Hello, Hello and Hello:Volume 2 Chapter 1

Contact 130 - The Stars Clutter, The Wishes Weaved

“Eh, it’s Yoshi-kun. Hello~”

It happened 30 minutes before we were supposed to meet.

I stopped at the Southern exit of the shopping arcade. There was a small antiquarian bookshop opened to the public, and Yoshi-kun was beyond it.

It seemed he never noticed my voice and my highly raised hand.

After some thought, I went a different way. To him, of course.

He could not hear my footsteps, and I crept up to him.

Dust refracted the light shining through the door and windows of the dim shop, glittering as they danced in the air. He, focused on the book in such an environment, was mesmerizing.

A day’s worth of lessons was over, but the white shirt on him remained. His back was so straight, one might wonder if there was a stick in his back. The long bangs might be causing him difficulty in reading, so he did move them aside from time to time. His eyebrows are pretty long for a boy, the gentle eyes beneath them were following the words.

I went to the entrance, and pulled a book from a cart full of them.

The cover was completely tattered, and there was a long crack down the spine. I could see a faint ‘¥100’ on the back, in pencil. It was cheaper than a drink can.

This book was written by a certain famous author—so famous that those who hardly read would know of his name, and the textbooks had records of him. This might be his most renowned work.

The pages were parched by the sun, and I enjoyed the distinct crispness they had, but I never paid attention to the words and the story. The entire time, I was staring at the boy bigger than me, and a year younger.

Did he sense my stare? Or was it just coincidence?

Yoshi-kun lifted his eyes from the book, as though he had thought of something, only to finally see me. He was surprised, and beamed.

I too beamed.

“Is this book interesting?”

“Sorta.”

“But you seem rather engrossed there?”

We never talked, and merely twitched our eyebrows, mouth and eyes to express our emotions and thoughts.

“You figured me out. Ehh, mind waiting a bit? I’m almost done here.”

“Ehh~shall I wait~?”

“Please do.”

“Just joking. Enjoy yourself.”

“Thanks. What are you reading?”

Yoshi-kun nodded towards me, and tilted his head sceptically. I raised the book to his height, showing him the cover, and saw his look of understanding in while his vision was halved.

“I see. That famous one. Give me five minutes.”

“Yes.”

Yoshi-kun immersed himself into the sea of the story, beginning to navigate once again.

This time, I quietly pursued the impatient words eager to convey their story, so as not to disturb him.

❆

I first met Haruyoshi Segawa-kun two days ago.

I approached him while he was heading home, asking him how to head to the station.

I already knew however, and he would unsuspectingly accept this flimsy approach.

“Thanks for helping me out. I’m staying at the hotel near there. Didn’t know how to go back after going out on a stroll.”

The gloomy skies were on the verge of crying, the tips of the two umbrellas scraped the asphalt, creaking away.

“A hotel? So you’re on a trip or something?”

“Hm, something like that.”

“There are places more appropriate for sightseeing though. Ah, not there. This side’s a little closer. Oh yes, erm…”

“I’m Yuki Shiina.”

“Segawa Haruyoshi.”

We introduced ourselves as we went down the paths, which I had walked countless times with. We talked our our names, ages, and even the blood types, which was unnecessary to begin with. One again, I heard for the first time, the things I had heard so many times.

“Now that you mention it, it is a pity. Guess a town with nothing much around is pretty boring, eh?”

“Hmm, you can’t be saying that about the town you live in though. I prefer to just walk around and see the plain, ordinary sights than the famous tourist attractions. Also, I like this town..”

This is true.

I really do like this town.

“Well, I can’t say that I don’t understand how you feel. Every time I find an unfamiliar alley, I end up walking in.”

“You really do, huh?”

“Yeah, even though I don’t know where I’ll be going.”

“It’s fun when you don’t know where you’ll end up at.”

“I do get what you mean. It’s not a feeling I want to know, not something I should, but I always end up lost, as you say.”

While we were chatting away, we found an alley. I tapped the entrance with my umbrella, and as I knew Yoshi-kun had stopped behind me, I turned around to smile.

His face was clearly going ‘whelps, here we go’. It was really funny.

That face of his definitely was not of disgust. I, and only I, knew that.

“Okie, let’s go.”

“Ohh~!”

We raised our fists enthusiastically, and entered the alley.

Day by day, we were moving to summer, and the temperature continued to rise with the number of days. There were uncommon flowers growing on the walls, and the leaves looked exceptionally green next to them.

“Shiina-san, if I may ask, where are you from?”

He asked as he pried aside the leaves reaching his eyes.

“Call me Yuki. No honorifics, of course.”

I was unable to answer this question, so I replied so to throw him off.

“Eh, but you’re older.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll call you Yoshi-kun.”

