A day off with clear winter skies. The front of Chiba Station was bustling with activity.
I imagine the city area was much worse, but this chaos was more than enough for me since I very rarely go out on the weekends.
I made a sidelong glance at the people going back and forth through the front of the station and checked the time. It was ten fifteen in the morning.
It was already past the appointed time and Isshiki was still nowhere to be seen. As much as I’d like to confirm the time with Isshiki, I didn’t have her number and was out of luck.
When you said to meet in front of Chiba Station, that should unmistakably be the east entrance, but it’s possible that it meant the west entrance instead… No, it’s probable that it could refer to the Keisei-Chiba Station as well. After all, they used to call the Keisei-Chiba Station, the National Chiba Railway Front Station—seriously… which station was it? The word front was in its name… If not that, there’s also Nishi-Chiba Station, Higashi-Chiba Station, Hon-Chiba Station, Shin-Chiba Station, Chiba-Minato Station, Chiba-Koen Station, Chiba-Chuuei Station, or perhaps, Chiba Newtown Station and the ridiculous number of lines with Chiba in their names. For Chiba beginners, this might just be a tad too difficult to process.
When someone from Chiba Prefecture or Chiba City said, “I’m going to Chiba”; make no mistake, they were saying they were going to check around the area of Chiba Station. This might not be very intuitive to people from other regions. Say, for people from Hokkaido, you’d have no idea what they were referring to when they stated, “I’m going to Hokkaido. Or for people from Tokyo, “I’m going to Tokyo” sounded as if they were going to chase their dreams and becoming something BIG.
So as I thought about how meeting at the front of the station in Chiba meant here, I stomped on the floor to divert my attention from the cold while waiting. Then, within the waves of people, I could see Isshiki.
Wearing a fur scarf, her beige coat was tightly zipped up at the front. With her boats firmly worn at her feet and a short, plaited skirt, she didn’t appear to be very cold. Her boots with slightly raised heels weakly struck the ground.
Once she noticed me, she jogged over. After wrapping her scarf around her neck again, fiddling with her bangs and letting out a small breath, she lifted her face.
“I’m sorry for making you wait. It took a while for me to get ready…”
“No, I seriously had to wait,” I said in discontent with the adding meaning, Irohasu, you’re soooo slow.
Isshiki frowned. “Um, aren’t you supposed to say you just got here…? We’re going on a date, after all.”
“…A date?”
Now that’s a word you don’t hear every day… Could this be something similar to that ritual where you had to soften up a rampaging spirit by accompanying her…?2 And then there would be a battle! Or something like that. Yeah right, like there would be any battles. Generally speaking, a date meant an outing between a boy and a girl.
But why was I suddenly going out with Isshiki, anyway…? I must’ve been wearing that doubt on my face because Isshiki placed her hands on her waist and sighed in disbelief. “I told you before, didn’t I? That you should think about a date course.”
“…Ahh.”
Speaking of which, she did say something like that last month. She was actually serious when she said that? I do recall giving her a random answer without thinking about it too much back then. Crap! I didn’t think she’d take it as a commitment on my part!
“Well, you could’ve let me know in advance if that was the case. Even I need to prepare and stuff… you know?”
For example, cram up my schedule and refuse, or push back the plan forever without making a decision, or suddenly have stomach pains on the day of, or stuff like that. Well, I get the feeling nothing would’ve changed even if she told me beforehand though. Whenever you made exciting plans well in advance and the day finally came around, you’d end up thinking, “Okay, going sounds like a total pain…” What’s with that phenomenon?
Though I tried voicing my objection, it didn’t seem to have any effect as Isshiki’s attitude didn’t budge.
“I mean, if I invited you normally senpai, there’s no way you’d come, right?”
“…That’s true.”
You’re quite something. She understood me enough that she could probably receive a third grade Hikigaya certificate.
In any case, it’s my blunder that I let her assume I had made a commitment. It’s a little too late to give any excuses and disband. Part of the reason why this situation happened was due to me not giving it any thought and giving her a half-hearted answer. It’d be simply irresponsible to just abandon the job here.
So the smart thing to do would be to quickly finish up the work and head on home.
“Alright, let’s go.” I nodded and Isshiki finally smiled. “So, where to?”
The instant I asked her, Isshiki’s smile broke. With a profound sigh, she pouted in displeasure. “So the first thing you do is rely on the girl… I was under the impression you’d think of something…”
“I only get excited about formulating intricate plans when I’m alone, but when I’m with other people, my style is to follow them from behind.”
“Just forget it… Let’s figure out where to go while we walk around instead! It’s really cold here.” Isshiki’s shoulders dropped in resignation. She promptly rewrapped her scarf around her neck to take back her composure and she started walking off with her heels tapping the floor. Yep, yep, it looks like Irohasu has finally gotten used to my pace.
By the way, just who was it again that made me wait this entire time in the freezing weather…?