Episode 147: The Two of Us (1)

“Takisawa, time to go~”
“Yeah.”

I smoothly rose from the chair and wrapped my scarf.

Endo-san was wrapping her scarf with her fluffy hair swaying.

Lately she’d been wearing her hair in soft waves. She’d been dressing up more than before too.

That was slightly irritating to me.

I pulled Endo-san close by her scarf and lightly, softly pressed a kiss to her lips. Then I held her tight.

“What’s gotten into you?”
“Why have you been dressing up lately?”

I gently traced her cute hair. The other day she’d told me happily it was called milk-tea beige. It suited her very well — and yet the way it made her look even more lovely stirred something complicated inside me.

As I kept stroking her hair, Endo-san went quiet and her cheeks slowly went red.

“Because I want you to think I’m cute…”
“Endo-san was cute — everyone said so back in high school too.”

I looked at her with a pout, and she pulled me close. I thought I could hear the sound of her heartbeat.

“I want Takisawa to think I’m cute.”
“Endo-san is cute even without doing anything special.”

Endo-san gave a little jump. Then shivered and held me tight.

After a little while she looked over at me with a slightly pouty expression.

“Being with you makes me want more…”
“More?”
“Yeah.”

More… what? Endo-san was inexplicable sometimes. But that inexplicableness was Endo-san.

“I like your old hairstyle, but I like this one too. But right now I don’t want to take you outside.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want anyone else to see you——”

I didn’t need to go outside at all — staying home with her was enough. And yet Endo-san wanted to go out.

I wished other people wouldn’t notice her charms.

Without my noticing, Endo-san’s ears had gone red.

“I’m just going to spend my whole life being turned upside down by Takisawa.”
“Turned upside down?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”

My question went unanswered, and we left Endo-san’s family home.

Today we’d go shopping and then visit my family home, and after that she’d said she would celebrate my birthday.

She’d suggested various date ideas — various places to go — but I’d asked to walk around the nearby shopping mall.

Of course the zoo and aquarium I’d gone to with Endo-san had been fun. But with Endo-san, even just going to a nearby park together made my heart feel warm and happy.

With her, whatever I was doing, a warm feeling rose up and wrapped me in something I could call happiness.

She really was a mysterious person.

We arrived at the shopping mall — the one I’d come to with Endo-san back in high school, and where I’d come alone agonizing over what to get her.

After just a year away, many of the shops had changed, and the bread shop I’d loved was gone, and I felt a hollow melancholy.

In its place was a display of expensive-looking clothing.

That bread was so good… I used to stop by on the way home from school and buy just one piece, and eat it at the park.

My feet had apparently stopped without my realizing, and noticing something was off, Endo-san looked at my face curiously.

“Not enjoying yourself?”
“No, that’s not it…”
“There was a bread shop I liked here.”
“Endo-san liked it too?”
“You did too, Takisawa?”

I had unconsciously squeezed Endo-san’s hand tight.

“That shop had such a gentle flavour. I especially loved the cream bun.”
“I liked the cream bun best too.”
“You did? We have the same taste in food. The custard wasn’t too sweet — it was light enough to just keep eating, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah, yeah. And the shape was cute too — like a little dog’s paw.”
“I know! The shape and the taste were both perfect, weren’t they!”

Endo-san was swinging our joined hands back and forth happily, which told me she was genuinely delighted.

I’d thought no one else would remember that bread I loved. But the shop I thought only I remembered — Endo-san had known it too.

“That makes me so happy.”
“What does?”
“It’s the kind of conversation we can have because we happen to be from the same town.”
“True.”
“I hope we can have lots of conversations like this from here on.”
“What…?”
“Wouldn’t it be great to go to lots of places together, me and Takisawa, make lots of memories, and then sometimes think back on them and feel how happy we are?”
“…Yeah.”
“The bread shop is gone — but it’ll always be there in our memories.”

Endo-san leaned happily into my arm. Those words and that gesture pressed and pressed at my chest until I thought it might crumble.

A bread I’d simply liked became a bread that both Endo-san and I had liked.

This place became not just a shopping mall, but a building full of happy memories made on a date with Endo-san.

With her beside me, every place and every thing became something meaningful.

She really was like a magician.

“Takisawa! Let’s get this!”

Endo-san pulled my arm painfully hard. I was brought to a gift shop, to a spot where bear keychains were lined up.

“We bought bear keychains before, didn’t we.”
“That was that, this is this. Do you not want matching ones?”
“I don’t not want them…”

When I said that, she went ahead and bought them and went ahead and hung a keychain from my bag.

“Will there come a day when we look back on these keychains with nostalgia, I wonder.”
“Probably.”
“…Will you still be beside me then?”

Endo-san’s voice suddenly went fragile. Please don’t ask things like that with such an anxious look…

I gently stroked her head.

“I’ll be beside you——”

I turned my back to Endo-san, clutched the bear keychain she’d given me tight, and hurried out of the gift shop.