Maruyama Park

I arrived fifteen minutes late to the pie shop. She stood outside, under a black sign that displayed the shop's name: "CLARIS" with a white cat painted between the A and R – most likely a reference to the musical artist.

Panting for air with a half-raised arm, I said, "Sorry I'm late."

Her arms were crossed.
"I was beginning to wonder if you stood me up. Being a quarter of an hour late is quite rude."
It seemed like scolding bypassed the awkward greeting.

With a deep inhale, I pleaded my defense.
"I struggle with rememberin' time, I forgot if we were supposed to meet at 10:00 or 10:30. It's easy for me to confuse the two most commonly used minutes of the hour."

She reviewed my answer.
"I guess I can see your point there. We should get going now."

We didn't eat or order for later at the shop – per her request – and immediately left towards the subway station that would take us across Sapporo to the hiking trail. We walked shoulder-to-shoulder, I was quite tall while she was below average height.

To reiterate, Sapporo wasn't sweltering; the weather leant towards the breezy side. I typically wore a T-shirt and joggers, but for a hiking trip up the city's mountains, I opted for dark beige cargo pants and a black windbreaker. I also had a backpack filled with supplies for a later activity.

Ringomori knew the weather as well as I did, though her solution was somewhat different. She wore a denim fabric skirt that didn't pass her knees, which meant it was practically covered by her oversized gray hoodie. Over it was a backpack similar to mine, and the quite literal cherry on top was a red bandana wrapped like a headband on her cinnamon-colored hair. She also carried a lidded picnic basket, which piqued my interest.

We reached a stoplight and I kept my gaze on the basket. Her hands appeared to be holding the handle a little too tight, as if her nails were digging into it, but I couldn't say for sure. I blinked to her face as she stared at the light, waiting for it to turn green, and grew concerned.

Is she…? Should I say somethin' or…?
"Wh-What're you carryin' inside there?"

"Apples…" she responded bluntly. "An assortment of…apples."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Was she eager to tell me that?

The light turned green and she continued, "I…love apples. My family used to own an apple tree…in the house I used to live in."

"S-So you've always been around them. Do you know a lot about them?"

We passed our threshold.

"There's about 2,000 varieties in Japan, and the majority are grown in Aomori. Nearly a million tons of apples are produced, with over half coming from Aomori as well. The apples used in CLARIS are also from there."

"Aomori carryin' the industry."

"The most well-known apple in Japan is called the 'Fuji apple.' It's a cross between two American apples, created in the 1930s. My personal favorite is the 'Toki,' it's not common nor popular amongst the rest."

I was genuinely interested, seeing as I didn't know there was so much to a fruit, more so how someone could be so obsessed with them. She had become quite the opposite from her regular personality.

I thought we'd be silent throughout the walk to the station, but her uncharacteristic dialogue filled the air and my ears all the way. We took two subway lines and a bus to reach Mt. Maruyama. It was thirty to twelve when we arrived at the park at the foot of the mountain.

Before we began our journey, I decided to use the restroom. I didn't necessarily have to go, but it was better than going later. There so happened to be a place by a clocktower near the east entrance.

Luckily, I was the only person inside and finished rather quickly. I washed my hands and tidied my hair, then left. Ringomori waited at a nearby table, and I noticed her doing a strange activity.

Her back was to me and she held an apple in her palm. As I closed the distance between us, I noticed a small camera on the table, she was seemingly speaking to it. I softened my footsteps and gradually heard what she said.

"Those are all the apples I brought and will eat today. Don't worry, I am not alone, I am with a boy from the orphanage as well."

She didn't have the camera display flipped to see herself, which gave me the pristine idea of lining myself with her head and putting up my index and middle fingers to form bunny ears. That was my intention, but then she finally flipped the display.

A slight shift in her body revealed me on camera, and she frantically turned around to see me, just as surprised, holding out the bunny ears on one hand, and waving with the other.

"I-I'm back…"

Like the apple she held in her hands, her face flushed red as she hurriedly turned back to shut off her camera. She then sulked in her arms with no intention of revealing herself to me.

Feeling responsible for her embarrassment, I took a seat to her left – with the basket between us – and apologized.

"I-I'm sorry for…intrudin'? I-I thought it'd be funny, but it was probably one-sided, huh? What were you doin'? A-Ah, you don't have to answer that."

The sky was ashened with gray. Truthfully, it was rarely blue and sunny, which was a similar commentary on my life, and evidently on her life too.

A brief pause led me to believe she was thinking of what her response would be, if any. She slowly raised her head, but her eyes never lifted from the closed camera lens.

"M-My…parents…were both burdened with health problems. My mother…liked to record videos…of the family…as a memory for me once they passed away. We made so many, and so…after they passed, I continued the hobby. I-It makes me happy…especially since it's all I have after losing the house."

I looked at the camera with her. She was like a different person on camera, could that be how she was before…?

"I don't…have the, how you say, pizzazz, to make entertaining videos like my mother. I spend my time watching her videos…wishing she was still here to make them."
She used the ends of her sleeve to wipe her face. I simply sat and watched, not knowing how to react to the situation. She sniffled a few times before continuing.
"N-Nevertheless, I keep doing them…and store them on a laptop in my room. I-It's completely a secret, so I'm embarrassed…to have someone find that out…about me."

It was my turn to take a pause. Thinking carefully, I cleared my throat before speaking.
"You shouldn't feel embarrassed to have memories of your parents, I wish I had that. That bein' said, you should feel embarrassed for the way I caught you in the act."

"My heart sank," she said rather lightheartedly. "I really felt like I'd join my parents when you shocked me like that."

My eyes and nose crinkled while my chin slightly lifted, I was laughing. I could peripherally see her surprised expression, and then she slipped a giggle; her right hand was over her left shoulder.

An insecure recomposition back to our default settings followed.

She began packing away her items then asked, "Shall...we start going?"

Before venturing up the mountain, we decided to tour the attractions on the ground level. We saw trees and flowers, reading signs about the 330 plant varieties and enormous Katsura trees. Butterflies were widespread, eating the leaves of Japanese hackberry bushes; the butterfly being the national butterfly: Great Purple Emperor. An array of orange flowers neatly groomed alongside the path's hedges caught our eye.

Ringomori must have felt quite comfortable or relieved, since she recorded as much as she could. She kept quiet because she'd apparently do a voiceover once she returned. A trivial detail I noticed was how she became flustered when feeling like others were staring at her.

Wildlife such as squirrels and over 100 species of birds roamed around; birdwatchers were everywhere. We had a glimpse of Maruyama Baseball Stadium, accompanied with high-end tennis and volleyball courts.

The final attraction took us by surprise.

"Is that a zoo?!"

"This place truly has everything, doesn't it?"

We didn't enter, but were able to see some animals from the outside.

Including the times we rested and used the toilet during our tour, we spent roughly three hours walking around before looping back to the clocktower.

"Finally, time for the actual reason we came here. Let's climb to the top and go back. I feel like knockin' out."

"Don't forget that we have to do a report about what we experienced today."

"Ugh," I groaned.

We took our first steps up the mountain's trail.