Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me - Volume 6 - Chapter 2.6

“Can I sit with Runa in the back?” I asked casually when we started getting into the car.

“Sure, go ahead,” Nisshi said from the driver’s seat, looking at me through the side mirror.

I wondered if he’d realized I was trying to help.

Yamana-san looked unsatisfied as she opened its door. “Ehh? So I’m in the passenger seat?”

“You don’t like being up front?” asked Nisshi.

“You know how they say people in the passenger seat have the highest mortality rate in car accidents?”

“What? Have some faith in my driving skills.”

“You expect me to have faith in a guy with new driver marks on his car?” replied Yamana-san with a laugh as she fastened her seat belt.

The two of them seemed to be getting along as well as always.

“So, where we going?” she then asked.

“For a drive, so of course we’re going to the beach,” replied Nisshi.

Runa was surprised. “Huh? But it’s still cold.”

“Eh, whatever. So, are we going to Yokohama? Or Shonan?” Yamana-san asked.

Nisshi shook his head while fiddling with the GPS. “Nah, there’s no way an introvert can go anywhere but Chiba.”

“You really owe Chiba an apology, you know?”

“It’s fine,” Runa said. “I love Chiba!”

As a congenial mood filled the car, we took off on our drive.

That said, the weather wasn’t exactly suited for it.

“Damn, it’s raining,” said Yamana-san.

I looked at the window and saw fine droplets sticking to the other side of the glass.

“It’s fine; it’s just a shower. The forecast said it’ll clear up in the evening,” said Nisshi. We were still on a local road and hadn’t gotten onto a highway yet, so he looked comfortable enough. “Also, Kasshi, can you take the wheel later today?”

“What?!”

While I was surprised, Runa got a gleam in her eyes as she sat next to me.

“Yay! I really wanna see you drive, Ryuto!”

“Well...”

When she put it like that, I kinda felt like showing off a little. But I also didn’t want her to see me freak out because I was bad at driving—it was hard to make up my mind.

“I guess I did bring my license, just in case. And I’ve reread the driving manual,” I said.

“Yaaay!” Runa was delighted.

“A guy with new driver marks and a guy who hasn’t been behind the wheel since driving school, huh? Maybe today’s the last day of our lives...” Yamana-san let out an exaggerated sigh. She was unexpectedly pessimistic.

“By the way, does Sekiya-san have a license?” asked Runa.

“He doesn’t,” replied Yamana-san. “He said he’ll get one after he passes his exams.”

If he’d been studying ever since his third year of high school, then he certainly wouldn’t have had time for that.

“So it won’t be long now, right?” asked Runa.

“I don’t know about that...” Yamana-san said peevishly. There was a distant look in her eyes. “I try not to get my hopes up anymore. It’s not like there’s anything I can do for him either...”

“But it’s already a fact that he’ll be a college student next year, right? Since he passed an exam for another department,” I said.

At that, Yamana-san turned around, looking shocked. “Wait, seriously?!”

Whoops. I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to say anything...

“Yeah... He told me that himself. Sorry if you didn’t know... Forget I said anything.”

“‘Forget’? There’s no way I could!”

“Maybe he was going to make it a surprise?” I said. “I’m really sorry.”

“Well, guess I’ll keep quiet about it to him...” she said reluctantly. “Which school, by the way?”

“He hasn’t told me, but it’s probably somewhere close. It was a backup option.”

“I see... So this is his last exam season, finally...” Yamana-san sounded deeply moved. Her cheeks were flushed red, and her face was completely that of a young maiden in love.

I looked at the rearview mirror. Nisshi was keeping his eyes on the road and his hands on the steering wheel, not saying a word.

The car sped up after we got on the freeway.

“Wait, stop! This is way too scary, I can’t take it!” shouted Yamana-san. She made herself smaller and held on to the handle above the window with both hands.

“Out of my way!!!” Nisshi shouted as he floored it. Satisfaction was written all over his face. He looked the same way he did during heated moments in shooter games.

“Are we gonna be okay?! Are we?! We’re not gonna get rear-ended, right?!” Yamana-san yelled.

“I said trust me!”

“And I said there’s no way I can trust a guy with new driver marks on his car!”

With the two in front engaged in a shouting contest, Runa and I looked at each other.

“Nishina-kun actually is a good driver, huh,” she said.

“Yeah.”

I figured he’d probably practiced a lot to take Yamana-san out for a drive. I was a little jealous since I didn’t have a car.

We proceeded on the freeway toward Chiba without any major issues, but we did hit a few snags along the way.

“What the hell? Why’s everyone going so slow?” asked Yamana-san.

