Chapter 4: The Isosceles Triangle

Adachi and Shimamuralightnovel — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 4:
The Isosceles Triangle

I T WAS THE FIRST TIME I’d ever made someone run away at full speed.

After Adachi was gone, I turned back to the TV. There was a small indentation in the blanket between my legs where she’d been sitting. Puzzled, I thought back over the events leading up to her departure—the way her face grew more and more flushed until she was redder than a tomato, followed by the moment right at the end when the color gradually drained again. What was that? It seemed as though she was struggling to say something…but what?

“What if…”

No, that can’t be it…can it?

Then my eight-year-old sister entered the room.

“Shabadaba!”

If I had been born male, my parents would have given me my own room by now, but because my sister and I were both girls, they shrugged their shoulders and left us as-is. Granted, they put a heater and a fan in the storage room next door in case I ever needed to stay up late to study, but those didn’t exactly make the storage room any less dusty.

“She’s gone, huh?” my sister asked, glancing around the room. Once she confirmed that Adachi was nowhere to be seen, she plopped down in front of the TV in the corner and grabbed a Wii controller.

Video games AGAIN? I thought as I watched her. But then she turned to me.

“Play with me, Neechan !”

“Ugh…”

She loved to play those games, even though she totally sucked at them. But I knew she’d get pissy with me if she lost, so whenever I played against her, I always had to make sure I didn’t really try. Hence, I was never particularly enthusiastic about playing…but I was especially unenthusiastic after what just happened.

“Let’s do it!”

Without even waiting for a response, she switched on the TV, navigated to the AV channel, and powered on the console. Evidently, she was raring to go. I grabbed the second controller reluctantly.

At that, my sister moved to sit right between my legs, resting her back against me. Before today, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but now it reminded me of Adachi. My heart ached.

Was it weird to sit like this? Why else would Adachi act the way she did?

“Your friend sure went home quick,” my sister commented.

“Yep,” I replied offhandedly, resting my chin on top of her head. Adachi’s visit was so brief, it was like, why even bother?

“Did you guys have a fight?”

“Umm…actually, I’m not sure.”

Today my sister chose a competitive puzzle game—one where brightly colored bead-looking things descended from the top of the screen, and you had to group them by color to make them disappear. The ideal strategy was to trigger a big chain reaction, but usually we could get a chain of two or three without much forethought.

Belatedly, I realized I should have suggested that Adachi play something like this with me instead. Story of my life—hindsight always loved to kick me when I was down. My problem was, I never bothered to put those late realizations to good use. Even if the exact same scenario happened a second time, I’d probably do the same things all over again. I just didn’t care enough to try to learn from my mistakes.

When Adachi asked how I spent my weekends, I’d struggled to give her an answer. I didn’t really have many responses available to me—I never played video games by myself, nor did I read many books, nor did I go see movies. Whenever I went shopping, it was only to buy seasonal clothes. Most of the time, I just sat around and spaced out. That was it.

Every now and then, I’d look down at my hands and realize, My fingers are so thin and flimsy. It always made me feel sick to my stomach. What about now, though? Had they tapered off and atrophied?

Adachi was so freaking opaque . I couldn’t work up the willpower to figure her out.

By the time I realized I was supposed to be using my fingers, not staring at them, my sister had already beaten me. I felt her jubilation under my chin. Now’s the time.

I pulled away for a moment and readied my index finger. “Hey,” I said.

She turned to look—and bumped straight into my finger. I’d meant to do this to Adachi, but she never got distracted enough for me to try. Nevertheless, I needed to do it to somebody …and my kid sister was the perfect schmuck. Way to go, dummy.

“Headbutt attack!” she roared, slamming her skull into my chin.

“Gah!” Pain shot up to my temples as my whole jaw went numb.

Naturally, that transgression did not go unpunished.

***

After what had happened the previous day, I had a feeling Adachi would come to the gym loft…so that’s where I went, hoping to beat her to the punch. I waited and waited, and then the bell for first period rang.

“Wait, what?”

No sign of her.

I gazed at the clock for a while, its hour and minute hands pointing right at 9:00 while the second hand carried on. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Adachi had chosen to sleep in.

We hadn’t explicitly agreed to meet up here today, so why was I so shocked by her absence? I pondered this question as I curled into a ball and rolled around the floor. It was starting to feel like she really wasn’t going to show. What did I ever do to piss you off? God, you’re so dramatic.

I sat up, grabbed my bookbag, and pulled out my phone. I was going to email her about it.

We’d exchanged contact info way back when we first met, but we hardly ever went out of our way to get in touch. After all, our conversations never lasted very long in person, so how could we possibly have anything to call or message each other about? Well, now I did have something to say. But how to phrase it? My fingers fell still as I brainstormed.

“Why did you leave yesterday?”

Too direct. Over text, it would read like I was angry with her. I needed something softer—something she’d be more inclined to actually respond to.

“Hmm…”

Something told me that all I really needed to do was get a conversation going, and the whole issue would clear itself up. Anything would work. In the end, I went with “How’s it going, friendo?”

At least I sounded happy. Aaaand sent! Now we wait.

I placed my phone on top of my bag—then remembered that I hadn’t set it on vibrate, so I fixed that. Somehow, I’d completely forgotten that I was supposed to be skipping class. Gotta stay quiet.

As I ran my fingers through my hair, I pursed my lips. What if Adachi stops coming to school? Would that be my fault? What did I even do to set her off in the first place?

It felt as though my pet cat had gotten herself stuck in a tree. I never prompted her to do it, and it was entirely her responsibility, but that didn’t change the fact that she was trapped. If I cared about helping her, then I needed to forego the blame game and get up there.

If I could’ve gotten one message to Adachi, it would’ve been, “Don’t give up on your whole life over this one tiny conflict.” But I could almost hear her asking, “Well then, what am I allowed to give up over?”

Beats me.

“Don’t be a coward, Adachi,” I whispered.

But, in the end, that coward didn’t reply to me all morning…and then lunch rolled around.

***

Partway through lunch break, I wandered into the classroom. I wasn’t strutting or anything, just walking normally, but nevertheless I somehow attracted a bit of attention from my classmates. Anyone I made eye contact with quickly averted their gaze. Really? You’re scared of me? Pathetic.

Of course, you might wonder if this meant my sister was right to try to walk all over me, but that’s a question for another time.

Spotting the only two people who reliably weren’t afraid of me, I made a beeline for them.

“Oh ho ho,” Hino smirked. “I didn’t know you were here! Wait… Isn’t that the exact same thing I said yesterday?” Pinching a piece of onion between her chopsticks, she tilted her head pensively.

“It sure is,” I replied, availing myself of the closest empty chair and taking a seat. Today, Hino and Nagafuji had once again brought lunches from home; their bento boxes were open on the desk in front of them. Hino’s lunch consisted mostly of stewed meat and potatoes with rice—probably just leftovers from dinner the previous night. As for Nagafuji, her lunchbox was packed full of rolled omelet. It looked delicious.

“Gimme some,” I begged.

“I’m ignoring you,” she replied with a straight face.

Wow, rude! You gave me your carrots yesterday! Then again, knowing her, she’d probably already forgotten about that by now. Maybe she washes her hair so hard, she gives herself short-term memory loss. Whatever.

I glanced over at the door, where Adachi’s empty seat stood out like a sore thumb.

“Adachi’s not here, huh?”

“Nope. She’s absent today,” Hino answered.

“She is?” Nagafuji cocked her head in confusion—no surprise there. But, as it turned out, there was more to the story.

“Apparently, she’s got a bad cold.”

“Aha! So, she’s having a fake sick day!”

What a relief. I’d been a tiny bit worried that Adachi might have gotten into a terrible accident on her way home from my house or something. Evidently not.

“I saw you both absent and figured you two were up in the gym loft again,” Hino commented.

“Nope, just one of us,” I replied, holding up my index finger. “We’re not attached at the hip, you know.”

“You’re not? Because you sure seem like you’re all over each other constantly,” Nagafuji remarked, her phrasing extremely questionable.

“No, we aren’t,” I insisted. Meanwhile, the idea that these outside observers saw Adachi and me that way had me panicking internally. To be fair, we’d had our share of physical interactions. Holding hands, sitting together… Maybe we weren’t “all over each other,” but we were certainly intimate. I’m only doing it because Adachi wants to, I thought, before catching myself. If I’m letting her do it, then clearly I don’t have a problem with it.

