Wonderful Memories of Summer

Author: Shuushoku

Episode 1: Cookies in Karuizawa?

〈August, morning at the office〉

Kaori: Senpai, how was your vacation? How was your summer in Karuizawa?

Sae: Eh, Karuizawa?

Kaori: I think the wrapping paper for the souvenir cookie I got from Senpai had Karuizawa City written on it.

Sae: That’s right. We traveled to many places. It was refreshing. Besides that, are you okay with the pre-launch check for tomorrow’s new product?

Kaori: Yes, for the most part. But tomorrow is Sunday and I know you have to go to work on your day off, but isn’t 7:00 a.m. really early? Is Senpai good at getting up early?

Sae: There is no such thing as being good at getting up early. It’s whether you do it or not. It’s better to start early and finish early. After all, the sunlight is already strong at seven o’clock at this time of year. I have to get up early for the company’s products.

Kaori: Going to bed early and getting up early is like being in elementary school. Senpai seems to have low blood pressure, so I have an image of you getting up late in the morning on weekends to drink café au lait.

Sae: What kind of image is that? The only thing that fits is the low blood pressure.

Kaori: Oh, by the way, an acquaintance of mine said that they saw Senpai in the park with an elementary school girl a few weeks ago.

Sae: Eh…?

Kaori: A friend of mine lives just down the street from Senpai’s apartment. The bakery on Nichome is my boyfriend’s place. He said he saw a couple who looked like Senpai and her husband with their child in front of the park on Nichome early in the morning.

Sae: I was taking care of a relative’s child at the time. That old bakery, you knew them.

Kaori: That’s right. Yuuki-kun joked that he might participate in the radio calisthenics at that park, where there is always a community radio calisthenics during the summer. Oh, Yuuki-kun is my boyfriend’s name. So, you had a relative’s child over before your vacation. Wasn’t it tough?

Sae: I guess it’s an annual thing now. This year, I was asked to look after her until she went to a summer camp at the foot of Mt. Fuji.

Kaori: I came back to the current branch office this spring, so I didn’t know about this. Senpai, do you like children?

Sae: To be honest, I’m not very good with children.

Kaori: I knew it. That relative’s girl has good nerves. Rolling into the perfect life of a beautiful celebrity couple…… what a funny story.

Sae: ……

Kaori: Um, excuse me, but do you know that everyone says that Senpai looks like an alien? It’s not that they’re bad-mouthing you, it’s just that you’re so flawless. Besides….

Sae: Besides?

Kaori: Did you see the old TV science fiction drama show about aliens moving in next door? When asked a question that he was at a loss to answer, the alien boy’s face would go blank for a moment. Senpai sometimes has such an expression.

Sae: ……

Kaori: See, like now. …… Just kidding. A joke. By the way, did you try the new product, Perfect Nutritional Drink Maker, at Senpai’s house?

Did your husband and relative drink it too?

Sae: He said, ‘This is the perfect nutritional drink maker, isn’t it amazing? ‘, or whatever.

Kaori: From your husband? What about the child?

Sae: She took a sip and frowned.

Kaori: I wonder if she’s okay.

Sae: What are you talking about? It’s a revolutionary cooking device that allows modern people to get perfect nutrition. It doesn’t focus on taste, but it already has a nutritionist’s recipe on its website. What do you expect a child to know?

Kaori: Please don’t be serious. ――Senpai is going alien again! ――Children are honest, and I was just wondering if it would sell if it wasn’t suitable for children’s palates.

Sae: The target audience is people in their prime working age. I’m not trying to make something that fits children’s palates in the first place. Children have a very particular palate.

Kaori: I understand. I have a child’s sense of taste. At yesterday’s summer festival, Yuuki-kun bought a lot of shaved ice, candy apples, and cotton candy.

Sae: That has nothing to do with work. Anyway, be on time tomorrow.

＊＊＊

〈That night. Kaori and Yuuki’s phone conversation〉

Kaori: This is today’s conversation between me and my senpai. What do you think?

Yuuki: What do I think? I think it’s true that the word “delicious” is very subtle when you are a child. But on the other hand, I feel that what I thought was delicious when I was a child is all that matters.

＊＊＊

Episode 2: A Hozuki?

〈On a Smartphone Conversation App〉

Kaori: Thank you for your help in today’s pre-launch check of new products. On top of that, I bothered Senpai on the way home … (^_-)

Sae: I was the one who asked you to come over because I have a book at home that’s supposed to be a marketing reference.

