With a smile, she heads for the bench as Isamu heads towards the vending machine.

...........................................................................................

“Here you go. Hopefully, Gogo no Kocha isn't something you can't consume or are allergic to, because that would mean I've wasted 100 yen for nothing."

“No, it's fine. But why did you get coffee? It's not that cold yet."

Sipping from his can of coffee, Isamu says, “Oh, there's no reason behind that. I just went with what was next to that flavour. I don't particularly dislike coffee in the first place either."

Seeing no response from her, Isamu takes a seat on the other side of the bench and faces forward towards the wet motionless swing which was on the other side of the park playground. As they sit on the bench enjoying their drinks, an autumn breeze blows across the park reminding Isamu of the moment he realized the silhouette was a person, not his imagination; he sips on his coffee with an amused look on his face.

“Why are you grinning all of a sudden?" the girl asks him, looking to her left. "This guy's starting to confuse me. Why's he grinning all of a sudden?"

Without answering her question, Isamu, still grinning, says, “I just remembered that I was so focused on finding out who or what the silhouette was that I didn't notice the children running around. Thank goodness I didn't ram any one of them." Then, suddenly gathering his composure, he turns his head towards her and asks her in an imposing voice, “Are you ready to tell me yet?"

Taken slightly aback by the quick change in his attitude, the girl, regaining her poise quickly as well, says, "Uhm. Yeah. We'll start with why I started to come here. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure."

"Well, the reason isn't as much of a big deal. I write novels and I come here to refresh myself because it helps me unclutter my thoughts. The day the new fountain was inaugurated, I was just walking around before going home when I noticed the water spilling out and hitting the bricks around the fountain fence.

To my surprise, I smelt petrichor. I love petrichor. And I wasn't going to miss out on a golden chance to enjoy it offseason like this. So, I started coming here more often. But from the start, I noticed a strange figure always appearing at the park entrance. What I thought at first was that the person in the silhouette was either stalking me or was psychologically impaired. But appearing on more than one occasion perfectly timed with me being here convinced me that he was definitely stalking me. I wanted to just report it to the police at first. But then again, I'm glad I didn't do that right away."

She smiles at Isamu. "You'd be in a lot of trouble then, wouldn't you?"

Isamu smiles and answers, "Thanks for waiting to make sure. But I've got a couple of questions."

"Go ahead." She sips from her can.

"Why sit on the swing? You could've just walked around the fountain or stood near the edge of it to enjoy the petrichor, right?"

"I tried because I didn't like getting sprinkled with water. But apparently, the breeze keeps blowing in that direction in fall and it carried it along. So I didn't get it while standing on the other sides. I actually wear a water-proof long jacket over my dress to avoid the water."

"And why didn't you ever swing on that swing?"

"That's a no-brainer. If I continuously keep swinging, how will I smell the petrichor?"

"Where is that jacket now?"

Pulling out a dark bluish jacket from her right, she waves it in the air and says, "Here it is. Now, there aren't any more questions, are there, 'Curious'-san?"

Letting out a chuckle as she calls him that, Isamu stands up and gestures to her to give him her empty can and says, "Alright then, I'm going to head home now. It's getting dark, so you should too. Is your home near here? Should I walk you?"

As she hands him the can, she also stands up and says, "No, I'm fine. My house is about 5 minutes' walk eastward from here."

"Well, that's the opposite way from mine," Isamu says as they both reach the park gate, " I can't say that this has been an absolute pleasure, but it was nice to meet you. Maybe I'll come and enjoy some artificial petrichor sometime if I feel like it."

Laughing, she says, "Yeah, do so. But- uhm... I can't keep calling you silhouette-san or curious-san."

"Oh, my name is Matsumoto Isamu. Nice to have made your acquaintance."

"Same here. I'm Arai Akira."

"Arai? Are your parents the famous businessman couple?"

"Yeah." "He's going to start going on about how great they are, isn't he? Just like all those people. Always fawning over my parents' money!"

"Well, why you're a novelist is probably going to have to be a conversation for another day."

"Yeah. If we get to talk again..." "What? Nothing? Hmm... he might be an interesting case study after all..."

"Doesn't that sound like I'm only going to know more about you for no reason?"

"Well, you said you wanted you to know, right?"

"What kind of idiot gives away personal information to a stranger?"

"You've called me an idiot multiple times until now, Matsumoto-kun. I'll have you know that I know what I'm doing. Talking to you more is a great help to understanding a very important character in the new series I'm prepping for now."

"I don't think I'm going to apologize for that. Plus, you've called be a 'stalker' more times!" Isamu says with a smile," Alright, Arai-san, I'll take my leave now. Get home safe."

As they begin walking away in opposite directions, Isamu instantly puts in his earphones and pulls out his phone from his pocket. With his curiosity now sated, Isamu's expression now changes to a tensed one.

"Back to normal again, huh?" Isamu says as the two walk away from the park that had made their days eventful for days.