“No, no, that’s fine... I sort of sensed that there was some issue when I came in just now,” he said with a smile. “It’s disappointing of course, but it can’t be helped, right?”

He was doing his best not to let his disappointment show, letting his gaze wander around the room for no reason and avoiding eye contact with the others. It would have been reasonable for him to ask why he couldn’t return to the past. But he didn’t. Even if he had, his detective’s instinct, which he had honed over his long career, told him that he would not get an answer, so there was no point in hanging around. He had no wish to waste their time. He nodded politely.

“...Well, I guess you were just about to close,” he said, reaching for his zipped portfolio to put away the birthday present.

Just then...

Flap!

The sound of the woman in the dress shutting her novel echoed throughout the room.

“Oh,” said Kiyoshi involuntarily.

The woman in the dress rose slowly and started walking toward the toilet without making a sound. The chair was vacant. A person sitting there could travel to the time of their choice. Kiyoshi couldn’t help but be completely preoccupied by the empty chair. But then he remembered. There is no one to pour the coffee.

He thought it was a shame, but there was no point dwelling on things one couldn’t control.

“Well, I guess I’ll be off then.” Kiyoshi bowed to Kazu and Nagare, and turned to leave the café.

“Kiyoshi, wait,” Nagare called out to him. “Please give that present to your wife.”

Kiyoshi looked confused for a moment as he pondered Nagare’s words.

“But if Kazu cannot pour the coffee, how would that be possible?”

“It’s possible.”

“I’m sorry, what do you mean?”

Over the last year, Kiyoshi had become well versed in the rules for returning to the past. One of the things he had learned was that only the women of the Tokita family were able to pour the coffee for returning to the past.

“Wait just a minute,” said Nagare as he disappeared into the back room.

When Kiyoshi looked at Kazu in puzzlement, she said calmly, “I’m not the only woman in the Tokita family...”

How could there possibly be another woman at this café that I have never met?

As Kiyoshi was trying to work out who it could be, he heard Nagare in the back room. “Come on, hurry up!”

Then he heard a second voice. “Finally, moi’s turn has arrived!”

It was a young girl’s voice, speaking in a rather peculiar tone.

“...Ooh,” said Kiyoshi as he recognized it.

“Thank you for waiting, monsieur!” Miki said in an unexpectedly loud voice as she entered the café. Kiyoshi had assumed that only grown-up women could serve the coffee.