Episode 17: In Search of Bonbondrop Stickers.

“…Ugh! There are way too many people in here!!”

A fancy goods shop in front of the station.

In the after-school crush, the shop was packed with girls from middle and high school, office workers, and even the occasional grandfather on a desperate errand for a grandchild — an abnormal, fever-pitch energy radiating off the crowd.

Through the waves of people, an ash-grey figure cut a path with the sharp, angular efficiency of a shark.
I stood frozen, staring up at the ceiling.

(…why am I even here…)

The whole thing had started a few hours ago, at lunch.

◇◆◇◆◇

With midterms looming next week, club activities had been suspended from today.
The classroom had the heavy, pre-exam atmosphere you’d expect… except for the vicinity of Hiyori’s desk, which seemed to exist in a separate dimension entirely.

“Aren’t these insane? The transparency on them.”
“Wait, weren’t these sold out everywhere?”

I frowned and made my way over.

“…Hey, did you bring unnecessary items to school again—”
“Oh, Maya. Look at this.”

What Hiyori spread out proudly was a small sticker book.
Inside it, rows of glossy resin stickers sat in plump, rounded relief.
Held up to the light, they glittered like real sweets.

“…What are those.”
“Bonbondrop stickers.”
“…Bond… drop? Is that some kind of incantation??”
“Ahaha! An incantation, that’s hilarious!”

Airi laughed with exasperated affection.

“‘Bonbondrop stickers.’ You’ve never heard of them, Maya?”
“I… haven’t…”
“Seriously, Mama-pi doesn’t know? They’re all over social media right now!”

Yuina and Meiko leaned across the desk and launched into an explanation simultaneously.

“Look at this glossy, dewy shine! Aren’t they gorgeous?”
“The plump thickness is so retro-Heisei, it’s giving nostalgia!”

…Now that they mentioned it, they were genuinely cute.
A candy-like thickness and translucency. Held to the light, they caught and scattered it — exactly the kind of thing that would look spectacular on social media.

“Hahhh, I need more of these. I want to fill my whole planner with this dewy gloss… I’m deceased.”
“You’re not dying over stickers, Hiyori.”
“Apparently they restocked today — I should have skipped school and run to the opening…”
“There’s absolutely no way I would have allowed that…”

Hiyori’s head snapped up, eyes lit.

“…Right. Let’s go look after school. Maya’s free anyway, aren’t you.”
“Free?? Midterms are next week! What about studying?!”
“Just today! Just today, I promise! Besides, you’re always studying. You can afford a breather before exams for once!”
“I mean, I don’t exactly need to panic at this point, but…”

“For the rest of us, one more day of effort isn’t going to change anything! Right~?!”
“Right!”

Meiko declared it with a thumbs-up, and Yuina and Airi nodded with immediate, emphatic conviction.
The clarity of the surrender was almost admirable.

“That’s… quite a problem, actually…”

“Oh, the shop in front of the station is putting out stock in the evening!”
“Seriously?! Then we have no choice!”

Before I could stop them, the group had made up its mind.
And somehow, without any formal decision being reached, I had been counted in as a member of the search party.

◇◆◇◆◇

And so here we were.

Watching a crowd descend on a sticker shop with this level of fervour, I felt a strange, reluctant respect for the power of trends.

…A few minutes later.
The four of them came staggering back from the crowd, battle-worn and empty-handed.

“Ugh, nothing…”
“Gone in seconds…”

Not a single sticker between them.

We shuffled onward, zombie-like, to the goods section of the shopping mall next.

“Look, that’s definitely the Bonbondrop shelf.”

In front of us: a completely empty shelf.
Only the ghost of recent occupancy remained, the items themselves nowhere to be found.
A sign reading Next restock: undecided stared back at us without mercy.

“Nothing here either…”
“Sorry, Hiyori, I think I’m going to peel off here.”
“Same, I’m starving~”

Airi and the others dropped out.
Left behind: just the two of us.

“…Shall we head home too? Hiyori.”
“…No. I can’t give up. Hey — Don Quijote. Just Don Quijote, one last try.”

Dragged along by Hiyori’s tenacity, we went on to hit two more Don Quijote stores.

First store: nothing.
Second store: nothing.

“Hiyori, look, even if we don’t find them today, they’ll restock eventually—”
“No. I want to live in this exact moment. Please.”

And then: the last Don Quijote.
The sticker rack at the back of the sundries section.

“…There it is.”

Hiyori’s voice trembled.
Hanging from the hook was a single last packet.
Inside aurora-shimmer packaging, a cluster of plump dewdrop-shaped stickers caught the light.

Hiyori’s hand shot out.
At almost exactly the same moment, another small hand reached from the opposite side.

The air went still.

It was a girl, primary school age, staring at the last packet with wide, round eyes.
The woman beside her — clearly her mother — hurriedly reached out with an “oh, I’m so sorry” to pull her daughter’s hand back.

