Cherry blossom petals were piled up in a corner of the courtyard.
It was just past the halfway point of April.
As time shifted, the color of the light filtering through the trees was also changing. With each gust of the gentle, warm breeze, vivid greens waved to the passing season.
Studying the branches where leaves had already replaced blossoms, I pressed a button on the vending machine.
Without even looking at my hands, my fingers automatically reached out for the usual brand of canned coffee. It fell with a clunk.
Can in hand, I wandered over to a bench in the school courtyard.
Nobody else would bother coming outside just for the ten-minute break between classes.
Right now, the courtyard was mine—Hachiman Hikigaya’s private space. Worst case, they might levy a property tax in the name of Hachiman Hikigaya. Seriously, the taxes are too high… Couldn’t they at least lower the consumption tax or something?
The emphasis on my concern for and interest in politics and economics would help with my campaign for Chiba prefectural governor at some point in the future. I squeezed the Max can in my hands.
Life is bitter, so coffee, at least, should be sweet…
About to spoil myself with this sweet pleasure, I was trembling with joy, enshrined with dignity in the center of the bench and feeling increasingly more satisfied with myself—until I heard some gleeful chattering getting closer and closer.
Someone had stepped into my private space. Come on, man. Who is it? Pay up for the property tax, I thought as I glanced over questioningly.
A few girls were ambling along the covered walkway. I assume they were returning from a class in a different room—they were chatting in a very lively manner as they headed back to the main school building.
Among these girls, a pale head of hair happened to catch my eye.
Her hair was fluffy and shone in the sunlight, her big, round eyes as charming as a little squirrel’s. Her uniform was also worn just a bit casually, and though the way she held the baggy cuffs of her oversized cardigan sleeves was a familiar sight to me, I couldn’t help but find it adorable.
Well, she’s always adorable—that’s just Iroha Isshiki.
I’m so used to how careless and sloppy she acts in the clubroom and student council room, I tend to forget. Seeing her with her friends, it hit me again.
She’s actually getting along well in her new class. That’s nice, that’s nice…, I thought, watching her with avuncular fondness, which might have been too much. She noticed me, and our eyes met for a moment.
Isshiki remained silent, opening her mouth like Ah. No, maybe it was Ugh.
But the surprise showed on her face for only an instant, and she immediately covered it with a little smile, doing a small wave in front of her chest with her fingers just slightly peeking out from her overlong cardigan sleeves.
That gesture and smile were so sneaky and secretive, like she was doing it so the others couldn’t see, like a sign for a lovers’ tryst. It was super-embarrassing.
I couldn’t figure out how I should respond. All I could do was return an eye signal somewhere between a nod and a bow. As I was busy getting flustered, Isshiki went back to chatting with her friends before vanishing into the main school building.
Once they were gone, I breathed a heavy and listless sigh, then looked up at the sky.
How should I have reacted just now? Did she think I was ignoring her? Should I have waved back? No, that’d be creepy, too. A bow? Should I have bowed? If Isshiki had been alone, that could be an option, but you act a little differently when there are other people around. Or should I have used a fake yawn to just pretend I wasn’t looking? Whatever it is, thinking this hard about it really is creepy, huh?! That’s not good! I was screwed from the beginning!
Now that the courtyard was mine once again, I closed my eyes and spent some time on a solo review meeting.
Once the Max can in my hand had grown somewhat lukewarm, untouched by my lips, I heard the crunching sound of footsteps on gravel.
“Heeey, you!” a sweet voice called out to me lightly, and I turned toward it.
For an instant, a soft, chilly sensation touched my cheek. When I bent back in surprise, Iroha Isshiki, who I’d thought had passed by just a moment ago, was standing right there, grinning mischievously with an I LOHAS bottled water in her hand. Aha, so then she’s a booth babe handing out freebies? She’s just that cute. What the heck, too cute.
“H-hey… What, is something up?” I asked, rattled. The unspoken question was: Didn’t you go back to class?
Isshiki plopped herself down on the bench and said nonchalantly, “I said I was stopping by the student council room and slipped out.”
“Uh-huh…”
Despite her claim, she showed no sign of heading to the student council room. Instead, she touched the plastic bottle in her hand to her forehead, then blew out an exhausted-sounding sigh. “When you say you’re going to the washroom or to go buy a drink or something, everyone just follows you, you know?” she said as she shook the plastic bottle in her hands. Ah, so this I LOHAS had been bought as an excuse to get away from her friends.
“Huh. Well, the new semester can be like that. You wind up going together for everything.”
Isshiki nodded back at me and inched one fist’s worth closer. “For suuure. That’s why it’s a good thing I can bring up the student council…y’know, for times like these.”
“True, it’s a handy excuse. I get that, I get that.” At this school, only Iroha Isshiki had the character class of student council president. So she only had to bring that up whenever she wanted to relax on her own. I see, very convenient.
When I nodded along, Isshiki stared dully back at me. “Do you really get it?”
“Yeah. It’s just like when you’re coming back from a meeting outside of work or school, and you’re going in the same direction as someone you’ve only just met, and it’s just so awkward that you start lying like, Oh, I have something to do after this… to shake them off.”
“Agh, that’s totally different…” Isshiki sighed weakly and with utter exasperation. Then she lightly touched a hand to her chest and leaned in slightly to peer at my face. “That’s not what I mean…” She trailed off there, and then as if imparting a secret, she brought her lips close to my ear and whispered softly, “…I mean times like this.”
No one was even here, but the way she lowered her lovely voice felt like a brief play bite on my earlobes.
“Uh…yeah, for sure. Times like this, huh? Right, so anyway, what—what’s up? What did you want?” I leaned away to escape the floral scent and the ticklishness, grasping for words to cover my embarrassment.
Isshiki nimbly came away. “Nothing in particular… Wait, you were the one looking at me. I thought that meant you wanted me to come over here. I mean, when I waved, you ignored it.”
“No way could I respond to you then… I don’t want to act weird; then my friends would spread rumors about me…”
My charmingly bashful ploy, worthy of the heroines of old classic games, did little to affect Isshiki’s expression. “What?”
Hmm, maybe she’s too young for that one. She looked really, actually serious, not even prepping some comeback like You don’t have any friends, though.
I remember having an exchange like this before, I thought, letting out a tiny nostalgic chuckle through my nose.