Chapter 81: Volume 7 - CH 3

The sounds of balls slamming against the wooden gym hall floor reverberated inside my head. Each time, I could hear the ear-splitting screeches of the students’ shoes as they slid along the ground. And despite this being the 5th period of the day, a voice energetic enough to shatter all the tension set itself apart from these sounds.

“Give it to me!”

A single boy ran towards the basket. At first glance, his body may have seemed dull in movement because he wasn’t slim-built. Still, as if to betray this first impression, the boy wearing glasses dashed as fast as the wind, wearing armor made of muscle as impressive as you’d expect from the catcher of the baseball club despite only being in his second year.

“Maru, carry it home!”

With my shout, Maru accepted the orange ball I threw towards him, swiftly making it past the opponent’s defense, bending his knees to crouch down. However, like a spring that was finally free after being pushed down, his legs stretched out and he jumped high into the air. The ball he held in both hands quickly moved to only his right, as he went for a layup, the ball leaving his hand—

“Like hell I’ll let you do that!”

Right before the ball departed from Maru’s hand, another hand appeared and slammed down against his. Immediately after, a sharp whistling sound filled the air.

“Foul!”

Landing on the ground, Maru made a devilish grin, and the boy who caused the foul could only grit his teeth in anger. With the free throw given to him, Maru secured the victory for us and walked to the outside of the court as he gasped for air.

“Great work out there.”

“Thanks. Though I can still keep going.”

As the exact opposite of Maru, many other boys had sunk to the ground, completely out of steam. They groaned in pain and exhaustion, and the teacher complained about how they simply didn’t get enough exercise. Meanwhile, the other half of the gym hall was being used by the girls, who were busy playing volleyball, filling the air with their own screams and cheers. The one who was the loudest was, to nobody’s surprise, Ayase-san’s friend Narasaka-san.

I’m pretty sure I just heard her scream about her finger being broken or whatever. She probably got hit the wrong way by the ball (since if it was really broken, it’d cause a major uproar), but volleyball can still be a pretty tough sport.

Maru also glanced over at the girls. “We’re gonna be off for our field trip starting tomorrow, eh?”

Hearing that, I sighed. That also means it’s flight time, too.

“What’s that sigh for, my friend?”

“I’m scared.”

“What?”

“Do you know why planes can fly in the sky, Maru?”

“Bernoulli’s law, right? Through the upwards and downwards movement of wings, the air flowing on the surface of the wing is sped up—or rather, changed—which can allow you to create a difference in pressure. This atmospheric pressure becomes lower when it’s up, and higher when it’s low, generating a force that pushes the object upward. This is what’s known as Bernoulli’s theorem, and it explains how dynamic lift is created. In short, by changing the conditions, you can change the flow of the air by moving your wing flaps up and down. I do understand the framework of how you change the flow of air, but explaining that takes a long time and is a pain. Wanna hear it anyway?”

“We’re having PE right now, so I’ll pass.”

I’d rather get a lecture about that right before a physics exam, to be honest.

“Well, it’s perfectly normal to be scared of drowning even if we float in the water, and although we know that there are involuntary muscles that keep our heart moving, we’re still afraid that our heart might just stop one day. That fear isn’t logical, which it doesn’t have to be,” he said and laughed, forcing another sigh out of me.

That’s absolutely right. I accept how it all works, but I can’t just accept it and simply not be scared.

“I keep thinking about the worst-case scenarios. What if we actually fall from the sky?”

“The odds aren’t zero, but in return, it’s also a possibility that the sky’s gonna fall onto earth tomorrow, ending all life here. Granted, it’s not the best comparison.”

“I get where you’re coming from, but…”

Now hold on. How’s the sky gonna fall on us?

“If you’re worried about an elevator you’re about to take crashing into the ground, you’ll just be exhausted whenever you leave the house.”

“I mean, I’m used to elevators. But this is my first time traveling by plane.”

“You’ve just gotta get rid yourself of your fears by imagining how fun it’ll be once we’ve landed. Imagine how great you’ll feel once you’re finally off the plane again.”

“Seeing the fun… huh? Do you have something like that?”

“Naturally. There are lots of casinos in Singapore, right? I’d love to check one out myself.”

“I highly doubt that’ll work out for you.”

