Chapter 5: How to Spend a Day Off

Chapter 5: How to Spend a Day Off

Chapter 5:

How to Spend a Day Off

I T WAS SUNDAY , the day after I’d had my discussion with Kanzaki and the others, and experienced a little friction with Kei. The time had come for Ichinose and me to meet, as we had promised to do the day before. I headed down to the lobby a little early, but I didn’t see Ichinose in the area. I thought there might’ve been a possibility that we’d bump into one another by coincidence, but there was no sign of that happening. I turned around and looked back at the elevator, but it didn’t seem to be moving.

“I guess Kei isn’t following me after all,” I mused.

Even if Kei was worried about me meeting Ichinose, she wouldn’t necessarily do something like that. Well, actually, no, it might’ve been premature for me to assume that Kei wouldn’t do anything just yet. Kei could always head over later, or she could have already gone ahead to where Ichinose and I planned to meet. Or, I supposed, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that Kei might just audaciously barge in on our meeting when we were already in the middle of talking.

Analyzing Kei’s behavioral patterns thus far, I couldn’t reduce the probability of something like that happening to zero. If it did happen, I figured I’d just let it happen, but… Judging from how she was acting yesterday, I doubted she’d do anything too reckless. It took a certain amount of courage to stand by and watch something you didn’t want to see, after all.

I exited the dormitory building. The sky was completely clear at the moment, but unfortunately, the weather forecast called for rain starting in the afternoon, so I’d brought an umbrella with me just in case. I wondered how Ichinose felt as she greeted the morning. The things she desired, the things she wanted. It seemed clear to me that it wasn’t just one thing. To have the skills of an outstanding leader, to have a successful romantic relationship, to become strong in spirit… If I were to count the wishes on my fingers, I might not be able to do it on one hand. Scratch that, I might not even have enough fingers if I did it with both hands.

Just that one night on the school trip hadn’t been enough to bring about any tangible change in my relationship with her. I had no way of knowing what Ichinose, who was still feeling anxious and unstable, was thinking, except by meeting her in person.

Wrapped up in thoughts about the future, I ended up arriving at the meeting spot a little before the appointed time—and found that Ichinose was already there, waiting for me, holding an umbrella behind her back. She noticed me before I called out to her, and she slowly waved her free hand hello.

“G-good morning, Ayanokouji-kun!”

I didn’t get the sense she was depressed. If I had to say, I felt like she had a kind of youthful, vibrant nervousness, innocent and pure. Unlike that night when I had caught her off guard with a surprise visit, it seemed like Ichinose had prepared herself well for this, both in terms of her outward appearance and her emotions. She made eye contact with me at first, but when I continued to gaze into her eyes try to discern her true feelings, she quickly averted them. I could tell that she had lowered her gaze, looking at my mouth, nose, or neck, to make it more difficult for me to pick up on her deeper emotions.

“Sorry that I made you clear your schedule for me like this,” I told her.

“Oh, no, no, it wasn’t any trouble at all,” she insisted. “I didn’t have any plans to begin with, anyway. Really.”

Even if she was only saying that to be polite, I still appreciated it, as the person who had invited her.

There were still a few minutes before the mall opened, and since we couldn’t go inside, the two of us lined up outside the entrance. We were next to each other, but we weren’t too close, nor were we too far apart. From an uninformed onlooker’s perspective, it’d probably be difficult to judge whether we were waiting separately for the mall to open, or waiting together.

“I haven’t had that many opportunities to come to the mall before it opens, but still, I’m surprised no one’s here yet,” I observed.

“It is especially cold today,” Ichinose said. “I wonder if maybe everyone is still relaxing in their rooms.”

She had a point there. I supposed it wasn’t necessary for anyone to wait in line early in the morning for the mall to open unless there was a special sale going on that day or something.

“It really is cold, isn’t it?” she added in a very tiny voice, almost like a mutter under her breath.

The conversation stopped there for the time being, since I figured we’d probably have to wait until after we got inside before we could really talk.

