Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me - Volume 7 - Chapter 4.3

Sekiya-san’s face was rather tanned. The same went for his arms, which stretched out from the short sleeves of his shirt.

“That must’ve been nice,” I said.

“We were just screwing around. There weren’t any girls there.” Despite the way he’d put it, it sounded like he’d had a good time.

It occurred to me that I’d only ever known him as a guy who was studying to get into a university. I’d never seen him have fun somewhere, not even on summer break. He’d spent his time at cram school from morning to evening, so there’d never been an opportunity for him to get a tan.

“You didn’t hit on any girls?”

“Of course not. I was with my old ping-pong clubmates, so all of them were introverts.”

“Isn’t that rude to people in ping-pong clubs across Japan...?” I asked.

“Try going to a ping-pong tournament sometime. They’re full of nerds.”

“Aha ha...”

I’d meant to defend his sport of choice, but that’d only made him speak worse about it. All I could do was laugh at this point.

“How long will you be here for?” I asked as we walked down a pedestrian walkway toward our destination.

“Just over a week, I guess. I’m going back there next week. Gotta study for tests that come right after my days off.”

“Huh... I guess medical school is tough.”

“Well, I knew that from the start. Things are much easier compared to when I was a ronin. I can put in the effort now,” Sekiya-san said in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, he hung his head, as if hiding it from the sunlight. “I could actually stay here for another week, but there’s nothing for me to do after I see you and my friends who live here. And living alone is more comfortable for me than living with my parents.”

I knew a thing or two about his family situation, but his tone suggested that there was more to it.

If Sekiya-san were still dating Yamana-san, this summer break would surely have become the happiest two weeks that they’d ever had together. I also remembered what Nisshi was currently dealing with—it was giving me mixed feelings on the matter.

“Oh, yeah. When I got into medical school, Dad started being nice to me. He invited me for a drink, so we’re going out for sushi tonight.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Not the conveyor-belt kind, right?”

“Heh, no way. It’s in Ginza. It would be hilarious if there was a conveyor belt, though. That’d mean my dad’s sense of humor is just too good.”

Sekiya-san sounded happy. He seemed to have a love-hate relationship with his father, but it was clear he still respected him as a doctor.

“So, why are we here today?” I asked, pointing at the massive blue-and-yellow sign once we’d reached our destination.

The place we’d come to needed no introduction: It was IKEA, the world-renowned furniture maker.

“There’s no IKEA in Hokkaido. You know how my classes started right after I moved? I haven’t gotten any furniture yet. All the students live near school, and sometimes my friends come over—I can’t have them drinking chuhai cans while sitting on the floor forever, you know? I wanted to get a table and stuff over summer break. I spent some time looking online and figured that I do like IKEA’s furniture after all, both how it looks and the value for money. I gotta go see it in person, though—it’d suck if I ordered something online and it turned out to be different from how I imagined it.”

“I can understand that, I guess.”

I, too, did my research when making big purchases. I also didn’t like the negotiations you might have to go through when returning things, so I was the careful type—the same went for Sekiya-san.

We reached the store as we chatted and entered. We took the escalator at the entrance up to the second floor, following the map displayed inside the store.

The entire second floor was both a sales floor and a showroom. The sofas, tables, and other furniture were separated by type of design, grouping items that matched each other together. There were also small, stylishly furnished rooms located here and there.

As we followed the route, we came to a place where you could see all types of furniture that you’d need in a house. I often saw these stores on TV, but it was my first time visiting one.

“But why did you ask me to come along?” I asked.

“Well, can you imagine going to a place like this by yourself?”

I looked around us again. There were families and couples all over. Some of the latter had an unbearably sweet aura around them—coming to a store like this meant they were probably at the height of their relationship and were checking out furniture for when they’d start living together.

“Why not ask one of your female friends to come with you?”

“That wouldn’t work. None of them would agree to it. Coming somewhere like here would mean something else,” he argued.

“You have a point...”

“And besides, all my friends in this area already have full-time jobs. The Bon Festival is too far away, and today’s a weekday. Everyone’s busy at work.”

