The iron bridge over the Mukogawa River was the first one along the route from Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi towards Umeda. A lot of people who lived on either side of the river thought the Hankyu Line was a bit less convenient to get to, but for a student – especially one who grew up in a provincial city and whose primary means of transport was a bicycle – it was more than suitable.
‘Oh, that’s not far from where I am.’
Based upon her response, he figured maybe the environment where she had grown up was similar.
‘I can do my shopping near the station on the way home, and there’s a supermarket close to my apartment too,’ he said.
‘Oh, do you cook for yourself? I’m impressed.’
‘I don’t have the budget to buy prepared meals or junk food all the time. So I crib from cooking magazines that I read in the store, because they usually have cheap and easy recipes. I make a lot of mistakes in the kitchen, though.’
‘Wow. I leave all the meals up to my aunt.’
Just as they were speaking, the train had passed the last crossing before the station, so the pressure of passengers about to disembark was growing on either side.
As Kei’ichi subtly moved as if to protect Gon-chan from the onslaught and waited for the doors to open, he thought to himself, I wish we could keep talking.
At last they had reached Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, the terminus, though it isn’t actually the last stop on the Imazu Line.
Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station
Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station serves as a fairly large junction on the Hankyu Line.
The platforms for Sannomiya-bound trains (towards Kobe) and Umeda-bound trains (towards Osaka) are situated on the east–west axis; to the south of that is the platform for what’s sometimes called the tail-end of the Imazu Line. Add to that the platform on the north side for Takarazuka-bound trains, and altogether there are four platforms. Passengers ascend to a concourse on the upper level and then descend to whichever platform they need or, if Nishi-Kita is their final destination, they simply exit through the ticket gate.
Those who head towards Umeda can also get off at Juso Station, an even larger junction than Nishi-Kita. From there, they can continue as far as Kyoto or to any of the smaller localities in between that comprise the greater metropolitan region.
All manner of people from every walk of life – solo passengers, friends, couples, families, work colleagues – traverse the concourse at a brisk pace.
But as they cross paths, the contents of each traveller’s heart are a mystery known only to themselves.
She wasn’t in any particular rush, but when the train had slid into the platform and the doors opened, Shoko was caught up in the surge of exiting passengers and deposited onto the platform.
As she was walking towards the stairs that led up to the upper concourse, someone barged into her sharply from behind.
Shoko was still wearing her party shoes with their thin heels, which made it more difficult for her to absorb the impact and keep her balance, and she tumbled to the ground. The wedding-favour bag had been dangling from her fingertips – that too was tossed to the ground, followed by the shattering sound of something breaking.
‘What do you think you’re doing?!’ Shoko cried out before she even had a chance to get up.
A glum, middled-aged man in a suit called out in a shrill voice, ‘Excuse me,’ and raced off. He must have been in quite a hurry because, rather than come back to apologize, he pressed on, hurtling into various other passengers who showered him with complaints and curses.
‘Well, I never!’
The passengers flowed their way around her – not a single person stopped to help her to her feet. They stepped on her and even kicked her. How could this be happening! On the very day of her stolen fiancé’s wedding! Just when her feelings had been soothed a little after stopping off at Obayashi Station.
Her fiancé may have been stolen but perhaps she did have it coming, taking her revenge by crashing their wedding. Though it would have seemed more fitting had the thief and her fiancé himself been the ones knocked to the ground.
Shoko slowly got to her feet, confirming that she had banged her knee quite hard and there would be a bruise forming beneath the fabric of her trousers.
‘Are you OK? That looked bad.’
Shoko stood up. Someone was holding out the wedding favour bag to her. A group of high-school girls were gathered around her, one of them clutching the bag. These girls had been in the same car as Shoko, making enough of a ruckus to disturb the peace and upset the standards of decency, which had provoked the grownups to glare at them.
‘That guy who shoved you sucks!’ The girl stuck out her tongue in the direction of the man who had raced off.
Those fine grownups who had scowled at these girls hadn’t bothered to say a word, but here were the girls themselves, checking on her and picking up the remnants of her wedding favour bag.
Which of these two groups is the kinder one? Shoko wondered with a bit of irony. She included herself in the group that found the girls noisy and annoying.
‘It seems like whatever it was is broken.’ The girl holding out the paper favour bag shook the contents a little. ‘Should we tell someone who works in the station?’
‘Thank you but it’s fine.’ Shoko smiled as she took back the bag. ‘What’s inside isn’t important enough. But I appreciate you picking it up for me.’
There was hardly anyone left on the platform.
Shoko bobbed her head in thanks at each of the girls as they went on their way, then she leaned against a railing on the platform and inspected the contents of the bag.
A box, weighing more than might at first appear, wrapped with decorative noshi paper personalized with the bride’s and the groom’s family names. Inside was a set of tumblers. The glasses featured a fanciful design that seemed fitting for that shrewd yet dreamy-eyed quiet type who had stolen her fiancé. They were tacky – not to Shoko’s taste at all.
When the groom had still been her fiancé, they used to laugh and make fun of wedding favours like these, wondering who on earth would ever pick out something like this as they flipped through the catalogue. Clearly at some point he’d had a change of heart.
Four out of the five glasses in the set were broken. There was no point in bringing home a tacky gift that was mostly in pieces.
She took them all out of the box, wrapped each one with the paper that had been used to pack the glasses, and disposed of them in the station’s glass recycling bin. She threw away the empty box and the bag in the regular trash bin.
At last, there was not a single remnant left over from that tainted wedding – from her stark white dress to their naff wedding favour, it was all gone now. She felt pleasantly refreshed, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
‘Time to go home,’ Shoko said as she started walking along the deserted platform.
She would have expected her feet to be tired from wearing high heels all day, but her step felt lighter. Maybe it was her imagination, and even if it was, best to hurry home before her feet did start to ache. It was still a long way to Ibaraki, the town where she lived.
Shoko headed for the stairs up to the concourse.
Well then, if I’ve made up my mind to break up with him, better hurry up and do it.
Having resolved her feelings of lingering attachment after eavesdropping on the chatter of Et-chan and her high-school friends, there was no longer any hesitation in Misa’s step.
Deftly weaving her way through the crowd, she headed towards the wide stairs that led up to the concourse.