In my daily life, I’d been spending more and more time with my lover, Kei, and it wasn’t like even that daily routine was always filled with conversation. There were some points when Kei and I shared our time together talking, but it also wasn’t unusual for us to spend ten or twenty minutes at a time in companionable silence. At first, I’d felt the same kind of awkwardness that I was feeling right now with Ichinose, but before I knew it, that awkwardness with Kei had disappeared, and I had begun to feel comfortable with the silence sometimes.

It wasn’t so much an issue of whether or not I was used to the silence. It was more that slight moments of silence could feel strangely heavy when you were with someone who wasn’t close enough that you could say you were really intimate—where there was still that distance between you and them. It wasn’t like I couldn’t stand the continued silence, but I wondered if it would be better for me to break the ice and say something, as the person who had invited her out.

Ichinose might have been thinking the same thing by chance. However, neither one of us was able to take that first step, because we couldn’t really speak casually with each other. A trait we have in common, I thought to myself. If I threw something out there, we could go back and forth two or three times and get an actual conversation going.

Just as I was thinking about that, a certain male student popped into my mind.

“Oh, by the way, on the school trip we just went on, I had Watanabe in my group,” I said.

“Yes, I heard that,” replied Ichinose.

“I hadn’t ever talked to him before, so I didn’t know him, but Watanabe’s friendly and easy to talk to. He’s a good guy.”

When I told Ichinose what I had honestly thought about him, she looked really happy, as though my complimenting him made her feel good, too.

“Yeah!” she said. “I think all our classmates like him, guys and girls alike.”

He wasn’t the type to get as carried away, like Ike, and he could read situations well, though not as well as someone like Yousuke. I’d only seen part of Watanabe, but I was sure that he was the same way in his class.

“We’ve all been at the same school for close to two years now, but just because we’re in different classes from one another, there’s so much about other students that I don’t know,” I remarked.

“I feel the same way,” said Ichinose. “I don’t know much at all about the other classes. It’s totally different from how things were in elementary school and junior high. Or rather… I guess this is what happens when we have to seriously compete against one another.”

If we had normal friendships, we could show each other our weaknesses, and help one another. However, at this school, those normal concepts didn’t apply. That was the commonly held impression that most students here seemed to have, Ichinose included.

“Socializing is hard, too,” I said. “Even with my own classmates, I can’t really say that we’re actually opening up to one another yet. By comparison, I think it’s amazing how you can become friends with anyone so quickly, Ichinose.”

“Huh? Oh no, I’m not that amazing at all.”

I didn’t get the impression she was being humble about it. It seemed more like she really didn’t realize just how highly skilled she was.

“Is there, like, a special trick to it?” I asked. “Like a method for opening up to anyone and becoming friends?”

No matter how much I learned about building friendships, I was still an extremely long way from standing level with those at the top. I had yet to master the sort of skills that people like Ichinose or Kushida had. I already understood what I needed to do. I knew what to say, and I knew the words to use. But I still wasn’t as good as Ichinose or Kushida. The slight differences between our cumulative experiences, our vibes, and even our body language and gestures led to an enormous difference in the outcomes.

“Hmm… I have to wonder if there is one,” Ichinose mused. “If there is, I don’t think I know, either.”

She couldn’t break it down and explain the theory behind it precisely because, for her, it was a skill that came naturally. Even if I were to observe her and try to learn it, it wouldn’t be so easy for me to understand it, absorb it, and then put it into practice.

Somehow, we managed to keep the conversation going for a little while longer. Shortly afterward, when ten o’clock rolled around, the automatic doors that had been closed finally opened.

“Shall we?” asked Ichinose.

“Let’s,” I replied.

And so, we were the first to enter Keyaki Mall, and we were enveloped by the central heating circulating through the building.

“How long can you stay out today?” I asked Ichinose.

“Oh, until whenever is fine. I don’t have any other plans today.”

There were several questions I wanted to ask her today, so this was a good opportunity. If I had a time limit, after all, then I’d need to plan what to talk about within that time, and maneuver accordingly. I wanted to know more about her reasons for resigning from the student council, in particular, as that was a critical issue Kanzaki and his team had asked me to look into. So, I supposed it was a good thing that I was able to make sure I had enough time to take care of Kanzaki’s request. But…on the other hand, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of unease.

