Loss 3:
It Takes a Thief
THE DAY AFTER RESIGNING MYSELF TO EVIL, AT THE old annex’s fire escape. Lunchtime.
I leaned against the railing and pierced my milk carton with the straw. “Sorry for dragging you guys out here.”
In front of me, sitting on the stairs and opening their lunches, were Ayano Mitsuki and Sakurai Hiroto.
“What’s this about, anyway? This isn’t like you.” Ayano looked askance at me as he bit into his bacon-wrapped quail egg. Guy always did have fancy lunches. Perks of having parents who liked to cook.
“Whatever it is, I’ve braced myself.” Sakurai-kun, with the placid grin of a Buddhist statue, grabbed a length of boiled fuki with his chopsticks. He’d just recently started cooking himself and even made the student council president’s lunches. Total house husband vibes.
“Thanks,” I said. “I wanted to pick your brains about this new student the lit club’s been looking after.”
Secrets would only make this more complicated, so I told them everything. Piece by piece.
Ayano put his chopsticks down. “A lot of that sounds private.”
“Obviously don’t go spreading it around, but I had permission to share.” To how many people was ambiguous, but this was probably fine. Probably.
“I’d heard bits and pieces, but definitely not all that,” Sakurai-kun said. He stared at a meat-wrapped burdock root with that well-practiced look of exhaustion on his face.
“She says she wants to settle things,” I continued. “But the guy’s going to be her brother-in-law. Can’t exactly confess and move on like nothing happened. I don’t have a clue what she’s planning.”
Ayano nodded and picked his chopsticks back up. “With a record like hers, you’re right to be worried. If she pulls the same kind of stunt again, she won’t get another slap on the wrist.”
He turned to Sakurai-kun, who looked up in thought. “I can’t speak for the faculty, but I’ve certainly never heard of two consecutive suspensions.”
The implications were obvious. I downed the rest of my milk. “That’s why I wanted some advice. I’m sorta stuck helping her now, but I really don’t want a run-in with the law. And I’m, well, a guy, so I’m not sure how to come up with an alternative that’ll satisfy a girl’s, uh, sensibilities, y’know?”
Their confusion was immediate and palpable. They looked at each other.
“Nukumizu,” Ayano said, “you know we’re guys too, right?”
“Yeah. I think you’d have better luck asking some of your clubmates,” Sakurai-kun agreed.
Naturally, I’d anticipated this. “That’s the thing. It’s taken me a year, but I think I’ve figured it out. The lit club girls…aren’t girls.”
They gaped like they wanted to retort but bit their tongues. Literally.
“Honestly, you two run laps around them in terms of femininity. So think you can help?”
Ayano scrunched his brow. “I guess I could probe some acquaintances, but don’t get your hopes up.”
“Same here. I’m not particularly confident that I can speak on behalf of all women, to be honest.”
That was enough for me. Being in the lit club had seriously done a number on my grip on normalcy. “Now you’d better eat before the bell rings.” Sakurai-kun started to put up his lunch box.
I’d lost track of time. He was right. If I waited to eat this till later, I risked it being snatched by Yanami. I opened up my curry bread packet and listened to their anecdotes while I ate.
That was when I remembered the sorts of girls they were acquainted with. I immediately forced myself to forget again.