#4 Kosei’s a Guy Ryota Watari

The beginning of this summer, my third year of middle school—that’s when I failed to become a star.

Here’s how it was supposed to happen. First the Sumiya Public Middle School soccer team would win the district competition, then the city competition, and then the national competition. And since I’m team captain I get recruited as a J1 youth player or to a high school that has a famous soccer team. I get picked as a U-18 player for Japan. After graduating high school, I join some J1 team for a while, and next I represent Japan in the Olympics, and then do it again in the World Cup. Then I transfer to a soccer team in England…I have romances with lots of models, I appear a lot on TV, my memoir becomes a bestseller, and I’m hounded for autographs everywhere I go—airports, training locations, you name it.

I, Ryota Watari, who was meant to be a star, lost just like that in the third round of the district competition, on my home ground. We lost by one goal.

Now my club activities are done, and I’m still all set to enter some high school with a strong soccer team on a sports recommendation. Meanwhile, all my guy and girl friends are busy going to cram schools or taking practice tests to get into high school, so nobody hangs out with me. Summer’s gonna be here for real pretty soon and I’m not gonna have anything to do.

It’s a night in July—summer break’s starting next weekend.

My sister, a college freshman, stops me in the living room when I come out of the shower.

“Ryota, I’ve got a present for you. You’re gonna love it.”

She’s been so stingy since she was little. If we had only one piece of cake, she cut it precisely in half, and when there were strawberries on top, she stole one from mine.

Now she’s smiling at me in a weird way and holding out some paper ticket holder.

My instincts tell me to be cautious, and I take a step back and hit her with a question.

“You’re not gonna charge me for this, are you?”

“Don’t worry, it’s free, totally free. What’s to lose?”

Her fake smile makes me a little suspicious, but I take the ticket holder, which she’s thrust into my hand, and ask her another question.

“Are these for food stalls at a summer festival? There’s ten of them here.”

“Yep, a summer festival on our campus this weekend co-hosted by students and the local shopping arcade. You can use those to buy the most de-li-cious crepes at the stall that my club’s running. Use them all up and you get two crepes for free.”

“Free crepes? No kidding?”

I get excited for a second. But then my sister is grinning.

“Ah, read closely. ‘This ticket can be redeemed for 50 yen off a 250-yen crepe.’ So basically, it’s a discount ticket.”

H-Hey, wait a minute…

“You call that free?!”

“What? Don’t complain and just take them!” My sister’s eyes look serious…ever since I was little, I’ve never quarreled with her and won.

“I didn’t say I would—”

“If we can’t sell them all, it’ll be a total wash! Didn’t mom teach you not to waste food? Come on, Ryota, come to our festival all three days and buy ten of our crepes! Just do it!!”

“You mean I gotta pay for ten crepes myself? Are you for real? Ten crepes in three days…hang on, weekdays are out, so only Saturday and Sunday? I can’t eat all that sweet stuff.”

“You’re a popular guy. Just bring a different girl each time and you won’t even need to eat half of them. Buy them for the girls. There, Ryota,” declares my sister, with her hands on her hips and her chest puffed out.

“Say whaaat? You’re nuts!”

I protest, but my sister ignores me and escapes into her room.

So that’s how this Saturday and Sunday, I’ve ended up having to invite out one girl I’m friends with after another to ride the trains with me to my sister’s college—half an hour with the transfers—to buy them crepes.

Then again, I’ve been pretty bored lately, so I’m okay with going out on dates. No complaints there.

I have to beg my mom to help me out with some cash, but even from the station closest to my house, it’s half an hour each way, so going-round trip would cost a lot of time and money. My thinking is, every few hours I’ll just ask the next girl to come out and meet me at the station near the college campus, and that’ll give me some hope of making it through this crazy mission.

“First I’ll ask Keiko…then Leina, and after that maybe Mayu?”

Since it’s me asking them, they’re all more than happy to make time in between cram school sessions to come out.

Finally I’m down to my last two tickets.

“I just gotta use these with Micchan and that’ll be it…but all that sweet stuff’s got me feeling queasy, I can’t eat any more…I’ll just give ’em both to her.”

So, I message her on LINE.

But this is the answer I get back: “Sorry…but Momo’s sick.”

“Who?”

“A family member.”

“Your little sister?”

“My toy pooh.”

?????…Oh, her toy poodle. Her dog.

