Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de - Volume 6 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Andou Jurai’s Eighth-Grade Fall—A Heart-Pounding Theater for Two

“Hey, Jurai! Wanna go peep a movie together?”

One Saturday in mid-September, as the lingering summer heat finally began to fade away, I got a phone call from Tamaki. I was sprawled out on my bed at the time, and I almost sat up in surprise when her distinctly accented invitation blared through my phone’s speaker.

“A movie? What, like, now?” I asked.

“Ayup!”

“You mean with Sagamin and Hatoko, right? Sorry, but Hatoko’s got club practice today.”

“I know! She’s always got club on Saturdays, so we’ll have to send her a rain check this time.”

“Just us and Sagamin then?”

“Nope! I’m not giving Shizumu a shout this time.”

“Huh?”

“I wanna pop over with just the two of us,” Tamaki said, then she told me when and where to meet her before concluding with an “Okay, don’t keep me waiting!” before hanging up without giving me the chance to reply.

I spent a few seconds just sitting there, staring at my phone’s screen. A movie? With Tamaki? Just the two of us?

“Eh... That works, I guess.”

I decided not to read into it and started getting ready to head out into town.

I arrived at the station square we’d agreed to meet at only to find the place surprisingly packed with couples. I got the impression that this was a commonly used meeting place for dates—Tamaki had mentioned that she and Sagami used the area for that purpose all the time. There was a big clock set up in the plaza, and it informed me that it was around twenty past two in the afternoon, making me about ten minutes early. That meant that I had time to brood.

Why had Tamaki invited me out to see a movie? When I thought back on it, it struck me that this would be our first time hanging out together without Hatoko or Sagami around. I’d be alone with Tamaki—alone with Sagami’s girlfriend. So...would this be considered some sort of infidelity? It wasn’t like we’d ended up alone together as a matter of happenstance—we’d gone out of our way to meet up and see a movie together, and judging by Tamaki’s phrasing during our phone call, Sagami wasn’t even aware that any of this was happening. What would he think about his girlfriend going to the movies in secret with some other guy?

Hmm. I had a distinct feeling that a lot of people would consider this unambiguously objectionable. I’d made my way out to the meeting place without thinking too deeply about what I was doing, but now that I’d had the time to mull it over, it was starting to sink in that I might’ve been stabbing Sagami in the back by going along with this—that I was in the midst of actively betraying my friend’s trust—and I was starting to feel really, really guilty about it all of a sudden.

Just as I was starting to panic and wonder if I should go home, my vision went black.

“Gueeess Yu!”

“Whoa?!” I yelped in surprise. The sudden darkness had caught me way off guard, not to mention the soft, warm sensation on my face. Also, who the heck is Yu?!

“Ha ha, did I spook you?”

I clutched at my pounding heart and spun around to find Tamaki standing behind me and smiling impishly. She was wearing a brown poncho that totally covered her upper body and a pair of navy blue pants beneath. The whole ensemble screamed “flying squirrel” to me more than anything else, but it was certainly cute and girly enough in spite of that. I’d gotten the impression that Tamaki was fond of bulky, flowy clothes in that general style. She’d certainly always seemed to wear that sort of thing whenever she wasn’t in her uniform, at least. From what I’d heard, that sort of style was referred to as the “forest girl” aesthetic.

“Sorry for hauling you out here like this! Didn’t really give you much chance to bail though, did I?” she said apologetically. “So, yeah, thanks for showing! Oh, right—you didn’t tattle about this to Shizumu, did you?”

“I didn’t, nah,” I replied.

“Oh? Peachy! It proper slipped my mind to tell you to keep mum,” she said with a sigh of relief. I felt a gloom begin to descend over me—it seemed we really were doing this behind Sagami’s back after all. “Come on, let’s mosey on out!” Tamaki continued, then she set off. She seemed totally oblivious to my internal conflict as she strolled along happily, heading toward the movie theater...or so I’d assumed, but instead, she made a beeline toward the station itself.

“Hey, where’re you going? The theater’s that way, isn’t it?” I said, gesturing off in a totally different direction.

“I’ve got a different theater slotted in for today!” Tamaki replied. “We’ll have to hop a train.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Just because! Come on, let’s hustle! The movie’s gonna start without us!”

