I watched her go into raptures, crinkling her way through the pages, and even as I felt relieved that she seemed to like it, my chest felt a little itchy with embarrassment that maybe it was a little too sweet.
Just then, I noticed that Tohko had a weird look on her face.
Her cheeks had turned ever so slightly red, her eyes were watering, and a melancholy breath escaped her partly opened lips.
“Konoha…does this have…a little…alcohol in it?”
She had less than half a page left. She was right at the closing scene where the ill-fated pair overcome the barriers of their rank and finally join their hearts together.
“Confession,” “kiss,” “embrace.”
And then “confession,” “confession,” “kiss,” “confession,” “kiss,” “kiss,” “kiss,” “embrace.”
With each bite she took, her face grew redder and redder, her eyebrows scrunched together, and sighs slipped from her lips.
I was astonished seeing Tohko this way.
She couldn’t actually be drunk, though!
Tohko was by now bright red from her neck to her ears. Her fingertips were trembling and as soon as she swallowed the last piece, her body tumbled forward.
“Tohko…!”
I saw her crumple to her knees on the floor and I hurried over to her.
“Are you okay?!”
“…Not really.”
She flopped down onto her belly, as if all the energy had gone out of her, then she lifted her face, and with her eyes on the verge of tears, she said, “I’m not okay…I’m gonna sing.”
“Huh?”
Tohko stood up abruptly, and as she sang “The Raccoons of Shojoji Temple,” she drummed on her stomach with both hands.
I stood there agape as she took my arm and urged me, “C’mon, Konoha, join in,” and then she sang buoyantly, slurring the words, “Bum-ba-ba-bum-BUM!” and giggled.
She was drunk, totally drunk. Augh, what was I going to do?!
Dancing on unsteady legs, Tohko grabbed onto my collar and clung to me. “How come y’won’t dance with me?”
But just as soon, she said, “Heh, you’re always like that, Konoha. You’re so mean.”
And now her face fell and her eyes filled with tears.
“What did I do that was so mean?”
“I…can’t tell you.”
My heart skipped a beat.
Tohko’s face scrunched up desolately, and then she suddenly pushed away from me and turned her back on me.
“No…absolutely not. I can’t say…It would be bad.”
She hung her head and shook it back and forth rapidly.
“Please tell me.”
“No way…”
“Why not?”
“Because…I can’t say because…because it’s you.”
The way she continued stubbornly shaking her head was like the countess in “The Surgery Room” refusing to have anesthesia used on her.
The beautiful countess who had appealed to the doctor, telling him that she had a secret that so obsessed her, if her mind wandered under anesthesia, she was sure she would blurt something out.
What was it that Tohko couldn’t tell me? Or was she just drunk and rambling? That must be it. There wasn’t any deeper meaning.
Ah, but…hadn’t something like this happened awhile ago, too? When I was still a first-year, Tohko suddenly got all shifty and told me not to get close to her, and then she was out with a cold for a little while after that. But when she got better and came back to school, she’d been smiling with a carefree look on her face.
I was uneasy and my chest was throbbing. It was nagging at me, so I stood behind Tohko and patiently asked, “Why can’t you tell me? Did I do something wrong? If you don’t tell me what I did, I can’t apologize.”
Tohko covered her mouth firmly with both hands, as if to show she would never talk, and closed her eyes tightly. I grabbed her hands from behind and pulled them away.
“Tohko?”
Tohko suddenly whirled to face me and fell against me.
She swiftly laid her hot forehead near my heart.
“I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate you, Konoha! You are SO mean.”
Squeezing my arms tightly, she repeated herself like a child.
“Underclassmen have to listen to what their seniors tell them.”
“I am listening. Or more like being forced to listen.”
“Liar. You’re just gonna make fun of me.”
Another squeeze of strength went into the fingers gripping my arm.
The hiccup in her throat was probably because she was swallowing her rising tears. Her eyes still closed sadly, she was trembling slightly, as if she was holding up against something.
She whispered something in a cracked voice, but it was too quiet and I couldn’t hear her.
“What did you say?”
Silence.
“Please say it again.”
I drew my face closer in an effort to somehow pick it out, when a sharp pain ran through the back of my right hand.
Tohko had bitten my hand.
As if to stop herself from letting the secret pass her lips.
She’d bitten me fiercely, her eyes closed hard and tight enough to wrinkle her forehead.
My brain grew hot as if I was intoxicated, and I felt dizzy.
Tohko didn’t move, her teeth still biting into my hand. Her slender fingers squeezed my arm so tightly that it hurt.
My head grew hotter and hotter, even my ears grew hot, the beating of my heart increasing to a thud, and just as it felt as if my heart was about to burst, Tohko’s body lurched to one side this time.
“Ack!”
I almost tilted over with her but hurriedly caught her and held her up.
The tension broke suddenly, and I yelled, “You’re just going to fall asleep now? What were you going to say?!”
After that, I dragged Tohko to her bed and put her to sleep, then worked on more of the math problems.
Occasionally Tohko would gum the edge of her blanket, and I would watch her out of the corner of my eye and sigh.
When Maki came to the room after noon, Tohko was still sound asleep.
“This is a perfect opportunity granted by the gods,” she said joyously, then took a lily from a vase and stuck it into Tohko’s hair, opened her sketchbook, and started drawing.
“I got to look at Tohko’s adorable face as much as I wanted; I have a story to tell Grandpa—it’s been a good summer vacation.”
“It was rough for me, being jerked around by you two.”
Maki chuckled.
“Didn’t you make some good memories, too? Sharing a bed with Tohko, for instance?”
“I wish you wouldn’t say it like that—someone might get the wrong idea!”
Maki laughed again. Downtrodden, I asked, “Maki, did you drag Tohko into this fuss because she resembles Yuri?”
“I did. With me, the image of Yuri from the diary would have just been obliterated. Tohko was upset that I was making her play the ghoul, but I was the one in that role.”
Uotani had seen Yuri in Tohko, too. That was probably why she’d called her Miss Yuri when Tohko appeared totally drenched.
“But you know…it wasn’t just that. I may have been a little lonesome, too. Maybe that’s why I wanted to have Tohko here.”
What a surprise. It sounded as if Maki was talking openly about her feelings.
Wait—speaking of, her clothes were a little different, too… She was wearing a blue dress and looked very feminine. Was this the first time I’d seen her out of uniform in something other than pants?
Maki closed her sketchbook and stood up.
“I’m heading out now.”
“Where are you going?”
“I hate to leave a debt unpaid, so I’m paying it back hard.”
“Wha—?”
Maki winked at me cheerfully without telling me anything more.
“I’m going to be late getting back, so this is your chance, Konoha.”
“My chance for what exactly?!”
She laughed tauntingly and then went away.
My shoulders slumped.
A little after that, Tohko woke up, but this time the first thing out of her mouth was, “I feel awful…and my head is throbbing. Konoha…write me a story that tastes like plum wine…”
She begged, lying listlessly on the bed, and that was the end of it.
She didn’t remember biting my hand at all.
“Do you recognize this?”