“Have you eaten, Shimaa-chan?”

“I’m not your ‘Shimaa-chan.’ Anyway…come to think of it, no, I haven’t.”

My mother didn’t make lunch for me. She knew I always skipped class, so if I’d asked her, she’d probably have laughed in my face. But it was entirely my fault for slacking off, so I couldn’t exactly complain. As for Adachi, she’d never brought lunch to school, either. She’d mentioned previously that she didn’t really get along with her parents, so maybe that made sense.

Back when we first met, I thought she was a lot more aloof and serious. I soon learned that wasn’t the case. Still, every now and then, I caught glimpses of her pessimistic side—her “dark side,” perhaps I should say.

“Gotcha,” Hino replied. “Well, I bet you’re hungry… Here, say ahh.”

Once again, as with yesterday, it was carrots. Maybe you should just tell your parents you don’t like carrots… On second thought, you’ve probably already tried that.

Meanwhile, Nagafuji stared down at her bento box, biting her lip, her chopsticks hovering timidly over each dish in turn. “I can’t do it… There’s nothing I hate in here!”

“What am I, your human garbage disposal?”

“Noooo, we love you! Here, have an omelet.”

“Yay!”

I decided that this made up for everything else they put me through on a regular basis.

Cleanup time rolled around. I stood in the hallway, broom in hand, just staring into space. Every now and then, when nobody was looking, I checked my phone notifications. No email from Adachi. But I was getting bored of waiting, so I decided to send her another one.

“I wanna come over to your house after school today. Is that cool?”

No reply…but I trusted that Adachi would be nice enough to let me in once I got there. Probably.

***

After lunch, I sat in class, wondering why Adachi hadn’t replied.

Possibility #1: she was straight-up ignoring me.

Possibility #2: she was really struggling to decide what to say in her reply.

Lastly, possibility #3: she hadn’t checked her inbox yet. This possibility seemed the most likely of the three.

I generally didn’t care about most things, but even I would’ve been a little offended by #1. Then after a few days, I’d get over myself, and it’d be back to business as usual. I knew it’d repulse people to know that about me, though, so I didn’t intend on ever telling anyone.

I still had the little map Adachi had drawn for me last time; it was folded up and tucked away in my bookbag. I reached in and found it almost immediately. It would be a long walk, but if she wasn’t going to answer my emails, then she hadn’t really left me any other option. I was sure we could work it all out once we started talking.

Something told me that it was stupid to put in so much effort for something that was supposed to come naturally. This felt like too much work. But after the final bell rang, and I passed through the school gates, I found myself walking in the opposite direction from my house. Knowing me, I’d probably stop caring after a few minutes. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do with my time.

At some point during this objective self-analysis, I looked up at the blanket of clouds above me. Not a single patch of blue sky was to be seen. It was colder today, too. Maybe now, at the end of October, the weather was finally synchronizing with the season.

The summer heat had really worn out its welcome this year. Every day we spent in the gym loft was sweaty and miserable. But as the temperature steadily sank, I had to wonder—would we ever go back? Or was it time for us to leave the nest?

As I walked through a residential neighborhood, I passed a group of grade school kids, their shrill little voices screaming and laughing without a care in the world. At least one of them was blowing into a recorder—maybe a music test was coming up. Must be nice, I thought as I watched them, though I wasn’t actually all that jealous. You know me—I was too much of a good kid for that.

“Greetings.”

“Huh? Wha—?” I turned in the direction of the sudden voice—and jumped backward, my eyes nearly bulging out of my skull.

Standing beside me was a small girl. A weird one. How could I tell, you ask? Her hair. Her hair was sky blue . It startled me so badly, I froze like a statue.

Blue hair . No, I wasn’t hallucinating, and no, it wasn’t a trick of the light. It was her natural hair color. Its strands were floating of their own accord, and radiating little blue… particles . And, for some reason, their owner had chosen to interact with me .

WHY?

“Uh…have we met?” I asked.

“What’s this? You don’t recognize me?”

She tilted her head back and forth. Then, after a moment, she took off running down the street. She disappeared around the corner of a distant house…and, a few minutes later, she reappeared. This time she wore a helmet, its visor reflecting daylight directly into my eyes. Now I understood. It was Yashiro. She just wasn’t wearing her space suit.

“This is what you look like?”

“Krrrssshhh…krrsshh…krrrssshhh…”

Apparently, all that running had left her out of breath. Unable to stand the helmet for a moment longer, she pulled it off again, and the crazy blue hair made its return.

Once again, her hair threw me for a loop. It was so conspicuous, it seemed to have its own distinct outline, like it existed on another plane of reality. Upon further inspection, Yashiro had a very pretty face, too. Her eyes and eyelashes were the same brilliant blue shade, almost as though the “particles” in her hair circulated through her entire body, painting it all with the same brush. The particles seemed fragile, yet magical—strong and weak at the same time.

“I would’ve liked it if you’d recognized me from my voice. That way I wouldn’t have needed this thing.” She gave the helmet a pat as she cradled it under one arm. Frankly, her voice sounded a lot different now that it wasn’t so muffled.

In place of her space suit, she wore a sleeveless dress that accentuated her pale, petite body, and sneakers with a logo I couldn’t identify. No socks. Oh, and she stood with her hand on her hip.

At her age, she would’ve looked right at home with a randoseru backpack slung over her shoulders, but she wasn’t carrying one.

“Now that my face is ready, I wanted to show you. Thoughts?”

“Don’t ask me,” I replied evasively.

Upon even further scrutiny, I realized that her lips sparkled ever-so-faintly blue—the kind of color that couldn’t possibly be lipstick. I pressed a finger to them experimentally.

“Mm?”

I pulled back and looked down at my finger. Nothing. All that remained were little floating sparkles…but they quickly faded away. I stared in disbelief, my eyes as wide as saucers. Now I was really, really tempted to grab her by the hair and demand some answers.

“I designed it to resemble an Earthling’s.”

“Should I be offended? Also, uh…what happened to your space suit?” And where did you go get your helmet from?

“Hmmm…” She pressed a finger to her forehead. “I’m afraid so. I had imagined everyone on Earth would wear a space suit, but thus far, I haven’t seen any.”

“Yeah, you’re not going to see one anytime soon.” Except maybe on TV.

“So, that’s why—uh oh!”

She clapped a hand to her mouth and jumped up and down on the spot. Then she reached out her free hand and patted me on the cheek.

“What are you doing?”

“We can’t let anyone overhear us, so I need you to lend me your ear.”

“Ooookay…”

Apparently, she was reaching for my ear , not my cheek. What was she going to do, grab it and pull? What a goblin.

I squatted down to Yashiro’s eye level. As she leaned in, her particles enveloped my nose, carrying her scent toward me almost visibly. Up close, her face dazzled me, as though every inch glowed somehow. The longer I looked at it, the more drawn in I felt…and the more fearful I became that it would consume me entirely.

She drew her lips to my ear. “I’m going to whisper now.”

I didn’t need the warning, but okay.

“The truth is, I’m an alien from the future.”

“Yeah, I know. You told me your little ‘story’ last time.”

That at least explained why she didn’t want anyone to overhear—they’d probably think she was a few corn dogs shy of a picnic. But, considering her ethereal appearance, I was starting to believe her.

“If the Earthlings find out I’m an alien, they will surely dissect me.”

“That’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think?”

Back when I was really little, my mom and I watched this TV show where NASA or whoever revealed some alien dissection footage. My mom was laughing hard the whole time. Now I understand why, of course, but at the time I was convinced that she had to be psychotic.

“Thus, I decided my mission required different clothes in order for me to avoid attracting attention.”

Having explained fully, Yashiro stepped backward, out of my bubble. Yeah, yeah, cool story. Now wipe that smug smirk off your face.

“I hate to break it to you, but you still attract plenty of attention.”

Unsurprisingly, almost every grade schooler in our vicinity stared at her as they walked past. She stuck out so badly, she looked as though she’d been Photoshopped into reality.

Then I noticed her unusual hairstyle—a bow tied without the help of any hair accessories. It was gorgeous, reminiscent of running water shaped perfectly into a ribbon, or perhaps a butterfly from a magical kingdom. Hold on a minute. Is it SUPPOSED to be that tight?

“Doesn’t that hurt your scalp?”

