Atami's Heat, Atami's Sea (Short Story)

Read the rating warning: Minors please read with the consent of the guardian.

The heat of Atami, the sea of Atami

Author: Jinly

Waking up from a deep sleep, I again forgot where I was. It's been so often lately that it took me a few minutes to open my eyes to find myself asleep in the bathroom, at the office, on the train, at an izakaya. Sometimes I slept for a few minutes, sometimes for hours.

This time I saw an unfamiliar square lamp on the ceiling, the floor-to-ceiling window on the right, my fingers touched the cloth strips on the edge of the tatami, and the sound of the waves echoed in my ears... I finally remembered that I took the Shinkansen to the hot spring hotel in Atami this morning.

"Has Yeko ever been to Atami? The hot springs in Atami are great, and I can reset in Atami every time I'm not in a good state." The mother-san of the izakaya I frequented suggested that I go to her favorite hot spring hotel, I think Well, I'm someone who doesn't mind experimenting with other people's preferences.

The hotel offers breakfast and dinner, but it's past dinner time.

Go straight to the soup.

After changing into the yukata and walking out of the room, the sound of the lock was synchronized with the room next to him.

I looked up, and he suddenly took a big step towards me.

"What a coincidence! We came on the same shinkansen!"

Because of our height difference, he put his hands on his knees and half bent over to talk to me.

On the shinkansen from Tokyo, I had a young couple in the back seat, a guy who looked like the lead singer of a band I liked in college. Along the way, the boy was overexcited, like a primary school student taking the Shinkansen on a school trip for the first time. His girlfriend leaned back in her seat with her blindfold on, ignoring his childish remarks.

After getting off the bus, I took the hotel's escort bus directly. They may be sightseeing in the city of Atami and did not get on the bus. Unexpectedly, the room was arranged next door.

"Well, it's a coincidence. Are you going to the soup too? Where's your girlfriend?"

"Ah. She left in the evening. She said we were done."

Although he asked his girlfriend, it was just polite. I don't want to care about other people's private affairs. But he has a look that wants me to ask, I don't think it's a problem, the big deal is that he is told for two minutes, and the men and women are separated.

"What's the matter?"

I asked the question mechanically, and pressed the elevator floor.

"When I arrived at the hotel, I found that I forgot to bring condoms. I hurried to the hotel store but it was out of stock, and the shuttle bus to the city was gone. I apologized to her and said that I would never do it tonight. She said that it was to commemorate the love. On the first anniversary, I worked hard, had full body hair removal, bought 10,000 yen of sexy underwear, and went on a diet for a week... But she just told me to buy condoms, and I would forget about it.”

"It may be inappropriate for me to say this. Your girlfriend is looking forward to tonight, so she will be disappointed. But if you don't agree with the breakup, you should be able to save it."

The elevator stopped on the fifteenth floor. I thought I was going to the baths soon, but the sign indicated that I had to go down a long viewing corridor.

It was still raining outside the window, and it was pitch black and nothing could be seen.

"If it's the first time, it may be successful. Every time she asks me to bring something, I forget it. The charger, the earphone, the drink... She seems to be very unacceptable for others to lose things, but I have a very strong personality. "

"Oh...you don't write a hand account? Or write it down in a mobile phone memo."

"If you write it, you will forget it. It didn't save me."

"Then there is no way. There are people with good memories, and there are people with bad memories. The only way you can understand each other is to get along for a long time."

"I'll consider whether to ask her to get back together when I get back to Tokyo. I want to have a good bath in the past two days. After all, I worked part-time during the summer vacation and saved money for the hot spring hotel. It's a waste not to enjoy it."

"You're not a high school student, are you?"

"College student, majoring in economics. How about you?"

"Working in an elderly care center, responsible for logistics management. Don't go forward, the male soup is over there."

I pointed to the sign at the entrance to the baths.

This hot spring hotel is built on a cliff by the sea, and the hot spring pool faces Sagami Bay. Even on the fifteenth floor, the rhythm of the waves hitting the reef was clearly discernible. Listening to the sound of the waves, I let my body step into the water from bottom to top.

The hot springs in Atami are really hot. The feeling of burning all over the body could not be eliminated for a long time, and even the heart was heated through, thumping.

In the hustle and bustle, the women next to them were chatting and making fun of each other's naked bodies. Then, they talked about sex.

