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Ahhh, another long day of school, thought high school student Miwako Sawatari. She strode the streets of her town minutes after the echoes of the final bell rang throughout. The sun was beginning to close towards the horizon as the two moons hovered overhead. The inbetween of afternoon and evening. She blew a sigh from her pouted lips as she went over the events of the day.
Well, not the important events of the day, like Mr. Okino chastising her for daydreaming, just what mattered most to her. A new love sprung within the confines of the educational institution, and she was ready to spread it among its learners! Oh, it brought a heavy thump to her heart just thinking about it. A new relationship, kindling a flame of love that would be sure to rock the very foundations of time and space.
At least, that’s how she saw it.
However, that would have to wait for tomorrow. Okino gave them homework, so she had to do it eventually, even if it was at the last minute.
In the meantime, she was already on her way towards the town’s sweets shop. Nearly a daily routine for her, she’d reward herself for another fine day of living by enjoying some of life’s best confections. Throughout the day, she had been considering what to get for herself.
In fact, she stopped in front of the shop to deliberate further. Short lists of sweets gave way to long strings of sentences on why she would pick them.
Mmm, if I keep thinking about it, I’ll be here all day!
Correct in this assessment, she balled her fists and threw them both down in a show of determination. Reaching out, she opened the door to the sweet shop and stepped in, her ears hearing the familiar bell announcing her arrival while her nose was getting hit by that familiar scent of confectionaries. This smell brought a warmth to her heart that made her feel almost at home.
Grabbing her bag with both hands, she moved towards the front counter, where a woman was cleaning its surface with a rag. She was just finishing cleaning, preparing for the influx of students to arrive now that school was let out.
The woman’s head turned up, smiling at the familiar face. “Ah, Miwako! I see you’ve beaten the rest here, as usual. What are you craving today?”
Miwako smiled up at the lady. “Hello, Nanako. Hmm, let’s see…”
The young woman put a finger to her chin, eyes turned upward in thought as she mulled over the options. Here it is, the final decision. There was always mochi and crepes, but it was beginning to heat up a bit with summer creeping its way in. That called for one thing.
“I am feeling like some soft serve, please.”
Nanako nodded before putting away the rag and going towards the soft serve machine. “Coming right up!”
Miwako nodded and stood by as she waited for her treat. She heard the machine turning on, knowing a nice, sweet cone of soft serve would soon be in her hands for her to enjoy.
Surely enough, it wasn’t long before the woman came back to the counter and held out a cone with a large dollop of vanilla soft serve. “For you!”
Miwako stepped closer with a wide smile. She reached into her bag to retrieve some of her allowance money and place it on the counter before taking the cone. “Thank you!”
Turning around, she was about to head out and make her way back home when something caught her eye. In one of the corners of the sweet shop was a table with three older ladies sitting at it. One of them was glancing her way, her dark brown eyes gazing at the teenager with a sort of...familiarity?
The strange thing is, she’d only seen these women around town. It wasn’t a gigantic town, so the frequency with which people saw each other was more than once a day. However, she’s never interacted with them.
Glancing from her soft serve to the table, she began to slowly make her way over. The one who was glancing her way lit up, her eyes widening at the approaching teenager before quickly looking away. Her platinum blonde hair hid her face, instead showing the flower that she put in it.
The one next to her, a taller woman with short hair, glanced between the woman and Miwako. She cracked a smile and nudged her friend before looking at the third woman, who adjusted her red rim glasses and leaned in to mutter something.
The short-haired woman wasn’t so subtle. “C’mon, Iori. This was gonna happen eventually.”
The one with the glasses smirked. “You decided on the sweets shop, too. I feel like you did this on purpose.”
The one named Iori raised her shoulders up like a scared puppy. “Y-yeah, but I still wasn’t ready for this.”
The short-haired woman smiled. “Well, she’s here, so we should just roll with it,” she said before turning to Miwako just as she came within several feet of their table. She greeted the youngling with a bright, cheery voice, “Hello!”
Miwako stood with her soft serve in hand, tilting her head at the familiar nature of the woman’s voice. “Hello,” she replied, albeit a bit meekly.
The woman sat back in her seat, gesturing to the empty one just across. “Why don’t you sit down? Accompany some old ladies, why don’t you?”
Miwako glanced from one woman to the other, gauging their reactions to see if she would be bothering them. None of them showed any annoyance, only...interest.
The young woman nodded and took a seat, the woman in the red glasses looking over. “What’dya get? Soft serve?”
Miwako nodded silently.
She chuckled. “Hah, of course. Though you should’ve gotten the crepes. They were made fresh just an hour ago.”
“Oh, those looked good, too. But I was more in the mood for something colder.”
Iori spoke up, though her voice was still rather low. “I got tired of crepes decades ago.”
