The Childhood Friend Who Used To Be A Wild Little Brat Turned Out To Be A Very Beautiful Girl.... - Chapter 1

I got off at the station in a certain port town in the Seto Inland Sea. I felt a wave of nostalgia—along with a faint, nagging anxiety.

Up until just recently, my parents had been transferred overseas for work, and I’d had no choice but to live abroad with them.

If it had been Europe or the U.S., maybe I could’ve at least played the part of some “cool returnee.” But my parents’ posting was to a corner of an Asian island nation—and not even a city. Calling it the sticks wouldn’t have been wrong.

Of course there wasn’t anything like a Japanese school there, so I ended up attending a small local school where the island kids went…

Because of my parents’ education policy, I’d studied English since I was little, but I wound up living in an environment where “official English” barely worked at all.

Well, my English at elementary-school level wasn’t anything special to begin with. Once I got buried in the local language, the tiny bit of English I had rusted over too—now I could barely speak it at all.

On an island nation where “kids’ entertainment” was basically running through the hills or swimming in the sea, the only genuinely good thing about that life was probably the living environment we got.

Because Japanese companies were coming in under the banner of industrial development aid for an underdeveloped island nation, the house we were provided was basically a mansion—a building with a pool, and even live-in help.

For me—someone who’d been living in an apartment in a fairly lively regional city in Japan—it was a total lifestyle flip. At first, the sheer size of it threw me off.

And then that lifestyle flipped again, and I found myself back in this rural port town I could call my hometown.

Huh? Didn’t I just say I lived in a pretty urban city? So why am I calling this place my hometown?

There was a reason I called this town that.

I was born here, and I lived in this port town until I started elementary school. It was a Japanese-style house that felt cramped—partly because, even though it was a standalone home, we lived together with my grandparents.

Then, right before I entered elementary school, we moved to the city I mentioned earlier because of my dad’s job.

That city was about an hour away by express train—far enough that it wasn’t really a distance a kid could casually go back and forth. But I still came to this port town constantly—almost every weekend.

When I was in the lower grades, my parents brought me. But since my grandparents lived here, they went along with my selfish insistence. By the time I was in fourth grade, spending Saturday and Sunday at my grandparents’ place by myself became my normal routine.

The reason I kept coming wasn’t because my grandparents were here. The real reason was the childhood friend who lived right next door to them.

A childhood friend born the same year as me. A best friend who was always with me, almost like a twin brother. That was the reason this port town felt like my hometown.

When my parents’ overseas assignment ended and we decided to come back here instead of returning to the city, the one who was happiest about it was me.

For my parents, it was probably a decision made with living together with my aging grandparents in mind—but for me, it was nothing but good news.

And now, here I was—standing at the station in this port town.

Sure, there were familiar faces here, and it was just going back to my old life, but… in reality, it had been ten years. It had been five years since I’d stopped coming to this town. And on top of that, five full years living overseas. All of that piled together into one big blank gap, and it made me uneasy.

My dad and mom apparently had to stay at the Tokyo head office for a while to handle transition work, so because of my transfer schedule for school, I was the only one stepping onto this “hometown” soil first…

And that was why I was just standing there in the slightly changed station area, not sure what to do next.

Buildings that should’ve been childhood landmarks were gone or replaced, and the kanji signs I should’ve been used to somehow made it harder to understand them.

I’d thought, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ll be fine on my own.

I never expected I’d end up getting smacked in the face by culture shock the moment I got here.

I opened the smartphone they’d bought me as soon as we returned to Japan. I stared at the only three numbers saved inside, unsure which one to call.

Calling my parents in Tokyo would be pointless. But bothering my grandparents also felt pathetic.

That left the last contact—probably the house of my childhood friend who lived next door to my grandparents’ place. Since they were next door, I’d never actually called before, so I didn’t know if the number was right. But Mom had entered it, so it should be fine. The contact name displayed the Minowa surname—his.

I made up my mind and tapped it.

After the “pururururu~” ringtone, I heard a familiar auntie’s voice.

