“Huh? Suspicious...?”
“Saki, you’ve been close with Urano for a while now, right? Didn’t you go camping with him when Rin and I canceled?”
“That’s because...he’s friends with Kanao...”
“...Now that you mention it,” Rin said like she just remembered something, “there was a rumor going around for a while that Saki went to this year’s summer festival with Urano...”
“No... I mean, I did, but...”
“What?! That proves it!”
“It sure does.” Mai got a joyous look on her face, and Rin nodded deeply.
“W-Wait a minute! It’s not like that! Urano and I aren’t like that! Even with the summer festival, it’s not like it was just the two of us! My little brother was with us! My little brother gets along well with Urano, so I just invited him because my brother asked me to.”
“Wow, so you’re already acting like a family?”
“Someone’s moving pretty fast.”
“I said it’s not like that!” The two of them were making fun of me with grins on their faces as I became intensely embarrassed. Oh, come on! It’s not like that! It totally isn’t!
“I see. So that’s your type, Saki. You like those cute-looking baby-faced guys.”
“I noticed recently that Urano does have a cute face if you look closely.”
“Oh, totally. I didn’t realize it until now because of his messy hair, but he’s got some surprisingly nice features. If he changed his haircut or something, he’d look like a new person right away.”
“It’s not like that!” I said reflexively. “That kind of guy isn’t my type at all.” I was so embarrassed that I started to speak more firmly. “I told you before, right? My type is tall guys! Urano is totally the complete opposite. There’s no way I would be into someone shorter than me! He’s just a friend. I’ll admit he’s nice and an amazing guy, but...I’m not interested in him romantically. He’s like a little brother that I need to take care of. I can’t leave him alone, so I just let him be with me.”
As I said that, a noise that came from the entrance of the classroom that sounded like someone dropping something. When I looked, the person standing there was...
“U-Urano?!” He had come back from his phone call and was standing there. What he dropped at his feet was a boxed drink that still didn’t have the straw poked into it.
It can’t be... Did he hear what we were just talking about? How long has he...?
After a brief moment, Urano sprinted like he was running away, and he quickly disappeared.
“W-Wait, Urano!” I instinctively stood up from my chair, picked up the drink he dropped, and chased after him. Urano nimbly ran through the hallways crowded with materials for the festival and quickly descended a flight of stairs. I remembered that he was actually pretty fast. If I didn’t do anything besides run after him, I definitely wouldn’t have caught up. “W-Wait! Wait, Urano!” I desperately called out to him as he drew further away. “Sorry! I’m sorry! I apologize!”
The moment I apologized, Urano stopped in his tracks. He stopped so suddenly that I almost accidentally bumped into him. We’d stopped at a stairwell with no one else around.
“Huff, huff...”
“...You’re sorry?” As I caught my breath, Ura turned to look at me. “What are you sorry for? Why are you apologizing to me? Just try and say it.”
He was upset. There was an intense anger in his eyes, and his tone was harsher than usual.
“Wh-What do you mean, why...?”
“You don’t actually think my feelings are hurt, do you?” Urano said, his voice shaking with anger. “You think I’d be upset just because you said I’m not your type and that you’re not interested in me romantically? Seriously, screw you. There’s no reason I’d be hurt by that.”
“...”
“Don’t get full of yourself, you egotistical woman. I don’t give a crap at all if you like me or hate me.”
“...Then, why are you mad?”
“I’m not mad!”
“You are!”
“I just said I’m not! What I’m upset about is your whole mistaken attitude!”
He’s upset after all...
He took on a rough tone and continued. “Damn it... This is why I hate sluts like you all. When a guy isn’t there, you make a game out of judging him... It’s not even like I want to be with sluts like you all.”
“We...were wrong. Sorry.”
“Listen. The reason I’m pissed is because I’m disappointed in and despise you three for your ugly personalities. I’m not...I’m absolutely not upset because of what you said! Do you understand?!”
“I understand, okay...”
After Urano had reiterated his furious words, his voice trailed off, and he mumbled, “...Why?” His voice sounded like it was about to fade away. “Screw you... I’m not your little brother...”
“Huh...?” What? Didn’t you just say you didn’t care about what I said? “I-I know. All that was just the spur of the moment...”
“Bah! Here it comes. ‘The spur of the moment’? You extrovert types are just a bunch of single-celled organisms who only ever act based on ‘the spur of the moment.’ No matter how much trouble you cause people or how much you hurt others, you just write it all off on ‘the spur of the moment.’”
“...”
“Damn it... What do you mean tall guys are your type...? You don’t still have feelings for Momo, do you?”
“Huh? What are you saying?” I really had no idea what Urano was talking about. I couldn’t understand why he was upset.
“Screw you... Dummy. Uggo... Seriously, what the hell? If that’s how you feel, then you shouldn’t have bothered with me in the first place...”
“Oh my god! What is with you?!” I lost my temper. I was frustrated with Urano’s attitude that made it impossible for me to understand what he was saying or thinking. Also...I was frustrated with myself for not being able to understand him. So, that frustration exploded out of me. “I don’t understand you at all! What are you being so indecisive for?!”
“Huh?! Who’s being indecisive?!”
“You are! You’re being all indecisive and talking nonsense! It’s not very manly!”
“You... That’s sexist! Don’t talk about men and women with that kind of outdated prejudice!”
“God, you’re so annoying!” I decided to stop just taking it and started to dish it out. “Yeah, I said some kind of rude things... But there’s no reason for you to get that upset, is there?! What’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me...”
My next words came out by reflex, as I wasn’t thinking too hard about them. However, I would come to deeply regret these horrible words:
“Do you love me or something?”
There wasn’t any kind of intention or deep meaning to what I’d said. It wasn’t like I knew about it, and it wasn’t like I was trying to provoke him; I was just getting carried away with the back and forth of our argument. I’d just said what came to my mind.
When I said it, I thought Urano would say something back like, “What?! Screw you, ugly! Who would fall in love with an insensitive and crass woman like you? Don’t be so full of yourself!” That’s how our fights always went. We’d become friends around June of this year, and we’d only been friends for about three or four months... I got the feeling that, for such a short relationship, our fights were surprisingly frequent.
Well, they were more like arguments than fights. Whenever he became confrontational, I tended to get emotional. I couldn’t tell you how many times we argued during this month of preparing for the school festival. However, we were always able to quickly make up after our little spats. That was our normal.
I thought what was happening was normal, and that’s why I couldn’t believe the reaction that the boy in front of me showed me.
“Wha?!” Urano was visibly upset. His eyes were wide open, his lips quivered, and before long, his face turned red. Urano stood there unable to say anything, like time had frozen. The expression on his face was one of shock, confusion, and incredible embarrassment. His cheeks were a bright crimson, and it looked like he was about to cry.
“What...? U-Urano...?”
“...” When I called out to him, Urano, who had been frozen stiff, came back to his senses and covered his face with both his arms. “Ooh...” A sob spilled out from the gap in his arms.
“U-Urano...” Without thinking, I reached out my hand, but Urano ran away. He turned his back and sprinted as fast as he could...and I couldn’t move. It was like my feet were sewn to the ground, and I couldn’t take a step. All I could do was look dumbfoundedly at Ura’s back as he ran away and became smaller and smaller. My mind was a confused mess, but after I couldn’t see Urano anymore, I somehow understood. No matter how insensitive a girl might be, she would understand what was going on after being shown that face.