“Oh...”

That sort of explained why he’d asked me to come.

“Do you have a new girlfriend yet?” I asked. “Find anyone in Hokkaido?”

Sekiya-san smiled in a meaningful way. “Don’t worry, there are some who’d probably agree to go out with me.”

His confident attitude irked me a little.

“I’m not worried. We’re talking about you, after all,” I replied.

“It’s just...”

At that point, we had to stop because the path we were taking was filled with people blocking the way. Having nothing better to do, Sekiya-san grabbed a freezer bag from a shelf that we just happened to be next to.

“I’m stopping at friends for the time being,” he said. “It might be a while before I can properly date someone.”

I listened while looking at the colorful freezer bag samples.

“Right now, I’m a medical student who will be a doctor in the future. That’s pretty much set in stone unless I really screw up. And that’s also probably why I’m so popular.”

I wished that I could call myself popular too—it was probably jealousy born out of being a humanities student, as we weren’t popular with girls. I stayed silent and tried to pick up on what Sekiya-san really wanted to say here.

“The kind of love I had with Yamana... I might not be able to experience it again for as long as I live.” He looked uncharacteristically crushed as he said that. “Yamana, she...” Sekiya-san said her name in a contemplative way and returned the freezer bag to the shelf. “She was the first girl who fell in love with me, and that was back when I was still a nobody. She was probably the last one too.”

At that point, the area ahead of us began to clear up, and we started walking slowly again.

“It’s not that I regret it... That was the only thing I could do back then... Plus, I’m sure she’s already happy with her next boyfriend... It’s probably better this way...” he muttered and looked down at the floor. “Though I wonder why I couldn’t treasure her more when she was so big in my life.”

Despite what he’d said, I couldn’t see anything but burning remorse written on his face.

“Isn’t that what people call ‘regret’?” I asked.

I couldn’t keep myself from getting to the heart of the matter with Sekiya-san. That was because no matter what I said, he always brushed things off with a joke.

That was why...

“Oh, huh...”

...when I saw the embarrassed smile on his face, I felt awkward too, like I’d done something I shouldn’t have.

I quickly grabbed a nearby plush toy. “Oh, hey, look how cute this is,” I said.

We happened to be in an area showing off children’s room designs. There were numerous toys on display around us. The one I’d grabbed was a rather large shark plush.

“Want some company while you’re living alone?” I suggested.

I felt like I’d seen this shark toy a few times before. There were more of them than of the other toys here, so it must’ve been the store’s recommendation to customers.

I wanted Sekiya-san to laugh it off and tell me not to make fun of him, but he showed interest instead.

“Maybe... I wanted a pillow anyway. Might as well get this thing instead.”

“Ehh, isn’t that an awful way to use it?”

“Actually, this one’s better.”

Sekiya-san picked a different toy up off the shelf. It was similar to the shark but a bit smaller—a dolphin.

“You like dolphins?” I asked.

“Not in particular. I like how monotone it is, though.”

Unlike the blue shark with its pink mouth, the dolphin had calmer colors—gray and white. It certainly wouldn’t seem out of place in the apartment of a guy who lived alone.

“I’m gonna hug it every night when I sleep. In place of a girlfriend,” he added.

“That’s fine too, I guess...”

“That was a joke. You were supposed to laugh.”

“It’s kinda sad, actually...” I jokingly pretended to be holding back tears and looked at Sekiya-san again. “Anyway, are you still getting that table?”

At some point, we’d reached the end of the second floor, and there was a restaurant area ahead of us.

“Oh, you’re right. I got caught up in the conversation.”

With that, we turned around and made our way back to the area with living room furniture. After checking out various tables, Sekiya-san chose a white side table. He also bought a bookshelf, a TV stand, and some smaller items on the first floor. After picking up the furniture he wanted from the warehouse area, he paid for it all at the entrance.

Once Sekiya-san filled out the delivery form, today’s shopping was over and we went back to the restaurant area on the second floor. It was now past three.

“You getting anything?” asked Sekiya-san.

