We needed to hurry. The fact that Fuyu could no longer see me drove us into a frantic rush.
The bell signaling the end of the lunch break rang.
Cautiously, mindful of others, Soejima-kun opened his shoe locker and carefully slipped a blue envelope inside.
“Hajime!”
The loud calling of his name made both Soejima-kun and me jump. We turned toward the source of the voice.
“What are you doing? You’ll be late!”
Yousuke-kun, walking down the hall with a classmate, held up a chemistry textbook as if to show it to Soejima-kun.
“Wait, chemistry is next?”
The next class was in a different room. Soejima-kun, with a glance in my direction that seemed to say, “I’ll go ahead,” began to run toward the classroom.
“Oh, he’s unusually hurried,” Yousuke commented, and I watched Soejima-kun’s retreating figure as he ran down the hallway.
The blue envelope that Soejima-kun had left in his shoe locker would be in Kusunoki-san’s hands in a few hours. Then, surely, Soejima-kun’s confession would…
The sunlight pouring in from the hallway windows was dazzling. As I inadvertently glanced out the window, I noticed Kusunoki-san walking down the corridor.
The timing was peculiar. It was as if the sixth sense kicked in when you were conscious of someone, allowing you to spot them easily.
I approached the window and watched Kusunoki-san.
She stopped walking down the corridor as if reacting to something, then turned around. Was she called out to? A male student approached Kusunoki-san, and they began to walk together.
The group of female students’ gossip in the gym came back to me. “That bitch? That’s the worst.”
I shook my head as if to dismiss the words, but a sense of unease flickered in my chest. I looked at the shoe locker where Soejima-kun had placed the blue envelope. I wanted to erase even the slightest anxiety. I wanted to believe that Soejima-kun’s confession would go well.
I followed after Kusunoki-san. But by the time I got to the corridor I could see from the window, Kusunoki-san was no longer there. From the layout of the school that I remembered, I thought she might have headed to that place I had seen before.
I climbed the stairs at the end of the corridor and headed to the third floor.
Along the corridor with unused classrooms… Stepping through the door of the art preparation room, just as I had suspected, Kusunoki-san was there. She was standing alone in front of an open locker, seeming to look at something inside.
I felt relieved to see that Kusunoki-san was alone, but at the same time, I felt disgusted with myself. I felt relieved that she was not with the boy from before—a reaction, no doubt, influenced by the rumors I had heard about her from the girls in the gym.
With a smile on her face, Kusunoki-san locked the locker she had been looking into and walked past me toward the door. She gently opened the door just a few centimeters and looked outside.
Her behavior was strikingly similar to ours when we were trying to avoid being seen while putting the blue envelope into the shoe locker. It had been the same before, too. In the art preparation room, Kusunoki-san had seemed conscious of others’ eyes.
What was she doing there?
I looked around the art preparation room. When I glanced at the locker she had been looking into, my eyes caught a calendar hanging on the wall, and something dawned on me. The day Kusunoki-san was watching Soejima-kun in the art preparation room was the day his grandfather’s condition suddenly worsened. That day, like today, was Thursday.
Suddenly, there was a loud clatter from the hallway. Startled, I turned around.
Kusunoki-san was no longer by the door. When I hurriedly stepped through the door, I saw papers scattered across the hallway. A young male teacher was on his hands and knees, looking as if he had tripped.
I looked for Kusunoki-san. She was at the end of the corridor, staring out the window. When I followed her gaze, I saw Soejima-kun in the chemistry room.
By the time school was out, Soejima-kun was leaning against the wall near the shoe lockers. Every now and then, a passing student would sneak a glance at his handsome profile. He must have been so nervous that he didn’t even notice their gazes.
A shadow appeared in front of Soejima-kun, who was looking to the side.
The person who stopped in front of Soejima-kun looked puzzled and said, “What is this?”
Standing in front of Soejima-kun, Kusunoki-san thrust the blue envelope at him with a prickly voice. The seal had been broken.
“Did you put this in my shoe locker to mock me?”
As Kusunoki-san sharply retorted and pushed back the blue envelope, I was taken aback by her words. Inside the envelope was a letter that Soejima-kun had written last night while shut in his room.
While I was nervously wondering what on earth he had written, Soejima-kun seemed undisturbed by Kusunoki-san’s reaction.
“I’m not making fun of you. Can we talk somewhere else?”
Their classmates around the shoe lockers were curiously watching their exchange. Realizing they had attracted attention, Kusunoki-san and Soejima-kun started walking toward the back of the school building.
Soejima-kun turned and looked at me, who was standing still. I understood he was telling me to follow them. I nodded to his gaze and chased after the two.
In the back of the school building, Soejima-kun and Kusunoki-san stood facing each other.
The girl took out a sheet of notepaper from the blue envelope and unfolded it in front of Soejima-kun.
“Going to the trouble of putting it in an envelope and even writing a name on it… What is this?”
I was startled by what was written on the notepaper that Kusunoki-san unfolded.
What was written on the notepaper wasn’t text. There was a drawing on the notepaper that looked like a child’s doodle. It was a terribly poor drawing.
Pointing to the drawing, Soejima-kun said seriously, “Kusunoki.”
Understandably, Kusunoki-san furrowed her eyebrows and pressed Soejima-kun. “So, what’s your intention?”
“I tried to imitate you.”
“Huh?”
“The picture you drew for me a long time ago…”
As Soejima-kun said that, Kusunoki-san seemed to realize something. She looked at the notepaper she was holding in her hand with a puzzled expression.
“I wasn’t this bad at drawing.”
Looking at the drawing on the notepaper with a distant look in her eyes as if she were recalling something, Kusunoki-san gave a faint smile and looked at Soejima-kun again.
“I drew it better than the real thing.”
At Kusunoki-san’s words, Soejima-kun chuckled softly, causing the girl to let out a small laugh as well. I could see from my distant vantage point that a soft atmosphere had developed between the two of them. Then Soejima-kun spoke.
“I’m moving in the spring.”
Kusunoki-san looked surprised.
“I… Even after we broke up, I’ve always been concerned about you, Kusunoki.”
Perhaps guessing that Soejima-kun was about to say something significant, Kusunoki-san’s expression stiffened.
“I know I have no right to say this, but…”
“Wait…”
Interrupting Soejima-kun, Kusunoki-san cast her eyes down. Her expression seemed troubled. There was a moment of silence. As I felt my heart beating faster, I stared at the two of them in their silence.
Recalling the way Kusunoki-san had looked at Soejima-kun, I was certain.
Everything will be all right; it will work out…
“I’m sorry.”
I doubted my own ears. With a pained expression, Kusunoki-san returned the notepaper and envelope to Soejima-kun. The voice I had heard was real; it was a harsh reminder of reality.
As Soejima-kun received the returned notepaper and envelope, Kusunoki-san quickly walked away.
I stood there, stunned by the scene.
Soejima-kun crumpled the returned notepaper and envelope in his hand. He scratched the back of his head and leaned against the school building wall.
“Ah… It didn’t work out.”
He looked at me, cracked a small smile, and spoke in a bright voice. “Don’t look so down.”
I wasn’t sure what expression I had on my face, but it must have been very gloomy, enough to make the person who would most likely want to cry worry about me.
“I… I thought it would work out…”
I watched from a distance as Kusunoki-san looked at Soejima-kun. I was certain, without any basis, that her gaze was special. With that baseless confidence, I had pushed Soejima-kun too hard…
I shrank within myself. I didn’t know how to apologize.
“Did I do it badly?” Soejima-kun asked me as he looked at the notepaper that Kusunoki-san had pushed back at him.