My Childhood Friend And The Favor

According to my childhood friend:

“When someone asks you to bring them back a souvenir, it’s fine if you can hand it over right away… but when you have to hold on to it for a while, it starts to feel like a bit of pressure, doesn’t it?”

…Or so it goes.

Once, back when I was heading out somewhere a fair distance away, Ayu asked me to buy her a manga that came with a bookstore-exclusive postcard. Somewhere on the way home the postcard ended up slightly bent, and when I apologized to her about it, that was the line she gave me. She told me herself, ‘Don’t worry about it, thanks anyway’… but I honestly did feel bad about that one.

◆◆◆

“We made it! The big city!”
“It’s a handful of tall buildings, that’s all. Quit calling that a city, it reeks of the sticks.”
“It’s like a country kid seeing one slightly big building and one red steel tower and going, ‘It’s Tokyo Tower!’ Same deal.”
“What are you, an elementary schooler?”

She’s not some dumb elementary-school boy… well, setting that aside. Today is a day off, and we’re out on an excursion by train. Today’s lineup is Ayu, Hotaru-senpai, and me. The two of them had apparently planned to go on their own, but when I offered to tag along, they let me in.

“All right then, shall we go?”
“Ah, Senpai… we’re on foot, right?”
“About twenty minutes, if I remember right… isn’t it, Ayu-chan?”
“Yep, that’s about what the map on my phone says~”

Ayu answered without once looking up from that map, and apparently neither she nor Hotaru-senpai had been out here before either.

“Huh… oh, apparently they’ve got streetcars here.”
“Do you want to ride one, Gin-chan?”
“Not really.”
“Well, you don’t see them often.”

My hometown is fairly rural by comparison, so something like this really does bring home the gap in how built-up a place can get. Not to the degree Ayu feels it, but still. And since I’m secretly a little giddy about it myself, like I’ve traveled a good long way from home, I’m in no position to laugh at her.

◇◇◇

“An exhibit?”
“Yeah, with Hotaru-chan this coming Sunday~”

We were walking home at the usual after-school hour, and the talk had turned to the coming day off when Ayu came out with that.

“Is that any different from the art museum we went to back in autumn?”
“That was an ‘exhibition.’ The one we’re going to is an ‘exhibit.’”
“Same thing.”
“They’re different!?”

Different, huh… Honestly, I have zero interest in paintings and the like, so I have absolutely no idea…

“How do I put it… an exhibition feels like a place where you go to appreciate art… but an exhibit is a place where you can also buy things… I think?”
“You’re being pretty vague yourself, Ayu.”
“Well, excuse me, I only looked it up in passing.”

Hmmm… it does have an air of the highbrow about it, not that I understand any of it. Actually…

“Sounds kind of fishy.”
“What a thing to say, Gin-chan!”
“If you went on your own, I bet you’d get railroaded into buying some expensive painting.”
“What exactly do you take me for…”
“An idiot.”
“Isn’t that a bit harsh?!”

I mean, Hina and Hotaru-senpai talk her around on a regular basis, and even Sumire-san, of all people, manages it. Though the fact that mine is the one line of sophistry she digs her heels in against is something I refuse to accept.

“It’s fine! I’ll have you know I’m the dependable type!”
“‘The dependable type.’”
“What’s with that face, like it’s got a ‘(lol)’ tacked on the end?”
“(lol)”
“She said it out loud! This girl!”
“…Well, setting that aside… are you actually going? To that?”

Something about it makes me uneasy… no, with Hotaru-senpai along it should basically be fine, but… I get the feeling that the second the senpai’s back is turned, Ayu would be cornered by one of the staff. She looks like an easy mark even from the outside.

“I am going…?”
“Hmmm…”
“…Don’t tell me you’re interested too, Gin-chan?”
“Not in the slightest.”

Honestly, being invited to a thing like that makes it sound like a shady solicitation, and the fishiness is off the charts. Maybe this is what it feels like to watch a friend get taken in by a cult.

