It was the first time in my life that I had ever witnessed two people kissing.
It was morning, and spring had arrived. Yoshino cherry trees were in bloom at the municipal park along my usual route to school. The soil in the flowerbeds surrounding the park was dark and damp, carrying the faint scent of rain.
Beneath the cherry blossoms, two people were kissing, half-hidden behind a gnarled, black tree trunk.
I couldn’t look away because one of them was a woman in a business suit, while the other was wearing a sailor-style school uniform.
I recognized that uniform. White fabric, a pale blue-green collar, and a lemon-yellow scarf. It belonged to a prestigious girls’ junior high school that was well known in the area.
An adult and a middle school girl.
This is a crime scene waiting to happen.
That was my first thought.
The girl was slender and petite, with the delicate beauty of a perfectly crafted doll. Her bobbed hair, cut neatly at shoulder level, was so impossibly black it almost looked fake. The morning sunlight even formed a glossy halo around her head.
The woman took out a long wallet and handed the girl what appeared to be a banknote.
It was a textbook case of something deeply, unmistakably illegal.
In a peaceful park just seven minutes’ walk from my house, on a perfectly clear spring morning, something shady was happening right out in the open.
Then, without warning, the girl turned around.
Our eyes met.
The suspicious-looking girl blinked several times before, for some reason, walking toward me.
I stood frozen in place as she approached the flowerbed and flashed me a goofy, lopsided grin.
“Hey, big sis. Are you interested, by any chance?”
“Eek!”
Interested? Interested in what? Surely she didn’t mean… that kind of illegal activity?
“N-no! Not at all! Not even a little bit!”
“You’re slim and cute, big sis. I think you’d do just fine.”
“I wouldn’t! No way! Absolutely not!”
Who on earth would pay money for a high school girl with a body like a dried-up twig? Besides, the whole situation was so terrifying and repulsive that there was no way I could even consider it.
“Ehh? But-”
The girl suddenly stopped moving.
She stared intently at my face, then tilted her head as if she’d just noticed something.
“Hey, big sis. Do I know you from somewhere?”
“N-no. I’m quite certain this is the first time we’ve ever met.”
“Really?”
The girl continued staring at me.
Then it hit me.
Wait. Could this be what people call getting hit on?
Who would have thought my first experience with being picked up would be by someone younger than me… and a girl, no less?
Whatever the case, there was only one thing to do.
Run!
“S-sorry, you’ve mistaken me for someone else!”
I spun around and took off.
“Huhhh? Hey, big siiiis!”
I ignored her high, clear voice, which rang out like a little bird’s song, and kept running.
The outside world was full of terrifying things. I wanted to go home. Right now.
I’d only just left the house, and already I was thinking about going back.
If someone asked me what my favorite place in the entire world was, I’d have an answer ready.
My own room.
A soft semi-double bed. A stuffed dolphin. My game console and monitor. Signed books by my favorite authors. A tablet packed with ebooks. A quiet dehumidifier.
Inside my private little world, there were no waves, no winds, nothing to disturb the calm. Only time, gently still and peaceful, flowed by.
It was an eight-and-a-half-tatami-mat bedroom, a little spacious for a high school girl living alone in it. As long as I stayed here, I wouldn’t have to hurt anyone, and no one would be able to hurt me.
My room was, without a doubt, my sanctuary.
Or at least, it had been until today.
“…Sigh.”
It was after school.
In a classroom that had mostly emptied out on an April afternoon, I was stuffing my textbooks into my schoolbag.
Or to be more precise, I was pretending to stuff them in.
And to be even more precise, I was stalling. Desperately grasping at straws. Doing whatever I could to put off the inevitable for just a little longer.
I didn’t want to go home.
I really, truly didn’t want to go home.
Honestly, I would rather spend the entire night at school.
Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I, Sako Meno, am a devoted indoor enthusiast. A homebody through and through. Under normal circumstances, I’d be the first person out of the classroom, already halfway home before anyone else had even packed up.
But today… starting today, everything was different.
Ping!
My phone chimed with a notification from the messaging app.
Of course, the sender was my mother.
Mom: It’s finally happening! I’ve splurged on sushi for tonight. Meno, make sure you come home early!
“Uuuughhhh…”
My heart sank like a stone.
I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to go home so badly it hurt. Not even the promise of expensive sushi could persuade me.
Because today was finally the day.
The day my mother’s new husband and his child from his previous marriage would move into our house.
Living with strangers! Sharing my home with other people!
What on earth had I done to deserve this? Was it a sin from a past life? Was I being punished for something I’d done in a previous incarnation?
Aaahhhhhh!
“Honestly… this is the worst day of my life.”
I carefully packed the last textbook, the one for mathematics, into my bag, then slowly pulled the zipper shut.
A cherry blossom petal drifted through the window and settled gently onto my indigo schoolbag.
And so, spring had arrived: the season of new encounters.
What a ridiculous joke. I wished it could be winter all year round.
Then I could spend every day tucked beneath a kotatsu, never having to go anywhere. Like a turtle. Like a snail.