Chapter 18: No Handshakes Today

The Shinagawa hall had a glass front, a long ramp and a banner that said, in pink letters, Tsubomi Seven Handshake Event: Cancelled.

By eleven that morning, four hundred people stood on the ramp anyway.

Emi stood across the street under a bridge, in a borrowed raincoat, with Rina and the other five and a speaker the size of a lunchbox.

Kokone stood beside her in jeans and a baggy hoodie with her hair in a low ponytail.

Nobody looked at her.

A girl at the front of the crowd held a sign made from a cereal box.

It said: We came anyway.

"They don't know," Kokone said, in a very small voice.

"They know the event's cancelled," Emi said.

"They don't know I'm here."

"No."

"If I cross the road, they'll scream."

"Probably."

"If I cross the road and say something wrong, the whole thing is over."

"It can't be over. There's no contract."

Kokone breathed out, a long unsteady stream.

"You're not good at pep talks."

"I'm told I'm good at standing next to people."

Kokone looked up at her, and her mouth tugged.

"You are," she said. "That's my favorite thing."

The traffic light turned green.

Kokone pulled the hood off her head.

She crossed the street alone, with six girls a step behind her and Emi last, and she stopped at the foot of the ramp.

It took the crowd about four seconds.

A man in a baseball cap went still.

A girl in a school uniform grabbed her friend's sleeve.

A hush ran backward through four hundred people, and then it broke open into a long, high, shaking sound.

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