Golden Time:Volume5 Chapter2

Status: Incomplete

23% completed (estimated)

   

Golden Time 5: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

All things considered, this summer was definitely that.

To himself, he wondered if he hadn't been cursed... it was such an idiotic thing, but he had thought about just a little bit seriously.

Banri was standing by himself, sustaining himself against the dusty, rough handrail of the veranda, absentmindedly watching the road below.

It was getting on to seven in the evening, and though the sun had not yet set, the sky was dark blue with smelly, thick exhaust fumes. Covering the whole town, the sultry hot air spread around him without any wind, carrying to the ground the noise and dampness of a mid-summer's evening in Tokyo.

All of ten minutes ago there came a message from Kouko, "I'm coming up in a bit." Since then Banri had been like this, watching the base of the apartment building while waiting for his girlfriend to arrive.

Saying to himself 'she should be showing up any time now,' he rested his chin in his hand for moment. He realized too late that his skin was soaked with seat. When he tried to touch his nose, he found it greasy. The back of his neck, too, and all his hair was wet. Rats, he thought. If he was going to look like an idiot, then perhaps it would be a good idea if he took a quick shower to refresh himself. No matter what, even if he did nothing else, it was one day to take it easy.

Like this, the whole day long, Banri had had free time.

In truth, he should have met up with Kouko today before noon, and with nowhere else to go, they would probably have taken the train downtown. He wondered if by now they would have gone to eat dinner, tired of walking around.

There was a special summer vacation event with no entrance fee taking place today only at the botanical gardens, and Kouko seemed to want to go there. Banri had been eagerly setting up plans... searching on the internet for the best lunch shops nearby and checking for likely coffee shops to take their breaks in... between this and that, he had been looking forward to the two of them being together. Since all they did normally was lazily kill time in Banri's room or in the area nearby, he had said, "Let's go out on a date once in a while, like a couple."

Even so, since last night Kouko's relatives had suddenly arrived to pay them a visit, and she said the whole family had to give them a warm welcome. Kouko had apologized, saying "Sorry, the night will be okay so let's have dinner together, okay?"

If that's how it was, then it couldn't be helped, and Banri cheerfully adjusted today's schedule.

In the end, with it turning out he had nothing at all on his schedule until Kouko came, nor had he anything else to do, he found himself alone. He passed the whole day uselessly, a complete bum. Surfing the net, sleeping, waking, watching television, munching snacks, eating good-for-nothing leftovers for lunch and going to the convenience store without his wallet to cool off. Well, it might have been better to have done a bit of tidying and taking out the trash. But in the end, he just absentmindedly waited for his girlfriend to arrive.

"...I sure am a guy with time on his hands..."

If he'd thought back on it, what he found to do was a little pitiful: talking to himself. Even if nobody else pointed it out, he saw himself as a guy with time on his hands. He wondered if that was a good thing for a nineteen year old.

And it wasn't confined to just today. Even if the feeling that he was cursed with free time was just an idiotic suspicion, his schedule this summer, to Banri's point of view, had absolutely nothing in it.

Up to the day of the Awa Odori festival, it seemed to him his days had been filled up.

There were club practices, and after practice there were drinking parties. That's right, Hosshii-senpai and the fourth years were invited too, and would show up for us. They were all under so much stress they were losing weight, burnt out from job hunting, looking just like they'd been reduced to starving monks. Each of them was behaving suspiciously, and they made Banri and Kouko feel nervous.

Incidentally, as for the Omaken fourth years, none of them as yet had been extended tentative offers. They knew from the start, of course, that things would be getting difficult, and yet, the reality was nevertheless harsh. "Though I think a festival bum is needed in the Japanese economy, particularly now..." Hosshii-senpai murmured without energy.

At the end of the last period, they'd had a few more reports to do. Unable to avoid the language tests, they had studied unusually diligently. And after the tests were over, they had yet another drinking party they referred to as "The Launch."

Having finished with the above, there was that Awa Odori performance on the scorching street in Saitama. What with Kouko dying, and then the mysterious excitement forcibly bringing her back, one way or the other we finished the festival. Once it was all over, it was one really fun day. As for Banri, there was plenty of food and drink at the after-party, and it felt good, in the end he drank too much, ate too much, got thoroughly drunk, and he returned alone earlier than usual to his room.

It was clearly from around then.

From the very start, his summer schedule was "not much", but from what he could see, it had disappeared entirely.

The big thing should have been a three day, two night Omaken Club training camp, but the college seminar house they'd selected had suddenly closed down from equipment failures or somesuch, so as things were everything was cancelled.