Unable to figure out how I really felt about any of this, I ended up following Tamaki toward the ticket gates without another word. Going out of our way to take a train and see the film at a faraway theater, though? That settled it—the situation had finally taken the leap into unambiguously sketchy territory.

A roughly ten-minute train ride brought us to the station we were headed to, at which point Tamaki took the lead and brought us to the theater she’d had in mind. It was quite close to the station, on the top floor of a pretty large building. The place had to be almost twice the size of our local theater; it had a ton of movies on offer and an impressively large concession stand to boot.

“Okay, let’s hop in line!” said Tamaki, heading straight for the ticket booth.

“W-Wait a sec!” I shouted, cutting her off in a fluster. I’d let myself get dragged along without protest so far, but it was high time that I got some answers. “Hey, Tamaki... Look...I don’t have a problem with going to see a movie with you or anything, okay? But, like, I just really think we should say something to Sagamin about it! It just wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t!”

“Huh?” said Tamaki. “What’re you prattling on about, dummy! Telling Shizumu would spoil the whole shebang!”

“In that case...sorry, but I’m heading home,” I said.

“You’re bouncing? Why? You came this far!”

I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. “You and Sagamin are both really good friends to me, you know? So I don’t want to do anything behind either of your backs, and I don’t want to keep this sort of secret.”

I’d said the word “friend” so naturally, I’d barely even realized it. The word had just sprung up from somewhere deep inside me. Somewhere along the way, Sagami Shizumu and Futaba Tamaki had become irreplaceable presences in my life. My own stupid antics had denied me a place I could belong at school, but thanks to those two, I’d finally been able to feel like I fit in somewhere. My time in the eighth grade had been empty and substanceless at first, but ever since I’d met them, it had turned into an incredibly important period to me.

“Huh? Huuuh?” grunted Tamaki, cocking her head and crossing her arms in confusion. My pained explanation, apparently, had missed its mark—or so I’d thought before she suddenly clapped her hands and said, “Ah! Jurai, did you get it in your noggin I was asking you on a date?” with a perfectly deadpan expression.

“No, I mean... I didn’t say that...” Wait. Huh? She’s acting like that’s not what’s happening here!

“Did you think that going about together like this might be cheating or something?”

“I-Isn’t it?!”

“Pff... Aha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” cackled Tamaki. She completely broke down in a fit of hysterical laughter, clutching at her sides as she giggled with all her might. “Ha haa haaa, oh god, that’s rich! Don’t fuss about it, Jurai—I’ve only got eyes for Shizumu, really. Oh, drop me, you are a guy, aren’t you? Totally slipped my mind, honest!”

Tragically—or maybe fortunately—it seemed that Tamaki saw me purely as a friend and had absolutely no feelings for me whatsoever aside from that. I found myself torn between a sense of relief and a slight twinge of disappointment.

“You know,” said Tamaki, “tromping out to the theater today was all for Shizumu to start with!”

“Huh? We’re here for Sagamin?” I asked, bewildered.

“Yup! To snag him a surprise present. His birthday’s coming right up—it’s September ninedeeth.”

“‘Ninedeeth’...? Oh, the nineteenth?”

Another aspect of the Fukushima accent, it seemed, was an occasional slurring or flattening of some sounds. My name actually got a similar treatment—every once in a while the way she said it came out sounding more like “Zurai” than “Jurai.” I’m not Zura, I’m Jurai!

“September nineteenth... So, like, less than a week from now?” I asked.

“Yup,” said Tamaki. “That’s why I snagged you to back me up!”

I’d never even considered the possibility that something like that could be going on. Asking a boy to help pick out your boyfriend’s present? Now that made sense to me—you saw it all the time in shojo manga and stuff, though those stories also tended to have the boyfriend in question catch you in the act, leading to a bout of obnoxious, drawn-out drama. The key difference, of course, was that we were going to see a movie, not going shopping. That little detail had led me into one heck of an awkward misunderstanding.

“You know how movies pack an itty-bitty film strip in along with your ticket these days?” asked Tamaki.

“Film strips? Yeah, I’ve heard of that,” I replied. Typically, they’d be a short segment of film—just a few frames long—from the same movie you’d bought tickets for. What scene in particular your strip would be pulled from was totally random though, and I’d heard that sometimes you’d get a really clear closeup of a character, and other times you’d basically just get black boxes.

“Well, the deal is, Shizumu’s been hitting the movies over and over going after a real particular film strip,” Tamaki explained.

