Ch.228IF Side Story: Like Falling Starlight

Camping is quite enjoyable.

To be honest, there are many bothersome aspects to it. The most troublesome part is having to prepare your own sleeping place with your own hands.

Clearing the ground, setting up the tent, and arranging everything around it for immediate use was, honestly speaking, a bit of a hassle.

And at the same time, it was somewhat enjoyable too. If I had to do it alone, I would have just driven here, turned on the heater, and slept in the car, but preparing everything while having a relaxed conversation with Pang Pang was, well, not too bad after all.

Since the weather was a bit cold, we each stuffed heat packs inside our clothes, placed our chairs side by side, and sat close together.

We also lit a campfire in front of us. Of course, since too much light would interfere with our stargazing, we kept it like charcoal, minimizing visible flames.

Right. We came to see the stars. It was a promise with Pang Pang.

A few days before our date, while debating whether to spend time on another planet, Pang Pang showed her Earthaboo nature and insisted on seeing the Milky Way together. I agreed.

We decided on a location Pang Pang wanted to visit, and we took turns driving.

We arrived at a quiet auto campsite nestled in the mountains.

After parking the car and setting up a tent spacious enough for three people, we sat with blankets over our knees, passing the time.

“It’s quieter than I expected.”

Pang Pang said this while the sun was still high in the sky. Indeed, there weren’t many people around. The weather was cold, and more importantly, this campsite was deeper in the mountains than we’d thought.

“Quiet is good, isn’t it?”

I answered with a smile.

“How did you find this place?”

“I searched around whenever I had time. Despite appearances, I am a major corporation owner, you know?”

I chuckled a bit at Pang Pang’s words.

“Here.”

She had been rustling through a snack bag, but what she handed me wasn’t a snack but a rather large marshmallow. A marshmallow on a wooden skewer.

As I took it, Pang Pang gently rotated her marshmallow over the campfire to roast it.

I tried to follow her example, but—

“…Ah!”

My marshmallow caught fire.

“The campfire has more heat than you’d think. It’s extremely hot even where you can’t see the flames.”

Pang Pang laughed as she pressed her roasted marshmallow between two biscuits and pulled it off the skewer.

Then she handed it to me.

“Can I take it?”

“We have plenty of marshmallows. You’ll probably succeed with at least one if you keep trying.”

Feeling somewhat defeated, I pouted but accepted the biscuit from Pang Pang. S’mores, right? I’d heard of them but never made them before. The last time I went camping, the situation wasn’t very pleasant.

“Go ahead and eat it. The taste changes a bit when it cools down. It’s best when it’s slightly melted… at least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

As I stared blankly at Pang Pang roasting another marshmallow, she said this with a smile. I felt a little sorry, but her words made it hard to resist.

I bit into the biscuit. It made a crunching sound as it crumbled slightly, blending with the partially melted marshmallow in the middle. The outer layer of the marshmallow tasted a bit like dalgona. A very thin layer of dalgona broke, revealing the fluffiness of the marshmallow I was familiar with. Well, taking another bite, it was more sticky than fluffy, but the texture wasn’t unpleasantly gooey—rather, it was pleasantly light.

I pulled off a piece of the stretched marshmallow and handed the remaining half of the biscuit to Pang Pang. She laughed briefly before opening her mouth and taking it.

“Delicious.”

Pang Pang said with sparkling eyes.

She handed me another marshmallow and made another s’more with the one she roasted. While I was roasting mine, she took a bite first, then put the rest in my mouth. Hmm, tasting it again, it definitely had that “fattening” flavor.

Roasting things over the fire really gave me the feeling of being on a “camping” trip.

We didn’t just roast marshmallows. Since we had packed the car with all sorts of things when we decided to go camping, we had plenty of sausages, skewered meat, and other foods. We also had a grill, so we naturally cooked and ate lots of things on it.

Come to think of it, maybe we should have roasted the marshmallows last? That thought did cross my mind, but what could we do? We’d already eaten them all.

After eating heartily, we sat back down in our camping chairs.

They weren’t as comfortable as the sofa at home. But these folding chairs had their own charm.

I took out two small cans of coffee from the bag beside the chair.

“Want one?”