“I inadvertently tied it so tightly that I’m unable to loosen it.”

I attempted to pick at the knot. She yelped in pain.

Yashiro might have looked like an otherworldly entity on the outside, but on the inside, she wasn’t much different from my little sister. They were the same height, too, come to think of it. Maybe they’d be good friends… On second thought, maybe not. My sister would probably take one look at Yashiro’s hair and run for the hills.

She grabbed me by the sleeve and lifted my hand to her nose. “You must be on your way home from school. You don’t smell quite so wonderful today.”

By “wonderful,” I assumed she referred to the donut smell from last time. She was pulling my cuff so hard, my blazer threatened to slip down my shoulder. “Unhand me, wench!” I demanded in a theatrical voice as I extricated myself from her grip.

“Noooo!” she wailed feebly, spinning like a top as she whirled away.

What a good sport. You know, I’m starting to think she’s not actually an alien.

When she returned, she began to scrutinize me from every angle—circling me like a hyena, even getting up on tiptoe. Meanwhile, all the little kids continued to stare at us. Sorry, little alien, but you couldn’t be inconspicuous if you tried.

She scattered particles with every step, like a river of stars or the tail of a comet. Then she stopped directly in front of me…and smiled widely, innocently, flashing her pearly whites.

“You know, I must say…ho ho…something about you feels like destiny .”

“Oh really,” I replied offhandedly.

From her looks alone, Yashiro seemed more than capable of affecting a destiny or two. Me, though? As far as I knew, I was just an ordinary teenage girl. Granted, whenever I bleached my hair, my sister shouted “Bad student! Bad student!” and my mom called me a gyaru , though I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be an insult or what. But yeah, other than that, I was really pretty normal.

“I think perhaps you were born to meet me.”

I certainly hadn’t expected anyone to drop that line on me. As I reeled from the impact, I ruminated for a moment, then ultimately asked, “Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”

Even the other way around, the statement still didn’t make sense coming from what appeared to be a small child.

“No, no. I was born to carry out a multitude of other tasks,” she replied, unsmiling. Apparently, the implication was that I had nothing better to do.

This pissed me off, so I pinched her cheeks with both hands and tugged.

“Heh heh heh… You’re only wasting your time,” she smirked as I squished her face in every direction. She didn’t even bat a lash when I puffed her cheeks out like a squirrel. Then I spotted a lock of her butterfly hair poking up from the back of her head and gave that a tug instead.

“Gyaaahhh!”

Super-effective—no squishy cheeks to save her this time.

Once I’d had my fun, I let her go. I looked down at my hands, where a smattering of tiny particles danced in my palm. This time, my first reaction wasn’t What the heck? but Wow, pretty .

“Oh dear. I forgot I was on my way to acquire my dinner for tonight,” Yashiro mused, gazing up at the sky as though checking the time. I wasn’t sure how she gauged the sun’s position through the sheet of clouds, but okay.

Also, “acquire” her dinner? I’m starting to worry about this kid. But she’s probably not sleeping on the street, since she looks like she took a shower today.

“I imagine we will meet again. Until then, ta-ta and talk to you later.” With a curt wave, Yashiro dashed off down the street, the wings of her butterfly hair flapping with her movements, scattering a trail of particles in her wake. Watching her, I found myself mesmerized. She reminded me of that one fairy, Tinkle-bell or whatever her name was. Except less dainty and more food-obsessed.

Every last detail about Yashiro was a mystery, to the point that it was hard to believe we were residents of the same town.

“Now then, where was I…?”

Right—on my way to Adachi’s.

I was trying to cast my line in Adachi’s direction, but somehow, it felt as though I’d reeled in something entirely different along the way.

***

The rest of the walk was mostly uneventful. Once I arrived outside Adachi’s house, I took out my phone to check my notifications one last time. Nothing. All right, here we go. I rang the doorbell. Next, I considered using the intercom to let her know that it was me, but then I heard the bolt unlock. The door swung open.

“Who is it…?” Adachi asked in a dull, sleepy voice, rubbing her eyes. Girl, you need to check who it is BEFORE you open the door.

“Hey,” I replied, raising my hand in greeting. She froze.

Judging from her messy, unbrushed hair and the ratty old T-shirt she wore, I’d caught her in the middle of a nap. God, I wish that was me.

Her eyes widened and widened—and then, without another word, she closed the door just as quickly as she’d opened it, like a video on rewind.

“Hey! Wait!”

“Give me fifteen minutes!”

“What? That’s way too long!”

On the other side of the door, I heard the thump, thump, thump of footsteps racing down a hallway.

You’re seriously going to make me wait out here for fifteen whole minutes? What if your neighbors think I’m casing the joint? I glanced around at the other houses.

“Help! Open up!” I shouted jokingly, pounding on the door. No answer. Defeated, I pressed my back against the door and slid down into a crouch. With nothing else to do, I took out my phone and discovered that it was already past 4:00. As I’d suspected, walking to Adachi’s house took quite a long time, especially taking into account a certain glittery alien distraction.

I checked my hands, but the particles had long since faded away. Apparently, the magic wasn’t contagious. At first I thought, Man, if only I could sparkle like that, maybe I wouldn’t need to wear makeup. But then it occurred to me that not everything was meant to sparkle. Sure, it looked nice on something inherently beautiful, but on something like…I don’t know, a bag of rancid garbage…those same sparkles wouldn’t really help much. Not to compare myself to a bag of rancid garbage, obviously.

What exactly was Adachi going to spend those fifteen minutes doing, anyway? Changing out of her pajamas and brushing her hair? Surely she didn’t need to dress up fancy just to have a conversation with me. Then again, I understood her not wanting someone she knew to see her looking like a total mess, lest they never look at her the same way again.

To kill time, I alternated between single-player rock-paper-scissors and single-player tic-tac-toe. Really fun, as you can imagine. A while later, the door pressed against my back, so I jumped to my feet and stepped away. This time the door opened slowly, timidly, as Adachi peeked out through the gap.

Her breathing was labored—as though she’d dashed around the house at the speed of light—and her newly-brushed hair was messy again. It seemed to me that it would’ve been more efficient for Adachi to have me wait longer, or not at all, rather than forcing herself to rush. Furthermore, there was now a new mystery at hand.

“Why’d you put on your uniform?”

“Uh…force of habit,” she replied awkwardly, running a hand through her hair. Her flushed cheeks reminded me of what had happened yesterday.

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re a little late for school.” With this, I finally got a slight smile out of her.

“Oh, shut up.” She pushed the door open further, then lowered her hand back to her side, grinning sheepishly. “Man, you can’t just randomly show up at my house! You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“It wasn’t random. I emailed you in advance, didn’t I?”

“Did you?”

“Oh my god, you seriously haven’t checked your inbox? You dork!” I gave her a playful smack over the head.

She glanced around nervously. “Well… I kinda left my bag in your room.”

“ Ohhh , that explains it!” In other words, her lonely little phone had been beeping to itself in an empty room the whole time.

“Yeah. I figured, you know, I could go without checking it for a day or so, since I don’t get a lot of emails,” she shrugged. Then, suddenly, her eyes flew open as a lightbulb clicked on in her mind. She took a hasty step forward, slamming her knee into the door. “Did you look around in there?”

“Dude, I forgot your bag was even in my room until literally just now.”

“Oh. Okay.” She heaved a sigh of relief. Exactly how much private stuff did she keep in there? Now I was starting to get curious.

“Wait a minute… Oh, that explains it! Is that why you stayed home today? Because you didn’t have your bag?”

“No, I was just sleeping…but it was kinda, maybe, a tiny bit your fault.”

Wait, really? I glanced at her. She seemed to realize something, and averted her gaze. Her ears looked ever-so-faintly pink.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve thought to bring it to you.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay. I’ll be at school tomorrow, so just bring it then.”

“All right, will do. And don’t worry. I won’t try to read your diary or whatever!”

I laughed at my own unfunny joke. Adachi didn’t.

“You better not,” she insisted sharply, her expression dead serious.

“I won’t.”

“What did you email me about, anyway?”

“Oh, you know, just ‘How’s it going, friendo?’”

“Okay, well… I’m doing just peachy, friendo!” She raised her arm and flexed her bicep…then quickly got too embarrassed and had to stop.

I pointed my phone camera at her. “Do it again!”

“No!”

Darn . “So, can I come in, or are we going to stand in the doorway the whole time?”