“Ahh. Yeah, that sounds like something he’d do, all right.”

“He says he’s gone to see it ten times now, but every strip’s ended up being pitch black or a background.”

“Holy crap, that’s some awful luck!” Seriously, ten times...? That’s downright incredible! Not to mention a major investment in terms of time and money!

“I tagged over with him to see it once, but you know Shizumu...he’s just so nice. Said he’d feel nasty for dragging me along, so he’s been going it alone ever since then.”

“I think that’s more normal than nice, personally,” I commented. It was, in fact, what any reasonable person would do. I had to admit, though—Sagami doing what any reasonable person would do did somehow feel like an incredible act of virtue on his part, for some outlandish reason. It was like how a violent street punk can suddenly look like an incredibly great dude if he happens to save a puppy for whatever reason.

“So that’s why I’ve been hitting the theaters on the lowdown collecting film strips for him! I wanna give him the one thing he wants most for his birthday!”

“So, the reason you brought us out to this theater in particular...?”

“Is ’cause the theaters around these parts are the only ones passing them out.”

Everything was finally coming together. It all made sense now. “So...you invited me along because that meant you could get two film strips instead of one. Sheesh—you could’ve explained all this from the beginning, you know?”

“My goof on that, honest. I never thought you’d get all worked up and think I was asking you on a date!”

“I-I did not get worked up about anything!” I shouted. Tamaki just grinned at me, and the warmth of her smile made me feel a warmth in turn, somewhere deep down inside me. It was a sense of relief—relief at the fact that she really was the person I thought she was. No matter what happened, no matter who she was with, Sagami would always be first and foremost in her mind. In my mind, Tamaki was a girl who lived for love. “I’m kinda jealous of Sagamin, though,” I continued. “He really found himself a great girlfriend.”

“No point buttering me up, you know?” Tamaki jabbed. “I’m sure you’ll catch yourself a great gal one of these days. You’re a pretty swell guy yourself, after all.”

“There’s no point in you flattering me either. Eh, seeing a movie isn’t too much to ask, if that’s all that’s going on here.”

“Honest?”

“Just one showing, though!”

I had a lot of respect for Tamaki’s feelings, and I wanted to do something to celebrate Sagami’s birthday as well. Plus, the movie in question was one that I’d kinda been interested in seeing anyway—though of course, I had no interest in collecting film strips from it.

This theater in particular passed the bonus film strips out along with your tickets, rather than after the showing.

“Ah, no good! Mine’s pitch-black,” said Tamaki. We’d bought our tickets and moved away from the counter so she could open the envelope her film strip came in and take a look at it. Unfortunately, she’d had no luck—though really, I didn’t know what would constitute a lucky draw. I took a glance at her film strip, and sure enough, every frame more or less just looked like a black square. I could barely make out what might’ve been fireworks or an explosion or something, but it was hard to tell what exactly I was looking at.

“Did you snatch a good one?” asked Tamaki.

“I’m gonna wait to open mine until after the movie, personally,” I replied.

“Huh?! What for?!”

“Duh? I don’t wanna get spoiled.”

A pitch black scene like Tamaki’s was one thing, but if I’d happened to get a piece of film from an important scene, it could seriously ruin the viewing experience. There was no guarantee that mine wouldn’t show a side character getting killed off or turning out to have been the villain the whole time or whatever.

It’d be like flipping through the illustrations at the front of a light novel before reading the book—you could never be totally sure you wouldn’t accidentally spoil yourself in the process, and if you did, you’d have no one to blame for it but yourself. I mean, it made total sense that the creators would want to pick significant scenes to illustrate, and from a reader’s perspective, seeing the hypest part of a book get drawn is super great...but still, glancing at the pictures only to see the main character going through an epic awakening or a side character stabbing them in the back is just the worst feeling. I’m talking serious, painful regret.

Tamaki sighed. “You’re a real jab in the tokus sometimes, you know? Give it here, then—I’ll take a gander.”

“I dunno about that either. It’s like...like how when you buy a magazine, it feels wrong to let someone else flip through it before you, y’know? We can look together after the movie’s over.”

“Such a sissy,” Tamaki grumbled, but considering I was already doing her a favor, she didn’t press the issue any further—though her scowl made it clear that she wanted to.

