“Take your time. You must be tired from yesterday’s journey, and it’s only your first day.”
Chie excused herself and went to the bathroom. She caught her reflection in the mirror. Her long permed hair was a mess, all clumped together. How could she not have noticed yesterday? She laughed. Look at what you’ve become after a single day of hiking.
Except it hadn’t been just a hike, more like a pilgrimage.
She took her clothes off and turned the tap on. Cold mountain water poured out. Chie closed her eyes and thought of Miwako Sumida. They had been so young and carefree, lying atop that water tank and staring at clouds. Those days felt so far away now, almost like she’d imagined them.
Chie reached for the soap and worked it into a lather.
If, at some point back then, she’d told Miwako that she knew about her identity as MK, would it have changed anything? Miwako would probably have been embarrassed that her cover was blown, and that Chie knew she was writing such strange stories.
No, Miwako wouldn’t have reacted that way. She would have turned red. Not out of embarrassment, but anger. She would have seen it as an intrusion into her personal life, and wondered if that was why she and Chie had become friends. Yes, that was more like it. But after her anger subsided, would they still have been all right? If so, would she have opened up and told Chie what had happened to her before it was too late?
Chie had promised herself she wouldn’t cry after the funeral, but that morning, she couldn’t help it. She let the bathwater wash away her tears. She knew she shouldn’t take too long. Ryusei and Miss Sugi were waiting for her. But she didn’t want them to see her like this.
Miwako, how could you leave me without a word?
Miss Sugi, Ryusei, and Chie had breakfast together in an open kitchen overlooking the mountain. Miss Sugi had prepared a meal of steamed rice with grilled ayu fish, miso soup, rolled omelet, and sliced pickles. Despite their simplicity, each of the dishes was fresh and flavorful. The rice was especially light and fluffy. It tasted so good you could eat it on its own.
After they finished eating, Ryusei asked Miss Sugi if she could guide them to the spot in the forest where Miwako had last been so they could leave flowers for her.
“Are you sure you want to do that? It can be very difficult emotionally,” Miss Sugi said while collecting the dirty dishes.
“Please don’t worry about that,” Chie said, helping Miss Sugi with the dishes. “We came here precisely for this.”
“All right.”
Ryusei bowed his head. “I’m sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Miss Sugi said. “But unlike Tokyo, we’ve got no flower shop here. You’ll have to gather flowers from the field yourselves.”
“I’m sure we can manage.”
The three of them left the clinic shortly afterward.
In the morning, the village felt completely different. Without the fog, the place wasn’t so otherworldly. Chie spotted about twenty to thirty houses scattered loosely over the settlement. Some had animal pens, filled mostly with goats and chickens.
On the way to the forest, the three of them passed two women carrying baskets full of clothes on their backs. The groups bowed at each other.
“In the past few years, our number of residents has decreased,” Miss Sugi said. “Some of the younger generation have moved to the city.” Despite her traditional wooden sandals, she didn’t have any difficulty leading them into the forest. Perhaps she went there frequently.
“Where are you from, Miss Sugi?” Chie asked. “You’re not a local, are you?”
“I grew up in Osaka,” she said.
“I wouldn’t have guessed. You don’t speak with the Kansai dialect.”
She gave a slight smile. “That’s because my family moved to Tokyo after my father’s job relocation. He was also a doctor.”
“Then what brings you here?”
“I like to think it’s fate,” Miss Sugi answered. She gestured to the field in front of them. “Usually there are lilies and irises there, but because it’s already autumn, all that’s left are wild roses.” She pointed to the border of the open clearing, where large bramble bushes grew in a partially shaded area. “Take your pick.”
Swathes of white and pink were streaked across the large shrubs. The flowers had bloomed beautifully in the cool weather. Chie walked up to them in awe. She had never seen roses so huge. She took a few steps into the field and crouched down in front of a white rose bush. Ryusei stood behind her.
She turned to him and asked, “Can you believe such beautiful things grow on their own in the wild?”
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled, not paying attention. “Do you want the white ones?”
She nodded.
He went to pluck some.
“Be careful with the thorns,” Miss Sugi said.
Too late. Ryusei had already pricked his finger.
“Are you all right?” Chie asked, taking the roses from his hands. “Let me do it.”
“I’m fine.” He sucked his thumb. Standing, he turned to Miss Sugi. “I think we’ve got enough.”
“The site isn’t far from here,” the older woman said.
Ryusei and Chie followed Miss Sugi to another pathway that led them back into the forest. It was a continuation of the route they had used to come from the village. Along this path, the trees were ancient, their foliage lush. Huge roots covered with tiny mushrooms twisted and overlapped each other. Twigs were scattered on the floor of the forest, snapping and crunching under their feet.
“Were we somewhere around here yesterday?” Chie glanced at Ryusei.
“It’s possible,” Miss Sugi said. “After all, this forest covers a large portion of the mountain.”
“It’s so quiet. Do people come here often?”
“Sometimes, to chop wood, but not at this time of year.” Miss Sugi touched one of the trunks. “It’s too damp. You can feel it. We can’t make fire with this.”
