#Carbonation

After getting out of the bath, Hiromi finished with her hair dryer quickly and opened the living room door.

The cool breeze from the air conditioner felt pleasant against her heat-flushed body, and she let out a sigh of relief. Ever since she turned forty, she had become quite bad with the heat.

Hiromi opened the refrigerator to get some cold water and found an unfamiliar plastic bottle. Her husband, Kazuya, didn't drink sweet juices, and there was no one in the house but the two of them and their pet cat, Mii.

"Hey, where did this Kirin Lemon come from?"

Kazuya, who was sitting in his usual spot at the dining table looking at his smartphone with narrowed eyes, looked up and gave a small smile.

"Oh, that? I won it in some convenience store lottery. You can have it, Hiromi."

Just imagining the sweet liquid going down her throat made Hiromi feel as if her body lines would loosen even further. She poured mineral water into a tumbler and drank it all at once, then picked up the handy fan she had left on the counter. When she turned it on, a lukewarm breeze hit her cheeks.

Suddenly, a summer from over twenty years ago came back to Hiromi's mind.

The sky was bluer and the sun more dazzling than it was now. She remembered herself walking in sandals with bare feet, showing off her shoulders and legs without worrying about sunburn or other people's eyes, and an ex-boyfriend whose face she could no longer even recall.

He would buy a drink from a vending machine by the side of a gravel road. The sound of coins clinking as change, and the clatter of a plastic bottle falling.

He would take a sip first, then hand the bottle to Hiromi with a "Here." The bottle, handed over without ceremony, was already covered in beads of condensation. When she took a sip, even though it had just been bought, it was somehow lukewarm, flat, and cloyingly sweet. The cicadas were buzzing so loudly it was deafening. When Hiromi returned the bottle, he would take another sip and smile. A single bead of sweat ran down his sun-tanned forehead.

Hiromi turned off the handy fan and put it back in its original place on the counter. Mii, who had been sleeping on the living room sofa, lifted her head, looked around, and curled back up.

Hiromi took her husband's tumbler out of the cupboard and placed it next to her own. As she filled them with plenty of ice and poured in the Kirin Lemon, a fizzing sound spread, and tiny bubbles popped. Hiromi took a square container from the refrigerator and placed the sliced lemons on top one by one, as if decorating them.

When Hiromi placed the tumbler in front of Kazuya, he looked up at her face and then dropped his gaze to the lemon slice.

"Oh, what's this? It looks fancy. Can I drink it?"

When Hiromi nodded, Kazuya took a sip happily and let out a satisfied breath.

"This is good. It's not too sweet. It's a grown-up taste."

Hiromi sat in the seat opposite him and tried a sip herself. Thanks to the tartness and slight bitterness of the lemon, a refreshing sensation remained in her mouth rather than just sweetness. When Hiromi smiled involuntarily, Kazuya met her eyes and laughed, saying, "Right?"

Perhaps because she had added so much ice, the carbonated bubbles in the tumbler were popping a little more gently and steadily than before.



#Kazemakase Literature Club "#Carbonation"
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