“So you want to become friends with her like ordinary classmates, keeping the fact that you’re sisters a secret from everyone...?”
“Yeah. And I want your help with that.”
Was she trying to put that plan into action now? I’d never imagined it would happen so soon. However...
“Autumn will come and go, and by the time winter starts, I want to be able to be by Maria’s side again. I want to once again go halfsies on papico ice cream with her as we watch TV under the kotatsu together.”
Giving it more thought, I realized that it was already the end of September. Perhaps this was Runa’s best opportunity to start things.
“O-Okay... I-I’ll join,” I said. Many of my classmates were looking at me, and it was freaking me out.
At that, some people started teasing us.
“Don’t start making out at committee meetings now!”
Regardless, the committee almost had enough members from our class now, so everybody looked relieved.
“Does anybody else want to join? We need one more,” said the class representative, surveying the classroom.
“Umm!” I called out, my hand still in the air. It was embarrassing to have so many eyes on me, so my voice came out horribly falsetto. Though that made me even more mortified, I desperately continued forcing the words out. “I-I think...I-Ijichi-kun...is a good candidate...”
“Huh?” the class representative uttered, surprised. Perhaps she hadn’t expected me to suggest an introvert. “Is that okay with you, Ijichi-kun...?” She looked skeptical—maybe she thought I was just getting at him.
Acting strangely, Icchi nonetheless nodded. “Yes...!” he said in a happy voice—though one unfittingly quiet for his size.
Festival committee members were recruited from first- and second-year students with five per class every year. Each cohort had five classes, so the committee had fifty members in total. Everyone was split up into subcommittees to manage different things, like the reception desk and keeping track of equipment, and subcommittees would be responsible for their areas until the start of the festival.
That day after school, when committee members were being assigned to different areas, Icchi was in high spirits.
“Man, you telling me you can’t just do your committee work by yourself? Oh well...”
He seemed to have assumed I’d recommended he join because I’d wanted a fellow introvert with me. I figured he’d get angry and go all “I-It’s not like that!” if I said I’d been trying to give him an opportunity to be with Tanikita-san, though, so I let him believe what he wanted.
Right now, the committee members, including me, were sitting in no particular order in the chemistry room. We’d borrowed it to decide on our duties. I sat together with Icchi, and Runa and Tanikita-san were in front of us. Kurose-san sat at some distance behind us by herself.
A student in our cohort from a different class had been selected as the head of the committee after she’d announced her candidacy. She told us all about what would be required of us.
“Now then, we should decide who does what,” she said afterward. “Please raise your hand if you’re interested in the task I mention. I’ll begin with those that don’t require many people. First, we’ll need three people to make pamphlets. I’d like second-year students to take care of this.”
This subcommittee would be making pamphlets that included the festival’s timeline and guide maps of the school. Apparently, the people assigned to do this would also need to consult a printing office as part of the process. It was unlikely to be all that difficult since we could almost completely reuse previous years’ pamphlets as templates. However, the head of the committee said this task was best suited for people who were good at writing and those interested in publishing.
I figured it wasn’t for me, and it didn’t require many people either. But as I let my mind wander...
“Only you?” the committee head asked as she looked behind me.
Turning around, I saw Kurose-san raising her hand without a word.
Runa had turned around as well. She then faced forward again and immediately raised her hand. “Me too!” she announced. Next, she turned toward me. “Ryuto...”
Her eyes seemed to be pleading for help. It appeared that she really was trying to put her plan into action.
“M-Me too,” I said, putting my own hand up.
“Very well, that’s the required three,” announced the committee head.
And so, the three of us—Runa, Kurose-san, and I—had ended up in the pamphlet-making subcommittee. Just us.
Wait, how are we even gonna do this?! The mere thought of it made cold sweat appear on my skin.
“Whaaat?! Runy, didn’t you say we should do something together?” protested Tanikita-san.
“S-Sorry, I just got this urge to make pamphlets all of a sudden...” said Runa with an awkward smile, making an excuse.
Meanwhile, a certain matter appeared on my mind and I turned to look behind me.
I was startled as my eyes nearly met Kurose-san’s before she immediately turned her face away. Her cheeks were red, and she was clearly discomposed.
