Chapter 057
"Well, I'm off. Yu, I'm counting on you to take care of Mai."
"Mai-chan, don't leave Yu-chan."
"Yes!"
The next morning, Mai and I saw my parents off as they headed to the doctor's office. Mai clung to my arm, following my mother's orders.
"Mai, it's hard to walk."
"But Mom said you shouldn't leave me alone!"
Mai will be a junior high school student next year, and while she's still a child, she's already starting to develop into a woman. If she gets that close, the memories of yesterday that were overwritten by the delicious dinner and breakfast will come back.
"Come on, I told you we were going for a walk, didn't I?"
"Yes! Onii-chan, let's go!"
Mai grabs my hand and starts running. The hot springs in the mountains are cool even in midsummer, so I don't mind the scorching sun.
Since I don't have a specific purpose, I just walk towards the station. The streets are lined with inns, souvenir shops, and old stores, giving you a sense of the history of the hot springs.
"Onii-chan, what's that?"
Mai points to a metal fitting in the middle of the road. Metal pieces a little bigger than a 500 yen coin are embedded in the middle of the road with equal spacing between them.
"That's probably a snow melting device. A lot of snow piles up around here, so they melt the snow by spraying groundwater and hot spring water."
"Amazing, so people don't have to shovel the snow!"
We live in the plains of Saitama, so snow piles up on the roads maybe once a year. Naturally, this is the first time I've seen equipment for melting snow.
"Oh, it's a manju shop... But it's closed."
"Maybe it's not open yet. Let's check it out on the way home."
Even though it's close to the station, most of the shops lined up are closed. I think some shops haven't opened yet, but there were quite a few that were clearly closed.
"Saeko, do you hate it that much?"
"No, it's scary!"
I heard a girl crying and looked over to see a young girl sitting down and crying. Next to her was a young woman who seemed to be her mother, with a troubled look on her face.
"What's wrong?"
"The doctor came, so I went to take my daughter to the doctor, but she got scared..."
The mother answered a question from me, a complete stranger, on impulse. She must be in a lot of trouble.
"Saeko, what are you scared of about doctors?"
"They make you open your mouth wide and take weird pictures..."
It must be scary to have things done to you that you can't understand as a small child. Mai smiled when she heard the answer.
"Saeko, do you want to shake hands with Onee-chan?"
"Hands? Yes!"
Saeko shook Mai's offered hand. Her mother didn't understand Mai's intentions, but she watched over her, thinking that she meant no harm.
"Saeko-chan, it's okay to hold hands. The doctor today will only hold hands, so there's nothing to be scared of."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's true. So let's go together."
"Yeah, I'll go with Onee-chan!"
Saeko-chan, who had been crying until just now, is smiling and holding Mai's hand tightly. The mom seems relieved that the difficult problem has been solved, but it seems that she realized for the first time that she didn't know us.
"Um, thank you. Maybe you're the family member of the doctor who came to see us?"
"Yes, Mai and I accompanied my parents who came here for the examinations. My father will examine with his skill, so as Mai said, he'll just have to hold hands."
We decided to stop our walk and go back, but that was Mai-onee-chan's choice. When I saw Mai and Saeko-chan's smiles, there was no other choice but to go together.
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