“Hope she gets better. Take care of her.”

Awww, man. I stare at the two tickets in my hand.

“Who else can I call?”

At the meeting spot in the concourse at the station, lots of people pass me by. Many of them look like groups of students who’ve gotta be going to my sister’s campus.

The ones with the long, thin bags are probably the archery club. And those guys do kendo, and those girls must be with the naginata club…Oh, they even have lacrosse.

And the group carefully lugging black cases of all different sizes—that must be the orchestra. There’s a contrabass, and a cello, and a flute, and a clarinet…

“Ah!”

I’ve forgotten about picking another girl.

Well, not really, I know who I can call, but she seems pretty busy. I’m sure she’s practicing today too.

Kaori Miyazono. She’s a violinist. Same class as Tsubaki Sawabe. And really cute.

I get in touch with her.

“Hey, can you come out?”

“Yeah, I just finished practice in the music room, so I’m free.”

Practice in the music room…that’s Kosei Arima’s nest. The kid practically lives there.

At our middle school, the only music club we have is the brass band, and there are so many members that the activities take place in the small gymnasium.

The music teacher spends a ton of time with the brass band, so every afternoon after class and on the weekends, the music room is totally empty. No one uses the piano there.

It’s perfect for Kosei Arima, so he’s always hanging around there himself. ’Cause it’s got a piano. He’s gotta have one at home too, but apparently he hasn’t been playing that one. Tsubaki lives next door to him and that’s what she says, so it must be true.

Kaori’s a violinist, so she chose Kosei to be her piano accompanist. I’m not sure but they might have won some competition. Anyway, they were chosen to play in something called a gala concert that’s happening at the end of next month.

She explained a little about music competitions once, but it’s all Greek to me. All I know is, I shouldn’t cheer Kaori on out loud like at idol group concerts, ’cause at the prelim event the other day I got hushed by Kosei in the audience seats when she was on stage.

Since the beginning of the month, Kaori and Kosei have been practicing in the music room for the gala concert whenever they have time.

I think the song is called Love something-or-other, but I don’t really know the title. It’s like, dun, da, da, dun, da, da.

When Kaori’s playing violin, she’s sparkling and super-cute. So, I don’t really care about the title. Any song she plays is gonna be beautiful, and poignant, and it’ll seep into your heart.

After I wait for Kaori, she runs toward me waving her hand from the station ticket gate. She’s carrying a pink violin case and wearing her white shirt and pleated skirt, her summertime school uniform. Even over the weekend, we have to be in uniform if we’re gonna be on the school premises.

“Did you come straight from practice?”

“Yeah, I thought I should hurry ’cause today’s the last day, right?”

“That’s okay, there’re so many food stalls competing, so I’m sure there’s some left. They’re probably starting their bargain sales around now.”

“Right! Let’s go, let’s go. Thanks a lot for inviting me, Ryota.”

She gives me a big smile and starts walking almost like she’s bouncing along.

If she was gonna be this happy, I should have asked her from the beginning.

I thought she’d be with Kosei…

“I love crepes! Especially with strawberry and whipped cream in it.” She’s glowing and looks really excited. “Nothing tastes as good as crepes, y’know? Whoever came up with them should be thanked by the whole world!”

“Hahaha…isn’t that a little much?”

“No, it’s so-o-o true…but I like waffles, too. And mille-feuille, and tiramisu, and trifles! Ahh, I can’t choose!”

Yeah, I think that means she likes almost all fancy sweets. But whatever.

We pass through the entrance of the college, which looks really gaudy from all the balloon decorations they’ve put up.

Inside, it’s a jumble, with voices announcing last calls, people hurrying to get home, and others rushing in, relieved that the festival’s still on.

I’ve got the route down pat by now and make my way through the sea of bodies.

“Kaori, the stall for my sister’s club is between the second and third building—huh? Where’d she go?” I thought she was following me, but now she’s nowhere to be found. “I lost her? Guess she’s the type to get distracted easily.”

I start looking for her and find her following a crowd walking toward the gate. She has a small digital camera in her hand.

“Excuse me, Miss. You dropped this camera! Miiiiss!”

The lady she’s calling “Miss” looks over fifty—from any angle.

“Oh, thank you so much, young lady.”

“You’re welcome.”

I figure that’s what they’re saying to each other, but I can’t make it across the waves of people to get to her. The best I can do is to keep her in sight through the gaps so I don’t lose her.

