9.1: Chikyugi

It had been three weeks since Kaede and I began seeing each other.

Being a night person, she would often accompany me, sharing my screen when I watched movies, the few times I played games, and other times when I read articles. Yet, while the boredom balanced the novelty of it all, that juvenile thrill also made its return. We both agreed to keep our secret for now and only give ourselves away sometime during the school year. I was pointed enough to quiz her if that was her actual reason.

In the meantime, I was employed and actually started making daytime deliveries with a small truck. A definite upgrade, though not so much, wage-wise.

Today, a Friday, was a first for us; Kaede asked to see me after work and walk her home. On our previous dates, I’ve timed it twice when she would tell me she was leaving, and I always found myself turning the corner just as she did.

Though today was a day off. Walking to the shrine in the early afternoon, a gut feeling told me that I should be thankful we had a prior history before dating, the thought occurring to me after seeing a tense couple in a coffee shop while I walked. She didn’t seem too impressed by him.

By this time, the sun was at its early afternoon descent. The shadows of the buildings tilted the sunlight to shield me from the heat, though the humidity and my pace made me sweat a bit. Although I made an early turn around a building corner, seeing the back of the tall, tiled roof of the temple made me realize my mistake. It forced me to go all the way around before I found the torii gate. I strolled inside, on the side of the gate, as I had been told.

Smelling incense, I checked to see if the omamori shop was manned, expecting to see Kaede there. There was nobody. Yet, mindful of my manners, I went inside the hall, silently strung my thoughts together, clapped twice, and bowed. I heard sweeping outside as I finished mouthing my words, then repeated myself: clap, clap, before walking outside. The sunlight, however, was right in my vision. Seeing only light, I put my hand over my face, when a familiar voice, mixed with surprise and a bit of a mocking jab, then called out my infrequency as I walked down.

“I thought you only went here on your birthday."

"Today must be my birthday, then!” I yelled out as I looked to the left. I knew it was Kaede. Even as my eyes adjusted back, just seeing half of her, she was easy to pick out with her red and white outfit, though her pants were a darker red than the usual. One arm was held out for me, and another hand was holding a tall rake. Walking right around her arm, knowing she would stop me, I was about to give her a kiss when, predictably, she pulled back. Almost hitting me with the tip of her broom, trying to shush me. I got the memo, but she still forcefully said.

“Not when I’m working.”

I just pulled myself back. Though testing my luck, I managed to sneak a kiss on Kaede’s forehead. She didn’t get too mad this time around, just furrowing her eyebrows—then tapping the back of my head. I grimaced a bit, and she had an expression that read payback. Putting her arm down, she just pointed to a bench behind the small, solo-manned store before telling me to “take a seat there."

Seating down, I took a peek as Kaede walked inside, and noticed two chairs. Grabbing a plastic bag and handing it to me, I opened it to see a paper box with two kombu rice balls. I asked her where her fellow miko was, trying to hand one to her. After saying she already ate the other half, she answered, "Her boyfriend always picks her up on Friday."

"So you got envious then?"

Kaede laughed, brushing it off, "Maybe.”

Finishing her work, I watched as she swept the leaves aside leading up to the western gate. Though, after eating, bored and not wanting to just wait, and leave her to work alone. I was no daimyo, after all. I found myself with the other rake in hand, which her workmate had left near the eastern gate. A long walk back and forth, and I was sweeping alongside her. A monk, in their dark orange garb, then came by from the gate we were facing. He first asked Kaede, glancing at them, I was pretty far away, and occupied by the sound of rustling leaves, to hear just about anything. It wasn’t a tense conversation, seeing him approach me calmly, though he said the quiet part out loud as he patted me on the back— “I didn’t know Kae-san had a boyfriend now!” —so much for calling it a day off.

Kaede and I just had uneasy smiles at him as we saw him off. She looked a little flustered, much like I was when she had me cornered almost a month ago. It was an odd encounter, sure, with a monk nonetheless, but such are moments of random chance. It was relatively quiet after that. Barely any other shrine patrons entered, but most passed by as we finished our work and handed it back to her. I sat down again and waited.