“Yeah. I had a late breakfast, so I just got hungry now.”

“I know the feeling. I ate around ten myself.”

There were probably many students who started waking up later than usual during their summer breaks.

“It’s my treat since you agreed to come with me. Get whatever you want.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I had a shift at the cram school that evening, so I wanted to eat something filling. I ordered a set of meatballs and mashed potatoes.

During summer break, cram school held summer courses. I went to work at different hours depending on the schedules of the students I worked with.

Sekiya-san got himself a large chocolate cake and a glass of something to drink from the self-service area.

“Is that enough for you?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got stationary sushi after this. Gotta go on an empty stomach.”

“Oh, right.”

We paid at the register and sat down at a table.

It was past lunchtime, so the restaurant wasn’t all that full. The area was furnished and illuminated by IKEA, giving it a simplistic and stylish Northern European design. It was about as big as the dining hall at my university—or maybe even bigger—and was lined with white tables and chairs.

We sat by the window at a table for four, across from each other, and ate in silence for a while.

The meatballs were great. There was red jam with small seeds in it next to the meatballs. It confused me at first, but when I tried it, the salty-sweetness was addicting. The mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious. I guessed that I should’ve expected even the food to be good at a world-class furniture store.

Sekiya-san wordlessly ate his chocolate cake while looking out the window. Seeing him like that, I recalled what Yamana-san had told me the other day when I’d asked which one of them had confessed.

“Hmm... Senpai, I think? He said something of the sort on Valentine’s Day, and we grew closer after that.”

“By the way... Before you first started dating Yamana-san for two weeks back in the day, which one of you confessed first?” I asked, wanting to see if he’d say the same thing.

Sekiya-san looked at me. “What brought that on?”

“I’m just curious.”

“Well... Probably Yamana?”

“Huh?” The surprise made me stop my hand, leaving my fork hovering in midair between my fingers. “Yamana-san said it was you.”

“What? Really?” This time, it was his turn to be surprised. “Well, I dunno... How did we even start dating? I’m pretty sure it was her who started it...” said Sekiya-san as if trying to recall the past. “She gave me five chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and she didn’t do that for anyone else.”

“Five? That’s amazing.”

“I know, right?”

“Like, nice chocolate?”

“Nah, it was wrapped and homemade.”

“What? Isn’t that the kind that people give out to everyone?”

“But she only gave everyone else one each while I got five. That’s practically a confession, you know?”

When Sekiya-san said unexpectedly pure things like that, I could sense the introvert in him—it made me happy. Perhaps even now, deep inside, he was an introverted virgin like me, and that might’ve been why I liked him.

“Are you a big chocolate fan?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“I mean, you’re eating chocolate cake right now.”

“Oh... Well, it’s not bad, I guess... I just felt like it today.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Anyway,” he began, returning the conversation to the previous topic, “I don’t think either of us ever confessed properly.”

“Really?”

Could relationships even start that way? It was unbelievable to me, like it was something from the world of adults.

“I mean, if you’re able to sense things to the same extent as the average person, shouldn’t you more or less be able to tell if whoever’s in front of you loves you? So even if neither of you confesses, the mood just dictates that you should start dating,” he explained. “And at that point, does it even matter who confessed and who didn’t? If you have the kind of relationship where your feelings aren’t noticed until you make a clear-cut confession, there’s no way you weren’t going to get shot down anyway.”

Recalling what’d happened with Icchi at the cultural festival during our second year of high school, I felt like Sekiya-san might’ve actually had a point. Then again, things had eventually worked out for those two, at least.

And this concerned me too...

“That’s exactly what I did, though. She and I weren’t even friends when I confessed to her,” I said.

“Seriously...?” Sekiya-san groaned in an exaggerated way and folded his arms. “That’s pretty weird, not gonna lie. She’s weird for accepting, and you’re weird for thinking it was gonna work.”

“I was just doing it as punishment.”

“‘As punishment’? Really? What is this, a manga?” Poking fun at me, he pointed his fork at me. “Just don’t tell your future kids about how you two met, okay? You don’t want them to grow up thinking that sort of thing works. You two are pretty special, and in more ways than one.”