After saying goodbye and waving to the woman, who’s bowing again and again, Kaori turns this way.

“Hey, Kaori! Over here.”

“Ah, Ryota.”

As she’s trying to cross through the crowd, her head sinks and I lose her again.

“Geez, did she fall?”

In a panic, I desperately cut through, going, Excuse me, let me through, please, excuse me…

And there’s Kaori, crouching and holding a little girl who’s around five years old.

“You fell down. It doesn’t hurt? Are you okay?”

The girl nods. “You caught me, so I’m okay.”

“Good, I’m glad I made it.” Kaori flashes an easygoing smile. “Do you know where your parents are?”

“Yup, over there.” There’s a woman who’s talking to another woman under some trees. “She said I could buy takoyaki.”

“By yourself? That’s not a good idea. I’ll go with you, and he will too.”

Kaori points at me as I just stand there.

“Uhh…” the little girl answers, looking at me like following a strange guy isn’t what she’s been taught to do.

“Okay,” I say, “I’ll go get it. Kaori, stay with her where her mom can see you.”

Kaori smiles. “Thanks, Ryota. You’re such a decent guy.”

“Here,” the girl sticks out her right hand.

“You can give me the money later in exchange,” I tell her. “Just one pack, right?”

“Yeah! But no seaweed flakes.”

“All right.”

I buy a pack of takoyaki from the nearest stall and give it to the girl. She gives me the money, and I finally start walking side by side with Kaori again.

But…

“Meow,” Kaori suddenly makes this weird sound.

“Huh?”

“Meow! Cats, cats, look at all the kitties!”

“Yeah, my sis told me there’re lots of stray cats living on campus.”

“Meoww!”

There are stalls everywhere, not only on the asphalt streets but on the grassy courtyard between the buildings.

With the hem of her skirt waving, Kaori runs off behind a tent after two cats. One of them is black-and-white, and the other one’s a tiger color.

I yell, “W-Wait, it’s not safe back there!” Gas cylinders, motors that run on oil, electric cables, and all kinds of stuff are lying around. “Phew, can’t take your eyes off of her…In more ways than one.”

The other girls stayed close to me, happily gazing up at my face in this flirty way. When our eyes met, they’d look down all of a sudden, kind of blushing.

But Kaori is attracted to so many things. She said she was my fan…before running into a concert hall to play violin, choosing Kosei as her piano accompanist, drawing me and Tsubaki in, and then practicing alone with Kosei.

“Kaori!”

I search for her and find her behind a bench that’s falling apart. She’s making a shadow with her body for the two cats as they eat some chicken on the grass. Maybe they’d gotten it from someone.

“The sun’s come out. It’s hot, isn’t it? Maybe the rainy season’s gonna be over soon.”

My shadow and Kaori’s are visible on the green grass, but right away the sun gets covered up and they disappear.

Kaori looks up at the sky. I do the same, too. I see these dull-colored clouds floating by quickly.

“It’s still so cloudy…” Kaori shades her eyes with her hand, squinting. The cats finish eating the chicken and run off somewhere. “Aw, the kitties are gone,” she says. “They were so fluffy, I wanted to pet them.”

“There are plenty of cats here. Hey, we better hurry and get some crepes…They might get sold out, after all.”

“Oh right!”

We head for the crepe stall…or we try to, anyway.

When we get closer to a square surrounded by school buildings, we start to hear music.

It’s the orchestra club I saw before.

“Come on over and show off your musical skills. Who wants to try?”

“Play against us one on one—get more applause than we do and win one of these prizes!”

There’s this low, makeshift stage made of beer cases and plywood surrounded by a crowd of people, like a live street show. On top are several people holding acoustic stringed and wind instruments. What they’re giving away is stuff like mini-towels and notepads and other original merchandise from the university that have the school colors.

“I want that!”

Kaori’s got her eyes on this little figurine with a strap that you can use as an earphone jack.

“What, that iffy thing? It’s the school mascot…They sell that at the co-op.”

“But it means more if you win it!” No sooner than she says this, Kaori takes her pink violin case off her back. “Me! Me! I wanna try!”

She pushes her way through the crowd and goes to the stage. I rush after her, making for the front of the ring of spectators.

The pleats of Kaori’s skirt are fluttering as she hops on stage, and with her left hand she grabs her violin by the neck…or whatever it’s called…the thin tip part, and holds it up high. In her right hand, she’s got her stick—I think maybe it’s called a bow, the thing you play with.

