Chapter 5
After school on Valentine’s Day, Taiga called everyone out to a deserted classroom, which was a derelict meeting room in the old school building. That morning, Taiga had made a point to go to school earlier than Minori and put letters in all their shoe cubbies to summon them, like she was following some old school tradition.
Ryuuji, Minori, and Kitamura opened the classroom door, pulling an unwilling Ami in with them by both arms.
“Heh heh heh. Here we meet again.”
Taiga closed the door and let out a wicked laugh. She was probably too embarrassed to just straightforwardly thank her classmates.
“You call this a meeting? I just want you to know that I was dragged out here!”
“Dimhuahua, don’t worry about the details! Kitamura-kun has to get to the student council, Minori has softball, and Ryuuji and I have important work, so we’ve got to make sure this all goes smoothly.”
“Important work? You mean what you were doing yesterday?”
Hmph! Ami grumpily crossed her arms and stood by herself in a corner of the classroom. Minori smiled at her, her expression saying Come on, why not? Ami ignored her, and similarly turned her back on Kitamura, her childhood friend, when he tried to approach her.
Taiga paid no mind to Ami as she went on.
“We’ve been in a gloomy mood as of late,” she said, “but today is Valentine’s Day. To show my appreciation for you all, I brought some homemade chocolates!”
She carefully pulled out four wrapped packages from the paper bag she brought with her.
“They’re homemade?! And you made them, Taiga?! That’s amazing!”
Minori applauded and patted Taiga’s head. Taiga puffed up her chest proudly. From beside Minori, Kitamura, who was once the victim of Taiga’s fried egg illusion, also clapped his hands together where he sat.
“I can’t believe that Aisaka made us chocolates…wow! It’d be a waste to eat them!” Kitamura seemed happy as he spoke.
“Those are just the chocolates you were selling yesterday. So you’re finally just a liar now…”
“Nuh-uh! I just reused the wrapping paper because it was pretty, but I actually melted them down and put them in a mold myself! Well, it wasn’t really a mold so much as the bottom of a bowl, but they’re really nice looking and round! Look at the bags under my eyes! It took me all night!”
Taiga pointed underneath her own eyes for Ami. Ryuuji knew that it had actually taken her until five in the morning. He hadn’t slept all night, either, watching the light streaming from Taiga’s window.
“You probably just got help from Takasu-kun anyway.”
“No, I didn’t! I’m giving chocolates to Ryuuji, as well.”
“But Takasu-kun has bags under his eyes, too.”
“This is just how I look…”
That was a lie.
Ryuuji sat down in a chair next to Kitamura. Dust had clearly built up on the chair’s surface and even its legs, but he didn’t wipe it down. As Taiga triumphantly put the bag of chocolates on the desk, all smiles, Ryuuji watched her face weakly. He watched the face of the person who had decided unhesitatingly to choose the road where she would get hurt, and decided to remain steadfastly silent.
He realized long ago that there were things in the world that he couldn’t do anything about. He knew that trying to change someone else’s feelings was a prime example of one of those things.
“First of all, here! I’m giving these to you, Dimhuahua! Thanks for yesterday!”
“I’m not getting involved anymore, you got that?” Ami took the chocolates and frowned sullenly.
“Next up, Minorin! I heard you came to my rescue during the school trip. You saved my life, so thank you!”
“Whatcha being so formal about? Of course I’d do that for you. I’ll always come runnin’ if you’re ever in trouble, Taiga.”
“Yeah! I love you, Minorin!”
“I love you, too! Whoa, Taiga~!”
Whomp! Whomp! Taiga and Minori brought their arms together, solidifying their friendship. Then Taiga continued, “Ryuuji! You, too! Thank you! I searched online and found out the right way to melt them! Make sure you eat these with Ya-chan, okay?”
“Right…”
Ryuuji took the chocolates. He wanted to look happy for her, but instead, he pretended to scratch his nose even though it wasn’t itchy, trying to hide his face as much as he could.
“And now, Kitamura-kun! I’m giving the biggest chocolate to you.”
“Ooh…! This really is heavy! I’m happy, but are you sure you want to give me the biggest one?”
