Even then, she couldn’t help but feel concerned as she looked down at her exposed thighs. And once again, Watanabe appeared out of nowhere with a piece of fabric in her hand.
“Then how about wearing this pareu cover-up if you’re worried about showing too much leg? If you purchase this with your bikini, I could give you a special discount of…”
It was as if a calculator magically appeared in Watanabe’s hand as she rapidly punched in a number at the speed of light, then showed it to Alisa.
The words special discount alone had Alisa inclined to accept the offer, and a few minutes later, she was standing in front of the mirror while wearing the pareu. She nodded slowly.
“All right, I’ll take it…”
“Thank you very much. I’ll have someone grab you a new bikini and pareu from the back.”
Once the shop manager, Watanabe, clapped her hands, an employee immediately disappeared into the back of the store. Although the expeditious procedure somewhat weirded out Alisa, she and her sister went to the register together and purchased their swimsuits.
“Thank you very much. Please come again.”
The Kujou sisters left the store together as Watanabe and her extremely well-trained employees saw them off. Now that Alisa had accomplished her goal, her mind was already set on going home…but Maria, on the other hand, acted like she was just getting started; she looked over at her sister with sparkles in her eyes.
“So what’s next?”
“‘What’s next?’ I figured we’d go home…”
“Whaaat? Come on, let’s look around some more. ♪”
“No way. You take forever.”
“You’re such a meanie.” Maria pouted, but her complaints didn’t slow down Alisa, who was walking straight toward the elevator. Nevertheless, there was something about her little sister’s curtness that was making Maria wonder if there was a specific reason why she wanted to go home.
Hmm… Oh! Maybe she wants to put on a bikini fashion show? I get that! Buying new clothes is so exciting, after all!
…Maria could be kind of an airhead from time to time, according to her friends and family, but she was painfully unaware of this trait of hers, and she would never admit it, either.
She was probably just too shy to really enjoy herself because that shop manager and I were there. I bet she plans on having her own little fashion show once we get home. Wow, just thinking about it makes me want to have a fashion show, too. ♪
Because it all made sense in her head. Everything she said was based on logic from her point of view. The only problem was that…
“All right, Alya. We can go home, but I want to join you, so can you wait for me before you start the fashion show?”
“…What are you talking about?”
…Maria always went straight to her conclusion without any buildup, so her so-called airheaded remarks simply sounded extremely sudden and random to the listener. Obviously, this was no exception, since Alisa had no idea what she was talking about and shook her head, giving up trying to understand what Maria meant. This randomness was nothing new to her.
“Anyway, here. I’ll take your swimsuit back home with me.”
“Really? Thank you so much. ♪”
Alisa took the plastic bag out of Maria’s hand before briskly heading over to the elevator. After Maria saw her off, she checked her watch, pondered silently for a few moments, then got on the next elevator and took it to the first floor, where she left the mall without even checking out another store.
“Hmm… I wonder if I can walk there from here?” Maria muttered to herself while taking a path with her phone’s map app open. Her destination was a certain place she would go whenever she had free time, and she had been doing this ever since she returned to Japan. Although she usually went there by bicycle, she was going to walk there today. She was going to walk there, and yet…
“Oh? What’s that shop?”
Maria’s eyes were still drawn to every cute store in sight, and her legs naturally took her into a little knickknack store on the street to the right as if she were being slowly sucked inside. After ten minutes of window-shopping, she departed from the store and took a left without even thinking about it, despite the fact that she needed to take a right to reach her destination. She continued walking for a few more minutes when…
“Hmm?”
She suddenly realized that she had strayed extremely far from the path she was supposed to be taking, so she stopped and checked the map app on her phone again.
“Hmm… Oh, I think I just need to go this way.”
And once again, she began walking in the complete opposite direction without a moment of hesitation. If it wasn’t clear…Maria was extremely bad with directions and got lost easily. She would usually tell her friends and family that she liked going for walks around town, but in reality, she was merely lost half the time. Of course, she would never admit that, though, because…
“Oh my. That’s strange… I’m here.”
…no matter how bad she was with directions, she would somehow always miraculously arrive at her destination. Out of nowhere, she caught a glimpse of a familiar sight out of the corner of her eye, so she started heading in its direction in a somewhat bewildered manner. Her destination was the corner of a large park with tons of equipment for children to play on. Maria resolutely walked straight down the path until she reached a large dome-shaped piece of playground equipment with holes of all different sizes. After briefly stopping in front of it, she climbed up to the top, unfolded a small plastic sheet, and sat on it before briefly scanning the area as if she was looking for something.
“…Just as I thought. He didn’t come,” she muttered downheartedly with a pout, looking up at the sky as if to hide the loneliness in her heart.
“It’s okay, though. I’ll wait. Destiny is something you create for yourself, after all,” she added as if she was trying to convince even herself of that. She puffed out her cheeks and began quietly watching the clouds go by. She waited like this for another twenty minutes in the hot summer sun when…
“Oh, there you are! Hey!”
She jumped, taken aback by the sudden voice, but she almost immediately realized that it wasn’t his voice, and she lowered her gaze with a hint of disappointment. Standing at the foot of the dome were seven elementary-school kids whom she knew.
“Maria!”
“Big Sister Maria’s here!”
“Let’s play!”
As seven smiling boys and girls merrily looked up at her, she cheerfully grinned back and climbed down the dome.
“Sounds good to me. ♪ What do you want to do today? I’m not going to lose this time ♪,” she replied brightly, and just like that, she joined the elementary-school children and began to play her heart out. They played a game of hide-and-seek where the entire park was fair game, they played games together on their phone in the shade when they got tired, and Maria even enjoyed girl talk with the girls in the group. The entertainment continued until the sun began to set, and the children had to go home.
“Bye, guys. ♪” Maria returned the children’s waves until they disappeared into the distance. She then looked back at the dome once more and smiled somewhat sorrowfully. It was as though she could see the endearing young boy from years ago standing there, and it elicited a sweet heartache.
All of a sudden, a powerful gust of wind blew, forcing Maria to hold her hair down and look away while closing her eyes. But when she looked back at the dome, the mirage of the young boy was no longer there.
“…I’ll come back to see you again soon, Sah.”
Maria left the park with those words, withdrawing from the memorable place with a slight frown.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login