“Are there any animals here? Apart from the usual insects and night critters,” Ryusei asked, probably thinking about the cat he’d claimed to have heard.
“The villagers believe foxes used to roam the forest, but if you ask me, I think it’s just a myth.”
“What’s the shrine for?” Chie asked. “Do people still use it?”
“It’s for the goddess of the earth, but the public isn’t allowed to enter. The place has become pretty rundown since the last miko unexpectedly passed away. It happened a long time ago, even before I arrived here. But the villagers still can’t think of anyone to replace her.”
“Was she ill?”
“No, she fell and broke her leg in the forest. Nobody realized she was missing until a few days later. She pretty much lived on her own. By the time the villagers found her, she was already dead. It was during the winter, so the cause was either thirst or hypothermia.”
“That’s so sad.”
“Indeed. Poor girl. I heard she was still rather young.” Miss Sugi stopped abruptly and took a deep breath. “We’re here. This is where Miwako met her end.”
Chie’s chest tightened as she stared at the tree in front of her. The trunk was wide and had patches of moss near its base. White fabric was tied on to one of its lower branches.
Her throat went dry. “How did Miwako get up there? It’s so tall.”
“She brought a ladder,” Miss Sugi said. “The villagers took it away when they retrieved her body, but they left the fabric there to mark the tree.”
Chie knelt and put the white roses down, leaning them against the tree trunk. Clasping her hands together, she said a silent prayer.
Miwako, may you find peace, wherever you are.
Standing, she turned to Ryusei. He was still staring up at the fabric, dumbstruck.
“Ryusei,” she called, but he didn’t budge.
“Ryusei,” she repeated, louder this time.
Still staring at the tree, he said, “I’m sorry, but can you go back without me? I want to spend some time alone here.”
“No,” Chie said. “What if you get lost, like we did yesterday?”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to follow the pathway back, right?”
“I’m not leaving you here,” she insisted.
“I said I’ll be fine,” he said, sighing.
Chie hesitated, but Miss Sugi pulled her away. “We’ll wait at the flower field.”
Ryusei finally turned to them. “Thank you, and sorry to trouble you.”
Miss Sugi and Chie returned to the path and traced their way back. When they were far enough from Ryusei, Miss Sugi asked, “He’s the one Miwako liked, isn’t he?”
“Did she say that?” Chie asked.
“She said that back in Tokyo, there was someone she liked.”
Chie paused for a moment. “I guess it could have been him.”
Miwako and Chie had good enough high school examination results that they could have gone to any university they wanted, but in the end, they chose Waseda. Chie couldn’t remember if she or Miwako had suggested it. What she did remember was that the decision wasn’t hard. One of them had brought it up, and the other simply agreed.
“It’s a prestigious school. My parents would definitely approve,” Chie remembered saying during one of their cloud-gazing sessions. “But isn’t it pretty far from your house?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking of living on my own,” Miwako said.
Chie’s eyes widened. “Woah, what’s this? An act of rebellion?”
Miwako laughed. “Possibly, but I’d need to find a part-time job to cover my rent.”
“Then let’s find a job together before the new term starts.”
The two of them found temporary work in a dessert café in Oshiage. By coincidence, a part-timer who had already been working there for quite some time was the same age as them and also heading to Waseda.
“I’m Sachiko,” she said, boldly introducing herself by her first name. Petite with cropped hair, the girl had a cheerful disposition.
The addition of Sachiko Hayami to Miwako and Chie’s friendship felt completely natural. The three of them worked the same shift. During their breaks, they talked about “girl stuff”—Sachiko’s words—like the new dessert shop on the next block or the latest limited-edition accessories. Before long, they spent their days off together too.
Chie had thought she would find a third person intrusive, but she didn’t. Sachiko was naturally sweet and easy to get along with. She was the kind of girl who would pick up a pen from the floor and put it on the table so no one would step on it. She was also clearly popular. Barely a week into their first term at Waseda, a few upperclassmen had come up to her and asked her out. But she turned them all down.
“You don’t like him?” Chie asked after a particularly good-looking upperclassman walked away, looking dejected.
“That’s not it,” Sachiko said. “I don’t really know anything about him. We’ve never spoken to each other before, so how can I like or dislike him?”
“So why did you turn him down? He has a pretty face.”
“If I dated him, I’d need to spend time with him, wouldn’t I? And I couldn’t hang out with you and Miwako.”
Chie laughed. “Come on, what kind of reasoning is that?”
Next to them, Miwako kept silent. Her eyes were glued to the romance novel in her hands.
“But it’s true,” Sachiko said. “I dated a classmate in high school, one I actually liked, and we were always together. It wasn’t long before the girls in my class stopped invited me to their gatherings. I felt left out.”
Chie understood what Sachiko meant, but she still thought her reasoning was strange. High school romance should triumph over hanging out with girlfriends. “You had your boyfriend to spend time with.”