They'd spoken with their seniors about rescheduling for another time, but they'd not heard back. Since there had probably been other clubs trying to use that seminar house and having the same painful experience, it appeared that college facilities would be difficult to obtain from here on out. As it was, it looked like there wouldn't be a training camp this summer.

In the meantime, he'd promised to go with Kouko to a fireworks display, but the pouring rain which had started a few days before put a stop to that. Kouko, having prepared a yukata for that day, and even made an appointment at the beauty parlor, was really disappointed.

There were still other fireworks out there, but Kouko seemed to have her heart set on this particular fireworks display. According to her, back when she was taking her entrance exams the crush on the buses heading towards the fireworks venue was so great you could die getting on the bus. She had sworn that the next year she would absolutely go there with somebody, as she was being jostled so hard her brains were being forced out her nose. When he tried to invite her to see a different fireworks display, Kouko's answer was a sigh. A sigh. Wasn't that such an indifferent answer, even between people who have barely started dating?

There were many little things already. Today's date was like that too. They had promised to go out and have some fun with Handsome and Two Dimensions, but between work problems and this and that, in the end there weren't any more spots available in the calendar. Though they'd signed up for a private movie showing, he'd forgotten to check his mailbox, and by the time he discovered the card notifying him they'd been selected the date had already passed.

Since this summer had truly been nothing but that sort of thing, Banri was just a breathing lump of meat.

With the long awaited summer vacation, he had the time so he could probably even get a part time job, but he didn't really want to return to the fight he'd had with Kouko. He'd gotten e-mails from Mother asking when he would come back home, but he didn't really didn't feel like going home.

In any case he didn't even feel like he wanted to go home. The lump of meat in Tokyo would simply become a lump of meat in Shizuoka. More than anything, while finally setting it quietly at a distance, he was absolutely avoiding any accidental encounter with his past.

To Mother, he fired off an answer of "If I decide to, I'll call you back." If he went back, then Mother said he'd be helping Grandma with the tea crops, like he'd always done "before" every year, without getting paid... but he thought "really?" Without being paid: that part sounded suspicious to him. Even if it was true, the memories of how to help out as a tea farmer were entirely lost to him.

Nonetheless, from the periodic exams he'd had to receive in the hospital, he had had to return home at some times during summer vacation.

Twisting and singing to an appropriate tune "Can't do it now ♪ No free time♪" ...in spite of the abundant free time he had living here by himself, at that moment, he saw a single taxi coming towards him down the street.

The taxi stopped right below the veranda where Banri was, in front of the apartment building. When he saw the person who presently got out, Banri cried "Ah!" in a small voice.

That figure, purse in hand, standing there in the road. Long hair curled and wound around, it was without a doubt Kouko. Her long hair reached out so far and fluffy he couldn't see her face yet, but Banri had never seen a girl who cared for herself so well.

Looking up towards him it was Kouko, of course. Even from a distance, however many times he saw her he still couldn't quite get used to it: her skin as if glowing softly white, her lovely carefully arranged, in some ways almost like a doll. She was nearly the very image of perfection. There was no way to describe it in words.

When Kouko noticed Banri on the veranda, her mouth opened in a happy exclamation, and she broke out into a smile. She waved up to him.

Waving back at her, once he was sure Kouko's head had gone inside the entrance, Banri returned into his room kicking off his sandals. Tearing off two Bioré powder sheets and putting them together, he wiped himself down roughly, with all the fury of the gods, from the back of his neck, his armpits, his stomach, his bottom and even between his toes. He puffed 8x4 all over his body like a stormcloud, and as the cloud of dust so thick it was ready to explode settled lightly, he did one last check!

Garbage can set! No bad smells! So many weeks worth of ‘TV Brothers' scattered about, but whatever, set! Toilet set! Bathroom set too! Pants zipped up! The mirror, more or less, check! Eyes! Teeth! Nose! My bangs are a little out of whack, but there isn't much I can do from this point forward!

Ready, set, okay!

Leaping from his doorway as he was, wearing sandals, he parked himself right in front of the elevator. Even as he thought he looked just like a dog, Banri waited excitedly in that spot for the arrival of the elevator bringing up Kouko.

Wondering how many seconds it would be before the door opened, suddenly Banri felt ashamed to look so much like a dog. Indeed, he'd gotten so excited just because Kouko was coming! It wasn't the feeling that nothing else had happened today! He was obviously a man with time on his hands! A boring guy! He hadn't fallen that far, had he?

Thinking that the thick aroma of the Bioré he'd wiped his body down with was giving the lie to his looking like a dog, Banri decided at once to make light of it.

The elevator arriving, then waiting a beat for it to open,

"Guess who!?"

Suddenly bending over like some mischievous fairy,

"It's meee!"