Kaori: I was supposed to get it at the entrance, but I had to go inside to use the bathroom. (*_*) Senpai’s apartment is stylish and minimalist, or maybe it’s just the cream-colored room that’s so clean.

Sae: I use our company’s all-purpose clean closet. And I don’t keep unnecessary things in my room.

Kaori: I see. Oh, but I found something unexpected. (・o・)

Sae: Something unexpected?

Kaori: It was on the windowsill next to the living room where the sink is, and I thought it was an unusual object so I looked at it. I couldn’t see it through the frosted glass. I thought it looked like a hozuki with its orange and red color.

Sae: What’s a hozuki?

Kaori: Senpai grew up in the city, so you don’t know. At my grandma’s house in the countryside, it was often displayed on the Buddhist altar during the Obon festival.

Sae: What a bad omen. I don’t display flowers like that.

Kaori: That’s right, I could tell they weren’t flowers because the color wasn’t natural. Still, it felt nostalgic, and when I thought about it, I realized that it was a balloon from a yo-yo fishing at a night stall. I’m sure it was left behind by your relative’s child.

Sae: ……

Kaori: You asked(curious) about the Hozuki, but didn’t ask(curious)about the yo-yo fishing. It seemed that Senpai was the least likely to ask about yo-yo fishing. For a moment, I thought that your relative’s child had left it behind.

Sae: What do you mean?

Kaori: When I see yo-yo fishing at night stalls, I feel summer. That by itself makes me happy. I thought Senpai was a workaholic, but yesterday I felt like you were just like me.

Sae: I don’t understand.

Kaori: Because your relative’s child came over before the vacation, so that was about two weeks ago, right? But that’s why you’re still displaying festival items, right?

Sae: You are such a person. It doesn’t matter, but in the future, please don’t let your imagination run wild at work. Also, I don’t want another onslaught of emoticons. I don’t like smiley emoticons.

＊＊＊　

〈Kaori and Yuuki’s Phone Conversation〉

Kaori: It’s like this.

Yuuki: Your emoticons certainly annoy me sometimes.

Kaori: Geez!

Yuuki: Where did you find the yo-yo fishing balloons?

Kaori: It was in a small space next to the bathroom with a cabinet and a sink. It was all white. That’s why they stood out so much.

Yuuki: I guess it’s because she doesn’t like to put unnecessary things in the bathroom.

＊＊＊

Episode 3: A Relative’s Child?

〈A week later at an Izakaya (Japanese-style pub) after work〉

Kaori: Senpai, I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused at today’s debriefing on the new product sales. I really am a terrible employee.

Sae: Why are you so depressed? It’s too late to say that now. You have to work harder next time.

Kaori: The section chief told me that there will be no next time for me. I’m about to get demoted again.

Sae: You’re kidding me, right? You just came back here the other day.

Kaori: But I’m not as smart as Senpai, and I think I’m better suited for a simple sales position at a small store. But I had a hard time at my old job because of the relationships with the part-timers and so on.

Sae: I thought you got along well with the people over there.

Kaori: Me?

Sae: Because, unlike me, you’re always smiling and cute. There’s no difference between your smile and that of an emoticon.

Kaori: Because I can’t read the air. And it shows on my face right away. When I have a bad day at work, I hate it the most when I go back to my apartment. Ah, I feel like I’m going home to an empty, dark room and that no one needs me. If I get sent to a rural area, I wouldn’t know anyone in the neighborhood.

Sae: Even if you are transferred, I will ask them to move you somewhere not too far away.

Bartender: This customer is already quite drunk, so I think it’s better not to go any further.

Sae: Hey, why don’t you come to my place today? You can’t go back to your apartment alone.

Kaori: Eh, Senpai’s place? I can’t do a thing like that! Putting myself in the middle of a married couple’s life. I want to accidentally go and see your relative’s child…

Sae: My relative’s child? What’s wrong? You’re covering your mouth with both hands.

Kaori: It’s nothing. I’m sorry for letting you hear my complaints. I’m afraid that I’ll cause trouble for Senpai until the end.

Sae: It’s okay. Here, get in the taxi.

＊＊＊

〈Kaori in the Apartment Room〉

Kaori: Is this Senpai’s apartment? It’s quiet. Our product, Quiet Pain, is installed in the window frame. But it’s so lonely not to hear people’s voices or the sound of the wind.

＊＊＊

Episode 4: Handkerchief Stains?

〈Conversation in Yuuki’s Room〉

Kaori: Sae-senpai is nice to me. Even yesterday she encouraged me after I made a big mistake at work and even let me stay at her place. Everyone says she’s strict and scary.

