The Rose of Sharon (1)
Even at night the downtown streets still held a fair number of people, though they felt a little quieter than they did by day. Hitomi walked them at an easy pace, warmth seeping into her from Han Seoyeon's hand clasped in her left.
"Hm?"
A gaze brushed against her, and she glanced back. Beyond the mouth of an alley, something small—little more than a shadow—was peeking out.
Hitomi smiled faintly and waved. The shadow waved back, then vanished in a flash. Han Seoyeon, having caught the same glimpse, let out a quiet laugh.
"It must have come down from a nearby shrine. Around here, that would be Atago Shrine, I suppose..."
It had been quite some time now since Hitomi had begun to see. There had been signs her eyes were opening as far back as the founding of the Mary Shrine, and once she had become a vampire in full, things invisible to others would now and then drift into view.
Creatures of that sort were almost never seen by day, yet at night a surprising number of them wandered about. Even so, crossing paths with one in the strangely lively streets of nighttime Tokyo was rare. Most likely a young youkai had come wandering down into the city without the slightest idea what it was doing. Hitomi flicked the fingers of the hand not holding Seoyeon's and called forth a small bat.
"Would you see that child safely home?"
And she sent the bat fluttering off past the alley where the little youkai had disappeared.
Better to send it home quickly. That was Hitomi's judgment. The mood of late was one of general restraint, but if the Church's hardliners got hold of the creature, it would not end well for it. If they actually held back merely because their superiors told them to, they would not have been hardliners to begin with.
"By the way, have you decided where you'd like to go?"
Seoyeon asked it while watching, fondly, as Hitomi went so far as to assign a familiar to the errand.
She had agreed when Hitomi proposed a late-night date, but Han Seoyeon herself had nothing particular in mind. Hitomi was probably the same. The suggestion had been made on the spot, more or less on impulse, and Seoyeon was only asking in case something she wanted to do had occurred to her in the short while they had been walking.
"Mmm, I was just walking without any real plan... oh."
Hitomi hummed, looking around, and then her gaze fixed on a building ahead.
Had something good occurred to her? Thinking so, Han Seoyeon followed the line of her eyes.
"How about a late-night movie?"
What stood there was a movie theater.
"I've never seen a movie at this hour. I've wanted to try it at least once..."
"Then let's go right now. It would be my first late-night movie as well."
"In your case, Shion, you can count the times you've even set foot in a theater on one hand, can't you?"
Well, she wasn't wrong. Han Seoyeon nodded and, casting back through her memory, folded her fingers one by one.
"I can indeed count them on one hand."
"...That's worse than I thought, isn't it?"
For the record, one by one was an exceedingly precise description. She folded one finger, then another, and that was the end of it. Even one of those visits, the recent one, had only happened because Hitomi invited her along to see a theatrical anime.
"I simply never had much interest in movies to begin with."
Even when she did watch them, it was only now and then, if one happened to be airing on television. Unless Hitomi suggested they go out together, there was never any reason for her to go all the way to a theater.
"At this point I'm almost curious what that other time even was."
"When I was little, Teacher Wei took me once—very much in the spirit of 'so this is what a movie theater is.'"
"Ah... she does seem exactly like that sort of person."
Hitomi had not seen much of the woman called Wei Chen. They had exchanged greetings when Wei lent them a plane for the flight to Italy to attend an Apostolic council, and again when she came as a guest to the wedding—that was the whole of it. Even from those brief encounters, though, it was plain she was outgoing and good with people. She had traveled with Han Seoyeon for a stretch, yes, but if one had to say, she seemed the type whose temperament would suit Mika Eru better than Seoyeon.
What someone like that would do upon meeting an orphaned child who had never so much as seen a movie was obvious enough.
"By the way, do you happen to know what's come out recently?"
"Mmm, I'm not sure. I'm not especially interested in this sort of thing either, so not really..."
They traded that conversation as they stepped into the theater.
Truth be told, Hitomi was no frequent theatergoer herself. Her tastes leaned so heavily toward otaku fare that unless a theatrical anime happened to be opening, she almost never set foot in a cinema—unless it was a film so famous that there was hardly anyone left who hadn't seen it.
Once inside, the two of them looked over the posters on display. They had just claimed to have no idea what was out, but seeing the titles now, a few of them rang a faint bell.
"Anything catching your eye, Shion?"
"Mmm..."
Seoyeon studied the posters for a moment, then pointed to one. Actors in costumes that called modernism to mind filled the foreground, and from the copy written across it, the film seemed to be a musical.