Then a guy student who’s hosting the show says in a high-pitched voice, “Ohh, she’s got her own instrument! Looks like we’ve got a tough opponent here! Now then, you’ll be going up against the head of our club. Miss Furukawa, if you please.”

A female student in a dark dress comes out from behind the stage. She’s holding a violin and is pretty good-looking.

The first thing she does after getting the mic from the host is to shake hands with Kaori. Then she explains the deal.

“Are you in high school? Or maybe middle school? Since you’re the challenger, you get to pick the song. But please understand that you’ll be playing unaccompanied. As for sheet music, we do have some with us, but if we don’t have it, you’ll have to play from memory. We will, too. All right, please go ahead and tell us what you’d like to play.”

With the mic pointed at her, Kaori puts on a serious face and answers, “ ‘Love’s Joy,’ by Fritz Kreisler. I’ll be playing from memory.”

“That’s quite a famous piece. Why are you going with that?”

“I wanted to play it together with someone, but ‘Sorrow’ suits him more now, so I decided to play that one with him. But ‘Joy’ speaks more to how I feel, so I want to play it on my own.”

Kaori’s eyes are so full of light when she replies. She’s looking out straight ahead.

Love something-or-other…playing it together…Does she mean…

“Yes, ‘Love’s Joy’ and ‘Love’s Sorrow’ form a pair. Both are wonderful pieces, aren’t they? Very good, please go ahead and begin.”

The young woman in the dress steps back.

Kaori takes two deep breaths and mumbles something to herself. She comes to the middle of the stage and bows. With a serious look, she puts her violin on her left shoulder and gets her stick ready.

The crowd grows quiet, and all attention’s on her. Suddenly I hear this annoying buzzing in the background.

It’s the hawkers at the stalls, announcements being called out, and dance music, too.

Then Kaori starts playing, and her violin breaks right through all that.

Ta-ta-tum, ta-la-la, ta-la-la-la-lum. Ta-la-la, ta-la-la, ta-la-la…

It’s a fun song that sounds kinda like that.

Ah, that’s not the song she’s practicing with Kosei.

It’s got a totally different mood, plus I’ve heard it somewhere before. It feels like something you’d hear after the toast at a wedding.

She makes her strings sing, and her sounds bounce. She’s keeping the rhythm with her whole body, the tip of her ponytail waving around. She looks like she’s having fun playing her violin.

The crowd starts getting into it, too. Some people are swaying their bodies a little to the music, some are keeping rhythm by snapping their fingers, and others are closing their eyes and letting the song take them far away.

Kaori’s violin carries really well, and it’s beautiful. It trickles down to the bottom of my heart. It doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. It doesn’t just brush over my skin.

I’m the kind of guy who almost never listens to classical music, but she’s so good that even I can tell her sound hits you in the pit of your stomach.

Ta-laa-la-la—lum!

The last note of her violin blends into the sky, where a pillar of light has descended from between the clouds.

For a moment the crowd goes silent, like time has stopped, but then after a second they give her a big round of applause. “Erupting” actually seems like the right word.

“Bravo!” one older guy shouts. Some kid is clapping his hands hard with these big gestures.

Kaori’s cheeks turn red, and she bows deeply.

The female student with the black dress walks towards her as she claps.

“It’s obvious that you’re much better than me,” she says with an awkward smile, “so I don’t think I should play. Thank you so much. You were really amazing.”

But Kaori looks a little frustrated.

“You’re not going to play? That’s not fair. Why don’t we all together? You guys, too!” Kaori invites the club members standing in the back and by the stage, instruments in hand, and brings them forward one after another. “Are there any sheets we can play as an ensemble? Let’s enjoy this!”

And they start playing a song called “Mozart’s whatcha-macallit.” I think I’ve heard it somewhere…back in grade school, during announcements to tell us it was time for cleaning duty…Nah, I don’t know the title.

After another big round of applause, and an encore, Kaori finally comes back. Even I know the encore song: “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” but with a lot of arrangements.

“Aww, it was so much fun!” Swinging the mascot item she received, she comes back to me. She says, “Life is wonderful, isn’t it? So much to enjoy.”

Her smiling face is gleaming white and it’s almost blinding.

Hm, she suddenly puts her index finger to her chin. “Ryota, what were we doing next?”