“The GPS says it’s a five-kilometer traffic jam. Maybe there’s been an accident, or a lane is blocked off,” replied Nisshi.

“What? We can’t just take the other lane?”

“Nope. People are stuck on that one too.”

Yamana-san sighed. “What a pain in the ass.” There was mild irritation in her voice.

But as the mood in the car started to worsen...

“Nicole, want some financiers?” Runa asked, taking them out from her bag. “I got these at the cake shop I used to work at.”

“Hell yeah I do! Everything from that place is great,” replied Yamana-san.

It just happened to be time for a snack, so maybe she’d been a little hungry. The mood in the car became harmonious at once, and I fell in love with Runa all over again.

Fortunately, the traffic jam cleared up in about twenty minutes, and we went back to driving at a high speed.

At last, after going through a tunnel, we came upon a bridge with the sea on both sides of it. Because of the poor weather, the water looked almost gray, but to someone who lived far from the sea, it was still a captivating sight.

“Man, this road is so cool!”

“It’s amazing! There’s water all around!”

“We’re on the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. Wanna stop at Umihotaru?”

“I dunno what that is, but sure!”

Thus, we headed to Umihotaru’s parking lot.

I hadn’t really known what it was either, but Umihotaru was apparently a rest stop in the middle of the Aqua-Line—the road connecting Kanagawa and Chiba. It really was an artificial island with nothing but water around it, so you could enjoy a 360-degree view of the sea.

“What an amazing view!” Runa exclaimed. It seemed like just walking on the deck was giving her a sense of freedom. “Look, there’s a place to set up your phone! Let’s take some pictures!”

“Oh, sounds great!” replied Yamana-san.

“Okay, I set the timer for ten seconds!”

“Hurry back, Runa!”

“Eh, wait! My heel got stuck in a gap in the deck!”

“The hell are you doing there?”

“Aha ha!”

Amid all the noise came the click of a shutter.

“Look at you, Ren! Your eyes are half-closed!” exclaimed Yamana-san.

“And you’ve got a face like you’ve been sentenced to three hundred years of hard labor,” Nisshi said.

“I told you not to make fun of the sharp look in my eye.”

“I do like that about you, though.”

“What a masochist...”

Seeing them banter back and forth, I felt like they were a good match for each other. They were like the kind of couple that fought all the time but still stayed together.

“Anyway, sorry I messed up the timing,” said Runa with an embarrassed smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” replied Yamana-san.

“I’ll take the next shot. Stay there, Runa,” I said.

“Ah, thanks, Ryuto!”

We took some more pictures without any further issues. Once we were done, we bought drinks and returned to the car.

The skies cleared up, making the evening coastal drive a pleasant experience. Nisshi’s phone was connected to the car’s stereo with a cable, and it played English music that even I had heard before.

“‘We, are never, ever, ever’...”

Yamana-san and Runa both quietly sang along with the chorus.

“Is that the only part of the song you know?” Nisshi asked with a smile when the song was almost over.

“What? I’m pretty sure you sang the first part of that too,” replied Yamana-san.

“It’s hard to remember the lyrics, even if you actually try, since it’s in English,” Runa said.

“I know, right?” added Yamana-san with a smile.

I wondered what I’d been so worried about. Nisshi and Yamana-san were both just as I’d remembered them. I’d probably think the same about Icchi and Tanikita-san if I were to see them again. I wished I’d gotten in touch with my old friends sooner instead of thinking there were some obstacles between us. Even if we didn’t talk about KEN or have any other things in common, we were still friends, like we had been. If we could spend time together and see the same things, that’d be enough to make things fun.

The realization filled me with emotion.

And so, we arrived at the beach. It was evening and the spring equinox had yet to come, but it was still colder than I’d expected—maybe the fact it had been raining until a short while ago had something to do with it.

Beyond the gray sandy beach was the dark blue sea. The water had white ripples on it.

“So cold!” exclaimed Runa.

“I’m gonna freeze to death!” added Yamana-san.

The two of them were approaching the water’s edge.

“Hey, it still feels like winter here! Does it really have to be so cold?!”

“I can’t walk on these heels here either. No way.”

“Me neither! Guess I gotta take them off.”

“Wait, isn’t it gonna be even worse if we’re barefoot?!”

The girls both laughed. Then, they moved close together as if hugging and started taking selfies in gyaru poses with the sea in the background.

Nisshi and I watched them while sitting on a piece of driftwood on the beach. The sea breeze was so cold that my cheeks and ears stung like they’d been hit with a sharp blade.

