She and Her Cat (Part Two)

"Ear mites?"

Murmuring the name, Ichinose Honami crouched in front of Hotaru with her knees hugged to her chest.

"She seems really uncomfortable."

Perhaps realizing her cute act was working, Hotaru sprang up and circled Ichinose, meowing pitifully.

Was this cat sure it hadn't become a little spirit?

Kitagawa Ryo's mouth twitched as he handed over the bottle of medicine.

"It's time to apply it anyway. Why don't you help?"

Ichinose hesitated briefly, but soon took the bottle.

"How do I use this?"

She examined the bottle in her hand, looking a little uncertain.

"Flip the cat's ear back and use a cotton swab to spread the medicine inside. It's the best product they have, so if we apply it properly, the ear mites should be gone in about two or three weeks."

Kitagawa remembered the doctor's instructions fairly well. He found a pack of cotton swabs on the bookshelf, tore it open, and handed one to Ichinose Honami.

"Hotaru, be good and stay still, okay? Just bear with it for a little."

Ichinose Honami dipped the cotton swab into the medicine and gently reached for Hotaru's ear, murmuring something under her breath.

Kitagawa had always been confident in his cat. In his opinion, Hotaru, who seemed to be perpetually on the verge of becoming a spirit, would be able to apply the medicine herself if she only had hands. But the result was...

"Meow!!"

The shrill yowl was loud enough to make the neighbors next door want to pound on his door in the middle of the night.

"How embarrassing."

Hotaru had bolted to the top of the sofa and refused to come down. Kitagawa couldn't do much about it.

As for Ichinose Honami, she was now awkwardly questioning the meaning of life. But for someone who liked Hotaru, that kind of reaction must have hurt.

Silently apologizing to Ichinose on behalf of his cat, Kitagawa stepped forward.

"Come on. Don't you want to get better?"

"Meow?"

"Hurry up. Don't make me force you."

"Meow!"

"Are you two... talking?"

Ichinose Honami still had the cotton swab in her hand. She ventured the question cautiously.

"No. I have no idea what she's saying."

After answering Ichinose, Kitagawa turned back to the cat, growing a little impatient.

"Come here, or I'll abandon you."

Perhaps one of Kitagawa's words struck a nerve. Hotaru hesitated, then reluctantly came over.

The moment she was within range, Kitagawa sprang into action and pinned her firmly to the carpet. As Hotaru stared at him in disbelief, he turned to Ichinose Honami with a devilish grin.

"Apply the medicine. Hurry."

"Oh... Okay."

After a moment's hesitation, Ichinose stepped closer.

"Doesn't it hurt her if you hold her down like that?"

"If I don't, who knows how far she'll run. This is for her own good. She'll understand. Come on, apply it."

"Thanks for bearing with us. Just a little longer, and we'll be done."

Ichinose Honami didn't disappoint Kitagawa. She deftly inserted the medicine-soaked swab into Hotaru's ear and finished applying the medicine in no time.

"Whew."

Kitagawa let out a long breath and removed his guilty hands, ignoring Hotaru's tearful expression.

"Let's watch TV. I recorded this morning's Super Sentai."

Ichinose Honami was a very independent girl, perhaps because of her family circumstances. But when she was with Kitagawa, she let him take the lead.

Kitagawa eagerly turned on the TV, then stood on tiptoe to grab a big bottle of barley tea from the top shelf of the fridge. Once everything was ready, he sat beside Ichinose Honami and casually scooped Hotaru, who had been lying motionless nearby, into his arms.

He tilted his head toward the white cat's firefly-colored eyes and nuzzled her head with the tip of his nose. She smelled fresh and clean.

"Let me pet her."

Ichinose Honami leaned over from beside him.

Kitagawa held Hotaru out toward her, but Ichinose petted his head instead.

"Whoa."

Kitagawa warily leaned back.

"I'm not a cat."

Ichinose nodded. She remembered that night a month ago, when Kitagawa Ryo had arrived at her home drenched from head to toe, holding this tiny cat and knocking on the door. Completely ignoring her astonished mother, he had stood there dripping water and poked his head inside to call out:

"Honami, let's raise this cat together!"

Back then, Kitagawa Ryo had looked more like a puppy caught in the rain.

"Wow."

Thinking of that, she couldn't help reaching out to ruffle Kitagawa's hair again. Kitagawa, absorbed in the TV, didn't seem inclined to argue. He only grumbled under his breath.

"You're just trying to stop me from growing taller. I'm a year older than you, you know. I'm your big brother."

Taking the chance to wriggle free from Kitagawa's arms, Hotaru leaped onto the windowsill. She licked her little paws and basked in the sunlight with her eyes half-closed.

Kitagawa had already started shouting the finishing-move catchphrases along with the Super Sentai show. At some point, Ichinose Honami had leaned against his shoulder and begun dozing off with her arms wrapped around his. But judging from the way the girl's legs were swinging, she was probably only pretending to sleep.

It was a long, long summer—a summer when tokusatsu shows would never end, kittens would never grow up, and the two of them could snuggle together freely without caring what anyone else thought. Happiness was so easy to find.

Chapter 10: She and Her Cat (Part Two)

At five in the afternoon, the meeting room finally quieted down after the second discussion about the Cultural Festival. Only the student council vice president's soft reminders about trivial matters and the faint scratch of pen tips sliding across white paper remained.

A second-year middle school student in uniform sat on the right side, organizing the meeting report. He looked troubled, often rubbing his chin as he thought or glancing toward the student council vice president beside him.

In the far-right corner of the meeting room, a beautiful girl with golden-pink hair was talking to someone beside her. Her poised, open manner made a strong impression, and the smiles that occasionally crossed her face set his heart racing.