Of course she’d feel that way... She must’ve never seen this coming.
After that, one subcommittee was formed after another, and Icchi managed to be put in charge of decorations together with Tanikita-san. They’d have to do things like set up an arch in front of the school gates and decorate the hallways and the gym. There were a lot of students assigned to that one, including some freshmen, but they’d probably have at least some opportunities to talk as long as they worked on the same things.
“Now, split up into your areas, introduce yourselves to each other, and that will be it for today,” announced the committee head. “Each subcommittee will have a supervising teacher. They’ll give you more details later on about what exactly you have to do for the upcoming festival, as well as your deadlines.”
At that, everybody got up and started slowly walking around.
“Equipment over here!”
“Decorations, gather here please!”
Giving a sidelong glance to the subcommittees calling out to each other, Runa and I looked at each other and, without a word, headed to the back of the classroom.
Our subcommittee only had three people, so there was no need to use our voices to get together.
And so, Runa and I went over to Kurose-san.
It was awkward for all three of us. Even Runa couldn’t hide it, and she had willingly created this situation.
We didn’t need to introduce ourselves—we all knew each other’s faces, names, and everything else quite well. For a while we just observed one another, standing in the shape of an equilateral triangle.
“Let’s do our best together.” Runa was the first to speak. Though it was an awkward one, her lips were curved into a smile nonetheless.
“Yeah, let’s...” I added, since this standoff would probably never end if I didn’t say anything.
Kurose-san had been hanging her head and holding one elbow with her other hand, but at that point, she lifted her face. Giving us a momentary glance, she turned away and slightly opened her mouth.
“Let’s...”
Though there were many difficulties waiting ahead of us, Runa’s “Friendship Project”—her plan to become friends with Kurose-san—was about to be set in motion.
***
Things sure were getting complicated. My relationship with Kurose-san had been complicated enough as it was, but now this took things a step further. I still had to keep avoiding her at cram school too.
The following Saturday morning, I was doing my homework for the previous days’ classes in the study room when Sekiya-san approached me.
“’Sup, Yamada!” he called out.
I had told him my real name, but he’d said it would be bad if Kurose-san overheard it, so he continued to call me Yamada. One time when he’d called out to me at the reception desk, the woman staffing it had done a double take since she had known me.
Outside of that, it didn’t really inconvenience me in any way.
“You haven’t had lunch yet, right? Why don’t we get some together?” he offered.
“I’ll be done in about ten minutes.”
“All right, then. I’ll wait for you outside.”
With that, he left the study room. We both had people we were avoiding at this cram school, so this must’ve been the right time for him to get out.
Sekiya-san was pretty considerate of me, but he acted like it didn’t matter to him at all, so even a guy like me who tended to overthink things could get along with him pretty well. I wasn’t part of any clubs because I didn’t like hierarchical relationships, so I’d never thought I’d find myself talking so candidly to a good-looking guy who was older than me by two whole years.
Sekiya-san would give me tips, like how to save a seat in class and when to ask tutors questions. There was no denying the fact that he’d made my life at cram school more comfortable, so I wanted to treasure our acquaintanceship.
“So, what’s the matter?” he asked me from across the table. We were at a family restaurant specializing in ramen.
“Huh?”
“You were sighing in the study room earlier. Is this about that Kurose-san again?”
I didn’t reply.
“Come on, spit it out. It’s easier if you tell someone about it. I’m pretty confident about giving advice when girls are involved.”
I thought about it for a moment, but since he was kinda getting on my nerves, I decided not to tell him the truth.
“No, I was just having trouble with my English homework.”
“Really? Need my help? Don’t stress about stuff so much; you’re still in your second year.”
I sighed. The truth was that I wanted to work hard so I didn’t end up like him, but I would’ve felt bad to actually say that to his face.
Then, a question popped up in my mind as we waited for our ramen. “How did you end up as a ronin, Sekiya-san?”
“Ah...” He covered his face. “Do you need to ask? I failed my college exams when I was a third-year. What else could it be?”
I’d figured as much, but I had wanted to ask just in case something in particular had held him back.
“I kinda spent too much time on girls back in school...” he then added. “Didn’t have time to study...”
“Wow...”
He’s a sunny type, all right. And he even had a lot of fun in school...