“Oh, um…actually, I have work today,” she explained sadly. Apparently, she was fine with skipping school, but not work.

How very responsible of you…kinda. “Hmm…well, okay. Guess I’ll go home.” After all, I’d already accomplished what I came here for: saw her, talked to her, cleared up the email thing. Yep, I was basically done.

But, right as I turned to go, Adachi asked, “Wait, what? You’re leaving?”

I blinked at her, wondering, Don’t you have to go to work or whatever?

“I mean, we could talk for a few minutes,” she explained quickly.

“Hmm…what would we talk about, though?”

At times like these, we always defaulted to sitting around in silence. We didn’t have any hobbies in common—more specifically, I didn’t have any hobbies at all —and neither of us attended school regularly enough to vent about class.

“Go on, Adachi. Start a conversation.”

She was the one who’d told me to stay, so in my opinion, it was her responsibility to get the ball rolling. Her face froze in a stiff smile while her eyes screamed, “Oh god, help me!”

“Uhh…how’s it going, friendo?”

“Just peachy, friendo.”

But I didn’t flex my bicep. Instead of returning her serve, I caught the ball and put it in my pocket.

Silence.

Ultimately, I was forced to think of a topic myself.

“So…I guess you slept in today, huh?” I asked, pointing at her now-nonexistent bedhead.

She averted her gaze. “It just kinda happened.”

“It just happened, huh? Lucky you. I had to force myself to stay awake all through class.”

Seriously, I had been so drowsy, it sounded as though everyone was speaking a foreign language—and not just in English class, either. By this point, I was really lagging behind…and I’d need more than just a few minutes of studying each night to catch up.

“So, are you over your cold now?” I teased.

She started fake-coughing. “It gets worse every time someone asks me about it. Must be a really bad strain.”

“Yikes! Well, I’m sure you’d feel just awful if I caught it from you, so I’d better go!”

“Noooo! I’m joking! I’m over it!”

Wait, so she did have a cold?

As we grinned at each other, the conversation slowly died again. Normally that was totally fine, but today, for some reason, we were obliged to keep talking at any cost.

“Come on, Adachi. Next topic,” I said, prompting her with a “let’s-hear-it” hand gesture. She opened her mouth to speak, and I noticed her eyes dart back and forth nervously.

“Say, uh, Shimamura?”

“Hmm?” I wasn’t expecting her to actually think of anything to say, so I was kind of curious.

She hesitated, and then asked, “Would you want to go on a dat—day trip with me somewhere? Like, on Saturday or something?”

“Day trip? Like where?” I asked. I could think of a dozen more questions, too.

“Uhh…anywhere?” Adachi mumbled.

“You don’t have work on Saturday?”

“Not till late, so I could hang out during the day.”

“Okay, well… Sure, I don’t mind. But you have to decide where we’re going. I hate planning stuff.”

“Okay,” she replied, nodding. A smile crept onto her face.

“Okay, cool… Well, I’d better go now. Have fun at work.”

Only a few minutes had passed since I’d last tried to leave, but we were well and truly out of topics. This time, however, Adachi let me go without complaint; she seemed satisfied, I guess. Her hand was already reaching for the doorknob.

The day trip would be my first time hanging out with Adachi on a weekend. Then again, perhaps today counted as a weekend, too. For her, anyway. Heh.

“Oh yeah—where’d you get that cool shirt you were wearing? The one with the elephant?”

“Shut up!”

With that parting comment, I walked out to the street and headed on my way.

Five minutes later, I found myself murmuring aloud, “Was I hearing things, or…”

…Did she almost say “go on a date with me”?

Nah, couldn’t be.

***

We agreed to meet up inside a huge shopping mall, in an area with benches and a giant tree. I suggested meeting outside Shimamura Co. for maximum irony, but Adachi didn’t really laugh. Never mind, then.

When I got there, a group of six elderly men were sitting on the benches, relaxing and sipping cups of coffee as though they lived here. Idly, I wondered what they were up to that day. Then I overheard parts of their conversation and learned that they were headed to the on-site bowling alley afterward. I’d gone there one time with my little sister, back when they first opened. From what I remembered, the place had pool tables and darts and all kinds of cool stuff.

As I reminisced, I snuck another glance to my left. Sure enough, she was still there.

“What are you doing here?” I finally asked.

“Oh! Destiny!” Yashiro exclaimed. The way she said it made it sound like Destiny was my name or something.

Yes, you read correctly. Inexplicably, Yashiro was at the meetup spot. In fact, when she spotted me, she walked right up and plopped down next to me on the bench. She wasn’t wearing her space suit or helmet, but she sat with her arms folded for some reason.

“Neither of us knew the other would be here today, and yet we found each other regardless. Surely it must be destiny.” She snickered to herself, puffing her cheeks out.

There you go, tossing that word around again. “Where do you get your lines from? You know, your…dialogue?”

“Extensive study of the media known as ‘television shows.’”

“I knew it. All this ‘destiny’ talk sounded way too dramatic to be real.”

Looking at her little baby face, I got the distinct feeling she had no idea what “destiny” really meant.

She once again wore her hair in that same butterfly style, but this time, it didn’t look quite so tight. Clearly, she was at least capable of learning from her mistakes. Her clothes were different, too; she was wearing a blue skirt paired with a shirt that read FLAT BUTTE on the front.

“What are you, a tourist?”

“No, I’m an alien. From the future.”

She puffed out her chest, emphasizing her FLAT BUTTE . The more I looked at the shirt, the more impressed I became. Believe it or not, Flat Butte was the name of a real, actual place, which meant the people who lived there had to write “Flat Butte” on their envelopes whenever they sent a letter. They probably thought nothing of it. It’s amazing what people can grow accustomed to over time. It’s only been five minutes, and I’m already getting over it.

“So, what brings you here today?” Yashiro asked.

“Hah! I’d like to ask you the same thing. Anyway, I’m meeting a friend.”

“Oh ho .” She nodded as though she didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t sure that she was even listening to me.

“What about you?”

“I just came here on a whim. Spotted you purely by chance.”

“Oh really?”

“Destiny, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I shrugged.

Then Adachi turned up. This mall was quite a distance from her house, so I was expecting her to take the bus, but she slumped forward, hands on her knees, clearly out of breath. Apparently, she’d biked here. After a few seconds, she looked up at me and smiled.

But then she noticed who I was sitting next to, and her face froze.

“I saw you two together the other day, correct? Greetings.” Yashiro bowed deeply.

Gee, how polite of you. Just try not to get your glitter everywhere.

“Uh, what? Who are you?” Adachi blinked, baffled. No surprise there. I imagined that she was confused for a myriad of reasons.

“Go get your you-know-what,” I told Yashiro.

“Ah! Just a moment.”

Clearly, Yashiro knew exactly what I meant by this, because she dashed off around the corner. When she returned, she was wearing her helmet again, just like last time. How does she do that? I wondered. I decided to stop thinking about it before I fried my brain.

“See?” I said to Adachi. “It’s the little space alien from last time.”

“It’s me!” Yashiro shouted through the helmet, cheerfully raising both arms into the air. But she was starting to look creepy with the helmet on, so I pulled it off again. If I could touch it, which I could, and it had weight, which it did, then it couldn’t have been a mere illusion.

“Hmm.”

Curious, I put it on. Instantly, everything went pitch black except for the visor directly in front of my eyes. Not only was the helmet really heavy, it was also extremely hard to breathe in.

I turned to Adachi. “How do I look?”

She hastily took a step backward. “Like a worse version of Shimamura.”

She snatched the helmet off my head, then looked at me as though she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with it. Apparently, she didn’t want to try it on. I flicked my gaze at Yashiro, as if to say, “Well, give it back, then.” Timidly, Adachi held the helmet in Yashiro’s direction.

Yashiro took it and tucked it under her arm. “What is your name?”

Adachi’s lips moved hesitantly. “Uh…A-Adachi. And…who are you?” She looked from Yashiro to me, her eyes silently asking me to explain our relationship.

To me, Yashiro was…an acquaintance, I guess? I couldn’t really call her a friend.

“Put simply,” said Yashiro, “I am an alien from the future.”

“Translation…?” Adachi asked me.

“Eh, just think of her as the local weird kid,” I shrugged.

