"You can open your eyes now."
Dad's voice came from right beside me.
The moment I opened my eyes as told, the sky came tumbling down.
Looking up, countless stars hung suspended—so many that the mere thought of counting them vanished. Not just directly overhead, either. Whether I turned to the right or to the left, light filled my vision all the way to the edges.
Beside large, brilliant white stars were tiny bluish specks of light, and farther off in the distance, faint stars gathered into a pale ribbon crossing the night sky.
Though they weren't flowers, I thought of them as being in full bloom.
It stretched wider than the highland flower fields we had seen earlier that day, going on endlessly. Countless lights welling up from the depths of the night covered the sky entirely. As my eyes adjusted, tiny stars that had been invisible moments before emerged one after another from the dark, filling every remaining gap between the points of light.
Beneath my back, the ground still held a faint trace of the day's warmth. The soft grass brushed against the nape of my neck, and each time I shifted, the scent of dry soil and fresh greenery rose into the air. Layered over the chirping of insects drifting from the nearby woods, the whisper of the breeze sweeping across the meadow made it feel as though the entire night were quietly breathing.
"Amazing, isn't it?"
Dad's voice from beside me felt miraculously close beneath the vastness of the sky.
"Yeah."
"Is that all?"
"I mean, it's so amazing that I don't know what else to say."
"Dad thought the exact same thing the first time I saw it. When people see something truly incredible, they suddenly run out of words."
"You're still talking a lot, though, Dad."
"Today is special. I've been looking forward to telling Naoki about the stars for a long time."
With that, Dad reached his right arm toward the sky. I was only in third grade back then; I tried to follow his fingertips, but there were so many stars that I couldn't tell which light he meant.
"First, try to find the brightest star among the three."
"What three?"
"The Summer Triangle. Look straight ahead, right where my finger is pointing. See that star glowing a little bluish-white compared to the ones around it?"
Dad pointed at a spot in the night sky from an angle aligned with my line of sight.
I strained my eyes as told. Following Dad's fingertip, a single star that had blended into the sea of lights began to stand out sharper and brighter than the rest.
"...That one?"
"That's it. Vega. It's in the constellation Lyra—the Weaver Girl star for Tanabata."
"Then where's the Cowherd star?"
"On the other side of the Milky Way. That one's Altair. In the constellation Aquila—the Cowherd star for Tanabata."
Dad's finger shifted across the pale drift of the Milky Way toward another light. Then he swept his arm wider, pointing to a third star shining within the white ribbon.
"And the last one is Deneb. Connect those three, and you get the Summer Triangle."
I retraced the path Dad's finger had drawn with just my eyes. There weren't supposed to be lines connecting the stars, but once I knew the shape, a massive triangle seemed to float right into view against the vast sky.
"It really made a triangle."
"Right? Just by remembering a single shape, you can find stars that used to look totally scattered."
"You talk even more when it comes to the stars, Dad."
"Well, I'm sharing something I love with Naoki, so I can't help it."
Dad's voice carried a little more bounce than usual.
Just a short while earlier, Mom and Koharu had been walking along the dark path with us. But Koharu, who was only in second grade, couldn't fight off the cold and sleepiness halfway through, so she went back to the inn with Mom.
Even after seeing them off, Dad had urged me on, saying, "Let's go just a little farther." When we finally reached a clearing where the woods ended, he told me to close my eyes. Relying solely on Dad's hand, I walked deeper into the meadow. The hard-packed dirt underfoot gave way to soft grass, and when I lay down on my back as instructed, Dad stretched out right beside me.
"We should've let Koharu see it from here, too."
"She was already at her limit. Looked like she was about to fall asleep on her feet."
"True. Wonder if we can see it tomorrow, too."
"If it clears up. But the clouds might roll in."
"So we can only see it right now?"
"We might only ever get to see this exact sky right now."
Dad said it casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
A wispy cloud drifted on the wind, slowly passing between the stars. The lights vanished behind it for a moment, but once the cloud drifted away, they reappeared as though nothing had happened.
Turning my head toward the inn, I could see the building's lights floating faintly at the edge of the meadow. Mom and Koharu were in there. Even though we were only a short distance away, beneath this vast night, it looked like a lighthouse marking the place we had to return to.
"Dad."
"What is it?"
"Do you think those people from earlier were able to leave?"
On our way here, a car had been stopped on the shoulder of the mountain road. The hood had been propped open, with a young married couple standing beside it looking helpless, while in the back seat, a boy around our age anxiously stared at his parents' backs.
Dad had pulled over immediately.
He asked what was wrong and checked under the hood, but he didn't mess with anything carelessly. He called our inn to ask for a nearby repair shop and waited with the family until help arrived.
"They should be fine. Someone from the inn came to pick them up, and they said the mechanic would look at the car tomorrow."