One of them said that he and her boyfriend broke up for half a month, and the other party suddenly came to the door and said that it doesn't matter if they don't get back together, whether they can be friends or not, urban life is too lonely.

Another person expressed her envy, because she had no window for a year, and could not wait to try to strike up a conversation at the hotel today.

I can't help but think of my last time, um, was it three years ago or four years ago? I was still in college at the time and had a lot of boyfriends. When I graduate, I want to play here, work hard when I become a social person, and break up with my boyfriend at the time.

The job search went smoothly, and I was accepted into a large-scale nursing center.

The grandmother, who lived alone under the care of my parents, was unable to take care of herself, so she was admitted to the nursing center where I am.

During that time, I watched my grandma gradually weaken, but we were very carefree together.

A year ago, my grandmother passed away.

I thought I had already prepared myself mentally, and said goodbye to my grandma calmly, just like sending away other deceased elderly people in the nursing center.

Strangely, after that I kept thinking about when I could die. Although I never thought about suicide, I felt like I could leave this world at any time.

A person who can die at any time is normal without sexual desire. I continue to work hard, travel alone when I have a vacation, spend all my savings, and treat each day as the last day of my life. But tomorrow always comes as scheduled. Day after day, it's so tiresome!

The chatting women left, and I sat quietly cross-legged in the hot water, looking at the sea meditatively.

The ships in the distance were lit with red signal lights and yellow-white lighting, as if they were still moving forward, and in my heart, I drew a route to the Atami city that had not yet been established.

Sitting on the edge of the hot spring pool, I folded my hands on the marble wall, my chin resting on the backs of my hands. The sky at night is gray, and the sea at night is black, with clear distinctions. The horizon line that could not be farther away was clearly visible, with one end connected to the flickering night view of Atami City, and one end connected to the red signal light of the ship.

The wind blew up and dispelled the water mist, as if the world had suddenly started. The sea is so black, I have never seen a blacker than it.

If I jumped down, I would fall into this water that was darker and darker than the abyss, and it was scarier than hell.

I won't jump. I think.

After the soup came out, the college boy in the room next to me was sitting on a bench in the hallway and checking his phone. I tried to pretend I didn't see him, but he saw me quickly and followed me.

"What's the view of the women's soup? This hot spring switches the men's soup and the women's soup every half day. I want to ask you about the situation on that half."

"Very good, facing the direction of the sunrise."

"That's worth getting up early! I'll exchange information with you, too. There is a three-tiered stair-like bath outside the men's bath, and the temperature on each floor is different. I can only soak in the top one. It's hot. Do you know the average temperature of the hot springs in Atami?"

"I don't understand."

"63 degrees Celsius. Ninety percent of Atami's hot springs are high-temperature hot springs."

"I see."

"The Izu Peninsula is very young, it has not been formed for a long time, and geological activities are still very frequent. Have you ever been to Toi Onsen? Toi Onsen is in the sea, you have to swim from the beach first, and you can feel that the sea is slowly getting warmer, almost there. I went there when I was a kid. Nature is amazing."

"Aren't you forgetful? You can remember so much."

"No matter how forgetful people are, they will remember some things, otherwise they will not be able to live normally."

At the door of the room, I inserted the key to open the door.

"Oops, I lost my keys. It should be in the bathroom locker."

The college boy turned around and ran away.

There was his mobile phone on the floor in front of the door. It was probably placed on the ground when he was looking for the key. He was in a hurry to find the key and forgot it. I sighed helplessly, and went over to help him move the phone closer to the door, so as not to be crushed by passers-by.

The screen suddenly lights up when moving the phone, uh, no password? Also, if the password is set, he can't open his mobile phone. On the lit screen, a picture appeared.

Nude photos.

Look again, it is the window of ios photo album. It seems that he was looking at his photo album just now, and when he saw me, he took his mobile phone and left with me without closing the photo album app.

After a quick analysis of the reason in my mind, I haven't calmed down yet, so I couldn't help but look at the photo.

It looks like it was taken in front of the full-length mirror in the living room. From the reflection of the mirror, the room is not very tidy, and the clutter is scattered everywhere in an orderly manner. He was holding a cell phone in both hands, and a sky blue bath towel was covering his head. The two ends of the towel hang down, one end falls on the shoulders, and the other end covers the left half of the body above the waist, leaving the other parts unobstructed.

