Short Story: Total Strangers
I know her. I just don't speak to her. She is a classmate who bullied me back in middle school. I found this cafe over a year ago, but it seems she only started coming here about a week ago. Her back, which looks so melancholy, really didn't seem like her at all. That is, in a very complicated sense.
I had no intention of changing cafes. I like this place, and even with her presence here, I've completely forgotten about the past, so my peace of mind isn't disturbed, and since she has likely forgotten too, we are total strangers. Then one day, it felt as if it were destined that we, these total strangers, would cease to be strangers. It was a rainy day. When I went to leave with my umbrella, it was gone. It was a slightly unique umbrella with a tartan pattern. And right there in front of me, she was using it! I felt like I was about to explode with rage. To think there was actually an active volcano still inside me!
“Excuse me!”
She stopped. She looked quite dazed, and her eyes were a little red, as if she had been crying just moments before.
“That umbrella, it’s mine...”
My voice trailed off, held back by the sight of her tear-stained face. She returned the umbrella, saying, “I’m so sorry, I was just zoning out!” I suspect that was actually the truth. I didn't get any angrier and accepted the umbrella. If she had done it on purpose, I definitely would have been furious, but having the wind taken out of my sails, I was just about to head home when she called out to me.
“Come to think of it... I just realized I didn't bring an umbrella.”
Then we walked together. I don't know why things turned out this way. But perhaps I am here now because I was driven by something smoldering inside me, like smoke. She began to talk. There was a gritty sound of our feet pressing into the rainy asphalt.
“My boyfriend dumped me. I’m such an idiot. I’m selfish. I said terrible things to him. My life is always like this. To begin with, my family—my parents were abusive—so I really don't know how to interact with people.”
The sound of the rain seemed to grow closer.
“I see.”
“Maybe that’s why I’m here now, spilling my personal life to a complete stranger like you.”
I felt that sense of intimacy peculiar to people who carry shadows. I’m not good with people like this and couldn't deal with it, so I walked her as far as a convenience store, made her buy a plastic umbrella, and left the scene. She had no inkling that she knew me. She was surely too preoccupied with herself.
And then I thought back to the girl she was back then. She was certainly mean, and she did terrible things to me, but her test scores were always high and she was dedicated to her club activities, so perhaps she was earnest at heart. It felt like checking the answers to the rest of her life, and I couldn't put my feelings into words. The pouring rain turned my thoughts into a swim. For a while, I swam through the rain, took a bit of a detour, and arrived home just as the rain stopped.
After that, since she started talking to me every time I went to the cafe, I stopped going. It wasn't because she was a bully, but simply because I have no interest in who she is now.
And then we returned to being total strangers once again.
(End / 1,336 characters)
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