I didn’t know Yashiro’s real identity, and I wasn’t ditzy enough to accept her little “story” at face value. But, at the same time, I’d have to be a blind idiot to ignore the fact that she radiated blue sparkles . As in, literally right at that moment. They floated in the air around her like phosphorus.

The only thing I knew for sure about Yashiro was that she liked sweets…and me, for some reason, although I’d barely spoken to her and definitely hadn’t done anything to earn her affection. Or was it because I gave her that donut?

Sadly, while Yashiro might have sensed “destiny” between us, the feeling wasn’t mutual. Why would it have been? She was an astronaut on the outside and a little fairy freak on the inside. It was kind of a lot, if that makes sense.

“Is this the friend you were waiting for?” Yashiro asked, pointing to Adachi.

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s be on our way.”

She started walking.

“What?”

I stared after her. She turned back.

“It’s time I repaid you for the donut you gave me. I shall treat you to a meal.”

Adachi shot me a look like, “She’s coming with us?”

I turned back to Yashiro. “You’re coming with us?”

“I smell something delicious in that direction,” she announced, completely ignoring me. Seriously, she was so self-centered, she gave my sister a run for her money.

Adachi furrowed her brow. “What’s going on?”

Apparently, this turn of events had thrown her for a loop. Well, she wasn’t the only one. All I knew for certain was that Adachi was not happy about it.

Meanwhile, Yashiro was now several steps away. She turned back again, beckoning us. “You’d better hurry and catch up before you get lost!”

If anyone’s going to get lost in here, it’s you, I thought, but shrugged it off and started walking. Then I remembered something, and grabbed Adachi by the wrist. She flinched as though I’d zapped her with a jolt of electricity, then looked at me with eyes as wide as saucers. Evidently, she hadn’t expected me to do that.

“Wh-what?”

“Oh, I just don’t want you running away this time.”

“Huh? Oh…”

She seemed to realize what I was referring to: the day we’d hung out at the station square. Once again, it was me, her, and Yashiro.

Adachi looked away awkwardly, but I pretended I didn’t see it. Instead, I smiled. “It’d be a real shame if you came all this way only to turn around and leave again.”

If she went home now, what would I even do with the rest of my afternoon?

Adachi rubbed her cheek, her expression still dismal. Maybe she had an itch or something.

“I’m not gonna run away, but…”

“I know you’re not happy about this. I’m not exactly excited myself. But for now, let’s just humor her.”

Dragging Adachi along, I made a beeline for Yashiro. I couldn’t think of any real reason why I shouldn’t let her treat us to a meal, after all. If anything, I was surprised she had the money for it.

“Oh yeah, and good morning,” I said to Adachi as we walked.

She wasn’t sure how to process that at first. She blinked once, twice, then smiled vaguely. “Morning,” she replied. At last, she started walking with us of her own volition.

And so, the two of us followed the little blue fairy. With her bright sparkles serving as a beacon to guide us, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were on our way to a fairytale world.

***

In the end, Yashiro led us to a restaurant right next to the on-site grocery store. Judging from the sign, the place served pizza, pasta, and an omelet soufflé dish. The restaurant was a surprisingly competent choice, actually. I bet if Yashiro knew there was a donut shop near the entrance, she’d turn around and run all the way there.

“Yes, good!”

Drawn in by the scrumptious scent, Yashiro staggered headfirst into the restaurant. Naturally, the hostess was somewhat startled to encounter a little fairy-looking girl, but she quickly recovered and greeted Yashiro with a smile.

“Table for three,” Yashiro announced before the hostess could get a word in.

Inside, the restaurant clientele was predominantly middle-aged women. The hostess seated us at a booth between two full tables.

Yashiro slid in first; naturally, my gaze shifted to the opposite side of the table. But before I could sit down, Yashiro waved me over.

“Come, join me!”

“Huh? Oh, okay.”

At her prompting, I slid in next to her. Her little grin was so cute and innocent, I reached out and stroked her hair purely on instinct, as though she were my sister or something. Blue sparkles spilled out from under my palm.

As I sat, my other hand brushed against Adachi’s wrist. I realized I was still holding onto her like a vise, preventing her from sitting down.

“Ack! Sorry!”

I hastily let go. Surely, she wouldn’t run out of the restaurant, right? She’d told me she wouldn’t, anyway. But Adachi didn’t move; she looked at Yashiro with a pout on her lips, like a grumpy little kid. Then she pushed lightly against my shoulder. “Scoot in, Shimamura.”

“Huh? Oh, okay.” I sound like a broken record.

Once I did as requested, Adachi sat down next to me.

“Wait, what…?”

Why would we all sit on the same side? It’s not like we’re waiting for more people to join us! Even the hostess looked a little confused as she set a glass of water down in front of each of us.

Stuck in the middle, it would be kind of a hassle for me to try to move to the other side…but Adachi seemingly had no intention of moving, either. She kept shooting me awkward, furtive glances. Oh, you think this is awkward for you? Try being me!

Meanwhile, Yashiro downed her water as though everything was perfectly normal.

“Okay, well… Let me know when you’re ready to order,” said the hostess. She set a menu down on the table and hurried away. Clearly, she sensed the weirdness between the three of us.

Some people were gifted with almost supernatural intuition. Maybe, through evolution, we’ll be able to see ghosts someday. This was decidedly not the sort of thing that should have occupied my mind at a restaurant.

Yashiro set her empty glass down onto the table and pointed at an item near the top of the menu. “I’ve already decided that I’m going to have this wonderful, fluffy omelet soufflé,” she announced. In the photo, a miniature griddle cradled a perfectly browned rolled omelet.

It looked really good. I was tempted to order it for myself, but then I glanced around at the other tables and saw their brightly colored pizzas. I could go for that, too. Or the pasta. In other words, I was hungry for basically the entire menu.

“What are you getting, Adachi?”

“You can order whatever you like,” Yashiro added with a smug grin.

Adachi glanced at us, then reached for the menu.

“Can I grab that real quick? It’s hard to see from here.”

“Sure thing.”

I handed the menu to her. She unfolded it and held it up around herself like a shield, preventing anyone else from reading it. Not that Yashiro needed to, of course. She’d already decided, and now she was kicking her legs back and forth under the table like a little kid on a sugar high.

Adachi tugged my sleeve. “What are you getting, Shimamura?”

At her prompting, I leaned in close to look at the menu with her. “Hmm…not sure.”

I watched as a pizza arrived for a table near us. It was way too much for a single person to eat by themselves.

“What if we ordered a pizza and a pasta dish and went halfsies?” I suggested.

“Sure.” Adachi nodded cheerfully.

Just then, Yashiro poked my side. I yelped and whirled around to find her prodding me all over.

“Hey!” I reached out and pinched her cheeks. “What’s the big idea, missy?”

Yashiro let out a muffled giggle through her contorted lips. “I was bored,” she declared.

“Oh, I see. So, whenever you get bored, you violate people’s personal space?”

Apparently, she’s a lot more dangerous than she looks . I squished and stretched her face in all different directions to idle away the time.

Suddenly, I felt Adachi grab my other side, and I let out a second yelp. What is it with you people and touching my sides? I’m not a huge fan of it!

With my hands still grasping Yashiro’s face, I turned in Adachi’s direction. She glared down at the menu. Seriously, just use your words and tell me what you want from me.

“You choose the pizza, and I’ll choose the pasta,” Adachi suggested offhandedly, still grasping my shirt.

“Pffggehh,” Yashiro whimpered. She, likewise, was still trapped in my grasp.

Ugh, whatever. I don’t care. “Okay, I choose this one.” It was the bacon-zucchini pizza.

“Cool, then I’ll get this,” Adachi replied, pointing at the sun-ripened tomato pasta.

With our orders decided, we flagged down the hostess. She walked up with a barely suppressed smile on her face, almost as though she was biting back a laugh. Probably because I was squishing Yashiro’s cheeks, although I doubted that Yashiro and I looked remotely like siblings.

Adachi ordered for us, since she was nearest to the hostess. In sharp contrast to Yashiro and I, her voice was flat and emotionless; it caught me by surprise, and I relinquished my grip on Yashiro, who let out a sigh of relief and rubbed her cheeks.

“You can order more than that, you know,” she added a moment later, once she regained her usual swagger. Adachi met this with a dry laugh.

Once the hostess left with our orders, there was a long silence. Yashiro folded her paper napkin into some sort of origami while Adachi and I just sat there as usual.