No fat, but no abdominal muscles, thick thighs, but particularly slender calves. He may not be physically fit and usually likes sports like football.

With the mood of browsing a certain artist's photobook, I admired this photo until the screen went black, and I stood up and went back to my room contentedly.

After a few minutes, I heard the door next door open and closed, and I knew he had found the key and went back to the room.

But two minutes later he opened the door and closed it again. Definitely looking for a phone this time.

I couldn't help laughing, this college boy is kind of cute.

Sitting on the tatami and drinking a cup of tea, the heat accumulated in my body from the hot spring gradually dissipated. I pulled the quilt over myself, covered my legs, and turned on the TV with the remote.

I haven't watched TV for a long time, and I don't know what program I want to watch. I rotate the channels at will, and finally stopped on the screen of the music scene and put down the remote control.

Hey? Isn't the boy band I liked very much in college playing? The band members have matured a lot over the years.

They weren't really a strong group at the time, I just liked their youthful energy and nothing seemed to be holding them back. I stopped following them after graduation, but I have also seen news on the Internet about changes in team members, plummeting popularity, and shrinking performance venues.

I thought they broke up just like that. Now back on the popular music show, the ability to sing and play has also improved a lot.

On the Shinkansen, I thought that the boy was very similar to the lead singer of the band, but when I looked again, I found that they were not. Apart from the fact that they are both young, they have nothing in common. Why do my first impressions think they are very similar?

The performance groups on the TV changed from one group to another. My thoughts were still on the band and the boy next door. The warm feeling spread from my heart to my limbs, and my face that was exposed outside the quilt became hot.

When I woke up the next morning, I missed the hotel's breakfast time again. After packing my backpack, I got into the car in Atami city. Today I plan to take a walk in the Ginza shopping street and the seaside in Atami.

The streets of Atami City are on the hillside. From the station to the Ginza shopping street, you have to go through a series of stone steps. On some steps, you can see the sea in the lower part, so I just sat on the steps for a while and stared at the sea in a daze. The steam of the hot spring wastewater came out from the sewer mouth beside me, and the people and hot spring facilities in front of me were also full of white smoke. The whole city of Atami was hot. Looking at the sea in the heat, the fatigue quickly disappeared, and I stood up and continued the journey.

The Ginza shopping street is similar to a normal Japanese shopping street, but you can eat Atami's specialty pudding here. There is also a citrus vending machine on the street corner, and you can buy a large bag of citrus for 200 yen.

Atami City has a warm climate and is a high-quality citrus-producing area.

But I was too lazy to travel with a bag of citrus, so I only bought a cup of pudding, which is really delicious. At the end of the shopping street, pass the signal light and you will reach the beach.

I was walking along the beach, and soon I came to the legendary "Domestic Violence Propaganda Sculpture" - a man kicked a woman on the body, and the woman lay on the ground crying.

Kidding. Not like that. This is the scene of lovers parting in the novel "Golden Yasha" set in Atami City, not the man committing violence.

Because there are too many people misunderstanding, Atami City has set up a special notice board.

I haven't read "Golden Yaksha", and I can't help but imagine how earth-shattering the love between these lovers will be and how tragic the separation will be?

I've never been in an intense relationship, it mostly starts and ends flat, and the only thing that makes me feel intense is sex.

Although I don’t fall in love for sex, I have to say that it’s easier for me to decide to fall in love when I need sex, just like it’s easier to go to a roadside restaurant when I want to eat.

In college, I also tried to find someone who just wanted to sleep with me, to no avail. Because I am not sexually attractive, and I like young and good-looking boys, I have to spend some time and energy on attacking them, but without exception, I became the object of love.

Take the male college student who lives in the next room. If I go and tell him, do you want to sleep with me? He will absolutely refuse. I am fairly confident in this judgment.

To have sex with him, you must first find a way to make him interested in me. In that case, you must fall in love with him.

I'm not in the mood for love right now.

Alas, forget it, if I really want to do it, but I'm too lazy to fall in love, I'll just spend money on sex when I go back to Tokyo, and find the youngest and most handsome one, anyway, I don't have any other place to spend money. Thinking of this, I felt a little more relaxed, and carefully observed the sculpture of "Golden Yaksha".

