Chapter 7: Volume 1 - CH 1.7

I went home, took a shower, ate lunch with my mother and Izumi, who was still unpacking from yesterday, and then went to my room to lie down.

My legs felt a little tired, probably from running around on the muddy ground. My thighs, calves, and soles of my feet were hot.

Slumbering in exhaustion in the dimness of the rainy season's patchy weather, I was dozing off for a while when I heard a noise from outside my room. Then, "Kenichi," my mother called through the door.

"What?" I replied, rousing my sleepy body from the bed.

"We're going shopping now, so you're coming with us too."

"Why?"

"We're going to buy Rina-chan's daily necessities, but it might be a lot of luggage. Help me carry it. You can buy your favorite food, too."

"... Okay. I'll be there. I'll be ready in a minute."

I got dressed, grabbed my wallet and cell phone, and went downstairs. 

When I entered the living room, I found my mother sitting on the sofa and Izumi in a chair at the dining table. Izumi was wearing a red plaid short-sleeved shirt and a long navy blue skirt that she had also worn yesterday. A brown leather pouch rested on her lap.

"Finally. Shall we go then?" said my mother, and Izumi bowed to me with a smile on her face. 

"I'm sorry. You must be tired from club activities."

"No, I'm fine."

I replied so while returning a bow to Izumi.

"So, where are we going?"

When I questioned my mother's back as she slung her bag over her shoulder, she replied, "Irisawa Mall."

Seriously, I thought. The remnants of my afternoon sleep had blown away. That's where Yuriko and Tachibana had said they were going to play earlier.

"That's where you can get everything you need."

"Ah, yeah."

As I responded, I looked at the clock hanging on the wall in the living room. It had been nearly three hours since club activities had ended.

---I guessed that they would be home by now.

With that in mind, I left the house with my mother and Izumi and got into the car.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at a large three-story shopping center that sold everything from furniture to groceries.

We first headed upstairs to the interior design store. Izumi was going to buy pillows and cushions here first. I learned from our conversation on the way that Izumi's mother had given her enough money for her immediate needs, and that she also gave my mother a monthly allowance for Izumi's living expenses.

Already in my basket were a low rebound pillow, a red and white checkered pillowcase, a red bedsheet, and a desk clock in the shape of a cat.

Izumi and my mother were walking slowly through the store, looking at the items as if they were friends. I stood one step behind them, hanging a plastic basket, and waited for Izumi and my mother to select their items.

There was a fan set up in the store in mid-June, and environmental sounds mixed with the chirping of cicadas and wind chimes were also playing. Products for the coming summer season were on display everywhere in a summery atmosphere, such as toweling beds that provide a cool and refreshing feeling.

After a few minutes of agonizing over cushions of various colors and shapes on display, Izumi chose a red round cushion---Izumi apparently likes red things---and we left the interior design store.

"Kenichi. Please."

With that, my mother handed me a plastic bag filled with cushions and other things from the store. It was bulky and a little hard to carry, but it wasn't that heavy.

"I'm sorry, Kenichi-kun."

Izumi apologized in a timid manner.

It's okay, I replied.

"I'm here for this."

"Yes, yes. Don't worry about it. It's good for Kenichi's muscle training."

My mother added, and Izumi smiled as if she were troubled.

We then moved to the floor where food and household goods were sold, and Izumi put the laundry net and air freshener into a plastic basket that she carried herself.

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I was sort of following my mother and Izumi with my large luggage, but when it looked like we were about to enter the sanitary napkin section, I indeed felt awkward and stopped.

"Um. I'm going to leave this in the car," I said to them as I walked ahead, borrowed the car keys from my mother, and casually left the place.

I hoped she would understand, but my mother, handing me the keys, looked doubtful about my sudden offer. Maybe she thought it was nothing, but I knew it would be too awkward to walk in there with those two.

Leaving the sales floor, I took the down escalator to the underground parking lot.

The background music, which had been drowned out by the noise in the store, was clearly audible in the relatively quiet underground parking lot. I walked slowly to my car, unlocked it, and placed a large shopping bag in the back seat. 

It was hot and humid in the non-air-conditioned underground parking lot, and a bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

I exhaled heavily. Cars passed intermittently in the fluorescent-lit basement, and a child who almost ran out of the car was being warned by a parent.

After I dropped my stuff off, I locked my car and went back inside the store. The sweat I had worked up during the short time I was in the basement cooled my skin in the air-conditioned interior.

The ground floor also contains a food court and café. The area is separated by glass, and I can see some of it from where I am now.

If Yuriko and Tachibana were there, it would probably be around here, so I casually looked at the food court on Sunday afternoon, mixed with the flow of a large number of shoppers.

--I looked casually in the direction of the food court and saw a familiar figure in a uniform.

No way, I thought.

It has been three hours since club activities had ended. What on earth do these girls have to talk about? Yuriko and Tachibana were sitting side by side at the counter of the donut store, talking about something.

Next to Tachibana, who is busily moving her mouth toward Yuriko while gesturing with her hands, Yuriko is drinking something through a straw, nodding her head occasionally or shaking her head in a small way with an absentminded expression as if she is taking it in stride.

As I was staring at them, Yuriko suddenly looked up and turned her eyes toward me.

Our eyes met. She opened her mouth with a small 'ah' and then raised her hand. And then,

"Kenichi-kun, what's wrong?

Suddenly, a voice called out to me from behind. I turned around and saw Izumi and my mother there, holding a shopping bag.

"Ah, no, it's just someone I know..."

I replied with a stutter.

"Is that so? Do you want to go say hi?"

"No, no. I just accidentally saw her---"

I glanced at Yuriko.

Yuriko was staring at us. My mother and Yuriko knew each other. If it had been just me and my mother here, it would not have seemed unnatural. But,

---Who is that girl?

That's what Yuriko's gaze said as she looked at Izumi suspiciously while going through Tachibana who was talking beside her.

"Hey Kenichi," my mother spoke up.

I tried to shrug off Yuriko's attention and said, "What?" I replied.

"I just got a call from someone at work asking me to have dinner with him. I'm sorry, but could you and Rina buy dinner here and take a taxi home? I'll drive from here to his place."

Tln : I don't know if it's 'he' or 'she', so I just go with 'he' right now

"Uh, yeah, okay."

Even as I replied, I kept feeling Yuriko's gaze on me from behind my mother, about 20 meters away.

"I'm sorry, Rina-chan, for seeming to throw you out so suddenly. I'll take your luggage home."

My mother said so and received the luggage from Izumi, and Izumi bowed, saying "I'm sorry."

As she handed me our dinner and taxi money and walked toward the escalators leading to the underground parking lot, Izumi thanked my mother for bringing her there, "Thank you for bringing me, Auntie," she said, to which my mother responded by raising one hand.

As my mother disappeared into the crowd, Izumi suspiciously urged me, who was standing still, saying, "Let's go, Kenichi-kun,"

I nodded and we started walking together. I glanced back one last time and saw Yuriko still staring at me suspiciously.

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