Chapter 3: Underground!? (Musings of a Test-Taker)

I shoved the second envelope into my uniform pocket and hurried out of the school gate.
The library I was called to yesterday is a 7-8 minute walk from the high school, and the station she called me to today is another 7-8 minutes from there, making it 15 minutes from the high school.
Many students who attend this preparatory school from all over the prefecture commute by train, and I am one of them.

Since it's on the way home, I don't think there's any need to specify the station, but...
Thinking that, I headed toward the station with a faster pace than usual.

Still, I wonder when she put the letter in my shoe locker? I'm pretty sure I was the first one to leave the classroom.
Wondering about this, I walked quickly, but there was no sign of her on the path ahead.

She was there during homeroom, right?
I looked back, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe she's walking a different route? I thought, looking left and right every time I crossed a pedestrian crossing, but there was no sign of her.

As I approached the station, there was a girl in a uniform waving her hands frantically before the rotary.
Thinking, 'Could it be?', I approached at a jog, and there she was, the girl who gave me the letter again, waving happily.

Not knowing what kind of expression to respond with, I made an ambiguous face and called out, 'Hey.'

She responded with a beaming smile.
"I thought you would come. Thank you."

"Oh, yeah."
Come or not, I have to take a train from this station to get home anyway.

"This way, this way."
Instead of heading to the station ticket gate, she pinched the sleeve of my uniform and started walking toward the shopping street in front of the station.

I think this shopping street used to be bustling, but perhaps due to the influence of the shopping mall in the suburbs, by the time I started attending this high school, many shops had their shutters closed, and I remember that when we went shopping for supplies for the first-year school festival, we couldn't find what we needed and ended up going to the shopping mall.

She walked briskly through that deserted shopping street.
"Where are we going?"

"It's just a little further, so follow me."
There is no way to resist a beautiful classmate who looks back and smiles while saying that.

After walking for a while, we reached the corner of an intersection where the shopping street ended, and there stood an old three-story building that looked like it had been built in the Showa era; she stopped in front of it.
It looked like it might have housed company offices, but the signs had been removed and it seemed to be a vacant building.

"We're here."
She looked at my face as if to confirm, pinched my uniform sleeve again, and started down the stairs leading to the basement next to the front of the building.
She wasn't pulling my sleeve hard, but as if drawn by something, my body followed her down the dimly lit stairs.

[ to be continued ]

Thank you for reading this far.
MOH