Meanwhile, the scheduled starting time for the film drew closer and closer. We bought some popcorn and soda at the concession stand, then headed into the theater and descended the stairs toward our assigned seats.

“Oh, wow. Looks like a full house, huh?” I observed. “It’s been a while since this movie came out too. Guess this is supposed to be the most popular anime movie in theaters right now.”

“There’s a bunch of repeaters going after a particular piece of film like Shizumu too,” said Tamaki. “That’s why it’s such a hit.”

“Let’s just leave that unstated, okay? I’d rather think it’s popular because it’s good.”

“If you wanna sell something, you gotta use tricks like that to keep competitive. Think about the music business—record labels toss in tickets that let you shake hands with an idol and stuff like that when you buy CDs, that gets the fans to snatch up a mountain of discs, and then the songs rocket right to the top of the charts.”

“Seriously, let’s leave that unstated. The CDs sell because the music’s good.” As we chatted, we made it to our seats. As I settled into mine, though, I found myself a little surprised by just how close to Tamaki it felt like I was.

H-Huh...? Have movie theater seats always been this close together? Sitting this close to someone in a dark room for an extended period of time was certainly a prospect. I was starting to understand why seeing a movie was such a go-to option for dates. Thinking back on it, this was actually my first time going to see a movie with a girl like this as well. I’d gone to a movie with Hatoko once back when we were in elementary school, but we’d had my sister sitting between us at the time.

Okay, calm down! What’re you even getting nervous about? This is stupid! I told myself as I reached for my drink...and found myself touching Tamaki’s hand instead.

“Huh? This one’s mine, Jurai,” said Tamaki.

“Uh...ah! M-My bad!” I stammered. I’d fallen into that classic movie theater trap: accidentally reaching for the person next to you’s drink. I jerked my hand back, then glanced over at her just in time for our gazes to meet—and at a really close distance.

“Seeing as we’re here and all, wanna hold hands?” said Tamaki.

“Huh?” I gasped. “Wha—but—wh-why...?”

“Hee hee! Just yanking your chain,” Tamaki giggled as I fell into a hopeless panic. “I held hands with Shizumu the whole time when we watched it together, see. He was stuck on the movie like glue, but I was so stuck on his hand I barely noticed the movie at all. That’s why I was thinking that this time I’d really try to focus on it!” she explained—boasted, really—with a slight blush.

I felt a relieved smile spread across my face. I felt ridiculous for getting so nervous about sitting next to her. She really didn’t have eyes for anyone other than Sagami, and I was coming to appreciate that she didn’t even see me as a member of the opposite sex. You’d think that would sting a little, but really, I wasn’t upset by it at all. I was actually happy, if you can believe it. Tamaki was so purely and earnestly in love with Sagami it was almost satisfying to watch her do her thing. I really liked that about her—as a friend, needless to say.

The movie came to a close, and the audience began to slowly stand up and filter out of the theater. The only people who didn’t were either the sort of people who always waited until the very end of the credits roll or the sort of people who didn’t like dealing with a big crowd on the way to the exit. Tamaki and I were neither of those types, so we got moving right away—though in my case, the fact that I really needed to use the restroom was also a factor.

“You all right, Jurai? Didn’t sop yourself?”

“‘Sop myself’?”

“Didn’t pee your pants, I mean.”

“Oh! Nah, I didn’t. I’m a little too old to go wetting myself in a theater.”

“Glad to hear it. Okay, then...it’s finally time to peek at what treasure you’ve got in that envelope of yours! Open it up, open it up!”

Tamaki looked like she was in the highest of spirits. Personally, I would’ve liked to have spent some time chatting about the actual movie before the big reveal, but her attention had unfortunately completely shifted over to the film strip in my possession. I couldn’t blame her, really—for her, this was the day’s main event.

We moved over to a corner of the hallway so we wouldn’t block the path, and I pulled the envelope out from my bag. “Okay, here goes,” I said. Tamaki nodded enthusiastically, and a few weirdly tense seconds passed by as I opened the envelope and slid the film strip out of it. Taking a close look, I saw a girl smiling into the camera. Her face took up the entire frame and occupied all five of the frames on my strip.

“So then,” I muttered as I inspected the strip. It wasn’t a background or a pitch-black scene, so it wasn’t a total write-off, but the conclusion still seemed pretty clear. “Rats... That’s a dud, all right.”

