Episode 20: A Memento of Our First Date
The discount store in the shopping mall was famous for its unique theme song and penguin mascot.
To put it kindly, it was diverse, multinational, and multicultural. To put it harshly, it was a chaotic and unsettling no-man’s-land of products.
It wasn’t the most romantic place for a date, but just aimlessly wandering around the store was enough for Kamijou Yuuto and Ichinose Ayano to consider their earlier squabble as “trivial.” They were having fun.
In the plushie corner, Ayano was frolicking with Yuuto in tow.
“Look at this, isn’t it cute?”
Yuuto grimaced at what she was holding up like she was giving a child a “high-high.”
Roughly speaking, it was a “cat plushie.”
However, it wasn’t a realistic, animal-like one, nor was it completely fancy.
It was a subtly surreal piece: a human-shaped plushie like a five or six-year-old child, with an anime-style, deformed cat head that was both cute and eerie.
But if his beloved Ayano liked it, he couldn’t dismiss it outright.
“Ah, yeah… well, it’s a unique kitty-man.”
He grimaced as he looked at the price tag.
–6980 yen (excluding tax)
“Y-You really want this?”
Ayano gave her boyfriend, who was wearing a dry smile, a wry look.
“Even if you said you’d buy me anything, I’d be troubled with something this big. If it were a little smaller and cheaper, I’d buy it right away.”
“Right away?” Yuuto’s eyes widened as Ayano put the extra-large plushie back on the shelf and looked around.
“Ah, this one looks good.”
She reached for a “500-milliliter” sized black cat plushie sitting down.
Ayano hugged it like a real cat.
“You’ve… become a cat person, huh?”
“Huh?”
She looked up at Yuuto’s muttered words.
He looked a little awkward.
“Well, the smartphone case Ayano uses is also cat-themed, right? I didn’t think you were that into them before… or at least, I thought so.”
“Ah… yeah, that’s right. I might have become a cat person recently. Cats are actually quite kind, you know?”
Ayano stroked the head of the black cat in her arms, looking somewhere far away.
“I thought cats had a fickle image. I guess that’s what’s good about them, though.”
“There are kind ones who comfort you, too, you know?”
Ayano smiled softly.
“When I was in middle school, I used to go to the nearby park where I often played when I was feeling lonely. I was just sitting on a bench, spacing out, when a black cat came up to me. Even though I didn’t have anything to feed it, it rubbed against my legs, and it was so cute.”
She looked somewhat lonely.
“After that, whenever I felt sad or needed courage, I would go to the park and look for that cat. Just petting it made me feel better, and hearing it meow gave me courage. Well, it was a stray cat, and it didn’t seem to live in the park, so it wasn’t always there…”
She looked at Yuuto and gave a wry smile.
“It just so happened that on the morning of the day you confessed to me, I met that cat in front of the park for the first time in a while. I thought something good was going to happen…”
Her cheeks were slightly red.
“The reason I was able to respond to your summons might be because I got courage from that cat.”
Still embarrassed, she smiled softly.
“…I see. Then, I have to thank that cat.”
“Huh?”
Yuuto chuckled at the dazed Ayano.
“Because it’s been cheering you up all this time, right? And it pushed you on that day too. Thanks to that, I was able to convey my feelings, and now we’re together. That black cat is a benefactor to me too.”
“That’s right… maybe so.”
Ayano giggled, and Yuuto stroked the head of the black cat in her arms.
◇
“…Ugh–my face is so red.”
Ichinose Ayano sighed as she looked at her face in the mirror of the women’s restroom in a certain discount store.
But she thought it couldn’t be helped.
Yuuto was going to buy her the black cat plushie, and while waiting in line at the register, she had come to pick some flowers, but as she took a breather, the reality sank in.
–I’m on a date with the person I love right now.
It was different from when they were kids, “holding hands with a small allowance, buying sweets at the nearby supermarket, and eating them in the park.” –Well, that was a good memory in its own way, though–.
Even though they were students, they were lovers who were aware of each other as the opposite sex.
The situation she had longed for during the three years of middle school was like a dream, but,
“But it’s not a dream!”
A sloppy smile leaked out, but she tightened her expression as she looked at herself in the mirror.
Around that time, another customer came in, so Ayano quickly jumped out of the restroom.
She sighed and weaved through the crowd, re-entering the store to return to him.
…And then,
“–Oh?”
She had ignored it when she first entered the store, but the accessories corner near the entrance caught her eye.
Ayano wasn’t particularly interested in jewelry or other ornaments.
She was a high school girl who wanted to use the money for living expenses rather than meaningless decorations, but the rings lined up in the showcase were appealing.
The simple rings, each with a small gemstone, and the rustic construction were appealing.
“Hee, unexpectedly…”
Looking closely, she realized that there were various colors of gemstones, which might be interesting.
But when she saw the price tag, she frowned at the uniform price of 10,000 yen.
It was labeled as a cheap sale as part of the spring new life fair, but she wondered how much food she could buy with that one bill.
Thinking that, she realized that it wasn’t for her after all, and she was about to leave when a chart posted on the case caught her eye.
“‘Language of Stones.’ Like the language of flowers.”
Garnet means passion.
Opal means pure innocence.
Diamond means eternal bond.
–And so on.
“—-Ah.”
And the meaning of the vibrant green peridot was–
“–Ayano?”
“Kya!?”
She must have been more engrossed in the chart than she thought.
When she turned around at the voice, Kamijou Yuuto was there, holding the black cat plushie.
“Rings, huh? The gemstones are small, but they’re pretty.”
He took the plushie and peered into the showcase as well.
“Did you find something you liked?”
“Huh? Well, yeah. But the price…”
She glanced at it and smiled mischievously, tapping the case and directing his gaze to the price tag.
“–Whoa.”
“What? Are you going to buy it for me? I love you, Yuto!”
He grimaced at Ayano, who was acting deliberately sweet.
“W-Well, it’s barely within the budget… –It’s our first date, so as a memento.”
Ayano chuckled self-deprecatingly at him, who was saying it as if to convince himself.
“Sorry, I’m lying. I’m not the kind of woman who always asks for things. This plushie is enough of a memento!”
She hugged the plushie.
“Come on, let’s go to the next place! The date isn’t over yet.”