Seeing me recoil, Sekiya-san waved his hand as if he were flustered.
“Look, when an introvert like me who never dated anyone until middle school suddenly becomes a chick magnet when he gets to high school, how could he not get carried away and fool around?”
“Whaaat...?”
Was that even possible? He hadn’t always been popular and fooled around?
As I looked at him doubtfully, Sekiya-san tapped on his phone and showed it to me.
“Look at this. That’s me in my third year of middle school.”
Displayed on the screen was a middle schooler in a PE uniform. The boy had something of a short haircut and gave off a completely different impression than Sekiya-san’s current self. His eyes looked evil, and you’d think he went to a school out in the middle of nowhere. Could someone really change that much by changing just their hairstyle?
“See? How would a guy like that be popular?” he asked.
“Wait, you’re just randomly showing me pictures of yourself back when you didn’t have good looks...?”
Aren’t you embarrassed? was the part I left unsaid.
“It’s not like that,” replied Sekiya-san, laughing. “This was taken when I won a local tournament. That’s why it’s one of my favorites. It was a moment of glory in my life.”
“A tournament? You were athletic?” I asked.
He burst into laughter. “It was just ping-pong! You can see the paddle right there in my hand! You really don’t give two shits about me, huh?”
While Sekiya-san had a sharp tongue, he smiled with his whole face, and the tone of his deep voice was friendly. Because of that, even when he used foul language with me, it didn’t bother me at all. When you took his current looks into consideration too, it was no wonder he’d become a chick magnet.
“But if you were so good at ping-pong, weren’t you popular with girls even before changing your image?” I asked.
“With a younger girl from my club, yeah.”
“See?” And here he called himself an introvert.
As I stared at him scornfully, Sekiya-san laughed again.
“It was just her, though. She was our manager and we got along pretty well. We even started dating after we graduated middle school. She told me I should change my hairstyle. I grew my hair out some after I stopped going to ping-pong club, so...”
“You did a one-eighty when coming to high school?”
“Exactly.”
“So, what happened with that girl?” I asked.
Sekiya-san lowered his eyes and didn’t reply.
“Did you...?”
Cheat on her a hundred times, toy with her until you were bored, and then toss her aside...? was the continuation inside my mind.
Seeing my judgmental look, Sekiya-san’s reply was flustered. “Nah, the way I broke it off with her wasn’t that horrible... Well, I guess it kinda was horrible...for her.”
Sekiya-san went silent after that. He seemed to be conflicted about that girl.
Then, our ramen arrived, and we moved away from that topic.
No amount of talking to Sekiya-san would do anything about my situation with Kurose-san. There was no denying that.
For the time being, I had to not let her see me at the cram school while assisting Runa’s Friendship Project to the best of my ability.
October came, and the committee’s work began for real.
As the subcommittee in charge of pamphlets, our primary task was to get clubs and classes who were preparing something for the festival—as well as teachers and the festival committee head—to write content for us. We’d then put all of that together and prepare a manuscript before the deadline. We already had the previous years’ versions of the guide map of the school as well as an introduction page to start from, but it was up to us to decide on things like the layout and the cover. That was how we could make this year’s materials stand out from the rest.
The cultural festival had a different theme every year. This time around, its slogan was “For the Future,” written in English. How we’d apply that to the pamphlet’s design was up to us.
First, we had to discuss our plan of attack for the pamphlets. And for that reason, the three of us had borrowed the meeting room at school one day after classes and were now sitting together at a rectangular table. Runa and I were on one side, and Kurose-san was on the other.
Silence hung over the room. Runa had been restless for a while, quietly watching Kurose-san as she sat across from her. The latter was looking at some pamphlets from recent years in her hands, which had been left on the table as a reference.
After a while, Runa spoke up, as if having gathered her resolve. “Have you been well, Maria?”
Kurose-san’s shoulders twitched. She still faced the pamphlets in her hands, but her eyes moved toward Runa.
“Yeah,” she said with a stiff expression and then gave the slightest nod by only pulling her chin backward just a bit.
I felt like this was my first time witnessing these sisters communicate directly.
“What have you been up to recently?” Runa asked her.
“What do you mean...? Nothing in particular.”
“I mean, like, hobbies.”