My shoulders slumped with disappointment. The character pictured in my film strip was so unpopular among the franchise’s fanbase, she was actually kind of famous for it. She barely got any screen time, had little to no presence even when she was in frame, and she barely had any character development to speak of, leading people to not like her much at all from what I recalled. I wasn’t super well versed in this anime’s fanbase, and even I’d heard about her lack of popularity, which really said something about just how disliked she was on the whole.

“Sorry, Tamaki,” I sighed. “Looks like neither of us had any luck today.” It wasn’t my fault or anything, but it still just felt right to apologize somehow.

In defiance of my expectations, however, Tamaki’s face had lit up in a brilliant grin. “That’s the one,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“That’s it! That’s the one! That’s the character Shizumu wanted so badly!”

“Wait, seriously?! Isn’t she the one who’s famous for how unpopular she is?”

“Yup, but it seems she got popular for being unpopular,” said Tamaki. “All the jokes and memes about her piled up so much she came out on the other end as a fan favorite! That’s what Shizumu said, leastwise. Guess part of the fanbase is really bonkers about her.”

“Huh,” I grunted. I wasn’t totally sure if I could take the claim that a whole segment of the fanbase was crazy for her at face value—it sounded a little too much like an effort to hype her popularity up—but at the very least, it was clear that Sagami was a big fan. I guess this is what he’s been going to the theater over and over for this whole time.

“S-So, Jurai...?” said Tamaki. “Y-You don’t mind letting me keep hold of that, right...?”

“Yeah, of course. That was the whole point, right?”

I passed the film strip over to Tamaki. She stared at it for a moment, then threw her arms up in the air and shouted “Woohoooooo!” at the top of her lungs. She was absolutely whooping and beaming with glee at the thought that she’d gotten ahold of the perfect present for her boyfriend. Sheesh... I think this is embarrassing me more than it is her.

“You’re such a stand-up guy, Jurai, honest! This would fetch a good hundred thousand yen if you threw it up on Yahoo Auctions!”

“Are you kidding me?!” A hundred thousand yen?! So, wait—does that mean I just indirectly helped get a hundred-thousand-yen present for Sagami? For him? King sleazebag himself? Even though he didn’t get me anything for my birthday? I just got a hundred-thousand-yen present for another dude? What sort of slashfic is this?!

While I writhed with profound, intense regret, Tamaki giggled to herself. “Oh, I can’t wait to peep what sort of face Shizumu makes when he sees this,” she said to herself. I sure as heck couldn’t demand the film strip back after seeing her that happy, of course.

Guess that’s that, then. I’m resigned to my fate. You’d better not expect this to ever happen again, Sagamin.

“Bringing you along was a full great idea, all right! Thanks so much, Jurai!” Tamaki said, then spread her arms wide apart, as if to give me a big ol’ hug. She didn’t actually hug me, of course—it was just a joke. She was messing around, that was all. For all her cheerful friendliness, Tamaki did draw a line when it came to interacting with guys like that. When she was around other people, she’d even be reserved about PDA with Sagami. Between that and her preference for not showing much skin, I’d gotten the impression that she was a surprisingly chaste person all around. At the very least, she wasn’t the sort of girl who’d hug a guy for funsies.

I, however, stepped forward and hugged her.

I hugged her tightly. As tightly as I possibly could.

“Wha...?” Tamaki gasped with surprise. Her ecstatic joy vanished in an instant as she stiffened up. I could literally feel her confusion and tension as I held my arms around her, standing up as straight as I could to make up for the fact that she was a bit taller than me.

“H-Hey, Jurai...?” said Tamaki. “What’s the deal? What’re you doing...?”

“...”

“L-Let go... F-For real, let go...”

“...”

“Jurai...?”

I paid no heed to Tamaki’s faint repeated protests. I just stood there, holding her tightly, keeping her faced firmly in my direction, never allowing her to turn around for so much as a second. I didn’t want her to see what I’d seen, the sight that’d made me stifle a gasp as I confirmed my eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on me.

I’d spotted someone a ways ahead of me in the hustle and bustle of the crowd—someone familiar. That plaid shirt. Those jeans. The tacky, off-brand sneakers. He still looked like the poster boy for generic geek fashion, though the absence of the backpack and paper bag made the fashion disaster at least a little better than the last time I’d witnessed it. Regardless, there could be no mistaking that remarkably pretty boy face or his live-action-Kenshin-style haircut: Sagami Shizumu was strolling through the crowd before me.