“It’s fine if Nicole loves another guy. As long as I get to be by her side,” Nisshi suddenly said. “We may spend time together, but I can’t make her heart belong to me. No one can tell you who to love.” Instead of looking at me, Nisshi was watching Yamana-san play by the water’s edge. “If you start wanting things you can’t see, I don’t think you’ll still be able to tell if those things actually belong to you or not—even if they do. You’ll start doubting the other person, and it’ll bring you pain. So I want to give instead.” After saying all that while hanging his head, he finally looked me in the eye. “I tell her I love her every time I see her, even though she shrugs me off every time,” he said with an awkward smile. “But it’s fine. The way I see it, the fact she spends time with me in spite of that is the answer I’m looking for.” While I listened without a word, Nisshi went on as if trying to convince himself. “All I can do is believe. Believe, and give. That’s it.”

The sandy beach was like a desert. There was no trace of the life-forms of all shapes and sizes that lived here in the summer. I listened to Nisshi’s speech while looking at the inorganic patterns in the sand—they’d been created by wind or high tide.

“Even if you become boyfriend and girlfriend, or even if you get married... In the end, that’s how love is, I think,” he went on.

“That’s a big talk for a virgin,” I said.

At this moment, Nisshi looked to be a far bigger man than me. I became ashamed of myself as his old friend, and before I knew it, that anxiety had made me poke fun at him.

“You know, it’s pretty annoying when people look down on you like that,” he replied.

I would’ve had to be above him to be able to look down on him, and I wasn’t. But, apparently, that was his view of me. Then again, I supposed it was only natural for him to assume my own romantic relationship had progressed in the long time we hadn’t seen each other.

At some point, Runa and Yamana-san came back from the water’s edge.

“It’s sooo cold!”

“So, what’re we gonna do next?”

“It’s freeeeeezing! I wanna go somewhere warm!”

Nisshi smirked at all of us. “Well then, how about we go for some hot sake?”

“What?! You realize you’re driving today, right?! Are you planning to drive drunk?” Yamana-san asked.

“There’s another driver here, you know.” Nisshi looked at me. “You’re still nineteen, right?”

“Y-Yeah...” I replied.

“So then you can’t drink! Which means you’ll be driving on the way back! It’s settled, then!”

“Whaaat?!”

And so, without anyone waiting for me to agree to it, at some point, our outing had become a drinking party. We were now in the kind of izakaya that felt very local and was probably visited only by, as you’d expect, locals. The signs outside it advertised fresh and local fish, so we’d come here for fresh seafood.

Since it wasn’t even 6 p.m. yet, there were no other customers here. We sat in its raised seating area, and everyone drank according to their tastes.

“Cheers!”

Yamana-san had ordered umeshu, Runa had gone for cola like me, and Nisshi—as he’d proclaimed—had asked for hot sake.

It felt kinda strange seeing my old classmates drink alcohol like it was no big deal. The same thought had crossed my mind when I’d gone to an izakaya with Kurose-san too.

“So you drink too, Nisshi,” I said.

“Well yeah, who wouldn’t want to at least try it when they’re old enough? Aren’t all college sophomores like that?”

“Now that you mention it...”

There’d been that time with Umino-sensei, and then Kurose-san... So this was why I’d been seeing people from my age group drink as of late.

“So, anyway...” said Nisshi as if changing the topic. His face was a little red—maybe he was getting drunk already. “Starting in our third year of school, we’re gonna take seminars and all. Kasshi, you already decided which ones you’re gonna take?”

“Yeah, I guess so. There’s a professor holding some interesting lectures in a general elective subject, so that’s what I picked.” I kept things brief since there wasn’t really anything else to say about the matter. “What about you? What’s the law department like?”

“Well, I’m planning to go to law school afterward, so I chose seminars a law professor is doing.”

“Huh? Law school...? You mean, you’ll be a lawyer or a judge?” I asked in surprise.

“Well, honestly, with the quality of the law department at my school, it’s probably gonna be hard to pass the bar exam on my first try.” After flashing a self-deprecating smile, Nisshi went back to his usual expression. “But the only profession in the field of humanities that can rival a doctor is a lawyer!”

Glancing at Nisshi, Yamana-san spoke up while resting her chin in her hand. “I keep telling you, it’s not like I fell in love with senpai because he’s going to be a doctor.”

It appeared Nisshi had been talking to her about his aspirations for some time now.

“It’s good to have a dream, though! Way to go, Nishina-kun!” exclaimed Runa.

“What about you, Runa? Your work, I mean,” asked Yamana-san. “You said there’s a lotta stuff going on these days, yeah?”

“Oh... About that...” Runa put on a serious look and glanced at me. “I haven’t actually told Ryuto yet—the area manager is asking me to become a store manager in Fukuoka.”