I stumbled through my greeting, reported the situation, and she told me she’d send him to come pick me up.

My childhood friend—the guy who’d been with me the whole time until we moved away. My best friend who I still saw almost every weekend even after we moved.

Because it was a seaside town, he’d been healthily sun-tanned, and we’d gone all over the place together.

A partner in all kinds of mischief. A partner in crime. I wondered how he’d grown up.

I was the only one standing there spaced out under the blazing sun, so I figured there was no way he wouldn’t notice me when he arrived… but still.

Thinking that, I waited in front of the station, where the late-summer heat still clung to the air, for that familiar face to come.

About thirty minutes later, a single mom-bike rolled toward me.

Riding it was a slim boy in jeans, slightly sun-tanned.

“Yo, Taku! Long time no see.”

He spoke with a casual grin.

I definitely recognized that smug face, but—

“Makoto?”

Without thinking, I just stared at him.

“What the hell. You forget my face after only five years?”

A perfectly put-together, obvious pretty-boy type answered me.

It had to be Makoto.

“So what, that’s all your luggage?”

“Yeah. The rest should come with the moving company.”

“Oh, so that’s what that truck at your place yesterday was.”

“Probably.”

“Alright. Then put that bag in the basket.”

“Yeah…”

I set my only piece of luggage—my daypack—into the basket, and he got off his bike and started walking.

“Sorry you had to come get me.”

“The area in front of the station changed with redevelopment like two years ago. It’s normal to get lost.”

“But you were home. I thought you might be out since it’s a day off.”

“It’s the last day of summer break, so I stayed in. I was rushing to finish the last of my homework…”

“Right. It’s summer break season in Japan.”

“You get spaced out while you were away from Japan?”

“It’s culture shock.”

“As expected of our fancy little returnee~.”

“Returnee or not, it was a southern island with nothing on it…”

We chatted like that as we left the station behind and headed along the road by the sea.

After a while, the townscape gradually started to turn into the one I remembered, and a warm sense of nostalgia—and relief—washed over me.

“Once we get around here, you can tell where you’re going, right?”

“Yeah. This part hasn’t changed.”

“Only the station area did. Redevelopment started back when you were still here, but back then it wasn’t at the demolition stage yet.”

“So that’s why… When I got off at the station, I panicked and thought I’d gotten off at the wrong one.”

“The signs and everything around the station changed too. With municipality mergers and all that, some place names changed a bit, so even if you look at a map, it’s different from back then…”

“So that’s why the map in front of the station was total nonsense to me… I seriously thought I forgot how to read Japanese.”

“You might’ve a little. Your intonation’s kinda weird.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. It sounds off.”

“Then I’d better watch that…”

We turned off the seaside road, took a side street, and climbed a slope leading inland. It was a road I recognized, but something felt slightly different.

“Was this hill always this steep?”

“This part hasn’t changed.”

Maybe it was because there weren’t many steep slopes over there…

In Japan, having tall mountains right next to the sea was normal, but over there, there weren’t any high places close to the coastline. I guess I’d gotten used to that.

After a bit, we reached my old-fashioned Japanese house.

Makoto’s place next door was the same as ever too, and it finally hit me—yeah, I was really back.

“…I’m home.”

When I muttered that, Makoto made an exasperated face.

“Well, I guess that just means you were over there a long time.”

“Yeah… guess so.”

“Anyway, see you tomorrow. Partner!”

“What’s with ‘partner’? …But yeah, starting today we’re neighbors again, so—good to have you back.”

“Either way, hurry up and show your face to your grandpa and grandma. They’re probably sick of waiting.”

“Yeah. I will.”

“New term starts tomorrow, so we’re going together in the morning, right?”

“Huh? You go to the same school?”

“Yeah. My mom said so. Not sure if we’ll be in the same class, though…”

“Got it. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Later.”

With that, he went into his house.

I watched him go, then passed through the familiar gate of my own home.

He’d turned into a surprisingly handsome guy, but he seemed the same as ever, which was a relief… But I had no idea that the next morning, such a surprise would be waiting for me.