Yuuki: Yes. I’m glad she’s a kind senpai.

Kaori: I can’t believe that such a nice senpai would lock up a relative’s child.

Yuuki: Oioi, that’s just your imagination, or delusion, right?

Kaori: But the other day, when Uchino-kun, who works at a home improvement center, delivered potted plants to her apartment, there were no children there, just Senpai and her husband. It’s the day before the vacation when her relative’s child is supposed to visit.

Yuuki: Well, maybe they just happened to be outside the room and not in the living room, right?

Kaori: And an employee heard her arguing with some lady in the airport lobby. She was angry, saying things like, “Where are you taking my child?”. And, finally, the police called our branch. Senpai went to another place to talk to them. I guess it was about the child or something like that.

Yuuki: You don’t know what the circumstances are, so don’t just say that based on what you heard.

Kaori: So what would a normal parent do if their child didn’t come home from summer camp?

Yuuki: I would freak out. Normally, the day you come back from such a camp or school trip is a waiting mode. They prepare all their favorite foods.

Kaori: Was that the case with Yuuki-kun?

Yuuki: Ah, but my grandma was in waiting mode because we had a store. Once, when my grandma was hospitalized during a baseball field trip, I was so upset when I came home and there was no one there.

Kaori: Feels like a very happy old family.

Yuuki: Certainly, at that time, I was told that there were more miserable people in the world and that I shouldn’t be so spoiled. There is always a scene that comes to mind like a horror movie. When I come back from the summer camp, it was pitch dark and there was no one there, and I see an elementary school student banging on the door in the rain, soaking wet.

Kaori: Wow, that must have been really traumatic. I wonder if the child of Sae-senpai’s relatives returned safely. I wonder if they went to summer camp or if they’re back.

Yuuki: So…

Kaori: But you know what, I will defend Senpai no matter what. I’m sure Senpai is sensitive and something must have broken her heart.

Yuuki: Everyone has a broken heart at some point. Don’t be so quick to judge her like she’s a criminal.

Kaori: By the way, I borrowed this handkerchief from Senpai the other day. She offered it to me when I was crying.

Yuuki: So what about it?

Kaori: Look. There are faint pink and dark green stains left here, right? These look like stains that were left behind after washing. What do you think this is? I feel like there’s a clue to the mystery of Senpai here.

Yuuki: Are you… a detective?

Kaori: But, I wonder if this is some kind of chemical. No, I’ll hide this handkerchief without investigating anything.

Yuuki: What kind of old dramas did you grow up watching? Could it be a marker pen that she forgot to cap in her bag and just blotted out?

Kaori: But this doesn’t look like the pink or green color of a marker pen.

Yuuki: Maybe. I feel like the mystery has been solved somehow. My grandma knows where Sae-senpai’s mother’s parents live. Remember the story my grandma told me a long time ago about a girl? Maybe it was about your senpai.

Kaori: Oh, you’re talking about a girl from the past? Not the child today?

Yuuki: Yes. A girl who was brilliant. Sae-senpai’s husband’s company sells bread from our bakery. They pick up the leftovers once in the evening and take orders for the next day. Maybe I’ll talk to him tomorrow.

Kaori: Eh? What will you talk to him about?

＊＊＊

Episode 5: Is The Girl Now?

〈In Front of the Building Where Sae’s Husband’s Company Is Located〉

Yuuki: Hello. Do you have a moment?

Sae’s Husband: Yes? You mean me? You’re the baker who comes to the shop, right?

Yuuki: Yes. Actually, the person I’m dating is your wife’s colleague. I wanted to say hello properly someday.

Sae’s Husband: You mean Kaori-chan? She often comes up in my wife’s stories.

Yuuki: Oh, I see… she does? I wonder what kind of story it is. Cold sweats ^_^;

Sae’s Husband: I think my wife likes Kaori-chan. The other co-workers’ names don’t come up much.

Yuuki: I hope so, but she’s so eccentric anyway. She seems to admire her senpai. She wants to be a person who can do that kind of work. She said that she got sick after working at a regional branch office for a few years, but she seemed very happy to be back at the same head office as her senpai. And yet, they have a sense of rivalry.

Sae’s Husband: I see. Um, if you don’t mind, would you like to have a smoke break at the gazebo on the hill across the park? It’s my smoking spot.

Yuuki: Sure. I’m in the mood for a smoke break too.

Hah~hah~(´Д｀)=3 Was the gazebo on the hill like this? I’ve only been here a couple of times. Mikami-san has strong legs. Keeps going up and up.