“What?! F-Fukuoka?! You mean, in Kyushu?!” I asked, freaking out.

Runa nodded with a stiff expression. “Yeah. It’s our flagship store in western Japan, so it’s a pretty important position... The area manager insists on me.”

Was this, perhaps, what she’d come close to telling me at the wine bar the other day?

“The current store manager and assistant manager will be transferring somewhere else in April. Something about sales being down a little. So, apparently, the head office wants to take drastic measures and send some young staff from a different area there to change things up. My area manager has been going out drinking with various store managers and their assistants, and he chose me as his candidate.”

Yamana-san praised her teasingly. “They really have high hopes for you, huh?”

Runa smiled awkwardly, but there was a little pride there too. “Heh heh. I’m actually really good at my job. I’m in the top five in Kanto.”

“Damn. Though it’s no wonder—anything looks good on you.”

“That’s not true. The customers actually try things on before buying them.”

“Well yeah, you’re a smooth talker too. You get them in a good mood, and they buy stuff.”

“C’mon, why you gotta say it like I’m some kinda swindler?!” Runa puffed her cheeks in jest.

“Hah hah. Anyone can tell you really mean it when you praise someone. Customers aren’t stupid enough to fall for obvious flattery.”

“Nicole...”

“So, are you going to Fukuoka?” Yamana-san asked seriously.

Runa hung her head, looking just as serious. “Well... I haven’t given them a proper reply yet.”

“So you don’t wanna go?”

“Ngh...” Runa groaned, pulling her chin in. She held her glass of cola in both hands and stared at a point near the straw. “I’m happy that they think highly of me. But...”

“Do you really have time to give it much thought? If people are moving around in April... That’s right around the corner, no?”

“Yeah...”

Appearing to have picked up on something from Runa’s indecisiveness, Yamana-san suddenly put on a cheerful expression. “Well, you’ll be fine no matter where life takes you! It’ll suck if we can’t easily meet up anymore, but we can still call each other, though.”

Runa smiled at her with a worried look on her face. “Don’t say that. You’re kinda making me sad here.” Then, she forcefully went back to a normal expression. “What about you? Have you already decided where you’ll be working in April?”

“Yeah. There’s a salon really close to where I live—I already landed the job. It’s by Station A again.”

“Oh, cool! Man, I wanna be your first client, since you’ll be a pro nail technician and all!”

“What? You’ll come all the way from Fukuoka for that?” Yamana-san asked. “I’m sure there’s plenty of salons over there too.”

Runa smiled awkwardly again. “Like I said, I haven’t decided if I’m going yet!”

“Why not just go for it? It’s not like it’s forever, right? Isn’t it amazing to become a store manager at twenty?”

Runa hung her head with a serious look on her face. “I guess so... I am grateful, but...”

“I’ll come hang out with you. Oh man, I wanna have some of that Hakata ramen—the real deal! And isn’t mizutaki from there too?”

“Hold your horses, okay?!”

As for me, most of their conversation had been going in one ear and out the other for a while now.

Runa is going to Fukuoka...?

I felt Nisshi staring at me from the side, but I couldn’t look his way. Instead, my eyes were fixed on the glass in front of me.

Everything I ate after that—even the fresh sashimi and local seafood delicacies—tasted bland.

***

On our way back, I had no choice but to get behind the wheel for the first time in two years.

“Your turn in the passenger seat, Runa,” Yamana-san said, getting into the back seat with Nisshi.

“Eh...? This is kinda making me nervous,” replied Runa.

She sat in the passenger seat and kept glancing at me while fastening her seat belt. Her cheeks, illuminated by the light in the car, appeared flushed.

“Here’s the key, and here’s how you start the engine.”

After Nisshi’s brief instructions, I started the engine and stepped on the gas pedal.

My body remembered how to drive unexpectedly well. I’d gone out of my way to take the driving test with a manual shift since I liked cars, so maybe it just felt easy to drive one with an automatic transmission.

“Wh-What is it?” I asked and looked at Runa. I’d felt her stare on me since some time after we’d gotten on the road again.

“Nothing,” she replied, gazing at me. “I just thought you look good when driving.” As I remained silent, stuck on how to reply, Runa smiled happily. “I’ve been looking forward to going on a drive with you since we were in high school.”

“You have? I’m sorry.”

I recalled that time we’d gone to Mega Web together. So much time had passed that it was gone now.

“Nah, I’m the one who should be sorry,” said Runa apologetically. “I’ve been too busy for these past two years and couldn’t find time to see you at all,” she went on as I tried to figure out what to say. “I wanna be with you. I wanna have a satisfying job. And all this time, I’ve been thinking about how to make it happen.”