"Um… Will you wait here for a moment?" I said to Otsuki, who had just entered the room.
"Oh, yes, take whatever you need." Otsuki didn't seem to mind my stepping aside for a moment. It was understandable; I had to get my textbooks. Although what I had in mind was completely different.
"I'll be down in no time." I was in a bit of a hurry, and not because anyone was pressuring me.
When I went upstairs, I entered my room and closed the door. The first thing I did was not to grab my bag, with all the books inside, but to open my closet, full of unnecessary things for doing homework.
"…" That's when I realized that, no matter what I wore, I was going to make a fool of myself anyway.
Yes, going out in pajamas was embarrassing, but with the clothes I had in my closet… it was all sweatshirts and sweatpants. I didn't have anything that looked even remotely decent.
"Someday I should go shopping with someone…"
It was very important to 'go with someone', especially since I had absolutely no idea about fashion or clothes in general, and if I was left to my own devices I was going to waste the money my father gave me.
I couldn't go with him either, because no matter what I wear, he always tells me it looks good on me. And surprisingly, I don't have any other options for who to go with.
What a dilemma… At this rate, I'm going to start high school with this same wardrobe.
In class I didn't care, because I have to wear a uniform, but if I meet someone and then go out with him, they'll probably start talking badly about me the next day.
It's not that I'm the only one that age who wears hoodies or simple things, but seeing how most people my age make a bit of an effort to dress well... even _¨*^?¿· dressed well.
I couldn't help but think about him, which annoyed me, but at the same time brought a strange feeling of unease. I closed the closet before I could think about more things I didn't want to hear.
"I hope you don't mind me staying in my pajamas."
I had pretty low expectations about that. I imagined she'd feel uncomfortable seeing me comfortable enough with her to wear pajamas.
I grabbed the handle of the bag, put it on my left shoulder, over my head, and opened the door.
Wait. Before anything else…
I grabbed my bag without having done anything even more important. Still carrying my bag, and having left my room, I went into the bathroom.
I searched through the drawers until I found a can of deodorant. Staying near him would be a death sentence for me.
I clicked my tongue, and frustrated by my past self, "I should have showered yesterday."
I left the deodorant in a corner of the bathroom after applying it. I wasn't going to mix it with cologne; that would be too much. Besides, the smell of cologne usually makes me feel sick.
"Okay, now I'm talking about it," I said in a low voice, which was impossible for her to hear.
I left the bathroom, and while going down the stairs, I took the opportunity to try my luck.
"Hey, do you mind if I stay in my pajamas?" I stopped for a moment, just in case he was going to kill me if I went downstairs in my pajamas.
"I don't care, you can do whatever you want."
It wasn't a completely indifferent question, as she seemed to understand me to some extent. Whatever it was she had understood. I went downstairs to the living room.
Otsuki looked at her phone while she waited, and she'd already taken everything out of her bag: her binder and her pencil case. Both were pink. Pink. Her.
Noticing how my gaze had remained fixed on her things, she reproached me.
"Don't think I like them. My mother bought them for me without saying a word, and I had to put up with it."
"I wasn't thinking anything bad… And still, it's not the end of the world."
"Ugh, you literally said the same thing as Natsuki."
Up until that point, I only knew two people who had 'Natsuki' in their name, and it definitely wasn't the one she was referring to.
"I'm referring to Tsukiyomi. When he saw that I had bought this, he said the same thing, and then added that it didn't suit me at all."
"Well… he has a point."
In front of the sofa was a low table, and underneath it was where we kept cushions, in case we wanted to use it at some point.
I thought it was silly, considering we already had a regular table just to the left of the sofa. And besides, we used it quite often. We only used the other table for lunch or dinner, and we did everything else on this one.
After agreeing with the absent Tsukiyomi, I bent down to pick up the cushions from under the table. Meanwhile, Otsuki continued talking.
"Really?! I don't understand what Mom was thinking—my mother—when she bought me that."
When that slipped out in the middle of his sentence, he was slightly embarrassed, which didn't last long, but it stood out quite a bit.
Having taken two cushions, I placed one in front of Otsuki, who seemed comfortable on the sofa, and put one on the left side of the table for myself, so I could be more or less close to her. When she saw me put her cushion in front of her, she sighed, but sat down without complaint.
"I see you're not wearing the patch anymore. Are you really feeling better?"
I took the opportunity to bring it up, since I'd noticed it from the moment she introduced herself here. Otsuki, for her part, hadn't expected me to ask about the eyepatch, but she wasn't bothered by it.
"Yes, I'm better now. First of all, my nose was just a little swollen, it wasn't that bad."
"…I'm truly sorry."
