Campfire, Alone
Busy. So busy I couldn't even tell what I was thinking.
"Ah, um, the—the coffee beans are all, all gone..."
Yesterday might as well have been the tutorial. Customers poured in without end, and even though Miyauchi had warned me Friday would be busier than yesterday, I never imagined it would be like this. My body was already in the worst shape of its life. Just having to keep talking to people had my nerves in tatters, and once the work itself turned frantic, the strain doubled.
The clock still read 11:48. Shift change was at one, so I had nearly another hour of this left.
"Kayano! Table three, please!"
At someone's call I drifted toward table three. Twenty minutes a table, on average. I still had to do this whole hosting routine three more times.
So this is hell....
Today's guest was a woman in a hat. Please, please let her be the quiet kind. The kind who keeps to herself. I opened my mouth while praying it as hard as I could.
"M-may I take your order, miss...?"
"Hmm. Coffee, black tea, a brownie, and a macaron. One of each."
"Ah, understood."
...A big eater, I guess.
I was quietly writing the order on the check, thinking that, when she spoke again.
"And I'd like to borrow the cute butler standing in front of me, too."
"...H-huh?"
She caught my hand out of nowhere and said it. Startled, I flicked my eyes aside, and pink-blond hair came into view.
"That's all right, isn't it?"
A voice I'd heard somewhere recently.
"Uh, um, ah—Akasaki?"
"You got it on the first try this time."
With that, Akabane took off her hat, grinned, and looked at me.
And so I was sitting across from her at the table. I should still have been working, but she said she'd already gotten permission from Miyauchi at the door, and sat me down. It would have been a lie to say I didn't feel guilty toward everyone else. It was also a relief to be allowed to rest.
"Y-you came early."
"I wanted to be waited on by you at least once. So I showed up a little ahead of time."
...This isn't really being waited on, is it?
The question occurred to me. I didn't bother saying it. She'd come because of me, and if she was happy with how things stood, that was enough.
"Mm. Better than I expected, though. I heard students were putting it together, so I figured I'd enjoy the festival atmosphere more than the food."
That was her verdict after the coffee and the brownie. Well, the brownies and macarons were made by Miyauchi herself, who dreamed of becoming a pâtissier, and the coffee and tea had come with help from a classmate's parents, who ran a café.
"So. Have you decided what you're doing today?"
I swallowed quietly. I'd looked through the pamphlet yesterday, but I hadn't actually settled on anything. If I had to name one thing, maybe going to see the band club perform. Anyone hearing that might say I had no sense of responsibility, but no matter how I turned it over, I wasn't the one in the wrong. How was someone who had never once wandered around with a friend supposed to plan a day of wandering around with someone? Even the band club only occurred to me because of anime and light novels.
"You didn't really decide, did you."
"I-I'm s-sorry."
"It's fine. I figured from the start that if it was you, you wouldn't have been able to."
She spread the pamphlet on the table as she said it.
...What kind of image do I have, that she can declare something like that? Who knows? Maybe I'd ground my teeth, prepared, and come armed with an incredible festival itinerary. Even I could tell that story had no persuasive power whatsoever. Akabane might be a genius....
"First we'll want a simple lunch, right? From what I looked up, the well-reviewed ones are Class 2-C's ramen and the cooking research club's okonomiyaki. We pick one, and after that the board game club is doing..."
She laid out the whole day without a single hitch. In front of her, all I could do was nod. Everyone has something they're suited for. So I'm not so bad....
In the end I talked with Akabane straight through until one, when my break started. Whenever things looked like they were getting busy, I tried to go help, but Miyauchi waved me off and said it was fine, so all I could do was watch.
...Did she decide I was that useless? Well. A person who can't even hold a conversation was never going to be any help in a service job. Miyauchi's kind, so she simply didn't say it. The complaints must have piled up. Much easier, then, to park me with someone I knew, now that one had shown up.
"You worked hard again today, Kayano."
"Th-thank you."
I wasn't sure today's me even deserved to be told I'd worked hard. I'd done my best until Akabane arrived. After that, I'd just been sitting.
"Let's go, Kayano."
"Okay..."
I can hear my reputation in class continuing to drop....
"That was really good, right?"
"Yes, i-it was d-delicious..."
We'd eaten the okonomiyaki from earlier and were walking the halls, holding hands as if that were the most natural thing in the world.
"Then shall we go play the darts the board game club is running, like I said?"
"I-I'm fine with a-anything."
