing his confusion, Mio spoke back up. “Well, if you’re not going on a date, where are you going?”

“Where? Well, I’m just…” For whatever reason, he had a hard time disclosing that he had promised to meet up with Ena. But after refusing to say it once, it became even harder to tell her.

“Meeting up with Komiya-san?” Somehow, Mio knew to bring it up first.

“What’s Komiya got to do with anything?” Eita didn’t have a very good grasp on the situation, but as soon as Mio said Ena’s name, something inside him tensed up.

Did she know? Was it just a coincidence? Either way, Eita didn’t like where things were headed.

“Well, with that hug she gave you, I figured you two must be pretty close.” Mio said casually, apathetically staring off in the distance.

“Huh? Wait… you mean that was really you back then?”

He had thought someone was watching him that night, and caught a person running away. No wonder they had looked so much like Mio. It was her.

“…” Mio didn’t answer, and Eita couldn’t gather anything from her expression.

But that lack of information spurred him on to ask a question he’d been holding in for over a week.

“You said you wanted to ask me something, right, Natsume?”

If nothing else, he at least wanted to change the topic.

“…”

“You know, the day you took the Center Test.” Mio didn’t answer, so Eita added in more context.

Mio threw him a sideways glance. “Oh, that’s fine now. I pretty much figured it out.”

With that, she turned back to the front. The monorail, bound for Shounan-Enoshima, pulled into the platform, making plenty of noise as it came to a halt.

The doors opened, and Mio walked in first. Eita reluctantly followed behind, thinking I don’t know what the heck’s going on here.

Mio and Eita sat diagonally across from each other in a four-person booth section as the monorail doors closed and it started moving.

Eita looked out the window with a bewildered expression, his confused face reflected in the glass. Mio noticed how he used the window as a mirror to look at her face from time to time. She made sure that their eyes didn’t meet in those moments.

She knew that she was stirring up a hornet’s nest, and she didn’t want Eita to start seeing her as an annoyance. Mio didn’t know how Eita saw her actions, but if she was honest with herself, even she didn’t understand why she was acting this way.

Really, what did she think she was doing?

Eita had been right, her quickest route to cram school was the bus stop by the convenience store. She took that route all the time. But she followed him all the way to the monorail station, even getting on with him.

She’d been thinking about the same thing all week…

Did Ena make good on her word and ask Eita out on a date? And if she did… did Eita accept?

“…”

“…”

The monorail passed Nishi-Kamakura Station and made it all the way to Kataseyama Station without them exchanging a single word.

The monorail doors opened, and someone stopped in the rear car door.

“Ah, Izumi-senpai!”

Eita looked behind Mio in response to the voice. Light footsteps approached, and suddenly she was right next to Mio.

“And… Prez?”

Komiya Ena regarded Mio with a puzzled expression. Evidently Mio’s body had been hidden behind the back of the seat until she got right up close.

A question in her eyes, Ena sat down beside Eita, directly across from Mio.

The doors hissed closed, and the monorail began moving again.

“Down she goes,” Ena mumbled, putting a camera tripod down by her feet. She had the same professional-quality digital camera she always carried slung over her shoulder. The size and design stuck out all the more when carried by a girl.

But the camera and equipment didn’t catch Mio’s eye nearly as much as Ena’s outfit.

She wore a long split skirt under a white blouse, topped with a pale cardigan. There was also a slim, lightweight coat above for an extra layer.

It all made Ena look very feminine.

The outfit stood in complete opposition to the plain down jacket and jeans that Mio saw her in the last time. Granted, it could be argued she wore the previous outfit for the practicality of riding her moped, but the way that Ena had said Izumi’s name earlier carried a special connotation. So it was a date day after all… That would fit everything together perfectly.

Ena cast a sideways glance at Eita beside her. Her fingertips betrayed her nervousness as she carefully smoothed out her bangs. She must have spent a long time putting her outfit together… She was likely stuck between wanting a compliment and not wanting to be called weird-looking.

The normal Ena would have just casually asked Eita what he thought of her outfit. But the new Ena sat quietly and politely. Because it was a special day.

“…”

Not a word came from anyone as the scenery outside flashed by.

All three of them were awkwardly affected by each other’s presence. It was like their booth seat on the monorail was an entirely different plane of existence.

“I just coincidentally ran into Natsume,” Eita explained to Ena, suddenly speaking up. It was almost like Mio’s presence was an issue he had to make an excuse for, and Mio was about to give him a piece of her mind, but found herself unable to put her feelings into words. Still, she had to do something, so she pulled out her vocabulary study book from her bag and started reading it.

“Mhmm…” Ena made a drawling noise that sounded convinced, but dissatisfied. She turned towards Mio, her lips pursed in a frown. Ena’s face remained in the upper corner of Mio’s vision.

“I said you can’t,” Mio mumbled, as if talking to herself. Her eyes remained on her vocabulary book.

“Oh, I needed your permission?” Ena replied offhandedly.

“Then why even ask?” Mio looked up from her vocabulary book straight into Ena’s eyes.

“Eh, well, just because.” Ena looked straight back.

“…”

“…”

Neither broke eye contact.

“What are you even talking about?” Eita asked, looking more uncomfortable by the second. No doubt the tense atmosphere between the girls was confusing to him.

“None of your business,” Mio and Ena responded perfectly in time.

Mio looked back at her vocab book with a bored expression, while Ena turned to Eita with a smile.

“Guess I shoulda known…” Eita’s brows furrowed as his confusion deepened. He ended up making a face that resembled a wrinkled pug. Any other time, Mio would’ve laughed at him. But she couldn’t.

“That’s a hilarious face, Senpai.”

As Eita turned away towards the window at Ena’s teasing, Mio’s heart dropped into her stomach. She’d been forced to see so many things she didn’t want to see. It was really starting to hurt.

When the monorail reached its next stop, Mejiro-Yamashita, Mio slammed her book shut and stood up. Eita and Ena both turned towards her quizzically.

“This is my stop.” Mio didn’t wait for a reply and didn’t meet either of their gazes as she shot off the train. She needed to be away from them. She wanted to be alone.

She heard the monorail doors hiss shut, and as soon as the monorail sped away, she was by herself on the silent platform.

Nobody else was with her. Only Mio chose to get off at that station…

She could see the ocean in the distance, sparkling in the sun. It was a dazzling, beautiful, breathtaking sight.

Mio wished she could watch it forever.

But at that moment, Mio could only crouch down.

She had pretended to be fine enough on the monorail, but as soon as she was alone, she couldn’t pretend any more. She couldn’t hide the shock. It rattled her beyond belief to learn that Eita had accepted an invitation to go out with Ena. Her chest squeezed, and she couldn’t bring herself to accept reality.

She wanted to know, but not firsthand. Seeing Eita and Ena go somewhere together was…

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, and that told her everything she needed to know about how she felt.

She raised her head to stop the tears, and stood up to try and pull herself together.

“Man, this…”

She forced herself to start speaking, and it came out with a few halting chuckles.

“Really, really sucks…”

But she wasn’t surprised by the laughter. She already knew exactly what was making her feel that way.

It certainly wasn’t funny. But she was happy, even excited to some extent. It was only natural that she would laugh. The tension in her face finally began to soften.

“I’m totally serious about him.”

She couldn’t have been happier to find out how she truly felt.

It was like the sparkling sea was there to bless Mio on her way.