ch1-ch20 · 005-ch5

Chapter 5: An Akita, or a Samoyed?

The school day was over, time to head home.

Sumi, Kiri, and I walked out of the school building together.

Since those two were on foot, I pushed my bike alongside them for part of the way.

Kiri was in the art club, but only twice a week.

When she went, she actually took it seriously instead of just drawing anime stuff.

She always said that solid fundamentals are what make character illustrations shine, so she put real effort into it.

Sumi was in the go-home club since she prioritized her part-time job. By "job," I meant modeling for the fashion magazine where Sumi's mom worked as an editor.

She'd been appearing in it casually since middle school, but then the editor-in-chief asked her if she wanted to do it "for real," so she'd apparently gotten more serious about it since starting high school.

Having a childhood friend who was a model? Pretty cool, right? Not that I had anything to do with it.

Anyway, I was also in the go-home club. But I was planning to look for a part-time job soon.

"Why don'tcha just work at your papa's place, Ai~?"

"Hmm, our schedules don't really line up."

The food truck's main hours were from before lunch through the afternoon—while I was at school.

When I was little, I'd ride along and "help out" (pretend to), but these days I only pitched in during events on weekends.

"So you're gonna work at a place that's open at night?"

"Yeah, probably. If possible, somewhere that's not food service."

With restaurants, I'd probably end up comparing them to Papa's cooking, which would make things awkward.

"Ahh, you'd just be thinking about how Papa could make something tastier?"

"I-I'm not that spoiled! It's just, like, work methods and how to treat customers and stuff..."

I tried to argue back against Sumi's teasing, but both she and Kiri just gave me knowing looks. Stop looking at me like that.

"Everyone knows you're a total daddy's girl, Ai."

"Yeah, common knowledge~"

Whose common knowledge is that? Never heard of it.

"Well, well. I get why you'd be a daddy's girl though. He's tall and kind."

"He's just scrawny and bad at getting mad, that's all."

"And he's young too~ Probably the youngest dad in our class, right?"

"He just had a kid without thinking after graduating high school, that's all."

I was born when Papa was nineteen.

Both his parents were gone, and he'd grown up in a facility. Even while living there, he'd worked at restaurants alongside school, and at eighteen, he got together with my mom, who also didn't have parents.

And well, I came along pretty quick after that.

I mean, yeah, I get it—when a young guy and girl finally get to live together after leaving the facility, of course they'd have a baby pretty quick.

The sad part was that Mom passed away soon after giving birth to me, even though they'd just started living together. We were poor back then, so they didn't even have proper phones, and apparently no photos survived either. That's a little disappointing.

As far as physical keepsakes go, there's the blue penguin mascot Mom made for me, and the small black stone pendant Papa always wears that he got from Mom. That's about it, I guess.

"There she goes being tsundere for her papa again~"

Hey, Sumi, quit poking my cheek. It's not like that.

"There's a certain kind of nourishment you can only get from a daughter being awkwardly honest at this age, isn't there?"

Kiri, you're the same age as me. Don't give me that smug little smile.

With the two of them grinning at me like that, we finally reached the fork where we parted ways.

"See you tomorrow~"

"Bye."

"Bye bye—wait, huh?"

Kiri had spotted something.

At the end of her gaze, right in the middle of the T-intersection, was... a white, fluffy stuffed animal.

"Huh, what kind of plushie is this? An Akita? A Samoyed?"

"Think a kid dropped it~?"

"But it's pretty big. You'd think they'd notice if they dropped it."

The round, dog-shaped plushie was about the size of a soccer ball.

Even if a kid was carrying it, it seemed impossible to lose.

"What should we do? Just move it to the side of the road for now?"

"Maybe we should take it to the police box."

"Well then~ let's take it to the police box near my place~"

Right as the three of us were discussing what to do with the dog plushie.

Slowly, the dog rolled over onto its back. Like it was turning over in its sleep.

"...U, ugh~ I'm hungryyy..."

"IT... IT TAAAAAAALKED!!"

Looking back, this meeting with the Samoyed-looking dog was the signal that our fun but ordinary everyday life was coming to an end... though honestly, you didn't need hindsight to figure that out at this moment, right!?