Wow, Ushio. Sounds like you’ve got a major crush on this Sakuma guy, huh?
Ha ha… Hey, don’t make that face.
I can tell just from lookin’ at ya—your face lights up whenever you talk about him. Pretty stark contrast from how bored you always look on our dates.
What’s that? “Don’t call them dates”? Why not? I mean, we’re gonna be boyfriend and girlfriend sooner or later, aren’t we? So why does it matter?
Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I remember what the deal was. I’ve just gotta get first in our grade on the final exams, right? That’ll be a piece o’ cake. Small price to pay for the right to go out with a girl like you, heh.
So tell me a little more about this Sakuma guy. I know you said he was a real troublemaker in elementary school… Kinda got the impression that he was a little bit of a lovable idiot back then. But what about now?
Ah ha ha, dang. That’s pretty harsh.
And you still wanna date the guy?
Nah, c’mon. No need to deny it. I can tell you’ve totally got the hots for him. Makes me a little jealous, to tell ya the truth, but now you’ve got me kinda interested in the guy. Maybe I’ll try chatting him up next time I see him…
Oh yeah? Is that right?
Heh, that’s funny. People say that about me all the time too… That I can’t take a hint to save my life. Maybe me and this Sakuma fella have more in common than I expected.
Sure hope he and I get along. Feel like we could be real good friends someday.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Uh, what?”
My grip on Sera’s collar slipped, and I took a step back.
“You’re ‘after’ me…?” I said. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
Sera was smiling. It was a gentle smile, as though he’d just inhaled the fragrance of a delicate flower and was now admiring it from afar.
“You remember Eriri-chan, Yuzu-san, and Nagi-chan, don’t you? I’m saying I wanna add your name to that list.”
“Are you screwing with me right now?”
My brain refused to compute this, not that there was any need to. This was exactly what he always did: try to stir up my emotions just to mess with my head.
“Not at all,” said Sera. “I really like you a lot, Sakuma. I want us to be together.”
“…It almost sounds like you’re asking me out, dude.”
“Yeah, because I am. Was that not clear enough? Though to be fair, I’m not sayin’ I wanna make out or start doing flirty stuff with you or nothin’. Sorry to get your hopes up, if that’s what you were lookin’ for.”
“Of course not, dumbass. Don’t make me punch you in the face.”
“Have to admit, I was only mildly interested in you at first, based on the stories Ushio told me. But after I actually started talking to you, I just couldn’t fight the urge anymore—I had to dismantle your safe little worldview and twist your moral compass no matter what. And that’s why I want you to join our little ‘team,’ as Yuzu-san described it.”
“Not in a million years,” I said automatically.
This was such a ridiculous proposal that I was more baffled than upset. But also, there wasn’t a shred of sincerity in his voice—so of course I didn’t take it seriously.
“What the hell kind of offer is that?” I pressed. “What is this, the last cutscene before the final battle in an RPG? ‘Join me, and together we can rule the world’? Yeah, thanks but no thanks, Mr. Demon Lord. I didn’t come this far just to throw it all away.”
“I like to think I’d be more of a ‘evil jester’ type boss, personally,” said Sera.
“Whatever. My answer’s the same regardless: I’d never join up with the likes of you. Not even if hell froze over and the heavens came crashing down to earth.”
“I see. Well, that’s a shame.”
Sera sighed and lifted his face to the sky. While I couldn’t see his expression, he seemed genuinely disappointed—though this was probably just an act too.
Eventually, he lowered his gaze back to me, scratched the back of his head, and said, “What if I told you Ushio’s planning to break up with you? Still a no, then?”
The very next moment.
The raging tempest ceased in an instant, and the whole world fell silent all at once.
As if I’d suddenly been cast into some weightless dimension frozen in time.
I thought I had to be hallucinating.
“I wasn’t just pushing your buttons when I said your relationship’s doomed to fall apart,” said Sera. “I can say it with one hundred percent certainty.”
A glimmering speck passed before my eyes—a snowflake dancing on the breeze, drawing a meandering, horizontal path from one end of my vision to the other.
