Chapter 3: Our First Trip Part 2

Chapter 3:
Our First Trip
Part 2

 

FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, I awoke with my brain fully functional. Normally, my mornings were spent in a soporific haze that liked to linger for as long as possible, but this time, everything was sharp and clear. I stared up at the ceiling for a minute, then looked over at my right hand extending out from under my blanket. Generally speaking, I tossed and turned a lot in my sleep (or so my family always told me), and at some point, I had pulled away from Adachi. But my palm was warm, as if we were still connected in spirit.

I pushed the blanket off and sat upright in the dim light of dawn. First, I looked over at my backpack in the corner; next, I checked the time on the clock on the wall; then, finally, I looked at Adachi. She was sound asleep with her entire body facing me. I could hear rhythmic breathing from all the other futons too.

I contemplated going back to sleep myself, but there was a certain something I needed to take care of while no one was looking. Shaking off the temptation of my warm bed, I rose to my feet. Then, I grabbed my backpack and carefully slipped out of the room.

Out in the hall, my feet sank into the plush carpet, muffling the noise. Unable to detect any signs of life, I headed downstairs to the lobby. Fortunately, the souvenir shop was already open for business. I greeted the bored-looking cashier and bought a jam-filled bun. Gee, how exciting, I snarked to myself. Then, I spotted a vending machine farther down the hall. Once I had concealed myself in its shadow, I crouched down, slid my backpack to the floor, and offered it breakfast.

“You awake?”

“Good morning, Shimamura-san.” Yashiro popped her head out, and her eyes lit up with excitement. “Wow!”

“Here’s your breakfast.”

“Ooooh!”

She took the package and gleefully unwrapped it, all the while too lazy to get out of my backpack. Then she began to chow down with the voracity of a garbage disposal.

“Does it taste like destiny?”

“It does indeed.”

Glad to hear it. Just make sure you finish it before anyone sees you. Honestly, I still couldn’t believe that she was actually here with me…and with both of us gone, my kid sister was all alone back at home…

“Sure hope she’s not lonely without us.”

“I should have invited her to join me in your backpack.”

“As if!” My sister’s not an unidentified life-form like you, thank you very much.

After Yashiro had finished wolfing down her bun, I used a tissue to wipe her mouth. “I appreciate it,” she told me. Personally, I just didn’t want her getting crumbs in my backpack. Once I was finished, her hand shot eagerly into the air. “Really! I am truly grateful to you, Shimamura-san!” And with that, she disappeared into the backpack like a small woodland creature retreating into its den. That was all I got from her—just gratitude.

“Ha ha ha…”

But on the other hand, perhaps gratitude was the purest human emotion there was. After all, when you were grateful, it meant you got something in return. But of course, Yashiro wasn’t the calculating type.

“Now, then…”

I picked up my backpack. Was this how those delinquent anime characters felt whenever they fed a stray cat out behind the school building? Come to think of it, Adachi and I were both categorized as delinquents just last year. Cat-egorized. Heh.

But right as I started to head back to our assigned room, I heard a gasp. Casually shifting my backpack behind me, I looked over.

“Sup!”

“Oh, hey. Good morning.” I blinked. It was Panchos.

Unlike Sancho, she had long hair; right now, that hair was unbrushed, and her bangs were pinned up, revealing her large forehead. The tracksuit she wore in place of PJs wasn’t very tidy either. The hems of her pants were so low, they were trailing on the floor, and the heels of her shoes were smashed flat.

I wasn’t expecting to see her here, but I really wasn’t expecting her to say hi to me.

“You’re sure up early.”

“You too.”

As far as I could tell, she was awake, but only just. She came to a stop in front of the vending machine, scanned the options, and pressed one of the buttons. Then, she realized she hadn’t put any money in.

“Oops… Well, this is embarrassing.” Laughing, she pulled out her wallet. “I just came to get a drink, so I wasn’t expecting to bump into anybody. Especially not this early!” She rubbed her sleepy eyes.

“I feel you,” I agreed curtly.

Once she had fed her money into the machine, she hit the button twice, and two bottles of tea dropped down. Then, after she retrieved her change from the tray, she offered me one of the bottles. “Here.”

“…Thanks.” But why would she buy one for me?

She walked up next to me, uncapped her drink, chugged it, and let out a sigh of relief as she stared absently at the far wall. I crouched down and set my backpack in between us, but she remained standing… Was she planning to hang out for a while? I started to twist the cap off my own drink, stopped, started again, then stopped again. Meanwhile, it was Panchos who broke the silence.

