My Childhood Friend And Early Rising

According to my childhood friend, “radio calisthenics look pointless but are actually pretty effective,” apparently.

I mean, I’m not in a club these days, but I was in a sports club back in middle school, so I honestly already knew that. It was the sort of thing she’d gotten onto with her aunt over the summer. And as for that childhood friend of mine, one Sakura Ayuri, well…

“…iiin, wake uuup…”
“…Mngh…”
“Come on, wake up — you’re coming with me today, remember?”
“…Mnah… ahh…”

The gentle shaking finally tugged me up out of sleep. Getting woken by her voice was a rarity; if anything, I was usually the one doing the waking, so it made for a strange change of pace.

“Come on, come on, up you get — Hotaru’s probably waiting too.”
“Mngh… ahh… morning…?”
“Yep, good morning.”

A glance at the clock put it about an hour and a half before I’d normally drag myself up. Ayu, the childhood friend who’d trekked all the way to my room to wake me, was peering down at my sleeping face, looking faintly amused.

“So sleepy…”
“You’re the one who told me to wake you at this hour, y’know? If it’s too rough, wanna call it off after all?”
“…No… I’ll get up…”

I was already paying the price for letting her into my room while I slept. And after asking for this myself, whining ‘I’m sleepy, so never mind’ would be milking it a bit too much.

“It’s kinda novel, huh — usually it’s the other way around.”
“Well… true.”

Usually it’s Ayu who oversleeps, or cuts it right down to the wire. I could hardly recall ever being woken by her like this.

“…You didn’t take a photo, did you?”
“A photo? Why?”
“…Then never mind.”

Which was exactly the trouble: she’d gotten a good look at my sleeping face, and it left me a little self-conscious. Asleep, I’m defenseless whether I like it or not, so I start fretting over whether my face looked slack, whether I’d been sleeping with my mouth hanging open, all of it, and I wind up blurting something weird. Even I’ll grant that’s a touch oversensitive.

…Is this that “maiden’s heart” business from the other day, too?

“Giiin? What’s uuup? Still sleepyyy?”
“…Hey, listen.”
“Hm?”

I must have still been half-asleep; I’d zoned out, dwelling on nonsense far too long. It was probably already too late, but to keep her from catching on, I shot Ayu a quick, sharp look and said:

“I can’t get changed with you in my room, y’know.”
“I’m sorry!”

As ever, my childhood friend was a racket from the crack of dawn.

◇◇◇

This was after school, two days ago.

It was my own doing, granted, but this was the day a rash little move got me pegged by Ayu as some kind of newly awakened scent-fetish pervert.

“Uh… hey, Ayu, have you maybe, lately…”
“Hm?”
“…started jogging or something?”

By then I’d grown pretty sure something about Ayu had changed lately, so I put the question to her straight. She’d been oddly full of pep in the mornings, yet nodding off in class come the afternoon; I’d figured it probably came down to something like this.

“…Well, I am doing it… but…”
“Why so cagey about it?”
“No, it’s just, kinda… it’s not like I was keeping it secret, but once it’s out it’s kinda… embarrassing, I guess, or how should I put it.”
“If you’re not hiding it, then what’s the problem.”

Hina and the senior had both said it was no secret, too, so I couldn’t see anything to be embarrassed about. Maybe my dubious look gave me away, because Ayu launched into an explanation entirely on her own.

“I mean, come on — if someone like me, more the oversleeping type, suddenly starts getting up early to jog, you’d wonder why, wouldn’t you, Gin?”
“Well, true… so why?”
“You’re actually gonna ask… well, fine… um… how do I say it — I did play badminton up through middle school, remember?”
“You did — together with Hina.”

Incidentally, middle-school me was in the basketball club. No particular reason.

“Since starting high school, the only exercise I get is PE and the odd walk, so I figured my stamina’s probably dropped — at this rate I’ll be scared of the winter endurance run, too.”
“Already? The endurance run’s not till third term, I’d have thought.”
“…Well, no time like the present, right? Hotaru happened to mention she’s been building up her stamina for the culture-festival live show, so I’ve been tagging along.”

Ah, that’s right, Hotaru’s in the light music club, so the culture festival means that kind of thing for her. She was plenty popular on her own to begin with, and the club drew a crowd too, so she had it rough as well, that one.

“If it makes you neglect your classes, though, that’d be putting the cart before the horse.”
“Quite right you are, ma’am… but, well… once you actually try it, it’s surprisingly nice, I’d say…”
“Hmm…”

Well, that pretty much settled my question. There was no point pressing any further, and I could’ve just tossed Ayu a breezy ‘good luck’ and left it at that, but…

“Say, can I come too?”

