“Oh, uh...I was wondering if I was dreaming.”
“I’m surprised you even recognize me at all, if I look different enough that you think you’re dreaming.”
“Well, now you look a lot like you did in elementary school, when you were skinnier and you didn’t wear glasses... Anyway, what happened to you? You’re so different that I’m suspicious you took some kind of dangerous drug. I mean, it’s only been a month since I last saw you at the graduation ceremony!”
“I worked out over spring break because I had nothing better to do. I’m actually in the middle of a jogging break right now.”
“Hmm.” Miori eyed me up and down. “Yeah, but your whole look is way different. What, are you going for a high school glow up?”
I grimaced. She’d hit the nail right on the head. “Yeah, I am. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. If anything, it’s good. Uh-huh.” Miori nodded multiple times for emphasis. “You know, before, you looked pretty tacky. And you were fat. But I always thought you could look good if you actually tried. Glad to see I wasn’t crazy to think that!”
Her words cut into me like a knife. Don’t diss how I used to look; just compliment the way I look now!
“Oh, I’m walking my dog right now,” Miori explained, even though I hadn’t asked. “I’m always up at this time. Isn’t that right, Ku-chan?” Anyone could see that she was walking her dog. The white toy poodle standing at Miori’s feet wagged its tail eagerly in response to hearing its name.
“Wow, you’re an early riser,” I commented. It was currently 6:30 in the morning, and I’d usually be waking up around now.
“I’ll have to get up this early for morning practice once school starts. So I’m getting myself used to it.”
“Oh yeah, you were on the basketball team, right?”
“That’s right. And of course I’ll be playing in high school too.” Miori flexed her arm with a grunt.
Man, she’s got a lotta muscle for a girl, I thought.
Even still, her flexing had been very feminine. It was a big departure from how tomboyish she used to be. That said, no matter how cute she was now, my memories of “Brat Commander” Miori would never leave me.
“Well, you’ve changed a lot too,” I said.
“Hm? You think so? Well, we didn’t talk at all in middle school, huh? We were never in the same class either. Plus, you didn’t have any friends, so there wasn’t even a chance for overlap.”
“Oh, shut up,” I sulked. It’s not like I wanted to be a loner!
Miori smothered a giggle with her hand when she saw me pout. “I’m guessing you still remember me the way I was in elementary school. Well, too bad! The cool Miori-chan that you adored is long gone. Sorry!”
“Cool?! You were just a snot-nosed brat!”
“Who are you calling a brat?! I was just a little tomboyish!”
I snorted when Miori said that, which made her puff up her cheeks.
I was surprised by how naturally we were talking to each other. Back in middle school, we’d gone three whole years without speaking (plus an additional seven years for me). I thought it would’ve been more awkward.
Well, if it were the past me, Miori’s sunny disposition would’ve made me wither up and run away. Perhaps I could only speak to her all calm and collected because my mental age was older.
“Oh yeah, Natsuki, what high school are you going to?”
“Hm? You don’t know?”
“Of course I don’t. We never talked.”
Oh yeah. I didn’t have any friends either, so there’d be no one to spread the word to Miori and her circle of friends. But I knew which high school Miori was going to attend; I’d overheard all kinds of things from my classmates. It was a school in our prefecture with a solid academic standard score and thriving extracurriculars. However, it was pretty far from our hometown, so not many students from our middle school went there.
This year, only two people from our middle school would be attending that high school. And those two people were...
“I’m going to Ryomei. Ryomei High School,” I told her.
“No, wait, what?! That’s the same school I’m going to!”
That’s right—me and Miori. For the record, I didn’t pick this school to be with her on purpose; it really was just a coincidence.
“Yeah, I already knew. I overheard my classmates talking about it,” I admitted.
“Oh, come on! Tell me that sooner!”
“And when would I have had the chance to tell you that sooner?”
Miori fell silent for a moment and then asked, “By the way, is anyone else going to Ryomei? Don’t tell me it’s just you and me?”
“Wouldn’t you know better than me? I just heard through the grapevine where you were going.” I actually did know it would be just the two of us, but it would have been unnatural to admit that.
