Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 25 - Day Off

 Previous | TOC | Next

Teacher training, which took place while the students were on long holidays, would also take a break on weekends just as it did during the semester.

Naturally, Koguma’s work also took a break. For her, who had already made the morning and evening round trips a part of her daily life, days off that would reduce her daily wage from several round trips wasn’t something she appreciated, but there was nothing she could do if there were no documents to deliver.

Sunday. Koguma woke up later than usual.

Normally, she had to ride twenty kilometers to and back from Koufu on her Cub, and it was a job that required a surprising amount of concentration and stamina, so she had been trying to get enough sleep, wake up at a regular time, eat well, and keep herself in good physical condition. However, there was no point in doing that on a day off, so she decided to sleep in later than usual and eat breakfast whenever she wanted to.

However, she couldn’t seem to change the time she learned to live by, and she felt like she had slept long enough after she slept thirty minutes beyond the time her alarm clock usually went off. After getting up and taking a shower, she felt hungry.

After eating a breakfast of untoasted bread, instant coffee, and a green apple that tasted like the cider Reiko had given her, a breakfast she had intended to cut corners on but wasn’t much different from usual, Koguma thought about what she was going to do.

It was one of several Sundays since summer vacation began. The last time, she had been listening to the radio in her apartment while working on her piled-up assignments, cleaning her apartment, doing her laundry, and then the day was over.

She looked around her apartment to see if there was anything she needed to do this time, but she had finished up her accumulated assignments yesterday and the day before yesterday, and she had even finished the portion for today. She didn’t need to do any cleaning or laundry right now either.

Having run out of things to do early on, Koguma threw herself down in her apartment.

The radio was playing classical music on FM, but just listening to that wasn’t enough to pass the time.

She opened the curtains while lying down and pondered on it while looking out the window. What did I do on my days off in elementary school and middle school?

She tried to remember it, but she didn’t remember doing anything special. She was pretty sure she went shopping with her mother, before she disappeared. The reason she could only vaguely remember it was because it wasn’t much fun.

An apartment that felt strangely cramped when there was nothing to do. From the window, she could see the mountains of the southern alps as well as the parking lot-slash-bike parking area on the apartment premises. The residents’ bicycles and Koguma’s Cub were parked there.

Koguma got up. Now she had something that wasn’t there when she had nothing to do.

After changing out of her pajamas into a loungewear T-shirt and sweatpants, Koguma left her apartment and headed for the bike parking area.

After kicking up the Cub’s stand and taking it out of the bike parking area, where it was surrounded by bicycles on both sides, to a wide space, Koguma returned to her apartment and brought out a wet rag and silicon spray.

After riding it every day, rain or shine, during her summer job, she sprayed the slightly dirty Cub with the two-hundred-yen silicon spray that Reiko told her was better than any motorcycle wax or expensive coating product, and then started wiping it with the rag. She thought about taking care of the Cub, but since she had no skills in maintenance, all she could do was clean it.

The Cub was almost brand new and it had only been a short time since she bought it. The work of wiping down every part of the bike, the tires, and even each spoke of the wheels was finished quickly.

Even though the Cub had regained its original shine, it wasn’t enough to make her feel that she had spent a fulfilling day off. When she checked her digital watch, she saw that the time was between morning and noon.

She still had plenty of the day left. She had bought a Cub and started to live a different life than the one she used to have, where she had no hobbies and no one to live with, but without school or her job, she was back to being that girl who had nothing. 

Even though she had a Cub. Even though the things she could do with a Cub have increased. When she wondered what she could do with a Cub now, Koguma’s mind had a flash of inspiration.

The Cub could travel. It could go with her to wherever she wanted. Then she should just travel.

It was very simple. A day off was a day to do what you wanted to do. Right now, Koguma wanted to travel. She wanted to go somewhere. She had a Cub that could fulfill that wish.

Koguma returned the Cub to the bike parking area, went back to her apartment, and then took off her T-shirt and sweatpants.

She almost grabbed her school tracksuit, which was perfect for riding a Cub in this season, but that would make this no different from work. Wanting to enjoy riding around on her day off, Koguma went through her few items of clothing in her drawer box, which was a stand-in for a dresser, and put on the most active denim top and bottoms she had.

She stood in her small kitchen in the slightly stiff denim top and bottom that she hadn’t worn much yet for them to be worn out, and then started making onigiri with the rice left in the rice cooker.

Unlike work, where the round-trip took less than two hours, she didn’t know how long she would be riding. If she got hungry and had to buy food somewhere, it would be an unnecessary expense.

The job that paid daily kept Koguma’s wallet and bank book somewhat warm, but considering her current precarious living situation, she had no money to waste. For the sake of her livelihood. For the Cub’s sake as well.

After making a lunch of onigiri and pickles, and filling a plastic bottle with barley tea from the fridge, she put her lunch box, tea, and a green apple into the olive green cloth bag she used to use as a helmet bag, packed her wallet and cell phone into her waist bag, then grabbed her helmet and keys.

Right when she was about to go outside, she turned back and put the portable radio she had left in her apartment into her waist bag.

She was going to spend her day off with her Cub. Unlike with her job or going to school, what she needed on her ride was entertainment.

She thought that the idea of enrichment should be taken into consideration, whether it was music or anything else.

Previous | TOC | Next