3.1
As I felt the boiling heat on my skin, I wiped sweat off my forehead.
“But…why is Kikyou-chan not here?! Huh, Ayanokouji?! She’s the most important person!” shouted Ike.
The first thing out of Ike’s mouth when we met was his concern regarding Kushida’s absence. I wished he wouldn’t turn to me for an explanation. I wasn’t in charge of Horikita and Kushida’s schedules. Perhaps Ike found me easy to vent to, but I was honestly getting sick of it.
“Try to calm down. Remember, Kushida never said that she’d go with us.” Kushida had seemingly invited her other girlfriends shopping, rather than spend time with a bunch of overheated boys.
“I’m not convinced! If Kikyou-chan isn’t here, there’s no point!” Ike shouted.
That was going too far. I wished he'd stop trying to reject the entire gathering.
“Now I have to shop for a present I don’t even care about with a bunch of assholes!” Yamauchi complained.
I understood why he wanted to shout, but it wasn’t like I wanted to hang out with a bunch of dumb guys, either. Well, I supposed I was enjoying this a little. It was the first time I’d hung out with other guys during summer vacation, besides the special tests. Normal people generally do things like shop or go the movies with their friends.
“It’s pretty lame to go shopping for a birthday present when it’s just us three assholes, huh? Haruki, I’ll leave the rest to you. Go ahead and pick something Kokoro-chan would like,” said Ike.
“Screw that. You wanted to go, so you should do the shopping!” countered Yamauchi.
The two of them bickered until I stepped in.
“How about you two calm down? It’ll be better if we shop together, right? Sudou’s also entrusted us with his share of the points,” I said.
“That’s true, but I don’t think it’s necessary for the three of us to go,” Ike whined.
“We’ve come all this way. Let’s hurry up, buy the present, and head back,” I replied. “We’re wasting time and energy just standing here and complaining in this heat, don’t you agree?”
“Enough, I get it already. Let’s just buy it and head back. Ah, this is so boring!”
In contrast to the other two guys, I was a little excited as we headed to the store. Passing all the shops lined up on campus, we came to a store that girls frequented. The clerk was an older beauty, and the interior was completely pink. Frivolous objects like stuffed animals and cell phone accessories lined the shelves. It felt as though the shop was trying to squeeze private points out of the students.
“Well, since the school gave us points in the first place, it’s not really a loss,” I murmured.
“What are you muttering about? Come on, help us pick what we should buy,” said Ike. The two of them should have been ashamed of themselves. They were ogling the beautiful store clerk and the other girls as they shopped, clearly having a good time.
We split up and hunted around the store to find a birthday present. Of course, I’d never intended to pick it myself. I had no idea what to choose.
“Something Kokoro-chan would like, huh? Honestly, I have no clue,” I murmured.
This was my first time giving someone a birthday present, but I wasn’t sure whether I could categorize this as an individual “first” for me, since the present was supposed to come from the three of us. At any rate, I had no experience with birthday-present shopping. The only ideas I came up with were things like a bouquet of roses, or a ring, which were hardly sensible. Those weren’t even birthday gifts; they were what you’d bring to propose marriage. I wanted to find something safe.
After circling the shop, I met up with Yamauchi again. He held a small, white stuffed bear. I, meanwhile, had a cell phone case. When Yamauchi saw that, he grimaced.
“Just put that phone case away. Kokoro-chan definitely has one already. Besides, it’s so completely different from what she likes, I think it’d just cause trouble, honestly,” he said.
“I see. Well, how about this screen protector?” I showed him what I’d picked out as a backup plan. Yamauchi frowned even more deeply.
“No, no, no. She doesn’t need something like that. You really have no sense when it comes to this stuff, Ayanokouji.”
“But wouldn’t stuffed animals just clutter her room?” I asked. It wasn’t like a stuffed animal would be useful.
“Sure, it might be in the way, but she can use it to decorate. It matches her interior. Kokoro-chan likes the white bear series, so she should be happy with this present. Besides, I don’t want to hear any sass from the guy who picked out a screen protector,” Yamauchi snapped.
When he made fun of me like that, it really came as a shock. Still, I was honestly impressed that he’d researched the tastes of the gift’s recipient. I had enough trouble just trying to remember Inogashira’s name and face.
“So, where’s Kanji?”
“I wonder…”
We found Ike standing completely still over by the keychain section. He looked strangely serious, so we approached quietly. Ike was holding some kind of object with an orange character motif. He also held a cloth with the white bear character Yamauchi had mentioned on it.
“Hey, Kanji.”
“Wha—?! D-don’t surprise me like that! Jeez!” Flustered, Ike dropped the keychain. Then, for some reason, he immediately put it back on the shelf, as if trying to hide it.
“D-did you already decide?” Yamauchi asked.
“Yeah, I thought we’d buy this white bear towel. Ha ha ha,” Ike replied.
“Not that. Why were you looking at keychains?”
“Huh? It’s not like I have an ulterior motive or anything. Anyway, let’s see what’s over there.” Ike tried to change the subject. Yamauchi eyed him suspiciously.
“Wait. If I remember correctly, didn’t Shinohara like that orange character?”
I certainly hadn’t expected to hear Shinohara’s name. She was a girl from Class D. During the test on the uninhabited island, she’d clashed with Ike numerous times.