“Hey, so…are you and Adachi-san, like…a thing?”

I was not expecting her to go there. I stayed quiet at first, unsure how to react. But she seemed to have anticipated this, because she continued.

“Oh, I don’t mean it in a rude way or anything. I won’t tell anyone!” She rolled up her sleeve and flexed her bicep.

“Whoa, check out those guns,” I joked.

“Yeah, I work out.”

I wasn’t sure how her fitness level was supposed to convey trustworthiness, but whatever. It took serious dedication to build up that kind of muscle, so maybe that was what she was offering. “Well, to answer your question…yeah, you could say we’re a thing,” I told her.

“Hmm,” she replied, every bit as evasive as my statement had been. She averted her gaze, then continued. “So you guys are going steady?”

“What are you, 80?” Someone our age would never use slang that ancient.

“No way! I’m hip and with it!” she protested. “I play, uh, Tsum Tsum! All the time!”

“Oh, really?”

It was clear to me that she had only ever heard the name. Likewise, I’d never played it either. And for that matter, I wasn’t sure it was trendy anymore.

“Interesting. Well, then.”

“If you don’t have anything to say, you don’t have to force yourself.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.”

She smiled softly, closed her eyes…then immediately opened them again and looked at me.

“So you’re going steady?” she repeated.

“Yeah, I guess we are.” Adachi asked me to be her girlfriend, and I agreed to it. Pretty steady if you asked me.

“I gotta say, you’re the first bona fide couple I’ve seen at our school.”

“Same-sex couple?”

“No, no, I mean… Obviously, I’ve heard rumors about people at school dating each other, but it’s always so hush-hush. I’ve never seen it with my own eyes, y’know? Or been a part of it…” She blushed faintly, be it her own lack of experience, or maybe she had unrequited feelings for someone at school.

“Yeah, I feel you.” I twisted the lid off my bottle of tea. “Thanks for this, by the way,” I added before taking a sip. The label said “light,” so evidently this was what light tasted like. It was good.

“Soooo is this a hint?” she asked.

“What?”

“Are we intruding on you guys?” She bent her knees slightly as she looked at me.

“Intruding? I don’t see it that way at all.”

“Okay, but…I mean, I figure you probably want some alone time in the room…”

“To do what?”

“Oh, my god.” She clapped both hands over her face, then peeked at me through the gaps in her fingers. “You know what I’m talking about!”

“I really don’t!”

“Kissy stuff!”

“We wouldn’t do kissy stuff on a school trip.”

“So you admit to doing kissy stuff, like, somewhere else?” she pressed curiously.

Have we? I thought back over my memories. Well, there was that one time I kissed her on the forehead… I guess that counts. “Our relationship is still pretty love-letter tier, if you know what I mean.”

“Love letters?” she repeated, sincerely puzzled.

How have you not heard about love letters? “You know, like pen pals?”

“Pals? So you’re just gal pals?”

“Okay, then, pen girlfriends.”

“Now you’re just making stuff up!”

She giggled at me; I averted my eyes and smiled to myself. This was turning into a pretty fun conversation. Panchos was still a little fidgety, but at least she was smiling.

“So what sorta stuff do you do with Adachi-san?”

“I don’t know… Normal stuff, I guess?”

“Okay, well, what ‘normal stuff’ do people do when they’re in a relationship?”

“Beats me. It’d be a lot easier if they made a how-to guide.” This was something I honestly struggled with. How were romantic relationships supposed to function?

As her mouth hung open, she reached up and pushed it shut. “I guess you don’t know much more than I do, huh?” Unsurprisingly, she didn’t have the answers either. “Well, where do you go on dates? You do go on dates, right?”

“I don’t know if they count as dates, per se, but we go to the mall and stuff.”

“That’s the same thing I do with them!” she exclaimed, jerking her head in the vague direction of Sancho and DeLos.

“Yep,” I nodded casually.

“And that counts as a date?”

“I think so,” I shrugged.

“Okay,” she nodded casually, but she didn’t sound that convinced. “Wait—oh, my god, I just realized something.”

“What?”

She leaned forward with a smirk. “I bet Adachi-san gets all dolled up for your dates while you just throw on whatever’s clean!”

“What? I don’t…” I started to protest, but paused to consider it. Oh. Hmm. “Okay, I guess I can see that… Ha ha ha ha…”

Laughing dryly, I looked away. This was something I never stopped to think about before now. Maybe I should try a little harder next time. She’s my girlfriend, after all…and I’m hers.