Runa anxiously asked question after question as Kurose-san gave her curt replies.
“Hobbies? I watch videos and stuff, I guess.”
“Oh, you do?! Ah, hey, have you seen Gyaru School’s new dance vid?! I think it’s even better than Yarirafi!”
“Huh...? What’re you even talking about? Are we speaking the same language?”
Runa went silent and looked dejected at the fact that Maria gave her a cold reply even after Runa had found something they could talk about. The look in her eyes practically said, “My HP is low. I want to rest for a turn.”
That prompted me to nervously speak up. “Kurose-san, what kind of videos do you watch?”
She looked at me in surprise, then thought for a short while before saying anything back. “I like to watch gameplay videos.”
“What?!” It was my turn to be surprised. “What games?”
“I guess there’s a lot of horror games... I watch Kino’s and Gachaman’s videos often.”
“Yeah, I know them. I watched their Let’s Plays of Reticent Evil and stuff. They’re really good...”
They were both popular so I’d watched them a few times, like after a game I had been interested in came out.
“Oh, you’ve watched them? I’ll watch pretty much anything when it comes to horror games, even if the YouTuber isn’t that good at it. Though Let’s Plays of popular ones are surprisingly fun. Have you seen Karino Eiko’s?” she then asked.
“Ah, no, I haven’t. I know he blew up, though. Guess his channel is good, huh? I’ll check it out sometime soon.”
This is getting fun. This is my first time talking to a girl who likes gameplay videos. Who could’ve thought Kurose-san had a hobby like that?
“I guess sometimes I watch videos of other kinds of games too if I feel like it. I think I watch pretty much all the popular gaming YouTubers.”
Hearing that, I made up my mind to ask the question. “So... You know KEN? I’m a fan of his...”
“Ah, he’s a former pro gamer, right? I watched him when he did videos of Identity VI and Mafia Punishment. I’ve stopped watching him because he doesn’t post those anymore, though.”
“He still posts videos on Mafia, actually!”
“Really?” she asked. “I’ll take a look sometime, then.”
“Wait, you don’t watch stuff like his sixty-person Yourcraft videos?”
“I’m not a fan of those audience-participation videos where he plays with active Kids. It’s so lame when a video is just a constant stream of inside jokes.”
“That’s not true! It’s mainly KEN talking, and as you watch, you’ll gradually get to know the personalities of different Kids and it’ll become fun.”
“But even then, where am I even supposed to start watching?”
“Anywhere is fine, but I recommend—”
Then, with a start, I remembered that Runa was here too. Looking over at her, I saw she had a blank, dumbfounded look on her face, just as I expected.
Damn. I wanted to support her Friendship Project, but I ended up getting excited all on my own and neglecting her.
“A-Anyway, I think it’s about time we got to the main topic...” I suggested as things got awkward.
After that, we finally began to discuss the pamphlets.
I’d never thought that Kurose-san would have geeky hobbies. In my mental image of her back in middle school, she was just a beautiful girl who was an honors student. I’d only been attracted to her appearance, so I supposed it wasn’t so strange that I’d never known about this.
I couldn’t tell if Runa’s Friendship Project was making progress or not, but our discussion regarding the pamphlets got underway with an adequate start, perhaps thanks to the chat we’d just had.
“We should decide on the concept of the overall design,” I said during our second discussion.
“Well... Why not go with something really cute? It’s a festival, so something sparkly and colorful would be great! And we could make the cover pink with glitter...”
As Runa said all that with sparkling eyes, Kurose-san tilted her head.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “The cultural festival isn’t only for girls, so I think a more refined design—maybe something monotone—would be best. That way, boys and parents wouldn’t be embarrassed carrying them. The theme we’re working with is ‘For the Future,’ so we should set our eyes on it and make the kind of pamphlets adults would make.”
“Eh...? But we’re still in high school, so can’t we make it at least a little cute...? You know, like a bright future... Is that not an option?”
Runa looked unsatisfied, but her Friendship Project seemed to have left her unable to push back too strongly against her sister.
She then looked at me as if asking for help. “What do you think, Ryuto?”
“Ngh...”
This was quite the predicament. Why? Because I definitely preferred Kurose-san’s suggestion.
