COTE : Three days of happyness

To My One and Only Childhood Friend

I can scarcely remember anything Kushida and I said to each other after our reunion. In fact, I can’t even remember how Kushida looked or acted. I was just so excited that I talked without thinking.

But it didn’t matter what the conversation was. For me to say something and Kushida to respond, that was all I needed.
It didn’t seem she had come to see the festival. She was here for work-related reasons, and her car happened to stall near the shrine, so she ended up passing through.

She dodged the question of what kind of work she did. All Kushida would tell me is that it was a “person-to-person” kind of job.
“I’d love to talk a little longer, but I have to get up early,” she said, itching to leave, so I invited her to go out drinking or whatnot sometime soon.

Alcohol’s no good, but sure, we can have a meal, Kushida agreed.

Promising to meet for dinner two days later, we parted.
I was so brimming with joy as to forget about Horikita for a while.

“Well, that was nice,” Horikita said. “I didn’t expect that to happen myself.”
“Me neither. Really seems too good to be true.”

“Yes. …I suppose sometimes it is true.”
I would be meeting Horikita again in two days. I needed to consider that the main event, so to speak.

I needed to make some preparations before that.
Back at the apartment, I crossed out the Kushida line on my Things to Do Before I Die, and once I was ready to go to bed, I told Horikita.

“I’ve got kind of a strange request for you.”

“I don’t drink.”

“It’s not that. It’s about tomorrow. I want to be extra sure about meeting Kushida. Luckily, I’ve got two days, so I can use all tomorrow to prepare. And I want you to help prepare me.”
“Prepare you?”

“I know it’d be pointless to keep anything hidden from you, so I’m gonna be honest. In twenty years, I’ve never really interacted with a girl, ever. So if I just went into this Kushida thing, I know I’d probably bore her and mess up a lot. To hopefully cut down on that, I want to go to town tomorrow and rehearse.”
Horikita’s face was stuck with a blank look for a few seconds.

“If I’m not mistaken… You want me to play the part of Ms. Kushida?”
“That’s right. Will you take it?”
“…Well, I don’t much mind, but I imagine there would be numerous problems…”

“Oh, you mean how I’m the only one who can see you?”

“Yes, that,” Horikita confirmed.

“That’s no problem. Why should I care what people think of me? I’m using up all my embarrassment on what Kushida thinks of me anyway. Even if everybody else ridicules me, as long as Kushida likes me just a little, I’m satisfied with that.”
Horikita looked stunned. “You change in a blink when it comes to Ms. Kushida, don’t you. …But there’s another problem. As you should be aware, I know very little about how women in my generation think. As such, I do not believe you can count on me to be a decent substitute. What may be pleasing to Ms. Kushida could be displeasing to me, what is boring to Ms. Kushida could be exciting to me, what is rude to Ms. Kushida could be polite to me - there could be many such discrepancies. Thus, looking at a sample of women around the age of 20…”
“You get humble in a blink when it comes to yourself, don’t you,” I interrupted. “It’s no problem. Far as I can see, you’re not that different from any other girls out there. Except for the part where you’re a little cuter.”

“…Well, if it’s no problem to you, then very well,” Horikita nervously replied.

The next morning, I made a reservation at a salon and went into town to buy clothes and shoes. I couldn’t go meeting Kushida wearing my worn blue jeans and stained sneakers.