CH 57

I want to go to the beach.

Translated by Dawn

I want to go to the beach.

A light brown sandy beach and a slightly dark blue sea with a hint of green.

Beyond that, the sky stretched out, creating a three-layered mille-feuille with the beach and the sea. This was the scenery that unfolded right in front of my eyes.

“The beach!”

Unusually, Mizutani exclaimed like a child and dashed toward the sea.

She left her loafers on the sandy beach and walked barefoot.

On the deserted beach, I watched her back with a wry smile.

The trigger for all this was Mizutani’s words:

“I want to go to the beach.”

“The beach?”

It was such a sudden statement that I instinctively repeated it back to her.

“Yeah. I’m just feeling like it right now.”

Mizutani nodded.

I see, if that’s how she feels, then there’s no helping it… I used my smartphone to search. It turned out that if we got off at a certain station on the train we were currently on, we could apparently go to the beach.

I relayed the results of my search to Mizutani as it was.

To which Mizutani agreed, saying, “Then let’s go there,” and that brought us to the present moment.

Nevertheless, Mizutani right now was just like an elementary school student. She went into the shallow water alone and splashed the seawater onto the sandy beach by moving her feet. It was heartwarming, and just watching her made me involuntarily smile.

“Aizawa, aren’t you coming in—?”

Mizutani placed her hand on her mouth and said in a louder voice than usual.

Standing alone on the sandy beach, I pointed at my own feet.

“I’m wearing jeans.”

“If that’s the case, I’m wearing my uniform. You can roll up the hem and go in, right?”

“Ehh…”

First of all, I think it was strange to go into the sea in a uniform.

Or maybe, from the world’s perspective, Mizutani’s sense was correct, and my sense was wrong?

Considering that I didn’t have a change of clothes, and considering the distance to my house, it was quite daunting.

“…Sorry, I was being unreasonable. Yeah, you’re right, it would be difficult to go into the sea dressed like this.”

Perhaps her excitement was brought back to reality by my reaction, Mizutani looked downhearted. It hurt more to see that face than to be ordered to go in. I started questioning myself, “Am I perhaps not good at going with the flow?”

“Ahhh, fine, I get it. I’ll go in. I’ll go in.”

In the end, I gave in and said that and Mizutani’s face brightened up instantly.

Earlier, I described her as being like an elementary school student, but she might even be a kindergartener.

Mizutani’s reaction was just too straightforward.

After taking off my shoes and carefully rolling up the cuffs of my jeans, I stepped into the seawater.

Then Mizutani moved her feet and splashed water toward me.

Droplets scattered and landed on my jeans a little.

As a playful retaliation, I splashed water back with the same strength.

This time, droplets scattered and landed on Mizutani’s skirt. Mizutani deliberately frowned and said, “Uwaa,” and then splashed water back at me even stronger than before.

“That’s what you get, you jerk.”

From there, it turned into a full-on water fight. We didn’t even understand what we were doing, but it was a strangely hilarious time. After thoroughly splashing water at each other, we were now sitting side by side on the stone steps just before the sandy beach.

“Ahh well, I got pretty wet.”

Mizutani said in a voice that didn’t seem too disappointed.

“Yeah, it’s ridiculous.”

Feeling the discomfort of the shirt clinging to my wet skin, I said.

To Mizutani, who was laughing, I added more venomously.

“It’s not a laughing matter. We won’t be able to take the train for a while.”

“Then we’ll just have to wait here for our clothes to dry.”

I felt Mizutani’s gaze turning toward me.

As I shifted my gaze from the sea in front of me to the side, I inevitably made eye contact with Mizutani.

She had a smile on her face.

“I’m happy. I get to spend more time with Aizawa.”

“…Today’s Mizutani is weird.”

I returned my gaze to the sea.

I was not a pure-hearted person who could simply take her words at face value.

“Do you think so? Isn’t Aizawa also quite unusual?”

“Well, I admit that… but Mizutani is definitely strange too.”

“I wonder… but maybe Aizawa is right. Maybe the current me is a bit off.”

Mizutani said as if it were someone else’s matter.

However, a bit off, huh?

That was the perfect word to describe the current Mizutani.

Doing whatever she wanted, like going into the sea in her uniform and splashing water around.

Continuing to speak as if discussing someone else’s story, Mizutani continued.

“Maybe it’s because I said what I wanted to say to my mom and felt relieved. Normally, she would draw a line and say, ‘Okay, up to this point.’ But today, it seems like she didn’t draw that line.”

“In other words, someone skipped setting boundaries.”

“Or someone erased the boundaries that were already set.”

“…Just so you know, it wasn’t me.”

“No one said it was you, Aizawa.”

“Even if it wasn’t said out loud, that’s what Mizutani’s eyes were telling me.”

“But Aizawa isn’t looking at my eyes right now, right?”

“…I’m glancing.”

“You can’t see properly if you’re just glancing. I want you to look at me properly, face to face.”

“……..”

“Hey, are you listening?”

Mizutani shook my shoulder, so I reluctantly turned toward her.

Her blue eyes, like the sea mixed with a hint of green, met mine directly.

“How about it? My eyes. It didn’t say anything like that, right?”

“…Well, I don’t know.”

Embarrassed, I looked away, and Mizutani complained, saying, “Ah, you ran away.”

“I didn’t run away.”

“Liar. You ran away, I’m sure of it.”

We exchanged such silly banter and spent some relaxing time there.

Thanks to the summer sunshine, our clothes dried surprisingly quickly.

Of course, we sweat a bit, but it was better than being soaked in seawater, so we turned back and boarded the train.

Even after getting on the train, Mizutani talked about various things with unusually high energy.

It was the first time I heard about her family situation.

But as we gradually approached her home, Mizutani became less talkative.

I understood the reason for that. So, when we were about five stations away from her nearest station, I made a suggestion to Mizutani. The sky visible from the train window was dyed a deep red.

“Mizutani. How about coming to my house today?”

To be honest, I had been considering it since the time we met each other late at night. However, at that time, Mizutani’s mother had not yet discovered our late-night rendezvous, so I thought it would be fine to leave things as they were and didn’t casually bring them up.

Now I could clearly say that it was a wrong judgment. I didn’t want to meddle in other people’s family matters, and I didn’t think Mizutani’s mother was a bad person… But I should have created an opportunity for Mizutani and her mother to distance themselves sooner.

However, it was strange even for me to be able to casually utter those inviting words like this. I said that Mizutani was acting differently, but maybe I was also becoming weird. It seemed like something had snapped inside me.

Mizutani momentarily widened her eyes, then hesitantly lowered her gaze, saying, “But…”

I could imagine what she was thinking.

She might appear pushy, but she was still a peculiar person who was considerate in unexpected ways.

“If you’re thinking that you don’t want to bother me, just say it clearly. I’m already greatly inconvenienced, so it’s too late for that.”

“…You’re mean.”

After glaring at me jokingly, Mizutani chuckled.

“Well, since you put it that way, I guess I’ll take you up on your offer.”