It was definitely her.

Nanjou Kobu tightly grasped the shopping bag in her fist as she sat on the bus stop bench. A girl was sitting there, reading a book. At first glance the same age as Kobu, but she knew the girl was actually a year older than her. They had never met, they went to different high schools, and by all accounts there were no social events, circles, or hobbies which would have driven them together. The only thing they shared was a single relation. Kobu’s neighbor and friend, Kato Ren. The girl at the bus stop with her was his club senior. 

Kobu did not have any observable feelings about the girl. She had long dark hair and looked to be bookish or generally reserved. She was tall for her age, but not to the degree where she would stand out too much. She was probably just an early grower. As for what else she could know or tell, that was it. Ren, for all of his filibustering when she dragged him to study sessions, did not gossip on his club activities. Indeed, it was only when he showed her a picture of his club once, after he began his second year of school, that she even knew there was a girl in the same club as him. What kind of girl liked model trains? 

Trying her best to not judge someone she did not know, Kobu took her spot without obviously acknowledging the girl's presence. Even less so did she make her recognition known. So a cold shiver went down her spine when the girl actually began to speak. 

“Do you like light novels?” 

Kobu put on a smile and attempted to pretend further. 

“I don’t really have time for things like that.” 

“Oh? Isn’t that the point of it being a light novel? That you don’t have to get too invested? The first one I read was back in junior high, it was a romcom about a guy who had a big nose. I don’t think my grades suffered much from reading something like that. Do you normally read? In general, I mean.” 

The girl did not turn from her book. She actually managed to turn the page while speaking as though reading and engaging with a stranger were not mutually exclusive. Kobu set her shopping bag on the bench beside her and folded her hands together, her knuckles white. 

“I really only read for assignments these days.” 

The girl pulled a bookmark from the last page and nestled it in the crease of her light novel before gently closing it and putting it away into her bag. It was only then that she took a direct glance at Nanjou. She had good proportions on her face. Her eyes were average length apart, her jaw was sharp but not bony. She seemed like she would be good at math. 

“You go to Jeishin?” Kobu’s uniform gave her away. 

“Yes, I’m a second year student.” 

“ I go to Kose, third year. Do you like it there? I hear they’re really strict.” 

“Students should study. Some girls don’t get that.” 

“I see.”

The girl turned her head back to the street and moved her eyes from spot to spot. Taking in her surroundings as though she had just been dropped there by aliens. Kobu watched the movements with a shivering spine. Her head had been heating up since she sat down. For some reason the irreverence, perhaps the lightness, with which the girl spoke to her was building frustration within her. 

“Are they strict at Kose?” Kobu asked. 

“About the same as anywhere else. We’re not a private school like Jeishin, you know.” 

The girl laughed quietly to herself before leaning back against the glass enclosure of the bus stop. Her hair splayed out from the contact on the glass and messed it up as her idle movements ruffled it further. She seemed to not care about it that much, something else was clearly on her mind. Before Kobu could ask after such things, the girl spoke up. 

“Nagano Kurumi.”

“Nanjou Kobu.” 

“Nanjou, that’s an interesting name. Kato…Nanjou…” 

Kobu withheld her internal rage at the recitation of Ren’s family name. 

“How’d you know I know Ren?” 

Nagano gave Kobu a side eye without moving her head. A kind of domineering curiosity, like that of an unsentimental cat playing with a wounded moth. It was a feline look she displayed while crossing her arms and grinning. 

“Oh, I have my reasons. I mean, you’ve been staring at me this whole time. It’s kind of hard to ignore that, eh? He showed you the graduation photo, didn’t he?” 

“He did.” 

“Yeah, Kato was all feelings. Our senior graduated last year. I was a second year, obviously, but that Kato of yours was just a freshman and he was all tears. I can’t say it wasn’t a bit sad, you know, but he really was quite funny.” 

Kobu could not help thinking back to the moment when he showed her that picture. It seemed strange to her that someone like him, boisterous and reckless as a rule, would actually be so dramatic as to cry at a seniors graduation. Then again, maybe that was the exact reason it made sense. He absolutely had to be the extreme expression of every emotion he felt. Loud, in a single word. Kobu’s head cooled slightly as she nodded slowly to Nagano. 

“I’m sorry for the trouble he’s caused you.” 

“Oh, it’s nothing. Like I said—well, maybe I don’t need to say it. He fixed one of my locomotives once, he’s handy with a solder, so I guess we can say he repaid the awkwardness. You have your hands full with that one, Miss Nanjou.” 

“Sorry?” 

Nagano grabbed her bag and stood. She ran her fingers through her hair to straighten it before turning to Kobu and smiling. On her feet Kobu was able to see how tall Nagano really was. Probably she was as tall as Ren, maybe a bit more. She tried to recall his measurements; one hundred and sixty seven centimeters? That seemed right, and gauged against the figure standing before her that much was clear. Both of those train-obsessed people were almost a whole head taller than Kobu. Frustration. 

“Do you want to know how I recognized you?”

“Do I want to know?” The question had caught her off guard. 

“You went to a museum in Tokyo with him. I saw the picture of you two. Want to know how?”  Nagano was beaming with ill-intent and the pride of a child dangling a treat in front of a dog in return for a trick. Kobu disliked that behavior. 

“I don’t particularly care, Miss Nagano,” she shot back. 

Nagano chuckled and turned on her heels. Before she got far Kobu let the anger in her head free only once. 

“Why were you sitting here if you weren’t waiting for the bus?” 

The girl spun back around, smiling from ear to ear. 

“The picture is on his phone's home screen!” 

Then, returning to her exodus, Nagano Kurumi left Kobu there with a blood red face. Only it was not anger anymore—her frustrations source so deftly reduced by such a statement of fact. Her understanding of the game Nagano had played at once apparent. She was schemer, a seer, and besides that, probably just more attuned to things of that nature than Kobu was. She spent her time in textbooks and homework assignments. That which grew inside of her chest was unobservable, in-definable. At least, for the most part. She had a hunch, of course. Still, what was a hunch in the face of a castle? Then, in such a stupid declaration, Nagano pulled the blanket from the display to reveal the gates were open. Why? For her own pleasure? Nagano’s eyes and her hesitation to talk much about the graduate senior made its true purpose known. So, she had a savior complex. That was it. 

By the time the bus pulled up to the stop and whined with the hydraulic hiss of its species, Kobu was beet red from embarrassment.