“Precisely. I told myself it was fine since I had him. But in the end, he went off to college somewhere abroad. He didn’t even tell me about it until graduation day.”
“How could he do that?”
She crossed her arms. “He wanted us to only have good memories together. Awful, isn’t it? He was just using me as someone to spend time with in high school.”
“But what about you?” Miwako asked after being quiet all this time. “Weren’t you happy during those times too?”
“Of course those were happy years, but still.” Sachiko shook her head. “Anyway, I have an idea. We can find three guys who are good friends, and then the three of us can date the three of them. That way, we can be together forever.”
“Count me out,” Miwako said. “I’m not dating anyone.”
Sachiko pouted. “Come on, don’t be like that.”
“Have you considered what would happen if one of us broke up with their boyfriend? Would the other two also have to break up?”
“Ah, that’s true,” Sachiko muttered.
“Anyway, it wouldn’t be easy to find three guys who are friends and like the three of us,” Chie said, laughing. “I think we can forget it.”
In a strange turn of events, Toshi, one of the upperclassmen who had already been turned down by Sachiko, asked her out again. This time, she told him her real reason for declining was that she hadn’t wished to be distanced from Miwako and Chie.
“That’s easy,” Toshi said. “I’ve got two good friends who aren’t seeing anyone. Why don’t we set up an informal get-together? And we’ll take it from there.”
When Sachiko passed on the message, Chie thought it would be a disaster. The two guys were probably being dragged along by Toshi and wouldn’t be interested in her or Miwako. Once they arrived, that seemed like the case, especially since one of them—the tall, good-looking guy, Ryusei Yanagi—was quiet the entire time.
What Chie hadn’t expected was for Ryusei to leave the goukon with Miwako. Another thing she never would have foreseen was that she would end up dating Toshi herself, since he’d been after Sachiko, or that the third guy, Jin, would get together with Sachiko instead. So the three girls had ended up with their three dates.
It wasn’t exactly true, of course, since Ryusei had never technically dated Miwako. She always turned him down flat, despite him relentlessly chasing after her.
And Miwako had known Ryusei’s feelings and his sincerity. He, on the other hand, had no idea that Miwako had had feelings for him too. But Chie noticed Miwako behaved slightly differently when Ryusei was around. Just slightly, but it was still obvious to her. Miwako would look down at her book a little too much, tilt her head a little too obviously, fiddle with her watch a little too often. Whenever the other girls—apart from Sachiko and Chie—talked to Ryusei, Miwako would avert her eyes. Or was that just Chie’s imagination? But other girls seemed to share the same thought.
Sometime last year, a group of girls had stopped Miwako and Chie in a quiet hallway while they were walking to class.
“We need to talk to her,” one of them told Chie, glancing at Miwako. “Can you leave us alone?”
Chie sensed hostility in her tone. “What business do you have with my friend that I can’t hear?”
“Don’t be annoying,” a tall girl with a ponytail said.
Another girl whispered, “Careful, she’s Toshi’s girlfriend.”
Chie knew Toshi was well-liked, but she hadn’t realized other girls were this afraid to upset him.
“We just need to ask her something,” the first girl said, flashing a smile. “All in good fun.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem for me to stay.”
The ponytail girl clicked her tongue but said nothing. Chie turned to Miwako, who seemed unaffected.
“What do you want to know?” Miwako asked.
The first girl crossed her arms. “What�
�s your relationship with Ryusei? Are you seeing each other?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because Ryusei and I get along well, but some people think he’s going out with you. I know it’s just a rumor, but I would hate for people to say I was going around snatching other girls’ boyfriends.”
Miwako didn’t answer.
“Come on, it’s a yes or no question,” the girl continued.
Yet Miwako remained silent.
“Hey.” The ponytail girl grabbed Miwako’s hand. “You should answer when someone asks you a question. It’s only polite.”
“Stop it,” Chie said. “It’s you who are—”
Before she could finish her sentence, someone came from behind and grabbed the ponytail girl’s hand. “It’s only polite not to touch others without their consent.”
Chie didn’t need to turn around to see who it was.
“If you have something to ask about me, you should come directly to me,” Ryusei said. “Don’t go harassing Miwako.”
The first girl’s face immediately turned red. She stormed off, and the rest of her group followed.
“Are you all right?” Ryusei asked Miwako.
“What was that?” She looked away. “I appreciate your help, but I’m capable of handling my own problems. I don’t need you to save me.”
Ryusei smiled. “I knew you would say that. You’re so predictable.”
“Something wrong with that?”
“No, nothing,” he said, still smiling. “Just too predictable.”
Miwako grabbed Chie’s hand and they walked off, leaving Ryusei alone.
“You’re hurting my wrist,” Chie said when they were far enough from Ryusei.
Miwako let go of her hand. “I’m sorry.”
“You know, maybe you should be more honest.”
“About what?”
Chie took a deep breath. “You like him, don’t you?”
Miwako put on a puzzled expression. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb. We’ve been friends for so long. I know you well enough to see that you like him.”
Miwako crossed her arms.
The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida Page 13