Sae’s Husband: Are you okay? We’re almost there. Look, isn’t it a pretty view?

Yuuki: It really is. It’s the end of summer, so the sky is still a little bright, but it’s beautiful with the city lights popping up.

Yuuki: Kaori, she’s been thinking a lot about her senpai’s mystery this summer.

Sae’s Husband: Mystery?

Yuuki: First of all, there seems to be a relative who took care of her before the summer vacation, but she never talks about it to anyone until they ask her. And Sae-senpai says that even in summer, she doesn’t have the distinctive smell of summer like everyone else. She says it’s like literature.

Sae’s Husband: Kaori-chan thinks it’s a mystery, doesn’t she?

Yuuki: It’s weird, isn’t it? She even gets paranoid that a child is locked up somewhere.

Sae’s Husband: Haha. If it’s the relative’s girl, she’s fine and spunky. Look, here’s a video of her.

Yuuki: Really. You look healthy with a light brown tan. Where is this?

Sae’s Husband: Isn’t the scenery amazing? This is the house of this child’s grandparents in Yamanashi, my parents’ house, and Miwa-chan’s close cousins. Oh, the girl is Miwa.

Yuuki: It’s a summer vacation date. Oh, this is the child I saw, after all. So, Miwa-chan went here after spending time in your couple’s apartment?

Sae’s Husband: Yes. Or rather, she didn’t spend a single day with us.

Yuuki: She came from far away and didn’t stay for a day?

Sae’s Husband: Yes. She spread out the souvenirs she got from my parents, drank a questionable drink made by a Perfect Nutritional Drink Maker, and went to the park to do radio calisthenics. Miwa-chan secretly laid the groundwork at my grandparents’ house beforehand so she could stay there for a while. Miwa-chan told us that she loves both her uncle and aunt, but that she won’t yield this time.

Yuuki: She won’t yield?

Sae’s Husband: Actually, the reason Miwa-chan’s parents entrust their daughter to my wife is to send her to a summer camp at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The summer camp is sponsored by a cram school, and is a program that makes children study all day long. Miwa-chan’s parents want their daughter to study hard during that time. They really want her to go there without going through us, but Miwa-chan’s parents have no choice because her father has to go abroad for his work. Miwa-chan’s father is my older brother, who has been a high achiever since childhood, but his way of thinking is incompatible with mine. Originally, we started taking care of Miwa-chan because my brother had to go on a short-term overseas business trip every year around this time, and his wife, Miwa-chan’s mother, had to accompany him to attend a party.

Yuuki: An overseas business trip, huh? Even if it’s for work, I feel sorry for children who are separated from their parents. On top of that, they have to study so hard.

Sae’s Husband: My parents had a lot of mistrust toward this cram school summer camp and were against it. But it was Miwa-chan who called the cram school to say no. When my brother and his wife found out that she hadn’t gone to the summer camp, they got very angry and blamed my wife and even called the police. They said she was kidnapped. I was only questioned about the circumstances, but my brother’s statement was not taken into consideration.

Yuuki: It’s weird to blame Sae-senpai.

Sae’s Husband: Maybe… they believed that my wife was closer to their way of thinking than me.

Two years ago, when Miwa-chan was eight years old and we took care of her for the first time, there was no such talk. It was also our summer vacation, which coincided with her summer vacation, so the three of us enjoyed our vacation together to the fullest.

Yuuki: Summer vacation for the three of you? It’s like parents with their child. Did the two of you have any other travel plans?

Sae’s Husband: Two years ago, we planned to go abroad, but we had to cancel because of a terrorist attack in the city we were going to. At first, my wife was anxious about spending the summer vacation with an eight-year-old child. Because she had a summer vacation trauma herself.

Episode 6: Another Girl Now? (Finale)

Sae’s Husband: She seems to have told Kaori-chan, but Sae’s parents divorced when she was a child.

Yuuki: Actually, I know about that. Um… not from Kaori, but from my grandmother. That…… Sae-senpai’s mother’s childhood home was near here, so Grandma knew Sae-senpai when she was a child.

Sae’s Husband: Eh? Really?

Yuuki: There are always horror movie scenes that come to mind. When I come back from the summer camp, the house was pitch dark and there was no one there, and I see an elementary school student banging on the door in the rain, soaking wet. It’s a girl. When I was a child, my grandma told me this story about a girl named Sae-chan. Now I remember. That was the story of Sae-senpai, wasn’t it? I always wondered what had happened to the girl, and was always heartbroken.

