Chapter 70: Volume 1, - 70: The Date Suzune Planned
By seven-thirty on Saturday morning, 15 April 2023, Suzune Akiyama had already packed twenty-four loaves of fresh milk bread and swept the bakery flour from the front display counter.
She wore a soft cream knit sweater, a pleated navy skirt, and white walking trainers. After wiping down the glass pastry case, she stacked the wooden delivery trays in a neat, square pile beside the kitchen door. Beyond it, her father was working near the ovens on the morning’s second batch of melon pan, too far inside the noisy production room to hear the front-counter conversation.
Keiko came out from the back room holding a clipboard with the weekend catering orders. She looked at Suzune’s clothes, her sharp eyes taking in the neatly styled hair and the small leather shoulder bag.
"You’re done early," Keiko said, adjusting her apron. "Are you taking the train into Omiya?"
"I’m meeting Ren at Omiya Station, but we’re taking the JR Kawagoe Line," Suzune said, adjusting her sweater sleeve.
Keiko paused, resting the edge of her clipboard against the counter. "You’ve been spending a lot of mornings together lately. Is this just company business, or are you actually dating?"
Suzune didn’t hesitate or look away. She smiled warmly, her tone clear and steady. "Ren is my boyfriend."
Keiko stared at her for a second, then a faint, approving softness touched her expression. "I thought as much. Well have fun."
"I will," Suzune said, giving her mother a quick hug before taking her jacket from the wall hook.
When Ren had offered on Friday to drive them in his Toyota Crown, Suzune had gently declined. Driving into Kawagoe on a sunny mid-April Saturday meant fighting tourist traffic, hunting for overpriced parking, and building the afternoon around where the car was sitting. She wanted to walk through the old town, hold his hand without worrying about navigation, and let the day belong entirely to them.
They met at ten o’clock outside the JR ticket gates near Omiya Station’s west exit.
Ren wore dark trousers and a crisp, light-grey zip jacket over a black shirt. He looked broad and solid, his shoulders relaxed in a way that had been unthinkable two months ago. When he saw her, his dry, understated smile appeared immediately.
"You wore walking shoes," Ren noted as they boarded a JR Kawagoe Line train bound for Kawagoe.
"I warned you in the text," Suzune said, hooking her arm through his as the train pulled away from the platform. "I planned everything today. You’re just along for the ride."
They stepped out at Kawagoe Station roughly twenty-five minutes later into brilliant morning sunlight. The air smelled faintly of sweet potatoes, woodsmoke, and spring flowers.
Their first stop was Kurazukuri no Machinami, the famous warehouse district lined with clay-walled merchant houses from the Edo period. Tourist crowds flooded the stone pavements. Suzune immediately slipped her fingers into Ren’s, guiding him past bustling storefronts and souvenir displays.
They waited fifteen minutes in the queue outside Koedo Osatsu-an. When Suzune finally received a paper cup filled with long, freshly fried osatsu chips and a salted-butter dipping sauce, Ren stepped back carefully, holding his jacket away with exaggerated caution.
"Careful with the grease," Ren said dryly.
Suzune laughed, lifting one of the long chips from the cup and holding it out to him. " Here, take a bite before I eat them all."
Ren took a bite, enjoying the crisp, salty sweetness. They took a selfie together in front of the Toki no Kane bell tower. Suzune leaning close against his arm, smiling widely into the camera while Ren held the phone with a relaxed, easy expression.
Not every stop was perfect. Around noon, they queued for twenty minutes outside a narrow noodle shop that Suzune had saved on her phone, only to find the broth overly salty and the seating cramped.
"That was a complete miss," Suzune admitted as they walked back out into the street, making a face.
"It wasn’t terrible," Ren offered, his eyes glinting with quiet humour. "The water was very cold."
Suzune giggled, nudging his side. "You don’t have to defend them! It was bad. Come on, I know a quieter way."
Near the end of the main street, Ren stopped at a vending machine and bought two bottles of water. He handed one to Suzune without making a production of it, then opened his own as they continued towards the river.
She led him away from the main commercial strip, turning down a narrow residential alley that opened toward the quiet banks of the Shingashi River. Cherry blossoms had mostly fallen, but green leaves rustled softly in the spring breeze, and duck families drifted along the slow-moving water.
The walk was longer than Ren had anticipated. His legs, still recovering from Friday’s heavy leg press with Akari, began to ache with a steady, dull pulse. Sweat dampened the collar of his shirt as they climbed a modest stone incline toward Hikawa Shrine.
"Need a break?" Suzune asked softly, noticing his slightly heavier breathing.
"A short one," Ren acknowledged honestly, taking another long drink from the bottle. "My legs are feeling Friday’s workout."
They sat on a wooden bench under the shade of an old zelkova tree near the shrine grounds. Suzune nestled against his side, wrapping both hands around his arm.
"When I was twelve," Suzune said, looking out at the quiet shrine garden, "Aya, Haruka and I came here on a school trip. Aya tried to buy three different charms for luck in exams, lost her wallet behind the main hall, and Haruka made us search through the gravel for an hour until we found it."
Ren smiled, resting his chin lightly against her head. "Did she pass the exams?"
"Barely," Suzune chuckled. "What about you? Did you ever take trips like that?"
Ren thought back, searching past the dark, heavy years of debt that had defined his early twenties. "In my second year of university, three of us took a cheap night bus to Kyoto. We had almost no money, so we bought a loaf of bread and margarine at a local supermarket and walked twelve kilometres across the city instead of paying for subway tickets. We slept on a bench near the Kamo River because we missed the return bus."
Suzune lifted her head and smiled at him. "That sounds awful. And somehow wonderful."
Ren looked at her in the filtered sunlight and realised he had spent hours simply enjoying her company. His hand found hers on the bench.
"It was," he said quietly. "And today is even better."
Suzune’s cheeks flushed slightly, a deep, happy warmth filling her eyes. She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly, resting her forehead against his shoulder for a long, quiet moment.
They spent another hour wandering slowly along the riverbank path. On their way back through the warehouse district, Suzune stopped at Kameya Main Store and bought a small box of sweets for her parents.
As they turned back toward Kawagoe Station, blue light settled unobtrusively at the lower edge of Ren’s vision.
[DAILY MOVEMENT TARGET VERIFIED]
[DISTANCE WALKED: 11.2 KM]
[HEALTH TRACK TREND UPDATED]
By four in the afternoon, as they sat on the train returning to Omiya, Suzune rested her head on Ren’s shoulder, her fingers interwoven with his.
"Aya and Haruka want to meet you properly," Suzune said smoothly, pulling out her phone. "Are you free tomorrow afternoon?"
"I’m free," Ren said, glancing down at her screen. "I’d like to meet them."
Suzune tapped her screen, opening a group chat with her two best friends.
Suzune: Tomorrow. Be normal.
A moment later, her phone chimed with a reply from Aya.
Aya: I promise nothing. 😇
Suzune let out a bright, melodic laugh that filled the quiet train car. Ren smiled, wrapping his arm securely around her waist as the train sped home toward Omiya.