I Drink Every Night With a Lookalike of a Popular Idol on the Riverbank
The day we promised. We were at the illumination venue where we’d had that little incident before. Even though it was a weekday, it was still packed.
“Wow… it really is packed, huh?”
“Yeah. Crowded.”
Nanase-san, wearing disguise glasses to avoid being mistaken for Yunagi Nagi and burying half her face in her scarf, gazed out over the sparkling sea of lights.
Today, instead of her usual cap, she wore a white knit hat. The way it reflected the illumination lights made her look somehow ethereal.
“Hey, Yosuke, look. There are tons of moths swarming around like summer insects.”
Where she pointed, couples walked close together. Bathed in the illumination lights, everyone looked happy.
“You’re calling them moths!?”
“Well, I mean, gathering around lights and all… totally bug behavior.”
Nanase-san said this while shooting resentful glances at the happy couples.
“Well, I won’t deny it… but the wording…”
“Hehe. But you know, just for tonight, we have to become one of those bugs too.”
She looked up at me with a mischievous smile.
“We have to mimic couples. Because we’re insects.”
“Mimic…?”
“Exactly. Here, walking alone or even just with friends would make us stand out, right? So we need to do what’s necessary to blend in.”
Saying that, she shoved her hand into my coat pocket.
Inside the pocket, her cold hand found mine, clasped it tightly, and dragged me outside.
“Huh? Wait, Nanase-san!?”
“Shh. We’re mimicking. If the birds notice, they’ll eat us.”
She faced forward, looking perfectly nonchalant.
Still, it was so rare for us not to actually be holding hands that we had no choice but to stay like this. If people thought, ‘Huh? Those two aren’t holding hands, are they fighting?’ and started staring, it would be a huge minus for Nanase-san.
Even so, my heart started pounding like a drum at the situation of mimicking lovers.
“Look, over there. There’s a couple kissing way too passionately.”
“Whoa, really… Bold, huh?”
“That’s… breeding.”
“Breeding!?”
“Mm. In this light, I feel the sprouting of new life.”
“Nanase-san, you’re really going for it today, huh!?”
“Mm. Feels like breeding.”
“What do you mean ‘like we’re about to’!? Can we reproduce asexually!?”
Teasing her overly unique expressions, we slowly walked through the tunnel of light.
The fantastical space woven by blue and white LEDs possessed a power that made you forget this was reality.
“Hey, Yosuke.”
“What?”
“You can’t reproduce asexually, you know?”
“Now’s not the time!”
“We need to think this through properly first, right?”
“The scariest part is that there was even a tiny chance you might have considered yourself an amoeba.”
“Well… it’s beautiful, isn’t it…”
Nanase-san stared intently at the cluster of light bulbs, smiling.
“You suddenly changed the subject!”
“Hey, let’s drop the reproduction talk. Look over here.”
She’s the one who brought it up. Such a free spirit.
“…Uh, yeah. Amazing. Is this the place you mentioned, Nanase-san?”
“Mm. Yep. An area inspired by Luminous Tears.”
She gazed at the scene with a hint of pride, as if showing off her own garden.
“Hmm… smells nice. My sense of touch is reacting.”
Nanase sniffed at the spicy, sweet aroma drifting from a food truck a short distance away.
“Mulled wine. Looks like they have hot dogs too.”
“Mm. Let’s buy everything.”
“We can’t buy everything…”
We lined up and bought two hot wines and two hot dogs each. Sitting down on a bench a little ways away, we wrapped our hands around the steaming cups.
“Mmm! So warming… The combo of hot and hot is so comforting, huh?”
“Hot and hot?”
“Mm. A piping hot bento shop.”
Nanase-san’s smile, even at such a silly joke, seemed to shine brighter than the illuminations. Not that I could say that, of course.
“Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if this place came to the riverbank?”
“Huh? This food stall?”
“Mm. Then we could have hot wine every day.”
“It’d get super noisy!?”
“Yeah… quiet is what makes it nice. But you know, I realized something today.”
“What?”
“Turns out, if you bundle up, the riverbank’s actually doable.”
She said it with a serious expression.
“No way, you’d catch a cold if you stayed out there for hours!”
“Well… you’re right. Drinking with snot running down your nose kinda feels off. I wish winter would end already.”
“I don’t hate winter, though. Things like this make warm drinks taste extra good.”
“You’re so positive. So, should we do something only winter lets us do?”
“Only winter… like what?”
Nanase tilted her head at my question and gave a wry smile.
“…Hmm, surprisingly, not much… Eat winter-limited items?”
“That’s basically something you can do year-round.”
“Hehe, That’s just fine. No need to force anything special.”
She laughed, taking a big bite of her hot dog. A bit of ketchup clung to the corner of her mouth.
“Ah, you’ve got ketchup on there.”
“Huh? Where?”
“Here.”
When I pointed, she licked it off with her tongue. That gesture made my heart skip a beat again.
“…Hey, Yosuke.”
“Hm?”
“If you don’t want winter to end but you can’t hang out by the riverbank, that means you still plan on hanging around my place a lot, right?”
Nanase-san said this to me with a smirk. That wasn’t my intention, but considering the conversation so far, that’s how it ended up sounding.
“N-no, not exactly ‘hanging around’… until the cold eases up, I was thinking… maybe I could bother you a bit… Ah, if you don’t want me to, you could come over to my place sometimes…”
“Well, I guess I got invited naturally. Smirk.”
“Don’t say ‘grinning’.”
“Well, I guess I just made a grinning mouth.”
“If you played it backwards, it’d be ‘smelly-smelly,’ right? Are you okay with that?”
“Hehe. Sounds kinda gross.”
“But… thanks. Nanase-san’s place is really comfortable.”
“Hmm. Well, the owner’s a nice person, so I guess I take after them.”
“That’s something you say about pets!?”
We looked at each other and laughed. Looking around, countless “summer insects” were enjoying their own moments. We, too, were just one pair among them, melting into this sea of light.
“Mimicry… successful?”
When I said that, Nanase-san nodded shyly.
“…Mm. A huge success.”
She set her mulled wine beside her and squeezed my hand tightly again. Unlike before, the warmth from the hot drink and alcohol had raised her body temperature, and that warmth felt pleasant.
“So, should we head out soon? There are still areas we haven’t seen.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”
We rose from the bench and, maintaining our now even more perfect camouflage, began walking toward the light.
Maiasa