Mandarin Orange, Kotatsu, And A Found Cat

“Well, if you’ll excuse me.”

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I stood up from my desk, bowed, and walked out of the office door.
As I pressed the elevator button and watched the numbers on the door increase, there was a knock on my shoulder.
I turned around without effort and felt something stinging my cheek.

“Good work, Satou.”
“Yeah, you too.”

He is my colleague Sakakibara, who sticks his finger in my cheek and smiles.
We joined this company at the same, and we’ve been hanging out together for three years now.

When he retreated his finger that was still stuck in my cheek while I returned my gaze, Sakakibara peeked at me from the side.

“Satou, are you tired by any chance?”
“Of course you’re tired after working so hard all morning.”
“No, it’s not that.
I mean, it’s only Wednesday and your eyes are already dead.”
“That’s none of your business.”

I was one of the first to board the elevator, and when I repeatedly hit the ‘close’ button, Sakakibara came aboard in a panic.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was simply worried about you.
If it’s nothing, it’s fine.”
“Thanks for your concern.
If it doesn’t work out, I’ll talk to you about it.”
“Yeah, I’ll buy you that lemon soda.”
“I like that store, Greffle.”

I let the elevator’s unique floating sensation carry me away, and we get into a conversation about nothing of importance.
He’s usually a mild-mannered, easy-going guy, but he’s always thoughtful, which is one of the things I like about him.
In the past three years, he has helped me out several times.

The feeling of floating stopped and the elevator doors opened.
As I stepped out of the building, the freezing wind blew into my clothes.

“Whoa, it’s cold.”

I couldn’t help but shout and cover my mouth with my neck warmer.

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It’s not a particularly cold area, but in winter, the wind gets cold and it snows.
It hadn’t been that cold yesterday, but it seemed to have gotten much colder in the middle of the night, and this morning it was a silver world outside my window.

Today’s weather has been cloudy all day.
Thanks to the lack of sun, the snow that had accumulated this morning had not melted and was still covering the concrete.

“Well, Satou, better not catch a cold.”

Sakakibara doesn’t like the cold either, so he hurried home before it got any colder.
Sakakibara commutes by car, but I commute by train.
The distance on foot is inevitably longer than by car, and I envy him a little this season.

The train was a bit disrupted in the morning, but by evening it had recovered and I was able to board at the usual time.
A few minutes on the train.
I got off the train at the nearest station, where not many people get on and off, and went through the ticket gate.

It wasn’t falling at the office, but over here, there were a few white crystals fluttering down.
I pulled my neck warmer around my mouth again and stepped into the snow.

 

On the way back to my house, I found myself on a country road with few streetlights.
There are some buildings, but they are all quiet wooden houses.
The convenience store at the intersection ahead always looks out of place.
As usual, I bought dinner at the convenience store and started walking again with a plastic bag in my hand.
Today I bought some leftover pasta and two loaves of bread.
I also remembered that I was out of canned food, so I bought a few cans at random.

As I crossed the traffic light and went through the corner of the narrow street ahead, I suddenly thought I heard something.
It could have been my imagination, or it could have been one of the noises from some house.
Nevertheless, for some reason, I stopped in my tracks.

I waited for the sound of a distant car to pass by, then listened carefully.
It wasn’t long before I heard the sound again.

(A squeal…?)

The sound was quiet, perhaps absorbed by the carpet of snow, but it somehow felt like an animal cry.
Relying on my intuition, I moved from place to place and listened carefully again and again.

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“Mii…”

I heard a squeal more firmly than before.
And its source was probably this alleyway.
In front of me was a gap between a large warehouse and the wall of a house.
I slowly move my body into the gap, which is barely enough for one person to pass through.

I don’t know why I acted the way I did.
My body was moving as if I had some kind of urge.

My clothes and pants scraped and caught on the wall several times, but I kept going deeper.
What I found was a small card