Ch.206Epilogue. The Gift

Kagami had a reason for taking Koko and me to the amusement park.

Just as May 5th is Children’s Day in Korea, Japan also has Children’s Day.

It’s also on May 5th. Originally it was celebrated according to the lunar calendar, but later changed to the solar calendar.

I think I heard that the lunar May 5th was a day to pray for boys’ health. In high school… well, I’m still in high school now, but a bit further back—in my previous life’s high school days—I think I heard about it during Japanese class.

March 3rd for girls. May 5th for boys.

Each day has its own name, but May 5th is the public holiday. Now it seems the name is literally “Children’s Day,” so the distinction between boys and girls has mostly disappeared.

Still, some traditions remain, as I occasionally saw carp-shaped kites fluttering outside some windows, something I’d seen in Japanese animations.

Kagami was clearly aware that we were both daughters, so she didn’t hang up any carp kites.

Instead.

“Here you go.”

Kagami sat Koko and me side by side and held something out to us.

It was a phone.

“I already have a phone.”

“It’s not in good condition.”

Hearing that, I reflexively looked at my phone.

Indeed, it was cracked all over with terrible scratches. The phones of this era were tough enough to withstand damage, but if it had been my old smartphone, it would have been shattered much worse than the stereotypical “landmine” phones.

“And it wouldn’t make sense to buy one for Koko but not for Kotone.”

Twins… well, at least we look like twins.

I suppose in families with siblings, showing favoritism to one can cause all sorts of conflicts.

I thought Kagami might buy something very pink to match the “daughter” image, but that wasn’t the case. Both of our phones were a normal silver color.

Ordinary-looking, but still the latest model for this era.

“But, can we just buy these like this?”

I asked Kagami.

“What?”

“Don’t we need to go to a carrier store to activate them?”

When did they start using SIM cards?

As far as I know, they weren’t really used in the 2G era.

Kagami looked noticeably flustered at my question.

Does she use a phone without really knowing how it works?

Well, if she’s not tech-savvy, that’s possible.

There’s probably a specific way to activate it, but it’s been so long since I used this kind of phone that I can’t remember clearly. In the 2020s, you just move the SIM card or handle it electronically.

To be sure, it would be better to ask at a nearby store.

“Thank you.”

Rather than continuing the conversation and potentially ruining the mood, I decided to accept the gift first.

I opened the package and took out the phone to examine it.

It was definitely in much better condition compared to the phone I’d been using. Because it was new.

Surprisingly, seeing it made me feel good. It was a somewhat bewildering emotion.

Phones from this era can’t really do much. There are games, and I remember enjoying some, but they’re mostly low-budget games still in their infancy, and you can’t properly use the internet yet. To do that, you’d need something like a PDA and pay higher communication fees.

It’s actually more surprising that Yuu is always fiddling with her phone.

So I thought I wasn’t particularly interested in phones.

But receiving this new one made my heart beat a little faster.

“It’s pretty.”

Even without activation, the basic functions work fine.

Like the camera, for instance.

I held up the phone and pointed it at Kagami.

Click.

The first photo I took with my phone was of Kagami.

“Whoa?”

Koko tilted her head.

Come to think of it, even though I thought about buying Koko a phone, I never actually did it.

It’s more accurate to say I never even considered it. Buying Koko a phone would mean staying in touch, but Koko was almost always with me anyway.

Of course, we’d be separated when I went to work, but whenever something happened to me, Koko would always suddenly appear in my sight. That’s why I never thought about buying her a phone until now.

…I feel a bit sorry about that.

In the end, I never bought her one.

I should have bought her one for Christmas. It wouldn’t have been impossible if I’d stretched my budget a bit.

After watching me unwrap my package, Koko somewhat awkwardly opened the box in front of her.

Kagami and I watched her a bit nervously.

Koko enjoyed watching TV. Sometimes she’d happily watch when I played games on my console.

