The Case of Takafumi Yokozawa Vol. 2

Chapter 2

The moment he stepped out from the air-conditioned store, Yokozawa Takafumi’s entire body was wrapped up in sticky, heavy air. The hot days had been piling up since July had started, but today was <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">particularly nasty. Only a few days before, he’d grown unable to bear it anymore and shifted his wardrobe to short-sleeved shirts for the summer, but walking around outside for any length of time had him dripping in sweat.

His suit jacket, draped across his left arm, hadn’t touched his body once the whole day, and while he was now free from the blazing sun with evening setting in, the humidity still made it difficult to breathe.

At this rate, he was worried how August would turn out; he was already fed up with this heat that was setting temperature records left and right this year.

“Man, I need a beer!”

“Yeah, let’s hit up a beer garden!”

A group of businessmen seemingly on their way home from the office passed in front of Yokozawa, their conversation a perfect lens for his own thoughts. Swallowing the temptation, though, he instead took out his cell phone and placed a call to the office.

<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">“Yes, this is the Marukawa Shoten Sales Department.”

The perky voice of his subordinate floated over the receiver. Given the background noise, he was able to divine that most of his coworkers were still at the office. “Henmi? It’s Yokozawa.”

<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">“Ah, excellent work today!”

“I just finished up at the book store. Did anything happen while I was out?”

<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">“No, not particularly. How are things on your end?”

“Got ‘em to agree to help out with the fair. I’ll get you the details early next week. I don’t have anything else I need to get done today, so I’m gonna head straight home. Would you mind noting it on the board?” It was well past quitting time, and he didn’t have any drinking sessions scheduled with his superiors or clients.

<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">“Understood!”

“Well then, I’m off.” He cut the line with Henmi here and tugged on his tie to loosen it as he headed toward the station.

While he’d said he was <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">heading straight home—he wasn’t <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">actuallyheading to his own apartment, and as he snapped his phone shut, he suddenly remembered being told to call when he was through with work.

They were headed in the same direction, so Yokozawa didn’t really see the point, honestly, in meeting up halfway there—but it would be pathetic having to deny it when the guy inevitably teased him with a smirk, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">What, too embarrassed to head home together?, and he was left feeling undecided. With a bit of hesitation, he dialed up the number on his phone, and after a few rings, the line connected.

“Uh…it’s me.”

He always worried how best to start their phone conversations these days. Sure, he probably should’ve greeted the guy just like he would with any work-related call, but even that was still a little awkward for some reason. Naturally, he used polite speech, as expected, during meetings and the like—nothing had changed in the way they spoke to one another under such circumstances. But calling up Kirishima for a private conversation like this still left him with a sense of unease.