“I do! You didn’t even think about how dangerous it was when you pulled me up the cliff! I heard it all from Ryuuji! Aah, jeez, it’s so embarrassing! I really am an idiot, aren’t I? What did I look like when I was buried in the snow?! Did you see my eyes rolling back into my head or something?!”
Even though she always became more talkative to cover up her own embarrassment, Minori exclaimed quietly, “Huh?”
She turned around and looked Ryuuji in the eyes. Kitamura must have heard her, too. The smile he had turned to Taiga froze, and his eyes wandered away. He was trying to avoid Minori’s unexpected gaze.
I messed up.
Ryuuji had asked Kitamura to join in his lie, but Minori…she had seen everything.
Taiga might not have been able to help her embarrassment at remembering the accident. She was poking her tongue out slightly, eyes shut, and slapping her own cheeks in a poor attempt to hide her discomfort.
“Ugh, I can’t stand it anymore. I really can’t believe it. I was so worried about what would happen back then. My leg just whooshed right into the snow, and then I just started tumbling down and hit my head, and then everything in front of my eyes just went white… I guess that must be what it feels like to pass out. It felt like I was in a dream. I thought I’d spouted gibberish during it, so when I got back to my senses I started panicking! I really didn’t know what was going on for a while.”
Ryuuji held his breath and lifted his face. He looked desperately into Minori’s eyes.
Please don’t say anything. Just let the conversation move on. He would have happily sold his soul to the grim reaper or a demon lord if it could make his telepathic message get through to her, but Minori didn’t return Ryuuji’s gaze. She just looked at Taiga’s now red face.
“What kind of gibberish do you think you said?”
“Huh?! Like I could tell anyone! I can’t tell anyone! I can’t even tell you, Minorin! It’s something I can’t ever tell anyone! Just don’t ask me about it!”
“Just tell us.”
“No! I can’t! It was just me deluding myself and—”
“Spill.”
With a strange persistence, Minori grabbed and pulled on Taiga’s wrist. Taiga tried to keep a fake smile on her face, but she seemed shaken.
“I can’t tell you either, Minorin! It’s something that no one can ask about! It’s something I can’t tell anyone, even if they ask.”
As though she thought she could still believably pass off the entire thing as a joke, Taiga tossed her head with an exaggerated movement.
“If anyone found out, I’d be ruined. It’s something I couldn’t live with! It’s something just that dangerous! Just kidding! Ha ha ha…you didn’t hear anything, right?!”
Kitamura also seemed to have become flustered. He put on a fake smile like Taiga’s and put a hand on Ryuuji’s shoulder as though asking for his friend’s agreement. Ryuuji nodded profoundly without thinking. “No one heard anything, you’re fine!”
Absolutely no one had heard Taiga mumble that she liked Ryuuji, absolutely no one at—
“Uh…”
At that moment, Minori’s eyes settled on Ryuuji with a dreadful intensity.
She brought her face close to his, almost as though she were trying to kiss him. Her eyelashes were close enough to touch him. He was so surprised that he stopped breathing as her lips approached Ryuuji’s until they were just millimeters apart.
“Liar.”
She was still holding Taiga’s wrist in her right hand. She made a fist with her left.
“You’re going to let her keep believing you didn’t hear anything?”
She hit Ryuuji’s chest, aiming for his heart. Oof. It knocked the breath out of him.
“That’s the thing you couldn’t forget, isn’t it?”
“What…”
Taiga whimpered in a low voice, as though she had been left for dead. Her peach-colored lips half-open, she stared at Minori like she’d forgotten how to blink. Huh? Ryuuji felt almost like the scene was happening to someone else as he watched a terrific red color rise from Taiga’s neck to her chin, from her chin to her earlobes, and then her earlobes to her cheeks. Her skin, which was normally white as frosted glass, instantaneously flushed a rosy red. Her perfectly round, large eyes were wide open, and they radiated a terrific light in a way like he had never seen before—like a star going supernova.
It was in that moment that their eyes met.
It was as though Taiga’s soul left her body along with the carbon dioxide escaping her nose and mouth. She jumped away like a tiger caught in a trap. She wiggled away from them.
“You’re gooooooooinnnnng noooooowheeeeeereeeeeeee!”