CH 24

Chapter 24

TL: Akabane

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I went back to my parents' house. It was warmer than Tokyo. My parents looked as healthy as ever, which was a relief, but they had taken in a shelter dog. At a transfer meeting, my mother said, "It just clicked." A Shiba Inu, estimated to be about 4 years old. For me, a dog person, it's a true healer. I felt at home just petting the dog without talking to my parents.

They named him "Maro" When I told her it didn't look like a dog, she said, "Because it's family." I certainly understand the logic, but it still wouldn't be Maro. He's cute, though.

I listen to my parents' thickly accented Kyushu dialect and watch the year-end specials. And the canned beer they pour down my throat costs more than the one I drink. Well, I usually drink happoshu, not beer, so that's not surprising.

I realize that I am back, and in the corner of my mind, I am thinking of Yamamoto Miina. She is smiling, sad, and so on. I can't get her various faces out of my mind.

It's been a long time since I've had a home-cooked meal from my mother, and I can't stop eating. I'm an only child, so she was happy to have her child back home. I could only see the remainder becoming tomorrow's breakfast and lunch, since I would never be able to finish it.

"Maro is so quiet."

She seems to like visitors and gets down next to me, snuggled up next to me. He seems sleepy, probably because he's just had dinner. I'm sorry to wake him up by petting him, but I can't help but slide my hand over him. A friendly dog is the best, Maro.

But still, I feel like I get drunker than usual from a can of high-grade beer. It's different from the cheap happoshu I usually drink.

The end-of-year specials are boring as they say, so my gaze naturally falls on my phone. Before I know it, my mother has left the living room and my father is gone. I'm alone, drinking beer at the end of the year. I feel empty.

"No, I'm not lonely because you're here."

As I pat Maro's head, my phone vibrates. It was placed on the kotatsu, so a pretty loud sound echoes through the living room. Startled by that, Maro looked up with a snap.

"Sorry, sorry. It's nothing."

What the hell was that!　He made a face that was easy to understand, but when I patted him, he laid down again. It was because of the vibrations from the legs of the kotatsu on the floor. I feel bad, but he's really cute. I won't him to leave.

A message had flown in. Fujiwara. Just a word to the group at work.

[Thanks for your hard work!　When do you want to meet for the New Year?]

Thank you very much. It's the end of the year and you're setting up a drinking party for work. I used to have to do it when I was younger, but honestly speaking, I don't think it's necessary. Why don't you just get together with those who want to go?

This kind of confirmation of attendance makes me feel awkward. There are many women in our department, so it's not so bad, but it's hard to say no to sales people and so on. In fact, it was so.

I just reply that I'll accommodate everyone's schedule. I'm sorry, but it's the end of the year. I really want to get away from work for a while.

If it were true, I would like to go out drinking with my local friends, but the number of married people has increased. I'm alone because it's hard to talk to them. I haven't even told them that I am going back to my hometown.

I wondered what Yamamoto was doing now ....... I was suddenly curious. Thinking back, the last time I contacted her was when I scouted her for a poster.

It really is a strange coincidence. The more I think about it, the more I realize how strange, funny, and somewhat fragile it is. I find myself desperately trying to hold on to it.

I look at the message history. It was only two months ago. It seems more recent in my mind's eye.

There is no one in the living room. I boldly press the call button. Even though it was the end of the year, but it wasn't New Year's Eve yet. There was no chance that she is go out.

Two or three inorganic rings echoed. It was past seven o'clock at night. Just when I was thinking, "Is she busy?"

||  "Hello?"

The voice sounds a little puzzled. Is that so?

"This is Araki. Are you busy right now?"

||  "Oh, no, I'm fine, but what's wrong ......?"

That's a fair question. Even I would say so.

But I don't have any specific requirements. I hope she'll be convinced that I called for some reason, but I'm also embarrassed to give her that reason.

"Well, I was wondering what you were doing now ......."