The fact that we had apologized to each other didn't mean I didn't feel bad about what I had done. I had glanced several times at where the patch had been while she was talking to me in the doorway, feeling bad again about what had happened.
"Listen, all that is water under the bridge… that's what I'd like to say."
Her voice had a somewhat weak timbre of guilt and, ironically, weakness.
"S-so it still bothers you?" I immediately became worried, since he didn't deny that what happened still bothered him. Of course, I decided to interpret it however I wanted.
"No, no, of course not. I've already forgiven you for that, it's just that… I feel the same way you do. I still feel bad about the video."
I was somewhat relieved to hear how she had imagined what wasn't, but I felt bad for having left a bad taste in her mouth, even if it wasn't my fault.
"I'm not upset about that, if that's any consolation."
"I know you're not angry, but still…"
Her hands were resting on her legs, and he couldn't see it, but they were closed. She was looking at her filing cabinet, her expression filled with embarrassment, but not the kind that makes your face turn red.
"I don't know what to say…"
"Don't worry. You don't have to pay too much attention to me."
Both her voice and her gaze became a little calmer.
"For now, I think it would be best to leave it aside. In time, we can make up for it. Probably."
That last word lessened the impact of what he said, but the message still came across. Perhaps softening it made it even better.
"You're already more than making up for it just by coming here."
"I do this because I want to."
While I was talking and she was answering me, Otsuki opened her pencil case to take out a couple of pens, and then her file folder, taking out a sheet of paper from a plastic envelope, which had a couple of things written on it.
When she answered me, she wasn't cold, though she made it clear she wasn't doing it for such a kind reason. She was the one who told me she was going against her will, after all.
"Yes…" I was truly speechless. I took advantage of my social awkwardness to pull out my pencil case and a couple of new sheets of paper from my binder.
"Taking advantage of the fact that the topic had come up, the principal came to our class on Thursday."
"Really? Oh, well, sure..."
It seemed strange to me only for a moment, because when I thought about it for a moment, of course he was going to come to class.
"He took advantage of the schedule to come when it was our turn with our tutor, and in the end, the history class turned into a tutoring session."
"I suppose he talked about everything related to the video and the rest."
"Yes. According to Hina, on Monday all the students were forced to delete the video, and the few who posted it on social media have been spared from it going viral."
Otsuki began to remember how Hina bombarded her with information as soon as she returned to class, while playing with a pen.
"There hasn't been a single class that hasn't had at least one talk. This is all perfectly suited to the school, given its aversion to phone and social media use."
At my school, they were quite strict when it came to mobile phones, and if they could, they would be even stricter.
You couldn't use your phone at any time unless you had permission from the teachers, and once they tried to put lockers where students had to put their mobile phones, but since nobody followed that rule, the headmaster decided to let students keep their phones stored away, but if they used them, they would get a big fine.
"They see it as the perfect example for everyone, and it has actually worked quite well, although I doubt they managed to delete the video completely. It's not like they could go into every student's phone to look for it, so someone might have had a copy saved elsewhere."
"Mmm, come on, there are still people who have it."
Deep down, I was worried that someone out there had that video saved in their gallery, although I didn't know exactly why.
It was very explicit, yes, but what I really didn't want was to see it again , I don't care if there's a mentally disturbed person who has it on their computer.
"It's not that serious, because if they upload it, the moment it goes viral or a teacher finds it, they'll be able to take it down. And if they find the person who uploaded it, that kid will be in serious trouble. Technically, they could even report him."
"Going that far would be going a bit too far…"
And "going a little too far" seemed like a mild way of putting it. Something that Otsuki apparently didn't appreciate.
"But recording something like that is going too far, let alone sharing it. Ugh, seriously, what on earth was I thinking when I saw it?"
Resting her elbows on the table, she put both hands to her head, covering her face. She couldn't help but complain about it after having explained how serious the video was herself.
"Ah, that reminds me. What have they told Tukiyomi and...? Is Hina her last name or her first name?"
Returning to her normal posture, Otsuki answered my question in a more relaxed tone. She seemed completely comfortable talking to me, even though I was touching on such a delicate subject.
"Name. Her last name is Kawada, but she thinks it sounds too masculine and tells everyone to call her Hina. And what they've told you…"
The fact that he stopped talking as soon as I was about to mention them gave me a bad feeling. I didn't want them to have to suffer punishment because of me. Otsuki noticed my hurt expression and tried to clarify, worried that she might have misunderstood me.
"I'm not blaming you! Uh, sorry, I went a little too far..."
"I never thought that. Sorry for seeming so… like that."
Otsuki didn't get too worked up when clarifying what she'd said, but she still let out a bit of emotion that, if it were up to her, she never would have shown. Seeing how calm I was, and how I'd then become a little down about something that wasn't even my fault, she smiled slightly, followed by a "Thank you," before returning to the main topic.
