Chapter 8 8The last day in Echigo Yuzawa

Author: The dancer I recommend

Chapter 8 8. The last day in Echigo Yuzawa

On the last day of my stay in Echigo Yuzawa, gentle snow fell all night.

The snow stopped at around five o'clock, and the trees in the mountains seemed to be covered with a white windbreaker.

The bumpy snow seemed to have been carefully filled by cement workers, as plump as a quilt stuffed with camel down.

During the day, the two of them each had a sandwich for breakfast at the hotel.

When his mouth was dry, Hoshino Ai drank a bottle of strawberry-flavored milk through a straw, while Makimura Taku drank two glasses of warm water.

After that, they went to the coffee shop they had visited before to drink a cup of coffee and ordered desserts they had not eaten before.

The surrounding customers were chatting softly, some ordered specialty sake, and the glasses clinked together to make a crisp sound.

In the same seat, the daffodil leaves on the table are as green as ever. It is indeed warmer inside the house than outside.

"Take pictures and take pictures!" As she said this, Hoshino Ai was already pointing her cell phone sideways at the dessert.

"Wait a minute." Taku Makimura wanted to move back a little to prevent himself from getting into the camera, but he didn't make it in time.

"Crack!"

Two cups of coffee, a dessert decorated with lemon slices, long daffodils, vague light, and the boy's beautiful finger joints, all are left in the picture.

After leaving the coffee shop, they bought an order of octopus balls with sweet sauce from a nearby shop that was smoking white smoke.

After eating, they went to the vending machine to buy two bottles of mineral water and stuffed the paper boxes used to hold the pellets into the trash can.

"...It's so delicious."

Before she could swallow the food in her mouth, Hoshino Ai puffed out her cheeks like a hamster and spoke unclearly.

"What should we do next?" Taku Makimura asked her, leaning against the vending machine.

"Well..." Hoshino Ai swallowed the small balls into his stomach, "Is there anything else that I haven't done yet? I want to play it all again today!"

"Of course, no problem." Taku Makimura nodded with a smile.

Looking at the girl in front of him, he always felt that she had a natural affinity with her.

That wonderful feeling makes people want to get close to her and like her. It can be called attraction.

Regarding the question of where to go next, Hoshino Ai decided to think about it while walking, and Makimura Taku naturally had no objection.

They rounded the corner and stepped onto the snowy path.

A breeze mixed with the fragrance of cedar leaves and earth roared from the left, making Ai Hoshino's cashmere scarf rustle.

The nearby bushes were also rustling, and birds flew high from the eaves as if they were frightened.

The black domestic cat gracefully jumped down from the stone wall with its tail erect. It glanced in the direction of Taku and Makimura, then turned and left.

"The wind is blowing," Taku Makimura said.

Hoshino Ai held down the flying scarf with both hands, but could only let his hair dance in the wind.

I can't tell if it's the scent of the shampoo or the natural scent of my body.

In short, the smell is like autumn, which has quietly passed away with the passing wind.

When the wind calmed down, Hoshino Ai looked up at him and said in a voice purer than the air:

"When the wind blows, let's go fly a kite!"

They didn't have lunch and went to an open space three to four hundred meters away from the hotel during their lunch break.

The snow there is not too thick, the sunlight is deflected by the constant north wind, and the shadows of the trees extend straight in the snow.

Looking from a distance, several children of about seven or eight years old were lengthening the glass line on the winch, and their figures were running back and forth on the snow, as if trying to chase the direction of the wind.

There are butterflies, whales, dolphins, and even Doraemon flying in the sky.

The two watched it for a while, then rented a kite with a deep-sea fish pattern from a nearby store, found an open space and started flying a long lead.

The kite flying process went quite smoothly.

As the lead stretched out little by little, the deep-sea fish flew to the horizon, almost entangled with the misty clouds.

The blue sky seems to transform into the sea of ​​Tokyo Bay.

When Ai Hoshino ran happily below, the deep-sea fish kite moved forward.

Tired of running, she handed the kite to Makimura Taku, who continued to roam the blue sky with the big fish.

When both of them were tired, they went to the hill, tied the kite string under the oak tree that blocked the sky, and then sat down together with their backs against the tree trunk.

The wind blew through the snow and bent the grass.

My ears were filled with the sound of wind, and occasionally there was the sound of a dog barking from nowhere, as if the sound came from another world.

"I can't get enough of playing." Under the oak tree, Hoshino Ai hugged his knees and looked at a wisp of fluttering clouds.

Takumi Makimura lowered his head and brushed away the snow at his feet: "There are so many things, and if you want to do them all, time seems to be suddenly tight."

"Well..." After pondering for a moment, Hoshino Ai suddenly said, "But I want them all!"

Makimura Taku looked at her and smiled: "Isn't that too greedy?"

"Yes, unique greed!"

She also turned to Makimura Taku and made a hook gesture on her chin with her hand, revealing a cute and confident face.

When looking towards the blue sky and white clouds again, Hoshino Ai's eyes followed the erratic figure of the kite.

She said: "What others have done, and what others have not done. No matter which one, I want to do it again."

"It does look like you."

Hoshino Ai took a breath, and her smile was as unique as the snow scene: "I, Hoshino Ai, am so greedy!"

The wind was getting louder, and the barking of dogs seemed to be getting closer.

Looking at Hoshino Ai's slightly cunning, yet quite cute profile, Makimura Taku was thoughtful.

Others may not be sure, but he knows completely: this sentence is not a lie.

Leaving under the oak tree, they collected the rented winches, kites, and glass lines and returned them to the shop.

In the afternoon, they went skiing at a specialized ski resort and tasted the famous fried tempura here.

Before dusk, the two of them went to the nearby shrine for a walk.

There are not too many tourists there, and the air is actually much fresher than outside.

After praying for blessings, they bought a traffic safety watch, a health watch, a career watch and a love watch, all costing less than 2,000 yen.

"Don't just buy amulets as gifts, and don't open the sachets of amulets without permission, otherwise your wishes won't come true." The staff at the shrine told them.

The two nodded slightly curiously, almost in sync.

Walking out of the shrine, a crow flew to the red pillar at the exit and stared at the earth with its black pupils. Three butterflies flew around the purple flowers on both sides of the road.

They kept walking, and the stairs leading to the shrine were gradually left behind.

At dusk, the sky was soaked in the setting sun's rays, and it looked like some kind of special orange juice had been spilled, and even the snow turned yellow and shiny.

"Fly a kite, go skiing, visit the torii gates, and eat the fried tempura you've been craving for..." On the way back to the hotel, Ai Hoshino clapped his fingers and said, "Nothing has been missed, all of this is done!"

"That's what I'm saying," Taku Makimura corrected her, "but it's not entirely my heart. You like her too."

"However, I always feel like there's something missing."

"What's missing?"

She lowered her head and pondered.

The setting sun sneaked away while she was thinking, and a faint white envelope enveloped the earth again.

They passed by the last village, but they didn't see the footprints left last time.

On both sides of the snow-covered sidewalk, street lamps were brightly lit, probably still a long way from the broken one.

"I know!" When one or two stars appeared, Hoshino Ai suddenly said to him with her palms hammered, "Snowball fight! Makimura-kun, we haven't had a snowball fight yet!"

"Snowball fight?"

"That's right. How can we not have a snowball fight in a place full of snow?"

"It's not unreasonable."

“The snow here is so thick, you must experience it once!”

"But it's already so late, and there will be more tomorrow morning..."

"Ouch!"

Halfway through his words, a soft little snowball suddenly hit Makimura Taku's coat.

“We’ll talk about the rest later!”
To be continued...