But while she liked watching TV, if you asked whether she was passionate about it, the answer would have to be no. She’d just briefly show interest in occasional entertaining videos, but I’d never seen her follow a series from beginning to end.

She liked watching games and sometimes enjoyed playing as Player 2 with me, but she wouldn’t play RPGs by herself. I tried to teach her how, but she didn’t seem to understand why doing it herself would be fun.

So I was worried she might not be interested in the phone either.

But.

“Wow!”

As she took out the phone, Koko’s eyes sparkled and she exclaimed.

“Huh?”

But soon she looked confused and tilted her head. The screen didn’t turn on when she opened the folder.

I pressed and held the power button on Koko’s phone to turn it on.

A flashy animation played—though with terrible frame rate by today’s standards—showing a sequence of photos, and then the phone turned on.

“Kotone, Kotone.”

Koko called me.

“Yes?”

“Photo.”

Koko spoke with a hint of impatience, so I smiled and found the camera for her.

Click.

The moment I handed it to Koko, I heard the sound of a photo being taken.

Click. Click.

After taking several photos in succession, Koko looked at the screen and smiled broadly.

“Kotone, look!”

Then she showed me the screen.

There were photos of me.

Some were blurry from shaking, and in some I had my eyes wide open in surprise. The wide-eyed photos especially made me look very similar to Koko. Well, that makes sense since she wasn’t just biologically similar but literally created to match my body.

Actually, Koko might have been envying others who could take photos all this time.

If the first photo on my phone was of Kagami, the protagonist of the first photo on Koko’s phone was me.

“…”

I feel strangely embarrassed.

There was a time when I was so determined to leave evidence, but now being photographed makes me feel shy.

Click.

Koko took a photo of Kagami too,

Click.

And she also took a picture of Kuro, who was lazily rolling around on the floor. Seeing Koko so excited makes me feel good.

Smiling at Koko, I stood up.

“Well, shall we go out for a bit? We need to learn about the phones too…”

I wasn’t exactly technologically challenged, but I didn’t know how to activate phones in Japan.

We should go to a nearby carrier store or something like that. If it’s something we can do at home, I can learn that too.

After all, I’ll be living here from now on. At least until smartphones arrive, I’ll keep using this method.

“Let’s go!?”

Kagami, who had been flustered earlier when I mentioned we might need to visit a store to activate the phones, immediately jumped up at the suggestion of going out.

She’s not a large dog or anything.

Sometimes I get confused about which one of us is the mother.

I shrugged my shoulders.

Well, until just a moment ago, she did seem motherly.

So I guess it’s not a big problem to see her that way.

Since we were already on the topic, we prepared to go out on the last day of the holiday.

*

“Here we are.”

After successfully completing the activation.

We’re at a nearby restaurant.

We’re not trying to eat anything fancy, but since it’s the last day of the holiday, I thought it would be nice to enjoy something simple like tonkatsu.

While waiting for our food to arrive, Kagami took Koko’s phone and entered her number.

She probably wanted to claim the number one spot. Well, there is one competitor right next to her. Though I don’t need to compete over such things.

I glanced at Koko’s phone while entering my number and saw that the number 1 spot was registered under the name “Mom.”

Trying to hold back a laugh, I handed the phone back to Koko, and Kagami reached out her hand to me.

“…What?”

“I’ll enter my number for you too. You haven’t transferred everything yet, right?”

“…”

Her intentions are so obvious.

I guess in this era, when you change phones, you have to transfer everything separately.

I think there was an automatic way to do it too, but I’m not sure. Well, there’s not much in there anyway, so it wouldn’t take long to transfer manually. The data should still be on the old phone.

I silently handed my phone to Kagami.

Kagami opened my phone with a big smile.

“Ah!”

And was startled as soon as she opened the contacts.

Her face turned slightly red, and she handed the phone back to me.

“Huh?”

Koko tilted her head in confusion, but I just shrugged.

Of course, number 1 in my phone wasn’t Kagami. It was Koko. I felt bad about not having Koko’s number in my phone until now, so I gave her the top spot.

