From that day on, my daily life gradually took on a new form.
Looking at them again, walnuts and Risakura–because of Takumi, I came to know that–were good friends who were always doing things together.
When our eyes meet, she looks at me twice and then smiles shyly. I also try to smile when my eyes meet hers.
"Is such a small lunch box enough?"
"It looks like this, but it's packed to the brim."
The four of us spent more and more of our lunch breaks together.
Takumi and I order the daily set lunch at the cafeteria, and the two girls bring their own small lunch boxes. Walnut's lunch is colourful, cute and mainly consists of rice, while Rizakura's is mostly of sandwiches and salads.
"Leaf and the other girls are always on the cafeteria menu," she said.
One lunchbox isn't enough for me.
In fact, my aunt, who is like a mother to me, offers to prepare my lunchbox for me every day. But I politely decline.
My uncle, who is more like a father to me, doesn't bring his own lunch because he is often on the road, and my sister, who is in the first grade of elementary school, eats school lunch. I feel uncomfortable asking her to go out of her way to cook for me alone.
"I see, you are growing up, right?"
"Yes, yes, we are growing up."
After school, the four of us would stroll home together along the seaside path.
The sea is so wide and big.
"I want to go to Ryuguu-u-jo."
"Hey, Leaf! You're turning into Urashima Taro."
"Then walnut will be Orihime."
"That's Tanabata."
"Oh, is that right?"
After a month had passed, the three of them were by my side, just as the sea and the sky were by my side.
It's great to have friends!
The weather is fine again today, and a pleasant sea breeze ruffled my bangs. Takumi laughs at me when I say things like this, saying, "How can you say that without embarrassment?"
This is a small open space by the sea. It is a little open space by the sea, built alongside an embankment parallel to the horizon, and is not what you would call a lookout point, but we liked it.
I asked him, "Did you guys ever see that drama "College Time" when you were in elementary school?
The current situation was one that I had long been longing to be in.
"It was a youth drama about a group of five college students. There's romance, friendship, and differences."
Recently, a kitten has taken up residence here. For some reason, none of us is allowed to keep a cat, so we decided to make a house out of cardboard to make it easier for her to live here.
Rizakura nodded, "Oh," at me as I spoke passionately while wrapping a towel around her for a place to sleep. The cardboard was placed on the asphalt with a thump.
"I remember it was a drama with a lot of popular young actors in it."
"Oh, yes!" I nodded with the momentum that my jaw seemed to come off. Takumi and Kurumi are still trying to recall the drama, but it seems they have not pinpointed it yet.
This popular drama became a major social phenomenon. At the time, I didn't even know the names of the celebrities, but I genuinely admired the five people I saw on the screen. They are free and sometimes hit a wall, but they grow up with the support of their friends.
"Until then, the only image I had of 'friends' was that of teammates in sports," he said. "But the characters in the drama were all students at the same university, and had different personalities, hobbies, and lifestyles."
They were so different in every way, but when they were together, they seemed so natural.
From that moment on, a longing was born in me. I longed to meet people like those in this drama.
It is nice to have friends of the same sex. However, the drama had a great impact on me and strengthened my longing for a mixed-sex group.
Incidentally, I had a vague feeling that such a group would be formed only after junior high school, so I entered junior high school with this passion in my heart and great enthusiasm.
"So, didn't you make any of such friends in junior high school?"
Rio looks up at me as she cuts off the excess cardboard with a cutter.
"If you accidentally talk to the girl next to you, the boss of the girls will give you an iron fist."
The calm tone of Takumi's voice was a bit too much. An overstatement.
The cool-headed Takumi is a bit of a shocker, and Walnut laughs at him. The kitten meowed in response.
With one hand, she patted the kitten on the back as she scooped up the popsicle that had begun to melt with her tiny tongue.
Junior high school students were at an impressionable age as if their hands were on the door to adulthood. At the time, I was not the only one who wanted to deepen interactions between men and women. Still, the overall atmosphere had the power to make my fears stronger than my curiosity. In the end, I did not have any female friends during my three years of junior high school until the day of graduation, let alone call one my girlfriend.
"What about your freshman and sophomore years of high school?"
Walnut scoops up the popsicles that have begun to melt with her small tongue and strokes the kitten's back with one of her hands.
The popsicles are sold at small candy shops along the way. Regardless of the season, my daily routine of buying and eating them on the way home has somehow become a daily routine for the four of us. A simple popsicle costs 60 yen each. They melt quickly in the slightest heat. But it was the simplicity of it that made it so delicious.
"After entering high school, I made a lot of friends, both male and female." Shep
answered.
"I can see that," Rio said, nibbling on an ice cream cone.
"I was filled with anticipation for my new life in this new world."
"Did you think that junior high school and high school are completely different? Everyone talks to each other regardless of gender, and there are all kinds of people."
Some were fashionable, some were knowledgeable, some were funny, some were unique. These various kinds of people coexisted in the classroom, sometimes mingling, sometimes not.
"I made a lot of friends, or rather, people I could talk to in a normal way. But I couldn't meet people with whom I could express my true feelings and who would be there for me when I was in trouble!"
"This is not limited to my two years in high school. In retrospect, since I was a little girl, I have been having a good time with my friends, but I never had a place where I could show my true self.
"Maybe I have been searching for a place where I could show my true self.
I had been looking for a place where I could feel that it was okay to be here, where my existence would be recognized even if I wasn't always cheerful.
"We have spent different times so far, haven't we?"
"Of course we have."
Walnuts, Takumi, Risakura, I have been spending my time in different places with them so far. It seems strange that the four of us, who had been so scattered, are now together as a matter of course. And it really is...
It's a miracle!
She raised her hands up into the blue sky, and apparently, a drop of ice cream she was holding in her right hand flew to her cheek.
I said, "Don't raise your arms all of a sudden!"
In the past month, Kurumi, who used to be as wary of us as a small wild animal, has completely opened up to us. She still smiles with a wry smile at the others, but when the four of us are together, she laughs a lot, gets angry a lot, and talks a lot.
When Huramo puffed up her scruffy cheeks, she joked, "Sorry, sorry. I just thought you looked hot," I joke back, and a chop from my grip on the colour pen flies into my back. When Kurumi puffed up her scruffy cheeks, she joked, "Sorry, sorry. I thought you looked hot," I laughed back, and a fist flew to my back, holding a popsicle.
"Whoa! I got a fist!"
It's not an iron fist!
The bright blue sea. The bright blue sky. I climb up onto the tetrapod at the end of the plaza and close my eyes, inhaling the fresh summer breeze as much as I can. I close my eyes.
"Leaf! Look, the cat house is ready!"
I open my eyelids and look back to see the three of them and one of the cats looking up at me and laughing.
"Hey, hey, let's all exchange notes together!"
"Wow, Leaf really likes to do goofy stuff, doesn't he? I'm sorry, but I'll pass. Why don't you and Takumi do it together?"
"Risakura, don't push me. I'm not going to let you force me to do it, Rio. What do you think, walnut?"
"If you insist, then I guess I have no choice if the leaf really says it!"
I'm not sure what else to say except that this is the best encounter I've ever had. What else could this be but the best?
We met our destiny.
This is the beginning of everything, and it will continue from here. Even if the world around us changes, we will never change.
I had no doubt in my mind at that time.
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