A short time later, Kaede told me to stand up. The sunlight was beginning its descent. Her black bag was slung over her right shoulder, with her left arm reaching out for mine. Linking our arms together, she immediately brought up how easy it was to ask for my hand now as we made our way to the quieter, eastern gate, the direction of her house. Walking out, I tried to think of all the possibilities; students were preparing to go home or doing extracurricular activities, and if I remembered correctly, we still had some time before we might just stumble upon someone we both knew. Despite three instances of us having to split up, scurrying like operatives caught in a dead-drop, upon seeing at least one of our classmates at the places we often least expected. I could only answer her with the inevitability of them finding out.

“It’s only a matter of time, you know.”

“I know,” Kaede replied, but tried to dispel my more serious tone, laughing it off, “But I don’t think they’d react too harshly.”

“Oh, definitely not.”

“So, why did you ask to be picked up today?” I asked Kaede, in an attempt to match her mood.

“My mom’s not home until Sunday evening, and there’s this new action movie I want to watch on the TV.”

“Well, I have to go home after, then. What’s it about?”

That had Kaede look it up on her phone, and interestingly, it was a movie that I had mentioned in passing that I also wanted to watch. Again, in passing, I mentioned that we might need to buy snacks to keep ourselves entertained. Blind luck, however, likes to intervene. Turning another corner, we both saw the 7/11, and she pointed to it, wanting to make a pass at the convenience store. Going inside, we split up. She wanted to go buy some snacks, and I just let her pick something for me. Having not changed, the entire walk had been a casually dressed guy with his shrine maiden girlfriend, not a surprising, but still quite rare sight. She went ahead, and I made the first right where the stationery was, the ice freezer with frozen foodstuffs, and then my eyes met the magazines racked above them.

Picking something out to read, my eyes scanned left to right as my hand reached for a seinen magazine. Opening straight to the comics section, I was just reading for a good few minutes, turning and scanning the magazine’s monthly photoshoot, when I got bored with the manga chapter. About halfway, I felt somebody sneaking up on me.

“What’s that?” Kaede asked. I turned just to see her hand out and grab the top of the magazine. I shifted my grip so that if she did pull, it wouldn’t tear it. Placing her thumb on the cover, she closed the magazine and saw the bikini-clad idol on the cover. She just looked at me like she caught me.

“Really, a porn magazine?”

“It’s a seinen magazine,” I replied. The kanji clearly read that. My thumb was on the manga, and I followed that I didn’t know who the cover girl was, either.

Kaede just left it at that. Telling me to put it back and showing me her basket in turn. Just the essentials, though quite a lot of bagged snacks for both of us. I did see a box of curry in there, so now I was hungry too. Paying for it, sans the magazine, we divided the payment between us, giving in and buying myself some oden that bumped up our bill a bit. However, she had a few choice ingredients in it too.

It was just three streets down from their house by that point. We were neither lost, but it somehow felt that way, given how unfamiliar the neighborhood was beyond her street. Not knowing where our quiet conversation had drifted, my often reliable sense of direction jammed by it as I tried to go left, only to be tugged to go right by a woman half a head shorter than I. Though in return, I had to pull her close when some cyclist decided to go in, rather than out. A glare was enough to get the middle-schooler to look back. Nothing much happened after that, though another group of younger kids, in their yellow bucket hats, excitedly pointed out their “older sister miko,” her waving at them as we walked across from each other. At the last turn, there was the gingko tree, one placed precisely at the corner. That was the street we were looking for, and when we turned, we were finally on her street. Letting go of my arm, she reached for the key in her bag, and one loud clang later, the metal gate swung open. I let her enter first, then Kaede looked back. I didn’t want to appear brazen, and then beckoned.

“Come on.”