Baah! Making as it were the "Cancer Deathmask" around his face with both hands, or perhaps looking like a shallow imitation of the "Oyama Amusement Park" spokesperson, he tried to step out in front of her with the funniest face he could manage.

Still keeping up his hopes of hearing her sweet, surprised voice crying ‘Kyaa～! No way～! Cut it out, Banri～!', Banri was sent flying, knocked down by a single punch...

Flying for what seemed to be an eternity,

"...!?"

Banri saw the face of the person who came out of the elevator.

"...!!"

"I felt like I had to punch you and send you flying, even if with just one fist," she said.

NANA-sempai, without makeup, her other hand holding tight to a bundle of mail still, stepped right over Banri, who was knocked flat on his unsightly butt, taking no further notice of him. With long heavy strides, she went into her own apartment. She slammed shut her door so hard it looked like she was trying to break the frame. So hard it seemed like a sonic boom. And then with an incredible noise, she set her lock.

Practically in a daze, Banri said "I'm sorry..." It was his fault. He'd tried playing a joke on somebody without even making sure who the other person was, so it was his fault. NANA-senpai, with her low blood pressure... and from lack of food and sleep was always so terribly irritable. To have done "It's me!" to such a person without having prepared them... he was sorry. Holding his cheeks, tears flowing as if he were bleeding, he repeated it over and over again desperately.

But in that case, where in the world did Kouko go...?

"Heey..."

When he turned in surprise, supporting herself with one hand on the wall by the stairwell landing, hair fluffed up full volume, the wildly combed hair of an eccentric, ...no, interesting, ...no! It was the very lovely, virtually perfect form of his lover there.

"Mon amour..."

She rolled her ‘r's.

Her lips half-open, her eyes half-closed as if under a spell. Already she had one hand wickedly placed on her hip. Her long, slim, proud, beautiful legs were crossed.

She wore an adult black no-sleeve blouse made of sexy see-through chiffon, a black high-waisted miniskirt, and of course shiny black high-heeled sandals. Her wavy hair spilled gorgeously down to around her hips, making her look like a princess. Even her hair-band today was of simple black satin. The dark brown color of her glossy hair shone beautifully.

The latest style of Chanel chain-bag hung diagonally from her posed shoulder, she placed at her feet an eco-bag with a famous store's logo on it. For some reason, Kouko was breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving up and down. But looking strangely happy,

"Were you surprised? You were, weren't you? Yes, I'm a surprising woman!"

Kouko showed him a perfect smile, both ends of her glossy wine-red lips upturned prettily. She proudly kept up her model-like pose before him, as it were beams of blinding light coming from her.

"You, you came up the steps...? In those shoes...?"

"I did? I dashed up!"

"Wh, why...?"

"Because this trick occurred to me! By chance I saw NANA-senpai checking her mailbox, and it came to me! That's right, I said to myself, let's give Banri a surprise! Ufu! You were surprised, weren't you? Weren't you!? That! Is The! Spice of Love!"

She was even saying it to a rhythm.

"Trick or not... surprised or not... because of that I ended up like this...?"

"It's all~ okay!"

Aha! Kouko, showing her white teeth while shrugging her shoulders like a foreigner, clicked her nine centimeter heels as she stepped up to Banri, who was still sitting on the floor.

"You said its okay, like it was the right thing to do..."

"I wasn't saying it was the right thing to do. I have good reasons, because now I'm going to make you some curry yakisoba!"

"Eh!?"

"You must have forgotten it all from the love tap NANA-senpai gave you! Didn't I promise to make it for you?"

Setting aside whether was a ‘love tap' from NANA-senpai or not,

"Are you kidding!? You were serious about that!? Hooray! Let's do this! I'm really glad!"

Banri was back on his feet really quickly. Kouko slung the tightly fastened ecobag from her shoulder and lending a hand to the unsteadily standing Banri,

"I'm so happy you're glad!"

In an excessively good mood, she declaimed loudly, as if she were an evil queen. And then,

"I've bought all the right things, and my preparations are already perfect! You may now anticipate!"

His smile reached all the way to his toes. Today's feeling of it being a slow nothing-to-do day was blown away in a single breath. If Banri were a dog, he thought, he'd be standing up begging and his tail would be wagging so fast it would lift him into the air like a helicopter.

Banri, do you like yakisoba? Me, I can make curry yakisoba! It isn't curry plus yakisoba, but rather curry-flavored yakisoba. It's quite delicious. Shall we make it the next time we eat at your place?

...She was undoubtedly remembering a similar conversation on some prior date. But he wasn't thinking about that today. With the sudden change of schedule, Kouko must have been too busy during the middle day. He thought it was more than anything an ordinary verbal promise. Banri probably forgot, somehow, part of their vast river of conversation.

<~~23% Completed~~>

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