There's A Fine Line Between Being Humble and Anti-Social

Although it was a rather small town, certainly keeping in line with the rural charm that a lot of these coastal places, verdant lined mountains overbearing and casting long shadows while ocean spittle prickled against your skin, as time had gone on, a mix of mini-globalisation and the encroachment of urban living had effectively penetrated close enough to this place that you couldn't exactly call it backwater.
Nowhere was really safe from the rapid growth of society, and the infection of chain stores and homogenised buildings had effectively washed away much of the uniqueness that a lot of these places have, but nonetheless, it seemed like this place was still able to retain something about itself that fractured that homogeny and burst its individuality through the cracks.
A serious drinking culture and complete disregard for civility.
That's what I would have answered, and it would have been a decent punchline, but my eyes were consistently tugged towards things like a town mascot drawing people into sleek and shiny, pearl white Q-niqlo stores, while a slew of highschoolers were huddling around a small stand towards the edge of the storefront, sporting the same colour scheme but very obviously selling homemade goods that were certainly not a part of the registered stock.
Very much not legal, probably, but you would have to be a pretty stuck-up person to burst their bubble.
"Do things like this usually happen?"
"Huh? Oh, that. Yeah, most of us here try and keep the town personality alive and flowing against the current of homogenised capitalism, so a lot of people bring homemade clothes or merchandise to the managers and, as long as it's not likely to get out of hand, most of the time a blind eye is turned or, sometimes, they're even endorsed and giving tables, like these people."
"I see. What kind of merchandise?"
"Well, we have a few, uh, Virtual Streamers here, I think. They sell little acrylic versions of themselves."
"That's nice" I responded, trying to not make my amusement at her too obvious.
It was really pretty funny seeing her talk about things like V-Tubers.
Now that we had entered the open mall and begun walking down through the rows on rows of brightly lit, bustling, honestly quite impressively adorned storefronts, some with massive signs of calligraphy or sculpted logos or figures, my attention was being constantly torn back and forth.
I felt a little insecure about being so obviously out of water here, but it seemed like Genmi took her own amusement out of it, so maybe we're even.
Trailing a little behind was Kaere, who was still shoving her face into the brand-new, fluffy green towel that Genmi had shoved at her chest when she found us...
Well, I've been trying to avoid acknowledging the scenario, running from the past, you could say, but really, there's not much to talk about here.
Both of us were beat, tired and worn from our unreasonably straining walk, and collapsed.
Neither of us could be held responsible.
That's right, even the woman that trapped me in that compromising position I won't rope into being blamed for this.
"Hey, Asewaku-san, let me lean on you a little" Kaere drawled out in half a sigh, tottering over to where I was entranced by a row of old CDs that seemed to be an Idol's brand new performance album. I guess merchandise really does travel fast nowadays.
Kaere was, of course, far more physically powerful than I am, her muscles toned and body hard and soft in a way perfect for exercise, or really, anything involving myocytes or flexibility, so the reason behind her being so unrecoverably worn-out while I was strolling on just fine was that, before she had hauled herself and her bike up towards me, she had already spent two hours running, rather, cycling around town, with such ferocity that her bike chain had been dragging its metal corpse around this whole time.
"Wait, hold on, didn't I tell you my name already?"
"Ahhhh... I need more water, Asewaku-san!"
"Hey! Stop calling me sweat drinker! I just realised what you said!"
"Gulper, gulper..."
"Denotation doesn't matter here!"
What's up with all these women around me and getting so overexcited tormenting me.
For a little longer we strolled aimlessly down the streets, that is, Kaere and I were being led along, unsure of where exactly we were headed, while Genmi, keen not to let us forget our little transgression, pulled us forward with a sharp consternation polished in her eyes.
"She's pretty scary huh."
"Well yeah, how else is she going to keep you in line?"
"You say that like I need to be on a leash or something."
If anything, it's these two that should be restrained.
Drifting as aimlessly as we were, dragged along by something out of their control, the smells of various sweets and street food warmed the air and clustered around our noses.
Just at that moment, perfectly timed or, more likely, jolted into perception, a growing hunger began chewing away at the bottom of my stomach.
"Hey, Genmi, can we get something to eat first?"
"Just where do you think we're going, huh?"
"Yeah, well, that's just it..."
"Follow me."