This sort of thing doesn't fluster me at all anymore. Meeting Tateyama over summer break taught me that between girls, this much skinship is basic. Which means I get to feel how soft this is. Legally.
Jealous?
"Hehe..."
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
The old me would have been too queasy to enjoy any of this. But the me of now—the me who grew after Nacchan's live—!
If I don't meet her eyes, I can just barely hold out against one person. Heh heh. Akabane, you made a mistake. That soft hand of yours—I'll ravage it myself....
"Is something wrong, Kayano?"
"Ah, no?"
"You keep fidgeting with your hand. I thought maybe you needed the bathroom."
"...It's n-nothing."
I should hold still....
Before I knew it, five o'clock—the end of the festival—was closing in. I had walked around with Akabane for a full four hours, and the result was inevitable.
"You worked hard..."
"Ahh, that was fun. I really feel like I'm back in high school for the first time in ages!"
My stamina was gone. Akabane, by contrast, still seemed full of energy. She was definitely older than me. How was she like this?
"Visitor hours are about to end, so I should get going."
"U-um, Akasaki."
"Hm?"
"If you w-waited, and we ate dinner together..."
Honestly, the moment the festival ended I wanted to sprint home and collapse into bed. I had a reason, though. She'd come to our culture festival today because of the penalty we'd agreed on at the last collab. I'd meant to pay for everything while we walked around, and somehow she'd stopped me and covered all of it herself. I felt bad enough about that to suggest dinner.
Akabane waved the idea off.
"It's fine, it's fine. I was planning to pay for everything from the start, and getting to feel like a high schooler again after so long is plenty."
"But I still feel s-sorry..."
"More than that, if you eat dinner with me you'll have to skip the campfire later, won't you? There's no need to go that far."
If she was just going home, I hadn't planned to stay for the campfire in the first place. The one at the end of the festival was optional. It didn't even start until seven. Even if cleanup took an hour, I had no desire to linger at school for another hour after that. However I looked at it, going home fast and resting was obviously better....
"Well, if it's you, Kayano, I figure you're thinking you'll just go home and rest. But I'd like you to stay and see the campfire. Memories of a high school festival last a long time, you know?"
Koga had told me the same thing yesterday, so I gave the same answer.
"Ah, I still have two chances left..."
Unlike Koga, Akabane grinned.
"Even if you see the same scenery, the feelings are always different. You know what I mean?"
"...That's a line from Uncle."
"Heh. I knew your taste was like mine."
She let out a little laugh, set a hand on my head, and ruffled my hair without mercy.
"If you're really sorry, watch the campfire in a bit and send me what you thought! We'll make that the penalty from the last bet."
"I think that's way too s-selfish..."
How many times was she going to change the penalty? To that complaint, Akabane—
"Well, so what. We're friends, so cut me some slack."
—said that.
"F-friends?"
Friends. Friends? Me and Akabane, friends?
"Ah, are you the type who treats the word friend a little carefully? Then as a friend candidate..."
"N-no! I-I'm friends with you, Akabane...!"
"...Outside, it's Akasaki, not Akabane."
"S-sorry. I was happy.... Hehe..."
The corners of my mouth twitched before I could stop them. Someone had called me a friend first. I was so happy that a pathetic little laugh—the kind anyone watching would find strange—kept leaking out.
"...This wasn't the plan, originally."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing. So? You're going to watch the campfire, right?"
"Ah, I will."
Honestly, I still wanted to go home. With her pressing this far, I couldn't say I wouldn't watch.
"Well, you don't have to stay till the very end. Staying at school another two hours really is hard, I'll give you that. It's fine to watch a little and leave early."
"Okay..."
Then I'll watch for about five minutes and go. That was as much as I could concede.
"Good. It's really time I left. We'll talk again in a bit."
"Ah, take care."
"I'm off, then."
At my goodbye she patted my head once more and turned away.
At least when you say goodbye to a friend, look each other in the eye! Got it?
And those words came back to me.
"A-Akabane!"
"Outside it's Akasaki.... So, what?"
At my call she turned back with a little laugh. My stamina was already gone, and meeting someone's eyes head-on set my whole body shaking. My stomach churned. I wanted to go home and flop onto the bed. Even so, I held her light brown gaze to the end and shouted as loud as I could.
"Th-thank you so much for today!"
"...Yeah!"
And the campfire I stayed at school to watch by myself, all the way through—
"...I'm exhausted."
—was really quite beautiful.