Seijin: A Coming of Age Love Story [girl x girl]

Chapter 2

"It's a shame about the snow," the stylist said as she folded my furisode into a thick, neat bundle. "When I had my coming of age ceremony, we took the train all the way to Meiji Jingu Shrine. I don't remember why we went into Tokyo to visit a shrine, but I sure did feel special riding the Yamanote Line in my kimono like that!"

    I sat on a chair and watched my usual stylist, Yuko, undo my hair in the mirror. I didn't bother telling the other stylist that I was heading into central Tokyo myself; Minami Ward was across the river from Tokyo's northern wards so it wasn't really an impressive journey anymore. It wouldn't hurt anyone to let her reminisce about her youth.

    "Were you able to go visit a shrine, Juri-san?" Yuko asked as she ran through a comb through my stiff hair. I winced and placed a hand at the back of my neck.

    "No, I wasn't," I managed to say demurely through gritted teeth. "The snow's coming down too hard and my mother took my grandparents back home because of the cold."

    "Oh, that's too bad. How was the ceremony, though? Did you like it?"

    "We sang AKB48," I laughed. "You know, 'I want you...'"

    "'I love you...'" Yuko sang back.

    "Something-something.... Heavy-y Rotation," the other stylist sang from the back.

    I clapped at the end of our a cappella performance as Yuko twisted my hair up into a bun. "Are you going home now?" she asked, securing my top-knot with bobby pins.

    "No," I replied, resisting the urge to shake my head, "I'm going out with some friends tonight."

    "Drinking?" she winked.

    "Well, it is Seijin no Hi!" I laughed.

    "Shall I fix your makeup?"

    "It's okay! It's just a couple of friends, no one special."

    "Juri-san, do you really not have a boyfriend?" Yuko asked, giving me a serious expression in the mirror. "A pretty girl like you, why don't you date a little?"

    I returned her questions with a smile. She wasn't the first one to ask me that. It seemed that my grandmother asked it every time we saw each other. When I was a hard-working high school student preparing for my entrance exams, it was easy to explain, but now that I had successfully been accepted into a good school, I was running out of excuses.

    Yuko accepted my silence and gave my bun a little tug. "Hai hai, Matsuzaka-san. Otsukaresamadeshita."

    I thanked them both and plucked my umbrella from the rack next to the door. The snow was still coming down heavily even though it was well into the afternoon. Wrapping my scarf around my neck and making sure my coat was buttoned all the way to the top, I stepped out into the cold winter air.

    I lived in Saitama City and I was born in Saitama City, though at the time my parents lived in a smaller house in Sakura Ward. We only moved once, to the duplex we began to share with my father's parents after my brother passed away. I was just a year old then so all of my schooling happened within walking distance of the family home. Our neighborhood, the shopping district around the station, every cherry tree and hydrangea bush were familiar to me. This amount of snow, however, was new. I had seen a number of snowstorms in twenty years, but this was unusual. The snow piled in large clumps wherever it could reach, filling potted plants and coating parked bicycles. An elderly woman stood in the doorway of a small clinic and desperately tried to sweep the ice away, but more snow just piled on the patches of concrete. People walked cautiously down the sidewalk, like a baby animal taking its first steps after birth, their umbrellas heavy with snow. No matter how many times it snowed, people in Saitama and Tokyo were never quite prepared. It always seemed to take them by surprise.