Putting the question of romantic issues aside for a moment, Ichinose was, fundamentally speaking, not a thickheaded person. Even if she didn’t necessarily have a first-rate sense of deduction, she definitely had excellent perception skills, better than the average student. If she wasn’t the sort of person who was reasonably perceptive, after all, she wouldn’t have been her class’s leader in the first place. I had to assume that, even in her current mental and emotional state, chances were high that she already had some idea of how her classmates viewed her from the way they looked at her, the words they used, the emotions they expressed, and so on. If that was the case, I could not assume that I’d been blessed with this opportunity to meet her purely by chance.

It was likely she had at least guessed what my intentions were when I invited her, and made some inferences. Depending on certain factors, she might even be aware that her classmates had something to do with my intentions here. It’d be best for me to go into our conversation today with that kind of mindset.

“Um, so, what are we going to do now?” asked Ichinose.

My ulterior motive was to extract information, but I still hadn’t told her what our ostensible purpose was yet.

After thinking about what kind of plan I could come up with to share time with Ichinose today, I arrived at my conclusion.

“I haven’t really decided on a clear goal,” I said, “but… Okay, I think I’ve got it. Could I ask you to tell me how you spend your days off, Ichinose?”

“How I spend my days off?” she repeated.

“Yeah. I wanted to find out tips on how best to spend my time on an everyday basis in a way that’ll increase my ability to make friends with people. That kind of thing.”

“Huh? Is that really something you can understand this way?”

“I guess I just said what popped into my head… Is that okay?”

I thought about proposing a second plan if she refused, but Ichinose nodded, not looking bothered in the slightest.

“I’m not sure if I can be of any help to you at all, but if you’re okay with me, sure, why don’t we give it a try?”

She readily agreed to my request, having apparently taken it in a positive way. It looked like the first round of negotiations was a success.

“Hm, well… So, are you really sure it’s okay for us to just do what I do on my days off?” she asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “Whether it’s shopping, going to the movies, going to a café, whatever, I’ll go with you.”

Perhaps none of those examples applied in her case, though, because Ichinose chuckled. “I’m afraid I might not really meet your expectations,” she said. “I hope that’s okay.”

She seemed like she had been feeling somewhat awkward ever since we met up this morning, but now there was a natural smile on her face.

“Well, let’s get to it, then!” she declared.

And with that, Ichinose started walking, getting on the escalator to the second floor without any hesitation.

5.1

T HERE WERE A VARIETY of retail facilities within Keyaki Mall, most of which even I had set foot in by now. However, there were still several facilities that I hadn’t experienced yet. One among them was the fitness center on the second floor.

“I try and come here on weekends and holidays,” Ichinose told me. “I’m not very athletic, so I was hoping to improve a little, if possible.” She took out her student ID card as we arrived in front of the gym. “You haven’t been to this gym before, have you, Ayanokouji-kun?”

“Right, I haven’t,” I replied.

“Okay, then this was a great choice!”

“I have to say, though, I’m pretty surprised you go to the gym, Ichinose. How long have you been coming here?”

“I tried the free trial sometime around mid-September, and I became a full member at the start of October, if I remember right,” said Ichinose.

Which meant she had been going to the gym for over two months now, huh? I’d had no idea.

“Did you start out all by yourself?” I asked. “I’m not particularly good at just jumping into things, I guess…”

I supposed I wouldn’t mind coming alone if I had joined and already started, but doing it by yourself the first time or two was a high hurdle to clear.

“It’s tough for me too,” she replied. “That’s why I started with friends. I mean, even if you don’t have the courage to do something all alone, if there’s two of you, you can do things pretty confidently. So, it’s a good thing we’re together today, right?”

I nodded in response, and then I followed Ichinose as she led me inside the facility. Ichinose greeted the affable female staff member standing at the reception, and after presenting her student ID, turned to where I was standing behind her to explain things.

“Do you have your student ID?” she asked me.

“Yeah.”

