“Of course,” he replied and drank the entire cup in one gulp. As he tasted it, his heart skipped a beat. The coffee was already cooler than body temperature.

If Kaname had not distracted me right now, the coffee might have gone cold.

Kiyoshi looked over at Kaname, and she returned an indescribably wonderful smile.

He was engulfed in dizziness. His surroundings slowly started moving past him. A moment later his body was turning into white vapor.

“Thanks...”

He saw Kimiko clutching the necklace to her chest. “...for this.”

She was looking at Kiyoshi, smiling happily.

“It suits you!” he remarked in his bashful way. But he never knew whether his words reached her.

“He’s back!” Miki exclaimed loudly as Kiyoshi regained consciousness.

Miki looked around and smiled broadly at Nagare. The first customer she had sent back to the past had returned. She looked immensely pleased with herself. Nagare too let out a sigh of relief. He gently fondled Miki’s head. “Good job.”

Only Kazu maintained her always cool expression as she started to clear away Kiyoshi’s cup for Miki, who was still very excited.

“How was it?” she asked.

“So, you’re pregnant?” he replied.

Crash, clang-clang-clang...

The noisy sound of a tray dropping onto the floor rang through the café. The culprit was Nagare.

“Daddy! Don’t be so noisy!” Miki scolded him.

“So sorry,” he said, quickly picking up the tray.

Kazu’s expression hardly changed. “Yes, I am,” she answered.

“How did you know that?” asked Nagare.

“I met your mother while she was pregnant with you,” Kiyoshi explained, looking at Kazu. “Your mother told me that she couldn’t act as coffee pourer while she was pregnant.”

“Oh, did she?” Kazu said as she walked off to the kitchen to take away the cup that Kiyoshi had used.

At that moment, the woman in the dress, Kaname, appeared from the toilet. Kiyoshi stood up and gave her a short bow. As he gave up the seat, Kazu returned from the kitchen carrying a coffee for Kaname.

As she placed the coffee down in front of her, Kiyoshi said to her softly, “Your mother looked happy.”

Kazu stopped moving after she’d placed the cup on the table. It was for no more than a second. Both Nagare and Kiyoshi waited anxiously for Kazu’s response before Miki saved everyone from an awkward silence. “Ah!” said Miki. “Look!”

She crouched down and picked something up from the floor. Clenched between her thumb and index finger was a single cherry-blossom petal. It must have been carried in on someone’s head or shoulder.

Glimpsing a single flower petal is another way of noticing spring.

Miki held out the petal in her fingers.

“Spring is here!” she announced, and Kazu smiled gently.

“Ever since that day when Mum never returned from the past...” Kazu began, in a calm voice. “I was always afraid of being happy.”

She spoke as if she was telling this to someone other than those around her. In fact, it seemed as though she was addressing the café itself.