However, as Runa’s boyfriend—and also because of the trouble that had happened between us which had begun with Kurose-san—I felt like I couldn’t support her here instead of my girlfriend.
“W-Well... Why don’t we try something in the middle?”
At my last-ditch suggestion, both girls’ faces clouded over.
“What do you mean by that?” Runa asked.
“What kind of design are you talking about, specifically?” Kurose-san added.
“W-Well...” I desperately racked my brains. “Like, we can make a monotone, refined design, but with just a bit of pink, sparkly stuff...”
“What’re you talking about? If we muddy the concept like that, don’t you think it’ll just look ugly as a result?” Kurose-san shot down my idea out of hand.
Judging by her behavior, though, it appeared that Kurose-san didn’t have any feelings for me anymore. It was a little sad to think about, but this was for the best.
In the end, we didn’t manage to agree on the pamphlet’s concept that day.
“You don’t communicate enough,” a veteran teacher told us after checking on our progress. She was about forty and had been supervising pamphlet-makers for a long time. “First, you need to have a good discussion. Please agree on something by the next time I check up on you.” And with that, she left.
We don’t communicate enough, huh...
I supposed it was true. After all, there were two sisters here who hadn’t had a proper conversation for years now.
Runa sighed. She seemed fed up with herself over the fact she was getting nowhere in her attempts to get along with Kurose-san. But after taking glances at her sister who was gathering the previous years’ pamphlets and preparing to leave, Runa put on a smile as though to encourage herself.
“Hey, Maria,” she said, prompting Kurose-san to stop what she was doing and look at her. “Do you ever watch makeup videos? Have you heard of Sekimoto Misa? If you’re looking to buy new makeup, her videos are really helpful.”
“I don’t watch her and I’ve never heard of her. I don’t even wear makeup.”
Another cold reply.
Runa must’ve picked this approach because Kurose-san had said she liked watching videos. Poor girl, being shot down again like that, I thought, but Kurose-san seemed to have given the matter more thought.
“Ah, but...” she began, making Runa’s face light up with hope. “I guess I put on a bit of makeup when cosplaying.”
Confusion appeared on Runa’s face again. “Huh? Cosplaying? Maria, you do cosplay?”
“Yeah. Like when I feel like dressing up as a character from a game I like. I don’t have friends who’ll cosplay with me, so I’m simply one of those cosplayers who do it at home and take selfies purely for themselves.”
“What kind of costumes do you make?”
“Stuff like this.” Kurose-san then showed Runa her phone.
Sitting beside her, I caught sight of the screen too.
“Ah... Hey, isn’t that the gardener from Identity VI?” I asked.
Kurose-san nodded, a little gleam appearing in her eyes. “Yeah. I like Yuma-chan.”
“Did you make that outfit yourself? It’s just like in the game.”
“No, I bought it on a secondhand app for two thousand yen. Pretty cute, right? It’s my favorite out of all of Yuma’s outfits.”
“That’s nice. I guess you didn’t go for the button eyes, though.”
“I have photos with those too,” she said. “Here.”
“Whoa, this is amazing! It’s perfect. It’s like looking at a live-action adaptation,” I said in admiration when she showed me a different photo. “Wouldn’t this go viral if you put it on Twitter or something?”
“Eh, I don’t want to. It’s embarrassing.”
“But isn’t it a waste when it’s so perfect?”
“I don’t wanna.”
As my heart almost skipped a beat upon seeing Kurose-san’s bashfulness and her flushing cheeks, it hit me—once again, I’d left Runa behind.
With her mouth hanging open, Runa was watching me and Kurose-san talk. When my eyes met hers, her expression turned a bit sulky.
She’s being jealous... How cute. But even though I thought that, I couldn’t let this situation continue.
“L-Let’s call it a day, I guess,” I suggested.
Thus, Runa’s Friendship Project had not only made little progress, but it felt like it was advancing in an undesirable direction. While the latter was my fault, I couldn’t do anything about it.
***
One Sunday, an unofficial get-together for committee members took place.
Since we were in charge of making pamphlets, we’d be done with almost all of our work a week before the festival. Many other subcommittees, however, would be at their busiest during the festival itself. The point of this get-together was so that everyone involved could mingle without worrying about social hierarchies so we could work together better when the festival happened.