Granted, casinos in Singapore aren’t illegal… But you have to be of age to see one from the inside. And if you’re not 21, then you’ll have to pay a criminal fine.

“How do you know that? The laws might just change tomorrow and change the age of adulthood from 21 years to 17.”

“Yeaaah… I wouldn’t bet on those odds.”

And if such a major change were about to happen in Singapore, we’d probably be seeing that in the news.

“However, my dear Asamura, things like gambling are illegal in Japan, even if you are of age, right?”

“That’s also true.”

“Why is it that some places allow and some places prohibit these things, even though they entail the exact same action?”

…Ah, crap. I shouldn’t have brought up that whole “Why do planes fly” nonsense. As usual, a switch in Maru’s head was flipped and now he’s trying to argue about anything and everything. Despite us being on break during PE class, he was now warming up to talk about laws and all that.

“Um, well… Isn’t it because of the intricate history and origin of the countries in question?”

I think I read something like this in a science-fiction novel before. Because of a certain disease, the male population has been drastically reduced, pretty much eradicated, which forced the women to rebuild the country, and the female shogun was given a male harem, as a polygamous system was established in that world. I think the existence of these circumstances is what led to the creation of a law like that. That’s why certain laws get passed, while others get rejected.

“So basically, the rules of society aren’t absolute, and if the circumstances change, so may the rules?”

“I… guess?”

“Then it’s perfectly possible for casinos to open up to people above the age of 17.”

“That… is a leap, I think.”

In fact, your leap just brought us five seasons past where we currently were.

“There’s nothing vaguer than regulations and laws related to age, Asamura. Even in our beloved Japan, you were regarded as an adult at 20 years not too long ago. We’ve gone down two whole years now.”

“That’s true… But we’re talking about a leap of four years in your case.”

“What I’m trying to say…” Maru said and stood up to grab a ball that came rolling his way.

He slammed it on the ground a few times, switching between his left and right hand to skillfully control the ball’s movement. Can I just point out how unfair it is that he’s skilled at baseball and even pulls off this at least when playing basketball? I stood up after Maru, trying to steal the ball from him as he dribbled left and right. He, however, stepped backward and easily evaded me.

“I’m over here. I’m not gonna let you take it this easily.”

“I wonder how long that confident smirk of yours will last… though!”

“Close, but no cigar.”

Maru pulled another faint to evade my approaching hand, turning his back toward me and blocking me from reaching the ball, using his body as a shield.

“This ain’t fair. I request a handicap.”

“What are you blabbering about? On the court, we’re all equal.”

“If it’s a 1-on-1 between someone skilled at sports and someone who isn’t, then I stand no chance.”

“Basketball is outside my range of expertise. We’ve got the same level of experience.”

“But not when it comes to the general amount of exercise… Ugh!”

I tried to slip behind him, but even as we exchanged these lines, Maru carefully avoided my approaching hand. Talking like this while playing basketball is just too much. I stopped in my tracks and gasped for air as Maru continued to dribble.

“Anyway, Asamura.”

“Hm?”

“What I’m trying to say is that… prohibiting something because I’m too young is a regulation I can’t accept.”

And what a Maru-like reason it was.

“I get where you’re coming from.”

“Sure, there’s bound to be people who ruin their lives by gambling. However, if that is so bad, then you should prohibit it as a whole for all ages. However, it’s just four years. What difference do these four years make in the end?”

Was he that desperate to check out the casinos?

“Isn’t it because young minds can be influenced much more easily by alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs?”

“I would agree if we limit this to younger children and elementary school kids. However, we’re 17 now,” he said as he started dribbling toward the inner ring of the field.

I see how it is. Maru wants to be treated like an adult. While switching the ball between his left and right hand, he continued dribbling. He’s only five meters away from the basket, so I had to quickly chase after him—But that turned out to be impossible. I managed to graze his back only a bit, but that was all I could do. He stepped forward once, twice, and then… He stretched out his legs and arms, throwing the ball towards the basket. It drew a beautiful arc mid-air, and it landed inside the metal ring and down the net. Landing on the ground again, the ball bounced a few times until it ended up at the wall.

“Anyway, all I’m saying is that, at 17, I think it’d be fine to let us take responsibility for what we want to do.”

