My Childhood Friend's Solo Trip

According to someone, “Solo travel is a good thing. You get to know the nice spots of a place, so that next time you go there with someone dear to you, you can show them around and share it all, and that’s a good thing too.” …apparently.

Honestly, though, my hobbies and the sports I liked all leaned a little indoors, so the whole idea of setting off somewhere far away on my own had never really clicked with me.

◇◇◇

“…”

An hour had passed since I woke up, and Ayu’s front door, the one I’d kept my eyes fixed on, still hadn’t budged. My prep was long done, and I’d shifted to staking the place out from my bedroom window, but the one thing that actually mattered, Ayu herself, refused to come out. I’d rushed through the prep as fast as I could; had she maybe slipped out somewhere while I was busy with it?

“…”

I was bored. To keep anyone outside from spotting me, I was peering through the thinnest sliver of a gap in the curtains, which meant I couldn’t look away for even a second.

I’d been all fired up the moment I started. But as the time wore on, the calm, rational part of me poked its head out. Never mind whether outing her secret was a rotten thing to do; what I was doing right here was, plain and simple, textbook stalker behavior, wasn’t it?

…There she is!

I’d been fretting over how she might leave. If she went by bike, my tail would be blown wide open; if her parents drove her, I’d be checkmated before I even started. As it turned out, it was neither. She was on foot, alone, and from the direction she’d taken, she seemed to be heading for the station. That much, I could probably manage.

…

If she was heading for the station, she’d have to pass right in front of my house. Mistime my exit and blunder straight into her, and the whole thing would be ruined, so I kept my eyes on the gap in the curtains and waited for her to pass. And then…

“…”

— Glance.

“—!”

— Flinch.

Outside, Ayu turned her eyes toward my bedroom window. Had she realized I was watching, or had she just happened to glance up? Vacant as it was, the look almost seemed to reproach me for scheming.

“…”

— Look away.

“…Phew…”

She probably hadn’t caught me… probably.

So she wouldn’t catch me peeking, I pinched the curtain and held it as still as I could, waiting for Ayu to pass. Once she’d gotten far enough down the street, I’d play it extra safe, slipping out the back door to pick up the tail.

◇◇◇

“…Phew.”

I sank into a seat on the train and finally caught my breath. I could rest a while now.

I had no idea where she was going, but between the allowance stashed in my room and the money I’d twisted my brother’s arm into lending me, the fare ought to be covered. And I was fairly sure I’d loaded at least a little onto my Suica, too.

“…”

— Glance.

From under the parka hood I’d tugged low over my eyes, I watched Ayu, seated a good ways off. By the size of her luggage she was headed somewhere fairly far; earphones in and a book open, she’d clearly settled in for the long haul.

…How far is she even going?

I’d at least brought something to kill time, as best I could manage. Then again, if I whipped out a handheld console I might lose sight of her, and I might get noticed doing it besides. So I’d settled on the last pastime my usual self would ever pick: reading. And with a book I’d quietly swiped from my brother’s room, no less.

“…”

— Flip.

The whole thing had been pretty impulsive, spur-of-the-moment. Figuring whatever cash I could scrape together on the day might not cover the trip, I’d borrowed a bit from my brother in advance. The clothes on my back were half-borrowed too, castoffs he’d stopped wearing a while ago.

Honestly, this might be the most I’d ever leaned on my brother in my whole life. I still had no clue where I was headed, but wherever it turned out to be, I’d have to be sure to bring him back a proper thank-you souvenir.

“…”

— Glance.

And so, from under a hood just a touch too big for me, I watched Ayu at the edge of my sight, a little ways off, and let my mind wander. Come to think of it, I was fairly sure this borrowed paperback belonged to a series Ayu was reading too. Back when I’d been over in her room, I could’ve sworn the same book had been sitting on her desk.

Was the one she had open right now from that same series? If it was, we could trade impressions later, and maybe I’d get to see that carefree smile of hers again. …Or so I caught myself thinking.

◇◇◇

That was close—!

Panicking on the inside, playing it like nothing on the outside, I stepped off the train. A few stops back, a whole crowd had piled off at one station (some tourist spot, probably), and when Ayu stayed put, I’d let my guard down. Then she got off a few stops later. Only a handful of us stepped off with her.

Bolting off in a panic would only make me stand out, so I got off as normally as I could and, careful not to lose sight of Ayu a little further ahead, picked the tail back up as naturally as I could manage. To keep from being spotted, I kept my pace slow and my stride short, letting the gap between us stretch a little wider by degrees.

Ayu passed through the ticket gate, and once a few strangers had filled the space between us, just as I moved to step through myself…

— Bing-bong!

Ah, crap.

An ugly error tone blared, and the gate snapped shut in my face. In my scramble to get off the train, I’d clean forgotten the obvious: my Suica balance was running low.

“—!”

I spun on my heel and hurried to top up at one of the charge machines inside the gates. My hood was still up, so even if she’d turned around, I doubted she’d caught my face. Still, that sudden blast of noise had scared me half to death.

I thought my heart was gonna stop…!

Getting stopped at the gate with that error tone screaming was mortifying enough on its own; that the reason behind it was so brainless made my face feel ready to go up in flames.

