aiko 'Kiss Hug' — Remembering that summer as the years go by | Looking back at those days #5

At the end of August, I saw aiko's performance at 'SWEET LOVE SHOWER'.

aiko is one of my favorite artists, and I have been to her concerts many times.
Although she has a career spanning over 25 years, this summer was her first time performing at a summer festival, making it a highly anticipated stage for fans as well.

I had secretly hoped to hear 'Kiss Hug', so when the song was introduced, I couldn't help but cry out.
Hearing 'Kiss Hug' at Lake Yamanaka as the sun went down was incredibly emotional, and it gently opened the doors to my memories.

Insert song for Hana Yori Dango F

'Kiss Hug' is a song released in July 2008, and it became a huge hit as an insert song for the then-very popular 'Hana Yori Dango Final'.

*'Hana Yori Dango' is based on the original work by Yoko Kamio and was adapted into a drama in 2005 starring Mao Inoue.
A sequel, 'Returns', was released in 2007, and a theatrical version was released in 2008, with the entire series becoming a massive hit.
Jun Matsumoto played the role of Tsukasa Domyoji, and Arashi was in charge of the theme song.
It also became a turning point for Arashi's rise to prominence.

At the time, Hana Yori Dango was incredibly popular regardless of gender, and girls in particular were so divided that they were either on Team Domyoji or Team Rui Hanazawa.
I also loved Hana Yori Dango and never missed an episode with my mother and sister.
'Kiss Hug' was also used impressively, and it can be said that it is a song with high name recognition even among non-fans of our generation.

Even at Love-Sha, cheers went up almost at the same time as the song introduction.
It must be a song that holds a special place in the hearts of so many people.

The moment I heard the intro, the memories of the summer of 2008, my first year of high school, came flooding back all at once.

The summer of my first year of high school, the school trip

My high school had a dormitory in Nagano Prefecture owned by the alumni association.
Although it was called a dormitory, it was like an old pension, and every year, two classes of first-year students would head to the lodging facility during summer vacation.

It was an old dormitory that was over 50 years old at the time, but the school trip was something special.
The timing of summer vacation was just right, and the class had become reasonably close.
I remember being excited about the extraordinary experience of being in touch with nature with my usual friends.

As is common in student days, the number of couples increases before and after events.
For couples who were already dating, there was a special feeling of 'staying over' even though it was a school event, and for those who weren't, there was a quiet sense of excitement that 'something might happen'.

We called the phenomenon of something happening on a school trip 'magic'.

I didn't have a girlfriend, let alone someone I liked.
When I first heard this song, I interpreted it without a shred of romance, thinking, 'If you aren't even thought of as a "friend," then there's no chance...'
That's how little I had to do with romance, and I couldn't imagine myself being liked by a woman at all.

After entering school, there was someone in my class I was interested in, but she was already dating the handsome guy from the basketball team.
He wasn't just cool; he also had a very good personality.
I healed my minor emotional wounds by telling myself, 'It's good that it was before I fell for her seriously' and 'It's good that it was him'.

The night sky of that summer

Since we had gone all the way to Nagano Prefecture, I looked up at the starry sky from near the dormitory at night.
The night sky looking up from the darkness without streetlights had stars that were incomparably more beautiful than in Tokyo.

The stars look beautiful when seen alone, but I strongly felt that it would be romantic to see them with someone special. I remember wishing for such a future to come.

I was wishing on the stars for some future, but thinking, 'Maybe the couples are having a romantic time right now,' I turned my eyes to that handsome guy.
I found them holding hands firmly and looking up at the stars.

I had never seen a friend couple being intimate in front of me, and my heart raced.
It was the moment I saw an intimacy that was a little more adult, different from the romances of junior high school.

I connected the relationship between the two of them to the worldview of 'Kiss Hug'.

There was no such thing as 'jealousy' in me at the time.
It was the very 'longing' I had wished for on the stars, and I even thought of it as hope for the future.

Myself, not living a 'real' life

I myself was far from being a 'popular kid'.
Due to the way the room assignments were handled for our school trip, I ended up in a room with students from another class.

While I was happy to make friends in other classes, the guy I was roomed with was quite eccentric, so there was no blooming of the classic school trip 'love talk,' and not a shred of romance to be found.

Thanks to that, I ended up living a more regular life than usual, with 'scheduled bedtime and scheduled wake-up time'.

The next morning, when I headed to the morning assembly with clear, wide-awake eyes, my classmates from other rooms looked sleepy.
They had apparently been up all night having love talks and texting people they were interested in.

I even felt a sense of guilt that my sleep schedule had been so well-regulated during the school trip.

It was an opportunity to learn that while where you go is important, who you spend your time with is even more so.

There are more things that don't change

I think these are lyrics about 'two people in love,' but for me, they are thoughts about 'the friends from those days'.

I am connected to some of those friends on social media, and I even had a chance to meet them recently.
Even as our life stages have changed, I feel that the core parts of who they are remain the same.

I didn't have anyone I liked, and I went to bed at a set time, but I still haven't forgotten the starry sky I looked up at that summer.

It seems the dormitory used for the class reunion was closed after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Perhaps I won't be able to see that starry sky again, and maybe no more magic will happen.

'Kiss Hug' connects the scenery of that time to the me of today.
Seventeen years have passed since that summer, but I remembered it 'as the years went by'.

Looking back, even though I had no luck with romance, perhaps I was right in the middle of my own 'youth' after all.

As long as this song exists, even as 20 or 30 years pass, I am sure I will never forget that 'youth'.

Click here for the story about going to Love-Shu.

Click here for stories about looking back at those days.