The campus’ bells chimed 4 o’clock, bringing the last club meeting of the semester to an end.  Wataru looked around as his clubmates stood up and stretched.

“Good work everyone, enjoy your summer,” said the club president.

    The club members reciprocated his statement, then began reaching for their cases so they could unplug their instruments and put them away.  Wataru followed suit, unplugging his keyboard and carrying it over to its case on the desk behind him.  

"Kou~~~hai-kyun," exclaimed one of Wataru’s clubmates as she skipped towards him cheerfully.

Wataru looked up after zipping up the keyboard and its wires into its case and stood up, looking at the girl in front of him, "Oh, Kanoko-senpai."

Kanoko leaned in eagerly, "Are you busy this summer?"

Wataru smirked as he reached for his backpack and put it on.  "Well uh... I have family and work stuff going on, so I’m gonna be busy… I’m actually going to be traveling a bit as well-

"Well you’re gonna have some time... will you?"

"Maybe?"  Wataru picked up the keyboard and began carrying the keyboard to the locker in the back of the classroom,  "But when I get back from my trip I  know there’ll be a little more time before next semester starts."

Kanoko follows Wataru, "Well I was wondering if you'd like to meet up sometime…"

Standing the keyboard vertically on its side, Wataru opens the door and speaks with conviction, "You needed to find a piano accompanist, right?"

Not having her intentions reach Wataru, "Ye… yeah…" Kanoko replied.

Putting the keyboard in and closing the door, Wataru looks down at Kanoko, smiling, "Alright, just text me the sheet music, I'll check it out."

"Oh… OK, I'll get it to you when I get the chance!"

"Sounds good, senpai, I’ll let you know if I’m free." Wataru steps back and says to the rest of the students in the clubroom, "Alright everyone, I'm heading out."

The rest of the club members waved and said their goodbyes.

"See you later, kouhai," said Kanoko disappointedly as she waved goodbye.

         Wataru walked down the hallway and trotted down the staircase.  Feeling a buzz in his pocket, He pulled out his cellphone.

“That was fast, Kanoko,” thought Wataru.

When he saw a notification, he was surprised that it wasn’t a text from Kanoko, but rather from a certain “Koizumi”.  The phone buzzed again in his hand as he tried to sign in.  He walked towards the building’s entrance as he read through the messages.

“I’ll be arriving in Tokyo soon,” said the first message followed by “maybe we can all meet tomorrow…”

    Just as he closed his phone, put it in his pocket, and reached out for the front door, his phone buzzed again.

Wataru chuckled.  “I wonder if it’s Koizumi…” he thought.

    Wataru opened the door as he pulled his phone back out of his pocket.  As expected, he received another text from this Koizumi.

“You’ll be free tomorrow… right?” the next text added.

    Wataru looked up briefly and began walking over to the school’s student center.  He looked back down at his phone, trying to figure out how to respond.  Never had any fan ever been so insistent to meet him.  Only a few of the chapters of the story he got serialized had been published.  Wataru checked his official Twitter account, seeing that he had almost 10,000 followers.  It was enough for him to crack a smile that Japan’s otaku community had taken notice of him, but he reached the point where some fan would desperately want to meet him.  This was all new to Wataru and curious enough for him to humor this “Koizumi” with a meetup.  What’s the worst that could hap- well maybe that wasn’t the best way to see it.  Having to file a restraining order against an obsessed fan wouldn’t make for good publicity, moreso for a budding writer.  But with summer vacation in swing, why not revel in his youth and try something stupid?  It could make for a good story.

“Absolutely! I’ll be free now that summer vacation is over… maybe I can show you around!” texted Wataru without much thought.

    Wataru clicked send as he chuckled.  Whatever response he’d get was sure to give him more to laugh about.  He put his phone back into his pocket and kept walking. He walked into the student center, and before he could take another step his phone buzzed again.