Actually, it felt like Adachi was in a bad mood for some reason. Did she have some kind of problem with Yashiro? If so, what was it about the girl that Adachi didn’t like?

I glanced over at Yashiro.

She stood out in sharp contrast against the white walls behind her. In motion or at rest, something about her commanded attention. With her oddly colored hair and perfect, symmetrical face, she seemed like the kind of person who could change the world—like a superhero capable of piloting a giant mech or something. But in reality…

“Heh heh heh. It’s a grasshopper. What do you think?” she asked with a smirk.

I think it looks more like a chopstick rest. Even I could do better than that. I grabbed a napkin and started folding.

“What is that, a chopstick rest?”

“It’s a grasshopper, exactly like yours.”

“But that looks nothing like mine.” She frowned, tilting her head in innocent confusion. God, she pisses me off.

“Whose origami looks more like a grasshopper? Mine, right?” I asked Adachi. She sat with her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, looking annoyed for some reason. She glanced at me.

“ Neither of them look like a grasshopper,” she replied. Grrr, you’re no fun.

“You Earthlings are completely blind, aren’t you? Poor things,” the obnoxious alien lamented behind me. I ignored her.

“Adachi!”

I put my hand on Adachi’s shoulder to draw her attention—and, as soon as she turned to look, I grabbed her by the cheeks. She didn’t expect it at all, so I pulled it off on the first try. Initially, her face froze, but then blood steadily rushed to her head, and her cheeks burned pink.

“What’s up, buttercup?” I asked, cupping her face in my hands and forcing her to look at me. Against my palms, I felt her bad mood seemingly fade as confusion settled in instead. I gave her cheeks a squish, and her whole expression softened, even her eyes.

“Nnn…nuffinghphh.”

“Okay then, let’s hear your favorite catchphrase. And don’t forget to smile.”

“ What ? What catchphrase?”

“You remember, don’t you? First I start by asking, ‘How’s it going, friendo?’ Now it’s your turn!”

At this, Adachi put two and two together. “Ugh, c’mon,” she growled, looking away. But in the end she relented, donning the best smile she could manage through squished cheeks, her gaze still averted.

“Doing just peachy, friendo.”

She even remembered to flex her bicep, but this time, she dropped the pose just as quickly as she struck it. I wasn’t complaining, though.

It occurred to me that Yashiro had been quiet for quite some time. When I turned to check on her, I found her in the middle of crafting her second grasshopper, while her first sat side by side with mine. Did she plan to make a little tabletop grasshopper kingdom or what? Eh, she’s not hurting anybody, I guess.

I decided to leave Yashiro to her own devices; I let go of Adachi while I was at it. Adachi reached up to clutch her head, possibly out of embarrassment, so I went ahead and told her what was on my mind.

“Look… I’m not a mind reader, but now that we’re here, we should at least try to have fun, don’t you think?”

I felt Adachi peek at me through her fingers. She didn’t respond verbally, but I saw her nod slightly. Feeling weirdly satisfied, I continued to twiddle my thumbs and wait for our food to arrive.

“Oh, it’s coming! Hey, over here!” Yashiro shouted, waving her hands at the hostess like a lunatic. I cringed internally. It wasn’t like I could chastise her for drawing attention to herself when her outward appearance already did that in spades.

The hostess set down a miniature griddle in front of Yashiro. Unlike the menu picture, however, the omelet on the griddle wasn’t very puffy at all. Yashiro looked at it for a moment, then reached out and dumped an unreasonable amount of maple syrup all over it.

“Sploosh!”

Without so much as a glance at the tomato sauce that came with the omelet, she stabbed her fork into the dish and took a bite. Inside the omelet, I saw what looked like pieces of French bread mixed into the egg… Admittedly, I was curious to try it.

“Oh, it’s so moist! Wow! Very moist!” Yashiro exclaimed as she continued to cut up her omelet.

Yes, yes, we heard you the first time . Considering the amount of syrup she’d poured onto the dish, I wouldn’t have expected anything else. I found myself staring at it, wondering how much syrup had seeped in.

Next, she moved on to the soufflé, which she ate with such gusto that it piqued my interest even further. Once she’d swallowed her current mouthful, I spoke up.

“Can I get a bite of that?”

“Certainly.” She cut off a chunk and scooped it onto her fork. “Here.”

“Wha…?!” Adachi exclaimed, before I even had time to react. I turned to find her visibly scandalized.

“What’s the matter? Did you want some?”

“Not really.” She shifted her gaze, and I sensed that she had more to say, but then I caught her glancing furtively at Yashiro’s fork. She totally wants a bite, I just know it. Wait… But then, why didn’t she speak up when I first asked?

“Hurry it along, lass,” Yashiro urged.

“Yeah, yeah… Wait, what’s with the accent all of a sudden?” Now you’re a Scottish time-traveling alien? I turned back to her. “Oh, no, I don’t want that part. I want the part with French bread.”

“Very demanding, aren’t we, Shimamura-san?”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Yashiro put the current forkful into her own mouth, then scooped up another piece in line with my request and brought it right to my lips. I bent forward slightly and took the bite into my mouth.

Instantly, before I even started chewing, overwhelming sweetness seeped into my gums. It felt as though my teeth were all going to fall out simultaneously. There wasn’t much depth to the flavor, either—just sweet, sweet, sweet . It was hard to tell whether I actually liked it or not.

“Gah! Sugar overload! I think you put way too much maple syrup on.”

“Too much…?” She frowned slightly, as if to suggest it wasn’t nearly enough.

Good grief. I smiled at her. Just then, something touched my side again, and I felt another tug on my shirt. This time, Adachi had seized not just the fabric, but my body along with it.

“You know, Adachi, it’s not nice to grab somebody’s love handles like that.”

“Right, sorry. Here, you can have a bite of this.”

Where did that come from? I turned to find that Adachi’s pasta had arrived.

“Wait… Weren’t we going halfsies on this anyway?”

“Yeah, but…um…I’ll give you an extra bite for free.”

She hastily twirled a strand of pasta onto her fork and held it to my mouth. You’re not trying to fatten me up, are you? For a moment I hesitated, but ultimately decided that it would be rude to reject her kind offer, so I put her fork in my mouth. The taste of tomato and olive oil danced across my tongue.

Yashiro with her sweet dish versus Adachi with savory. Somehow the flavors seemed to match them perfectly.

As I savored my bite of pasta, Adachi stared at Yashiro, whose entire chin was now sticky with sauce. Yashiro was so focused on eating, she didn’t notice Adachi watching her. Adachi didn’t seem actively hostile toward Yashiro, but she did strike me as recalcitrant, like a little kid with her new stepmother. Yeah, she could be really immature sometimes.

After I returned the fork to Adachi, she stared down at it, then shook her head. Seriously, what’s going on with her?

It was exhausting, having to play mediator between these two. If one of them asked me, “Where to after this?” my response would be, “The pharmacy,” because I probably had an ulcer by now. As one might imagine, that made for a less-than-enjoyable mealtime experience.

When I asked myself how we’d gotten here, I knew that deep down, I had an inkling. Instead of actually examining it, though, I dodged the question and looked in the direction of the kitchen. Where’s that pizza? A pleasant, slightly burnt smell wafted from the kiln.

However, this day was far from over, and things were about to get a whole lot worse for the three of us.

That’s what Destiny was telling me, anyway.

***

I once read somewhere that a bowling ball weighs the same as a human head. No idea whether that’s true, but it would certainly explain where neck pain comes from.

“This item is heavy,” Yashiro complained as she held her ball in both hands.

She stumbled in my direction—I wasn’t about to let her drop that thing on my foot, so I took a hasty step back. Unfortunately, she followed me.

“A skillful move. Truly the work of destiny.”

Why is it always about destiny with you?

After we finished eating, we figured it’d be a waste to go straight home. Adachi and I debated window shopping, but then a certain alien child spotted the on-site amusement center and started babbling excitedly. Since Adachi and I were both generally passive in social situations, we found ourselves dragged along.

Mind you, the facility had a lot more to offer than just bowling—karaoke, billiards, darts, and ping-pong too. Naturally I suggested ping-pong, since it was kind of our thing, but we quickly realized that’d get complicated with an odd number of players.

A bunch of creepy older guys were hogging the darts area, and Yashiro wasn’t tall enough to lean over the pool table. Thus, through the process of elimination, we ended up at the bowling alley—690 yen per game. Yashiro didn’t want to foot the bill this time, so we split it between us instead.

