As expected of Tsunagai High School. I never imagined there would be a classmate with such a unique way of thinking.
I felt my heart naturally beat faster at the good fortune of meeting such a person so soon after enrollment.
“…I never thought of it that way.”
“Really? But Izuta-kun, you seemed like you’d like science too.”
“Research is certainly interesting. But that’s because it makes me feel the possibility of contributing to humanity with my own power. I think—I thought—that science is fundamentally an endeavor to expand humanity’s possibilities.”
After slowly breathing in the spring breeze, I added.
“But it’s true, looking around yourself from the shoulders of giants isn’t bad either. We were able to see such beautiful scenery like this.”
Iwama, nodding, looked happy.
“Just by changing your perspective a little, the world becomes this wonderful.”
A very honor student-like way of summing it up. Those words would never come out of my mouth even under duress.
What I did after that was impulsive, or rather, I think it was something like an accident. I’d gotten carried away with the spring weather and ended up in that kind of mood.
“If it’s okay with you, why don’t you take this home, Iwama-san?”
I took out the katakuri in a plastic shopping bag from my bag. I regretted not putting it in a nicer bag if I was going to do something like this.
“Huh, is it okay?”
“Actually, I already have a katakuri specimen. If you’re interested, Iwama-san, how about making it into a pressed flower specimen? You can make it with simple things like newspaper or cardboard.”
I’m not normally the type of person who would suggest something like this to a girl I just met. But it was rare to meet someone like Iwama with whom I had so much in common, or rather, who could be called a kindred spirit. I might have gotten a bit carried away.
A katakuri with dirt still on it, and a wrinkled plastic bag. It was far too shabby as a gift for a girl, but Iwama accepted it happily.
“I’ll try making it, thank you!”
We’d seen the inome—not the heart—and decided it was about time to descend the mountain.
Before leaving the observation platform’s original location, Iwama took out her smartphone as if remembering something. She opened the camera and pointed it at the cherry blossoms.
Click—the shutter sound rang out several times. But still holding up her smartphone, Iwama seemed to be thinking about something.
“…What’s wrong?”
When I asked, Iwama groaned with a troubled expression.
“It’s beautiful, but like this, you can’t tell from just the photo that it was taken this year.”
Indeed, photos from previous years must be flooding the world. I could understand wanting to cherish the rarity of finding it this year.
“How about including today’s morning newspaper?”
When I said it as a joke, Iwama looked at me quite seriously.
“Eh, do you have a newspaper?”
“No, I don’t. I was joking. Sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize that much… There’s also the method of displaying today’s calendar on Izuta-kun’s smartphone and photographing that, but that would be kind of like a kidnapper, and it would ruin the atmosphere.”
She had a point.
“How about a selfie? Or I could take a photo with you in it, Iwama-san.”
I thought it was a good suggestion, but Iwama frowned slightly and shook her head.
“My face isn’t… it’s not something worth taking a picture of.”
I swallowed the words “oh please, you’re being modest” somewhere around my throat.
As Mizusaki had said, Iwama’s appearance was far from ordinary, but setting that aside, I understood well the feeling of wanting to take a photo but not wanting to be in it myself.
After thinking for a bit, Iwama held out her free hand in front of her smartphone’s camera.
“What are you doing…?”
“I thought I could just photograph my hand.”
She seemed fixated on including something in the photo. But indeed, if the photo included Iwama’s hand, it wouldn’t be just a landscape photo but something unique.
I could understand the logic, at least.
Iwama tried peace signs and thumbs up, then made an unsatisfied expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hmm, somehow none of them feel right… They don’t match the shape of the inome.”
I lacked the aesthetic sense for so-called Instagram-worthy photos, so I wasn’t confident I could help Iwama. I tried giving advice anyway.
“Since the background is an inome, how about making an inome with your hands too? Like making a heart.”
“I see!”
Iwama said, and made half a heart with one hand. Then she looked at me with expectant eyes.
“…?”
I was confused.
“One hand is occupied, so Izuta-kun, help me out!”
I didn’t understand this logic.
“Isn’t there a way to make a heart with your thumb and index finger? Girls do it a lot.”
