Thursday
Night
THE WIND ALWAYS felt nice up on the rooftop.
Here I was, I thought, despite saying that I wouldn’t come. I was up on the rooftop tonight because I could not put aside the one-in-a-million chance that Motoda and his friends might be stupid enough to return.
I confirmed that Yano-san was in the classroom and then left a clone standing outside the front door. I myself had no intention of meeting up with her.
Unlike yesterday, the school was quiet tonight. I turned my face into the night wind, letting all manner of thoughts run through my mind.
Why had Midorikawa said those words to me?
She had been reading Harry Potter. I genuinely wanted to ask her what she thought about it.
What was with Kasai?
The baseball club’s window was broken again…
Perhaps the reason that those guys knew that the classroom door would be unlocked when I was chasing them was because they had already been inside once.
Maybe Yano-san knew that, which was why she was hiding in the supply cabinet. If that were the case, then she was far too careless in giving a reply. Stupid, even.
…Hang on.
…
She…was scared…?
No matter what I thought about, my thoughts all led me to the same point.
I had felt my own fear when I heard Yano-san’s words, although it was a different type of fear than hers. I worried that, having heard those words, my attitude towards her was going to veer away from the rest of the class. If my thinking was aberrant, if my judgement was impaired, then who knew when I might suddenly slip up and do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing.
I could not allow myself to slip up like Iguchi-san and see my daily life ruined. I could think of nothing worse.
I ground my monstrous teeth in resolve.
Which type are you? I thought I heard her voice echo.
Well, I certainly wasn’t a Yano-san type.
Finally, midnight break drew to an end. Just as Yano-san opened the classroom door, I dismissed my clone.
Regardless of my presence—or lack thereof—Yano-san had her fill of midnight break and then headed home. I realized that, without my noticing, the midnight hour had become the focus of my nights.
Somehow, that felt dreadful. I decided to spend the rest of the night traveling here and there for sport.
No one knew that I was there.