“…And what makes you so sure, huh?” I asked, my tongue feeling unusually dry.
“Correct me if I’m wrong here,” said Sera, “but you two agreed to keep your relationship a secret at first, didn’t you? And yet, when I caught you walking around town together and asked if you were out on a date, Ushio admitted to it right away. Why do you think she’d do that? She must’ve had some reason for it.”
“I mean, yeah? You goaded her into saying it.”
“You sure that’s all it was? Because if you ask me, it’s kinda weird to go walking around our little downtown together looking like a couple in the first place if you really wanted to keep your relationship a secret. Tsubakioka’s a pretty small place, with not a whole lot to do, so of course someone was gonna catch you red-handed sooner or later. Smart girl like Ushio should’ve known better than to risk being seen by a guy like me.”
Sera started walking. He stepped right past me to gaze out over the Sea of Japan, then stretched his arms wide as if to embrace the wind.
“Me personally? I think she was looking for an excuse to break up with you,” he continued. “Get people to start spreading rumors and looking at you two funny…so she could turn around and say she wasn’t comfortable with all the unwanted attention and suggest you break it off.”
“You’re jumping to way too many conclusions,” I said, speaking to him as he stood there with his arms out and his back to me. “That doesn’t prove anything—and you’re not even focusing on the important part. You can overanalyze her behavior and say there were signs of her looking for an ‘easy out’ or whatever, but that theory doesn’t hold much water if you don’t also have an explanation as to why she’d want to break up with me so badly. And I’m pretty sure you can’t answer that one.”
“You’re right. I don’t have a solid answer for you there,” Sera conceded, turning back around. “But I know for a fact that she wants to. Because she told me so herself.”
“Liar. Now you’re just making stuff up.”
“I promise you, I’m not. I asked her about it in her room the other night before you came over and we played cards ’cause I could tell something was bothering her, and I was pretty sure you two wouldn’t last long in the first place. Figured maybe she was thinking about calling it quits, so I pressed her on it a little bit. And when I told her all that stuff I noticed about her behavior, and my theory for why she didn’t keep her mouth shut when I asked if you two were dating, she finally fessed up to it.”
“I don’t think I can keep doing this much longer.”
I thought back on the confession she’d made to both of us the very same night, after losing that last round of cards. I could still feel each word and every syllable eating away at me, like some slow-acting poison coursing its way through my body.
“That can’t be true,” I said. “She’d never confide in a guy like you.”
“If you don’t wanna believe me, that’s up to you,” said Sera. “Either way, you’re gonna find out the hard way before too long, whether you like it or not.”
The bitter cold from the hard ground seeped into my shoes, numbing my toes. It didn’t feel comfortable. It didn’t feel right. And yet, it was like someone had bolted my feet to the spot, and I couldn’t move an inch.
All of a sudden, Sera let out an amused chuckle.
“What’s so funny, huh?” I asked.
“Your face,” he said, pointing—his tone so sickeningly sweet that you’d think he was trying to flirt. “That frustrated, baffled, crestfallen expression you always get whenever you know you’re cornered, but still want to stand your ground, but can’t think of a single word to say… God, I love it so much. I can’t ever get enough of it.”
A truly vile thing to confess.
I could feel a chill at my core as my body grew colder from the inside out. It was like the frigid air I’d breathed into my lungs had escaped and was now creeping through each of my organs. I hadn’t eaten a thing all day, but I felt like I was about to puke. I’d known all along that Sera was capable of this kind of sinister cruelty. It was the single, solitary truth about him that I’d carved into the very forefront of my mind, lest I fall for his trickery once again. Yet every time, without fail, I—
My cell phone vibrated.
I pulled it out of my pocket and flipped it open.
“Is it from Ushio?” said Sera.
It was indeed. She’d sent me a text message: “I’ll be waiting in front of the music box museum.”
“Yeah, it’s about that time, isn’t it?” said Sera. “Guess I’d better get you back to your girlfriend, shouldn’t I?”
He started walking back toward the car, but I was still rooted to the spot. As he passed me, he clapped his hand on my shoulder.
“Wouldn’t wanna waste what precious little time you have left.”