Sae’s Husband: Yes, it was heartbreaking. It was a touchy situation, and her parents got to the point where it was beyond repair during summer camp, and they both left the house suddenly. Well, her mother’s parents’ house is close by, so I guess they figured that their smart daughter would go there.

Yuuki: Grandma was always concerned about the girl who kept knocking on her mother’s parents’ door, drenched in rain and tears. Since then, she has become a studious girl who doesn’t smile.

Sae’s Husband: My wife said. The year before that was so wonderful that the drop was painful.

Yuuki: So you two were close the previous year?

Sae’s Husband: I think there was some kind of rift. A year earlier, when she was seven years old, my wife became seriously ill and even underwent surgery. In the spring and summer when she recovered, her parents took her to various places she had never been before, and she said it was fun. The family laughed together, barbecued outdoors, and napped in hammocks by the lake. The highlands, the sea, fireworks at night festivals… she felt that the world was so full of beauty. That’s why the next summer, the family was in a delicate mood and didn’t go anywhere, but she secretly hoped that it would be another fun summer like the previous year. On the way home, she was looking forward to the day when he would be able to laugh and talk about what happened at the camp.

Yuuki: It must have been scary to come home to a dark and empty house.

Sae’s Husband: I think she was scared. As a reaction to that, she hated places and events that looked like summer vacation events, so much that she didn’t even go near such places.

Yuuki: That’s why you were afraid to take Miwa-chan to play when she first came in the summer?

Sae’s Husband: That’s right. But actually, a week had passed, and by the time Miwa-chan left, she was just pleasantly tired and happy. It didn’t bring back any sad memories like I had feared. It was dumbfounding.

Yuuki: So you spent the same summer last year. This year, however, Miwa-chan wasn’t even there for a day.

Sae’s Husband: But still, the two of us spent our summer vacation together like children. It’s a secret, though. It wasn’t grand. Radio calisthenics, Disneyland, fireworks displays, and night festivals. It was nothing special, and Disneyland was usually full of middle-aged couples and old couples.

Yuuki: When Kaori told me about it, I thought it might be the case.

Sae’s Husband: How did you know?

Yuuki: She said you used yo-yo balloons to decorate the bathroom. My mother, no, mom keeps the sink near the couple’s room clean and doesn’t let me put my stuff there. She would display a glass ball keychain that was a souvenir from a trip to Okinawa with her husband. So I guess yo-yo fishing was a fun memory for both of you. And….

Sae’s Husband: And what?

Yuuki: The Hermes handkerchief she lent to Kaori had a stain of strawberry syrup and melon syrup from shaved ice on it. If you’re going to clean up a spill from a relative’s child, it should be tissue paper. Also, I thought that if it was Sae-senpai’s personality that I heard from Kaori, she would throw away the stained handkerchief.

Sae’s Husband: After all, it’s something you can understand.

Yuuki: Right now, another scene of a traumatized girl coming home comes to mind.

Sae’s Husband: What kind?

Yuuki: When the girl comes home at dusk, the area is tinted orange by the sunset, and when she rings the doorbell, the door opens immediately and she enters the house with a smile. She could smell her favorite hamburger steak from inside the house.

Sae’s Husband: I think I can see that scene too. The things we talked about today were a secret between us as a couple until now.

Yuuki: I haven’t told anyone. I did something wrong, didn’t I? We invaded people’s privacy, me and Kaori.

Sae’s Husband: No, it’s fine. I was glad that you asked. I vaguely deceived the guys at work by telling them that I was spending my vacation at a summer resort. Our company has a 10-day vacation every summer, so most of our employees go on overseas trips. They spend their vacations on a grand scale, visiting Niagara and the Sagrada Familia, so I was hesitant to reveal such a small vacation.

Yuuki: Is that so? On the contrary, I thought the scale was grand. It goes back decades.

Sae’s Husband: These are yo-yo-shaped earrings that I won at a shooting range. Pretty tacky, right? I’m going to give them to my wife as a summer memento.

Yuuki: No. They look classy. Ah.

Sae’s Husband: What?

Yuuki: No, for a moment I thought I saw a smiley emoticon, but I thought it was designed that way, but I was mistaken. It just looked that way because of the setting sun.

(*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡(*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡(*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡

＊＊＊

〈September, At The Office in The Morning〉

Kaori: Senpai, I managed to avoid being sent away. Sorry for worrying you.

Sae: I’m glad.

Kaori: By the way, Senpai has a different atmosphere than usual today.

Sae: ?

Kaori: Are those new earrings? Why are you covering your ears so I can’t see them? Don’t be shy, show us.

〈The End〉