“Hirano! I’m back!” “Oh, hey, Kagi.” Kagiura walked through the door half an hour before dinner. He was usually already rubbing his empty tummy by this time, ready to eat, but something seemed different today. Hirano’s first thought was that he’d bought a snack on the way home, but then he heard a noisy guuurgle from Kagiura’s stomach, so evidently not. Almost as soon as he set down his bag, Kagiura began to talk excitedly. “Has your class decided what you’re going to do for the cultural festival, Hirano? Our class is hoping to do a yakitori stall, and because it was my idea, uh…I ended up as our committee rep.” Fresh from his team workout, Kagiura gave off the faint but sharp aroma of antiperspirant. He seemed acutely worried about his body odor, but he never really smelled too sweaty. “The cultural festival? We’re planning to ask to do a haunted house. Not sure if we can keep it within the budget, though. We’re planning something pretty elaborate.” He went on about costumes and props, but Kagiura was looking at him in something like puzzlement. Kagiura was so tall that even on the basketball team you couldn’t miss him, but during a conversation like this, he still had a certain boyishness about him. Even with the often difficult-to-approach Hirano, his face had always been open and readable. “A haunted house,” he said. “Isn’t that…kind of a couples’ thing?” Huh, Hirano thought. So he thinks about stuff like that, too. It made sense—they were at that age—but somehow it surprised Hirano. Kagiura had never mentioned that he wanted a girlfriend or that he had a crush on anyone, and he’d never asked about Hirano’s love life, either. (Although given that they lived together, it was natural enough that Kagiura would know Hirano wasn’t seeing anyone.) “I think we might see a lot more groups of friends than you’re thinking. Heck, I’ve been to one.” “With who?” “Hmm?” “Who did you go with? To last year’s cultural festival?” Hirano was quiet for a moment, confronted with Kagiura’s unusually intense gaze. It wasn’t like he’d had a girlfriend, plus he’d had to watch the stall sometimes, so there hadn’t been any one person for him to tour the festival with. Instead, there’d been a revolving door of people who happened to be free when he got off his shift, or who asked him to go in with a group on some expensive snack—that sort of thing. “With Sasaki and some of the other guys from my class, I guess. I don’t really remember,” he said. “And have you made any plans with anyone for the festival this year?” “Nah. I mean, you wouldn’t go out of your way to make a date just to wander around with your friends, would you?” “Me… It’d be nice to walk around with you, Hirano.” Ah, Hirano realized, so that was what he’d been getting at. He felt his brow crinkle fondly. True, you probably wouldn’t meet up with someone from another class and year unless you agreed ahead of time. “Sure. Okay, let’s check it out when we’re both off duty.” “Can we really?” “What with being in different years and different student groups, we don’t see a lot of each other at school, do we? Should be interesting to see you somewhere other than the dorm!”
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“Okay! Let’s try my class’s yakitori, Hirano!” “Huh, sounds good to me. I love yakitori,” Hirano said, adding softly that there hadn’t been any last year. Kagiura grinned to himself: score. Now with that settled… “So, Kagi, there’s two stages to the cultural-fest approval process, right? Really think you can handle it while you’re playing for the basketball team, too? Competition’s stiff to run food stalls—I think a first-year class is going to have it tough. You might be able to swing it if you did a café—you know, served drinks and stuff you could prep right in the room.” With a menu consisting of items that didn’t cause smoke and things that could be prepared to order on a hot plate, the entire operation could be done in a classroom. True, they’d have to be cognizant of the load on the breakers—there was a limit—but they’d be a lot more likely to get approved than by battling for one of the limited outdoor spots. “But I really want to do yakitori,” Kagiura said. “Yeah? Give it your best shot, then. First, you’ve gotta deal with the paperwork. Talk to your teacher nice and early; he can show you some past applications.” “All right, I think I’ll try asking tomorrow. The deadline’s not very forgiving, is it?” “That’s part of the fun.” Such a short turnaround time to put a plan together tested not only the class’s coordination but the committee rep’s preparation. And because prep didn’t start until after final exams, it had a minimal impact on grades. It was unlikely that students had any prior opportunity to experience allocating a budget and even potentially making a slight profit. When Hirano saw an underclassman he already watched over proactively involving himself in the process, it made him want to give some advice—maybe too much advice. “By the way, Hirano, what part are you going to be playing in your haunted house?” “No idea yet,” Hirano replied. The words came out easily, but they weren’t true; in reality, the class’s discussions had already settled most of the broad contours. They would take shifts playing different monsters, so one role would be played by several people, all sharing the same costume. Hirano was going to be one of the guys playing Oiwa, a vengeful spirit from one of Japan’s most famous ghost stories. Playing Oiwa necessitated dressing as a woman, but they all agreed it was better than playing Hanako, a ghost girl who was said to be stuck in a toilet stall. Because of the shared aspect, more than half of Hirano’s class would be cross-dressing for the event. If they weren’t careful, it could even turn out to be most of them. Part of that was because so many famous ghosts were women, but it was also thanks to several students who were eager to work on their makeup skills. They reminded everyone that the year before, they’d wanted to make a horror movie but had been voted down by the class. As a member of the Disciplinary Committee, Hirano was anxious that the monsters not be played by roughnecks who just wanted to upset the visitors, so for him, being on the scare team was perfect. Even if it does mean that I’m likely to spend the day dressed as a woman. “I think you’d make a perfect yuki-onna, Hirano,” Kagiura said with a grin, referring to the spirit of a woman that was said to appear on snowy nights. Hirano nudged him. “Don’t you have homework to do? Wrap it up before we have to go eat.” Hirano stood up. “Yeah, no problem,” Kagiura said. “Hey, don’t you wanna change first?” “Oh! I almost forgot.” Hirano worried he was nagging, but Kagiura didn’t seem upset by the reminder. It meant it was worth the effort to help take care of him.