“Crepes.”

“Right! Crepes! I hope they still have strawberry ones.”

“They might run out if we don’t hurry, you know?”

“Yikes, let’s go!”

“Yeah.”

Kaori can’t keep up with me because I start running and she can’t dodge all these people. Realizing that she’s worried about the violin on her back, I offer to hold the case, but she gently refuses my help.

I take her hand.

“Is it okay?”

Her hand is a little cold. I’ve never touched it before…and the faintest sense of guilt starts bubbling up in me. It ends up a small black stain in my heart.

It feels somehow like Kaori’s not a girl that I should touch casually.

With Kaori’s hand in mine, the two of us finally make it to the stall run by my sister’s club. She’s been waiting. She glares at me, and I let Kaori’s hand go in a hurry.

“Ryota, you’re late. We’re about to close up. I kept some for you, so you’re welcome.” Maybe my sister is kind, after all. She adds, “I was getting nervous. I texted you on LINE a lot but you didn’t answer.”

Of course not—listening to Kaori’s awesome playing was more important.

Showing a fake smile to Kaori, who’s on the verge of asking me who the lady might be, my sister drags me aside.

“Hey, this last girl is the cutest. Is she the one?”

“What are you talking about? That’s rude to the other girls. They’re all cute.”

“How like you, Ryota.”

My sister shoves me away, and once she goes back to the stall, she puts two crepes on a paper plate—one with strawberries and whipped cream, and the other with canned mixed fruit and whipped cream—with chocolate sauce on top of both, and brings them to me. They’re kinda squished a bit, but they look okay considering it’s a stall run by amateurs.

“All right, these are all we’ve got left. No complaints, now.”

She takes the two tickets and the four hundred yen I’m holding out and just disappears.

“Whew, I’m glad they still had strawberries…”

I go back to Kaori, who can hardly wait, and we sit down side by side on an open bench nearby.

“It’s my treat, so go ahead and eat all you want.”

“Strawberries! Yay! Thanks so much, Ryota.”

Kaori shovels the crepe into her mouth and has this look of genuine happiness. She scarfs it down in no time.

“You can have mine too.”

“Really? Thank you!”

Kaori goes right ahead and takes a bite of the mixed fruit crepe, and then stops.

“Oh, is two too much for you?” I ask, worried.

Kaori shakes her head. “Uh-uh…If I eat it at once, it’ll be gone. I wanna savor and enjoy it.”

“Oh, okay.”

Kaori gazes at the pillar of light that’s stretching down from the bluish-gray clouds. “See that? That’s what they call an angel’s ladder. Whenever you see one, an angel is coming down from heaven to guide a soul…It’s so beautiful, it’s sad, isn’t it?”

“Huhh?”

Kaori never gazes at me or anything. I mean like other girls do, romantically—or even look down bashfully.

She has something totally different in sight.

She’s so unlike those other girls who’re interested in me.

But…she does look at Kosei Arima. She makes eye contact with him and sometimes even stares at him. I’ve noticed that much. From way back.

…Since the beginning.

“Hey, Kaori. What’s the name of that song you played? It’s also called ‘Love Something-or-Other,’ right?”

“I wanted to play it together with someone.”

That someone has to be Kosei.

Kaori nods yes. She’s still looking far off when she answers, “ ‘Love’s Joy.’ It’s paired with the song we’re practicing and is by the same composer. The one we’re practicing is ‘Love’s Sorrow.’ ”

“Huh. Yeah, I guess the one you play with Kosei does sound a little sad…the one today felt more cheerful.”

“Kreisler, who composed it about a hundred years ago, didn’t tell people at first that it was his own work. He wasn’t just a composer but a very popular performer. It’s said that he put the audience in a happy mood just by going on stage, before he even played. He wrote short pieces running about three and half minutes like ‘Love’s Joy’ and ‘Love’s Sorrow’ to play for encores but told people, ‘I happened to find some old sheets of music in a library in Vienna. It’s probably dance music from the past, and young couples must have danced to it and fallen in love.’

“Works with some kind of backstory tend to please people more. You know, like Beethoven’s ‘Destiny’ or ‘Pastoral,’ instead of opus numbers with just letters and numerals in them. Nicknames give you a certain image, and anecdotes help people remember. ‘It was dedicated to a girl he had a crush on, but she was from a noble family so it didn’t work out,’ or something like that.”