“Y’know, Shimamura-san, after talking to you today, I can tell you’re actually kind of a hot mess.”

“I am?”

My mother always said that about me too, especially first thing in the morning when I had only just woken up. I wished I could get a glimpse of it, but by the time I had the energy to stagger to the bathroom mirror, there was no trace left—I was usually awake by then. But of course, that wasn’t what Panchos was talking about.

There was a lull as the two of us sipped our drinks. If she wasn’t here, I would have let Yashiro have some too. We were still the only people in the hall, and the only sound was the low hum of the vending machine.

“Can I ask you a kinda personal question?”

I shot her a look that said, Another one? She pressed the lid of her drink against her bottom lip.

“I don’t want you to get mad, but I don’t get a lot of opportunities to ask about this stuff, so I’m curious. Not like you see it every day, right?”

“You don’t?”

“Huh? You do?”

I thought about Hino and Nagafuji. “Well, I dunno. Maybe.”

“Exactly! You never know for sure! That’s why I wanna ask!” she explained eagerly.

“Well, I might not have an answer for you, but go ahead.”

Satisfied with this, she grinned. “So…you’re a lesbian?”

“Uhhhhh…”

One question in and I was already drawing a blank. Was I? I didn’t exactly have much experience falling in love over the years.

“When you see the other girls in class, are you like ‘Hoohoo, hottie!’ and stuff?”

“Hoohoo, hottie?” I repeated, annoyed. Then I stared at her for a few moments. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Awww, were you checking me out? I’m flattered!” She beamed and scratched her cheek bashfully. “What about Adachi-san?”

“I don’t know if she’s a lesbian, but she’s definitely in love with me.”

In response, Panchos let out a wolf whistle.

“I mean, she only seems to have eyes for me,” I clarified.

She whistled again, but this time it petered out and she started coughing. “God, that’s sooo lovey-dovey!”

“Ha ha ha…”

She sounded pretty happy about it, at least.

Can’t have “lovey-dovey” without a lovey and a dovey… I wonder which one I am.

“Okay, so expanding on my last question…”

“Yes?”

“When you see a girl’s boobs, do you wanna squeeze—I mean, touch them?”

If you’re going to rephrase it, at least stop squeezing the air with your hands. “Not really,” I replied. “But if I see somebody with big boobs, I do tend to notice.”

A common experience, if I had to guess. Was there anyone in the world who didn’t notice that about Nagafuji, for instance?

“Gotcha. Well, would you say you look at them pretty often? Hmm?” With a jaunty hand on her hip, she thrust her chest out. She was about as well-endowed as Adachi, and if I wanted, I could totally cop a feel…

“Are you daring me to touch them or what?” I asked, knowing full well that the world wasn’t that straightforward. Otherwise, we could live our whole lives like it’s Didney Worl.

“Wha?!” Intimidated, Panchos moved to conceal her chest. “I mean, you are pretty cute… I guess if it was just once, but… Gosh, I didn’t know you were so hardcore…”

“Hardcore?” No one had ever called me that before. What, as in hardcore boob-toucher? Now that’s a rep I don’t think I want.

“Uhhh…sorry, but I think I’m gonna have to decline,” she continued, waving a dismissive hand. Alas, no Didney Worl for me.

“Yeah, no, that’s totally fine. If Adachi found out I touched them, she’d kill both of us.” In fact, she might already kill me just for talking to you. “She can get kinda jelly sometimes.”

Honestly, kinda was an understatement. I was practically her entire world. We weren’t just “lovey-dovey”—more like lovey-lovey-lovey-lovey-lovey-lovey-lovey-dovey.

“Wow. I never would have guessed at first glance…but then again, I can see it.” Panchos smiled wistfully like she’d thought of something, and it made me curious.

“Oh, yeah? How so?”

“Whenever she looks at something, she has tunnel vision. Nothing else matters.”

Whoa, she’s been paying attention. Secretly, I was impressed.

“Personally, I prefer strawberry jelly,” said my backpack. I gave it a hard smack.

“Huh?” Panchos glanced around, but I pretended not to notice her confusion. “Eh, I guess a building this old’s bound to have a ghost or two,” she concluded after a moment.

It’s alarming how readily you shrug things off, but in this case, I appreciate it.

“Anyway, not to get too far into sexual territory, but I wanted to ask you…”

“Uh, I think we’re already past that point…”

She cleared her throat, and I braced myself for whatever she was about to ask me next. That way I could be prepared for it without getting flustered. Then, in a low voice, she asked: “Have you ever seen Adachi-san naked?”