“R-really? That so? No, I was just wondering what Kikyou-chan would think, is all,” Ike bluffed. Despite his words, he was obviously shaken.
“Wait a minute. You’re not thinking about Shinohara, are you?” Yamauchi inquired.
“Huh?! What?! No way in hell, dude! That ugly chick? No way!”
It was certainly true that you might say Shinohara was plain, compared to Kushida. But she was plenty cute in her own right. She had a somewhat forbidding personality, but even that could be thought of as appealing.
“Are you for real? Something seems super suspicious here, don’t you think, Ayanokouji?”
“Well, that certainly didn’t seem like a typical Ike reaction,” I answered. Even though Ike was generally thrilled to see any and all girls, he seemed to openly dislike Shinohara. Perhaps he thought about her more than he was letting on, and didn’t want to admit to it.
“Look, don’t get the wrong idea!” Ike shouted. “Shinohara isn’t cute at all, and she has too much attitude! If I went out with a girl like her, I’d be too embarrassed to show my face anywhere!”
“Ah.”
Yamauchi and I had both noticed another presence in the store. We frantically tried to get Ike to change the subject.
“Sure, sure. We got it. We understand what you’re saying. Let’s go pick out Kokoro-chan’s birthday present,” urged Yamauchi.
“No, you don’t get it. You want to know how ugly I think Shinohara is? Listen up. It’s not just her face, her personality is ugly too, you know? Not to mention she’s practically a stick—she has, like, no curves. Even among other ugly chicks, she’s probably the ugliest!”
“A-all right, we get it already. Knock it off, Kanji! Look behind you!”
“Huh?”
Ike slowly turned. Shinohara stood behind him, looking as though she was about to start breathing fire. Glancing around the store, I saw her friends, including Kushida, some distance away. I supposed that was only natural. They were probably at the shop to pick out a birthday present for Inogashira, like us.
“You can just go ahead and die, Ike!”
With those heated words, Shinohara stormed out of the store. Ike watched her leave, seemingly unable to respond. He just stood there, dumbfounded, looking at Shinohara as she left.
“Wh-what does she mean, ‘die’? That’s rich, coming from an uggo. R-right, guys?”
Despite his shock, Ike tried to pretend he was still composed. We couldn’t really do anything, so we just nodded.
“H-hey, check it out, Ayanokouji! The baldy is here!” Yamauchi grabbed my shoulder.
He clearly wanted to change the subject. I immediately knew who he meant. A giant man whose forbidding appearance contrasted starkly with this cute store looked at a shelf lined with goods. His back was turned to us.
It was Katsuragi from Class A. He meandered around, wearing an intensely stern expression.
“You think he’s gonna shoplift?”
I really doubted that. Still, I hid without thinking, and watched him with Ike and Yamauchi. I was concerned by his appearance. Wearing a heavy student uniform in this kind of heat? Why would he do something so pointless? Katsuragi’s expression remained unchanged, but he glanced around as if worried about something. He certainly looked like someone thinking about stealing.
I unconsciously grabbed my phone. If I caught Katsuragi in the act, that could be useful later… No. I rejected that idea.
“Why would I think something like that?” I asked myself.
“Huh? What’d you say, Ayanokouji?”
“Nothing.” If Katsuragi tried to shoplift, that had nothing to do with me.
“H-hey. What’s baldy got there?!”
Yamauchi and Ike were anxious to witness a crime, almost as if they were anti-shoplifting undercover cops. However, Katsuragi returned the thin box to the shelf. He took down a similar item, then went through the same motions again. It looked less like he wanted to steal anything, and more like he was just confused about what to buy. Ike noticed the discrepancy as well, and looked puzzled.
“Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to see what he’s buying?” Ike suggested.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
So, Katsuragi came here to buy a present for someone. He seemed to be nearing a decision. Eventually, he picked a box off the shelf and made his way to the counter, moving cautiously, as if he didn't want the people around him to know.
Ike and Yamauchi rushed over to where Katsuragi had selected his present. The boxes looked like thin boards. They grabbed one, turned it over, and glanced at the product information.
“This is…chocolate.”
Ike and Yamauchi trembled, as if something had fired them up.
“W-wait, don’t tell me that baldy already has a girlfriend?!”
“Seriously?! So, that’s the power of Class A?!”
Ike and Yamauchi were evidently trembling with jealous rage over something so trivial.
“It might just be a present for a friend, right?”
“Who gives a present with such cute wrapping paper to a friend?! Would you?! No, you wouldn’t!”
“I guess not.”
It was certainly difficult to imagine giving such a cute little box, adorned with ribbons, to a friend. At the very least, I couldn’t imagine that you’d give it to someone of the same sex. It had to be for a girl Katsuragi was intimate with. That did suggest that he probably had a partner.
Ike and Yamauchi glanced at Katsuragi again as they hid behind the shelves, collecting information.
“Is this a birthday present for someone?” the clerk asked Katsuragi.
“Yes.”
“Would you like to include a birthday card?”
“Yes, please. The birthday is August 29.”
Katsuragi answered the clerk’s questions. Who in the world was the present for? Ike and Yamauchi started whispering.
“Did you hear that? Which girl has a birthday on the twenty-ninth?”
“I-I have no idea. I mean, today’s Sunday, the twenty-first, so…her birthday would be Monday next week, right? Do you know who it might be, Ayanokouji?”
“No clue.”
If those two didn’t know, there was no way I did.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login