Kaori says all this without pausing. Like she’s been wanting to tell someone.

“But twenty or so years later, this newspaper reporter did some digging and got the scoop that there were no such songs in Vienna and that Kreisler made it all up. That made Kreisler really angry, which was apparently rare for him. I think he wanted to say, ‘What’s the harm in coming up with a story that people can dream about and enjoy?’ Going so far as to lie…to tell a beautiful lie so people can dream…that’s what artists, entertainers, do.”

“I think I get your point, somehow.”

We need dreams that are prettier than reality in order to live—right?

“So, Kaori, you decided to play a song that comes with a dream with Kosei.”

“Because I found it.” She smiles to herself, looking a teeny bit sad, but also proud.

“Where?”

“Didn’t you hear from Tsubaki? One day we were all wet and I dropped by his house ’cause he said I could dry off my clothes there. Anyway, there’s this dusty piano, and on top of it are the sheet music for ‘Love’s Sorrow’ and ‘Love’s Joy,’ both of them, also covered in dust. But ‘Love’s Sorrow’ looked like it’d been used a lot more. For some reason.”

“I guess Kosei likes the song?”

Kaori shakes her head. “I’m not sure. But I want him to play it…Not ‘Joy,’ which I like better, but ‘Sorrow,’ which he knows. Any way he interprets it is fine with me, I can follow the tune.”

I thought Kosei once said the piano accompaniment’s task is to faithfully follow the violin as it plays freely?

“Kaori, you like Kosei…’s music, don’t you.”

My hearts starts to ache a little. I couldn’t ask her if she likes Kosei himself.

“Yeah, I do. I really like all of you, a lot. I’m so glad that I’m alive and that there are so many things that I love. Being able to play the violin, people listening to my performances and applauding, and crepes, too.”

Kaori takes another bite and then looks up at the sky and spreads her arms. Her eyes are wavering. They’re sparkling, but also wavering somehow…

“I love every day. I love everything.”

I get the feeling that I’m nothing special to her. Maybe I’m part of her “everything,” but I’m not special compared to everything else.

Yeah, of course. I don’t treat Kaori differently from other girls, either.

But Kosei…he must be special to Kaori.

From the beginning, Kaori was always taking Kosei by the hand. Like when they went to the concert hall under an April blizzard of cherry blossom petals. She was looking straight at him.

Unlike Kosei, I can’t play piano. I don’t know a thing about classical music. The only topics that Kaori and I have in common are Kosei and Tsubaki.

He can give her tons more joy and happiness than I can. If she keeps on smiling happily, I’m good.

I want to see her smiling, eating sweets, and laughing, chasing after cats. I want to see her feeling good making beautiful music with her violin, forever.

“Kaori, I guess practicing with Kosei also makes you happy?”

“Yep.” She finally looks straight at me and gives a big nod.

“You know…Kosei’s a guy.”

“Huh? I know.”

“Well, as long as you do.”

What she means by “know” is a whole other question.

He lost his mom when he was in sixth grade, and up to the end of the second year of middle school, he was an empty husk.

But after meeting Kaori in April, at the beginning of our third year, he came alive again.

Always thinking of her, he follows along and humors her even when she’s a handful.

He’s…a guy. A guy who can treasure one girl. He’s become a real guy.

I wonder if I should tell her what I mean by “guy”…and drop it.

It’s something Kosei should tell her. When he thinks he has to, and in his own words.

Kaori doesn’t need to know until then.

“I think it’s great that you and Kosei have gotten so close, you know.”

I mean it when I say it, and Kaori turns to me with this beautiful smile on her face. She’s got some whipped cream from the crepe on her cheek.

Then the clouds break, and these faint beams pour down on her. The fringes of her light-colored hair begin to sparkle, and it makes such an impression on me.

“Thanks, Ryota. Hearing you say that…is a relief. Thanks so much.”

That moment. She looks unforgettably beautiful.

“You’re the best!” she tells me.

Suddenly, she tears off half of the crepe she’s eating and shoves it into my mouth.

Ugh, that’s sweet. Sis must’ve dumped all the chocolate sauce she had left.

Kaori’s laughing so hard at the look on my face. The sound of her voice, the pillar of white light, the violin music that she played alone, the sweetness of chocolate and whipped cream mixed with a bit of bitterness, all these things are branded deep in my heart—

I still haven’t forgotten.