Episode 17: What to Call Her
After leaving the aquarium, we walked home together.
The sky had turned completely the colour of sunset, and the shadows stretching along the ground had grown long.
The liveliness of the day had given way to something quieter, a stillness settling around us.
“Today was good, wasn’t it.”
Shiori murmured it, walking beside me.
“…Yeah.”
I said it naturally, but thinking back on it — it really had been a good time.
No need to worry about anything, just enjoying the scenery and the conversation as it came.
The light shifting on the surface of the water. The fish drifting unhurried through the tanks.
Watching things like that, something in me had settled, in a way I couldn’t quite explain.
The cool air inside, the soft sound of water — they’d seeped into me quietly, calming something that needed calming.
When I was with Honoka, I’d never really been conscious of moments like that.
Because when she was there, my eyes naturally went to her, and nowhere else.
But today, I was able to stay with what was in front of me.
Without thoughts of Honoka surfacing, I’d simply dissolved into the blue world spreading out behind the glass.
It had been a long time since I’d spent time that way.
“Nanase-san.”
Shiori slowed her pace slightly as she said it.
“Mm?”
“Can I start calling you something different?”
“…Something different?”
The question came out of nowhere and I looked at her face.
Shiori was looking straight ahead, but her gaze carried something searching in it, directed my way.
“I’ve been calling you Nanase-san this whole time, but… I thought maybe it was time to close the distance a little.”
“I don’t mind — do whatever you like…”
I answered without thinking, and looked away, just slightly.
(…Distance, huh.)
Closing the distance with Shiori — there was no resistance in me to that.
If anything, having spent today with her, I found I’d been able to be around her more naturally than I’d expected.
“Then… would it be all right if I tried calling you Yuna-chan?”
Shiori’s voice was quiet, but carried something in it — a tone of checking, of confirming.
“…That’s fine.”
After a small pause, I answered, and Shiori smiled, just faintly.
“Thanks, Yuna-chan.”
Being called that gave me a strange, ticklish sort of feeling.
Until now, I’d never been conscious of someone calling my name — not like this.
“It feels kind of new, actually.”
When I said it, Shiori laughed a little.
“Then I’ll keep calling you that from now on.”
“Yeah.”
Our footsteps fell into rhythm naturally, walking side by side.
Here and there, people moved along the street ahead of us.
The day was slowly running out.
A soft, warm breeze — nothing like the cool air inside the aquarium — brushed against my cheek.
I looked up as I walked.
The sky above was bleeding a dim, fading orange.