Seventh period ended, and I was waiting in the bicycle parking area when Yua showed up in a half-run, about five minutes late. I found it a little charming how, perhaps not realizing that I was watching, she had stopped for a while a little ahead of me and adjusted her messy bangs while looking in a handheld mirror.
「…Sorry, did you wait long?」
「Not at all, I just arrived. Just kidding, I was actually pretty restless and showed up about thirty minutes ago, tehe~」
「Ahh, I’ve lost my motivation to apologize.」
Yua looked at me reproachfully while fanning her face with her hands.
「Is everything alright with the wind music club?」
「Yeah, today was a free practice day to begin with, so I just told them I had things to do.」
Last night, I had called Yua up, explained the situation, and asked her to accompany me to Yamazaki’s house. Of course, I could have also gone on my own, but for better or worse, I would stand out too much. Especially among the boys, there were quite a few who expressed discomfort at the mere mention of “Chitose”.
…Sniffle.
If Yamazaki-kun was one of those boys, then there was a high chance that he’d turn me away with a「The hell did you come here for, you womanizing scumbag!?」. It was probably due to anxiety about something similar happening that Nanase had offered to accompany me.
However, Nanase was just as famous as I was, so if he was the「death to riajuu」type, then there wasn’t much point in getting her to tag along. If handled poorly, with a「So two flirting riajuu are here trying to look good, huh? F*ck.」, the situation could even be made worse.
…Wait, is there even a need for me to help this guy?
Well, that aside, the same went for Yuuko. Since she speaks without thinking, it would be even worse.
On that note, Yua wasn’t really the most conspicuous member of our group, and nor was she the type that immediately exuded a riajuu aura at a glance. She also got along with the plain types of girls, and she was good at keeping the right distance, so almost nobody should be left with a bad impression of her after their first meeting. The advantage of having a girl come along would be even greater.
Basically, all boys want to look good in front of girls…right?
「Saku-kun?」
「…It was a compliment, a compliment. There’s plain goodness in being plain.」
「I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but I can tell that you were thinking something rude. Anyway, Yamazaki-kun’s house is quite far away, isn’t it? How are we going to get there?」
「That’s all sorted out. I borrowed Kaito’s mom-bike, see. He said it should be fine so long as I return it before club ends.」
Yua and I walked to school under the whimsical reason that we liked walking along the river, but fundamentally, at our high school, or rather at high schools in Fukui prefecture, the majority of students came to school by bicycle. The only students who walked all the way to school were those whose homes were considerably close, or else, those whose homes were so far away that they had to take the train.
Incidentally, it’s not that Kaito’s being dorky or anything, it’s just that for some reason, students in Fukui have a tendency to prefer mom-bikes over mountain bikes and cross bikes. Just to be sure, it’s also chic for Fukui boys to lower their saddles to the lowest position.
「Still, I don’t have a bicycle either, you know?」
「You can just ride on the back, right? It’s about twenty minutes by bike.」
I removed the lock on Kaito’s mom-bike and spoke while straddling the saddle.
「Still, if the police see they’ll tell me to get off, you know.」
「Now look here, Yua. A high school boy and girl together on a bicycle is an essential page in one’s youth. Sure, if someone says it’s dangerous or a violation of road traffic laws then we’d have to apologize, and if it was the internet, I’d definitely get flamed. But don’t you think it’s boring to live a life where you throw stones at those who you know can’t fight back? Kura-sen said something like that, anyway.」
「The problem is that Iwanami-sensei isn’t living a respectable life in the first place…」
Hm, that might be true. But that’s no reason to give in.
「I too think it would be boring if a boy and girl of our age finished their high school life without ever experiencing a joyful and embarrassing bicycle ride together. If we get told off, let’s both apologize, okay?」
「That’s not really the problem here, though…」
「In fact, it’s heavier and slower when there’s two people than when there’s one person pedalling on their own. These brakes are properly maintained too. If we go slowly, it’s still a lot safer than guys on road bikes slamming into things. And you can get off in places where there’s lots of pedestrians.」
「I’m not that heavy. I didn’t even eat much today.」
Yua reluctantly sat down sideways on the tray at the back of the bicycle.
「Kaito’s bike has hubsteps attached to the rear wheel, so it’s more comfortable if you straddle it and put your feet on them, you know? The tray’s been ketsuage’d, so it’s also easier to sit.」
By the way, hubsteps are short sticks attached to the centre of the rear wheel, used as footholds when riding with two people. The ketsuage’d tray refers to a custom adjustment where the back of the tray is lifted using the principle of leverage so that it fits nicely when you sit on it. Again, just to be sure, this is something that has been popular among Fukui’s riajuu for a long time.
「I can’t do that with a skirt.」
「Well, I suppose you have a point there. But it’ll be unstable and dangerous, so make sure to hold on to my shoulders or waist, okay?」
「Ehhh…」
Yua hesitated for a while, then while visibly going from reluctance to exceeding unwillingness, she pinched the sides of my shoulders with her fingertips.
「Stop acting like you’re touching a dirty old rag…」
There was no point in dithering about it any longer. I took Yua’s hands and formed them into a firm grip. The fingertips that touched me were more delicate and cool to the touch than I had expected. The force on my shoulder was stronger than I had expected, and it hurt quite a bit.
Slowly, leisurely, I began to pedal my bicycle. Upon us entering a narrow backstreet situated on the side of the river opposite the route we usually took to school, even though it wasn’t dark yet, to say nothing of fellow students walking along it, there wasn’t a single soul in sight.
After continuing down the street for about ten minutes, we emerged onto a wide road. The sky cleared as if to say that this was as far as the town went, and a typical Fukui landscape of nothing but rice fields spread out before us. Still full of brown and slightly chilly, but come next month, they would be happily filled with water, swaying in the May breeze.
「Your back…」
Having finally recovered her strength, Yua opened her mouth.
「Saku-kun, your back is a lot bigger than I thought. It’s so rugged and boyish.」
「I might look this way now, but I was originally one of the best baseball players in the prefecture. This might be hard to believe, but when it comes to physical fitness tests, ever since elementary school I’ve always been top in the year. Even outperforming the likes of Kaito and Kazuki.」
「I know. Last summer break, you were playing on the sports field. I watched from the classroom during wind music club practice.」
「That’s before we started getting along like we do now, right? Were you actually a secret fan of mine?」
「…Hmm, I wonder…」
One hand at a time, as if feeling around in the dark, Yua carefully changed the position of her grip to my waist. It was a little ticklish, but I stayed facing forward, continuing to pedal at a constant speed, as if to convey to her that I didn’t mind it in the slightest.
「Saku-kun, do you have something in mind?」
「Right. I was wondering at what point I’d need to suddenly brake to have a springy lucky punipuni panic encounter. Just a lil.」
「…」
「I’m sorry, so could you please stop squeezing my carotid artery?」
「Really, you’re just so…」
Yua exasperatedly returned her hands to my waist.
「Not that, I’m talking about Yamazaki-kun’s situation. During lunch break, did anything come to mind after hearing what the others had to say?」
「I thought about it quite a bit, but came to the conc that it’s useless to think without any clues to go on. Kinda decided it was a do or die sitch.」
「I’m begging you, could you please not leave out parts of your words?」
learning... please hold... 