“Yeah, yesterday.”

“Yesterday?!”

She hit the back of her head against the wall in shock, but it didn’t seem to hurt. Her head must be pretty buff… Wait, how does that work? If she ran around bashing her skull on things, it would probably crack.

“Oh, wait, you mean in the hot spring?” she eventually realized.

“Yeah, where else?”

“I mean…” She faltered, blushing pink, then blurted hastily, “Like, when you’re alone in a room together?! You know what I mean, right?!”

“Right.”

“Right?!” she repeated like a parrot. Then, once she was calm, she thought of another question: “So who made the first move?”

“Adachi.” Quietly, I scoffed at myself for answering all her questions so easily.

“I knew it!” She snickered, and I found myself feeling a little indignant.

“Did you, now?”

“Well, you don’t really seem interested in other people,” she explained offhandedly, inadvertently jabbing at my sore spot. “You make an effort to be nice, but on the inside, I get the feeling you don’t actually care.”

As I fell silent, however, she cheerfully continued.

“Actually, let me back up. It’s not that you don’t care—it’s kinda related to the thing I mentioned about the clothes you wear on a date, I guess? I don’t mean this in a bad way, but…you’re just not ambitious. You accept things the way they already are.”

I found myself listening with rapt attention. I had barely spoken to this girl, and yet she seemed to know me inside and out… Her powers of observation were downright frightening. Or were Adachi and I just that easy to read?

“Is it the way I act or something?”

“In the past, yeah. But lately you’ve stopped.”

“Well, how do I act now?”

“Now? Like a lovey steady girlfriend, natch.”

Wait, what happened to dovey? For that matter, if everyone else saw me as some dutiful girlfriend, then what did Adachi have to complain about?

“It’s always lovey this, lovey that with you, isn’t it?”

“Oh, Shimamura-san. I bet you’re seeing the world through lovey-colored glasses right this very moment.”

“That sounds terrifying.”

What color would that be? Red? Adachi’s definitely red a lot of the time. Mostly her cheeks and ears. And she even sprayed red when she confessed her love to me.

“Knowing what sort of girl you are, the fact that you choose to be with Adachi-san is proof of just how much you’ve come to care about her,” Panchos remarked casually.

Wait, what?

Her tone was so light and easygoing, it made the words themselves hit that much harder, like a ray of light shining into the depths of a sea cave. Or maybe it only resonated with me because I’d let my guard down at that exact moment. Whatever it was, it shone brighter than the hallway lights overhead.

“…I think I understand.”

Maybe she was right; maybe Adachi was special to me. Hmmmm… Despite my emotional reaction, however, Panchos carried on freely.

“Let me know if your lovey-dovey energy starts to run low and I’ll steal the girls away so you can have some private time… Oh, but then again, I’m not sure I could sleep in the same room knowing certain things took place in there…!” she muttered to herself.

“I appreciate the thought, but I think I’ll pass.”

I didn’t want to make this school trip any more complicated than it already was. Besides, sooner or later we’d—we’d what? I tried to examine this passing thought in greater detail, but it slipped away like sand through my fingers. When I tried to force myself to remember, I could feel my brain starting to cramp up.

“Anyway, you don’t have to worry about the rest of us. You two should go do your own thing.”

“At least that way we won’t make you guys feel awkward, either, right?”

“True,” she admitted readily, and I appreciated her honesty. Then she pulled away from the wall. “Welp, thanks for talking to me. It was fun!”

Likewise, I didn’t get to have this kind of conversation every day, and I enjoyed it. All that remained was to pray Panchos would keep her mouth shut. I hope her lips are as toned as her biceps.

“The most important thing I learned from this is that you’re even more fun than I thought you were. See you later, Shimamura-san!”

As she walked off, the flattened heels of her shoes made a funny sound…and as it faded away into the distance, I realized I was holding my breath. I exhaled and felt my headache ease slightly. The two of us had talked for so long that if this were a horror movie, we both would have died. Fortunately, we kept things casual, or else Adachi herself might have stabbed us.

“Want some tea?” I asked my backpack. A single pale hand shot out of it. Eegh. “Stick your head out, too, please.”

“Whoosh!” The mysterious life-form heeded my request, and so I handed her the bottle of light barley tea. “Slurp, slurp!”

Spare me the sound effects, please.

“It appears you’re having a rather difficult time, aren’t you, Shimamura-san?”