Now, seeing Sagami here wasn’t surprising in and of itself. He’d been watching the movie over and over again in his quest to get his hands on the film strip he wanted, so him coming out to this theater was far from an implausible development. Things might’ve gotten a little awkward if he’d seen me here with Tamaki, and her big surprise for him might’ve gotten ruined, but I knew that Sagami would understand if we just explained it to him.

So, why had I hugged Tamaki? Why was I keeping her sight and attention totally focused on me without even bothering to consider how it would make me look? Simple: because Sagami was walking along with some girl I’d never seen before by his side.

Unlike Tamaki, she was on the fairly petite side of things. She was also dressed in a pretty flashy outfit that showed a lot of skin. I couldn’t see her face very well given how far apart we were, but I could tell at a glance that she was pretty well-endowed. She cut a sharp contrast to Tamaki across the board, really, although the second I caught myself unconsciously comparing the two of them, I quickly made to shake the thought process off. Dammit, what am I even thinking? Why would I compare Tamaki with her? What difference would it make if Tamaki were prettier than her, or if she were cuter than Tamaki?

I watched over Tamaki’s shoulder as Sagami chatted away with the mystery girl, a dashing smile plastered across his face. It was a pure smile, utterly undiluted by the slightest hint of doubt or gloom. The exact same smile he wore when he was with Tamaki. Finally, he and the girl vanished from sight, melting away into the rest of the theatergoers around them.

“J-Jurai... Th-That hurts. You’re hurting me,” a voice whispered into my ear. Finally, I snapped back to my senses and practically pushed Tamaki away from me.

“S-Sorry,” I said.

“I-It’s okay,” said Tamaki, hanging her head as she readjusted her outfit. Her cheeks were a faint shade of red.

Some of the passersby were giving us looks—no surprise, really, considering we’d just been hugging in public like that. We probably looked like a young couple, flirting away without any regard for the people around us. The awkwardness and embarrassment were too much to take, and the two of us quickly made tracks.

“H-Hey...Jurai?” said Tamaki as she walked along behind me. “What was that? Why’d you do it...?”

Why? What was I supposed to say? Not the truth, that’s for sure, and so I ended up saying “Because...you were just so crazy cute” instead.

“Huh?! Wha... Wha?!” Tamaki yelped.

I could hear her hysterical stammering behind me, but I didn’t turn around and just kept walking. I had to wonder what the hell I was saying too, honestly, but I’d been put on the spot so abruptly that it was the only excuse that came to mind in time. It came to mind because there was an element of truth to it: I really had thought she was cute. The sight of her getting so excited to get her hands on a present for her boyfriend was downright adorable. It wasn’t a romantic sort of attraction at all—I just thought, as her friend, that she was a really cute girl. That’s why the moment I saw Sagami walking along with that girl—the moment I saw him giving her his signature smile—my mind had just gone blank.

“Wh-What’s that...what’re you prattling on about...?” said Tamaki. “You can’t— I mean, I’m already— Um... I-I don’t get any of this, but...it’s not right...I’m dating Shizumu, so...”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. I knew that very well. All too well.

“I-I’ll just forget it!” said Tamaki in a tone so bright and cheery, it was downright unnatural. “Yup, that’s the ticket. I’ll forget it! What you just said, that thing a minute ago—I’ll blank it all out! So...”

“Yeah, that’d be for the best.”

With that, we just silently walked along, barely saying another word to each other. It wasn’t until we stopped by a nearby café that Tamaki seemed to suddenly switch gears and got talkative again. She started sharing her impression of the movie, never mentioning what I’d done so much as once. I played along, enjoying our conversation and acting as if nothing at all was amiss—our perfectly surface-level, utterly superficial conversation.

Maybe I was just misunderstanding everything. I couldn’t find it in me to force myself to make that assumption though. My heart and mind were both far too preoccupied to do anything of the sort.

Sagami’s birthday arrived a few days later, and that night, I got a text from Tamaki. She’d sent it to report on how her gift went over and to thank me for my help. Apparently, Sagami had been over the moon to receive that film strip. The message concluded with the lines:

Again, thank you so much! Shizumu’s really grateful too. I hope you’ll find a wonderful girlfriend yourself someday!