“Not Haru?”

“Is that what others always call you?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I guess I should call you Yoshi-kun. It’s boring to be the same as everyone. Guess we decided?”

I smiled, and Yoshi-kun’s face was a little red, maybe because of the simmering heat. He spaced out silently.

“Yoshi-kun?”

I tilted my head to look up at his face, and he reeled flusteredly. For ome reason, he looked away again. Eh, what was with that response? I never saw that before.

“Eh? Ah, yeah. Got it. Please take care of me, Yuki.”

“Hm? Okay, please take care of me, Yoshi-kun.”

It happened on June 29th, Wednesday.

We began the 130th meeting on the day, the day where the plum rain was about to arrive.

❆

Once I was done reading a short story within that old book, Yoshi-kun left the shop. The bag slinging from his shoulder was swaying by his waist. He was holding a brown bag as big as a book.

“Kept you waiting.”

“Can’t resist after all, huh?”

“Sorta. But I don’t like it when I can’t finish the exciting parts.”

He raised the paper bag as he said so, and I noticed something else in his hand. It was a rectangular pale blue paper. A bookmark? It would be boring if it was.

“Say, Yoshi-kun. What is that?”

“Which one?”

“The pale blue.”

“Huh, this? A gift I guess. Well…it’s July soon, right?”

“Yes?”

“And on July 7th…”

“Tanabata.”

It was the day where two lovers, separated by the Milky Way, could finally meet.

In other words, that paper is—

“Yeah, I guess the committee came up with this to liven up the shopping street this year. All the shops give this strip to the shoppers. There’s an open space down this road, and the bamboos will be there. The lights will be lit on Tanabata.”

That imagery was conjured in my mind. The bamboo leaves swaying with the leaves, the dazzling lights shining upon countless wishes.

Being a little agitated, I said,

“That’s great.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Yeah. It really is. Can I join in too?”

“I guess so? As I said, you get one strip if you shop here.”

“I see. Wait a sec please. I’ll buy a book too.”

This time, Yoshi-kun’s waiting outside, and I entered the antiquarian bookshop.

The shop’s darker and smaller than I imagined.

There was a cashier deep inside the shop, and an uncle was seated on a bench, reading intently. He was wearing a loose shirt and pants, and clearly did not look like anyone belonging to the service sector. Was he the boss? He merely glanced aside at me, and returned to the world of the book in his hands. I merely nodded to him, and trotted to the aisles between the bookshelves

Renown and obscure works were lined together. The book spines were door handles leading to another world.

Which, one, shall, I choose, then.

Seeking out stories is an interesting experience. To be honest, I really wanted to spend lots of time choosing one, but Yoshi-kun’s waiting for me, so I have to choose quickly. Dazai? Akutagawa? Or maybe I should try out Yukio Mishima since I never read his works. There’s his Temple of the Golden Pavilion and so on.

Erm…Mishima, Mishima and …

I slid my finger by the names of the author on the spines, according to Gojuon, only to find a completely unrelated book between them.

The title was written in white, with a deep blue base.

Someone probably stuffed it here without returning it to the proper place.

I touched the hard spine of the book with my fingertip, and slowly pried it from the pile. Its cover, adorned with light blobs of various sizes, slowly showed itself from the spine. It was a graphic book depicting the constellation.

I knew nothing of the stars’ names, nor their shapes. Such knowledge’s commonly used as novel themes, and I wanted to learn about them one day, but I never got the chance. This might be it.

I pulled the book out from the row of them, and took it off the shelf. “Huu”, so I blew at the dust gathered on the cover, and gently dusted it. The smooth surface was nice to touch.

It’s a well made book. A little dirty, but pretty clean for a second-hand book.

I nonchalantly flipped through the pages, and found lots of colorful illustrations used in this book. It explained each and every seasonal constellation. I then checked for the page number indicating Tanabata, closed the book, and took it in my hands. I then said to the uncle.

“I’m buying this book.”

It was priced exactly at 500 yen.

I didn’t know if it was expensive or not.

I was given a pink slip.

Pata pata.

I sensed the pattering on the windows, and then lifted my head from the book I was reading.

I pried the curtain aside, and found that it was raining outside. The rain got heavier, the lights of the town dimmer in the rain, the familiar night scene gentler than before.

The moist street reflected blue and red lights, and depicted on the puddles were the sights of pedestrians moving on and the rain pelting from the sky. Replacing them were ripples expanding one after another. Such a sight left be bemused.

I closed the constellation book I bought the same day, and opened the window a little. Once I did, the moist cold air immediately swept into the humid room.

There’s a fragrance spreading gently in the room. Do I call it the smell of rain? Or perhaps it was the smell of the sky.

The countless transparent rain droplets fell from the sky, and to me, they were the threads linking heaven and earth.

