Volume 4 - Me, Her, and our Changing World
Chapter 5
“.....?”
Even though I woke up in the same room as always, I felt my body registering a different sensation than usual as I drifted in the space between sleep and wakefulness.
As my consciousness slowly surfaced, I felt the dryness in my throat from the heater blasting all night, a soft sensation beneath me, and a warmth that was clearly not coming from the futon. That was when I opened my eyes.
“.....!”
I gasped.
Right before my eyes was Chinatsu’s sleeping face which instantly woke me up completely.
Looking down, I realized that because we had gone to sleep without wearing any clothes last night, I was now faced with the bare, exposed body of my girlfriend, leaving me utterly at a loss as to where to look.
As my heart thudded loudly in my chest, I hurriedly pulled the blanket back over her.
“Hngg… mm…?”
Chinatsu stirred and shifted slightly just enough for her knee to brush against a certain part of me that, despite having fulfilled its role the night before, was still uncooperatively reacting to the morning tree.
She must have still been half-asleep at first, but as she gradually became aware of the situation and of what exactly her knee had just touched, I could see her consciousness climbing higher and higher.
Then, with a small blink, Chinatsu’s eyes opened, and our gazes met.
Following the feeling against her knee, her eyes slowly trailed downward, confirming what she felt. Then, color began to spread across her face, from her cheeks to her ears.
It was the first time I’d ever seen someone’s face grow red so gradually up close.
‘Aha,’ I mused in understanding, ‘so that’s why they call it “flushing,” because the color rises like a tide.’ [TN: A bit of Japanese wordplay is happening here. The word for flushing or blushing, kouchou (紅潮), is written with the characters for "crimson/deep red" (紅) and "tide" (潮). Hajime is having an ‘Aha!’ moment, where he connects the word's components to the way he is watching the blush physically spread across her face like a rising tide. なるほど、潮が満ちるように赤くなるから、紅潮と呼ぶのか、と変な納得をしていると]
“G-good morning, Hajime. I, um… I’m totally fine if you wanna do, um, you know… but… since it’s morning, let’s have breakfast, go to the shrine first… and then… after that… we can…”
Chinatsu greeted me with a small good morning then continued in a soft, almost inaudible voice that I could have easily missed if I wasn’t listening closely.
“…..”
Hearing those words from her as we welcomed the first morning of the new year together, I couldn’t help but think that I was the happiest man alive.
◇◆
After we each took a shower and ate a light breakfast, we headed to a nearby shrine.
"I actually wanted to dress up nicely in a kimono or something, but I don't have one, and my mom’s not around to help me put it on either."
Bundled up in her usual plain mode outfit and a puffy coat, she looked adorable. As for me, while the weather wasn’t as cold as Nagano’s, it was still a chilly winter morning, so I wore a knit hat and a heavy coat for warmth. Unless someone got so close, nobody would probably recognize the both of us.
Since it was the new year’s, the shrine grounds were crowded with people.
“Hajime, Hajime! Let’s draw fortunes too! Oh, they even have food stalls here, that's pretty amazing!"
There were several old shrines around my neighborhood, and during this season, the locals apparently set up tons of stalls selling takoyaki, amazake, and bell-shaped castella cakes.
“Let’s check out the stalls after,” I said. “The main shrine’s over there, so let’s pray first.”
Chinatsu was so full of energy that I couldn’t help thinking how cute she was.
I called out to her, and the two of us joined the long line to offer our prayers and coins.
“I think I’ll splurge a bit on my offering this year.”
“Splurge?”
“Yeah, normally I only toss in a ten-yen coin, but I feel like being greedy this year. I might as well throw in all the coins in my wallet.”
“Haha, and how much do you have in there?”
“Let’s see… hmm, three hundred and ninety-five yen. Oh? It sounds like ‘Thank you for this fateful meeting,' right?” [TN: This is a Japanese number pun, or goroawase. 395円 can be read as "san-kyuu-go-en," which combines the English "thank you (san-kyuu)" with the Japanese word 5円 with 御縁 which both reads as “go-en”, and 御縁 means a fated connection or a special bond between people. Chinatsu is making a cheesy joke that the coins she was throwing onto the shrine means, "Thank you for this fateful meeting." Raw: えーっと、うん、３９５円だね。お、サンキュー御縁じゃない？]
“..…”
“Hey, don’t ignore me like that! That’s kinda cold, you know! You’re my boyfriend, you’re supposed to react!”
“I… I just couldn’t come up with a response that fast! And since when did being your boyfriend mean I have to react to your punchlines?!”
Laughing and teasing each other like that, we eventually reached the front of the line.
We did the proper ritual we’d looked up beforehand. Two bows, two claps, one bow.
“We’re supposed to say our address too, right?” [TN: A common Japanese custom when praying at a Shinto shrine is to state one's name and address to the kami (deity). This acts as a polite self-introduction, helping the god identify the petitioner so they can grant the wish to the correct person.]
“Yup, that’s right.”
Following Chinatsu’s lead, I tossed in all my coins as well. It was my first time ever offering a 500-yen coin. And lately, I noticed I’d been doing a lot of “firsts” with her.
As I gave my thanks for the past year, I glanced sideways at Chinatsu, who was praying with all her heart, and I made the one and only wish I truly wanted for this year―
“Okay, next up! Drawing for fortune slips!”
“Wait, hold on. I just realized I threw in all my coins too. Do they give change for the fortune slips too?”
“Ah, geez! Why did you throw in all your coins too, Hajime?!”
“Whaa… okay, okay. Let’s just buy some takoyaki or amazake first, get some change, and then draw fortunes.”
―May these ordinary, carefree exchanges continue for years and years to come.
"Speaking of which, Hajime, what did you wish for?"
“Hmm… well, of course, it was about us. But saying it out loud feels kind of embarrassing. What about you, Chinatsu? You said you were feeling kind of greedy this year, remember?”
“Me? First, I wished for my mom to stay healthy. Then, for my grandma to live a long, long life. And after that… I wished for my baby brother to be born safely.”
“Ah… right, yeah.”
“Pretty greedy, don’t you think? But of course, along with all that, my biggest wish was about you and me. Hehe. And honestly, even before I asked, I had a feeling you wished for the same thing.”
“I only wished for that, actually. But now that you mention it, I probably should’ve prayed for my uncle’s health or something too. You’re amazing, Chinatsu, I really think so. And I’d like to believe I was wishing for the same thing as you.”
We both smiled sweetly at each other and shared the most important prayer of all.
If gods truly existed, then I wanted to say this:
Thank you so much for last year.
And please, continue to watch over us this year too.
May I always spend life together with this person, and may we both stay happy together, from this year onward.