The short-haired woman peered over her shoulder, out the window where shambling students were walking down the street, some of which were entering the shopy. “It’s been getting hot out there lately. I don’t blame you.”
The door opened again, multiple times in a row as the school crowd came to one of their usual rest stops, the bell ringing their arrival constantly. The conversation between the four died down as the students milled in. Not a word said while the atmosphere of a sweets shop was forming, myriad conversations starting.
Eventually, the short-haired one sat straight up. “Oh, sorry! We hadn’t even given you our names yet! Heh, my name is Natsuno. Natsuno Miura,” she pointed to the woman in the red glasses, “This is Tomi Ogata,” then to the woman with the flower in her hair, “And Iori Sekigahara.”
Miwako looked at each of them. Those names were quite familiar to her, and she knew why. She was friends with some of their kids, especially the Miuras. She’s heard of Natsuno’s exploits above the atmosphere directly from her daughter Kimiko.
Miwako bowed a bit in her seat. “N-nice to meet you. I’m Miwako Sawatari.”
Tomi nodded. “A pleasure, Miwako. Hope you don’t mind hanging with a bunch of old hags like us.”
Miwako looked between them. To be honest, they didn’t look all that old. The odd wrinkle here and there, but otherwise these ladies have been able to keep themselves fit and rather young in appearance.
She shook her head quickly. “Oh, I-I don’t mind at all.”
“Old hags?” Natsuno cocked an eyebrow at Tomi.
“We’re getting there already, Natsuno.”
“Hey, don’t rope me in with you. I’m still going strong!”
“Uh-huh,” Tomi replied, an unimpressed look on her face.
Iori lifted her head, eyes curious as she addressed Natsuno, “Speaking of which, how was the last expedition?”
Natsuno shrugged. “Nothing much really, just more moon dust and rock collection for whatever analysis Renya is up to.”
“You never asked?”
“Why? I don’t care. I just like going to space.”
“You’re really one-track-minded, aren’t you, Dr. Space?” Tomi asked.
“Oh, look who’s talking, Missus Crepes?”
“It’s my job.”
“And space is mine.”
Iori smiled as her friends bickered. “Hey, you two, is it really wise to argue in front of a guest?”
Both Natsuno and Tomi looked at Iori, then Miwako, before they stopped, going back to their normal postures. “You’re right,” Natsuno said, returning to a more cheerful demeanor as she nodded towards the teenager, “Sorry, Miwako.”
Tomi turned to Miwako. “Yeah, sorry.”
She glanced aside, looking ashamed, when her eyes flitted back to Miwako, her lips curving into a smile. “Well, with that out of the way, why don’t you tell us about you? You’re from the nearby high school, of course? Is there any gossip going around? Juicy stories? I’m sure there’s plenty.”
Miwako couldn’t help but offer a small smile as she was asked about the one thing she actually cared about most. However, she restrained herself, even if by a little. “I’m...not sure if I should.”
Iori shook her head. “No, please, it’s fine. We don’t get much of that anymore. We miss it nowadays.”
Miwako was hesitant, but in her excitement, it was hard to keep it out. “Well...if you insist. I recently saw Kimiko Miura talking with one of the Ogata boys. I think it was Akira. They...they held hands afterwards.”
It was like a bomb dropped outside. Tomi and Natsuno both froze in place at the news, just the reaction Miwako expected. The two of them slowly turned to look at each other, wide-eyed.
“Uh,” Natsuno began, an awkward smile forming on her face, followed by an equally awkward chuckle, “Didn’t see that one coming. What a coincidence.”
Tomi blinked. “This could be a problem.”
Natsuno stuttered as she reeled from Tomi’s response. “W-what do you mean a problem? Kimiko’s a good girl.”
“Akira is a lot like his dad. That’s a problem.”
“Oh, it can’t be that bad. Kimiko has good judgement about people.”
“Hey, don’t blame me if she comes home complaining about how he professed his love.”
Iori raised her brow. “Still haven’t gotten over that, have you?”
“It was so embarrassing! Ugh...should...should we tell the kids we know now?”
Miwako shook her head. “No, don’t. I think they prefer to keep it quiet for now.”
Natsuno glanced between her two friends, then leaned in. “What’s your opinion of the situation, Miwako?”
“It’s another blooming high school romance. What’s not to love about it?”
“Teen pregnancy.” Tomi didn’t hesitate to speak her mind.
Natsuno, stunned by yet another hard hit fresh from Tomi’s lips, slammed her hand against the table’s surface, catching the attention of those nearby. “Kimiko would never! She’s as awkward as her father is!”
Amidst all this, Miwako was beginning to enjoy her soft serve. It was starting to melt a bit, so she had to start quickly or it’d get messy. Curse these hot summer days.
Iori eventually had to step in. “Alright, you two, that’s enough. Why not just keep an eye on them? This may turn out for the best.”