“So it appears.”

“Then I shall go to sleep.”

“Sweet dreams.”

A moment later, I could hear the sounds of muffled snoring. Man, I wish my life were as simple as yours. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed back to our assigned room, belatedly following after Panchos. She must have known I’d show up, too, because the door was ajar.

When I stepped inside, three of the five were still curled up under their blankets. As for Panchos, she had opened the curtains and was now peering out at the surrounding forest beneath the morning rays. The deep green hue was still dim from the last vestiges of night. As I gazed out at it, I could practically smell the rich earthy fragrance.

Adachi began to squirm, as if in protest of the light. I crouched down beside her and gave her a little shake. She must have been mostly awake already, because her eyes snapped open.

“Morning!” I greeted her.

She blinked at me in alarm—probably surprised that I, notorious sloth that I am, actually woke up ahead of her. Or was she still sensitive about what happened in the hot spring last night? Slowly but surely, her eyes focused.

“Good morning, Shimamura.” The next thing I knew, she was gazing down sadly at her empty left hand.

Meanwhile, I could see Panchos out of the corner of my eye, nodding with her arms folded. I didn’t know what exactly she was approving of, but it made me laugh.

 

***

 

On day two of the trip, we would be taking the bus to a theme park…according to the itinerary, at least. After breakfast, we were instructed to pack up and gather out front, suggesting there wasn’t much leeway in the schedule today. The buses were already on their way here.

Outside, the mountains seemed to block out all sunlight, and the morning air was crisp and cold. Like yesterday, the sky was clear, with few clouds to speak of. But today the buses had a little detour to make before we reached our destination.

“This theme park’s supposed to look like the Netherlands. What does ‘Netherlands’ bring to mind for you?” I asked Adachi sitting next to me.

“Nothing,” she replied brusquely, shaking her head. Then, after a moment, her cheeks flushed pink, and she hastily turned her head away in the direction of the window.

“I’ll go ahead and refrain from asking what it was you just thought of…”

“It…it’s nothing!”

“Uh oh! The girl from Planet Nothing is back!” I teased, and in the window’s reflection, I could see her pouting her lips.

Outside, the road was growing increasingly narrow, steep, and windy. Evidently, we were traveling from one mountain to another. Ugh, boring. I see enough mountains back home, I thought to myself. Nonetheless, I couldn’t take my eyes off the scenery.

In my mind, the conversation with Panchos kept flickering to life. To me, it seemed like a meaningful moment, and yet what I remembered most were the stupid parts, like Hoohoo, hottie. Internally, I rolled my eyes at myself. Then, at long last, my gaze drifted to the subject of that discussion: Adachi. I took in her face in profile, her colors faint and muted like the first day of autumn.

I was fond of her—that much I could say for sure. I let her get away with things that I’d never tolerate from someone I didn’t know as well. Thus, I wasn’t opposed to spending time with her. So how far could we go together? And how long was I expecting it to last? As of this moment, the answer to the first was: to the edge of the country. As for the second…it remained to be seen.

The long, long bus ride carried us to the foot of a different mountain. I knew its name, and I knew it was an active volcano. But instead of actually taking us up that mountain, we were brought instead to a spacious parking lot. The teachers explained that we would be making a stop here.

All around me, I could feel the other students silently asking the same question: Is this our destination? A parking lot? But the riddle was solved once we made it about halfway in. The entire area was blanketed with fog so thick, it felt like we’d driven straight into a cloud.

“I can’t see anything,” Adachi muttered, her face pressed against the window pane. Likewise, other students were doing the same. We didn’t ever get fog this thick back home.

Then the teachers instructed us to exit the bus and experience the fog on foot. As a precaution, they warned us to stay near the bus, though I wasn’t confident anyone was actually going to listen. I debated whether to leave my backpack on my seat, but ultimately, I decided to bring it along. No real reason, other than I figured Yashiro might enjoy the fog.

And so we all poured out of the bus, my fear and curiosity piqued by the shrieks elicited from the people ahead of me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Adachi behind me, looking generally unimpressed…and then it was my turn.

“This is nuts…”

The instant I stepped down onto the pavement, I could no longer see a thing. Or, more accurately, the only thing I could see was the thick white fog. By the time I turned back, the entire bus had disappeared.

All around me, I could hear my classmates squealing in delight, but I couldn’t parse the distance between us, and it was starting to confuse me. I shivered. It was colder here than back at the hot spring inn.