"Dad, you didn't know how to fix cars, so why did you stop?"
"Because they looked like they were in trouble."
"Even though they were strangers?"
"Even strangers run into trouble. If I saw that and just drove past, I'd probably spend all of dinner worrying about it."
"Not because you wanted to help them, but because you'd worry?"
"Pretty much the same thing. You don't need some noble reason."
Saying that, Dad took off the thin jacket he was wearing and rolled it up. When I lifted my head slightly, he slid it beneath my neck like a pillow.
"Aren't you cold, Dad?"
"I'm fine with just this. You just stay lying down, Naoki."
Dad brushed off the blades of grass caught in my hair with his fingers, then gave my head a gentle pat. His large hand held a warmth that felt as though the daytime sun still lingered within it.
"Dad, did you save those people?"
"It wasn't just me. I made the call and waited with them until someone came, but the mechanic is the one fixing the car, and the inn staff brought the family back, right?"
"So everyone helped together?"
"That's right."
Dad looked back up at the sky.
Across the Milky Way, Vega and Altair faced each other, forming a great triangle alongside Deneb nestled inside the pale band. Now that Dad had taught me, I could pick them out effortlessly, even among the sea of countless stars.
"So when you help someone, you don't have to do it all by yourself."
"Exactly. No matter how bright a single star is, it can't draw that triangle on its own. People are the same way. When there's something you can't do alone, you just have to rely on someone who can."
"You just said something really cool."
"Right? Looking at the sky just brought it to mind."
"You look pretty proud of yourself."
"It was a good line, wasn't it?"
Dad chuckled with satisfaction. Overlapping with his laughter, the wind brushing across the meadow faintly fluttered the edge of the jacket under my neck.
"Besides, you brought juice to the kid in the car, didn't you, Naoki?"
"He kept saying he was thirsty."
"You were the only one who noticed that, Naoki."
Pleased by the praise, I kept my face turned toward the sky as the corners of my mouth curled into a faint smile.
"I think I might want to become like you, Dad."
"Like me?"
"I want to help people in trouble, just like you."
Dad didn't answer right away, simply gazing up at the sky just like I was. After a moment, he spoke in a voice that sounded genuinely pleased.
"Naoki, you're fine just the way you are. You're already plenty kind."
Dad paused for a beat, turning his eyes toward the lights of the inn beyond the meadow.
"Just remember: whenever you reach out a hand to someone, make sure someone else is holding your other hand."
"Holding my other hand?"
"So that when you realize it's too much to carry alone, you can ask for help."
"You too, Dad?"
"Of course."
Still gazing at the lights of the inn, Dad continued in a gentle voice.
"And once you've helped them, you come back home and say, 'I'm home.' Only when you've done that is it finally finished."
"Because Mom and the others are waiting?"
"Because Mom, Koharu, and Naoki are waiting."
"But I'm right here with you, Dad."
"Then the two of us will have to head back together today."
Dad stood up, brushed the grass off his pants, and held out his hand to me.
Just as I reached to take it, I looked back at the sky.
"Are we leaving already?"
"Koharu might be awake and waiting."
"I want to watch a little longer."
"You won't be able to get up tomorrow."
"Just a little more. Please?"
Dad lowered his brows with a troubled look, but he pulled back his hand and lay back down beside me.
"All right, we'll head back once I count to a hundred."
"Count slowly, okay?"
"Fine, deal. Oooone... twoooo..."
"That's way too slow."
"Then I'll count fast."
"...Actually, that pace is fine."
"Man, you're picky."
Though he sounded exasperated, Dad was smiling.
"Next year, we'll have to bring Koharu all the way out here, too."
"I wonder if Koharu can stay awake."
"She'll be a little bigger next year."
"Will you teach me about the stars next year, too, Dad?"
"Of course. There's no way I can teach you everything in just one night."
"Then teach me a whole lot more."
"Yeah, leave it to me."
Dad laughed out loud, and then, leaving unnaturally long pauses between each one, he resumed his count.
Eventually, the space between the numbers Dad spoke began to melt into the chirping of insects and the whisper of the wind. The grass against my back and the softness of the jacket under my neck blurred, until I could no longer tell whether I was lying in a meadow or floating among the stars.
Even so, I still knew Dad was right beside me.
Listening to his voice, I stared up at the sky, reluctant even to blink.
The brightness of the stars, their colors, the shape of the Milky Way, the chill of the night wind, and the sound of my dad's voice beside me—I wanted to remember it all, exactly as it was.
Back then, I truly believed I would see it again next year.
Even if it wasn't the same place, I thought that as long as Dad was there, I would see the rest of this sky someday.
—That was the summer of the year my father passed away.
◇◇◇
The sound of rain quietly washed away Dad's voice, which had never reached a hundred.
