“Konuma-kun, what is this path?”
“Um, it’s a detour to Shin-Koganei Station...”
I wasn’t sure if she was angry, sulking, or something else. Ichikawa kept looking straight ahead without making eye contact, tilting her head with a somewhat expressionless face.
“Hmm... Did you want to take a detour, Konuma-kun?”
“Well...”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to take a detour, but it would be more accurate to say I wanted to walk a path with fewer people. ...However, I didn’t say that out loud.
“...Hmm?”
I felt the tone of her voice rise slightly. When I tried to look at her face, she quickly turned away.
As I gave up and looked forward again, I heard a small cough from my right.
“Why do you know a path like this, Konuma-kun?”
“What do you mean 'for a Konuma-kun'... Azuma told me about it quite a while ago.”
“Yuri did?”
“Ow, ow, ow! No, wait, that’s not it! ...Well, it’s not not it, but, um... it was just a place we used to talk about 'amane' before we started dating.”
“Hmm...”
The pain subsided a bit, but the slightly higher tone her voice had just reached returned to normal.
Sigh, it’s really hard to bring this up now... It’s hard, but I have to say it...
I let out a breath.
“Um, so, if we keep going this way, we’ll reach Shin-Koganei Station soon...”
“That’s obvious, since we’re heading toward Shin-Koganei Station. Is there a problem?”
We were already approaching the T-junction where the detour ended.
If we turned right here, we’d end up in front of the FamilyMart where Azuma works part-time, merging back into the usual route to Shin-Koganei Station.
There was one small concern regarding that...
“No, I mean, everyone’s there, so, um...”
“I told you I didn’t want to let go, didn't I?”
Exactly. Ichikawa’s left hand was still tightly gripping my right hand.
I had thought that Ichikawa, who had stubbornly insisted on 'not letting go' when we left the school gates, would have calmed down by the time we reached the station. For now, I had been walking along this detour—which Azuma called the 'Normie Special'—to avoid meeting anyone.
But time was up. We had hit the end of the road.
“Uh...”
At that moment, I had a flash of inspiration.
There was that other station I’d been using lately.
“Then, why don’t we go this way? To Higashi-Koganei Station.”
Higashi-Koganei Station is barely within walking distance, taking about thirty minutes from school, so it’s not very popular among Musashino International students. The number of users is quite low.
If we turned left at the fork where we stood now, we could enter the path to Higashi-Koganei. I knew this thanks to Erina-san and Azuma.
“Why Higashi-Koganei?”
Ichikawa-san furrowed her brows.
“Look, um... it’s more of a detour that way.”
“Hmm...? How many minutes from here to Higashi-Koganei Station?”
“About fifteen minutes, I guess...”
“And Shin-Koganei Station?”
“Two or three min—”
“Then let’s go to Higashi-Koganei.”
Ichikawa cut me off and immediately turned left at a right angle.
“Oh... okay.”
Despite the long-awaited detour, Ichikawa didn’t say much.
I wasn’t sure what to say either, so I could only bring up harmless topics like, “That vending machine sells two types of bottled tea,” or “There’s a car in this parking lot,” or “Look, that’s... a traffic light.” (Each time, Ichikawa-san would reply with things like “Is that so...” Even though she seemed angry, she might actually be quite kind.)
In that awkward atmosphere, we reached Higashi-Koganei Station. In front of the ticket gate, I made a proposal.
“Hey, Ichikawa.”
“...”
Ignored.
“Um... Amane-san.”
“Yes, what is it, Takuto-san?”
What’s with that new way of calling me...?
“For today... um, for today’s out—... can we go somewhere other than Kichijoji? I’d prefer going toward Kokubunji or Tachikawa.”
“...Why?”
“Well...”
If we took the inbound train from Higashi-Koganei to Kichijoji, there was a high chance we’d run into Musashino International students who had boarded at Musashino-Sakai Station. (Rather than running into them, we’d probably be the 'harmful' ones in this case...)
On the other hand, since few students used the outbound trains, heading that way was safer.
Since she seemed to be in a stubborn mode, she probably had no intention of letting go anyway.
In that case, I wanted to suggest a way to deal with 'this situation' properly.
“Look... that way, it’ll be fine even like this...?”
“What do you mean by 'like this'?”
“...Our hands.”
When I said that while scratching my cheek, she stared intently at the knot of our two hands.
“...Hooh,” she muttered. Is she the final boss or something?
“Do you prefer it that way, Konuma-kun?”
“Well, obviously.”
Since I was the one suggesting the outbound train, of course I preferred it that way.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly her voice rose again, and Ichikawa-san’s lips twitched as if she were holding something back, but I was restless.
Even if it wasn’t popular, it didn’t mean there were no people at all, so standing still in front of the ticket gate was pretty risky.
“Come on, let’s go quickly.”
Saying that, I pulled Ichikawa’s hand.
“Hoeh? Ah, okay...!”
For some reason, she followed with a surprised look on her face.
Once we were inside the gates, Ichikawa asked a question.
“...Konuma-kun, where were you hiding such an assertive side?”
“Assertive?”
“Are you not aware...?”
What part of me—someone constantly looking around to see if there are students nearby—is assertive?
...Ah, maybe because I pulled her arm firmly.
“Sorry, did it hurt...?”
I asked Ichikawa, who was standing one step above me on the escalator to the platform.
Her left hand is the one she uses to press the guitar strings. It needs grip strength.
If I were to injure that arm, not only would I never hear the end of it from everyone, but if the two of them ever interrogated me with things like, 'Sigh... so, in what situation did you hurt it?' or 'Takuto, you were with her at the time, right?', I wouldn’t be able to look them in the eye. That press conference would be torture for both the speaker and the listener.
“W-Why are you suddenly worrying about me...?”
“Of course I’d worry... It’s an important arm...”
“Hmm...?”
I felt her voice go up again.
Just when I thought that, Ichikawa began shaking her head slightly.
“No, that’s not it, Amane... This is a match-pump, Amane... This person is like this to everyone, Amane...”
“Huh...?”
Amane-san began muttering some rude-sounding incantation, so I turned back toward her, only to find myself peering into her downcast face from a much closer distance than I expected.
“Hau!?”
With a sound I’d never heard from her before, she quickly turned her face away.
“This is bad for my heart, it’s hot...!”
Her ears turned bright red as she fanned herself with her right hand.
“Ugh, I should have brought my muffler...”