Chapter 14

CHAPTER 4 THE FALL. The sun was just as relentless in September as it had been in August. Even without it, the dorm would have been warm enough as summer vacation ended, packed as it was with people. Lots of team members came back with tans, looking especially in shape after having spent the summer break practicing with other teams or in training retreats. They had that special energy of those who had kept up their physical fitness routine the entire time. Hirano’s roommate was among them. He had grown noticeably, and the vague sense of unease he’d seemed to feel when he first got to school was nowhere to be seen. He was entirely at home here now. Summer break had made him even more congenial, and Hirano felt like he’d gained a younger brother he was especially close to. I guess maybe a younger brother doesn’t give you ear studs as a gift, he thought. But he didn’t have any siblings of his own, so he couldn’t be sure. As Hirano was rooting around in his schoolbag, organizing his things after getting back from Kagiura’s place in the country, he’d found the first pair of earrings he’d lost, rolling around at the bottom of the bag. They must have gotten hidden in the bottom support. Hirano had briefly wondered what he should do, but then decided not to worry about it and didn’t change the studs he was wearing. He kept the old ones around the dorm, just in case, but by and large he planned to keep using the ones he’d gotten from Kagiura. With the beginning of the new term, preparations for the cultural festival picked up speed. Even the first-years, who weren’t used to tackling a project without a teacher’s guidance, gradually started to stretch their wings. The committee members had a particularly heavy burden, and without the help of their classmates, they would never have been able to find time to study. As it was, Kagiura had basketball on the mind and his grades weren’t so good. Hirano hoped that taking on yet more extracurricular responsibilities wouldn’t make them worse—but he knew it would depend on how much effort Kagiura put in. It was hardly as if the committee members were the only busy ones. Around this time of year, every student was pushing themselves for the cultural festival, and the sports teams had to keep practicing hard in preparation for the fall tournament season. Add the fact that the nights hadn’t gotten any cooler, and it wasn’t an easy time. Meanwhile, most students could hardly wait for the cultural festival. It might be fair to say that was the case for all of them. Girls would be coming! Otherwise, how could it be a festival? On the one hand, the Disciplinary Committee insisted that everyone be particularly scrupulous about their looks and behavior, especially with the entire school in such a state of excitement—but in reality, they didn’t give people too much grief over things like hairstyles or uniforms. After all, on the day of the festival itself, many of the students would be in costume. Every year, there was at least one class that even dressed up as girls. That’s right, and this year, it was Hirano’s class. Hirano himself would be among the cross-dressers as the famous ghost Oiwa. Oiwa appeared in the ghost story “Yotsuya Kaidan,” where she died still furious about her treacherous husband, Iemon, then proceeded to curse to death all those who had been involved. A number of variations of this well-loved story existed, and Hirano’s class would be basing their costumes and makeup on the ghosts presented in the “Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan,” one of the most popular versions. Hirano was shown reference images of faces hideously disfigured by poison—Oiwa’s fate in the tale—and they were stuff that would be downright traumatic when people saw it in the dark. The artists decided to go with the Halloween-style makeup that was so popular these days, and today after class they did a trial run on Hirano, checking his skin color and how everything looked. The result was spectacularly grotesque. They prayed they could keep the secret safe until the very day of the haunted house so it would have the greatest possible impact. Hirano was just finishing up his homework when the door opened with a click. His roommate was back. It was still light out, but the hour was late enough that dinner had already started. “Hey, Hirano, I’m back,” Kagiura said. “Welcome back, Kagi,” Hirano replied. These days it seemed like Kagiura always looked a little shy when Hirano welcomed him back. He was able to greet him without worrying about any misunderstandings. They had spent some time together over the summer, sure, but the break had been long. There was something fresh and new about Kagiura now that he was used to living in the dorm—and probably about Hirano, too, he suspected. He felt closer to Kagiura than before, no doubt because he’d met his family and relatives. Hirano was in his second year of living in the dorm, but without him quite realizing it, his need to act like the more experienced roommate had begun to ease and fade away. Hirano and Kagiura hurried through their homework almost as if it were a race, then headed for the dining hall a bit later than usual. It always did take three or four days to get reacclimated to the rhythm of life in the dorm. It was then that Hirano remembered how before his underclassman had arrived, he’d actually been pretty nervous. At a Disciplinary Committee meeting, he’d brainstormed with Hanzawa about how to avoid intimidating his new roommate. They had agreed that to really get along, it wasn’t enough just to be extra nice at first; instead, they came up with practices Hirano would be able to maintain in the long run, like maybe using a nickname or just generally addressing his roommate casually. Oh yeah! I used to call him by his whole last name all the time! But it had been too long—troublesome to say—so he’d shortened it, and that was how he referred to Kagiura most of the time now. He knew he’d have to make sure to wake Kagiura up in time for practice the next day. Still, something was bothering him, so before they put out the lights, Hirano said, “Hey, Kagi… I know how hard you’re working, so I don’t want to sound too critical or anything, but how are your grades doing? I haven’t heard anything about how your proficiency tests came out.” Even as he spoke, he couldn’t help privately chuckling at himself: What am I, his personal tutor? Like most exams, the results of the tests that were given right after summer break were distributed to all students, showing where everyone ranked and the gaps between them. For first-years, it was mostly a point of reference. But given how much the tests covered, they were sometimes used in combination with a student’s entrance exams to help determine which schools they should shoot for in the future. “It was…close.” “How close?” “My homeroom teacher said it wasn’t bad enough to get summoned to the faculty office for a lecture, but that I’d better keep putting the work in.” “Ah…” So not great, then. Hirano had seen how hard Kagiura had worked, and almost wished he could reassure him on nothing more than the degree of his effort—Kagiura was practically dripping with disappointment. Still, he’d been unprepared, and there was no getting around it. “Just make sure you really buckle down after the cultural fest, Kagi. If you miss out on some notes, make sure you ask someone to show you theirs by the next day. Don’t let it build up, or you’ll only get more and more confused every day.” Hirano tried to look strict, although in his heart he hoped he was just worrying too much. The beginning of anything was so important. He knew a lot of guys who had come in on athletic recommendations like Kagiura whose grades had really suffered when they got into their second year. Hirano had never imagined he’d turn into such a worrywart the moment he became one of the upperclassmen responsible for his juniors. “Sure…,” Kagiura said. Then he added, “Hirano, would you tutor me again?” “Yeah, sure. You can pay me back by getting good grades.” “I will! Uh… Can I ask you something?” The way he sort of shrank in on himself as he voiced the question was charming in the way only handsome guys could pull off. “What’s that?” “Did your roommate tutor you when you were a first-year?” “Hell no.” “Huh. Didn’t you two get along?” “We got along okay, but we weren’t exactly close. I wasn’t as approachable an underclassman as you are.” That was just how it usually was in the dorm. Hanzawa seemed a bit sensitive about homosexuality, and he was notorious for his ability to sniff out any guys who seemed to be getting too close and drop in on them at inopportune moments. Word had it his contempt for gay people wasn’t completely arbitrary but had something to do with his family circumstances, so even Hirano pitied him for it. “So you’re saying I’m, like, superspecial?” “What, you happy about it?” Like a puppy? Hirano teased, getting a big grin out of Kagiura. “Sure. Y’know, I’m really glad I ended up as your roommate, Hirano.” Hirano couldn’t help but smile at how good Kagiura was at being lovable. Against someone so affectionate, he would never win.