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With her gyudon bento in one hand, Koguma was half-pulled away by Reiko.
I’m eating lunch with friends today. Reiko had said when she turned down the invitation to lunch by a classmate, and now she was about to go somewhere with Koguma.
Koguma was thinking. Is it possible that Reiko sees me as her friend? If that was the case, it was a bit bothersome. She had been trying to avoid the burden of such relationships, but Reiko was one-sidedly pulling her arm without asking about her convenience.
Koguma thought about shaking free from that hand and running back to the classroom, but if she did that, she might end up making a troublesome enemy rather than a friend in class.
As she was hesitating about this and that, Koguma was taken to the bike parking area behind the school.
Reiko released Koguma’s arm and said with a smile she never showed in front of their other classmates in class,
“Shall we have lunch, then? With our friends.”
Reiko patted the seat of her Postal Cub parked in the parking area.
Koguma’s Super Cub was next to it. It wasn’t a friend or anything of the sort, just a tool for daily life and means of transport for the friendless Koguma.
Koguma wondered if a high school student could say that their motorcycle was their friend, but her cheeks strangely slackened a little.
It wasn’t that she was drawn in by Reiko’s carefree and childlike face, or that her behavior was funny, but that she could only smile in the presence of something that was unexpected for her.
Reiko sat with her legs out to one side on her red Cub, which was parked with the side stand tilted up, and opened up her bento.
With an “Itadakimasu,” Reiko dug into her lunch of one whole baguette with ham and vegetables. She didn’t encourage Koguma to sit down, just gnawing on her baguette while looking down at her own bike.
Not seeing any other way around it, Koguma sat on the seat of her Cub, which was parked on the center stand. She straddled it, not looking as cool as Reiko. Honestly, a parked scooter was unstable, not suitable for sitting and eating.
When Koguma started eating her gyudon lunch, Reiko, who had already eaten half of her baguette, began talking to her one-sidedly.
“When I’m sitting on my Cub like this, I feel like I can go anywhere and everywhere, even when I’m stopped.”
Koguma, eating her bento, did not meet Reiko’s eyes, and answered her while looking down.
“I haven’t gone very far yet.”
A bike that could go far would be a bigger bike. Or something like the Postal Cub Reiko was riding, she thought.
Reiko’s scratched-up Postal Cub had a box installed in the back that looked like it could hold a lot of luggage, and while Koguma’s Cub had a large cargo bed, she had trouble even securing her helmet.
Reiko looked at her own Postal Cub, then looked at Koguma’s Cub, and then spoke.
“You can go anywhere. Because it’s a Cub.”
Koguma couldn’t imagine going on long trips with a Cub that was used for deliveries and a farmer’s substitute for walking.
After that lunch where she felt like she was being pushed around by Reiko and her afternoon classes, it was now the end of the school day.
As for Reiko, who forcibly invited Koguma to lunch during the lunch break, when homeroom was over, she left the classroom without even a look at Koguma.
Koguma left school a little later and went to the bike parking area, but Reiko’s red Cub was nowhere to be found.
Koguma started the engine of her Cub and left school. The route from here to home was simply a straight run along the prefectural road.
On the way, the road intersected with the Koushuu Kaidou.1 Turning left would lead to Suwa and Matsumoto, and turning right would lead to Koufu and Tokyo.
Koguma, who approached the intersection with the intention to go straight home, turned on the Cub’s turn signal.
She hadn’t been influenced by Reiko’s words. She just recalled that her supply of ready-made food was about to run out and thought that she had to go to the supermarket.
Koguma’s detour has begun.
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