Chapter Three: Natsuko

Chapter Three: Natsuko

It stops raining by morning, but the clouds are still thick. The sun is hiding behind clouds, enough to make you wonder how it was so sunny yesterday. I'm kind of disappointed. Normally, this is where you would shout in glee for summer break.

I was so irritated last night that I couldn't stop thinking and didn't get much sleep. Stifling a yawn, I spot something on the ground by a bicycle shelter near the bulletin board we passed by yesterday.

A bear keychain.

It's a wooden bear in a burnt brown color about the size of my hand, no more than three inches tall. He has a shiny round face and little black dots for eyes. His mouth is shaped like a U, and he has two half moon ears popping out of his head. His body is round like his head, and he's wearing a yellow t-shirt and red boots on his feet. He doesn't look that worn out, and he was under the bicycle shelter, so the rain didn't hit him last night, either.

"What's that?"

I let out a yell in shock from the voice behind my back. When I turn around, Miyano is standing behind me, looking surprised himself.

"Why are you so surprised?" I ask him.

"Well…I mean…if you turn around like that…"

At first I wonder why he's stumbling over his words, before I remember our conversation yesterday and get angry again. I turn away from him and walk away.

"You're not going to pick it up?"

I was going to ignore him, but I turn around slowly. Miyano is pointing to the bear on the ground.

"It's not mine."

"But you looked really interested in it."

About to respond, I close my mouth again. Bicycles pass by, and a humid wind blows past us. Miyano crouches down to look at the keychain like a little kid would observe ants.

"There's a serial number on the bottom of his foot!"

"So?"

"It could be important to someone."

"And?"

"So why don't you pick it up?"

Why do I have to hear this from you?

"If it's something important, won't it be easier for the owner to find it if we just leave it here?"

"But…" Miyano stands up and looks at my face seriously.

"This is a bicycle stand. It could be knocked around by a bike, or a stray cat, or get hit by a car. Itsuko, are you still going to leave this poor bear here knowing that?"

…Why am I the one being attacked here, like I'm abandoning a stray dog?

"Why don't you just take it, Miyano?"

"I think it would rather be rescued by you, Itsuko."

What does that even mean? And since when are we on a first-name basis?

"Just make sure you take care of it!" he says.

"Hey!" I yell at him, but he takes off in the opposite direction without giving me any time to stop him.

"What's wrong with you?"

I realize that I'm yelling and stop. When I look around, there are other students walking by on their way to school, and they're giving us looks. I grab the keychain and run away.

It's already so hot, but my face and body start burning red.

I can't stand him!

I reach my classroom and catch my breath. The curtain is usually closed tightly, but right now it's completely open. I feel better. With today's weather, there's no need to close the windows.

I'm relaxing when girls from my usual group of friends start up a conversation.

"Natsuko, did you faint again yesterday?"

It's almost scary how fast information travels around school. I tell them I'm fine, and sit down at my desk.

"Must be hard, living with a UV allergy."

They say it like it's someone else's problem. Just leave me alone, quit talking about it. I remember a similar conversation from last week.

On that day PE class was swimming in the outdoor pool, so I was studying by myself in the classroom. It was blazing hot, the sunshine hot enough to burn your skin, and even the classroom was uncomfortable. I gave up studying halfway through class time and decided to take a nap. My friends came back after PE class, laughing and smelling like chlorine.

"You okay?" I sat up when I noticed my friend looking at me with a worried look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I said, laughing.

"Poor thing," my friends started to talk, one after another.

"It's such a nice day!"

"The pool was nice and cool."

"At least you won't get a weird tan, Natsuko."

It was in the middle of my friends talking around me, left and right, when something white flew into my sight.

A damp, white towel fell onto my friend sitting right in front of me, right on her head.

"Oops, Sorry!"

Miyano apologized, though he didn't look like he thought he did anything wrong.

"My hand slipped," he said, laughing it off.

"Hey, cut it out!" said my friend. She looked like she was having fun, even if she acted like she didn't like it. She threw the towel back to him, and the topic changed.

I was actually kind of grateful to him for being the reason why the topic changed, although it had looked like he wasn't doing it on purpose.

I look at my school bag propped up on my knees. The bear keychain Miyano told me to pick up is stuffed into it.

What should I do with it?

I rest my cheek in my hand, and give a little sigh. My classmates must be happy that summer break is starting, because they're all sporting cheery faces. I don't see even a speck of depression on them.

Back in elementary school, whenever summer came, I had to wear a large straw hat to block out UV rays.

"When Itchan takes out her hat, summer comes!"

I don't remember who it was, but someone said that, and my nickname, which until then was Itchan, became Natsuko, summer child. In that moment, I became the butt of everyone's summer jokes and their summer poetry parodies, even though I hated summer. Even when we became middle school students and my hat was traded in for a parasol, everyone kept calling me Natsuko.

The chime signaling the start of class rings, and we all take our seats. Our teacher enters the classroom. Morning homeroom is over quickly and we all line up to walk to the gymnasium. Time for the end of semester assembly. Chatting with my friends, I look into the classroom. Even though he was walking around town earlier in his school uniform, Miyano hasn't shown up.

