Incidentally, Miyoko Yoshimura, also known as “Miyokichi,” was my sister’s best friend and classmate. At the time, she was a fourth grader in elementary school, and she was ten years old.

Last year, as well as now, Miyokichi was so mature-looking that it was hard to imagine she was my little sister’s classmate. She was tall enough to make you doubt her claim not to be a big eater, and as far as her bearing and overall impression went, she seemed more grown-up than someone like Asahina. Thanks to that most un-elementary-school-student-like appearance, neither the box office attendant nor the ticket collector gave her a second look.

And even if they had noticed, it was doubtful they would have stopped her every time. After all, they’d sell you tickets at the student discount price without even checking for your student ID.

The film had been rated PG-12. In other words, children under twelve had to be accompanied by a guardian. I was fine, since I’d already turned fifteen.

The problem was Miyokichi. She knew perfectly well, however, that nobody would guess that she was younger than twelve.

But she couldn’t bring herself to go alone. Her parents were fairly strict, and they wouldn’t understand a Splatterhouse B-movie—even asking them for permission to go was just begging for a lecture, she later told me.

The only friend she could really invite to go with her was my sister, who looked every inch the elementary-school student she was. The film was only going to play through the end of March. If Miyokichi didn’t hurry, she’d lose her chance.

So she thought about it. Was there anyone she could go with, to whom the theater would sell tickets?

There was me.

I’ve always gotten along pretty well with little kids, if I do say so myself. Most of my cousins were younger than me, so I’d probably picked up the knack of playing with them after being made to watch them whenever we got together in the countryside.

Of course, dealing with my sister’s friends when they came over was a common occurrence. Miyokichi was one of those friends, so she knew me well.

I was the older brother of a friend she played with often, and during the vacation I was unlikely to be busy. That was how I came to be within the circle of friends of a fourth grader.

She also considered this: if she were going to a movie, she might as well go somewhere else a kid would also have a hard time getting into. Thus she picked that café. The waitress had been very pleasant. It was too fancy for a typical elementary school student to enter on her own, and even my middle-school-age self was a little nervous to go in. If someone had spotted Miyokichi and me in there, I’m sure they would’ve had a hard time imagining us as anything other than brother and sister.

Miyoko Yoshimura—Miyokichi—is now a fifth grader, soon to be sixth. Give her five or so more years, and she’d be a rival for Asahina.

That is, if she ever catches Haruhi’s attention somehow.