At that moment. Hiyori moved.

“Here, go ahead.”

Without a flicker of hesitation.
With the most natural expression in the world, she pressed the last packet into the little girl’s hand.
After hunting through shop after shop with that single-minded intensity.

I didn’t know that side of her.
Just a kind girl, the easy-going type you’d find anywhere.

“Are you sure…?”

The mother looked back and forth between Hiyori and her daughter, blinking in confusion at the sudden gesture.

“Of course. We can always come back another time — please don’t worry.”

Hiyori smiled lightly, then crouched down slightly to meet the little girl’s eye level.

“I’ve got some already, actually. Let’s swap next time, you and me.”
“Yeah…! Thank you!”

The little girl clutched the packet happily to her chest, and the mother bowed several times as they walked away.
Hiyori watched them go, let out a long breath, and turned back to me.

“…Hey, Maya, did you see that? Wasn’t that a flawless move?”
“…………”
“What, are you moved? You can say so, you know.”

She lifted the corner of her mouth in that mischievous way. I sighed with deliberate weariness.

“…Well, giving way to a child is just basic decency, isn’t it?”
“Oof. You had to go with the correct answer.”

Hiyori pouted and grumbled.
The usual light teasing. The usual banter.

“…But.”
“Hm?”
“The fact that you didn’t hesitate — I think that’s something. …You’re kind, Hiyori.”
“Huh…?”

Hiyori stopped dead.
She stared at me for a long moment, froze for several seconds — and then, visibly, turned scarlet all the way to her ears.

“…Wh-what, out of nowhere.”
“I’m just saying what I observed.”
“When you say things like that with a straight face it… kind of throws me off my rhythm…”

Hiyori looked away, ill at ease, and grabbed a nearby sticker off the shelf to cover for herself.

“Ah… fine, this’ll do. This one’s cute too!”
“…Wait, what is that, a bottom?”
“‘Squishy Bear-Bottom Stickers.’ Oh, the texture is hilarious.”

In the end, what Hiyori bought was a sticker of a small bear seen from behind, the bottom portion rendered in pink silicone in three dimensions. Undeniably cute.

◇◆◇◆◇

On the way home.
Hiyori walked along squishing the bear-bottom sticker she’d stuck in her planner, grumbling under her breath.

“…I really did want those Bonbondrop ones.”
“You did buy something, at least.”
“But it’s a bottom, isn’t it? I was after that glossy dewy shine, so why did I end up buying a silicone squish… I mean, it’s cute, but.”
“…Where did all that decisiveness go?”

We parted at the station barriers and I headed home alone.
I was about to go straight back — but something made me change direction, toward the old stationery shop tucked into a back alley.

“Yuri Friends… right.”

I said it to no one, as a kind of excuse to myself.

◇◆◇◆◇

The next day.
At lunch, I set two small bags down on Hiyori’s desk with a gentle thump, thump.

“…Here.”
“Hm? What’s this.”

Two unopened packets of Bonbondrop stickers.

“No way, seriously?! Where did you get these?!”
“I stopped by the stationery shop after we split up and they had some…”
“…Two of them. Maya, you’re not just Mama-pi anymore, you’re a deity. Yamami-goddess? …Can I worship you?”

Hiyori’s eyes went wide and she lunged forward.
I cleared my throat and pressed one of the two packets down with my finger.

“…Don’t misread this.”
“Huh?”
“This one — ‘Deep-Sea Fish’ — is for you. …But.”

I drew the other packet toward myself.

“This one’s mine.”
“What?”

Hiyori stared, blank.

“…I wanted one too, once I’d seen them.”

I pulled out the sticker book I’d quietly bought for myself the previous evening, and Hiyori doubled over laughing.

“…What? So you ended up wanting one too? And you already bought yourself a sticker book on top of it… that’s so you.”
“…Nothing wrong with that! I like to start things properly!”
“And your choice is ‘Sumo Wrestlers.’ That’s so deeply unfashionable.”
“Th-they’re round and cute in their own way!”
“Ahaha! Fair enough. Very dohyō energy.”

Hiyori poked at my sumo wrestler sticker, teary-eyed with laughter.

“…Hey, let’s swap. I’ll give you one ‘Deep-Sea Fish’ for one ‘Sumo Wrestler.’”
“…Fine.”
“Deep-Sea Fish, Bear-Bottom, and Sumo Wrestlers… that’s a genuinely chaotic collection.”
“Ha, it really is.”

We laughed together for a while.
Then we showed each other our sticker books.

Not a single trendy character sticker in either of them.
Just a bear-bottom, a deep-sea fish, and a sumo wrestler.

A completely incoherent assortment — and yet entirely ours. Looking at those odd little stickers lined up together, we laughed again.