For lunch, I found a fisherman's restaurant in the Ginza shopping street. I ordered tuna sashimi for 2,000 yen, and ordered rice and clam miso soup. After eating, I was shocked by the amount of food I had today.

Back to the hotel by car, I slept groggyly in the room until the evening, and finally did not miss the meeting time this time.

"What a coincidence! Going to dinner?"

As soon as I opened the door, the college boys just went out and greeted me loudly.

"Um."

I nodded and walked to the elevator, he was a step or so away from me as he did last night.

"Did you not go to the soup in the morning? I did! Unfortunately, there is no sunrise, it is cloudy today."

"I went straight to Atami City."

"Oh, so have you seen that domestic violence sculpture? Hahahahaha, that's not actually domestic violence, it's the scene of "Golden Yaksha". I almost died of laughter when I saw the introduction."

"Hmm. I see."

"Where's the citrus vending machine in the shopping street? I bought a bag and finished it on the way back."

"did not buy."

He seemed completely unaware of my nonchalant response, still chattering.

The waiter in the restaurant brought me in, he followed me, and finally sat down opposite the chair that the waiter pulled out for me, and put his meal ticket on the table.

The waiter looked at our meal coupons carefully and took notes.

The boy across from me also leaned over to look at my meal coupon, and after the waiter left, he spoke to me again.

"So your name is YO-KO, Yang of the Sun?"

"The night of the night. The night child. Most people can't guess."

He picked up his meal coupon and held it up in front of me.

"My name is AKIRA. Guess what the Chinese characters are?"

"Sunday's Day."

"Eh—you're good at guessing."

"Hmm. My intuition is very strong."

It's served soon.

A boy named Yao talks while eating high-quality sizzling beef.

"My ex-girlfriend is the president of our university's student apprentice association. I don't quite understand why she sees me. I think she is very good and beautiful, and I agree to date her. However, before the date, she clearly said that I am fine, That's fine. After dating, I'm not good either. Not only is my life habits unsatisfactory to her, but she also thinks that I lack self-motivation, and my future after graduation is worrisome. I'm only in my second year of college this year. It’s too late to think about getting a job in your third year! When did you start thinking about graduation?”

"When I was in my fourth year of college, when I was writing my graduation thesis."

"Let me just say, I just got into college, so what if I don't have a good experience of college life! I didn't listen to her, but I joined several clubs that I like, football, drama, and volunteer groups. What club did you belong to when you were in college? "

"The cheerleader for the baseball team."

"You like dancing!"

"I don't like it, because there are many handsome guys in the baseball team, and the cheerleaders have a better chance of falling in love with them."

"Did you make it?"

"I had three boyfriends on the baseball team, and they were all popular players."

"Amazing~ Besides the baseball team, do you have any other boyfriends?"

"Once I was eyeing the drummer of our school's rock band. I accompanied him to dozens of music festivals, but I changed my plan in the middle and went after the keyboard player of another band. His hands are very good-looking, and I saw him play the keyboard. time to get hooked.”

"Wow, the execution is very strong."

"The last boyfriend in college was an art and design student, a taciturn boy known as the Prince of Icebergs."

"How did you get it?"

"Bribed a friend from the art department to be a nude model for half a semester. When everyone was painting, I looked him in the eye, and no matter how many times he looked away, I kept looking at him."

"It's useful, I can imagine that he will be moved."

"This boyfriend needs a lot of energy to maintain relationships. After graduation, I wanted to become a good social person, so I broke up with him. I haven't had a boyfriend after graduation. I want to use it to accompany my family.”

"I see... Entering society is such a hard thing... I really don't want to graduate!"

The music in the restaurant stopped, and a man dressed as a waiter walked up to the stage and picked up the microphone.

"Thank you for staying in our hotel. All our staff are committed to creating good memories for our distinguished guests. There are also guests who celebrate their anniversaries and birthdays here today. Let us congratulate them together! Please see table number five, love for a week today Years, Mr. AKIRA and Miss YO-KO!"

What?

"Ah, I forgot to ask them to cancel!"

Yao looked apologetic and cast a coquettish look.

The people around applauded enthusiastically. The waiter in charge of our table carried the cake, walked slowly to our table from the entrance of the restaurant, and put down the cake.

