Friday, June 27, 2030
This year's summer came later than in previous years. The weather changes felt unpredictable. However, for me, rain was something pleasant. I liked watching puddles of water; it felt like looking at the reflection of another world whose meaning I still didn't understand. In that reflection, I saw something strange changing... and slowly disappearing from me like summer rain that suddenly subsided, then poured down again.
I took a long breath and continued walking toward the bus stop. My shoelaces were wet from the puddles left by last night's rain, which unfortunately got even wetter because of this morning's rain. The sky was overcast with thunder in the morning. It was unfortunate that I wasn't wearing layered clothes in this kind of season, making the cold air pierce into my bones and causing me to shiver slightly.
At the bus stop, there was only her. That girl again. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail, her eyes gazing at the sky as if searching for something.
I never knew her name. But she always stood there, in the same spot, every day, just like me. However, she didn't take the same bus. Maybe... she was also waiting for something that never came.
Without saying much, I sat down beside her without saying anything or taking the initiative to start a conversation. Just like usual. Strangely, this time she was the one who spoke to me.
"The world is getting weirder, huh..." the girl said softly and a little faintly, cutting through the silence in the gently humming morning drizzle.
I furrowed my brow, slightly surprised but more puzzled by the topic she brought up. "What do you mean?" I asked, looking at the narrow back of the girl who seemed a little different from usual.
"Try thinking about it yourself. Don't you feel that time is passing faster and faster?" she said quietly, turning to look at me as I sat on the bus stop bench. Her gaze was gentle, yet there was something odd about it to me.
"No, ah. That's just according to you. For me, whether time feels fast or not depends on ourselves." I looked toward the road where several vehicles passed, making sure I didn't miss my school bus.
"No, you're wrong." the girl refuted with a cold facial expression, her tone flat. A strange feeling gradually gnawed at my mind after seeing her reaction.
"What's your name?" the girl asked, still looking at me as I sat obediently on the bench. I swallowed my saliva a little roughly, then looked into her eyes again with an awkward feeling.
"My name? …." I was still a little confused, trying to digest what she was actually saying. This girl used too many fancy words. Was she a poet?
I fell silent, still trying to figure out how many hours I had spent sleeping last night. "Hey... are you sleep-deprived?" Her tone was extremely gentle, melodious. It made me stare blankly for a moment as I listened to her.
"No... My name is Arata. You?"
"My name is Alya. Nice to meet you, Arata."
She murmured, before shifting her gaze and looking back at the sky.
I wanted to ask what she meant by her words, but before I could say anything more than just in my mind, my school bus arrived faster than usual.
I quickly stood up from my seat and walked closer to the school bus. I decided to stop for a moment and turn my body just to deliver one last message before actually getting on the school bus. "...Alya, if there's time, I want to talk with you again!" I said something different from what I had planned, and I got on. Not long after, the bus door closed automatically. Leaving me staring at Alya from inside the bus.
Alya only gave a faint smile. I didn't expect this would be our first conversation. Before, I had often met her at that bus stop, but neither of us had ever intended to start a conversation from the beginning.
I sat near the bus window and leaned back a little to relax the muscles in my body that had been tense from talking with Alya for the first time. Not long after, my peer, Raka, came and sat beside me. I glanced briefly and looked out the window. This morning was the same as usual—cloudy and gloomy—but for some reason, I liked this kind of atmosphere.
"Oi, you're spacing out again!" Raka blurted out while patting my shoulder quite hard. I groaned softly and narrowed my eyes at Raka before ignoring him again.
I let out a rough sigh and continued staring out the window as the rain began to fall. Tomorrow was my birthday... June 28, but for some reason, I felt this would be something unpleasant. Maybe it was just a baseless premonition.
Or was it really going to happen?
"Ar... oiii! Why are you spacing out again? Want some snacks? I went to the minimarket before coming to the stop," Raka asked while taking a snack from his bag, forcing me to respond to his chatter a little.
"No need... I'm just not in the mood today...."
"Ooo... no wonder your face looks so down, like that banner over there." Raka joked while pointing at a banner on the road with a picture of a mouse. That damn kid. I gave the insolent one a little lesson before we got off the bus because we had arrived at our destination: school.