“So this is what it means to be mist-ified… Wait, no, that’s mystified with a Y,” I corrected myself aloud. It still felt like it fit, though. Surrounded by walls of white on all sides, I was at a total loss.

Just then, someone’s disembodied shoulder popped out from the fog, and I flinched in surprise. I could only see about a foot in front of my own face. One wrong step and someone might actually get lost out here.

But then a realization dawned on me, and far too late: In my excitement to experience the fog, I had already taken quite a few steps away from the bus. I thought Adachi was right behind me, but when I looked over my shoulder, I couldn’t see her. At this point, I wasn’t even sure I was facing the bus.

“Shimamura!”

In the fog, I could hear Adachi calling for me. “Adachi!” I called back.

“Shimamura! Shimamura!”

But without any visual landmarks, I couldn’t tell which direction the voice was coming from. Before now, I never knew my hearing was linked to my sight at all. The lack of sensory information was starting to drive me crazy.

“Where are you?”

“Over here!”

If we were both actively searching for each other, it would only make it harder to actually find each other. That much was plain to see, and yet I knew Adachi wouldn’t stop. Guess it’s up to me, then. As I stood still, I could hear the teachers calling the students back to the bus, but couldn’t tell where they were. Part of me wondered why they would send us out into this fog in the first place, but on second thought, they probably didn’t realize what they were in for either.

Either way, the fog didn’t stretch on endlessly. Worst-case scenario, as long as I stayed put, someone would surely find me sooner or later. Luckily for me, I wasn’t the restless type. Adjusting my backpack straps, I faced forward and listened for the faint sounds of Adachi’s voice. The white walls filled my vision.

This was my world without Adachi: hazy, impenetrable, nothing worth an ounce of energy. In a way, it reminded me of my lazy days as a high school first-year. No wonder I always felt so trapped, I thought to myself. But now, I was in a very different place, and when I thought about the reason why, my legs started to move on autopilot. Suddenly, I was desperate to find Adachi.

Somehow, my backpack sensed this about me. “On your right.”

My right? Per Yashiro’s instructions, I reached out with my right hand, and as the icy mist seemed to drain all warmth from my fingers…I brushed against what felt like a shoulder. Someone was next to me, right there in the fog. The other person flinched, tentatively touched my fingers—then, with renewed certainty, grabbed my entire hand. Honestly, who needed sight when I could recognize that vise grip anywhere?

“Shimamura! I found you!”

Adachi came walking out from behind the fog, grasping my hand in both of hers. There was something reassuring in the way she held me so tightly… We were only apart for less than a minute total, but now that we were together again, I had never been more thrilled to see her. Likewise, she was beaming from ear to ear in a rare display of glee.

So we stood there holding hands, the same way we did last night, except this time, the fog was here to keep us hidden.

“Thank you,” I whispered quietly, not to Adachi, but to my backpack.

“I shall go back to sleep now.”

“Okay, okay.”

Her snores sounded like something out of an anime; they mingled with the distant sounds of birds chirping.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Oh, just myself, as usual. Anyways…man, this is crazy, huh? Not to sound like a broken record or anything.”

Adachi was literally right next to me, and yet her face had already disappeared back into the fog; all I could see now was our joined hands. Was she still smiling? Either way, with a landmark now on my right, I already had a better sense of my surroundings. Our hands served as a signpost for both of us.

“Wanna walk around a little?”

I knew the teachers wanted us to head back to the bus, but I felt like exploring. Now that I had accomplished my goal of finding Adachi, I had no set destination in mind. The two of us could go anywhere.

“You may have forgotten, but I’m actually a delinquent. A bad girl.” And with our hands linked, I had surely rubbed off on her. Hence, I extended this rebellious invitation.

I still couldn’t see her face, but I could feel her answer from the way her hand shifted against mine. “Let’s do it.”

“Cool.”

“This is probably the only chance I’ll get to walk hand in hand with you.”

At first I didn’t understand what she meant, but then I realized she was referring to the fog obscuring us from sight. Gotcha. “Wow, Adachi, I didn’t realize you were self-conscious about this stuff.”

“…Not really. But I know you are, so…”

It felt like an eternity since the last time she made an effort to be this considerate. Did the hot spring improve her blood pressure and restore her mental composure? If so, then my shameless nudity had paid off.

Ahem. All jokes aside.

“You’re not much of a bad girl at all, are you?”

I thought I had corrupted her, but instead, I was basically absconding with her. Eh, good enough, I thought, and started walking. Was there any point to us doing this? Yes. I was trying to give my heart what it wanted. Nothing could possibly be more important. I just wanted to walk through the fog.