Adachi paid her share without complaint, but she hadn’t joined the conversation in quite a while. Every now and then, I felt her gaze on me and turned to look, only for her to shake her head and say “It’s nothing.” You sure about that?

Honestly, perhaps it was for the best that Yashiro took charge. Who knew what Adachi and I would have ended up doing otherwise.

“So, what do I do with this?” Yashiro asked me, still cradling her blue bowling ball.

“You don’t know how to play? But you’re the one who wanted to go bowling!”

“I can always tell when something will be entertaining. Impressive, right?”

“Not really.” I grabbed her by the head and turned her to face the lanes. “See those pins? You roll the ball and try to knock them down.”

On the back wall, above the pins, hung a large monitor that displayed feeds of all the lanes. Precisely at that moment, a guy from the family next to us (the dad, I assume) was taking his turn, so I adjusted Yashiro’s view accordingly. He wore what looked like pro bowling gloves, but it quickly became apparent that his skill level was anything but “pro.”

Early into his throw, the ball deviated from the center and careened toward the gutter. Luckily for him, the family was playing with bumpers, so the ball bounced back toward the middle and slowly took down pin after pin. In the end, the throw was deemed a strike, and the dad jumped for joy.

“So, yeah, that’s the gist of it. Got it?”

“Tricked you! I actually knew how to play the whole time. Ha ha! You fell for my ninjutsu!”

I gave her a little smack on the cheek to set her straight. The impact scattered light particles everywhere. They floated toward my hand, which startled me so badly I nearly fell backward. It seemed as though each particle had a mind of its own. What are you, Yashiro?

Nevertheless, she remained at my side like a faithful puppy, speaking only to me and never to Adachi. As for Adachi, she willingly interacted with me, but obviously she had zero intention of playing nice with Yashiro.

I know I can’t expect you to be best friends, but have either of you thought about what it feels like for me? To be stuck in the middle like this? I was by no means a talkative person, and I was dying for something to drink.

After watching the family next to us for a moment, Yashiro turned back to me. “Shimamura-san!” she called gleefully. “Can I go first?!”

She tried to lift her bowling ball and staggered again. I’m really starting to worry about you. “Sure, why not?”

“Heh heh heh… I have a brilliant plan.” From the way her eyes gleamed, I could tell she was up to no good.

Then I noticed Adachi intently staring off in a different direction, so I decided to approach her. “You better not run away,” I warned her—in a playful way, of course, not a mean way.

“I told you, I won’t,” she replied, pouting like a little kid. Then her expression softened slightly. “You’re a total mom friend, aren’t you, Shimamura?”

“I’ve tolerated my kid sister for half my life, so…I guess you could say I know how to deal with little goblins.”

“So, this girl’s like a second sister? What about me?”

“You can call me Oneechan if you want,” I joked, expecting Adachi to laugh and shoot me down. Instead there was a pause, and then… Wait, are you—

“…Oneechan.”

Oh god, she went there. And with a straight face. And what was that awkward pause?

“Wh-what’s up, my sweet little sister?” I asked, playing along, although deep down I wasn’t really looking to adopt any more goblins.

Just then, Adachi looked up. The blood drained from her face.

“Uh, Shimamura?”

She pointed over at the lanes. Curious, I turned…and saw Yashiro, ball in hand, walking down our assigned lane as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Wait, where are your shoes?! Everyone stared at her. I heard whispers from the other bowlers around us.

Obviously I couldn’t just let her cause a scene, so I dashed over to stop her, sighing internally. What am I, her babysitter? Once I caught up, I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.

“Hm?” She turned to face me, puzzled. But I wanted answers.

“Excuse me, little missy! What the heck do you think you’re doing?”

“As I observed the other players, I realized that there’s a distinct disadvantage to throwing the ball from a distance.”

“ What ?”

“From up close, however, anyone can easily knock down all the pins! Don’t you see?” She smirked at me as she explained her brilliant plan . Listening to her nearly sapped me of the will to live.

“Wow. You’re so smart.”

“I know, right?”

“ But, unfortunately for you, this is a bowling alley, so you’re going to have to play by the rules.” I dragged her back down the lane, away from the pins. If you want to put your own spin on bowling, go do that at home.

“Noooo! It’s not fair!”

“ You’re the one not playing fair. Now stand at the end of the lane, and roll the ball like you’re supposed to.”

She cocked her head at me.

“Do you seriously not know how to play…?”

“We don’t have this game back on my home planet,” she replied offhandedly. It didn’t appear to be an act, either. Was she raised in some remote foreign country? If so, then her Japanese was ridiculously good for a non-native speaker. She was a walking mystery I couldn’t begin to solve.

“What’s the deal with your hair, anyway? That’s your natural color?” I asked finally.

Yashiro grabbed a handful of her own hair. “What, this?”

“Yes, that . Last I checked, nobody on Earth has naturally blue hair.”

“Stylish, isn’t it?”

“I was thinking bizarre , but sure.”

“I intended to model myself after my compatriot, you see, but I inadvertently chose the girl next to her instead.”

What are you talking about? I attempted to translate Yashiro’s make-believe into reality. Maybe she had wanted the same hairstyle as one of her…relatives? But she found herself mimicking their friend? No, that didn’t make sense…unless her relative had a blue-haired friend, in which case that person was almost certainly an alien. And in that case…what did that make Yashiro?

“Meh…I guess I shouldn’t think about it too hard. All right, let’s see you do a normal throw this time.” I gave her a little push.

“Very well, if you insist.” She toddled up to the start of the lane. Finally, a return to normalcy, I thought.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Yashiro launched into a full-body dive and released the ball while sliding on her stomach. Her form was so sloppy, it almost looked as though she’d simply tripped at the starting line. I’d never seen anyone bowl like that in my entire life. Still, I imagined it was fun to watch the ball roll down the lane from that angle.

The ball crashed into the bumper and bounced off, flying directly into the pins and mowing them all down at the speed of light. A perfect strike.

Naturally, Yashiro’s abnormal throw style garnered even more attention from the rest of the alley, but she didn’t move a muscle. I walked over, put my hands under her tummy, and hoisted her up. She turned to look at me. “Was that good?”

“Uh…sure, I guess, but what the heck was that dive?”

“I figured it would be advantageous to get as close as possible.”

“On second thought…maybe your blue hair is the least of my concerns.” If Nagafuji tried the same stunt, I bet it’d be painful. For her boobs, I mean.

Sliding on the ground had gotten the front of Yashiro’s clothes all dirty, so I dusted her off.

Maybe I am the mom friend… Isn’t this pretty normal, though?

I headed back to Adachi with the alien cradled in my arms. Her little legs swayed with every step, and I found myself sorely wishing she would walk on her own two feet already. Still, her body was abnormally lightweight, so I couldn’t really complain. Maybe she’s made of Styrofoam on the inside. Or maybe her whole body is one big fusion of light particles. For some stupid reason, I found myself picturing this.

All alien speculation aside, I had a feeling Adachi would be in a bad mood when we returned, and sure enough, she was. I sighed and shook my head. Man, it’s hard work having a “little sister” my own age.

Once I sat down, Yashiro shifted onto my lap like a dog. She didn’t seem to want to move, either. I didn’t mind much, since she was so light, but I felt like I was going to choke on all the sparkles.

“Wanna go next, Adachi?”

“No thanks.”

“Too bad,” I insisted, and handed her the bowling ball sitting ready nearby. By that point, I’d learned that bossiness was the most effective strategy for dealing with Adachi when she threw a tantrum.

Sure enough, her bad attitude faded as she reluctantly took the ball. Evidently, she caved quickly to peer pressure. Same, TBH.

“So, is there a point to winning?” Yashiro asked me. She didn’t seem to be gloating about her strike, either; her voice was perfectly level. Perhaps she genuinely didn’t see the value in victory for victory’s sake. When she looked at me with her innocent eyes, I hesitated. I really wasn’t sure what to tell her.

“I don’t know… Doesn’t it feel good to outdo everyone else?”

“Not when I’m competing against someone I love. And I love you, Shimamura-san.”

At this, my heart nearly stopped. That kind of thing always tended to put me on edge. A split-second later, there was a dull THUD as Adachi dropped her bowling ball. I turned and watched as she chased after it. Such a child.

“Oh, uh…cool. Thanks.”