“I get what you’re trying to tell me, but even if you line up flawed argument after argument like that, we still won’t get inside Singapore’s casinos. And also—” I continued while gasping for air and recounting how many steps he had just taken during that layup. “Traveling is against the rules.”

“Saw right through me, eh?” Maru laughed. “I know, I know. I was just joking… about the casinos.”

6th period was our last homeroom. We sat together discussing the last few details about our upcoming field trip—Or put simply, we just blabbered about whatever we wanted. We did have to sit together in our trip groups, but there really wasn’t much to discuss. Not the day before the trip, at least. We had already decided on our rough plans for our free time, and the school had their own schedule for the rest of the time, so this was just our last check, so to speak. Our groups for our free time were made up of six people. Usually, you’d have three boys and three girls.

“So… Our general highlights are the Mandai Zoo and the night safari on the second day. On the third day, as long as we don’t stray from Sentosa Island, we’ll probably be given a lot of freedom. We can buy souvenirs and just enjoy the scenery.”

“Nice work, Leader Maru! I’m glad our group’s plan is so relaxed.”

“I gathered all of you like this because I knew you’d say that,” Group leader Maru grinned, earning him a round of applause from the other group members.

I preferred a more chill schedule like that, so I didn’t mind. I can’t say I’m too good at forming a concrete schedule and keeping it tight and on time.

“Is there anything else we have to check?”

“Oh, right. Make sure you set up your phones correctly. You really don’t want to rack up a crazy bill because of this. Other than that, make sure to keep in contact and be on time when we have to gather up.”

Once more, all group members, including me, nodded. With that done, our group meeting ended, and we simply waited until the final bell rang. Other than the people on cleaning duty, the rest of us were now free to go, so I grabbed my bag and made my way to the front entrance. Granted, I didn’t have to rush anywhere since I had taken the week off from work, but I wanted to make sure I had everything packed for tomorrow. When I stepeed out into the hallway, I realized that nobody was there. Nobody had left their respective classrooms, and yet I could hear their voices reaching me. I imagined they were still discussing things for the field trip. I could feel how excited everyone was. Which is fine, of course, but I was worried they’d all end up exhausted before the real trip even began.

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Upon arriving home, I took out everything I had already packed in my suitcase I bought just for this trip to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Along with the general list of items we needed, Maru had also shared a personal list he made for our group. With my phone in one hand, I went through everything on the general list, as well as the documents Maru made as I packed them into my suitcase. Usually, Maru’s pretty relaxed, but the checklist had all of the important things on it. Especially cash, passport, and phone were highlighted as very important items.

If it’s just a sightseeing trip, you don’t need a visa to enter Singapore. All you need is a passport. However, that won’t count if the passport’s about to expire. You need to have at least half a year of leeway for it to be valid. Our homeroom teacher warned us about that a while back, with a lot of folks nodding along, so I’m guessing they regularly travel overseas.

And surprisingly, there were a lot of them. This is my first trip overseas, as well as my first time flying on a plane, so I’m simply riddled with fear and terror or what would happen if we crashed. And the fact that I’m far more inexperienced than the people around me only adds to my feeling of restlessness. Since I was getting close to breaking point, I once again remembered Maru’s words earlier.

‘You’ve just gotta get rid of your fears by imagining how fun it’ll be once we land.’

I grabbed my phone and searched for some more information about Singapore, just so that I had something to look forward to. Since I’d finished packing all my luggage, this was about all I could think of to relax until we actually take off. After that, I was reading some of the digital book releases I had bought when I heard Ayase-san calling my name. When I checked the time on my phone, I realized it was probably about dinnertime. I responded through the door and left my room. Looking inside the room, I saw Ayase-san placing the food on the dining table.

“Sorry. I was so engrossed in my book that I didn’t realize what time it was.” I hurriedly sat down on my chair as a bowl of steaming hot rice was placed in front of me.

“Let’s eat!” Ayase-san said in English with a teasing smile.

I was a bit bewildered, but since that line was fairly simple, I had no problem understanding what she meant.

“Um…” I asked with hesitation. “Let’s eat?”

Ayase-san smiled once again. It seems like I nailed the translation. Granted, we say itadakimasu when starting our meal and gochisousama when we’re done, but these two generally don’t have a direct equivalent when it comes to English, so Let’s eat is probably the closest thing. Satisfied with my response, Ayase-san switched to regular Japanese.