“I wouldn’t tell them about it,” I replied, puffing my cheeks in embarrassment. “Anyway, so your answer is that Yamana-san made a move on you on Valentine’s Day?”

Sekiya-san averted his eyes somewhat. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’ll ask Yamana-san what she thinks about that one of these days.”

That seemed to fluster him. “Wait, don’t do that. It’s just sad to talk about that now.” He smiled in self-deprecation. “She dumped me, you know? She’s totally still hurting. No need to rub any more salt into that wound.”

Sekiya-san’s attitude was always somewhat joking and detached no matter what, so sometimes, I couldn’t be sure if he meant what he said. But this time, I could somehow tell—this was the one thing he was fully serious about.

“I’m sorry.” I bowed lightly.

Sekiya-san gave me a calm, sidelong glance. He smiled faintly. “Say hi to Yamana for me,” he said and then stabbed his fork into the last bite of chocolate cake on his plate. He shoved it between his thin lips.

“See ya! Thanks for coming,” said Sekiya-san.

“Thank you for treating me.”

“No problem. I’ll let you know when I come back again at the end of the year.”

We parted at a train station where we both needed to transfer to different lines. I got onto another train to go home by myself.

About half of the seats were taken. Sitting in an open spot, I began to stare absentmindedly out the window at the evening scenery.

Sekiya-san and I had almost always met up in Ikebukuro in our cram school days, so going out somewhere together was a fresh experience. Other than that time we’d gone to see him off when he’d left for Hokkaido, there’d only been two double dates we’d gone on—to an aquarium and to MagicalSea.

It’d been fun watching that dolphin show at the aquarium.

And then it hit me.

“You like dolphins?”

“Not in particular. I like how monotone it is, though.”

“Dolphins...”

Had that been why he’d picked it? His first date with Yamana-san had been at an aquarium. Had the dolphin show left an impression on him?

“And the chocolate...”

“Are you a big chocolate fan?”

“Well, it’s not bad, I guess... I just felt like it today.”

“She gave me five chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and she didn’t do that for anyone else.”

I recalled how his eyes had sparkled when he’d said that. He’d been like a teenager.

Sekiya-san had really loved Yamana-san. So much so that he couldn’t even think of dating other girls three or four months after their relationship had ended. So much so that he unconsciously collected things that symbolized their memories together.

Not that there was any point in thinking about it now. It was all over. Yamana-san had chosen Nisshi instead of him, and she was satisfied with her chosen path. Though the same couldn’t exactly be said for Nisshi...

I sighed. Why did everyone’s relationships always go wrong somewhere?

It was painful to think about these things, so I decided to stop.

Speaking of Valentine’s Day...

Instead, I recalled that day from my third year in high school.

***

Valentine’s Day had fallen on the day just before the entrance exams for Houo University’s humanities department.

As I hadn’t done well on the common test for university admissions, my only chance of getting into an elite university was through their regular entrance exams. When working through past exam questions, I focused on ones from Houo University. As I continued studying over the last few weeks before the actual exam, I kept telling myself it would go just as planned.

February came, and so did the regular entrance exams for the elite universities in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Except for days when I had exams, I studied at home instead of going to the study room at my cram school. I wanted to avoid catching anything and getting sick. I even kept my mask on during exams.

That day, I was studying in my room at home like usual. There was no use panicking at this point. Doing anything new would only make me uneasy, so I kept rechecking my vocabulary notebook and other things I needed to memorize. I would also solve problems for a second or third time if I’d previously made mistakes in them.

In the middle of that, someone knocked on the door of my room.

“Ryuto, Runa-chan is here,” said my mother.

“Huh...?”

I checked my phone—it was after four in the afternoon. There was nothing from Runa either.

I changed out of the crappy pants I wore at home into jeans and left my room, still confused.

“She’s at the entrance below,” said my mother at the front door.

I put on a mask out of habit, got outside, and took the elevator to the first floor.