“Oh goodness…” Wataru chuckled.  “Please stop…”

As he walked towards the room his sister always gave her tutoring sessions, Wataru reached back into his pocket and pulled out his phone again.

“I’m looking forward to meeting you!” Koizumi texted.

    Wataru thought about how to respond for a moment, and before he could type anything the phone buzzed AGAIN.

“For goodness’ sake, Koizumi!” Wataru screamed.

    The few people still lingering in the student center stared at him.

“So… sorry…” Wataru sheepishly walked faster to get out of sight in embarrassment.

    He opened up his phone and silenced it finally.  He wasn’t gonna let it annoy him anymore, so he read the final text.

“I just hope I don’t get lost… I’ve never been to Tokyo before…” texted Koizumi.

Wataru felt a bit sorry for Koizumi.  “You’ll be fine.  I’ll see you tomorrow,” he texted.

Wataru turned off his phone and zipped it up in his backpack, just to make sure he’d have no more texts for a while.  He walked up to the door of the room his sister Kirari tutored in.  He looked in and watched her sitting at a desk, surrounded by a bunch of other girls shoving snacks and candy in front of her.

"Thanks for the good paper," one of the girls said to Kirari.

Another girl grabbed her arm, "Yeah! You really saved our grades.  Your English is perfect!"

A third girl in front of her added, "You wanted cider candies, right?"  She reached into her purse and put some chips onto the desk, then pushed them towards Kirari. "Look, we got you some chips too.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Kirari looked back and forth between the snacks and the other girls anxiously, "Th- thank you…"

Wataru walked in to intervene, "Ladies, my sister has a job to get to now, you all can see her next semester.”   He chuckled, then added,  “I'm sure she will be absolutely delighted when she sees how eagerly you awaited her arrival."

Kirari shoved the snacks into her bookbag and stood up a bit nervously, "Yeah, I uh… I gotta get going."

Wataru grabbed Kirari's hand and led her to the door.  He looked over his shoulder and said to the other girls, "You all take care now."

The girls looked at them walking away, "Looking forward to working with you next semester, Kira-sama!"

         Wataru and Kirari anxiously walked out of the room and to the door of the building.  He let go of her hand as the girls giggled.  The two could finally take some much needed time away from the business of school life.  Wataru sighed in relief.

Kirari reached into her bag and offered Wataru a wrapped candy, and said to him in English, "You want one?"

"Oh.  Thanks, Kira."

Kirari handed a candy to Wataru, then the two quickly popped the candy into their mouths.  Wataru opened the building's front door and let Kirari walk out, then closed the door behind him.  Finally relaxing a little, Wataru listened to the cicadas chirping loudly, filling the campus with cacophonous, yet soothing, sound.  Kirari let out a sigh as the two walked towards the entrance of the campus.

"You okay?"

Kirari played around with the candy in her mouth, clacking it up against her teeth as she looked forward aimlessly.  Then she looked back up at Wataru, "Yeah… I'm used to it."

Wataru smiled consternatedly, pausing to find the best way to respond to her, "It sure is hot out."

Kirari chuckled. “For real!  If you step outside for a few minutes you’ll look like you just got out of a pool.”

“Yeah, and the last thing a restaurant owner wants is a sweaty waitress.”

Kirari laughed.  “Well I wouldn’t consider a ramen dive the kinda place where that matters.”

“Yeah.  All the guys eating there are sweaty, anyways.”

“Mmhmm…” Kirari clacked the candy around in her mouth some more for a moment, realizing something, “no one cares about appearances there, they just come to eat.”

Wataru smirked.  The two kept walking for a while silently, as Wataru tried to figure out what to say concerning the conversation he stumbled upon earlier.

“You think you’re gonna keep being an English tutor?”

Slightly disheartened, Kirari paused for a moment.  “Well it’s good money… and most of the people I tutor there are nice…”

“Well what about those girls you were talking to earlier?”