“Sure.”

As I handed one over, Pang Pang accepted it with a smile.

Pang Pang gets tipsy from canned coffee. On the other hand, if I drink canned coffee, I’ll probably stay wide awake for a while.

Coffee was perfect for both Pang Pang, who wanted to enjoy the atmosphere, and me, who wanted to gaze at the stars. Thinking about it, it seemed unfair yet perfectly matched to our personalities.

Well, even if one of us gets tipsy, at least one will definitely survive.

Normally, Pang Pang would gulp down canned coffee like beer, but now she was sipping it slowly like I was. Her gaze was fixed on the sunset slowly disappearing in the distance.

“…”

After quietly observing her for a moment, I asked.

“Is work difficult these days?”

“Huh?”

Pang Pang turned to me with a slightly surprised expression.

“Oh, no, not really.”

“It’s written all over your face, you know.”

I said, sipping my coffee.

“I probably can’t help much, but I can listen if you want to talk.”

I’m not sure how helpful it is to just listen without being able to help.

But from the moment I decided to be in this kind of relationship, I didn’t want to leave Pang Pang alone. After all, she took over the company partly because of the aftermath of what I did.

Pang Pang paused for a moment, then sighed lightly.

“Well, I do have a lot to learn. But I’m really okay. The company work isn’t extremely busy. It’s just that I’ve hardly ever had to learn anything before.”

“Really?”

When I narrowed my eyes at her, Pang Pang burst out laughing as if in disbelief.

“Really, really. If I were truly struggling with busyness, I wouldn’t be able to come see you every day. Being a corporate owner is actually a position that seems busy but isn’t.”

I’m not sure if that’s really true of such positions, but it was true that Pang Pang always came to see me. Just like how the others were always by my side.

“I was able to take a vacation like this too. And I’ve spun off various businesses to make them independent, so the scale is smaller than before. I want to focus a bit more on the space industry.”

“Well, then…”

Pang Pang’s expression as she said this was so gentle that she seemed sincere.

We paused our conversation and looked up at the sky.

The sun had descended further, and now the sky was gradually turning blue.

Hmm.

As I quietly gazed up at the sky, I began to understand why Pang Pang hadn’t said anything.

Rather than being tired or exhausted, sometimes it’s just more comfortable to sit in silence without saying anything.

Sometimes, such silence becomes an opportunity to approach each other more honestly.

Pang Pang suddenly took off her left glove and reached her hand toward me. I smiled and took off my glove before holding her hand.

Her slightly cold hand gradually warmed up as I held it. That was good for me too. It meant we could spend this winter night warmly.

The sky was quite dry, but for people like us who came to see the stars, there couldn’t be a better sky.

Twinkle.

After the sky had turned almost black, a star in the distance twinkled and peeked out.

The more we gazed, the more faint stars began to appear one by one in the darkening night sky.

The campsite, as if aware that people had come to see the stars, had dimmed all but the essential lighting—the lights guiding the paths.

It seemed like stars might pour down from the sky. This was probably the widest and brightest sea of stars I had ever seen in my life.

Well, strictly speaking, I had seen stars from outer space, but that’s a different kind of appreciation.

“…Beautiful.”

I murmured.

“Yes.”

Pang Pang replied.

The stars moved slowly. Following the rotation of the sky, they marched slowly in one direction. So slowly that we who were watching couldn’t notice.

We were marching together too. Quietly, in this flowing time.

As I was watching the stars that seemed about to pour down, almost forgetting to breathe, Pang Pang’s hand tightened slightly.

Was it because she remembered our promise? Without even thinking about the coffee that was probably half finished, Pang Pang—

Pang Pang was looking at me. Since when?

“…”

I looked back at her.

The starlight wasn’t bright enough to reach us here. What illuminated Pang Pang’s face were the other light sources around us. Light sources dimmed to better see the stars.

Was it one of those light sources that made her eyes sparkle like that?

Logically speaking, yes, but I decided to believe that Pang Pang’s eyes were simply that bright.

Eyes that always looked toward hope, shining eyes.

Under the pouring stars, we gazed at each other for a long, long time, holding hands.

The two stars shining in the darkness were more beautiful than the pouring starlight.