“I’ve been working hard on my listening and hearing this past month, so I felt the urge to test myself.”

“Um…?”

“How about we try to talk only in English for a while?”

Ah, that’s what this is about.

“I’m not too sure if I can pull that off…”

“Let’s try!”

Hm… Well, it might be a bit embarrassing, but only Ayase-san and I are here right now.

“G-Got it… Wait, no. OK,” I nodded. In response, Ayase-san smiled again and then suddenly switched to English.

“Are you ready for your school trip?”

I was hesitant for a moment, but I was able to analyze each word in my head and grasp the meaning. Following that, I responded.

“Of course, I am ready.”

“Where are you going in your free-activity time with your friends?”

“Ah… We are going to Singapore Zoo in Mandai on the second day and Sentosa Island on the third day.”

I somehow managed to respond, but I heavily relied on easy vocabulary, probably butchering the grammar as I did so. Since Ayase-san was speaking slowly, I could figure out what she was saying, but when it was my turn to talk, I couldn’t speak as calmly and naturally as she did. And while saying it out loud, I realized that I only remembered the local names and places with my Japanese accent. I wonder how it’d sound locally? If I said it as I would to my friends here, would they understand Mandai or Sentosa? I might have to adjust that if I end up taking a taxi somewhere, for example.

We continued to discuss our field trip for a while longer when Ayase-san changed the topic to the food in front of us. I tried my hardest to keep up with her, frantically translating the words she said into Japanese inside my head, finding the English equivalent when speaking.

“Is dinner good?”

“So good! Especially this… uh… AJI-OPEN is excellent!”

The moment I finished my sentence, Ayase-san burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry… But translating aji no hiraki to AJI-OPEN is hilarious.”

“I mean, I didn’t know how to phrase it on the spot.”

“Aji here is horse mackerel,” Ayase-san explained with beautiful pronunciation.

“Horse mackerel? Like, a horse carriage horse? H-O-R-S-E?”

“Exactly. That’s how you spell it. And the mackerel part is the fish mackerel.”

“How confusing.”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure foreigners would be even more confused to see the kanji 鯖 for mackerel and 鯵 for horse mackerel. We’re more used to it with the kanji, after all.”

“That’s true… If I called it a horse-ish mackerel, would English speakers think of horse mackerel?”

I mean, what even is horse-ish mackerel in the first place?

“There’s a lot of possibilities. At least according to what I looked up, you can add the horse to the beginning which then creates the -ish automatically, or it can also mean that the origin of the word is Dutch, but I don’t know which is which.”

“So there’s no guarantee that calling it mackerel from the horse will get across, either.”

Words sure are complicated… But there’s also some fun in that.

“And continuing from there, aji no hiraki would be horse mackerel, cut open and dried.”

“Cut open? Like, sliced open, huh? And then dried.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m surprised you knew that.”

“Actually, I was looking it up just now while making the miso soup,” she grinned like a little child, showing how resourceful she could be. “Either way, I wanted to learn some more vocabulary related to food and cooking. Especially when it comes to ingredients or when you’re out shopping. It’ll be useful if I end up cooking outside of Japan.”

Even so, I don’t think you’d look up the origin of a word just for that. I can’t tell if she’s too diligent for her own good or just thirsty for knowledge.

“Are you thinking of studying overseas?”

“If it becomes necessary. Right now, I have no such plans.”

Since we returned to Japanese, we just continued like that. Of course, that makes it a lot easier for me.

“Your English pronunciation sounds so clean, Ayase-san.”

“Really?”

“I still think I just sound like a Japanese person speaking English, so I’m not sure if the locals will even understand me.”

And she had a much easier time responding to what I said. Oh man, now I’m even more worried about our trip. I told this to Ayase-san, and she had a pensive look on her face.

“Responding… Well, I’m just trying to think in English as much as possible when I listen to it. Though I don’t think you need to be so pessimistic about it.”

“Really?”

“English is used by people across the whole world, so it makes sense that accents vary. It’s definitely not on the level of something you have to worry about,” Ayase-san said and finished up the conversation by saying “I hope we manage to properly talk with the locals on our trip,” and she finished drinking the after-meal tea.

