Spring ends so quickly: 'Three, Cherry Blossoms in Leaf'

Three, Cherry Blossoms in Leaf

The moon peeking through the gap in the curtains was so beautiful that I murmured to Yano, 'I'll walk you to the station.' I looked away from Yano's profile, which wore an expression so ambiguous I couldn't tell if he had heard me or not, and I climbed out of bed to reach for my underwear. It was a night where I felt strangely reluctant to let him go.

'That's rare,' he said.

He said it as if he were dumbfounded, but he didn't particularly refuse. Yano silently threw on his shirt, and I picked up the scattered socks.
As we walked along the Keikyu elevated tracks, the light spilling through the gaps in the cherry blossoms in leaf was brighter than I had expected, illuminating the residential street in white. It was strange; even though I hadn't paid it any mind during the day, on nights like this, everything seemed just a little bit special.
I placed one foot on the curb of the wheel stop. 'That's dangerous,' Yano, who was walking ahead, said as he turned back. 'I'm fine,' I replied, and took one more step forward. It wasn't high enough to get hurt if I fell. Even so, I walked carefully so as not to lose my footing.

'You always try to walk on the line like that, don't you?'

Yano laughed, and the night breeze blew past us. The sound of a train running on the other side of the elevated tracks faded away as if stroking the roofs of the residential area.

'Do you think so?'
'I do.'

When I looked up at the moon, the tips of the cherry blossom branches still held a lingering trace of spring, and every time the wind blew, they swayed their black shadows.

'Maybe I want to walk straight, somewhere deep down.'

I didn't even know what I was saying myself, but Yano didn't deny it.

'Hey.'
'Hmm?'
'How long has it been? Us.'

Yano thought for a while and didn't answer the question. Only the moonlight brought out the contours of the curb, and I felt that the more I knew, the more I was stepping across that boundary.

'What kind of person was Yuki-san?'
'She was a beautiful person.'

When I slipped slightly on the curb, Yano reached out to steady me.

'You're a precarious person, aren't you?'

His hand didn't pull away immediately. While we both looked up at the moon floating beyond the cherry blossoms, our overlapping fingertips faintly loosened and touched, yet neither of us pulled away. The shadows swayed in the wind, and an insect chirped in the distance. When Yano's fingertips quietly pulled away, we started walking side by side again.
After all, I only know a small part of Yuki-san's life. Things like her murmuring, 'I want to become a raft of cherry blossoms,' or her profile as she silently watched the Ferris wheel by the window. I only know a little bit about such trivial things.
Before long, the curb quietly curved and came to an end.

'Hey, do you regret it?'
'Regret what?'
'Sleeping with me.'

I felt like I had walked to a point of no return, but the fact that an insect was chirping in the distance and the cherry blossoms were swaying in the wind seemed like the same thing now.

'If I did, I wouldn't be here, would I? Don't you think?'

I placed my hand on Yano's shoulder and said, 'Well, I suppose,' and as I stepped off the curb, I felt as if the ground beneath my feet had suddenly widened.
Even though I thought I had been walking carefully to avoid losing my footing, perhaps the line I really shouldn't have crossed had been crossed much, much earlier.

'This is fine. Take care.'

Yano raised his hand slightly and walked toward the station. I watched his back for a while, and when he was out of sight, I turned on my heel. I don't think either Yano or I looked back even once.
Days that leave behind that kind of warmth eventually become 'that day.'
It was a night where the silence echoed far and wide.