CH 13

Chapter 13:

After tossing out the water from the bucket, they gathered up the fireworks debris, the candles, and all the rest of the trash and stashed it in the trunk of the rental car. Osakabe checked the clock. It was already after 8 pm.

The spot along the river where they had lit up fireworks was more than thirty kilometers away from Miyako Station. Osakabe judged it would be impossible to return the rental car by the end of the night no matter how quickly they drove.

While rubbing his heavy eyelids, he climbed into the driver’s seat. After starting the car, he let out a yawn, made even larger by his attempts to suppress it. Honoka stretched out as well in the passenger seat, before reclining it back and hanging her head for a nap.

Honoka hummed a song—a favorite of hers, perhaps?—and the sound of her voice was accompanied by the noise of the wind echoing outside the car. It was a pleasant sound, just like a lullaby. It was a shame to interrupt her, but nervously Osakabe opened his mouth to speak.

“Sorry to keep you out so late.”

“No worries,” she said in a soft voice, ending her song. “I know I asked earlier, but it’s fine if we return the car tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, should be.”

“Then… just an idea, but why don’t we find a place to spend the night somewhere around here?”

Spend the night? He could hardly believe his ears. He had never expected to hear those words from such a young girl—a girl he’d only met a few days earlier.1

Perhaps he was overthinking it. But if a girl said something like “I’ve gotten a little sleepy,” it could be understood as the girl really meaning, “I don’t want to leave yet.”

“No, that wouldn’t be right. After all, you’re still underage.”

He spoke just now to distance himself from the possibility that had just come to mind. However, Honoka did not refute what he said, and continued to sit in silence.

It almost makes it more awkward to stay silent after that, Osakabe thought, when Honoka let out a sigh.

“You’re overthinking things. I don’t mean it like that,” she grumbled. “If you were to drive right now while completely exhausted, you might start nodding off, and honestly I’m at my limit too. I miss my bed! So I’m literally just saying we should find a hotel where we can stay the night before going back.”

He was embarrassed for reading too much into her words and getting worked up on his own. She’s right, he thought, agreeing with her.

“I suppose… I can’t say I’m not feeling it either. And it wouldn’t be so funny if we got into an accident like this.”

“Right?” She nodded. “I don’t care where we stay. We could save some money by sharing a room. I don’t even care if it’s a love hotel.2 Nineteen-year-olds can legally get married, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“No, there’d definitely be a problem.”

He gave a wry smile at the increasingly inappropriate things coming out of this nineteen-year-old girl’s mouth, and began searching for a business hotel in the surrounding area. However, this far out from the city center, they drove all across the suburbs and he could not find a single decent building.

In the end—their rental car pulled into a love hotel.

Parking in an open space, he frowned as he got out of the car. “What am I doing…”

After checking in at the front desk, they chose the most basic room option and got the key, then rode the elevator up. The room itself was so luxurious it was impossible to compare it to any business hotel.

A plush carpet, a large double bed. A high-quality sofa, and a decent, round table furnished the room. It was more than enough for just a one-night stay.

This might have been the first time Honoka had stepped into a love hotel, judging by the way her eyes brightened as she looked around the room. At last she fell back onto the giant bed.

“No way! This bed is so fluffy! The bed, the rug—everything’s red. The lighting is dimmed just right so it feels exotic… It just screams sex.”

“It is a love hotel after all. You can get excited but, you know… what would you do in the unlikely event I were to try something?”

“Like what?” she asked with a straight face.

“Anything, just as an example.” Osakabe scratched his neck in indignation.

“In that case…” She sat up on the bed, and looking pleased with herself, said, “I’d put up a token resistance then give up right away.”

“What’s the point of resisting if you plan to give up from the start?”

He sighed and pulled up a chair. “You can go ahead and shower,” he told her. Honoka obediently complied, and brought the robe provided as an amenity into the bathroom as a change of clothes.

He heard the door close to the changing area, and before long the patter of water droplets echoed, emphasizing the wall that finally separated them. Just the thought of her, in the bathroom several meters away, completely naked, was enough to work him up. Reluctantly, he gave into the urge to light one of the cigarettes he rarely smoked.

He only started smoking because of his last girlfriend—the thought brought back memories of the woman in Saitama.

And then—

What the hell am I doing? he wondered to himself yet again. Of course this wasn’t his first time entering a love hotel with a girl. With his last girlfriend, they had slept together in such places countless times.

Yet, that was a completely different situation to the one he found himself in now. He grew agitated all over again at the reality of being locked up in the same room with a nineteen-year-old girl he wasn’t exactly dating.

“That felt good…! Your turn.”

Honoka left the bathroom with an expression of rapture. Her wet hair stuck to the nape of her neck, peeking out from the collar of her gown—it was captivating in a way he couldn’t describe. Taking care to avert his gaze as much as possible, he headed into the shower.

