Episode 18: A Grocery Run Date With My Childhood Friend Is Just Too Convenient!
“Alright, let’s decide what our class is doing for the culture festival~”
During homeroom, our teacher writes “Culture Festival” in big letters on the blackboard.
Guess it’s already that time of year, I think, resting my chin on my hand as I look up at the board.
Honestly, I’m already bracing for this to turn into an annoying discussion.
Taking over from the teacher, Tachibana-san, our class rep, starts running the meeting.
“Anyone got requests?”
At that, a scattering of hands go up.
“Haunted house!”
“Yakisoba would be good!”
“What about a play?”
Amid all that—
“Oh, what about a café or something?”
Makina raises her hand and says it.
“Decorating the interior together with everyone sounds fun.”
“Hmm…”
“I mean, decorating could be fun, yeah…”
“I’m in favor!”
“Sounds good to me~”
The whole classroom’s mood tips that direction all at once.
Unanimous decision: a café it is.
I’ve watched Makina’s single comment shift the whole room’s direction plenty of times by now, but that faintly proud look on her face is still unfair every time.
“Okay, let’s decide roles~. Shopping crew, decoration crew, menu crew…”
At Tachibana-san’s cue, the classroom breaks into noisy role-assignment chatter.
In the end, the specific details got settled by rock-paper-scissors.
“Next up, shopping crew.”
I clenched my fist tight, internally.
“Shopping crew” is a role in name only — once the shopping’s done, you just get roped into helping with everything else, so there’s no way I’m letting myself get stuck with it.
Scissors. Definitely scissors.
For no real reason, I’d already decided that.
“Rock, paper…”
“Scissors!”
I throw scissors.
Makina throws scissors too.
“Huh.”
“Oh my.”
I look around.
Everyone else had thrown a perfectly clean rock.
Only Makina and I had lost.
…Wait, no, hold on — everyone threw rock?!
The two of us specifically, pinpoint-precisely, threw scissors — I genuinely can’t help but feel like something out there is trying to force us alone together!!
“O-oh, you two, again?”
“That’s basically fate at this point.”
Someone chimes in teasingly, and everyone bursts out laughing.
“Oh, then, Yotsuka and Makina, you two are on shopping duty, okay~!”
“D-dammit…”
“Yay! Together with Yotsuka!”
Makina says it, looking delighted.
This pattern, again?!
…But, honestly, being annoyed that I’m happy about it too is somehow even more annoying.
◇◆◇◆◇
“Ribbon, and fake flowers, and… ingredients for snacks, right?”
Makina double-checks against her notes.
After school, the shopping arcade still had streaks of blue daylight filtering in through the gaps in the covered roof.
“If what we buy today’s not enough, we’ll just have to come back again, right?”
“That just means more excuses to skip class later, doesn’t it, Yotsuka? Should make you happy.”
“Skip— hey, don’t make me sound like some kind of sloth! I do my work properly, thank you!”
“Alright then, hardworking Yotsuka-san, should we hit the hundred-yen shop first?”
“Yes, yes, put me to work!”
The hundred-yen shop was way more crowded than you’d expect for a weekday afternoon.
We walk side by side down the narrow aisle.
Reaching the ribbon section, Makina picks up a few and compares them.
“This one, or this one — which do you think?”
“Eh, feels like either’s fine to me.”
“Look properly. Whether it matches the café concept actually matters.”
“R-right, sorry…”
Makina brings the ribbons closer to me.
One’s a deep red.
The other’s a pale brown.
“Which do you like, Yotsuka?”
What I like is—
You, Makina.
Obviously I can’t say that.
“B-brown, I guess.”
“Heh, that’s what I was thinking too. Feels like the chic direction fits our concept better.”
Looking satisfied, Makina drops the brown ribbon into the shopping basket.
Right then, someone comes rushing out from further down the aisle.
“Oh, sorry…!”
We can’t fully avoid each other, and nearly collide.
On reflex, I grab Makina’s arm and pull her toward me.
…That was close.
But.
Right now, we’re incredibly close. Pressed together.
Makina’s head fits perfectly right at my collarbone.
“Th… thanks, Yotsuka.”
“I-it’s nothing, really…”
This kind of thing’s happened before.
But lately, it’s been happening way more than usual.
Past the point of just “convenient” — on a whole different level entirely.
We’d be watching a video on one phone, and next thing I know, Makina’s dozed off leaning against my shoulder.
I go to reach for something on a shelf, and her hand’s already there, overlapping mine.
Too well-timed to just be coincidence.
So many little things.
In the end, I just stood there frozen for a few seconds, unable to move.
I mean, isn’t it partly the narrow aisle’s fault, honestly?
Isn’t it the hundred-yen shop’s overcrowded layout that’s to blame here?
…Nobody’s actually at fault, and yet I still want to blame something.
Similar things kept happening — in the fake flower section, in the supermarket’s snack aisle.
In the shadow of a shelf, Makina’s hand would brush against mine, just so.
Reaching down for something together, our eye level would end up unnaturally close.
All coincidence?
All just tiny, incidental things that happen during a shopping trip?
…If so, hasn’t the frequency of that “coincidence” gone up a lot lately?
If something really is being engineered here, I’d appreciate a little more effort at hiding it.
It’s getting a little too blatant…
…This is way too convenient a development at this point.
On the walk back to school.
The sky had already gone mostly dark.
We split the plastic bags between us and walked.
“That was fun,” Makina said quietly.
“You think?”
“Yeah. Was grocery shopping always this fun?”
“Wha— maybe it’s because you’re with me?”
Half-joking, I meant it.
“Yeah. Probably.”
Lit by the setting sun, Makina narrowed her eyes just slightly, looking a little bashful.
That’s all I remember from the walk home.
…At the time, I had no way of knowing.
That in just a few days, a single piece of “candy” was about to violently tear our relationship apart — and accelerate it, all at once.