"Kaoru!"
"Ai."
5:00 p.m. on Friday.
At last, Friday at five o’clock had arrived. The long-awaited hour. Ai stepped off the train with a face full of excitement and waved at Kaoru, who had spotted her and come over.
Amid all those people, and while wearing a hat at that, she was amazed that he had found and recognized her so quickly. She greeted him with admiration for his sharp eyes.
"Oru-chan~ Long time no see! Whew, the train was so crowded I thought I was going to get squashed."
"Really? Damn, I should’ve set the time earlier."
"No, it’s fine. Luckily I got a seat. Huh? Kaoru, you’re wearing a hat?"
Ai widened her rabbit-like eyes and pointed at the black hat Kaoru was wearing.
It had been quite a while, but seeing him in an unfamiliar hat she had never seen before, Ai studied him from head to toe and rubbed her chin like a great detective.
Kaoru fiddled with the brim of his hat, gave an awkward laugh, and scratched his cheek.
What was making him hesitate to answer?
At the train station at five o’clock, the crowds were thick enough to make anyone dizzy. Even as Ai pushed through the countless people with Kaoru, she waited for his answer.
"People… started recognizing me."
"Eh?!"
Kaoru clicked his tongue briefly, sounding a little embarrassed, then gave Ai, who was staring in surprise, a clumsy smile and shrugged.
"Because of the drama, people started noticing me. I got on the train earlier, and a few people said hello."
"Wow… amazing. So Kaoru’s famous now too? Fans running up to block the way and ask for autographs, crowds swarming like clouds?"
"No. It’s not that bad. I definitely don’t want it to get that far…"
Kaoru shook his head in obvious disgust, as if just imagining it made him tired.
But Ai seemed genuinely happy, as if his growing fame were her own, and she said with a little bounce of her shoulders, "But Kaoru was always going to get famous, right? Yeah—he’s good at acting, his voice is nice, and his face too… yeah, he’s good at everything, so of course he’d get popular."
"Don’t put me on a pedestal. I do [acting] because I like [acting], not because I want to become famous."
"Ehh—same thing, same thing~"
"Then what about you? Didn’t you become an [idol] because you wanted to be famous too, Ai?"
"Mm…? No? Ai didn’t become an [idol] because she wanted to be famous. Ai… Ai…"
"Yeah. I’m listening."
"……"
"Why stop halfway when you’re making me curious?"
After leaving the station and waiting at the crosswalk, Kaoru looked down at Ai as he waited for her answer too.
There were two things in the world that made people the most irritated. One was stopping in the middle of a sentence, and the other was…
He never expected a joke he’d once heard in passing to become true.
Feeling his gaze fixed on her, Ai flinched, looked up at the boy, and then gave an awkward smile while flashing a clumsy peace sign.
"Mm~ I guess it’s hard to say? Like Ai’s very precious top-secret secret?"
What the—
Just as he was about to retort, the crosswalk signal finally changed.
Kaoru swallowed the words rising in his throat and pulled his hat down low, avoiding the eyes of people coming from the other side.
"...Right. The [idol] who receives the love of everyone."
Having quickly caught on that she had a reason for not wanting to say it, Kaoru let out a snort, muttered teasingly, and started walking.
-
After the performance, Ai and Kaoru headed to the donburi place they often went to.
It was the first time Kaoru had ever watched a performance from the audience instead of always seeing it from the stage.
Realizing that, despite being an actor in the troupe, he had never once bought a ticket to watch one of his own troupe’s performances from the audience, Kaoru felt a sharp little sting in his conscience.
But what could he do? He always memorized everything from the script, already knew the whole story, and was so busy rehearsing with the other actors in the troupe that he had never even dreamed of watching as an audience member.
Ai had also been seeing a theater performance in person for the first time, and she watched the story onstage with intense concentration the entire time, listening without taking her eyes off it.
Her already sparkling eyes seemed to shine with even more feeling.
Watching her from right beside her, closer than anyone else, Kaoru savored the strange emotion that brushed through his heart.
'The audience who watched the performance I acted in must have looked at it with the same eyes as Ai.'
Watching a play from the audience’s perspective had a completely different kind of fun from acting onstage.
Even though he already knew exactly how the story would unfold, becoming absorbed in the emotions of the play as it progressed was a fresh experience.
Ai was the same.
'This is fun!'
When Kaoru first met her, the boy had said it.
That [actors] tell [stories] to the audience.
As if the play had become reality before her eyes, the constantly shifting story and the actors’ emotions felt real and made Ai’s heart pound.
Unlike the frantic stage lights, the steady lighting that illuminated the actors was like a sun visible only to the audience in a quiet world.
The energy the actors gave off, and their deeply compelling performances.
In those fleeting moments, Ai became completely immersed in the charm of [acting], which was different from [singing], and couldn’t pull herself away.
The boy walking beside her was the one doing that wonderful work.
And he was teaching and guiding her, someone still lacking, so that she could do that wonderful work too.
"I want to see it again."
Ai’s mutter, clearly a request for a second viewing, reached Kaoru’s ears.
He smiled faintly and said, "Haha. We’re performing again tomorrow, so come if you want to see it again."