He soaked his burning face in lukewarm water. He closed his eyes and massaged his eyelids. He hoped showering like this would somewhat calm the feelings that had been stirred up, but it didn’t seem to work in the slightest.

Turning off the faucet, he wiped down his head and body. Even after he changed into the robe and left the bathroom, his thoughts were lost as usual in a fog of hazy feelings that refused to settle down.

At that moment, Honoka was sitting on the bed, watching TV.

Osakabe settled himself on the bed, on the side farthest from her.

On the television was a soccer match. One of the teams must have had a foul, because the other was lining up for a free kick. A wall of people lined up in front of the ball, and it soared over their heads, but as it neared the goal, the goalkeeper regrettably blocked it with a punch.

Without any conversation between them, the room sank into silence. While only the voices of the live coverage rang out from the television, Honoka was the first to speak up.

“How do you think people first begin to like the teams they become fans of?”

I don’t really care about sports, Osakabe thought, but he answered.

“Well I guess there’s a lot of reasons. Because that team is from their hometown, or their favorite player belongs to that team, or maybe they just like the colors of their uniforms. Maybe they’re influenced from seeing them all the time on television?”

“I see. I guess it’s kind of similar to love,” she said with a meaningful smile. “Because you go to the same school. Or because he’s the guy your friends also like. Or because he’s popular. Or because he’s someone you see every day on your way to school—”

Honoka counted off all the different reasons on her fingers with an absent-minded tone but serious gaze. As he watched her, he remembered the question he had almost forgotten.

“That reminds me, Honoka-chan, you said you had a crush on someone. Is he someone who goes to the same school as you?”

It had been pure vanity to jump to those conclusions when she had suggested they find a hotel. After all, she had already told him there was someone she liked.

At that remark, Osakabe had felt quite jealous. It was likely for that reason he asked her that now, even though he didn’t really want to know, even though he was afraid of getting hurt.

“Hmm… You want to know? But then again, it’s so embarrassing. I can’t tell you.”

She only gave that vague answer, with a finger to her smiling lips. Relieved that a clear answer was not forthcoming, Osakabe laughed at himself.

“You know, I go to a junior college in Saitama City.”

“Saitama… Really. That’s where I’m from. It’s possible we could have crossed paths or met up somewhere.”

“We did.”

“…huh?”

The idiotic response slipped from his lips at the unexpected answer.

“We met pretty often, actually. So I was a little shocked that you didn’t recognize me at all.”

“Sorry, I have no memory of that. Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes, we met on the bus. And you, Osakabe-san, were the bus driver, right?”

“You …knew?” He clenched his fist. “No, actually, it’d be strange if you didn’t know… Then you knew this whole time, about the bus accident, the news stories every night blasting my name, the trial that found me guilty—you knew it all, didn’t you?!”

As he kept ranting on and on, Osakabe began to regret it.

The whole time, Honoka hung her head, but at the end she raised it again and nodded. Her eyes—were they reflecting the light in the room? They seemed to be wet with tears.

“Of course. I knew.”

As he expected all along. All those negative emotions that had been settling in the depths of his heart gradually rose up.

“Then why?”

Osakabe already knew the answer. After all these times he had encountered her, he had a sense of who she was as a person. That she had continuously supported him, that she did not hold a single shred of malice or selfishness.

And yet, as he thought back on how her face had feigned ignorance, how she had never let slip that she had known all along, he couldn’t hold back the surge of feelings. The explosive feelings of a child who, blamed for some wrong, was lashing back.

“You’re saying you knew everything, and yet you still tried to get close to me!”

In the next instant, Osakabe thrust Honoka away. She fell off the bed and crouched beside it, gingerly massaging her hip where she had hit the floor.

“Honoka-chan…”

He had screwed up.

His family. His relatives. The mass media coverage, causing such a ruckus.

The memories of all those negative words tossed at him from all different directions had spiraled in his heart like a dark shadow, and he had lost control of the explosive feelings.

He immediately reached out his hand to help, but he bit his lip and hung his head, stabbed by the pangs of his conscience.

Honoka says, 休んでいきませんか？ , literally “Shall we go rest somewhere?” This is a somewhat cliche pick-up line guys often use on girls to suggest sleeping together. It’s just vague enough that it could have be an innocent suggestion, but along the lines of “Do you want to come up for a cup of coffee?” or “Let’s Netflix and chill,” where there’s a pretty clear implication of what the speaker is actually hoping will happen.

Hotels that charge by the hour rather than by the night, typically used for exactly the purpose you’d guess from the name, though some people do use them for just ordinary lodging while traveling, either for price or availability reasons. Depending on the price range, the interiors can also be pretty kitschy and/or glitzy.