It wasn't the wind sweeping across a meadow. It was the sound of the rain outside right now, tapping lightly against the windowpane and streaming endlessly from the roof into the gutter.
I slowly opened my eyes.
The familiar ceiling gradually came into focus, replacing the sky full of stars. The softness of the rolled-up jacket under my neck in the dream, the scent of the grass, and Dad's voice teaching me the stars one by one were still so vivid that they felt within reach if I just stretched out a hand.
Amidst that lingering sensation, I noticed a figure at the edge of my sight.
Koharu was sitting in the chair beside the bed. The moment our eyes met, she slipped a bookmark into the book open on her lap.
"Onii-chan, are you awake?"
"...Yeah."
My voice came out hoarse, but breathing felt easier than before I fell asleep. A feverish heaviness lingered in my head, and a dull languor clung to my body.
Relieved by Koharu's presence, I glanced around the room. The heartbeat that had been against my ear right until I drifted off and the warmth of the arm supporting my back were nowhere to be found.
Mikage-san was no longer here.
I knew she couldn't stay forever. Even so, seeing that she was gone left a small hollow in my chest.
"Do you feel sick? Is it hard to breathe?"
"I'm fine there....My head just feels a little heavy."
"What about your throat?"
"It's dry."
"Drink some water first, then."
Koharu picked up the glass by the pillow and handed it to me. As I began to push myself up, her hand immediately moved to support my back.
"Don't get up so fast. You still have a fever."
"You don't have to fuss over me that much, I'm okay."
"Just let me."
As urged, I took slow sips of the water. As the cold liquid traveled down my parched throat and settled deep in my chest, the fog lingering in my head cleared slightly.
When I handed the glass back, she held out the thermometer.
"Let's check it again."
"What time is it?"
"A little past ten. You've been out for about five hours since evening. I checked your temperature a few times and you barely stirred, so I was really worried."
"Five whole hours, huh..."
Only after she said it did I realize it was pitch-black outside the window.
I tucked the thermometer under my left arm and waited for the electronic beep. Eventually, Koharu checked the display and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Thirty-seven point five. It went down."
"I heard it was over thirty-eight, so I guess that's—"
"It's still high."
Before I could finish, Koharu cut in.
"You were coughing, too, weren't you? If Mikage-senpai hadn't been there, were you planning on coming home alone in that downpour?"
"...Probably, yeah."
"Walking in the rain with a fever—if you slipped and fell, it'd mess up the burn on your right shoulder, too. You're not okay at all."
"...Sorry for worrying you."
"You'd better be."
Koharu let out a small breath and set the thermometer back on the desk. Following her hands with my eyes, I noticed the setup around me had changed since before I fell asleep.
The water and thermometer were neatly placed within reach of my left hand, and the pillow was propped slightly higher than usual. Beneath my right arm, a neatly folded towel was tucked in, supporting it so no weight rested on my injured shoulder.
It matched the feeling from my dream of Dad rolling up his jacket to cradle my neck.
"Did you do this, Koharu?"
"The towel and pillow were Mikage-senpai. It was already like that when I got home."
The moment I heard her name, the memories from before I drifted off snapped into focus.
Seeing the scar on my right shoulder had revealed that Mikage already knew I was the one who saved her from the fire. I had told her that I read the letter, and why I had kept quiet all this time.
And in the end, she had held me against her chest as I coughed. Feeling the heartbeat drumming against my ear and the warmth of the arm wrapped around my back, the tension had drained from my body, and my memories dissolved into sleep.
I wondered what Mikage did after I fell asleep.
"...Where's Mikage-san?"
"She went home. Mom drove her."
"I see."
She was gone. But knowing she hadn't walked home alone in that pouring rain brought an immediate wave of relief.
"Mom got back about an hour ago. She said she'd drive Mikage-senpai home and talk with her parents for a bit while she was there."
"About an hour ago...? Was Mikage-san here the whole time after I fell asleep?"
"She was. The whole time, even after I got back."
I looked at Koharu in surprise.
"She told me your fever was thirty-eight point two. You were coughing, too, so she asked me to make sure you drank water and took your temperature again when you woke up."
"...I see."
"I told her I'd stay by your side so it was okay, and I texted Mom just in case. Mikage-senpai seemed a little relieved after that, and she stayed and watched over you with me until Mom came home."
Gazing at the chair Koharu was sitting on, I pictured the scene from while I had been asleep.
Even after I nodded off, Mikage had stayed by my side with Koharu. Even after filling her in on my condition, she had sat in that very chair watching over me until Mom returned.
I looked down at the towel supporting my right arm. Though it was just an ordinary piece of cloth, it felt as though it held a piece of Mikage's time that I hadn't been awake to see.
"Still, it really caught me off guard."
"What did?"