Apparently, if you presented your student ID, you could easily access the free trial without having to fill out detailed forms.

“Okay, Ayanokouji-kun, I’ll see you in a little bit,” she said. “The staff will explain what you need to do from here.”

One of the male trainers took over showing me around. He provided me with the full explanation, going over things like how to use the lockers, the changing rooms and showers, and so on. Then, I was asked to change. It seemed as though you didn’t need to bring stuff with you to the gym; you could even arrive completely empty-handed. After removing my personal clothes, putting them in the locker, and putting on rental gym clothes, I headed for the workout room toward the back.

It looked like Ichinose wasn’t finished changing yet, because there was no one else in sight. Well, the mall had just opened for the day, so that was only natural, I guessed. Still, it was a little awkward for me to be the first one here, since I was only on a free trial. A male trainer seemed willing to teach me various things, but I declined his offer. I thought it would be better for me to learn from Ichinose, since we were spending the day together and this was a good opportunity.

Still, since I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, I just randomly looked around at the machines. I didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable, as I was already extremely familiar with the workout equipment itself—when I was in the White Room, we had all the latest equipment for developing our bodies.

Although the manufacturers and model years of the equipment here differed slightly, it didn’t seem like I’d have any problems using any of it. As I was thinking about those things, surprisingly enough, gym-goers started appearing one after another. I had thought the place would be more inactive, but it was quite popular.

“Sorry to have made you wait, Ayanokouji-kun,” Ichinose said. “Oh, it looks like some of the boys have already started.”

Though I was a little surprised when I saw Ichinose dressed in her workout clothes after she finished changing, she was right.

“I think two or three people just came into the women’s locker room, too,” she added.

“I noticed there are adults here, so I guess even non-students can use this gym, huh?” I said.

It wasn’t like everything was exclusively meant for the students, after all, whether you were talking about the movie theater or the supermarket or whatever else; this gym was no exception.

Ichinose nodded. “I often see Mashima-sensei and others here too.”

I see. I supposed even teachers were no exception. Places to work out were important to people who lived on school grounds too. I’d shied away from these sorts of facilities all this time, finding them difficult to approach, but if students with whom I was very well acquainted, like Ichinose, were coming here, then maybe I could come here, too. As I was beginning to think about that, Ichinose began to thoroughly and politely explain the machines to me.

She gave a bit of a demonstration of what the machines were like in motion. I deliberately refrained from saying that an explanation was unnecessary and decided that I’d just quietly listen to her instructions, pretending that I didn’t know anything. Ichinose had acquired a fair amount of knowledge, but perhaps because it still hadn’t been that long since she started going to the gym, she only seemed to have practical experience with a few of the machines. After Ichinose had been instructing me on how to use the equipment for about ten minutes, the number of students in the gym started to gradually increase. Now, excluding Ichinose and I, there were about seven guys and girls working up a sweat.

“Okay, I suppose it’s probably time we start on someth—oh, Mako-chan, good morning!” Just as we were about to get started on our workout, Ichinose spotted a familiar face, and called out to her.

“Hu—wha—Honami-chan?!”

The person who had just emerged from the locker room in her gym clothes was Amikura. She’d known that I was going to be out with Ichinose today, so she seemed genuinely surprised to see her here at the gym.

“Wh-why are you here at the gym?” asked Amikura. The question in her mind must have just slipped out of her mouth unintentionally because she was flustered.

“I started coming to the gym on holidays and weekends, remember?” Ichinose said. “Well, I figured I’d show Ayanokouji-kun around a bit, too.”

“Oh, I see,” replied Amikura.

Amikura never would have guessed that we’d come here together, apparently. Since there was no way that Ichinose could know what Amikura was feeling right now, though, I played it cool, a nonchalant look on my face.

“Yep, there you have it,” I said. “Sorry to barge in like this.”

“…You’re not really barging in or anything, though…” said Amikura. She shot me a look using only her eyes that seemed to say, “Don’t say anything unnecessary, okay?” “Anything unnecessary,” of course, meant pretty much everything we had talked about when we met up at karaoke the other day. I wasn’t going to say anything, of course. I didn’t know how fully the message would get through, but I tried to respond to Amikura in kind, using my eyes.