“That’s a finger heart! This is an inome, so it’s a bit different.”
“I see…?”
Indeed, a finger heart is only called a heart and looks like a heart. The same shape couldn’t become an inome, which doesn’t have the concept of “heart” applied to it. On the other hand, if you tried to make an inome using Iwama’s method, you’d need both hands. Iwama was holding her smartphone. She was one hand short. I could understand that much.
But would she really ask me for that missing hand?
Well, if Iwama didn’t have any resistance to it, maybe I was just overthinking it. This wasn’t a heart—it was purely an inome, a shape that brings happiness.
I stood next to her and tried to align my hand with the one hand Iwama had positioned.
But my heart jumped. I could feel my ears getting hot. Sweat dripped.
In the end, I quickly pulled my hand back.
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“…?”
“No, well, it might be okay if it were two girls, but…”
I didn’t want her to think I was being overly self-conscious, so I kept it vague.
Iwama finally seemed to realize, her cheeks flushing slightly pink as her eyes widened.
“Ah… sorry! That was really forward of me!”
“No, it’s not something to apologize for. I’m just suggesting a different shape.”
“Then, how about we both do peace signs?”
I didn’t understand this logic at all.
“…Wouldn’t one peace sign be fine?”
At my suggestion, Iwama shook her head slightly.
“I realized it. The reason I want to include a hand in this photo is because I want to capture the uniqueness of this moment.”
“Uniqueness…?”
It was a term I’d only heard in mathematics.
“Right. Because I want to record the fact that I found this beautiful scenery together with Izuta-kun, it would be a waste if it weren’t just the scenery, but also Izuta-kun and me…”
Indeed, it was a perfectly logical explanation.
Well, a peace sign should be fine. There was no reason to refuse, so I went next to Iwama. And I made an unenthusiastic peace sign and held it out in front of Iwama’s smartphone camera.
“Come a bit closer!”
Iwama took a step toward me. Our shoulders almost touched. My heart jumped again.
I mentally put my hands together in prayer for all of the men this girl had probably unwittingly made fall for her.
Click—Iwama pressed the shutter.
In front of the heart-shaped blue sky framed by pale crimson cherry blossoms, two peace signs lined up, slightly dark from backlighting. They formed a shape just like the letter W.
“Yeah, that looks good. Thank you!”
Iwama seemed satisfied with that.
After that, as the sun was setting, we hurried down the mountain. By the time we returned to the school gate, it was almost evening.
“Oh right. Izuta-kun, give me your contact info.”
While heading down the tree-lined path toward town, Iwama made the suggestion.
“I’ll send you that photo from earlier.”
“Ah… thank you.”
And so Iwama and I exchanged LINE contacts.
When the tree-lined path ended, there was a fork in the road. My house was in the city, and I’d turn left from the tree-lined path, but Iwama commuted by train, so she would continue down the tree-lined path further toward the station.
We each set off on our respective journeys home.
Rain clouds developing over the ocean were stretching dark arms toward the setting sun.
“Whoa, such heavy rain!”
At night, at my sister’s voice, I looked outside to find the scenery looked like a storm.
While listening to the sound of fierce rain beating on the windows and the roar of wind blowing through, I looked once more at the photo Iwama had sent before going to bed. Technological progress was amazing. Even though it was just a small smartphone camera, the contrast between the cherry blossoms and sky was high-definition and vivid.
In the foreground, Iwama’s hand and my hand were lined up side by side. Perhaps she’d done color grading after shooting, as the darkness from backlighting wasn’t very noticeable.
A confident, chest-out peace sign, and a slouching, halfhearted peace sign.
I was even impressed that hands alone could show such a difference in personality.
The storm didn’t stop easily. The cherry blossoms that had been in full bloom must have scattered miserably.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Could it be—
That Iwama and I had become the only man and woman to see that heart this year?
If so, assuming that ridiculous superstition was true, this would be problematic.
The cherry blossoms on the back mountain that had supposedly granted romantic success every year for nineteen years.
Whether the twentieth consecutive record would be achieved now depended on the two of us, Iwama and me.
I decided to absolutely keep it secret from Mizusaki that we’d seen the heart properly.
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