Tamaki always wrote her texts in standard Japanese, by the way. Considering how intense her dialect was when you spoke with her in real life, it’d always felt weird to talk with her through text...or, I mean, it had at first. I’d pretty much gotten used to it at that point.

“A wonderful girlfriend for myself, she says,” I muttered. It wasn’t very hard to figure out what she’d really meant with that closing remark: it was an indirect but unambiguous rejection. I was pretty sure she was under some misapprehensions about my intentions, but clearing the air would just stir the problem up all over again, so I figured I’d just let it go. If the matter of my hug had been settled in her mind, then that was for the best. I, meanwhile, had something else to think about.

The next day after school, I called Sagami out for a chat.

“What is it? That’s quite the scowl you have going on, Jurai,” Sagami said as he strolled up to me. I’d asked him to meet me in the same park where we’d had our first encounter. He plopped down on a nearby bench, while I remained standing, gazing down at him.

“You got your film strip, right?” I asked.

“Yup,” said Sagami. “Oh, right—I’ve been meaning to thank you for that. You went to see that movie with Tamaki to get it, right? Thanks, really. I can’t believe you’d do that for someone like me. I’ll treasure it forever.”

It seemed that Sagami already knew about my involvement in his present. Good—that’ll make this nice and quick. “We went to the theater last Saturday,” I said.

“Hmm,” grunted Sagami.

“What about you? What were you doing that day?” I asked, shooting him a glare.

“Last Saturday?” Sagami said, then seemed to sink into thought for a few seconds. “Umm...ah. Okay, I see what this is about,” he finally said as a look of understanding passed across his face. “I went to the movies that day, with a girl. Just the two of us.”

He just admitted it, straight up, without a hint of panic or dismay. He readily confessed to cheating on his girlfriend. As my emotions began to churn, however, he carried on.

“A girl...or rather, my precious little sister,” Sagami casually added.

I was completely taken aback. “Y-Your sister?” I stammered.

“That’s right,” he said. “Her name’s Shizuka, and she’s a first-year in middle school. Haven’t I ever mentioned I have a younger sister? She’s just as cute as I am, her boobs’ve really gone through a growth spurt lately, and thanks to my influence, she’s ended up with all the same geeky hobbies I’m into. That’s why we go shopping and see movies together every once in a while.” I just stood there, speechless. Sagami smiled at me. “I figure you probably saw me with my sister, huh?” he said.

“Y-Yeah, I guess. What, is that all...?” I said, breaking out into a smile as well—a smile of relief and reassurance. The stifling pressure I’d felt building up within me suddenly faded away, and I heaved a deep sigh. “Man, seriously...? I feel like an idiot for worrying so much about it. Ahh, dammit—this whole thing was just me jumping to conclusions? Come on!”

“You do have a bad habit of making wild assumptions,” said Sagami.

“Oh, shut up,” I sighed.

“Heh. Ha ha ha!”

“Quit laughing at me.”

“Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa!”

“Okay, seriously, cut it out.”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just so funny!” Sagami said, then looked me right in the eye.

“I mean, really—why on earth would you believe me?”

“...Huh?”

I couldn’t process his words. My train of thought had ground to a halt, and as I stood there paralyzed, Sagami carried on, still wearing that same smile he always did.

“I was lying,” he said. “I don’t have a little sister. I’m an only child, with all the selfishness and egocentricity that comes with the package. Tragically, I don’t have a sister who’s a huge tsundere for me or a stepsister who’s kuudere for me. I’ve tried to get sisters like those, believe me, but it just hasn’t worked out so far.”

Sagami had invalidated his own excuse with an air of complete, flagrant indifference, and all the tension that had drained away from me moments before rushed back in with a vengeance. I felt unsteady, like the ground beneath me had been replaced with a stagnant bog, and an intense anxiety took hold of me.

“So then, wait,” I said. “That girl I saw you with—”

“Was an underclassman from Onahole Middle,” said Sagami. “She’s a first-year named Yusa Kokoro—I just call her Kokoro, although she calls me Sagami. Anyway, she asked me out the other day, and we ended up deciding to see a movie together.”

