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The first day of the post-exam break.
It was effectively the day when summer vacation started. Koguma woke up earlier than she usually did in the morning to go to school.
Today marked the start of Koguma’s summer job. Her first job in her second year of high school was to help with school business.
Last night she slept in her school tracksuit which would become her work clothes, but she took off her tracksuit and underwear and took a cold shower.
It wasn’t so much to cleanse herself but to stimulate her skin and her whole body to remove the stiffness caused by mental tension from her body.
Koguma, still naked, inspected the items she was going to bring with her today one more time and put on her new underwear, gym shirt, and tracksuit.
She prepared a breakfast of instant coffee with plenty of milk, untoasted bread, and a whole tomato.
As she alternated between eating the bread with butter and jam and drinking coffee, she bit into the tomato with salt. She was going to start riding her Cub on the main road and carry documents. If an accident happened, she might get injured. Or something even more serious.
Koguma finished her breakfast, thinking that at the very least she would try not to end up like the tomato.
She had put on what she was going to wear, so now she gathered what she was going to bring with her. However, she hadn’t been told what she needed to bring. She decided to bring her license, wallet, phone, keys, and a ballpoint pen, all things she usually brought with her when she went to school or went on an outing on her Cub.
In her phone’s contacts, she had Reiko’s contact information, which she had given to her in case of emergency, but she was probably not around anymore, as she said she would go on a ride with her Postal Cub once summer vacation started.
Before the summer vacation, she asked Reiko where she was going, but she only said, “Somewhere near and far.” She was curious about where she was going, but she somehow knew that she couldn’t and didn’t want to talk about it right now, so she didn’t ask any further.
Koguma realized that she had become interested in the actions of others. She didn’t know if it was Reiko she was curious about, or the red and blue modified Postal Cub she rode.
Koguma, who had been getting ready as she was thinking, was not sure where to put her wallet and cell phone, which were too bulky to put in her jersey pocket and could fall out, but she stuffed them in a plain black waist pouch in her apartment and carried it diagonally across her body.
She put on the digital watch she had bought yesterday, grabbed her helmet and gloves, put on her new cloth basketball shoes, then put her hand on the knob of the front door.
There, Koguma became worried about her appearance and took off her basketball shoes with the laces tied before returning to her apartment to check her appearance in the bathroom mirror.
A face that was as unremarkable as ever, bobbed black hair, a navy blue tracksuit and a waist pouch slung diagonally over her chest.
She felt more relieved than disappointed when she saw her plain and inconspicuous appearance again, but she thought that if she were to get a job in the future, she would prefer to have a mirror in front of her door rather than just a small one in the bathroom.
Not to prettily mend her appearance, but to make sure she didn’t look unseemly.
Koguma started her Cub’s engine, then consciously rode through the streets at the same speed and in the same way as usual, and arrived at the school.
She went to the Academic Affairs office in the staff room, a place that was barely a part of her life unless she had something to do there. She felt like she entered the back of the store she always went to, a place that was off-limits to everyone except the employees and where customers weren't allowed to enter.
She greeted the teacher in charge of the Academic Affairs division, who was already there, and the old teacher who was close to retirement handed her a cloth bag on their desk without any preamble.
A gray drawstring bag made of thick cloth. The words “school documents” were dyed in the corner.
“Give them this.”
The old teacher was still half asleep because they were working on their day off, even though it was at the time when first period would normally start. The exchange was so quick that she had to check just in case.
“Is there a time limit?”
“As long as you come back before noon.”
The old teacher’s simple instructions and light document bag left Koguma feeling a bit let down, but she bowed and left the staff room. The nervousness she had felt earlier seemed to have dissipated a little.
She put the bag that looked like a mailbag carried by those diplomatic couriers Reiko talked about into the Cub’s steel luggage box, locked it, and then climbed on to the Cub and set off.
It was just over twenty kilometers to Koufu. She had actually gone there and back yesterday, and it had taken about forty-five minutes one way.
While humming a song she had heard on the morning radio, Koguma headed east along the Koushuu Kaidou.
No matter how many times she tried to ease her nerves, her hands kept shaking. The front wheel shook slightly to sensitively reflect that.
Koguma managed to keep the Cub running straight, even as it seemed unstable.
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