No, it’s too early to fall into despair. I wiped off my sweat with a towel and decided to at least get some clothes on. I put on shorts and a T-shirt. While I was at it, I folded up the pajamas that were for some reason messily thrown across the floor and stuffed them into a drawer. As I did, I noticed the garbage can next to my bed. If the situation I feared most had occurred last night, then...
I nervously checked inside and found a receipt from a convenience store, the lid to an instant noodles cup, and some balled up tissues. I picked up the one on top. I’m pretty sure I blew my nose into this and nothing else. Nothing strange to see here in the garbage can...
I couldn’t exactly relax yet, though. The most important thing for me to do right now was remember what’d happened last night. I left my room to go into the living room, and there I saw the remnants of a party. There were plates with half-eaten food and opened bags of snacks. This was just kinda how it was when you essentially lived by yourself because both of your parents were pretty much always at work. It wasn’t anything strange for the living room to be messy, but it wasn’t a mess that I’d made by myself.
“Oh, right. Makoto and the others were over.”
I was beginning to remember how I’d had a hangout with some middle school friends. There was a bigger party planned for our full class of twenty tomorrow, and this had been kinda like a mini reunion. I picked up all the empty bags of snacks I could on my way into the kitchen. The sink was filled with cups and utensils that’d been tossed in there like trash. As I thought about how I needed to put them into the dishwasher, I threw the crumbs of the snacks into the bag for recycling. It was only then that I realized something. Inside the bag, I saw an unfamiliar, empty can. I pulled it out and my eyes narrowed as I discovered that it was beer. Since my parents drank in the house, it wasn’t exactly strange for there to be beer here, but it was a different brand than the ones that they drank.
“No... No way.”
Suddenly I was getting an explanation for the fatigue and lack of memories. Though I wasn’t exactly an honor student, I wasn’t a delinquent. Rakuro, the high school I attended, was a private prep school. If it was ever found out that I drank, even if it was on summer vacation, I could be expelled.
“Did they bring it?”
I put the can back in the bag and then decided that it’d be best to hear this straight from the horse’s mouth. But when I went back to my room to look for my phone, I couldn’t find it. Now that I think about it, I usually leave it by my pillow when I sleep, but I didn’t see it when I woke up. I tilted my head before going back to the living room, and saw it lying on the rug we’d taken out for winter but had never put away.
“Oh, there it is.”
Why’s it here? I picked up my phone and noticed a stain in the rug. Ugh, so dirty. Did someone spill something here? Regardless, I went ahead to check my phone. I’m pretty sure we made a LINE group.
Shoma: Be there soon
Sota: I got some gifts!
The last message sent was yesterday at 1:42 p.m. Right. That’s ’cause we were meeting here at two... I thought about it a little bit before sending a new message.
Kogure: Hey, everyone get home okay?
My thinking was that if anyone was at my house late, then one of them might’ve gotten caught and questioned if they left drunk. After waiting a little bit, I saw one read receipt and then got an answer not too long after.
Yamato: Okay is...a relative term depending on what you mean.
Kogure: Yeah, yeah. So is that a yes?
Yamato: Shoma tried to pee outside and we didn’t even drink! Cracked me up!
Dude... Shoma, you’re a high schooler. Why are you trying to expose yourself in public? But wait, we didn’t drink?
Kogure: You guys didn’t drink? I thought you brought booze?
Yamato: You don’t remember? Did you drink? Sota brought some but we decided not to drink because your high school’s uptight. Remember?
So they didn’t drink? Does that mean I didn’t either? If so, then...
“Why don’t I remember anything?”
Even if I couldn’t remember what’d happened yesterday, it didn’t negate the fact that I was hungry. I was out of bread, so I decided to go out and buy breakfast. My first instinct was to go to the supermarket, but it was just early enough in the morning that they weren’t open yet, so I decided to go to a convenience store first. Awaiting me there was a run-in with someone who’d been thinking the same thing.
“Ah...”
“Ah.”
Akatsuki Minami was in the snacks section of the convenience store. Her jaw dropped when she saw me and I froze. As I stood there frozen, it dawned on me that if I wanted to know about last night, then I should ask someone who had actually been in my room. I was probably blowing things out of proportion. Up until now there’d been a lot of times things seemed on the risky side, but we’d never crossed that one line. Saying it like that kinda made me annoyed at how much of a coward I sounded like. I just have to ask her casually about her being in my room this morning. With that in mind, I decided to start with a greeting, but I closed my mouth no sooner than I opened it upon seeing her sheepishly begin to laugh.
“Ah... Heh heh... Morning, Ko-kun.”
“O-Oh yeah. Morning.”
Hm? Wait. Did she just call me “Ko-kun?” Usually she called me by my last name. I mean, sure, sometimes she switches back to how she used to call me, but that’s only on special occasions, and when she wants to make me remember how we used to date in the past...