"Horror is out of the question for you, Hitomi, and a blockbuster feels a little off for the mood... a musical ought to be quite nice, don't you think? It seems to lean toward drama as well."
"Oh, this looks good. The soonest showing... there's not even ten minutes left?"
Hitomi nodded as she checked the timetable. The timing happened to be just right.
"Cola's fine for the drinks, yes? What would you like for the popcorn?"
"Either is fine with me, so choose whichever you'd prefer."
"Then I'll go with caramel."
With little time left before the showing, they split the work. While Hitomi went to order snacks for the movie, Seoyeon headed for a kiosk tucked in a corner.
Reading through the prompts as she purchased the tickets, she went wide-eyed. Every seat was still available—which meant that for this showing, the two of them were the only customers in that auditorium.
Could something like this really happen, even for a late-night film? How did a theater make any money this way? The question flickered through her for a moment before she tucked it into a corner of her thoughts. If anything, this could be called a good thing.
Hitomi had said she wanted to experience a late-night movie at least once, it being her first. If they had come seeking a quiet atmosphere, then this was something to welcome gladly. Were the two of them effectively booking out the whole house on the price of two tickets? Han Seoyeon let out a soft little laugh as she chose their seats.
She picked a spot in the middle, where the view ought to be best. She had heard somewhere that sitting too far forward only made one's neck ache, and that the screen wouldn't fit in a single glance, so she took that into account as well. And just as she was about to press confirm, her eye drifted to the seats directly above the button.
They sat at the very bottom of the display—the rearmost row in the auditorium. Unlike the others, those markers were long and narrow. Curious, she tapped one and found it labeled a couple's seat.
She wasn't entirely sure what that entailed, but it seemed to be the sort of seat where two people could sit pressed side by side. As if spellbound, Han Seoyeon selected it.
In truth, with the theater all but privately booked already, they could have sat anywhere and indulged in as much contact as they liked without a thought for other eyes. Even so, the word couple had seized her heart. A truly fearsome bit of salesmanship, one had to admit.
When she made her way back, Hitomi had a cola gripped in each hand and the popcorn pinned against herself with a forearm. Seoyeon hesitated a moment over which to take off her hands, then lifted the popcorn. Once the movie started, she would have to be the one holding it anyway.
To judge by the one time they had come to a film together before, Hitomi simply could not cradle a bucket of popcorn against her chest. Her breasts would strike the heaped popcorn and send it spilling in a cascade, and even when there wasn't much of it, they covered the top of the bucket so thoroughly that eating became extremely awkward. Which was why, whenever Hitomi came to a movie alone, the popcorn had to rest not on her thighs but at a precarious spot somewhere near her knees.
"Where are our seats?"
"Here."
With the popcorn bucket tucked under one arm, Han Seoyeon showed her the ticket the kiosk had printed. Hitomi's eyes curved into a soft smile.
"Honestly... isn't this a little too obvious?"
The words were a scolding, but her expression was the complete opposite. Even her voice carried a note of delight.
"And what exactly were you planning to do, all the way back there?"
"Well, if I may offer an excuse—it seems the two of us are the only audience for this showing to begin with."
In other words, she had not deliberately chosen a seat like this intending to get physical where no one could see. That was Han Seoyeon's excuse.
"There's no one at all? How strange. Does that happen often?"
"I shouldn't think so. If it were that common, the theater would be taking quite a loss."
Better simply to consider themselves lucky today. At those words, Hitomi nodded once more.
"Well then, shall we head in?"
"Yes, let's. There's still a little time, but... it's probably better to go in and sit down early."
Hitomi slipped one arm smoothly through Seoyeon's.
As they made for the auditorium, she found herself wondering what the staff member who had checked their tickets must have made of them—a pair, at an hour this late, pressed right up against each other and handing over tickets for a couple's seat. Had they been taken for very close friends, or, women though they were, for a couple?
Either way, they would never have arrived at the correct answer: that the two of them were married. The thought stirred a mischievous impulse in her, and in the corridor leading to the screen, out of the staff's sight, Hitomi pressed a kiss to Seoyeon's cheek.
"Hehe."
With the difference in their heights, she had to rise onto her toes unless Seoyeon bent down for her. Han Seoyeon stared, a little dazed, as Hitomi went up on tiptoe and settled back down, then offered a faint smile.
"The one who can't think of anything but touching is you after all, isn't it, Hitomi?"
"Compared to you, Shion, I'm incredibly wholesome, you know?"
And the two of them had barely met each other's eyes before they broke into soft, stifled laughter.