Adachi and I walked straight forward. There was a path ahead of us. Even if other people couldn’t see it, it was still there.

“When I lost you in the fog, I thought…”

“Hmm?”

Her fingers tightened around mine, pulling me closer. “I thought to myself, This is probably what my life would be like without her.”

Without my sense of sight, I couldn’t see her face…but instead, it felt like I could see straight through to her heart. Or was she always such an open book?

“…Shimamura?”

I debated whether or not I should say it, but since my face was safely hidden, I decided to go for it. “Me too.”

“…Huh?!”

“I thought the same thing.”

I giggled awkwardly. Then, she yanked hard on my arm like she was ringing a church bell. “Repeat that?!”

“Sorry, no can do. The fog’s clearing up.” And if I had to look her in the eye while I said it, I would probably die of embarrassment.

“It’s not clearing up at all, though!”

“Sure it is! The more we breathe it in, the more it disappears,” I explained like a total imbecile as we walked straight ahead.

It felt like we were taking small steps toward our future waiting just on the horizon, though we couldn’t quite see it. It reminded me of the view from the boat—looking out across the water, with absolutely nothing else in sight—and yet, in both cases, I felt no fear, regardless of what I could or couldn’t see. As long as the two of us were together, nothing could mist-ify me. For the first time in my life, I felt invincible.

After that, we filed back onto the bus and headed to the theme park, as planned. Then Adachi and I ditched our assigned group and slipped away to a place where flowers filled every last crevice. But ultimately, nothing left a stronger impact than the moment in the fog that day.

 

***

 

On the second night, we stayed at a hotel—a much taller building than the hot spring inn. When I looked up at it, its overall shape reminded me of a slice of castella cake. Honest, that was my first impression. But when I told Adachi, she called me a weirdo.

No hotel room was big enough to fit five people, so each group was split into two. Naturally, the second Panchos found out about this, she immediately stepped into the role of wingwoman: “The three of us will sleep in this room, so you two can have fun in the other!”

It was sooo extremely obvious what she was doing, but the rest of the Trio let her drag them off without any objection. Not like any of them would have much fun sharing a room with me and Adachi. And Yashiro too, but nobody else knew she was here, so she kinda didn’t count.

I set my backpack down at the edge of my bed, plopped down onto it, and let out a breath. “My feet hurt,” I announced, summing up my thoughts about today in a single statement. There was still an hour left until dinnertime, and if I lay down, I could fill it in a blink. In fact, I could probably nap for a good three hours or so.

Resisting the temptation to curl up into a toasty little ball, I noticed Adachi sitting on the bed next to mine, fidgeting. She was practically hunched over in a kneeling position.

“Is something wrong?” I asked her.

“Just thinking…we’re alone now,” she remarked timidly. Was it really that noteworthy?

“Aren’t we usually alone whenever we hang out at my house and stuff?” For that matter, we’d been spending time alone since we first met in the gym loft.

“Yeahbutthisisahotel,” she muttered in a single breath, staring up at the ceiling.

Oh, right. I get it. “Oh, no, my womanly virtue!”

“Wha?!”

“Heeeelp!” As a joke, I covered the areas of my body that she’d paid the most attention to back in the hot spring (use your imagination). But then again, she was staring so fervently that she might have developed x-ray vision…or, in plainer terms, already memorized every detail.

She realized what I was suggesting and her eyes widened. “Nottrueit’snothing!” she spluttered.

“Setting aside what exactly is ‘not true’ and ‘nothing,’ which I will be sure to follow up on at a later date…” I kicked my shoes off, flopped down, and curled into a ball on the left side of the bed. Then I reached out in her direction. “Care to join me?”

A beat later, she recoiled sharply. “Wh-what about your womanly virtue?!”

“Relax. I trust you.”

At no point was I actually worried that she was going to cross any boundaries. After all this time together, I had obviously learned where her limits were. But of course, that didn’t stop her from acting in unpredictable ways.

“I thought you might like it if we cuddled.”

Besides, it was silly to shout across the room at each other from separate beds. The longer it took for her words to reach me, the more likely I might doze off. Heck, I was already starting to yawn. I needed Adachi to keep me tethered to the waking world.

“Anyway, open invitation, if you’re interested.”

“Uhh…okay…thank you.”

She shuffled over and perched at the very edge of my bed. Then she hastily threw herself down onto her side, smashing her face into my shoulder. Hard.

“Ow!”