Then again, I had no doubt that this was just a pretext—in reality, I was sure that all the extroverts in the committee simply wanted to meet up and have fun.
The get-together started at 10 a.m. and was held in a party room at a karaoke place in Shibuya. While the extroverts in the group had fun eating and singing karaoke, Icchi and I talked about KEN instead. Runa was boisterously chatting with Tanikita-san and girls from other classes.
To my surprise, Kurose-san had shown up too, even though participation wasn’t mandatory. She’d spoken to several guys and girls who’d taken turns striking up conversations with her and was now quietly sitting by herself.
After roughly three hours of constant clatter, the get-together came to an end. I’d come because Icchi had looked like he’d wanted me to keep him company (probably because he’d wanted to be in the same room with Tanikita-san), but in the end, I was left thinking that introverts like me really shouldn’t be at such events. I left the karaoke place feeling a little tired.
At that point, Runa spoke to me. “It looks like people are going to Saizeriya after this. Me and Akari are going—what about you?”
“Ah, I’m heading home. I have to study for cram school...”
There was going to be a short test there the following Saturday. If I did poorly on it, I couldn’t take the advanced English classes offered during the winter term, so I had to be thorough in my studies.
“Okay. Well, guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck studying,” said Runa.
“Thanks.”
Waving at me, Runa walked uphill together with Tanikita-san and the others.
Then, Icchi, who’d been keeping some distance from me, returned to my side.
“I’m going home too...” he said.
“Okay,” I replied.
Icchi looked reluctant to leave. He must’ve been curious to spend more time with Tanikita-san, but they’d probably split into several groups once they got to the family restaurant. Being social in smaller groups would surely require a higher level of communication skills. I figured he didn’t have the confidence.
I glanced at Kurose-san and saw that she didn’t seem to be going with everyone else either. I wondered if she was going home or to the study room at the cram school.
In fact, I was actually planning on going to the study room myself. That was why I’d taken my supplies with me when I’d left home that morning. The reason being—I couldn’t stop myself from watching videos at home, and as a result, I couldn’t focus.
If Kurose-san was heading to the same place as me, I couldn’t let my guard down at any point from now until I got to Ikebukuro. We’d also arrive at the study room at the same time. This was dangerous in many ways.
I could go to a different campus of Cram School K and use the study room there, but Sekiya-san had told me that the norms and unwritten rules in these rooms differed between campuses. I didn’t want to bother going there if I had to mind things like that.
Going to a café or something similar was an option too, but some of them weren’t suitable for studying. And, if possible, I wanted to go somewhere quiet where I could study for free.
The idea of going to a library suddenly came to mind. I did a search on my phone and found a metropolitan library in Hiroo. Apparently, it was about a ten-minute train ride away from Shibuya. Parting with Icchi, I decided to try my luck there.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Library’s Central Branch was located in Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park. It was spacious with lots of trees and some areas with different elevations and small hills. I went up the stairs while looking at the kind of playground equipment you’d find in a regular park, a tasteful pond that looked like it would belong in a Japanese-style garden, and some other features. Eventually, the library’s modern building came into view.
This quiet area was far removed from the hustle and bustle I’d just left behind in Shibuya. It made me hopeful that I’d be able to focus here.
I was worried that they might not let me in since I wasn’t a resident of metropolitan Tokyo, but to my relief, my library pass was enough to get me access.
The reading rooms on each floor of the library had long tables by the windows at an appropriate distance from each other. There was room for several people at each. I figured it would be nice to have the park’s greenery in view as I studied, so I went to an area that looked unoccupied.
I felt awkward about blatantly studying for college exams in a reading room, so I picked up a book to use as camouflage before taking a seat by the windows. Someone else’s stuff was across the table from me, but this was the only space by a window that wasn’t taken. Hoping the other person would never show up, I laid out my textbooks and got to studying. But then...
“Ah...” came a quiet voice.
I looked up and went wide-eyed. “Kurose-san...?!”
Sure enough, Kurose-san was standing in front of me. She was just about to sit down with her books as I’d done earlier. Her eyes were full of disbelief.
“Wh-What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I wanted to study...” she replied. “Our midterms are close.”
“R-Right... Me too.”