“Are you kidding me...?” I said. I was surprised by how quietly the words came out and how conspicuously my voice trembled as I said them. I had to be mad—I wanted to be furious—but I didn’t know what or who to be mad at, or even what sort of rage I should’ve been feeling. “How can you just say this crap like it’s nothing? Don’t you realize that—”

“Would count as cheating by most people’s standards? I suppose so,” said Sagami, finishing my thought with such disinterest you’d think he wasn’t even talking about his own actions. “Oh, but don’t get the wrong idea—I’m not planning on breaking up with Tamaki. Kokoro knows I have a girlfriend already, but she said she wanted to spend time with me anyway, and, well, what sort of guy could turn down an offer like that?”

“Who knows, and who cares! I don’t give a crap about her, whoever she was,” I said. “What about Tamaki? What about her feelings...?”

“Fair point. This probably would hurt her feelings if she knew about it...so let’s keep it between the two of us, eh?” said Sagami with an air of complete shamelessness. He made it sound like that was the obvious and best choice for everyone involved.

“Like hell I will... You seriously think I’ll help cover up your cheating?!” I spat. Even just thinking about doing that left a nauseous taste in my mouth. “Look...I’ll try to consider this as a onetime impulse and forgive you for it. I won’t say anything to Tamaki either. I just need you to get into contact with this Kokoro girl right now and break it off with her.”

“Why?” asked Sagami.

“You’re seriously asking me why you shouldn’t be cheating? Isn’t that kinda friggin’ obvious?!” I shouted. But no matter how firmly I insisted on my position, Sagami’s aloof attitude didn’t budge. I could’ve accomplished as much by talking to a wall as I had by scolding him.

“Let me ask you a question, Jurai,” said Sagami. “How many manga are you reading right now?”

“Huh?”

“Just answer me. You can leave out the ones that’re serialized weekly, if you want. How many series do you regularly buy new volumes of whenever they come out?”

“I dunno... Twenty or so, probably.”

“Well then, tell me this: have you ever considered picking a single series you like the best and reading it exclusively?”

I paused for a moment as his words sunk in.

“You haven’t, right?” Sagami continued. “Of course you haven’t. You like to read all sorts of stories. You don’t want to be tied down to a single one you like the best, so you cheat your little heart out. You’ve got a big, happy harem of stories at your beck and call. It’s the same thing, really.”

“It’s completely different! Manga and girlfriends aren’t even close to—”

“They’re the same as far as I’m concerned. I want to interact with and enjoy the company of all sorts of heroines. Even if I do have a favorite, that doesn’t mean I don’t want the rest of them as well. Watching just one single anime forever would be truly tedious, and beating it to just one single eroge forever would be an exercise in futility.”

There was nothing I could say to that. I mean, there were plenty of valid arguments against his position. Sagami’s theory was deeply flawed no matter how you looked at it, and I was inclined to see it as nothing more than a slapdash attempt to justify his behavior. If you took a poll, I think the vast majority of people would agree with me. Nevertheless, I found myself at a loss for words. I realized that no matter what I said to him, it would be pointless. His attitude was unbudging, and I was now keenly aware how fruitless attempting to talk him down would be.

“Though, well, all that being said,” Sagami began as he stood face-to-face with me. Really, it was more like he was looking up at me since I was a little taller than him...and yet somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling he was looking down on me instead. It felt like he was standing far away above me, observing me from on high like a spectator from a totally different dimension. “You’re certainly right in the sense that I should be prioritizing Tamaki for the moment. She really is my number one right now after all. Cheating with some other girl just isn’t worth it if it means I’ll end up missing out on my favorite. So, fine—I won’t meet up with Kokoro again.”

For the moment. Right now. It felt like Sagami was putting a very clear emphasis on those words. With that, he turned his back to me and began to walk away. “If that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’ll be heading along home now. Bye-bye, Jurai—oh, and thanks again for the film strip.”

I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask just how much he’d wanted that stupid thing. I was left standing there still and speechless as the sun sank below the horizon and the park fell into darkness.

That was the moment when the cracks began to show. I’d touched upon the darkness that lurked behind the perfect, happy couple I’d thought would always be all over each other, and I found myself feeling what I could only describe as dread.

That was also the moment I came to a realization: if you find a crack, it means you’re already too too late. Like how cancer only produces symptoms once the disease is too extensive to cure, a crack isn’t a portent of a relationship’s dissolution, but is rather a characteristic of one that is actively, inevitably disintegrating.

The darkness in their relationship had been left unaddressed, so it had begun growing and infecting everything around it.

Quietly, ever so quietly, the sickness spread.

Quietly, ever so quietly, the darkness deepened.