I asked her firmly, “Then hurry up and check when the train or the bus goes to that mountain area.”

“The last train left at 8 PM…” Mayoki suddenly shouted. The pain in her voice was clear. “And now it’s already 8:40. So what are we supposed to do now?”

Seeing the restlessness on her face, I realized she had started to feel afraid. A faint fear crept into my own chest as well. Did this really mean we would have to sleep on the road tonight?

Still, I steadied myself.

“So what if there’s no train? Check when the buses go,” I said, trying to sound brave. “Even if the train doesn’t go now, buses still run at times like this.”

Without saying anything, Mayoki started checking her phone again.

Even though I sat quietly, inside I was trembling with fear. I had confidently said that buses ran at this time… but what if they didn’t? Then we would have to spend the night on this bench. And there was also that creepy road.

Suddenly, Mayoki burst into laughter.

With excitement, she held the phone in front of my face. “Look, there’s still one bus going. This is the last bus to that mountain area. And it stops at this bus stand too. It says it arrives at 9 PM.”

Hearing that, the pressure inside my chest eased. At least we wouldn’t have to spend the night on the road. We would have a roof over our heads.

“So you just said it was 8:40…” I said, feeling relieved. “That means it’ll arrive in 20 minutes. We just have to sit here a little longer.”

The two of us sat quietly on the bench.

After some time, the bus arrived and stopped. We got on. I went and sat in the seat behind Mayoki. Soon, the bus started moving.

It kept moving for a long time.

Looking outside the window, I could only see tall mountains. The moonlight was brighter than usual tonight, so everything was clearly visible.

Eventually, the bus stopped at a stand.

We got down.

As soon as I looked around, an uneasiness formed inside my chest. There were hardly any shops or houses nearby.

With fear, I asked, “Which way do we go now? I can’t see anything except darkness. And if these street lights can’t even light the road properly, what’s the point of having them? Even with so many lights, the road still looks so dark… and there was moonlight just now. Where did it suddenly disappear?”

Mayoki fell silent. She stood there with her shoulders slightly hunched, clearly uncomfortable.

“Wait,” she said after a moment, composing herself. “I need to take out my phone. The address directions are given online.”

She took out her phone and started searching.

But she kept raising her hand upward and fidgeting around.

Seeing this, my throat went dry.

I slowly stepped closer to her.

“Hey, Mayoki…” fear slipped into my voice without me realizing. “Why are you fidgeting like a ghost? And why do you keep raising your hand?”

She looked at me with irritation.

“Don’t even ask,” she replied. “The internet keeps connecting and disconnecting. I’m raising my hand to see where the signal is better. What’s wrong with you?”

Hearing that, I felt a bit relieved.

I told myself, Oh… I was thinking something else. We’re in a mountain area, so network problems are normal.

Suddenly, she shouted.

“There! The internet is back!” Excitement returned to her eyes. “I need to check the address quickly, or it might disappear again.”

Seeing her urgency, my tension increased too.

“Yes, hurry,” I said. “This place is giving me a strange feeling. We shouldn’t stay here too long.”

After a while, a smile appeared on her face.

She looked at me.

“There, I found the address, Hiroshike,” she said with relief. “We have to walk straight ahead from here. Then there will be a dirt road on the right. We follow that, and we’ll see the house. It’s not far… it’s close.”