I recalled that we certainly did have midterms coming up next week. I couldn’t afford to give all my attention to the cram school.
It then hit me that if she were to see my cram school textbooks, she’d realize I went to Cram School K. It would then only be a matter of time before she found out we went to the same campus. With that in mind, I casually moved my notebooks so they’d hide my textbooks. Since I had my normal school’s textbooks with me too, I figured I’d study for the midterms today instead.
However...that didn’t answer the question I had on my mind.
“Why are you here, Kurose-san...?”
But at that point, a man beside us cleared his throat, so I went silent.
Let’s just study for now. It would be weird to change seats at this point.
After that, while I did have Kurose-san on my mind, I was able to more or less focus in the now-quiet room. I studied for about an hour and a half.
“Kashima-kun,” called out Kurose-san from diagonally behind me.
I turned around to find that at some point, she’d made her way there. Her books and notebooks were arranged neatly at her seat across from me.
“I’m going to the cafeteria for a break. Would you like to go together?” she suggested.
“Oh, uh, okay.”
We can’t chat here, not even a little bit. And she bothered to ask. Plus, we’re in the same committee group. It should be fine to just have tea together or something...
With all that in mind, I got up too.
Just like the reading rooms, the cafeteria on the fifth floor was a pleasant room with large windows. We sat at a table by a window, facing each other, and took a break.
Kurose-san ordered a corn dog.
“There wasn’t much to eat at that karaoke place,” she said before opening her small mouth wide and stuffing it with the corn dog.
She really is cute.
Today, Kurose-san was wearing a striped, pink jumper dress. It was layered over a blouse with a large collar, and the frilly lace on the blouse made it look extremely girly. Since she and Runa were twins, I was sure clothes like this would suit Runa too. I wanted to see how she’d look in them.
“There wasn’t nearly enough food and the guys wouldn’t stop eating, so I barely got to have anything,” said Kurose-san.
“Sorry...”
I hadn’t been one of the people responsible, but I apologized, as a guy.
“You didn’t eat much either, did you?” Shooting me a glance, Kurose-san giggled. “You’re having something now, after all.”
She motioned to the plate in front of me. As she’d pointed out, I was a little hungry, so I’d been eating french fries.
Kurose-san’s natural smile caught me by surprise. It felt like this was my first time seeing it. Her cunning smile that she normally showed to guys—the one I’d grown used to seeing since middle school—was cute too, but somehow, this one was more relaxing to see.
If she can act so naturally in front of me, then she probably really is over me already. That’s a relief...
Would it be a good idea to tell Runa that I ran into Kurose-san here at the library today? I probably should. It’s not like I’m doing anything to be ashamed of.
As I went silent in thought, Kurose-san spoke up again. “Do you come here often?”
“Huh? No...” I shook my head. “It’s my first time. I only found out about it when I looked it up. What about you?”
“I came here often when I was going to my previous school. It was just one train station away.”
“Really? Your school was in a hell of a place...”
A school in the Minato ward, and in an area lined with embassies at that?
“Was it, by any chance, a school for girls from rich families?” I asked.
“It was,” Kurose-san readily admitted, and she placed the stick of the corn dog she’d finished eating on her plate. “My former stepfather was in management there. He said I might as well go to a school with good resources, so I got into Girls’ School T.”
“Huh...”
It was my first time hearing this from Kurose-san, though I felt like I’d heard rumors from classmates that she’d gone to an all-girls school before transferring to ours.
“I liked that school... That’s why the saddest thing for me about Mom getting divorced again was the fact that I had to transfer.”
I thought about that for a moment. “But wait, if the school is in this area, couldn’t you have kept going to it, even from your new home?”
Kurose-san’s place was in this city just like mine, so it couldn’t have been so far away that she couldn’t go there.
She smiled at my question, but there was sadness in her expression.
“I didn’t transfer because it was far. After my parents stopped getting along, my father didn’t pay the tuition for the first term of my second year. I couldn’t stay.”
“Tuition... I see. I guess it would be expensive at a school like that...”
I felt embarrassed that I was such a commoner that I hadn’t realized such a thing.
“Ah, but didn’t your mother get at least a bit of your stepfather’s fortune from the divorce...?” I asked.