The impact was enough to leave a big red mark on her forehead, so as you might expect, it was painful for me too. Then she gazed silently into my eyes, our noses practically touching. Giggling bashfully, I greeted her with a smile. “Welcome.”

“Uh…hi.”

I loved her faltering little pauses. From here, the next thing she would want was probably…

“Wanna put your head on my arm? Or mine on yours?”

I gave my arm a little wiggle. She gazed at it hesitantly, and then…

“What about both?”

“Oooh, good idea.”

We each slid an arm under the other’s head. Admittedly it was kind of an awkward position, but this way we could both enjoy the weight against our own arm and the pillowy softness of the other’s. I guess we could have simply taken turns, but that wasn’t a very elegant solution.

As she rested against me, her hair tickled my skin.

“So how did you like your school trip?” I asked, almost like I was her mother. But that was a recurring element in my relationship with her.

Man, I’m too young to be a mom. I kept hoping there was some way I could stay a “big sister” type at most. Now that, I was already good at.

“…Pretty average, I think,” she replied flatly. As someone who wasn’t comfortable in group settings, there was simply no way she was going to enjoy this type of event.

“Well, did you like the hot spring, at least?”

“Wh…?! You…you ditz! No, I mean…you bully!”

That first one felt a little harsh. Then she started flailing the arm under my head, smacking me.

“I was joking! I mean, I’d say it’s pretty average for me too.” Sure, I was having fun and making new discoveries, but… “It’s like when my parents bring me somewhere, you know?”

Because I didn’t pay for that plane ticket with my own money. For now, this was as far as I could go.

As we lay on the bed, my eyes wandered to the upside-down scenery. Through the open curtains, I could see a cloudless night sky. “So here’s something I learned earlier today: the morning after a cloudless night is more likely to be foggy.”

“Huh.”

“I guess you never know what tomorrow might bring, huh?”

The day before I met Adachi, I had no idea she was about to become a part of my life. Now here she was, cuddling in bed with me. Who could have seen this coming? The future was a mystery enshrouded in fog.

“See, I’m actually kinda curious to find out just how far we can go together,” I explained, gazing at her with my head tilted sideways. Adachi didn’t react strongly to this, probably because I hadn’t explained my thought process, so I continued. “For now, we still need adults to take us everywhere, but what about in five or ten years? Where will we be then? Right now, I haven’t the foggiest idea, but I’d like to take steps toward it.”

Walking blindly through the darkness, I had no confidence that I was actually moving forward. But as long as Adachi was around to hold my hand, the two of us would surely find our way.

She looked at me, her eyes unblinking and as round as saucers. “Uh, I don’t think I totally understand,” she replied in a breathy voice.

“Eh, I didn’t expect you to.”

Her arm quivered under my head. “But…setting that aside…”

Hey, c’mon, don’t just cast it aside!

“Are you saying…you’ll still want to be with me in ten years…?” she asked shyly, hoping to confirm the part that, to her, was the most important.

Ten years… Part of me was worried that I was over-promising, but at the same time, I wanted her to know how I was feeling right now. “I’d like to be.”

I’d never taken anything as seriously as I took Adachi. And likewise, Adachi only ever seemed to think about me. This was enough to make it work with just the two of us. At the very least, it gave me a casual landmark to strive toward.

Adachi’s eyes widened, gleaming with joy. It was the same expression I’d seen on her face when she saw her name on the class list at the start of the school year.

“It’ll take at least ten years, but…would you wanna travel abroad with me?”

But as I revisited the same promise I had previously declined, a different girl’s face rose to mind… We’d need to have an important conversation after we got home.

“Wait, so when you said ‘how far we can go,’ you meant, like…literally?”

“Uh, yeah…?” Traveling long distances required time, money, and a lot of preparation. I was inviting her to share it with me.

Adachi shook her head vigorously, whipping at my arm with her hair—but in a way, the sting was comforting.

“Tomorrow’s still too foggy.”

“…Okay, then.” I didn’t mind the fog, since we could always hold hands again.

And so the veil of night descended on our little trip. For us, it was our first, but it also marked the promise of many more to come.

 

***

 

Many hours later…

“I’m hoooome!”

“Welcome back. Where’s my luxury souvenir?”

“Right, your souvenir… How about you open my backpack over there?”

My luggage entered the house ahead of me. My sister raced over to it, but before she could open it, it opened itself, and the souvenir peeked her head out.

“Oh, it’s Yachi!”

Immediately followed by a bizarre slrrrp sound.