"Mm-hm. But I want to go… I’ve got a schedule from dawn on Sunday…"
"That’s a shame—"
Mid-sentence, Kaoru suddenly turned his head to the side and stopped walking.
Startled by the sudden move, Ai also stopped and followed his gaze.
A Western man and woman who looked like foreign tourists were approaching, gesturing wildly as they spoke to him in some language.
"Quiero ir al Santuario de Suitengu, pero ¿sabes cómo llegar?
(I want to go to Suitengu Shrine, but do you know how to get there?)"
Ai’s mind went blank for a moment at the alien language she was hearing for the first time in her life.
Her academic talent was fortunately zero, which had allowed her to focus on her [idol] activities, but the Westerners, who were showing their map and phone while pouring out what sounded like a very dramatic story to Kaoru in that alien language, felt even stranger to her than the moon rabbit princess.
"Um— Ka, Kaoru?"
It wasn’t even English, but some bizarre alien language.
Ai tried to call Kaoru and urge him to keep moving, but when she heard what came out of his mouth as he looked at the map and phone with a face as serious as if this were his own problem, she froze like stone.
"¿Eres el Santuario de Suitengu? Tienes que tomar el metro para ir aquí, pero habrá mucha gente.
(Suitengu Shrine? If you want to go there from here, you’ll have to take the train, but there will be a lot of people.)"
"¿Ah, de verdad?
(Oh, really?)"
"Sí. Además, no sé qué publicaciones viste en Internet, pero sé que la ruta del tren al Santuario de Suitengu está invertida. ¿Por qué no pospones tu visita al Santuario de Suitengu hasta mañana y te diriges aquí?
(Yes. Also, I don’t know what posts you saw online, but you’ve got the train route to Suitengu Shrine backwards. Why don’t you put off visiting Suitengu Shrine until tomorrow and head here instead?)"
"Eh... ¿En serio?
(W-what, really?)"
"Cariño. Por eso dije que contratemos un guía. ¿Qué es esto para ahorrar unos cuantos dólares!!!
(Honey. That’s why I said we should hire a guide. What is this, all to save a few dollars!!!)"
Ai stared blankly as the Western woman, after a flurry of back-and-forth, began chewing out the man she seemed to be married to.
Why was Kaoru speaking fluent alien language so naturally, as if he were talking Japanese, and chatting with complete strangers like they were old friends?
Ai just couldn’t make sense of it.
But she had no way of knowing.
She had no way of knowing that Kaoru could speak alien language—more precisely, Spanish—so fluently because of his memories from his past life.
Unaware that Ai was feeling that strange distance and curiosity, Kaoru quickly pointed out the route on the map one by one and borrowed a pen to write directions in the traveler’s notebook.
The couple from Spain looked at Kaoru as if he were an angel descending from heaven, trumpet and all.
After showering him with all sorts of praise, the Spanish couple said in surprise, "¿Cómo hablas español tan bien? ¿Estudiaste en el extranjero en España?
(How do you speak Spanish so well? Did you study abroad in Spain?)"
Kaoru hesitated for a moment at the woman’s words, then said in an awkward voice, "Internet."
"Oh—"
Realizing that this was truly the age of the great Internet, the Spanish couple nodded at the same time and gave him a thumbs-up from the other side of the globe.
The man, sticking close beside Kaoru, laughed warmly when he saw Ai looking flustered and said, "¿Eres tu novia?
(Is she your girlfriend?)"
"¿Sí? no no no Este es mi amigo.
(What? No, no, no. She’s my friend.)"
At Kaoru’s answer, the man burst into hearty laughter, looking as though he had expected exactly that, and pulled a Polaroid camera from his bag.
He gestured for the kind Japanese boy who had given them directions to stand nicely with the "friend" beside him.
"Eh—?! Eh— Ka, Kaoru?"
"It’s fine, Ai. I think they want to take a picture to thank me for showing them the way."
Click!
He took the photo right away.
"Gracias, amable estudiante.
(Thank you, kind student.)"
The man shook the still-undeveloped black-background photo from the Polaroid camera and handed it to Kaoru.
Kaoru accepted it and thanked him.
The Western couple waved casually as they left.
Even though the man who seemed to be the husband pointed at Kaoru and gave Ai a thumbs-up before going.
Ai, who hadn’t understood a single part of the conversation because she didn’t know Spanish, still didn’t understand what that meant and could only give an awkward smile and return the thumbs-up.
Kaoru resumed walking, holding the photo that was slowly developing, and handed it to Ai.
"You take it."
"Huh? Is that okay? But they took it because you showed them the way, Kaoru."
"That’s true, but… I thought it’d be better if you had it. I can always walk this road, but you’re busy, so you probably don’t come here often."
The moment she heard that, Ai’s eyes widened.
Her star-bright eyes stared at Kaoru, then curved beautifully into crescents as she said, "Mm… wow. When you’re like this, Kaoru, you seem kind of indifferent, but you’re actually super thoughtful, aren’t you?"
"……"
"Hm? Hm? Hm? Thoughtful?"
She immediately leaned in, clearly delighted to have found something to tease him with, and Kaoru wanted to flick her forehead, but falling for that provocation would mean losing.
So instead of answering, he stayed silent, coughed awkwardly, scratched the bridge of his nose, and pointed at the donburi shop they had finally reached.
"Let’s go in."
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