"When I got home, Mikage-senpai was wearing Mom's tracksuit, standing right by your bed. She already turns heads at school, but seeing her inside our house made her look even prettier. For a second, I thought I walked into the wrong house."
"You're exaggerating."
"That's just how shocked I was."
Koharu puffed out her cheeks slightly before lowering her gaze to the towel beneath my right arm.
"Besides, Mikage-senpai was really worried about your right shoulder. Even when you moved just a little, she watched you closely to see if it hurt."
"...Yeah."
Koharu raised her eyes from the towel and looked at me squarely.
"...It was Mikage-senpai, wasn't it?"
"What was?"
"The person you saved in that fire, Onii-chan."
"...Yeah."
To me, the two had long since merged into a single person.
But in Koharu's mind, "the person my brother saved in the fire" and the Mikage she knew from school had existed separately until today.
"I had no idea Mikage-senpai was the person you saved until Mom told me."
"I told you before, didn't I? I didn't want to go into details until I told her myself."
"I know, but how was I supposed to guess it was Mikage-senpai?"
"...Fair point."
"Were you able to talk properly today?"
"I told her about the fire, and why I kept quiet."
"Was Mikage-senpai mad?"
"She wasn't mad."
"I see."
Koharu's expression softened.
She didn't pry any further. I felt a quiet sense of relief that I didn't have to clumsily summarize the words Mikage had chosen to share with me.
"Still, it's funny, isn't it?"
"What is?"
Koharu lowered her eyes for a moment as if searching for words, then looked back up.
"The person you saved in that fire brought you home today and looked after you."
They were simple words.
Yet the moment I heard them, the hand that had clung to my clothes in the fire and the arm that had supported my body in the rain today overlapped in my mind.
"...Yeah."
"Mom thanked Mikage-senpai, too. But Mikage-senpai just kept bowing over and over, saying she was the one who had been saved."
There was no need to weigh what I did the day of the fire against what Mikage did for me today. Even so, the realization that I had leaned my weight on the very person I once reached out to seemed to slowly loosen a knot that had been tied in my chest for years.
"At first, she tried to turn down the ride home, though."
"Sounds like her."
"But she said as long as Mom and I were here, you wouldn't be left alone, Onii-chan. In the end, she bowed and said, 'Please take care of him.'"
Listening to those words, I remembered what Dad had told me beneath the starry sky.
When I reached out to Mikage in that fire, I had tried to carry everything alone even after getting hurt.
But today, I stopped trying to force my way through on my own and leaned on Mikage. And because of that, I was lying safely in my own bed right now.
The jacket of Dad's that had supported my neck in the dream was gone the moment I woke up. In its place, the towel Mikage had tucked beneath my right arm quietly supported my aching shoulder.
"Onii-chan?"
"Hm?"
"You keep spacing out."
"Ah....I was just dreaming about the past."
"About Dad?"
I looked at Koharu in surprise.
"...How did you know?"
"You called out to him in your sleep."
"I-I see."
"Yeah. But it didn't look like a bad dream."
"You can tell even that?"
"Because you looked a little happy when you woke up."
Had I really made a face like that?
If I closed my eyes, Dad's profile as he pointed out the stars one by one still came to mind. Though he had laughed and said he couldn't possibly teach me everything in just one night, I had never gotten to hear the rest.
"...It's been a while since I saw him, after all."
The words slipped out before I could stop them, surprising even myself.
Koharu's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, but a gentle smile quickly returned to her face.
"I see."
"Yeah."
There was no need to say anything more about Dad.
For a while, we sat in silence, listening to the rain tapping against the glass.
Everything she had done for me today, the way she had waited for me to speak, and how she had stayed by my side even after I fell asleep—I resolved to tell her all of it myself the next time we met.
Just then, through the sound of the rain, a car door clicked shut outside the house.
Koharu seemed to hear it too, looking up at the same time.
"Must be Mom."
With that, Koharu stood up from the chair.
Before long, a key turned in the front door downstairs, and for the brief moment it swung open, the roar of the rain outside echoed into the house.
"I'm home."
Mom's familiar voice drifted up.
Hearing it, I remembered the lights of the inn I had gazed at with Dad in my dream. The light marking the place to return to, where Mom and Koharu had been waiting.
Soon after, the front door clicked shut, and the momentary rush of rain faded back into the distance.
If Mom was back, Mikage must have arrived safely at her house as well.
With that thought, the last lingering trace of worry deep in my chest dissolved away into the rain.
The empty chair remained beside the bed. The half-finished glass of water rested near my pillow, and beneath my right arm, the towel Mikage had folded supported my aching shoulder.
Thick rain clouds hung outside the window, obscuring every last star.
Even so, that didn't mean the sky beyond them was gone.
The continuation of that night I had looked up at with Dad still stretched out unchanged behind the clouds.
Within that unseen sky, I quietly connected the three stars Dad had taught me.