I drove dreamily through the streets of Osaka towards the beach. I hadn't been there for years, although the summers are always nice and warm here. Kazuha had always drawn my attention to it, too, but I always had too much to do. At least that was my excuse most of the time. And again I realized how stupid I was. I should have enjoyed the time with her. Now it could be over forever. I didn't even know how good it was. I fucking idiot! Lost in thought, I almost didn't notice that a traffic light had switched to red and made my brakes and tires squeal. The driver who wanted to turn right in my direction in his Audi A4 looked at me suspiciously and said in an angry tone:
"Where are your eyes? If you want to dream, keep your hands off the wheel."
I wasn't really aware of this abuse. When the light turned green, I was torn from my sad thoughts and drove on towards the beach.A little distraction sure isn't bad.
When I got to the beach, I parked my motorcycle near the snack bar, which, as always, was overcrowded with European tourists, and trudged across the warm sand in my sneakers. Today wasn't that busy, which was probably because it was Friday and most of the people still had to work. There were a few older couples with their disgusts who were totally overwhelmed and tried to follow their very active disgusts. A little further on I met 2 younger couples who didn't even notice anything else around them because they were too busy with themselves. I briefly overheard a conversation from a couple, which I immediately regretted, as they had to confess their love to each other every 2 minutes and repeatedly emphasized that they could no longer live without the other. I bet in 2 months they won't be able to smell each other and will just argue. I can't hear such smacking in films like this.When you are with someone, it is clear that you love them and it is enough once you have told them that. Sighing, I went on, hoping that at some point I would not see a soul anymore and would just be alone. But since this would never happen on Osaka Beach, I decided to sit down in a quieter corner, close my eyes and enjoy the warm weather. I hadn't even closed my eyes when the image of Kazuha entered my mind again. I widened my eyes, shook my head briefly, and tried to calm down. I closed my eyes again and had a short break before thinking about my best friend again. What's going to happen to her? She won't die after all. The injuries weren't that bad. I tried to convince myself of courage and hope, which I found difficult. A tear rolled down my left cheek that I couldn't suppress.I already missed her. I missed her voice, which seemed very strange to me, because I was always grateful when she was silent for a minute. But now ... If she would just lie next to me and tell me something, be it something about her shopping trip or gossip, yes, it could even be criticism of me. She could yell at me and get on my nerves. That wouldn't matter. I just wanted to hear her voice. Another tear came from my left eye, but I let it run down my cheek in the sand. Kazuha….
"Hey Hattori, what are you doing here?"
Startled, I sat up, wiped the tears from my face and looked up. A crowd gathered around me and greeted me.
"Oh, it's you. Man, you scared me."
A few people in my class laughed briefly and I got up.
"You probably wanted to take a break from the stress in the police headquarters, weren't you?" Said Kenji, a classmate of mine and actually a good friend."You know I'm not with my dad all day. I have more important things to do," I replied, slightly sarcastic.
"It's cool. There we are exactly 6 people and we can play beach volleyball perfectly. Do you feel like it, Heiji?", Miyano asked. She was one of the best athletes at the school and has participated in some state championships. I just nodded silently and found that there was no better distraction.