Turning the street that broke off into the expanse of pale blue sky, we were huddled together by Genmi like a group of kids whose mother was trying to keep them from getting run over on the sidewalk, then ushered into a damp room filled with ornate wooden beams, where lush plants and flowers hung from the ceiling, while a pool of natural light shimmered through the long stretch of windows lining the wall and facing out on to the riverbed behind us.
"Woooow..." Kaere slipped out in a drawl, to which Genmi jolted her head back with a look that seemed like a guillotine falling on Kaere's eyes.
My two cents is on Kaere being so tired and probably still drunk from this morning that she didn't realise that she had been taken here before.
Which reminds me, or rather has only just made me realise, that Kaere was drunk in front of my door at around midday, a drunkenness that seemed piled up and collapsed into a slew of beer cans, which means she had spent the morning drinking. Hopefully that was before her rounds around the town on her bike, as bizarre as that sounds, because her looping across the streets with such ferocious speed with one hand clutched round an Ebisu can is too much to bear.
After we were guided towards a window-side table, where Genmi and I took the two smooth and shiny birch-coloured leather seats adjacent from the sprawling glass, Kaere slumped on the plain wooden chair opposite, grating it against the floorboards, and put her hand up in apology to Genmi, then grew a little embarrassed that she wasn't deigned a response.
Instead, Genmi turned to me, and with a voice that sounded far too much like a teacher trying to pull a confession from a reluctant student, interrogated me on just what Kaere had dragged me into.
It was my chance to clean my slate, wipe my conscience, and cast aside all this stupidity of the day on to the plate of Kaere's responsibility.
"She really didn't do anything, okay? I mean, we walked to town together, if anything it was less gruelling having someone to talk to, and we were just way too exhausted to stand up at that point."
"I see... I thought she had done... well, never mind that. She's grown up. I'm glad."
That really made it sound like something truly immoral.
I wonder what Kaere was like, what kind of things she did to innocent people like me, before she 'grew up'.
I was waiting for Genmi to go into nostalgic verse about how they used to run the local biker gang together, and could already picture the two back-to-back, bike exhausts blazing with heat and carburettors groaning, while their long black coats flew back in the wind.
"Well, I was actually going to bring Suikuiyo here on his own, but somehow you got dragged into this group, but anyway, it's not like I didn't want to talk to you. Actually, it might even be easier to tell you both together."
But first, Genmi proclaimed like a medieval queen, we must eat.
And so, we guzzled down a heavy glass of oolong tea, sweat beads trailing its side and pooling at out palms, while a set of okonomiyaki were dropped at the table's centre, where they began sizzling their sweet smell into the atmosphere, somehow assuaging our exhaustion despite the heat.
Outside the reflection was almost bubbling like the moisture dropping on to the grilling plate, but nonetheless a steady flow of people continued passing us by like shadows outside a train window, their loudness a signal of the status quo in this place.
Enjoyment reigned supreme here, verging on a decadent kind of self-indulgence that seemed miraculously, and I fail to grasp exactly how, held together by an underlying sense of manners and decency which prevented anything from ever spiralling out of control, or anything ever poking up against the community's sensibilities.
It was strange, but, it's not like the city doesn't have its own set of these kinds of implicit rules, the kinds of manners and little grooves in those that you only really learn through living there, sometimes gatekept by birth.
After we had gulped and chewed and ingested almost everything we had ordered, our insatiable hunger for something to fill our worn out bodies appeased a little, Genmi leaned back, beer in hand, stretching out and gripping the can like a laid-back professional, and announced what she had been holding in for a while, like the food and drink was needed to ease us into listening.
"Well, Kaere, first I'll offer you my congratulations. You've been accepted for your lecturer's position at N-University".
Genmi was wearing an almost proud smile for the first time in a while, especially surprising after all the scolding looks she had been feeding Kaere.
Maybe the food and drink was to ease Genmi, rather than us.
It was pretty surprising, and under usual circumstances, I would have reacted with a 'Huh?! This drunk muscle-freak is going to become a lecturer?!", but I was too weighed down by the food in my stomach and the numb feeling of relaxation, the kind that comes after working your muscles to the edges and returning back to homeostasis, lapping over me like ocean ripples.
"What?! Really!?"
I'm glad Kaere had that kind of reaction for me.
How she had the energy, I can't understand.
Maybe she's just way more used to this lifestyle than I am.
I still had a long way to go until adjustment, but maybe it's all the beer that's loosening up her senses.
I don't think that kind of lifestyle is something I can adjust to.