“…But well, if Hotaru-senpai says it’s fine, I guess I’ll come along.”
“Hmph, why is it Hotaru-chan you ask and not me?”
“Are you saying no, Ayu?”
“…No, I don’t mind at all, obviously!”

I mean, come on… the two of them were going alone to begin with, so me cutting in afterward is a bit… to Hotaru-senpai, y’know?

◇◇◇

“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d let me tag along that easily, Senpai.”
“Hmm~? Why not?”
“I mean… it was supposed to be just you and Ayu.”

As far as I’m aware, there’s a chance this was going to be the first day since the new year that Ayu and Hotaru-senpai had to themselves. Well… if I were in that position I wouldn’t particularly mind, but this is the same senpai who regularly gripes that she ‘envies Ayu’s classmates,’ so I really do feel like I’ve done something a little rotten.

“Would you get angry if I came barging in later, Ginko-chan?”
“I wouldn’t get angry.”

I mean, she actually did exactly that over summer break, and Ayu and I both went along with it.

“Then it’s the same thing. Well, this time… there’s also the fact that it isn’t my plan.”
“Huh… I had a vague suspicion, but — is this one something Ayu said she wanted to go to?”
“Hmm… you could say so, and you could say not.”
“???”

I tried asking Ayu, who was leading the way with the map on her phone, and the answer that came back made no sense at all. Then whose idea would it have to be, to land these two at an art exhibit of all places? Neither of them seems the least bit interested in the artistic side of life.

“How should I put it… if you make a reservation ahead of time, you get a catalog.”
“Huh.”
“And, well, this time’s artist… illustrator? — the person is someone Yuu-chan is a fan of…”
“…Don’t tell me Yuuka asked you to.”
“Something like that.”
“And I was asked by Yuu-chan to chaperone Ayu-chan.”
“What is that girl playing at…”

Go yourself, is what I want to say, but maybe they don’t hold anything like it anywhere near where she lives. Not that I’d know.

“Anyway, what even is a catalog? Is she buying a painting?”
“Nope, apparently it doubles as a sort of art book.”
“Then just buy an art book…”
“She was saying, ‘I’ve got those, but it might have pictures in it that aren’t in them… and they’re probably laid out differently from an art book anyway…’ — that sort of thing.”
“What a pain that girl is…”

Talking like some troublesome otaku, I thought, though when you get down to it Yuuka comes from the same family line as Ayu. Ayu does claim to be a reincarnator, so I can’t lump the two of them together too neatly, but she has her otaku streak as well… maybe relatives really do end up resembling each other. Actually…

“…Wait, Senpai, did you just casually say ‘Yuuka asked me to accompany Ayu’?”
“I did?”
“You two know each other?”
“Way back, there was a stretch where Ayu-chan stayed over at Yuu-chan’s place for a good long while over summer break, wasn’t there?”
“There was.”
“I got so lonely around then, you see… so I chased after her ♡”
“Huh, that’s terrifying…”

That would have been back when we were in third or fourth grade of elementary school, I’m fairly sure. And the area Yuuka lives in takes several hours to reach even by train, as I recall…

“That startled me too, back then. I thought, ‘there’s a beautiful girl over there who looks incredibly familiar…’ — but for her to actually be a beautiful girl I knew…”
“Ayu-chan, stop!! When you praise me like that, all I can do is hug you!!”
“Mmgh… A-and she showed up with practically divine timing, which surprised me as well. She came the very day after I thought, ‘I wish Hotaru-chan were here.’”
“That was during the neighborhood association’s karaoke contest, wasn’t it. Even I felt the hand of God guiding me there~”

Every person has a life of their own.

Obvious, of course. Even between childhood friends there’s a past of Ayu’s I don’t know and a past of mine she doesn’t; naturally there is. And yet it seems there was quite a scene playing out over a summer break I know nothing about.

Back when Ayu and I went out to that town, I was startled at how completely the place had taken to her… and now, at a moment I never expected, I’ve caught a glimpse of one of the reasons why.