"Do you remember when we went to talk to the director, he only asked me if I was the one who shared the video, right?"
"Yes, I remember it more or less, but it sounds familiar."
"Okay. Sure, he asked me if I had shared it, but not if I had recorded it. It turns out he wanted to see if the people who had recorded it would come forward on their own, since it was clear who they were."
"So, they didn't keep quiet about it. It's better that they did."
"No. When they realized that neither the principal nor the teachers said anything to them, they went to the principal's office themselves to confess. It wasn't exactly a secret, but doing so has made the principal more lenient with them."
"It sounds like you're implying they would have died if they hadn't gone."
"If the director didn't kill them, their parents would."
It was a pretty simple plan: to pressure them by not responding to his actions. I don't even know his name, but the principal is kind and, on top of that, he knows how to teach. I doubt there's anyone at the school who hates him.
"After the lecture he gave them, he had to give them both a serious foul, and on Tuesday he will lift their suspension."
Hearing "serious offense" and "suspension" only made me feel worse for them.
"They both have to hate me…"
"Well, Natsuki has her eye on you because of what happened in class. Although she's calmed down a lot since I talked to her, along with Hina."
At the mention of Natsuki, Otsuki let out a brief chuckle at the coincidence, remembering how angry she was when she and Hina went to see her.
The only thing I knew about Tsukiyomi was the library, so I was surprised that she was a resentful person, seeing how serene she was while reading, and how nervous she got when she was called unexpectedly.
From how I remember her voice, I'm pretty sure that Otsuki was always looking for her.
"Speaking of her, she was also angry after class, but over the weekend she thought about the video, and after talking to me she practically decided to forgive you, as long as, ahem, you apologize to her, ahem. That's what she says, not me."
Trying to hide her intentions with those of her friend, Otsuki ended up with the duo who apparently don't want to see me dead.
"I will. I wanted to apologize to them when I get back to class anyway."
Although, given how I thought they saw me, I doubt I would have done it. I can still see their disgusted looks in my mind…
A relatively relaxing silence fell over the room. Otsuki had been talking for a while, so the break was welcome.
"Would you like me to get you some water? You've been talking for a while and we haven't even started class yet."
"…I had completely forgotten about that. So, if you don't mind, could you bring me some fresh water? Bring a pitcher or a bottle and we'll leave it here."
"Mhm. I'll be right back."
I got up from the cushion and went to the kitchen to get the jug and two glasses, leaving Otsuki alone in the living room.
* * * * * * * *
"…" She started looking around the living room, something she hadn't done before because she was checking her phone, and noticed the absence of something that should be there, at least for her.
Something else that caught his attention was a photograph on one of the shelves. From a distance, it wasn't clear who they were, but there were definitely two men and a woman in it.
Otsuki got up from the cushion to look at it more closely, and as she did so, all her attention was focused on the photo.
It was a photo of the entrance to a building, probably a school. Only the entrance, shaded by cherry blossom trees, was visible, with a couple of students walking inside, and in the background, a few others sitting on a bench.
To the right stood a boy, about 12 years old, in a middle school uniform, the one from his own school. It was clear that this boy was Riku. He seemed full of energy.
To the left stood a man, his face somewhat robust, yet radiant with happiness. There was no doubt this was Riku's father.
The last thing to note about the photo was the girl standing between father and son. She looked happy, wearing a uniform that, judging by the context of the photo, must have been from the high school they were at. She had long hair and was carrying a school bag. She must be… yes.
"…" She was very cute
A complex feeling began to grow within Otsuki. She had never met that girl, but just knowing that someone she knew not only knew her, but was also her brother, filled her with regret.
I don't know her, and I'll never be able to . That's what kept running through his mind. What kind of person was she? How would he have gotten along with her? Impossible things.
"…!"
As she pondered that face, she heard from the kitchen someone closing a cabinet and putting several things away. "Oh, here they come!"
If he saw her looking at that photo, he'd have to talk about his sister, and that would only rub salt in a fresh wound. As if nothing had happened, Otsuki ran back to her seat. And rightly so.
"I'm here. Sorry for being late."
"No, don't worry… Although you've brought more than just the pitcher and two glasses."
Riku carried the water jug in one hand, and in the other he carried a tray with two empty glasses, and a couple of bags of snacks and sweets.
"And you'll complain. I was planning to take all this time over the weekend."
"Hey, there's no way we're both going to finish it here."
"Better to have too much than too little."
While they were talking, Riku placed the tray on the table, filled both glasses with water, and then set the pitcher aside. "Ale," he said when he finished.
"Then I'm going to steal a couple of sweets from you."
And without even having started studying, they both began to nibble on everything Riku had brought.