“Man, I remember all the rumors, too. People said her success was due to casting couches or that she was sleeping with a producer…”
“In elementary school?”
“Nah, this was at least in junior high. Actually, the earliest versions of the rumors to hit the gossip shows were all about her mother—her manager. But she’s got her own agency now. Company president. I heard about it on TV just last week.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that… I mean, rumors like that are totally baseless, of course.”
“But where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right?”
“The smoke may not even be coming from her, though. Not in the world we live in.”
Information spread like wildfire across the Internet. People everywhere could learn about things in a flash. Even if it wasn’t true. The people spreading this or that scoop usually didn’t care what the facts were. They only cared if they could make a joke, get attention from it, join in a fad, or rub it in someone’s face. Nothing more.
“Coming from you, that does sound convincing…”
Sakuta let that pass without comment.
The train rolled slowly through four more stations: Yanagikoji, Kugenuma, Shonankaigankoen, and Enoshima.
Sakuta glanced out the window, noticing they were currently rolling down the part of the line that cut through the middle of a regular street. It was always strange seeing regular cars right outside the windows. But he barely had time to think Oh! before they were back on normal tracks.
This section of the line had buildings built so close to the train’s path it seemed like a collision could happen at any moment. Like you could reach out the window and touch the walls of people’s houses as they flitted by. Almost as if the branches and leaves in the backyards might actually brush against the windows.
Heedless of such concerns, the train slipped in between the houses at a leisurely pace, eventually reaching Koshigoe Station.
“But I’ve never seen her with anyone at school.”
“Mm?”
“Sakurajima. You’re the one who brought her up, Sakuta.”
“Oh, right.”
“She’s always on her own.”
She didn’t fit in with her class—or with the school. That was the impression Sakuta had of her as well.
“A senpai from basketball team said she didn’t come to school at all for a good chunk of her first year here.”
“Why not?”
“Work. She’d announced she was taking a break, but there were still contracts in place she had to honor.”
“Oh, I guess she would.”
But why announce it publicly before those jobs were taken care of? If there was some reason it needed to be said right away…
“She didn’t start attending regularly until after summer vacation.”
“…That sounds rough.”
Sakuta could imagine what Mai found when she arrived that fall. Her classmates would have spent an entire term forming cliques and feeling out the hierarchies of school.
“You can guess the rest,” Yuuma said, clearly thinking the same thing.
Once the makeup of a class was set, it was hard to change or inject yourself. Everyone got comfortable where they were, then dug in. It was normal for people to protect their positions.
When Mai started attending in second term, no one knew what to do with her. Plus, she was a celebrity. Everyone was curious, but reaching out to her was a risk. Anyone who tried to make friends with her would have attracted attention. Attention that carried a high risk of people saying things behind their back like “So obnoxious…” or “Who do they think they are?” This made it all but impossible for Mai to fit in.
And once you’re out…there’s no going back. Everyone knows that. That’s how schools work.
This was probably why Mai had never managed to find a place to belong at school.
Everyone loved to groan about how boring things were, wishing something interesting would happen. But nobody really wanted things to ever change.
Sakuta was no exception. If nothing exciting was going on, that meant things were easy. He could relax and be comfortable. No need to stress himself out. Hooray for peaceful days. Boredom rules.
The warning bell rang, and the doors slid closed.
The train lurched into motion again, passing slowly through more rows of houses.
There was a wall right outside the window, which soon gave way to a different wall. Wall followed wall, house followed house, interrupted only by the occasional crossing. And right when it seemed like this would never end, with no warning at all…the view opened up.
The sea.
Blue water as far as the eye could see, reflecting the morning sunlight, glittering.
The sky.
Blue sky as far as the eye could see, clear morning air fading from blue to white as it stretched into the distance.
Between the two, the sharp line of the horizon. Like magic, every eye on the train turned toward the windows.
For a while, the train ran along the Shichirigahama coast, overlooking Sagami Bay. The breathtaking sight included everything from Enoshima itself on the right to the dazzling beaches of Yuigahama on the left.
“But why are we suddenly bringing up Mai Sakurajima?”
“Kunimi, do you like bunny girls?” Sakuta asked, not taking his eyes off the view.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“So you love them, then?”
“You got that right.”
“In that case, I can’t say…”
“The hell is that supposed to mean? Come on, man, tell me.” Yuuma poked him in the ribs.
“If you ran into an attractive bunny girl at the library, what would you do?”
“A double take.”
“Figured.”
“And then I’d stare until my eyes fell out.”
That was the natural human response. At least, the natural straight male response.
“So what’s this got to do with Mai Sakurajima?”
“They’re sort of related, but…I dunno.”
“You’ve lost me.”
Yuuma clearly decided it wasn’t worth asking when Sakuta insisted on being this evasive. He settled for a pleasant smile instead.
The train rolled along the coast, pausing at another station, and then finally reached Shichirigahama Station, the stop for Minegahara High—Sakuta’s school.