One of my classmates looks outside the hallway window and I hear him say, "It's raining." I can see the gray clouds outside, but from where I'm standing, I can't see any raindrops.

"Probably because Miyano's skipping again." Someone else replies.

The assembly finishes while I'm zoning out. The principal's speech and everything the other teachers tell us are always the same, winter or spring break, and I won't remember a thing they say by the time I get back to the classroom. What does stay in my mind is that thanks to the rain, the gym is stuffy and humid, and the floor and windows are wet with condensation. I don't mind the smell of rain when I'm outside, but here in the gym, it mixes with the smell of too many people in one place, and it's hard to breathe.

We get our report cards, and in that not-good-not-bad kind of atmosphere, we start our last homeroom class of the semester.

"Ms. Sasahara?" the teacher calls out to Mana Sasahara, and she walks to stand in the front of the class. Immediately, the class settles down. Mana runs a hand through her short brown hair that's a little wavy, and looks a little like she'd rather not be standing there. She has big, strong-willed eyes, but they're looking nervously left and right.

Encouraged by our teacher to speak, she looks at us and begins.

"Thank you for being such great friends to me all this time."

It's a pretty clich? line for Mana, who is a chatterbox, and usually goes on and on without hesitating.

"If you ever come to Osaka, make sure you give me a call," she finishes, and bows. Someone starts a slow clap, and the classroom is soon full of applause. The class president hands her a big card with messages from everyone on it. Mana shyly takes it. It's a square card covered with our messages written in colorful pink, green, and blue ink. She thanks us for it and bows again.

Good luck in Osaka.

I can see my message just under her left hand. It's short, and there's a lot of blank space around it. Sometimes, people say, "read between the lines," but I'm sure you can't read anything from my message.

"Well then, be safe and enjoy your summer vacation," our teacher says, and the first semester is over.

The girls call out to Mana and start to crowd around her desk, bringing out colorful pink and yellow flower-patterned envelopes out of their bags to give to her. Some of them even brought her small farewell presents.

Mana thanks them, looking like she's about to cry.

"Thank you so much, I'll treasure them!"

I watch this from a distance, finding it hard to break the mood by leaving the classroom. I can't take the awkward feeling I get from just watching it, and look away. My eyes land on Miyano's empty desk.

It's the last day of the semester, and he didn't come to school.

It's a half-day, so I leave. The sky is still full of thick and heavy clouds. Students in clubs brought home lunches and will be staying at school for practice. I walk straight for the back gate through groups of excited students looking forward to their summer vacation.

"Hey."

Miyano is leaning against the gate's stone pillar. He's still in his school uniform and not holding anything, just like this morning. I wonder what he was doing all this time during the assembly he skipped.

"Did you pick up the bear?"

I don't feel like answering him, so I silently take the keychain out of my schoolbag and show it to him.

"Let's go find the owner together!"

"Why!?" l realize that I'm yelling, and cover my mouth in a hurry. Some students nearby are looking at us curiously, and their gazes pierce through me. I run away to the fence and start arguing.

"Why do I have to do that?"

"Why not? Do you have something else to do today?"

Of course I do! I try to count them off on my fingers, and know it's pointless.

"Does not caring about whose bear it is count as a reason?" I ask.

Miyano, pain that he is, starts fake sobbing. "How could you be so cruel?" he cries.

"I'm going home. Bye."

He stops his fake sobbing instantaneously the second I turn around.

"Are you really sure about that?"

He is looking down at my face like he's inspecting it for something. Then he starts to say in an overly-exaggerated manner, "You know, I didn't want to say this, but...I saw you yesterday."

I have a bad feeling about what he'll say next, but I ask anyway.

"What did you see?"

"You didn't use your parasol."

He continues rapidly.

"You never leave school without your parasol. But you didn't use it yesterday on purpose, and that's why you passed out. I saw you, and carried you to the health room."

I remember how my vision went white from the blazing sun, then the world tilting sideways, swerving like the teacup ride at Disneyland. Whenever this happens, the moment my body loses to gravity, one thought always crosses my mind--

Here we go again.

I glare back at him.

"Do you have any evidence of that?"

"Nope, but I saw it," he says decisively.

"Maybe I should tell Ms. Nakahara about what you're doing, huh? I bet she'd have to tell your parents, too, and then..."

I can't believe it. My hands, on the verge of shaking, clench tightly into fists.

"I can't believe you're trying to blackmail me!"

"But it'

d be great if we found the owner of that keychain, huh?"

I glare at him with all my might, but he's the King of the Apes, nothing fazes him. He just smiles and doesn't budge at all.

I kick the ground in frustration.

"Fine. I'm going home, changing, and eating lunch first. Then we can meet up. Got it?"

Miyano brightens up at that. "Okay! Meet me at Central Park!"

He runs away like a dancing gust of wind. I stand there watching him go, just like yesterday.

I hear the shouting voices of a sports club at practice from a distance, and it's quiet again. Suddenly I feel lonely and I shake my head. I feel like dead leaves and trash left on the side of the road after being blown around by a hurricane. I feel like I've been played around with by Miyano's strong personality, and mentally stomp in frustration.