In the Picture

I got there early. Nobody had asked me to. So when I arrived and found people struggling to move supply crates from the gym I started helping without asking if I was supposed to. Nobody told me to stop.

By the time I came back with a box of napkins Aki was already at the yakisoba station adjusting the setup with the focused expression she got when she had decided something needed to be done her own way.

"You're back."

"I said ten minutes."

"You were gone eleven."

Daiki looked up from behind the counter.

"We were about to send a search party."

I put the napkins down and started stacking them. Rui appeared next to me and started folding without explanation. He had his new camera around his neck but was apparently willing to pause the photography for napkin duty.

"First festival?"

"Not exactly. Not like this though."

He nodded like that was a reasonable answer.

"It grows on you,"

he said.

Haru was there too, a kid from class I had not talked to much, lean and average height, the kind of calm to him that didn't look like it took any effort. His brown hair fell into his eyes and he never bothered pushing it back, which I noticed mostly because being that unbothered was rare. He had spent the first hour reorganizing the chopstick pairs by length, which he defended as a presentation choice when Daiki pointed it out. He wasn't entirely wrong. He offered me disposable gloves at some point and told me I was on food team now.

"I was on supplies."

"Well whatever, you've now been promoted."

I put the gloves on. He watched me fold napkins for a minute.

"You fold them like they did something to you personally."

"They're napkins."

"And you're folding like they insulted your family."

I looked at him. He was not smiling but it was aimed at a smile. I folded the next one less aggressively. He did not remark on the improvement.

The afternoon moved at the pace of busy things, which is fast in a way that you only fully understand afterwards how fast it actually went by. Lines formed earlier than expected. We ran through the first noodle batch faster than anyone had planned for. Daiki greeted every customer with the enthusiasm of someone who had been waiting his entire life for this specific responsibility and Aki ran the frying pan like it was completely natural, which she later told me that it was not. Rui circled everything with his camera and occasionally got in his own way. I rotated between drinks, change, and washing out trays, which suited me. Specific tasks, clear sequence, nothing else to think about.

During a break I went to the field and sat under a tree. The festival noise was muffled back there, distant enough to feel okay. Aki came and found me not long after with two drinks and handed me one without asking what I wanted.

"You've been here all day without disappearing."

"I guess you could say that the crowd's too big to disappear into."

"Still. I'm glad you came."

I looked at the drink. Something cold and slightly sweet. The field smelled like cut grass and whatever they were grilling on the other side of the building.

I did not say anything back. We sat there for a few minutes until the break was over and then went back again.

Haru found me again later in the afternoon when the others had rotated back. He had a paper bag and held it out.

"Red bean."

Taiyaki. I took one. The shell was crisp and the filling was warm and sweet and I realized I had not eaten since morning. I had forgotten until just then.

He sat back on his hands and looked at the sky.

"This whole festival is kind of fake, don't you think? Everyone just performing to be happy for a day."

"Maybe they need a break from not performing it."

He looked at me.

"You're more thoughtful than you look."

"Thanks."

He laughed. Short, quiet, not at my expense. I ate the rest of the taiyaki. The paper bag stayed warm in my hands for a few minutes longer than I expected it to.

At the end of the day Rui set up a group photo. Of coure he wanted one with his new camera. He had a timer and ran to get into frame, barely making it. Aki grabbed my sleeve when I drifted toward the edge and pulled me in without asking. I stood stiffly and had no time to argue.

The shutter clicked.

Rui showed me the image on his camera afterward. I was in it. Not at the edge where I could be cropped out. Actually in it, the same as everyone else.

I looked at it for longer than I meant to. Then handed the camera back.

On the way to the gate Aki asked if I was coming to karaoke the next day. I said I had not been invited. She said I just was.

My aunt had left curry on the table and a note. 'Hope you had fun today. Get some sleep.'

I stood in the kitchen reading it. The house was quiet, just the sound of the fridge and something distant outside. I picked up the pen from the counter and wrote at the bottom of the note: Thanks. It was good.

I left it on the table and went to sit by the window for a while before bed. The city lights were doing the thing they do at night when the air is clear. I sat there and watched them and did not think about very much.

It had been a good day. Not a complicated good. Just good. I was in the group photo. I wrote back on the note my aunt left me. I ate taiyaki from a paper bag in a field with someone who laughed like he meant it.

I didn't know what any of it added up to yet. But I was starting to think it was adding up to something at the very least.