Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3
Golden Time 1: Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.
It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri’s side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cell-phone, by the transmit light.
He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can’t hear you well, hello hello, it’s me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that’s fine. I’ll be staying one day at the club training camp. That’s all."
In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.
"OK then, until next time I call!"
"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn’t understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.
Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?
Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, Banri’s cool!, he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What’s up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.
In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn’t sit down. He wasn’t about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.
Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cell-phone. The train still hadn’t arrived, and he hadn’t received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.
My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.
Wham, at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri’s face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.
Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.
"Kaga-saan"
It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.
When she noticed Banri’s hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren’t any lectures on Saturday, and there weren’t any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.
"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"
"Did the older girl show up?"
"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."
Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.
An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.
A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.
Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko’s face.
Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl’s College during yesterday’s encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the ‘All-Around Intercollegiate Club’ to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.
From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.
Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly an crowded hole in the wall, and then they’d been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought ‘This is a café-au-lait bowl?’, but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the conversation.
Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Get all your first year language credits by home study, you should get a part time job, by the first year summer break a person could have a relationship, it’s been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.
Irregardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.
Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we’ll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at ten-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to do something.
So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn’t he see that? In a training facility inside the prefecture. Weren’t there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn’t too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you’re a freshman, of course there are no fees. It’s OK, it’s OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don’t ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it’s already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It’s all right, by participating, that’s how we’ll do it. Deciding would be good, don’t you think? Right?
It must have been the mood of the conversation.
He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other’s expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally bowed as one.
That’d be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I’m tired… I want to go home… if we say we’ll participate we’ll be able to leave… Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn’t say anything, but wasn’t going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.
Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.
Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, ‘let’s go!’ They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.
Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn’t help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night’s worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn’t going on this outing.
"Hey, Tada-kun."
He didn’t know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.
"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"
With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.
"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying ‘Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member’s seminar.’"
"...And Mitsuo?"
Pulling out his cellphone, it didn’t seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You’re kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.
Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri’s face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.
"Don’t worry about it. It’s my problem."
"Yes, so it is."
Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko’s eyes.
"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it’s a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."
"Won’t catch either, of course."
Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,
"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."
Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn’t fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.
"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn’t it, rather this is. When it comes to men, being chased is part of escaping, escaping is part of being chased, it seems like... doesn’t it? Won’t the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? ‘Wives and tatami mats and... tunafish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?’ ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn’t understand..."
"That’s OK. It’s enough explanation for now."
"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"
Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.
"Mitsuoo! ...It’s not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"
She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.
"And so, just look, you’ve got me instead! ...And it seems to me that Yana-ssan wouldn’t mind."
Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.
"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It would have been a miracle if Mitsuo had any idea where we were going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."
"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I’d be going to the drinking party alone."
"I don’t think you’d have been alone. ...Those guys, aren’t they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman seminar with them."
Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,
"Ah! Isn’t that Mr. Two Dimensions?"
"Eh? You’re kidding. Tada Banri?"
His acquaintance didn’t fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.
"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman seminar too?"
"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is Yana-ssan a member too?"
"Yana-ssan isn’t coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."
Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, local laws, something I see, exist, is, it’s Monday, it’s two dimensional," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user’s manual of a bootleg copy of something, he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.
Kouko in her way,
"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"
She wasn’t speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can’t understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.
"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"
Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri’s explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he’d shouted, "And that’s why three-dimensions is bad! You’re all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon while drinking a lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.
As she watched Mr. Two Dimension’s face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.
But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.
It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, Ijuuin-kun, or even Jigen Daisuke-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn’t here."
Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn’t anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to smile.
That, despite the fact that she didn’t have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!
But, you’ve just has not been able to make that happen, Banri spoke in his mind to Kouko’s smiling face. Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions, and "Mitsuo isn’t here" (a not quite living creature), for at least these two days and one night would participate in the seminar with Kouko and become "friends".
"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world’s not all that bad a place."
<~~19% Completed~~>
| Back to Chapter 2 | Return to Main Page |