There was thunderous applause until the host announced the next birthday guest.

"Then, eat cake?"

Yao hesitated to pick up the plastic knife and asked for my opinion.

"Okay," I said.

Yao saw that I agreed to eat the cake, and instantly regained my ease and vitality, humming a song and cut the cake for me.

After dinner, Yao and I left the restaurant. Along the way, there were guests and staff who didn't know the truth and said "congratulations" to us. I was silent, and Yao happily thanked them and gave them high fives.

It doesn't matter, we all meet by chance, who would be unhappy to see others falling in love? I will treat myself as a model, and everyone will smile.

When I pushed open the door of the room, Yao turned his head and said to me seriously, "Yoko, what do you think of me? Is it your type?"

The answer is yes, yes, no?

In a few seconds, my thoughts have run countless circles in my mind.

In the end I said, "If I just want to be with you, and I don't want to be in a relationship with you, can you accept it? It's fine for me to pay you."

Yao looked at me in astonishment, opened his mouth several times without saying a word in response.

"I'm joking." I entered the room and locked the door.

After watching TV for a while, the throbbing couldn't stop. I sighed, changed into a bathrobe, and went to the first floor to take a bath.

The hot spring pool on the first floor is less than five meters from the sea, and the tide is close at hand. I sat in the hot spring with my back against the stone wall, my shoulders and neck being blown by the cold sea breeze. His body trembled slightly, whether it was because of the cold or the heat.

After the body immersed in the water did not feel the temperature difference, the body blown by the sea breeze gradually did not feel cold, and the heat circulated throughout the body, and I became a part of the hot spring.

Walking out of the hot spring, I quickly put on my yukata and went back to my room before the heat dissipated.

The translucent curtains of the floor-to-ceiling windows were opened, and the night view of Atami City opposite was beautiful. The twinkling lights climbed up the mountainside in layers. Occasionally a light chain moving at a constant speed, perhaps a tram passing by.

Below the window is the sea. The waves crashed on the reef and receded, and the rhythm of the tidal sound was sometimes intense and sometimes calm.

I imagined myself as that rock, and imagined the sea water stroking and pounding against my body.

The imaginary climax was about to come, interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yoko, are you still in the room? I'm Yao. I've thought about what you said, and I think it's better to take it step by step. Let's exchange lines first, okay? Open the door!"

Then there was a quick knock on the door, thump, thump, thump, thump...

I was about to stand up and open the door, but the orgasm rushed out of my fantasy world by surprise; as if someone had kicked me, the intense pleasure knocked my whole body to the ground. I hugged my knees tightly, curled up, trying with all my strength to break free.

dying. I feel like dying.

After that, every inch of skin on my body had a clear sense of touch. Not only did I come to life, but everything around me seemed to have life, chirping and wanting to make my own voice.

It turns out that the feeling of wanting to die is the feeling of wanting to live.

I started sobbing endlessly.

I don't know when Yao stopped knocking on the door, and I don't know how long it took for me to regain my normal breathing. I didn't go to Yao, I fell asleep watching the music program alone in the room.

Check out this morning, I rarely wake up early. The sky was twilight outside the window. Going to take a dip before checking out? Maybe see the sunrise.

The open-air bath on the fifteenth floor has the men's and women's soups reversed.

After waiting for the sun for a long time, thick clouds, the outline of the sun is difficult to distinguish, but the sun can be seen there, behind the clouds. The horizon line was glowing, a faint orange-red.

I soaked in the soup for too long, felt stuffy and wrinkled the skin of my fingers, so I decided to go back to my room. In the final rinse, I thought it was okay not to wait until the moment of sunrise, because the sun was still there, rising or setting, regardless of my gaze.

I did come alive. It feels good to be alive.

When returning to the room, Yao's room door was open, and the staff was cleaning. It appears he has already checked out.

I packed up and checked out, took the bus to Atami Station, strolled through the shopping street in front of the station, bought a few boxes of Atami Onsen Manju as a souvenir, and entered the station to board the Shinkansen "Kotama" back to Tokyo.

Along the way, I looked at the scenery outside the window, the buildings where people lived, the sturdy wild grasses and trees, and I still couldn't stop the urge to cry.

Atami, I will go again.

Until then, let's go to Yaojun's university too.

END

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