Natsuno looked at her friend, chuckling and nodding as she turned back to Tomi, smiling. “Yeah, Tomi. We could be in-laws!”
Tomi wrinkled her nose, sitting back with her arms crossed. “I don’t want to start thinking about that. Not sure you and Keitaro would want to spend time with me and Nenji.”
“Why, do you two fight all the time?”
“No, I just can’t keep myself off him.”
“Ah...nevermind.”
“Compared to your soldier boy—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Tomi. Your six kids already tell me enough.”
“Seven.”
“Seven!?”
Iori chuckled, hints of nostalgia sprinkled within. “Ah, I missed this.”
Miwako watched all of this with a sort of familiar feeling in her core. Like she had been through this before, but she barely met these women. The air between all of them was filled with this sense of connection, like they all knew each other.
Miwako was brought out of this line of thinking when Tomi suddenly stopped talking to lean towards Iori, a concerned expression on her face. “Iori...are you okay?”
Iori sounded surprised, her head tilting, brow furrowing. “Yeah, why?”
“You’re crying.”
Both Miwako and Natsuno looked to Iori to see that there were indeed tears moistening the cheeks beneath her eyes.
Iori herself reached up to brush her hand against her cheek, checking it to see the heel of her hand was wet. The sight of it bewildered her, staring at it with confusion. “Huh...I guess I am.”
It was only when she noticed this that more tears began to pour forth from her eyes. Her breathing turned ragged as she tried to hold it back, but it was relentless. The confusion she had turned to restrained sobbing.
“I’m...I’m sorry, I don’t know why I am...I am…” She couldn’t seem to finish her sentences in between the sobs and sniffles of her sudden outburst. “I’m just...I can’t…”
Miwako, surprised at this turn, glanced at the others only for her eyes to widen in shock. Both Natsuno and Tomi were beginning to cry as well.
Natsuno reached out to Iori, placing a hand on her shoulder as her voice started to quiver. “C’mon, Iori. We promised...we wouldn’t do this when it happened. We promised we...we wouldn’t cry. If you cry, then...then I’m going to…”
Tomi took a deep breath in a futile attempt to hold it all in. “You guys are...such asses. That’s not fair. It’s not.”
Miwako just sat there as her hosts began to cry, unsure of what to do. Yet, she had to do something. Slowly, she stood up and took a step towards Iori, putting a hand on her other shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Iori turned to her, tears still streaming down her face.
Her eyes were wide in both surprise and shock. Suddenly, she reached out and wrapped Miwako in a hug, pulling her close. “Oh, Miwako...I-I missed you so much!”
Once everyone had calmed down, the four of them decided it was time they made their leave. After all, the other students in the shop were beginning to take notice, and they didn’t want to cause a scene. At least, not more than they already did.
Back out in the afternoon sun, the heat beating down on her once again, Miwako stood before the three older women, her hands clutching the handle of her school bag.
Natsuno was the first one to speak after they had left the shop. “Uh, sorry about that, Miwako. God, emotions can be...one hell of a thing huh?”
Miwako nodded, but she was curious about what had just transpired. “Is everything okay?”
Natsuno looked at her, brows raised at the question. Then, her parted lips curved into a genuine smile. “Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. It’s just...we had a friend back when we were younger and...and you remind us so much of her.”
Miwako tilted her head. “What happened to this friend?”
Iori, her eyes still red from the tears, gave a warming smile. “Oh...she’s still with us.”
Tomi chuckled and turned to Miwako, adjusting her glasses. “Say, Miwako...would you be okay if we made this a more regular thing? We haven’t been in touch with our younger selves in quite a long time and...we miss it. I own the place, so I can start getting you crepes on the house.”
Miwako raised a brow. She owned the sweets shop she’s been going to all these years? She never knew. Wow, it’s a small world. Or just a small town.
Getting that out of her mind, she instead considered the proposal.
The situation was strange, but she didn’t necessarily mind it. It was almost welcoming, these three older women talking with her like they were in the same grade. She loved her friends, but getting to talk with these ladies was particularly comforting to her. Like it was something she needed.
That, and she also realized they needed her. She couldn’t understand what it was like to grow out of high school, as she was still living that life, but the idea of change was always a terrifying one. So being able to just sit down and pretend nothing changed must be a form of comfort. She was their key to that comfort.
Miwako turned back to the three of them, each of them watching her with anticipation.
She smiled and nodded. “I think that would be lovely. And not just for the crepes either.”
The three of them laughed, but ultimately they were happy with her decision.
Tomi smiled. “Good. Now when would work best for you?”
They made plans for their next meeting, and then left to go back to their families. As they left, they gave one final wave to Miwako, who returned it with one of her own.
Miwako didn’t move as she watched them walk away. She didn’t move until they were gone from her sight.
Her eyes were wistful.