They then switched to the beer that they had picked up, and they chatted about silly things while they watched TV – before long the clock struck midnight.
They had both been pretending not to notice how late it was getting.
And in the distance, they could hear the signal at the train crossing.
‘That’s your last train,’ he said.
‘I know,’ she replied.
‘Guess you’re staying over.’
‘If you were gonna send me home now, I’d burst into tears.’
Yuki stood up, her glass in hand, and went to the kitchen. There was the sound of water running as she rinsed her glass, followed by her steady footsteps as she came back into the room.
‘I’ll have my last glass now. And then, I’d like to take a bath.’
Masashi poured her a third glass of Keigetsu, but he declined when she offered to pour his in return.
‘Better not. I can’t hold my liquor like you.’
He switched to mineral water to sober himself up a bit.
As Yuki took tiny sips of her third glass of saké, her voice became querulous. ‘Now I’m worried. I hate to think that you don’t want me to be here with you like this.’
‘Where do you get that idea all of a sudden?’
‘Because you haven’t tried it on at all!’
‘If you want me to, you have to give me a chance. Like even now, you’re as steady as a rock, you’re so rational that you even think to rinse out your glass before having more saké, and most of the time, we’re out together somewhere. It’s not like I can put the moves on you and suggest we go to your place or mine. You could make it easier on me too, you know.
‘But I wouldn’t let you go home tonight,’ he finished saying, starting to get sulky now.
‘Fufu,’ Yuki giggled as she gulped down what was left in her glass.
‘Really? You swig that like it’s swill.’
‘Because I need to take a bath now.’
The fact that the bath was more important than savouring the last bit of Keigetsu was perhaps the surest confirmation of her attraction to him.
When the train crossed over the iron bridge, Takarazuka Music School came into view, the refined building looking like it came out of a fairyland, with its outer walls made of beige brick and its bright orange roof.
As the train rounded the bend and entered Takarazuka Station, Yuki lost her balance and grabbed onto Masashi’s arm.
Ever since that night, she no longer hesitated to lean on him.
The train stopped, the doors opened and the passengers emptied out all at once.
Amid the crowd, they could easily pick out the granny with the dog carrier, a Dachshund’s head sticking out, and her granddaughter, and as Masashi and Yuki waved at them, they saw them and waved back. They were getting off at Takarazuka, like they had said, and were headed for the descending staircase.
Masashi and Yuki were transferring to the train bound for Umeda that was waiting across the platform.
AND THEN
Takarazuka Station
After the two of them spent their first night together, they had talked about all sorts of things and much came to light.
Masashi thought that Yuki was always snatching up the books he wanted to read, but apparently Yuki’s interest was also piqued by the books that Masashi chose.
Hmm, I wish I could ask him what made him pick up a book like that, she had mused.
When he learned that she had felt that way, it pained him to recall how he had pegged her as a rival he was always competing against.
—I wanted to find a reason to start talking to you, but I didn’t want you to think I was a weird chick.
—I was frustrated to always just miss out on the books I wanted, but your other books – the ones I hadn’t been vying for – impressed me too. You seemed to have good taste.
—So, wait, you mean you disliked me?
—Do I really need to say that it was all the more frustrating because you were just my type?
—No, I get it. You were my type too, only I wasn’t frustrated. I thought it was lucky that time when we were both on the train, that it was my chance to say something to you.
—So, after we changed trains and you came and sat next to me, that was on purpose?
—Yeah. I wanted to show you the sandbank.
—Why?
—I figured if you were the kind of person who saw it and started talking about it with me, then you might be someone I could really like.
—So you’re saying that you really lured me in, huh? Thanks!
—Why?
—If you hadn’t lured me in, I’d never’ve had the courage to lure you in myself. You would have been disappointed, or even worse, had sour grapes or something.
—But you came running off the train after me.
—Because I was already lured in!
—Well, I’m glad to know that we were both aware of each other from the start, Yuki said, opting for an extremely peaceable conclusion.
The Umeda-bound train was quite empty, perhaps because it was a local, and even though they were only riding it for one stop, Masashi and Yuki took a seat.
While they waited for the train to depart, Masashi had a question.
‘Hey. Do you want to know the reason behind the kanji character on the sandbank?’
Although the kanji character had been washed away and now it just looked like any other sandbank, it was still special to them.
Masashi knew the truth about the stones that had been assembled in the form of a kanji character. He had looked into it after Yuki had pointed it out to him.
Apparently, several years after the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, the kanji character had been constructed as an art installation on the sandbank, as a sort of hopeful wish for the region’s rebirth. It had gone through a restoration, and that had just happened when the two of them had first seen it together.
‘Uh-uh.’ As she had the first time they met, Yuki rejected the idea of knowing the facts behind it. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I already found out what its meaning is.’
‘Its “meaning”?’
‘It’s our god of matchmaking.’ Yuki pressed her hands together briefly when she said this.
After all, her initial association with it had been a draught beer – which was quite off the wall, compared with the meaning that the original artwork had intended – though it made sense that she would first think of it as a prank and later assign goodwill and affection to it, in keeping with her always positive outlook.
Come on now, give me a break.
First she expects me to go along with her inexplicable idea that the sudden appearance of the kanji character on a sandbank is simply clever graffiti, and then to believe that it’s our god of matchmaking?
And these are exactly the reasons that I’m crazy about her.
‘Yuki, remember when you said that I was cheating because I could go to both the western branch and the central library?’
‘Yeah, sure, and I still think you’re cheating!’
‘In that case …’ He prayed to the god of matchmaking or the god of the sandbank to come to his aid, as they had for Yuki. ‘What if we looked for a place together in Obayashi?’
Yuki’s eyes widened. ‘You mean …?’
‘Uh-huh, both of us are the right age, aren’t we? You’re not planning on staying single, and you have your future to think about. As for me, I’m in favour of living together before marriage. Not necessarily in order to determine if the other person is “the one” or for any particular ulterior motive. But because everyone grows up in different environments, with different family rules, you know? This way, we can find out whether those differences complement each other.’
Stop looking at me like that, Yuki, you’re going to burn a hole in my forehead. Masashi forced a smile and scratched his head.