I gently reached my hand out of the window, and a raindrop landed on my fingertip, before splashing away. It never rested on my finger, and quickly slid further down..

I looked towards its source.

The sky typically wouldn’t lose to the lights of the town, but on this day, the skies were grey.

I could not see beyond the grey clouds, but I was imagining the imagery beyond the dark clouds.The constellations that were depicted in the book.

On the topic of the summer night sky, the most famous of the constellations are α Cygni, α Aquilae and α Lyrae, the vertices of the Summer Triangle. The bluish-white star of α Lyrae is Vega, and α Aquilae is Altair. The Milky Way flows right between them, and they can only meet once a year.

With my other hand, I patted the pink paper that was next to the book.

It was an ordinary piece of paper.

It was a little thin, regular, a uniformly colored bookmark. On the yearly Tanabata however, it seems wishes can be granted if one is to write a wish and hang it on the bamboo.

Such trivial things won’t cause miracles however.

The world’s occasionally kind, but it’s typically cruel.

I knew that, very well indeed. But…

I had countless urges to write my wish, but I could never express them clearly. Right now, the paper’s still blank.

Will it be all different if I can see the stars? If I can imagine them passing the Milky Way, will I gain some courage.

The rain continued to pour.

The clouds remained so thick.

And my eyes did not reflect the glow of the stars.

It’s hot. So I thought as I couldn’t help but close my eyes. Nowhere in particular, I was hot all over. I was burning from head to toe. When did such heat reside in my body to begin with?

I woke up due to the energy oozing from my body. I really didn’t know what happened.

My back was all sweaty, the shirt clinging to the skin. It was uncomfortable, my nose was stuffed, and I had difficulty breathing. What’s going on?

My joints were searing uncomfortably, and I grimaced. My eyelids were heavy, my body moreso. I couldn’t get up like usual, and while I tried, I quickly fell back . The neat bedsheet was crumpled, and the bed let out a little creak.

“Haa…haa…” I wheezed heavily, thinking hard as I looked to the digital watch by the bedside. The green light informed me it was less than an hour till my meeting with Yoshi-kun.

It seemed I slept for at least 12 hours. If possible however, I wanted to continue sleeping. I really had no urge to move at all.

Despite that, I unwittingly reached my hand out.

Just as how I sought the light when I was young.

I had to go.

Yoshi-kun’s waiting for me.

He probably would be waiting for me in the rain if I did not go. I felt heartache just imagining that scene.

And more importantly, I wanted to see his smile while calling my name.

“Nn, nnnn…nn!”

This time, I propped my body up with my hands.

I slowly wiped my sweat off with a cloth, and put on a winter jacket.

I looked in the mirror, and found a completely flushed me. The face was redder than apples and strawberries. The eyelids were heavy, and my eyes were half opened. That face did not look cute at all. I really didn’t want to show Yoshi-kun that.

I withheld the urge to cry, combed my hair, put on my makeup, and of course, never forgot to apply the sakura perfume.

I was exceedingly late by the time I left the hotel, but I hurried over to Yoshi-kun. I passed the station, and entered the arcade of the shopping street opposite the hotel.

I kept moving with my legs and the umbrella. My legs felt light, and I felt I was about to fall. If there was a strong gust and I did not stand upright, I would have fallen over. How long left? How long more until I could meet Yoshi-kun?

Right at this moment.

"Yuki." I heard a voice. My name was called.

However, that voice did not seem as warm as before. It sounded more worried instead.

Ah, but it is still very warm.

"What are you doing!?"

He yelled as he hurried to me. I lost all strength at that moment, probably because I was relieved. I nearly fell over, and Yoshi-kun hugged me. It's hard. It hurts.

They were the hands of a boy.

It was the body of a boy.

"Well, we promised."

"Promised?"

For what? Yoshi-kun was definitely not suffering, but he looked like he’s about to cry.

“Yes. We promised. Just yesterday, didn’t we? We said we’ll meet the next day.”

“We did, but you can’t be showing up like this.”

“You’ll be worried if I don’t show up, no? You’ll just wait for me stupidly, right?”

“That’s…”

Not the case—but to stop him from saying these words, I placed my index finger on his lips.

“You lie. I knew that.”

Because you’re here now, right?

You came looking for me because you’re worried about me, right?

I knew that. I already knew how kind a person you were.

But at this point, I was suffering, unable to say anything. I could not voice out.

And my consciousness started fading away.

“Yuki? Yuki?”

The voice calling for me became distant.

Ahh, it’s fine. I’ll just have a nap. I’ll recover after some rest. But it’s because of a person like you that I—

And my consciousness snapped. At the last moment, nobody, not even I, knew what I was thinking, what I wanted to say

❆