Epilogue (1/2)

Epilogue

This brought an end to my summer of age sixteen. In September, the heat from just days ago seemed like a bad joke, and autumn hit Minagisa in the blink of an eye.

Hajikano began coming to Minagisa First High again, and we walked home together like we had in grade school. It would probably be a while before her memory loss recovered, but she seemed to enjoy being able to experience so many things fresh. Sometimes she would call me “Hinohara” and look apologetic.

Hajikano didn’t draw crying moles anymore. Instead, when something happy happened, she drew a mole on her cheek.

“What kind of mole is that?”, I asked.

“A smiling mole,” she replied. “It’s a sign that I’m really happy, and I want you to know it, Yosuke.”

“Ah, I see.”

I took the marker from her and drew a similar mole on my cheek.

It seemed like it would take a while for Hajikano to get used to Cla.s.s 1-3. But she was in no hurry. She carefully processed things one at a time, and chose her actions after deep consideration about what these things meant to her.

Lately, my cla.s.smate Nagahora was starting to make pa.s.ses at Hajikano. Maybe he still felt lonely about the absence of Chigusa, even though his memories of her were gone. Every time he talked to Hajikano, she made a worried face and looked to me for help, but she didn’t seem to dislike Nagahora. Once, while he wasn’t around, she said “He’s tiring to talk to, but a good person.” I agreed with that sentiment.

When I checked after summer break, all mention of Chigusa Ogiue was gone from Minagisa First High’s records. There really hadn’t been such a student at this school from the beginning. Not a single cla.s.smate remembered her. I asked Hajikano, but the same phenomenon had occurred even in her diary. Mentions of Chigusa had all vanished, with revisions such that everything still made sense without her. I visited Chigusa’s house by myself a few days later, but there was only an empty lot full of weeds in its place.

I continued investigating in various ways, but it seemed I was now the only one who remembered the Chigusa Ogiue at Minagisa First High. No doubt with some intention, she had left herself only in my memory. Whatever that intention was, I was glad for it.

Oh yeah, the other day, I saw Hajikano out with Aya. They both had awkward expressions, but their sisterly relations.h.i.+p seemed favorable. When I visited the house, sometimes Aya would greet me in pajamas. She was itching to know how the relations.h.i.+p between me and Hajikano was going, but I kept it vague and asked how she was getting along with Masafumi. Looked like his relations.h.i.+p with Aya stopped at being an errand boy.

“He’s not a bad guy, but…” Aya paused. “I kind of can’t tell how serious he is, so it makes it hard to know how to respond.”

I’ll casually let him know next time we meet, I thought to myself.

I was hanging out with Hinohara more lately. Not to do bad stuff like in middle school, but competing at a batting center for juice, or going to a bowling alley in the town over, watching other people’s games, and predicting who would win. Generally useless ways of spending time together.