Shutting the gate, we walked past the small garden and entered, putting the bag down on the table as she switched on the cooler. Their house was both typical and old in design. A renovated hand-me-down that smelled of wood in a good way, a natural scent, mixed with the small jar of dried flowers opened as a diffuser. Though the more modern parts had doors, their kitchen and living room only had a divider. I found it a bit dark as I sat down on the couch while she went up to her room. I got a better look at the living room, including the couch set I was on, and the shelf, barely enough to fit the TV’s width, had discolored a little. Everything felt a little traditional, but homey, though the coffee table in the middle seemed like a more recent addition. I was, however, startled by the loud creaking of a door upstairs, followed by a step. I thought a croaking ghost was going to follow.

“You can get snacks from our bag if you like,” Kaede said as she made her way down.

She hasn’t changed into anything yet, so maybe she just dropped off her bag. Rummaging for something, I got the little pieces of bread out while she skipped over into the kitchen, the light at least giving me a glimpse of what she might be doing. I was just waiting for her so I could tear open the packet. Hearing the fridge door close, then the telltale clang of glasses as she made her way beside me and laid them on the table. I caught myself frozen at the sight of her, and she became a bit shy, telling me to stop staring as she sat down. It was not like there was anything else to stare at.

Taking a place beside me, Kaede switched on the TV. Pouring us the cold tea she had put on the table, she handed me a glass before I took a big swig of it. It was the summer after all, a very warm, humid one at that. The cooler took its time before I wasn’t feeling hot, though the tea helped. As we watched, our comfort with each other showed, with me sitting with my legs crossed —a manner that typically would get me scolded. The video on the TV was interesting, sure. Still, we were switching between looking at whatever she wanted to watch and our phones.

A quick glance at Kaede made me feel she wasn’t as quietly confident as she usually was. She was nervous. It was the first time she had brought me to her home, which was correct, and I was a stranger to the residents here. Though before, the last I always saw Kaede was at their gate. Now, she felt like a knot of nerves. I don’t think she even noticed my right hand moving to her shoulder. It could be for anything, I thought, domestic trouble, a person pestering her, or something about what we’ve been doing so far. But by now, I anticipated only one thing. She was going to say something big.

“Is something on your mind?” I asked, placing my hand on her shoulder.

“Oh, um, nothing.” Kaede shook her head. “I’m just tired.”

I told her that it’s okay to say anything. A nervous smile curled up on her face as she took another sip.

“You weren’t like this earlier,” I added, jokingly. That seemed to jump her gun.

“Aren’t you a bit unsatisfied that we are not intimate?” Kaede asked.

“I cannot force you,” I replied, “And you know that.”

“I mean, my friends always say,” she began, turning to face me, “That at least, a few dates in, boys get quite frisky.”

I felt the need to echo what Kaede said on the beach, “We aren’t casual. If we were, then sure, I might feel the need to do that, but we’re not casual.”

Testing the waters. I did not want to sound like a rude pervert, not beside Kaede, though we did have lewd conversations before. Yet, even then, she knew more about that side of me than I did of her. I just knew she didn’t consider herself experienced, so some light teasing made sure I wasn’t being lied to. Now, I was getting a bit nervous too, focusing, but I was also feeling thirsty.

“Well,” Then Kaede spilled out, “I have thought about us having sex sometimes.”

She should’ve timed it better. I was mid-sip! Keeping my eyes on her, I was unable to contain my surprise. Kaede just giggled at me.

“So? That’s just normal, isn’t it?” I replied, “Couples do that.”

I just knew then that the idea was brewing in her head. She regained some of her confidence, with a quick glance at my lips, and an inviting smile formed over her as I placed my glass down. I knew what I had done and could do, but I was also nervous that it had to be her, not a girl from a dating app or someone I’d repeated nights out with, but Kaede. I felt a stirring hesitation, yet her eyes were locked onto me, so one of us had to initiate. I caught on first this time, as it had been almost always her until now.

“I know, but I just thought,” Kaede began, “When will we get to do it?”