Kirari turns away, embarrassed.  “They uh… they’re alright.  I tutor them sometimes.”

“Did they want some conversation practice at the end of the semester?”

“We did some English practice… they’ve been getting better.”

“Well-

“And look,” Kirari reached into the bag and showed him a bag of candy.  “They even got me the candy I like!”

Wataru smirked.  “Yeah.  I’m sucking on one right now.”  He could tell she wasn’t really wanting to talk about her situation.  He paused a while and then brought up the texts he received from Koizumi, “You remember how I’ve been getting texts from that fan who wanted to meet me?”

Kirari popped another candy into her mouth.  “Yeah…” She chuckled.  “You’re still talking to ‘em?”

Wataru laughed.  “Yeah… they texted me and asked if I could meet up with them tomorrow.”

“You said ‘no’, right?”

“I uh… decided to humor them.”

“So you said that you’d meet up with ‘em?”

Wataru reached into Kirari’s bag for another candy, then popped it into his mouth.  “Yeah… it could make for a stupid story that we can laugh over when we get older.”

“Yeah… But what happens if they try to mug you?”

“Right.  How many buff otakus do you know of?”

Kirari laughed.  “Well I know I’m not buff.”

Wataru chuckled.  “Well you do have strong legs.”

Kirari looked down for a moment.  “Yeah… Everyday is leg day.”

    The siblings laughed together some more.  Kirari saw the ramen dive she worked at.  She glanced at her phone to check the time, then popped another candy into her mouth and began to dash in towards the shop.

“Well I gotta work, Wataru. I’ll see you later!” 

Wataru hesitated, “Alright… sounds good, Kira.  Take it easy.”

“Love you!”

“Lo- Love you too!”

Wataru could hear the shop owner say “Ah, Kira-chan!” as she dashed in.  He sighed as he walked away, looking over his shoulder as he briefly watched his sister strike up a conversation.  He smiled and walked to the metro station in silence, just like every other school day after splitting ways with Kirari for her to do her part-time job.  Tapping his train fare card to walk through the turnstile, Wataru saw that he was about to miss his train.  He dashed quickly to get on the train right before the doors closed.  He took a breath and then sighed as he sat down at an empty chair he managed to find, putting his backpack in his lap and looking out of the window.

Wataru chuckled.  “What am I doing with my life?” he asked himself under his breath.

    Wataru unzipped his backpack and pulled out his phone.  He looked at it for a moment and then placed it on his lap.  Summer had finally arrived, yet not without a handful of a boatload of things weighing on his mind.  Wataru sighed, he picked up his phone and turned it on, swiping past all of the trivial notifications and looking at the phone background, an old photo of him posing with his mother and Kirari in a peach orchard.  He smiled. 

“Yeah… those were the days,” Wataru thought to himself.

    Wataru put his phone into his pocket and sighed.  It felt nice to think about his fond times with family; simple times when the daunting facets of everyday life didn’t stare him in the face.  Times when he didn’t have to worry about how his family was faring and just enjoying how everything was going.  He wanted that again.  The feeling of closeness to the people he cared about.  Genuine attention and affirmation, thoughtfulness, and sincerity.  The kind of things that Wataru’s everyday life had slowly pulled away from him.  Not so much from some hostile force, but rather the cruelty of time itself.  Everyone was moving forward, but in many ways tangentially.   Sure, it hurt from time to time, but there was nothing Wataru could do about that, and neither did he want to.  All that he resolved to do was to move forward and see what life would bring him.

    Wataru sat silently for the rest of his ride up to his connection at Ueno Station.  He hopped off the train and walked a good bit before getting onto the next one.  He briefly checked his phone for any more notifications.  He glanced at the lock screen and noticed a few from Koizumi.  He didn’t read them; they could wait.  One more train ride, and he could finally rest a while before dinner.  Just a few more stops, then a leisurely walk the rest of the way home.