That day went on as usual. Like a sheet of paper flying in the wind, no one noticed or cared, because it was just one of the small things among the dense problems that humans have. Lesson after lesson I went through while rethinking Alya's words from this morning.
"Don't you feel that time is passing faster and faster?"
Strangely, those words stuck with me. Even though it could just be because she was an unclear girl from another school. Why was I still thinking about it?
The bell for going home rang. I didn't immediately get up and pack my things like the other students, but only stared at the window being drenched by the rain. Again. This strange summer.
Without thinking too much, my steps hurried toward the bus that was ready to take the students home. Before it was too late, I tried to ask my other friends about this, but instead they accused me of not getting enough sleep—I had slept more than all of them because I had actually slept in class earlier. When I got off the bus that afternoon, the rain was pouring heavily. The bus stop was almost empty.
But she was there. Alya.
Her hair was slightly wet, a transparent umbrella held in her left hand and an old flip phone in her right hand as if she was contacting someone. However, right after I got off the bus, Alya stopped all her normal activities and looked at me with a gaze that was difficult to interpret, yet strange in my eyes right now. She was silent, doing nothing... Just staring in silence. As if... she was waiting for me.
A moment later, Alya placed her umbrella near the wall of the bus stop, then looked at her flip phone again while saying, "You haven't realized it yet, huh," she guessed without looking at me.
"What do you mean?" I asked quietly. For the umpteenth time, I was surprised and left speechless by her calm yet odd demeanor.
Alya put her phone into her jacket pocket, then turned and looked at me deeply. "From now on… don't ignore what you feel, Arata."
I didn't know why she was here, in the afternoon like this. But my heart knew this wasn't an ordinary meeting. Extraordinary, yet strangely more so than Raka when he wasn't chattering. This was weirder.
That afternoon, the sound of rain fell like a soft whisper that didn't want to be heard. I stood in front of Alya, and for the first time I felt like I was looking at someone who knew something about me, something that even I myself hadn't understood yet.
"You haven't realized it yet, huh," she said softly, without looking at me.
What exactly did Alya want to convey? I was frustrated to death waiting for the real answer to what she meant by 'realized'? I know I'm handsome, though.
"What do you mean?" My voice was almost drowned out by the heavy rain.
Alya finally turned her head and looked at me again. Her gaze pierced far inside, as if seeing a part of me that even I hid from myself. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up a little. This girl was as creepy as a ghost.
"From now on, don't ignore what you feel, Arata."
I swallowed my saliva. Her words hung in the air, like thunder that didn't strike. "What do you mean...?"
She didn't answer directly. She only turned her gaze to the sky that was getting darker, then said,
"Do you think all of this is a coincidence? The rain that keeps falling. The bus that arrives faster."
"If the world is indeed sick," I muttered, "why am I the only one who feels strange?"
Alya was silent for a moment, then said softly,
"Because not everyone wants to listen when something is changing."
I stepped back. My breath caught. Not out of fear... but because I knew something was changing. I just didn't know which part of my life was starting to disappear.
We stood under the roof of the bus stop that wasn't enough to cover the silence between us. There was something bigger than just the wetness of the surroundings caused by the pouring rain.
Alya stood beside me, not too close, but not far enough to be ignored. Her hand held the umbrella casually, as if the rain didn't bother her.
"Arata…" she called softly.
Her tone brought me back to reality. There was no threat, nor warmth in it. It was more like someone who had known me for a long time, even though it was clear we had only just dared to communicate.
****************
That night, I couldn't sleep. I stared at the ceiling of my room and tried to count sheep, accompanied by listening to the sound of rain that slowly subsided into small droplets on the window. My bedroom window was slightly fogged, but I didn't care about that right now.
My thoughts returned to Alya. Her words. The look in her eyes. As if she already knew everything long before I realized it.
"Weird person," I muttered softly.
I turned my body over, looking at the clock on the bedside table. Its hands ticked as usual. Regular. Boring.
"Or is this world really weird, huh…?"
There was no answer. Only the sound of rain that was now almost inaudible.
I don't know since when, the room felt too quiet. Not the quiet that was calming—but more like someone holding their breath for too long.
I closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come and take my thoughts away. But the shadow of Alya's face instead appeared more clearly, as if sticking behind my eyelids.
And when I realized it
The last sound of rain on the window
stopped.