I kept my gaze averted. As you might expect, it was kind of awkward to make eye contact with somebody who had just professed their love for me. Especially for someone like me. I had notoriously struggled with expressing my feelings since I was a kid.

Once Adachi recovered her ball, she walked back over and stood in front of us—but her gaze was fixed on Yashiro, not me. There was a palpable hostility in the air.

“How about you compete with me?” she demanded, holding her ball aloft. It was hard to tell from her poker face, but I sensed that she was actually upset about something. Whatsa matter, little Adachi-chan?

“Oh ho… You think you can beat a pro bowlinger such as myself?”

I’m pretty sure the word you’re looking for is “bowler.” Then again, you’re also lying through your teeth, so I guess it’s a wash.

“You bet I do,” Adachi shot back, lightly stroking her bowling ball’s smooth surface in much the same way a supervillain would pet their cat. “If I win…”

She immediately stopped short and looked at me.

What? If you win, you want me to do something? I’m not Yashiro’s mom, so you can go ahead and leave me out of it!

“Let me borrow you for a minute.”

Taking Yashiro by the hand, Adachi pulled her down from my lap and led her to a distant corner of the bowling alley. Holding hands, you’d think they’d come off as siblings. Instead, their short walk more closely resembled an attempted kidnapping. Probably because they looked nothing alike.

Adachi crouched down to Yashiro’s eye level and whispered in her ear. The little alien put a hand to her chin in contemplation.

Once Adachi finished speaking, Yashiro replied, “Hmmm. No thanks.”

Wow, that was blunt.

She bounced all the way back like a little rabbit. I found myself impressed at how she seemed to exude energy. In contrast, Adachi trudged back with slumped shoulders, probably because Yashiro had shot her down point-blank.

Adachi took her ball and lobbed it from the end of the lane like a normal person; it took down six pins. On one hand, it was nice to see that at least one of us knew how to bowl correctly, but on the other hand, I wasn’t really sure how to react. Should I compliment Adachi or console her?

Silently, she attempted her second throw. In the end, however, she failed to take down the last two pins. Scratching her head, she returned to her seat next to me. Since she was technically losing, I decided to comfort her.

“That was close.”

“I don’t have a lot of experience with this game,” she explained. Since she’d mentioned previously that her relationship with her family wasn’t great, I could tell that she wasn’t just making excuses for her poor performance. After all, she wasn’t the type of person to plan a bowling night with friends. “Anyway, it’s your turn, Shimamura.”

“Oh, yeah…” I shifted Yashiro to the empty seat on my other side, then reluctantly got to my feet. I’d already paid for the right to play…but I wasn’t sure I had any business butting in on their little competition. Maybe it’d be more considerate to drop out? I turned around to shoot them an inquiring look.

“Hurry up, Shimamura.”

“Oh…uh…okay.”

At Adachi’s prompting, I decided to just throw the ball and get it over with. Hyah! There, all done. I didn’t even care how many pins I hit—it didn’t matter to me. After all, there were more important things in life than winning or losing.

When I returned to my seat, my little lapdog crawled right back into her usual spot. Apparently, she enjoyed using other people as chairs.

“I beg your pardon? It’s your turn, remember?”

“Ah, yes, of course.”

She jumped down from my lap, and I found myself wondering what had happened to her astronaut helmet. The more I thought about that, the more it threatened to fry my brain.

“Now then, pardon me while the pro bowlinger takes her second turn.”

BOWLER, not bowlinger. That sounds like a type of airplane.

As she jogged over to grab her ball, blue sparkles scattered in a stream behind her, drawing the attention of a nearby family and a group of teenage boys. Not that I blamed them for staring, since she immediately followed up with her ridiculous diving-throw technique. Meanwhile, I wondered if it hurt to bend her neck at that angle.

Her dives didn’t cross the foul line, so they were probably valid throws—not that an amateur like me would have known. Once again, the ball sped down the lane at a weird angle, bounced around, and ultimately upheld its end of the bargain, toppling pin after pin until not a single one was left standing.

“Wowie.”

Bumper handicap aside, who’d have thought that her insane throw style would net her two strikes in a row? Certainly not me. In fact, I was starting to suspect that she might have some kind of weird alien superpower to go with her weird alien hair. Frankly, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she did. Then again, if she had superpowers, I guess she wouldn’t need to do these wacky dive throws.

“And what a great second turn it was!” Yashiro exclaimed, dashing back to me with both hands outstretched in front of her for some reason. More concerning, however, was the fact that her legs were all pink. Sighing internally, I resigned myself to my mom-friend duties.

“You haven’t scraped your knees, have you?”

I reached out and touched them to be sure. Nope, no scrapes. She didn’t wince in pain or anything, either. Somehow, touching her little legs made me realize just how small she was. The thought that this tiny child had bought me lunch made me low-key hate myself.

Meanwhile, Adachi had a big scowl on her face. No surprise there, of course. At the rate she was going, Yashiro would keep getting strike after strike, which meant Adachi didn’t stand a chance.

“Good thing you guys didn’t make that bet after all, huh?” It was the most consolation I could offer Adachi at this point. She growled quietly.

“Heh heh heh! You know, you’re free to copy me if you like,” Yashiro announced with a smug smirk.

Adachi glanced at her, but otherwise said nothing, though she had “Thanks for the unwanted advice” written all over her face.

“Or you could just throw the ball like a normal person,” I retorted. It was hard to deny the efficacy of Yashiro’s dive throw, though, especially since I couldn’t be sure whether it was against the rules. Add it to the pile of other Yashiro mysteries, I guess.

Adachi got up and grabbed her ball. Personally, I was impressed that she had the courage to keep going.

Holding the ball in front of her face, she walked toward me, gaze averted, and asked, “So, uh, who are you rooting for?”

“Uhhhh…” Man, don’t ask me that. What a pain.

“Yes, yes, do tell!” Yashiro chimed in cheerfully.

Ugh…I wish you wouldn’t make me pick.

At first glance, I might have seemed like a “mom friend” or whatever. However, I was actually as lazy as the next girl. No amount of effort or experience could change that.

Whenever someone came to me for attention, assistance, or affection, some part of me felt…resistant. I was always struck by the urge to shrink myself down as small as possible and slink away quietly.

To everyone else, this was probably hilarious . I could imagine they enjoyed tormenting me. No point in chasing without something to chase, after all. Conversely, if I leaned into it and actively tried to get their attention, they’d lose all interest. At least, that’s how it seemed like to me.

Since I had that attitude toward other people, deep down, I knew I was honestly better off going through life alone…and yet here I was.

“Shimamura-san!”

“Shimamura!”

“Yes, yes, I hear you,” I replied quickly.

Somehow, I felt like the main character in a romcom…and I was exhausted .

***

Following this fairly tumultuous day out, I came home to find that it was still only three o’clock. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting to be home quite that early…but after we’d bowled our ten frames, we all sort of awkwardly went our separate ways. (I’ll spare you the details of who won and who was a sore loser, but I’m sure you can guess.)

I walked into my room and immediately collapsed onto my futon. “Man, I’m beat.” That was the only sentiment I expressed aloud. Truth be told, I wanted nothing more than to fuse with the floor and take a six-hour nap, but for some reason my mind was still wide awake. After about ten minutes of lying there motionlessly, I got bored and opened my eyes.

I spotted a manga volume lying nearby. Apparently, my sister had been reading it before bed last night. I picked it up and opened to a random page, where the protagonist was making excuses about something or other.

“Heh heh heh.” With a goofy laugh, I closed the book, put it back, and rolled over. “Ugh… I should not be this tired on a weekend.”

Making new friends, hanging out, trying my best to make it work. Was it…hurting me? No, not quite. It was just exhausting . I was being worn down, bit by bit. I mean, I was twisting myself into knots trying to avoid stepping on any toes, so of course I ended up overexerting myself.

Sometimes I contemplated whether it’d be easier to give up and ghost them entirely. In fact, I actually gave it a try one time—and that was when I met Adachi. Was that a good thing? I would’ve said yes.

The thing about being alone is that it’s boring —an affliction far harder to cure than any simple loneliness. The only treatment for its debilitating malignancy is human connection. That was why I subjected myself to this steady erosion. I needed to wear myself down if I wanted to keep myself going.

Under my breath, I recited a line from the manga aloud, as if savoring every word.

“Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work out. I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.”