“You know, Ayanokouji-kun, you really, really don’t seem like the type of guy you see at the gym,” Amikura added.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess it’s like, it’s hard to imagine you doing this sort of thing. Or, like, you seem like the sort of person who doesn’t like places where people gather.”

While I wanted to say that was simple prejudice on her part, she was correct. I was somewhat resistant to the idea of working out in front of ordinary students, after all. Furthermore, I had this idea in my head that a gym like this was more the kind of place where people would get together and have fun with their friends than somewhere to work out in silence, which made me feel reluctant to come. I had to admit that I had kept my distance for those exact reasons.

“Hey, um, can you come here for a sec, Honami-chan?” Amikura must have noticed something, because she pulled Ichinose away by her arm, putting some distance between me and them. Then she whispered something into Ichinose’s ear. The two of them looked over to me for some reason.

“…?!”

I thought Ichinose must have been shocked by whatever she was whispering about, since she reacted with a start, but then she ducked down and hid behind Amikura for some reason.

“You didn’t realize, Honami-chan…?” said Amikura. She looked somewhat embarrassed about something, just as Ichinose did.

“What…?” I asked.

“Oh, well, it’s, um… I mean, I guess that it’s just a little embarrassing to be dressed up like this if you’re not used to it. You know?” said Amikura. She gave me another pointed look, as if to say, “Read between the lines. You understand what I’m getting at, right?”

“I see,” I replied.

Apparently, she was talking about how it was embarrassing to be seen by boys while wearing gym clothes. However, the simple fact was that the conditions of the gym made it necessary to place restrictions on clothing, calling for clothing that allowed for ease of movement, sweat absorption, and so on. Whether you felt embarrassed or not, it was better not to bring the concept of shyness into a place like this. Apparently, Ichinose herself hadn’t realized this fact, but Amikura had brought it to the forefront of her mind.

Judging from the look on Amikura’s face, it was easy to see that she felt like she had really messed up after seeing Ichinose’s blatant reaction. As a teenage girl, it was understandable why she’d feel that way, but still—this was a gym. I wanted Ichinose to remember that it was best to be practical and not worry about it.

“Well, at times like this, the best thing to do is to work up a sweat, right?” I said. “Teach me a bunch of different things. I’d like to try.”

Once you started worrying about how you looked in front of the opposite sex, you’d lose sight of things, so I tried to get her to think about something else. After what I said, it seemed like Ichinose made up her mind about something.

“O-okay, let’s see,” she said. “Hmm… W-well… What should we do, Mako-chan?”

“Why are you asking me?!” sputtered Amikura.

Apparently, Ichinose’s feelings of panic hadn’t yet subsided, and so she turned to Amikura for help. The two of them discussed between themselves in very hushed tones, almost like they were whispering to each other…and then nodded almost simultaneously, having reached a mutual understanding.

“We’re still beginners, so would it be okay if we started with the treadmill, since we’re used to using that?” Ichinose asked me.

“Of course. I don’t mind at all.”

The two girls got on a pair of treadmills, which seemed like the standard thing you’d find in fitness centers, and they each started running at the individual settings that suited them. These machines were different from what I was used to, of course, in terms of the manufacturer and so on. But since I’d used these sorts of things time and time again ever since I was little, I wasn’t at a loss here. A treadmill was a standard aerobic exercise machine that was indispensable for working out indoors. Ichinose and Amikura’s settings were almost exactly the same, so I figured I’d set mine to around their level, too.

“This is your first time coming to the gym, right?” Amikura showed concern for me. “Make sure you don’t push yourself too hard, okay, Ayanokouji-kun?”

I responded with a gentle wave of my hand, telling her that I was okay. Then, I got on the treadmill and started running for a while, silently. At first, it seemed like Ichinose was unable to push past her nervousness and shyness, but gradually, those feelings must have faded a bit. After about thirty minutes had passed, she seemed to have gotten used to it, to some extent. Once the thirty-minute time that Ichinose set had passed, her treadmill stopped, and she looked up.