CH 15

Ch. 15: If I had that…

It was raining this morning.

It had been raining since last night, and the continuous rain had created a gloomy atmosphere. It would be rare for anyone to want to go to work or school on such a day.

[Ugh! My hair is all messed up!] (EDN: MC’s sister)

The Kirishima Family also raised their voices in protest against such an atmosphere in the morning.

I was making lunch with Himeko’s voice as the BGM. She was saying [Ahh… It’s always like this…]

The lunch consisted of frozen karaage (the microwavable type), leftover burdock root, and carrot kinpira from last night’s dinner, and small tomatoes.

[I hate rainy days! It made my hair get all puffy and floppy.] (EDN: MC’s sister)

[I like it a lot, actually. I don’t have to worry about being sent to help out.]

[Onii, there are no fields here.]

[Yeah, you’re right.]

[More importantly, according to the app, it’s supposed to stop raining in the afternoon. I wonder if I should take a folded umbrella.]

[From your phone?]

[Yeah, it’s pretty handy.]

[I see, well it is convenient.]

[I’m surprised that Onii is interested.]

[… Well, Haruki asked me why I didn’t have one.]

[Ah, Haru-chan…]

Himeko nodded her head and crossed her arms as if she was convinced of something. At the same time, her eyes were staring at me with a hint of criticism and dismay in her eyes.

[Can I have a word with you, Onii? A phone is now a necessity in today’s world. Just as every family has a refrigerator and every farmer has a tractor, it is natural for everyone to have one. The ones who don’t have them are abnormal nowadays.]

[Seriously… Is it really that bad?]

[Tsukinose only has one radio wave, But it’s still convenient to have it. I call Saki-chan everyday, you know…]

[Oh, with Murao-san.]

Saki Murao. Something that’s quite rare in Tsukinose, a girl in the same age as Himeko, and is a classmate and a friend of hers.

She is a quiet girl and has been playing with Himeko for a long time. However, when I approached her, she always hid behind Himeko, so she is perceived as a friend of my sister who’s really shy. Yet, she is a really important friend of Himeko.

(I see…)

Himeko and Saki Murao were separated by our move. The distance between Tsukinose and this town is several hours by car. It’s not a distance where they can easily meet.

For me and Himeko, who don’t have a driver license nor a car, there’s a gap that would require a whole day to visit them. For a young child like Himeko, it would be an eternal separation.

However, Himeko is still actively keeping in touch with her. It may be a faint connection from a palm-sized device. However, I felt that they were deeply connected and still communicating with each other.

[I see… Murao-san, how is she?]

[Hmm… The usual? Ah, but it seems that she’s a bit concerned about you, Onii… What did you do?]

[Ha? Me? Well, I mean, Murao-san was rather uncomfortable with me, right?]

[Right? Hmmm… She’s always been weird when she’s in front of you, Onii… I wonder if it’s psychological?]

[Stop it, Himeko. That hurts, you know.]

[Ahaha, I’ll say something nice about your appeal to her.]

[I’ll count on you for that.]

Then Himeko started typing a message to her.

I saw this and thought that if I had stayed connected to Haruki when I was a child, I might have had a different future than I have now.

Himeko said something to me while typing a message.

[I think Haru-chan was happy to see you again after such a long time. You’re still friends, right? I’m sure you have tons of things to talk about, and I think you want to talk more.]

[I don’t know… But that might be true.]

To be honest, Hayato doesn’t know why Haruki yelled at him like that yesterday.

When I think about it, there are many things I don’t know nor understand about Haruki.

There’re a lot of things I didn’t know about Haruki, like the fact that she’s a girl, or that she was building a diorama. There might be misunderstandings and miscommunication between us. Even so, Haruki is a special and important childhood friend.

(If we had a smartphone, we’d be able to understand each other.)

I was considering getting a smartphone.