Granted, I was worried about my pronunciation, but I guess I can leave that aside for now. Just as Maru said, I’ll look forward to all the joys starting tomorrow. While we were busy cleaning up the table, my old man came home. He said he’d take his bath tomorrow morning, so he urged us to take our baths now and head to bed.

And since we had to get up at 4 am, we didn’t have enough time to take long baths either. I myself got out relatively quickly, put in new water, and finished changing. Then I knocked on Ayase-san’s room to tell her that the bath was free. Once I received a response, I returned to my room. Oh yeah, the hair conditioner my old man and I were using is almost completely empty. If I’d known that, I would have bought a new bottle while shopping for the necessities for the field trip. And since my old man’s sound asleep right about now, there was no point telling him. Akiko-san was still working, too. And I doubt I’ll have time to let her know tomorrow.

…I guess I should just write a note to them about it. I wrote a brief message on a piece of paper and placed it on the dining table. After that, I went back to my room and made a last-minute struggle to look up local names and their pronunciation, but I eventually just gave up and started reading some more of the books I owned. By the time I was done with that, it was already past 9 pm. I figured I might as well head to bed now, but then someone knocked on my door.

“Are you awake?” It was Ayase-san, whispering.

I was a bit bewildered and I wondered what she wanted as I opened the door.

“Could you come to my room?”

“Your room?” I nodded and looked around outside my room.

“Hurry.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my room.

The door to our parents’ bedroom was closed, and only a faint light illuminated the living room. We headed further than that, past the living room. Right now, my old man should be sound asleep. We had one room and two doors between us. This far away, he shouldn’t be able to hear us as long as we don’t talk too loudly. And that’s fine, but we decided to act as particularly close siblings when our parents were around… Actually, that’s not correct. We decided to act as close siblings in front of them… which is why it should be fine as long as they don’t find us.

Maru had asked me if I assumed that all couples were fine flirting around in front of others. And for us, who had confirmed our feelings for each other, even I felt like we weren’t doing too many things that lovers would do.

In the end, I was dragged inside my step-sister’s room. The light was turned on, and it was as clean as I remembered it. What first stood out to me was a red suitcase standing near the left wall, which presumably held Ayase-san’s luggage for tomorrow. Right after I entered, Ayase-san turned the key to her room horizontally and locked the door. While I was standing there confused, her arm reached for the light switch next to the door. With a clicking noise, the bright light inside the room vanished, only leaving a dimming ceiling light to illuminate the darkness. In this state where I could only barely make out her silhouette, I mentally prepared myself with my back toward the door. Shortly after, I heard a voice close enough I could pick up her faint breathing.

“Asamura-kun.”

“Yes.”

I could somewhat guess what she wanted to say. Thinking back on it, ever since we went on that first shrine visit, we hadn’t even held hands or anything of that sort. Even so, we could see each other practically daily, and there were lots of times we could eat dinner with just the two of us. However, with the upcoming field trip, as well as being in different groups, we probably won’t even get to see each other too much for the next four days… probably.

“We might not be able to see each other for the next four days, right? So, well…” She spoke hesitatantly, and the words slowly left her lips.

“Wait. Can I say what I want to say first?”

“Then let me, too.”

“Erm… How about we say it at the same time, then?”

“Okay.”

We paused for a moment and then spoke up as our voices overlapped.

“I want to kiss you.”

“I’d like to…kiss you.”

We both laughed at the same time and then whispered to each other. Saying ‘We can’t do this for a while, huh?’ and ‘That’s true’ as we moved our faces closer to each other. The scent of soap drifted up from Ayase-san’s body, tickling my nose. Inside this darkness, Ayase-san’s fingertips touched my chest. She moved close to me so that I could smell her hair a few centimeters away from me. Subconsciously, I placed my hands on her shoulders. This action was to reaffirm her existence, and at the same time, it symbolized my restraint to go any further than this.

At the same time, Ayase-san placed her hand on my shoulder, too. While only relying on her faint silhouette, I pressed my lips on hers. Once a few seconds passed. I could feel her put more strength into her hand on my shoulder as she pressed on it with her fingertips. This ended up being the signal to separate our lips. Ayase-san let out a faint breath that made my brain freeze completely. Her body moved away from my hands, and I returned to my senses.

“Good night.”

“Good night… Ayase-san.”

After returning to my room, I pressed my eyes shut inside my bed. I was worried that I might not be able to sleep after that.

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