I caught up to Weiss at the entrance of the train station. Amidst the crowd that were walking downstairs towards the platform, I saw a head with snow colored hair as well as what looked like the shape of a guitar case. I hurriedly pulled out my season ticket and squeezed through the gates.
"Weiss!"
She was at the bottom of the flight of stairs, making her way past the benches. Weiss turned her head around. There seemed to be tears at the corner of her eyes.
"… Don't follow me."
"Why are you angry?"
"I am not angry."
The people around us were all looking at me, and that made me pretty uncomfortable. Moreover, there were my schoolmates among them as well.
"… Then what's the reason for you to act like that?"
My voice was drowned by the announcement that alerted us of the incoming train. I continued chasing Weiss, and went into the carriage without hesitation.
"… You should be taking the train in the other direction, right?"
"Eh? Well, you're not wrong…"
Come to think of it, my bag and bass are still there at McDonald. What to do? Do I have to make a trip back? Will the two of them wait for my return? The train left the platform. Weiss sat at the empty seat at the edge, and placed her guitar on her knees, so as not to let anyone see her face. I stood right by her side and leaned myself next to the door.
"Why did you follow me?"
"No idea. I suddenly had the urge to take the train to a place where I have not been to before, and take a stroll there."
"Idiot."
And with that, Weiss said nothing more. In order to ease the tense atmosphere, I began to tell lots of lame jokes—to be honest, I think it will be better if I get around to fixing that bad habit of mine as soon as possible.
Just as the train was making one of its many stops at some station, Weiss suddenly stood up. I was almost left behind on the train as she only made her dash out of the carriage right after the bell rang, which was to alert people that the train was about to leave.
It was a small remote station with hardly any passengers dropping off the train. There was almost no shelter at the platform, and the strong rays of the sun from the west were shining hard onto the asphalt. I could see messy patches of small farmlands on the other side of the fence, a road paved by gravel, as well as sparsely scattered houses.
"Weiss, is your house nearby?"
Weiss carried her guitar on her shoulders with her back facing me. She then turned her head and said. "… I just suddenly feel like dropping off at an unknown station."
And after murmuring that, she then began to make her way towards the wicket. Come to think of it, she's actually a repeat offender when it comes to running away from home, right? Is this how she usually carries out her disappearing acts? I could begin to understand the reason why Tobirama is overprotective towards her daughter already.
Since I had to get a replacement ticket, I almost lost sight of Weiss, who ran out of the wicket quickly. I finally caught up to her at the gravel road, which was situated between two corn fields. However, I could not bring myself to yell out her name, and so I did what I'm used to doing—walking quietly behind her at about a distance of five meters away.
We walked on for quite some time before Weiss finally stopped in her tracks. She was standing in the middle of a bridge that spans across a nearly dried stream. The reason was due to a lonely, rusty-sounding electronic tune that came from faraway. It was a broadcast played at various public places at five o'clock to remind children that it is time for them to head home. It's a melody that is played via the speakers at a few specific places in town. Seems like the tune is the same for all the cities in Japan. It's the second movement of Dvořák's New World Symphony.
The same melody came from a speaker that was even further away. It gently blended in together with the initial melody which had already started to ring sometime ago, and that formed a series of blurry canon.
Weiss grabbed onto the railing at the side of the bridge, and allowed her sight to wander all around in the air, so as to explore the melody around us. She mumbled as I caught up to her.
"… Why must Japan broadcast such a lonely tune everyday during the evening? I had traveled all around Japan due to my concerts, but I kept hearing the same tune everywhere I went."
I tilted my head. That's strange.
"This song is actually played during the funerals in America and other countries," she said as she stared at the stream.
Is that so? It's probably a cultural difference, I guess?
"Well, this tune is later rewritten into The Road Home and Sunset at the Distant Mountain, because it gives people the feeling that it is evening and time to return home… for us Japanese anyway."
"Really?" With that, Weiss closed her eyes and tilted her ears to listen to the rumbling tune being as it was sucked into the air.
There's probably not many people who know that this tune is written by Dvořák. I don't think there are many who know that this piece of music is actually a substitute for a letter to be mailed back to his motherland Czech from the new world America, filled with the deep longings of his homeland.
"… Why?" Just as the sound around us had changed back to those of the cries of cicadas and the rumbles of a faraway train, Weiss asked me softly. "Why… did you invite me into the band?"
"… Eh?"
"Forget it. It's nothing." Weiss removed the guitar from her shoulders, and leaned it against the railing. "I've only joined that club because I lost my bet with you. It's all your fault."
"It's all my fault…?"
"Ruby probably thinks that way as well… in any case, this is something that everyone knows."
Ruby… thinks of it as what? So?
"Therefore, I have absolutely no reason to be in that room."
"Nothing of… " Is that really not the case…? I swallowed my words halfway.
If we are to look at things by the results, then it may seem like she's forced to join the club by Ruby and I. Though we are all trying hard not to think about it, Ruby had actually sort of noticed it, and so…
"It's precisely because it is something very important, that I want Weiss to decide."
So that's why she said something like that?
"Is the band… not fun?" I tried asking her gently.
"I don't know."
What do you mean you don't know!? I should be the one saying that!
"But I feel really happy when the four of us are playing together."
"Isn't it great if you're happy?"
"It's not."
Why? I originally wanted to know the reason, but I could not bring myself to ask. Weiss stepped on the railings and stuck out her head to look at the stream. For a moment, I thought she might actually jump down.
"Is it really okay for me to stay in the band? I don't really know anymore."
"It's not the problem of whether it's okay or not, isn't it?" I really had no idea what Weiss was trying to say. "I asked you to join because I want to start a band together with you."
"I-it's you!" Weiss raised her head to look at me. Her face was a little red, and it seemed like it was not just due to the setting sun alone. "It's all because you say things like that!"
With tears in the corner of her eyes and her body trembling slightly, she gave me a push. I retreated a step back. What? Why is Weiss angry?
Weiss carried her guitar on her back and walked by me, towards the direction where we came. I hurriedly chased after her, but I could not walk along her side-by-side, nor could I call out to her from behind. And because of that, for a short while, I did not realize Weiss was trying to make her way back to the station. Also, it took me a long time before I remembered that she has a poor sense of direction.
Weiss stood in the middle of the lush green fields and turned her head around to look at me with a helpless expression—by then, the sun had nearly disappeared down the horizon.
"It can't be that you…"
"I-I am not lost! It must be in this direction!"
Seeing how Weiss was walking in the totally opposite direction, I pulled her back while trying to endure the urge to sigh. I then began to walk towards the gravel path. If there's someone next to you when you are encountering any sort of problem, you should tell that person honestly. That might be something that looks simple, but it is hard to carry out in reality. However, it is one of the most fundamental things in life.