Interlude: What If…Adachi Had Stayed Aloof?

Interlude:
What If…Adachi Had Stayed Aloof?

 

AS ALWAYS, Adachi was up in the gym loft…and as always, I was up there visiting her. The weather was cooling down, and as the sun set a little earlier with each passing day, I could feel the world transitioning into autumn. Even the cicadas had fallen quiet.

“Oh.” She heard me coming and looked up at me as she idly toyed with her cell phone. “Hey.”

She raised her hand in a quick wave, and I waved back. Then I set my bag down on the ping-pong table and sat down near her…or maybe beside her? Yeah, “beside her” has a nice ring to it, I nodded to myself. Then I uncapped the mineral water I bought on my way here and took a sip.

“Ugh, lucky. Can I have some?”

She held out her palm, and I set the bottle on it.

“Thanks.”

Then she started chugging—no consideration given to the fact that it was someone else’s drink. Not that I really minded all that much. Instead, I sat there and took it all in: the clear water, the plastic bottle, and Adachi herself. Her tidy hair, her slender neck… It was all so picturesque.

It was a weekday, and school was in session. Nevertheless, here we were. This was our normal routine. I still went to class every now and then, but Adachi never joined me; she was a true dyed-in-the-wool delinquent. Not that this was something to be proud of, of course.

What did she do on the days I wasn’t around? I tried asking her, but she responded with a vague “Eh, I just do whatever.” To me, this was not a satisfying answer.

“Thanks,” she repeated as she handed the bottle back to me. As I rolled it around in my hands, I could feel her lingering warmth on the plastic, quickly overwritten by my own. Next, I held up the bottle and gazed at the gym wall through the lens of the water—but this did nothing to make the room sparkle. It was as dull as my own plain eyesight.

I lowered my arm and looked back at Adachi, who was currently zoning out. She wasn’t stiff, but she wasn’t relaxed, either; her body language was shaped by her sheer lack of interest in anything around her. She would stay in this mode until I spoke to her.

Honestly, the fact that I knew all this was proof that I’d been paying attention to her. But the longer I thought about it, the sweatier my palms became. Weird.

“Hey,” I called. She turned to face me, and once again I found myself admiring her long bangs. “What do you like to do when you’re by yourself?”

I had already asked her this same question in the past, but I felt like trying again. Like last time, she frowned faintly and cocked her head. “I dunno… Stuff?”

Nothing worth explaining, apparently. Well, okay, then. All I could really do was try to see for myself.

“Okay, Adachi, go wander around alone somewhere.”

“What?”

“I’ll follow at a distance.”

She blinked, confounded. Her eyes darted to and fro as she tried to parse it. Then she fixed me with a funny look. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, I want to see what you get up to. Surveillance!” I explained, cupping my hands around my eyes like binoculars.

She leaned in, peering past my hands, and for a moment we gazed at each other—a moment in which I desperately tried to pretend I didn’t look like a total idiot.

“You want me to act like you’re not there…even though you are?”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“What? Isn’t that gonna be kinda hard?”

“Well…maybe?” I clapped her on the shoulder. “Just try your best!”

“Uggghhh…” At first she narrowed her eyes in annoyance, but after I sat there waiting hopefully for long enough, she grabbed her bookbag and rose to her feet.

“That’s the spirit!” I exclaimed gleefully as I followed after her.

Together, we left the gym, moving along the outer building wall to avoid detection by any teachers as we made our way to the front gates. Once we ran out of shadows to hide in, I craned my head back and stared straight up.

“Wow…”

The wind wailed in my ears as it shuttled the puffy white clouds. Now that’s a fine blue sky, I thought to myself, quoting a manga I once read. This same quote had stuck with me for years now. Days like these, I wished I could watch the sky while I walked, but today, I was supposed to be watching Adachi.

I fixed my eyes on her as I maintained a careful distance. Her posture could use some work… On second thought, she’s walking way too fast. If she’s gonna be a delinquent, she needs to have more swagger! That said, she looked right at home walking off campus in the middle of the day.

Just then, she looked over her shoulder at me. I waved at her; she waved back slightly, then faced forward and started trudging along. Wait, but…didn’t you take your bike to school today?

She was supposed to ignore me, but she kept glancing back and making eye contact with me. Maybe it was unreasonable to expect her to pretend I wasn’t here. After it happened a few more times, she came to a complete stop and waited for me to catch up.

“Ugh, I can’t. I give up.”

“Aww, c’mon!”

“Okay, well, why don’t we just walk together?” she suggested, eyes averted, indicating the space next to her.

Oh, Adachi, how do you manage to be so adorable? I looked up at the sky and thought for a moment, debating which I’d prefer.

“Sure, let’s do that.” And so I forfeited my surveillance post and stepped right up next to her. Together, we headed into the city.

Well, what now? My heart pounded in time with the dotted white lines on the road.

“It’s just…boring.”

“What?”

She kept her eyes on the street ahead. “Walking alone, zoning out… It’s boring.”

That much I could see for myself just by looking at her face, but a beat later, I realized: she was answering my question about how she spent her alone time. Evidently, she had figured out how to explain it to me.

“That’s all I can really say about it,” she shrugged, though her eyes silently asked me if it was enough. I nodded—but who gave me the right to decide that, anyway? I was all too giddy.

“Gotcha…”

For once, Adachi had revealed a tiny part of her inner self, like a drop of water trickling out from behind the ice. Shivering in the light autumn chill, I gladly accepted her for who she was, and I was eager to embark on this journey with her. Or would she find it boring, walking downtown with me? Her indifferent expression didn’t reveal much, so I’d just have to ask her at some point.

 

***

 

The next day, we were back up in the gym loft. It was our hideout—the one place we could relax and be ourselves.

The word sanctuary came to mind… Then I chuckled to myself.

Now I’m just being dramatic.

~Today’s Shimamura Forecast~

 

I had a dream where I was riding on top of a giant Yashiro-zilla, soaring through the stars. It was fun.

I could feel myself grinning like an idiot. Honestly, if it happened in real life, I’d probably be scared witless. Good thing some dreams don’t come true.