“To my knowledge, it was just me,” she said.
“Then it’s probably just you and me.”
“Whaaat...? I guess that’s fine. But wow, I’m with you of all people. We’ve gone to the same school for so long that we’re like real childhood friends. Honestly, I don’t know if I like that.”
“Hey, insult me when I’m not around.” My mentality is as weak as tofu right now, I thought. “Why did you pick Ryomei of all places, anyway?”
“That’s my line! Why are you going there?” she shot right back at me.
I hesitated for a moment. “I picked a school that I thought no one from our middle school would attend.”
Miori’s brows momentarily furrowed in confusion before her face lit up with a bright, understanding smile. “Ah, I get it! High school debuts are awkward if someone from the same middle school is there, huh?”
Reluctantly, I answered, “Yep, you got it.”
“Aha ha! I see, I see. Don’t worry; I’ll keep quiet since you want me to. I’m a nice girl, after all.”
“So? What about you? I told you my reason.” I couldn’t recall what Miori’s reason was. We’d probably never spoken even once during high school.
“You don’t know? The girls’ basketball team at Ryomei is really strong.”
“Ah, gotcha. So they recruited you.” Miori was the ace of our middle school girls’ basketball club. Since we were young, her athletic ability had been a cut above the rest. She’s still just a brat commander, though.
“Yeeep! And after a quick search, I saw that the school building is new, their facilities are great, plus they’re close to a station, and their standard scores are right where I was aiming for. It looked too good to pass up, besides the long commute, of course.”
“Even though no one from our middle school is going?”
“It’s fine. I can just make new friends. Unlike you, I’m good at socializing!”
“Urgh.” I had no rebuttal, seeing how I had messed up my adolescence once already. In middle school, I didn’t have the backbone to talk to anyone. And although the beginning of high school had gone well, I didn’t know how to read the room since I had no experience interacting with people. That’s why I’d ended up being hated by literally everyone.
The only reason I could talk to a girl the same age as me right now was because we were childhood friends. I would definitely be too nervous to hold a normal conversation if it were with a random girl I barely knew.
“By the way, did you work out because you’re joining a sports club?”
“No... I wasn’t thinking about stuff like that.” For a split second, images of my high school days flashed through my mind. I’d joined the basketball club during my first debut attempt. My idea, albeit a half-baked one, was that joining the soccer or basketball club would help me come off as an upbeat person. I ended up choosing the basketball club because of my height.
Big mistake!
The basketball club was tough enough for inexperienced people who, at the very least, had a history in athletics. I, on the other hand, had belonged to the so-called “go home club,” with zero experience playing any kind of sport. I couldn’t keep up with practice at all, and my fellow teammates treated me like I was a gross tumor because of that. Then, once everyone in class started hating me, the team didn’t need to keep talking to me to maintain the pretense of camaraderie. No one spoke to me at all unless they had to.
Those memories were so painful that they made me want to crawl into bed and roll around.
“Aw, that’s a shame. You’re pretty tall, Natsuki. You should play basketball too.”
“I was part of the go home club in middle school. That’s way too much for me!”
“Nah, no way. You’re tall; it’ll work out.”
That’s what I assumed too, the first time I joined the basketball club, I thought bitterly. To be fair, I did improve my skills because I didn’t have the guts to quit, so I ended up sticking with it. So maybe it would work out this time. But in the end, my problem isn’t basketball; it’s my lack of interpersonal skills. Man, thinking about this is depressing. I’m regretting having been born...
Negative thoughts started spiraling out of control, and my mood plummeted like a rock.
“Oops, we should stop here. We’ve got an entrance ceremony coming up.” Miori interrupted my rumination after glancing at her watch.
“You’re right. We’ve got a long commute too,” I agreed. The school was five stops away by train, so it took about an hour to get there from my place.
“All righty, see you at school! Come on, let’s go home, Ku-chan!” Miori called to her dog who had been waiting by her feet patiently. She tugged on its leash and led it away.
My morning jog hadn’t gone as planned, but I was able to reconnect with a fellow middle school classmate. History was already changing.
I also headed home while I mulled over how differently things were going.