I’d gotten a little curious, figuring maybe I’d give it a go myself, just the once. That was my thinking at the time, and so I ended up folding myself into their next run.

◆◆◆

And so, one way or another, I got up early. Trailing after Ayu, who’d gone ahead to the meeting spot, I walked streets a touch quieter than usual.

“Oh, she’s here. Morning, Ginko!”
“Morning again, Gin!”
“Morning… fwaah…”

By the time I reached the meeting spot, the two of them were already waiting in their tracksuits: Ayu, who’d come to wake me earlier, and Hotaru, who’d apparently gotten there first. Both already looked used to the early rising, brimming with pep. Me, I was still pretty sleepy.

“All right, let’s start with warm-ups.”
“Okaay!”
“…Yeah.”

One, two, three, four… I stretched out my arms and legs to Hotaru’s count. Gathered up early like this to stretch, I caught myself wondering if that radio-calisthenics business I’d heard about felt something like this. Though I knew full well the main event came after.

“Okay, breathe in… and out.”
“Hffff… haaah.”

I’d heard people yawn to send oxygen to a drowsy brain. Maybe there was something to it; drawing a breath this deep, the air crisp and cool on top of it, my eyes came open and I felt myself waking up properly.

“…All right, shall we run, then!”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah.”

Under the autumn morning sky, in the clear, faintly chilly air, Ayu and the senior called out brightly, though keeping their voices a shade in check. Honestly, the drowsiness still had the upper hand for me, but… feeling the turn of the seasons like this wasn’t so bad either, I was starting to think.

◆◆◆

“One, two! One, two!”
“Huff… hahh…”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Some ten-odd minutes into the run. The senior was fine, of course, and I still had plenty left in the tank myself… but Ayu, who by rights had several more jogs under her belt than I did, was already gasping for breath.

“Whoa there… let’s take a little break.”
“Huff… yes please… hahh…”
“At this rate, calling it prep for the endurance run might not be so far off after all.”

At the start of the run, I’d been a little moved by that sense of the season I’d been overlooking until now: the soft morning sunlight, the trees turning toward their autumn colors, the sound of passing cars carrying clear through the crisp air. But Ayu’s stamina running out so cleanly yanked me right back to reality.

“But Ayu’s really working at it! On the first day she was like this after about ten minutes.”
“Huh, so she is improving.”
“…Hahh… hahh… guess so.”

Still, this was the kid who’d supposedly been in a sports club back in middle school… hadn’t her stamina dropped by a pretty hefty margin? Granted, she’d never been any good at the sustained-running stuff like endurance runs, even way back when.

“…Phew… break’s over! And there’s a convenience store right in front of us, so Ayuri shall graciously treat you two to something.”
“You sure? Then I’ll have you buy me some water, I guess.”
“I’ll take ramen — the pricey kind you microwave.”
“…Gin, you do realize you’re still running after this?”
“I’m kidding. I’ll just… settle for a milk tea.”
“Sure thing.”

There was breakfast waiting at home anyway; then again, I’d need to shower first once I got back, so it wasn’t as if I’d eat right away. And there was school after this, too. After our little break on Ayu’s treat, we jogged back home at an easy trot to get everything ready.

◆◆◆

“Good morning!”
“I heard that one already, earlier.”
“It’s a matter of good form, Gin.”

After that, I rushed through the shower, breakfast, and all the rest of the prep, and before long the usual time to head to school rolled around. Barely an hour and a half since we’d parted, and the way Ayu greeted me like nothing had happened made that jog feel like it might’ve been a dream.

“~♩”
“…”

The usual morning, the usual Ayu. If anything was different, it was only that she seemed a shade more wound-up than she had on mornings a little while back.

…Come to think of it, besides the peppiness, wasn’t there something about a smell in Ayu’s change, too?

Well, that one had a foregone answer by now, too. It was the very same smell coming off me at that moment.

“Hm? What’s up, Gin?”
“…Nah, just — so this smell on you really was shampoo after all, huh.”
“Ohh… wait, is this what you were fussing over the other day with the smell?”
“Yeah.”

No wonder it had hung right on the tip of my mind without ever surfacing. I’d had chances to catch it at sleepovers and the like, but it had been a while lately; the one at Hina’s over summer break was the first in ages.

“That really startled me, you know — so from now on, just ask me normally, okay?”
“Yeah… I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Then it’s all good… ~♫”

The spot where we meet up with the senior was coming up soon. Setting aside the turn of the seasons, my childhood friend’s change, and every other little shift, another ordinary day was beginning, same as always.

…Come to think of it… why did Hina, who lives farther off, know about Ayu’s jogging when I, who live right next door, didn’t?

That small question, sprung up out of nowhere for a moment, was wiped clean away the instant the neighborhood senior planted herself in front of me and made her presence felt.