Shaking it off, I finally made it through the gate for real this time and hurried out of the station after Ayu, but…

“…Well, of course she’s not here.”

An unfamiliar station, an unfamiliar town, and Ayu, probably the one and only thing I knew in the whole place, was already nowhere near the station. Come all this way, only to hit game-over in record time.

“Where’d she go…?”

With nowhere in particular to aim for, I drifted this way and that. I’d even planned for the worst case, a car showing up to collect Ayu, right down to hailing a taxi from the station plaza and pulling some TV-drama move: ‘Follow that car, and don’t let them see me.’ And yet here I was, tripped up by something far more basic than any of that.

“Um… excuse me.”
“Hm? You getting in?”
“Ah, sorry — there’s something I wanted to ask. Have you seen this girl? She’s a friend of mine, but we got separated…”

With nothing to lose, I held up the photo on my phone to the cabbie idling there and asked.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but the moment he saw the picture, the cabbie’s expression seemed to turn a touch dubious. I was in the shot too, so I really didn’t think it looked all that shady.

“Hmm… if she’s a friend of yours, couldn’t you just call and ask where she is?”
“Well… the truth is, I was trying to secretly follow her and surprise her, and then I lost track of her…”
“Ah… I’d love to help you out, but I happened to have my eyes off the road right about then… and besides, times being what they are, personal info’s a touchy thing…”
“I see… Sorry to bother you while you’re working. Thank you anyway.”

Haah… well, of course that’s how it’d go. Guess there was nothing for it but to comb a far-off town I’d never once set foot in, with no leads at all…

“…Heeey, missy!”
“…Huh? Oh—yes!”

Maybe he couldn’t stand to watch me trudge off with my shoulders slumped in defeat, because the cabbie called out and rolled his window back down.

No idea what he wanted, but I headed back over for now.

“This your first time in town, missy?”
“Yes.”
“Couldn’t tell you where the girl in that photo went… but this time of year, folks coming in from out of town are mostly headed to a relative’s place, so I’d figure she went toward the residential streets, not the shopping arcade.”
“I see…”
“Unless she’s a local, she’ll have gone the opposite way from the one you were about to take.”
“…! Is that so—thank you so much!”
“Don’t mention it… hope you find your friend.”
“Yes!”

Glad I’d asked. A local cabbie really did know his stuff.

Glancing back every so often to bow my thanks, I set off at once in the direction he’d pointed. Sure enough, compared with the road I’d been about to wander down at random, this one did seem to have fewer shops.

“…Oh, right.”

Maybe this could actually work out. As I found my rhythm, a clever little idea came bubbling up in my head: what if I just called Ayu straight out and mined whatever sounds I could catch around her on the line for clues? …Something like that. I had a feeling I’d seen a trick like it in a manga or a TV drama once.

“All right, no time to waste.”

It probably wouldn’t go that smoothly, but there was no harm in trying. Might as well give it a shot.

— Brrring… brrring…

The call went through without a hitch, and after a few rings, Ayu picked up.

“Hello?”
“Hello? Gin? What’s up all of a sudden?”
“I was just wondering what you were up to, that’s all. If you’re busy I can call back later, but…”
“Mm… no, I’m free right now. See, there’s something I absolutely have to go see, so I’m out on a bit of a trip.”
“Ohh…”

As we talked, I strained every nerve to catch anything besides Ayu’s voice that might pass for a hint. I couldn’t make out much of anything, though, so maybe Ayu, like me just now, was out walking somewhere herself.

And it happened right then, just as an easy, gentle warmth had begun to settle between the two of us.

“Ah! Hang on, sorry!”
“Huh—wait—h… huh?”

— Click.

Out of nowhere, truly out of nowhere, the call cut off from Ayu’s end, right on the heels of that flustered little burst.

“Why…?”

My mind couldn’t keep up.

It was my own fault, sure. But there I was, stranded alone in a town I didn’t know, and I’d finally gotten to talk to bright, cheerful Ayu, even if only over the phone; then, right as my spirits began to lift, the line went dead on me.

I’d blithely assumed she was the same old Ayu, but somewhere along the line, a distance had opened up between our hearts. It felt like the plain truth of where Ayu and I stood now had been shoved right in my face.

“We were talking just fine a second ago…”

For her to cut the call that abruptly, there had to be a reason. If nothing else, she’d never once ended a conversation for no reason before, and this was the first time she’d ever pushed me away so suddenly.

“…”

Round and round it went in my head, thoughts of every kind welling up and clotting together into one jumbled mess. Like, maybe my tail really had been blown all the way back on the train, and she’d seen straight through what I was really fishing for with this call…

Or maybe I’d done something wrong without even noticing, and all this time she’d only kept me company out of childhood-friend obligation while quietly resenting me…

…Or what if she really had gotten caught up in some kind of trouble, or an accident…?

“…”

Guess after guess bubbled up, and every last one of them was grim; picturing any of them turning out true made my chest cinch tight.

“—!”

Maybe it was to outrun those awful thoughts. Before I knew it, I’d broken into a run, plunging into that unfamiliar town to search for Ayu.