For reference, the order of numbers didn’t have much significance before. I’m not the type to carefully manage such things, so they were just in the order they were entered.

This time, Koko is number 1.

And number 2 is, of course, Kagami. No matter how many close friends you have, unless your family relationships are completely broken, family numbers usually occupy the top spots, right?

And I had named Kagami “Mom.”

In my mind I call her Kagami, and I stubbornly continue to speak informally to her, but I do address her as “Mom.”

If I had entered her as “Kagami” in my phone, I might never break that habit.

I gave Kagami a somewhat triumphant smile.

Needless to say, Kagami didn’t seem upset at all. Perhaps she even considered it a win.

Just then, our tonkatsu arrived, so I just shrugged once and picked up my knife and fork.

*

“Kotone, Koko!”

After the holiday ended.

Yuka was waiting for us at the station with a bright smile.

Does she come to wait at this time every day?

Well, if Yuka doesn’t come, Koko and I are willing to wait for her. It’s not like Yuka would deliberately be late anyway.

“Did you have a good holiday?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Yeah!”

It was fun.

In many ways.

“What about you, Yuka?”

“I had a good time too. I really rested well.”

I think she deserved the rest.

“To be honest, I think I rested much better than usual. I always thought that being involved with people was the best thing, but sometimes being completely alone isn’t bad either. Sleeping late, waking up late, staying in bed all day and occasionally going out for fresh air.”

I exchanged messages with Shii, and also with Mako, Harumi, and even my junior Tsuneda. Of course, I also talked with Yuu about various things.

But unlike usual, Yuka barely contacted me after staying out overnight. We only had brief casual conversations occasionally.

“I see.”

“Yeah.”

We started walking toward school.

“I… well, as you probably know, I didn’t have many friends before coming to this school.”

That was the setting.

Since this world resembles that novel, it must have been true.

“So I was often alone at home. And I thought that was just bad. I envied kids who had really close friends… but still, sometimes it’s nice to be completely detached and rest well. You have time to think, and most importantly, your body and mind are so comfortable.”

Then she looked at me and said:

“Don’t worry too much. I’m not saying having no friends is better. I’m much happier now.”

“I see.”

I nodded.

I was like that too. It was a problem because it was too extreme.

I need to do my best to prevent Yuka from becoming like that.

“We have news to share too.”

“News?”

When Yuka tilted her head, I took out my phone from my pocket and showed it to her.

“Oh, you got a new phone!”

And following me, Koko showed her phone too.

“Koko too!”

Koko smiled and handed her phone to Yuka.

“I deliberately didn’t enter the number. It seemed like Koko wanted to do this.”

“Koko…”

Yuka accepted the phone with a somewhat touched expression, pressed her number, and handed it back.

This was truly Koko’s wish.

Koko still doesn’t fully understand complex human relationships or etiquette, but she’s gradually learning to distinguish what precious memories are.

So it seems she wanted to experience exchanging contact information with friends like this. Perhaps she enjoyed receiving numbers from Kagami and me.

And this has a good effect too. At least the kids who give Koko their numbers will know she has a phone.

They’ll exchange messages not just with me, but with Koko too. That’s really wonderful.

Koko’s smiling face was lovely as always.

Koko spent the entire day seeking out friends one by one. Mako, Yuu, Harumi. And the club members Izumi, Kaoru, and Tsuneda.

She even followed me to my part-time job and got the numbers of Shii, Miki, and even the manager.

What a bewitching girl.

Well, I’m one of those who fell under her spell too.

Later, I looked forward to chat apps when smartphones would come out.

Somehow, I felt the group chat would be very lively and fun.

And Koko would be at the center of it.

Would there come a day when Koko would ask me to go on a trip? When we’d be living a bit apart due to work, and she’d suddenly call me saying “I’m on my way now!”?

While it’s hard to imagine, it’s also easy to envision—feeling this strangely contradictory emotion, I smiled at Koko.