Obon Holiday
Finishing my late-night shift, I returned to my apartment. The mood when heading out into the darkness before a shift is the worst, but for some reason, walking home in the dawning world after a late-night shift feels strangely good.
“I’m back.”
My place is a six-tatami-mat, one-room apartment. A twenty-year-old, reinforced concrete studio meant for single living. Normally, only someone far more polite than me would bother greeting an empty room upon returning, but lately, I’ve been saying it before stepping inside.
That’s because, naturally, there’s someone in the room to hear those words.
Hayashi Megumi.
A classmate from high school. She moved to the city, dated a guy, lived with him, and then suffered domestic violence at his hands. Now, she’s taking shelter in my apartment.
“Welcome back. Want some breakfast?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
It’s been about two weeks since I started hiding her here.
Our cohabitation, which began under strange circumstances, has surprisingly gone smoothly so far, without any major issues.
“By the way, Obon’s coming up soon. What’re you gonna do?”
The breakfast she prepared was simple: white rice, scrambled eggs, sausages, and miso soup. A typical family breakfast, but for a single guy’s morning, it’s practically a feast.
As we ate, perhaps with Obon approaching, Hayashi asked me about my plans.
“Not going back.”
“Why not?”
My decision not to go home for Obon seemed to surprise her, prompting her question.
I wondered what she thought about it.
Did she want me to go back home? Or not? Thinking about it, the answer seemed clear.
She probably wanted me gone. It’s only natural—living with a guy she’s not even dating, under these circumstances, for two weeks. Given how she ended up here, I could guess how she felt.
“Couldn’t get a ticket back.”
Obon is when everyone, even working adults, gets time off, leading to the so-called homecoming rush. Public transportation jacks up fares, knowing it’s prime time, and even then, trains are packed to the brim with people.
It’s been half a year since I moved to the city for university.
I didn’t go home for Golden Week either. At first, living in this apartment, I was homesick.
But as I started enjoying the freedom of living alone, my body got used to the absence of others.
Before I knew it, I’d missed my chance to go back.
“Sorry.”
“Why’re you apologizing?”
Hayashi gave a wry, exasperated smile.
I’d apologized because I assumed she didn’t want to be stuck with me, but it seemed I’d misread her.
“What about you? Not going back home? …Never mind, forget I asked.”
She’s currently in the middle of a huge fight with her family. Going back home probably isn’t an option for her.
“Yeah, sorry for messing up your solo life.”
“Don’t worry about it. Having you here means I don’t have to cook. It’s honestly a huge help.”
She’s taken on pretty much all the household chores.
Cooking, laundry, even keeping a budget. The only thing I insist on handling is cleaning.
I feel bad, but that’s one thing I won’t budge on. Absolutely not.
“Sorry.”
Hayashi apologized again.
“I said, don’t worry about it.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Then what the heck did she mean?
“You were being considerate of me, weren’t you? About going home.”
I fell silent.
“You thought about my situation, fresh off that mess, and decided not to go home so you could stay here and cheer me up.”
“You think I’m that considerate?”
“You were on the phone with your parents the other day, weren’t you?”
The other morning,
I got a call from my parents on my smartphone.
To sum it up, they were asking if I’d come home for Obon. I told them right away I wasn’t coming back.
Surprisingly, they gently insisted I should. Maybe they wanted their idiot son to help with some cleaning after being gone for so long.
But I turned them down. …Honestly, no matter how crowded it gets, it’s not like there’s no train to take me home. Plus, university summer breaks are long.
If I shifted the timing, going home would be easy.
Still, I…
“It’s polite not to point that stuff out, you know.”
My face felt hot. This girl doesn’t miss a thing, does she?
From now on, I’ll have to be extra careful even with phone calls. I went out of my way to avoid making her feel awkward, and now it’s all for nothing.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just… you’re so not straightforward about it.”
“…We’ve been living together for two weeks, and you didn’t notice?”
“Haha, yeah, you’re right.”
Hayashi laughed heartily and fixed her gaze on me.
“You’re such a contrarian, aren’t you? Were you like that back in high school?”
“Way before high school.”
“Hopeless, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
“…If you let your honest feelings show more, I bet you’d have a lot more fun.”
“Whether my life’s been fun or not is for me to decide, not for you to define.”
“You’re right about that.”
“…You’re agreeing with me?”
“Because it’s thanks to that contrarian streak of yours that I was saved.”
…Was it, though?
The only reason I was able to help Hayashi this time was because we happened to be high school classmates, she happened to come into the convenience store where I work, and I happened to notice her injuries.
Timing, luck, circumstances. It all lined up perfectly to produce this outcome.
But on the flip side, if the timing, luck, and circumstances had aligned for someone else, they surely would’ve saved her too.
Maybe I wasn’t the one who should’ve saved her. Maybe someone more suitable should’ve been the one to help her.
I’m not being self-deprecating.
It’s just a general observation.
In fact, according to Hayashi, Kasahara was shocked when she heard I’d helped her. More than anything, it seems I didn’t strike her as the type to do something like that. Doesn’t that say it all?
…Let’s stop thinking about this.
These kinds of thoughts usually just sap my motivation and drag my mood down.
Change your mindset.
That’s one trick I’ve learned, after failing at so many things, to build a better life.
“…Hey, Yamamoto?”
“What?”
“…You got time during Obon?”
I’d gotten a similar invitation from her recently.
“Yeah.”
That time, she asked me to go with her to buy a smartphone.
“Then, how about going on a little date?”
…But this time,
“Does it have to be me?”
“…Hmm, I wonder.”
Hayashi hesitated for a moment before looking at me with a serious expression.
“Yeah. It’s gotta be you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the one who saved my life.”
That was just a matter of timing, luck, and circumstances coming together. But regardless of how it happened, it’s also true that I was the one who did it.
“And… I’ll be leaving this place soon, you know.”
Hayashi’s search for a new place has been going pretty smoothly.
She’s already at the point of signing a contract with a real estate agent.
…That’s true.
With her about to leave, as a sort of farewell,
Maybe going on one date wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
“Alright.”
I agreed shortly after.
“Thanks!”
The one who smiled happily was Hayashi.