She seemed to have heard an amusing suggestion. Her bright blue eyes brimmed with laughter, and her figure, especially striking for someone her age, made every movement captivating.

He'd heard before that Ichinose Honami, the student council vice president at their school, was a beautiful, charming girl who got along with everyone. But he had only been selected as his class's Cultural Festival representative this year, and this was his first time getting so close to her.

After his initial amazement, he quickly found himself falling for her. During the meeting, he'd done his best to make suggestions and stand out. Whenever the girl's sparkling eyes rested on him, he felt a surge of strength.

Disappointingly, Ichinose Honami wasn't the aloof type who kept people at a distance. If anything, she was warm and gentle with everyone. Still, something about her always felt a little too dutiful. Maybe he just wanted her to treat him as someone special.

It was about time.

Based on what he'd observed over the past few days, he knew Ichinose Honami usually left around six. She would exit through the school's East Gate and take the subway home from the nearest station.

Sure enough, as soon as the meeting room clock passed six, Ichinose Honami said her goodbyes. The boy hurried to pack up too. After quickly sorting through the meeting report and finishing his tasks, he grabbed his bag and left.

At the very least, he wanted to talk to her alone and become friends.

Stories where someone confessed out of the blue and the two immediately fell in love only happened in romance manga.

Thinking this, the boy slowed down when he spotted Ichinose Honami's back, following her at a suitable distance.

She seemed to be on the phone.

Noticing the girl's movements, the boy, who had been about to approach her, hurriedly stopped.

Unlike her beaming smile in the meeting room, Ichinose Honami looked worried as she answered the call. Her lips were tightly pressed together, and she bit her teeth together, making the boy almost instinctively want to go comfort her.

"Okay, I understand."

Only after seeing Ichinose Honami hang up did the boy realize they had already walked out through the school's East Gate. He was about to hurry over and open with, "Is something bothering you, Ichinose?" But just as he was about to reach her...

A black Mercedes-Benz S600 pulled smoothly to a stop in front of her. The boy in the passenger seat lowered the window and waved to the girl. Ichinose Honami opened the rear door and climbed in, leaving the boy with nothing but the car's receding taillights and a trail of exhaust.

"Your boyfriend's here to pick you up again, Ichinose."

"He's not her boyfriend. They're childhood friends. I heard he's the student council president at a nearby school, and captain of the soccer club too."

"Isn't that the super-famous private school?"

"And I heard his family's really rich."

"He's handsome, too."

The girls nearby chatted away, completely used to it. The boy standing there had just experienced his first heartbreak.

Once the car windows were rolled back up, its interior seemed to become a sealed space. Their breathing was suddenly easy to hear, and the girl's somewhat hurried, uncertain breaths were especially clear.

"It's getting colder. Make sure you stay warm."

Autumn had arrived, and Kitagawa Ryo spoke up. His head was probably turned to the right. Ichinose Honami, sitting in the back, couldn't see his expression. All she could hear was his concern, warm as slightly heated syrup.

"Mm."

Ichinose Honami answered softly and looked out the window. She knew where they were going.

"Hotaru lived for nine years. That's a pretty good life for a cat."

After a moment of silence, Ichinose Honami was the first to speak.

"Mm."

This time, Kitagawa Ryo answered softly. His voice was so faint it was like a wisp of smoke, as if it might drift away at any moment.

"Where are you going to bury her?"

"She was your cat."

"She was our cat."

"I gave her to you."

After the brief, hurried exchange, Kitagawa Ryo clicked his tongue sharply.

The car soon stopped in an abandoned park. Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami got out. He was holding a cardboard box.

The withered plants were as desolate as the area itself. Thick fallen leaves crunched underfoot. Kitagawa Ryo felt as if he were walking on layer after layer of broken glass, their brittle, cold crackle reaching his ears.

The sound was sharp enough to make him feel he couldn't bear it.

"We used to come here a lot when we were little."

Ichinose Honami looked at the ginkgo tree that still stood there. Two shovels had been set beneath it.

"Hotaru liked catching birds there, though she never managed to catch any."

Kitagawa Ryo set the box on the ground and crouched beside it. After a long silence, he finally answered.

The grass had begun to yellow in the autumn. Untended weeds were growing wildly. Kitagawa Ryo knelt and started digging a hole with a shovel. Brittle ginkgo leaves drifted down, spinning in the wind before landing on the boy's head and rolling to his shoulder.

Ichinose Honami stepped forward and brushed the leaf off Kitagawa Ryo's shoulder. She seemed to want to say something, or perhaps do something—pat him on the back, hug him, or offer a few words of comfort.

But in the end, she chose to pick up the other shovel and dig a hole with him.

The white cat named Hotaru would never move again. She lay quietly in the small earthen hole, looking peaceful and pure. Kitagawa Ryo tilted his head back. His eyes were like freshly filtered glass, reflecting the whole blue sky and its dazzling azure.

"I remember when we first found Hotaru. She was about this big. She never grew at all."

Kitagawa Ryo began filling the hole, watching the grayish-yellow soil slowly cover the white body, like watching an apple turn an ugly shade of brown.

"I think it was pouring that day. Ryo came to knock on my door with her in his arms, soaked from head to toe."

Ichinose Honami moved even faster than Kitagawa Ryo. Deep down, she thought that if they could finish this sooner, Kitagawa Ryo might feel a little better.

"Let's say a few last words."

They worked quickly, and soon Kitagawa Ryo had shoveled in the last mound of dirt. A small hill stood in the little patch of grass.

Then, like a child who hadn't grown up, he tossed the shovel aside in a sulk and crouched there with his knees hugged to his chest.