I may have misunderstood something strange. I'm not trying to hit on her, nor do I have any feelings for her. I see her as an idol to begin with, so I'm not going to have a serious crush on her. This is my policy as a fan.

Then why am I talking like this? I don't really know myself.

||  "I'm just eating dinner alone."

She answered honestly. Was she being considerate or suspicious? Probably the latter, but I assumed the former and decided to take advantage of her kindness.

"You're not going home?"

||  "Yeah. I have the scout thing, so I didn't want to move from Tokyo."

"I see."

I heard that she also came to Tokyo from the countryside. As I recall, she stayed in Hiroshima until high school. She said so on the radio, so I am sure of it.

||  "Hey, don't drink alone, okay?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

||  "No, no. Now that I think about it, but it was funny."

I was in a real hurry when I was asked her to be on the poster. Everyone was in a tight spot, and waiting a day was a desperate measure. I'm glad it's a funny story now.

Still, the infantile regression at that time was amazing. It was not a matter of destructive power. It was a level of fragility that would probably cause all Momoka Aimi fans to instantly ascend to heaven. If I wasn't in work mode, I would have been in trouble too. If I were in work mode, I would have asked for an encore.

||  "Umm, Araki-san, did you go back home?"

"Yes. It's been a while. My family has grown."

||  "Family?"

"They took in a shelter dog. A Shiba Inu.

||  "Wow!"

Her tension rises a little.

||  "I like dogs, so that's good!"

"So you're a dog person too, Yamamoto-san?"

||  "Yes, I am. I'm healed just by having them by my side."

"I totally understand. That's exactly what I'm feeling right now."

Dogs and cats have a mysterious charm. Just by being there, they alleviate the stresses of society.

Since they are invited to be part of the family, it's the owner's responsibility to take good care of them. I don't understand people who throw them away because they are troublesome or for some other reason. I hate people like that more than anything else in the world.

||  "You don't want to go home, do you?"

Yamamoto said so, and I unconsciously nodded. "Yes, that's right," I said, laughing. Of course, I can't not go home.

"......I wonder what I would have done if Araki-san hadn't been here."

Thud, I heard a sound like the scraping of skin. Was she leaning against a sofa or a chair or something? I instantly felt that we were living in the same world, because the atmosphere of life was surging through me.

"Like working in a company."

||  "I can't imagine that."

"Surprisingly, you might have become an idol without me."

As Kanako Miya once said, Aimi Momoka's potential is considerable. That will not change even if she is replaced by Miina Yamamoto. Sooner or later, she would have been called upon.

It's not like I did anything to her. I had never thought of it that way to begin with.

||  "--I don't think so."

She assured me. It was an outright denial.

That, as a fan, was empty. But she continued her words.

||  "In other words, I met Araki-san, and that's why I'm here now."

"Oh, don't do that. You're making me nervous."

||  "......!　That's not what I meant!"

A flat-out denial. This is the second one.

I'm a little saddened by such blatant dismay, it's not what I'm expecting.

I want to smoke to cover my embarrassment, but I don't want to do it in front of Maro. I'll just have to hold it in. Maybe, if I lived with a dog, I might be able to quit smoking. No, I'm not that naive.

||  "Mooo!　Araki-san said something weird!"

"Was it that weird?"

||  "Weird!　Very weird!"

But it was nice to hear her upset like this. It would have been great if I could have seen her in person, but I had no choice.

As I downed my can of beer, I realized that I was getting a little drunk. I'm afraid I'm going to say something weird to her at this point, so I try to give her a good reason to cut the conversation short. I apologize for calling her from my end.

"Let's call again later."

||  "Mooo! Araki-san, you're drunk!"

"Of course not. Miina-chan is so demanding."

She laughed bitterly, but somewhat happily, and said, "Yes, yes." When I hung up the phone, Maro, who should have been asleep, looked up and saw me.

"Don't make fun of me, you too."

"Wan!" he replied. I felt like I was being made fun of. I hope it was just my imagination.

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