It felt like I’d heard something to that effect in the news at some point.
At that, Kurose-san bit her lip. “I wonder if he even had that much money. About a half year before they got divorced, his business failed and he ended up in debt. That was when he became irritable and started to get violent with my mom. Money wasn’t really on our minds when we left at the end.”
“I see...”
I felt like I finally understood why Kurose-san had transferred to our school at such an odd time.
“Once my mom started considering a divorce, she found her current job, but she’s not a permanent employee... We don’t have much money. I got these clothes and this bag from my stepfather back when he was nice.”
A nostalgic smile appeared on Kurose-san’s face as she narrowed her eyes. There was something heartrending about her expression, and I felt like I had to say something here.
“But hey, I’m glad you don’t have trouble going to our school at least,” I said.
Our school was a private one too, so it must’ve been difficult for her to go there if she was really badly off.
However, Kurose-san gave me a cheerless smile. “The tuition is less than half of what it was at my previous school. And thanks to the assistance system that covers high school tuition, it’s effectively free for us.”
“What, really? I-Is that a thing...?”
My parents never told me anything like that...
As I got flustered, Kurose-san once again gave me a weak smile. “That system only works for schools in your prefecture. Officially, I’m living at my aunt’s place.”
“O-Oh, I see...”
So they’d found a loophole. It felt like I’d just heard something I wasn’t supposed to, which made my heart pound.
Kurose-san gazed at me. “You don’t find it strange, Kashima-kun? Why do you think I chose to transfer to our school?”
After a bit of hesitation, I asked, “To have your revenge on Shirakawa-san?”
Kurose-san smiled. “No.” She then cast her eyes down. “It’s true that I held a grudge against her. She had our dad, our fashionable grandma who’s even a good cook, and a stable livelihood... I’ve taken it out on Runa before: why am I the only one who has to deal with all this? I’ve even changed my surname so many times...”
It pained me to imagine how Runa must’ve felt to hear that. I felt sympathy for both sisters.
“But as for why I transferred to this school... I probably did it to please her.”
“Huh...?”
“She likes surprises. I’m sure you know that, as her boyfriend,” said Kurose-san with a faint smile.
“Ah, yeah.” I nodded.
“I’ve said so many nasty things to her... Told her that I hated her so many times... But I think that, somewhere deep inside, I took advantage of her kindness. I thought she’d still forgive me. That she’d always like me.” Kurose-san looked just a little happy as she spoke. “So I was hopeful. I was sure that Runa would be happy to see me enter her classroom and that she’d go like, ‘Oh, Maria! Hey, everyone, that girl’s my sister!’” Her mimicry of Runa’s voice was still really impressive. She was describing a scene that could’ve easily happened in a parallel universe. “Which is why it was shocking for me. The way Runa looked utterly bewildered when she saw me.”
So that’s how it was...
At the time, I’d had too much of my own stuff going on and couldn’t have spared any attention to Runa’s reaction toward the transfer student.
“Was that why you did what you did?”
Kurose-san nodded at my question. “It was. Now that I think about it, what I did was stupid. Everything that involved her and you, in fact,” she said quietly, looking disheartened and frowning just a little. Then, she lifted her face. “But thanks to that screwup, I’ve stopped faking it like I used to. Everyone hates me anyway, so what’s the point in playing the coquette?”
I’d sensed that, even at the get-together earlier today. Speaking like this to her now, I felt like I understood her real personality even better.
“You see, Kashima-kun, I had an easy time at that all-girls school. Because there were only girls around me. I didn’t need to make guys like me, so for the first time, I could be myself at school. I feel like...little by little, I’m coming back to that now.” Kurose-san then gazed at me with lowered eyebrows. “I’m sorry for a lot of things.”
She’s not a bad girl. Though I’ve had a hunch about that for a while.
Of course she wasn’t. She was Runa’s sister, after all.
“It’s fine; don’t worry about it,” I said.
It was in the past now.
Though at the same time, my ego made me a little bit sad about the fact she’d completely moved on from me.
“Well then, what do you say we get back to studying?” I suggested.
“Ah, wait a moment. I need to use the bathroom.”
Saying that, Kurose-san took her handkerchief and accessory case out of her bag and started to get up from her seat.
However...
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