    Wataru hopped on the train to Asakusa, trying to think about how he’d spend his summer.  Sure he would have to write a few more serialized chapters for his story, but that wouldn’t be much of a problem to get done.  If anything, what would he do with the rest of his time?  Watch fireworks?  Maybe go to the beach?  Actually be “out of town” for a while longer than planned?  

No wonder he decided to humor this “Koizumi” fan of his.  These thoughts started to swirl in his head.  He put his hand in his pocket to check those notifications from Koizumi, since by now they must have proliferated, but then he stopped.  No.  They really could wait. If Koizumi was intent on meeting tomorrow, Wataru would wait until tomorrow.

Before he knew it, the train arrived at Asakusa station, and Wataru had become a little bit anxious.  He got off the train and tapped his train fare card to pass through the turnstile and then quickly went to the restroom.  After he finished up, Wataru headed towards the metro station’s exit and almost walked out the exit, but then he noticed a rather tall young woman carrying a backpack anxiously looking around at her surroundings, then examining her phone as if to examine a map.  She was definitely lost.  Wataru almost walked out, but then stopped.  It was summer, the time for him to make use of his spare time in an unexpected way.  He said he was going to be busy, so why not make something off of his first walk home?

Wataru walked towards the young woman, deciding he’d try to help her out.  “Excuse me, Miss.”

    The young woman seemed to have an inkling that she was being addressed, but didn’t turn his way.

Convinced to help her out, Wataru walked around her so she could notice him trying to help her.  “Excuse me-

    The young woman looked up at him, locking on and sharing prolonged eye contact with Wataru.  She had a rather deep sun tan and peculiarly blue eyes, and from just a moment of looking at her, he was struck with wonder.  Summer had come.

Wataru blinked and looked away in embarrassment for a moment, then looked back at the young woman.  “Need any help?  You look lost.”  Wataru winced for a moment.  Not the best line.

The young woman looked down for a moment, then back up at him.  “You can tell?”

Wataru smiled.  “Yeah… people from around her don’t usually look around anxiously… they just hurry to wherever they’re going.”

The young woman giggled in embarrassment.  “Yup… that’s what I figured.  I’ve never been to Tokyo before…”

Wataru tried to improve the mood.  “Oh really?  Where are you from?”

“Oh… I’m from Fukui.  Have you heard of it?”

“I have.  Last I checked I have an uncle who lives in Fukui.” 

The young woman perked up a little bit.  “You have?  Not many people do!”

“Yeah, but I’ve never been there.”

“Well it isn’t as lively as Tokyo.”

“But is that really a bad thing?”

    The young woman eased up and laughed.

“So what brings you to Tokyo,” asked Wataru.

“Well I’m gonna do some sightseeing and try some of the local food… but I actually came to see some family.”

“Oh, so are you waiting for them to meet you here?”

“No…” the young woman looked down awkwardly for a moment, wondering if she should express her situation more to a stranger.  She continued, “The thing is… I have a lot of extended family that I haven’t met… they don’t know me… and I don’t even know if I’m gonna be meeting the right people…  Isn’t that stupid?”

Wataru laughed.  “Maybe it is…”

“Well I-

“But it can’t hurt to try… things might turn out better than you expect!”

“Mmhmm… maybe they will… but I still have to find the hostel I’m staying at…”

“Oh... uh-

“Maybe you could help me find it?”

Score.  Wataru blushed a little.  “Yeah, of course!  I’m sure I can find it.”

“Oh really?”  The young woman got excited.

“Yeah.  Maybe I can show you around a little too if you’d like…”  Wait.  Maybe that was a bit much.

“Well I did want to see Kaminarimon…”

“Ah.  Yeah, it’s right down the street.”

“Well maybe we can stop by there on the way?”

Safe.  “Sure!  Then I can walk you over to your hostel…”

The young woman smiled eagerly, tilting her head to the side, eyes closed.  “Thank you!”

Wataru blushed.  Summer had arrived.