Three
As I slept through the night, someone was murdered in the next prefecture over. It seemed to be just a random, senseless killing, and the news was all that played on TV throughout the morning.
Midterm exams or not, you may think the murder would be all anyone at school was going to talk about, too. Not in my class; they weren’t talking about the exams, either. Instead, their excited murmurs were about a different topic—one I rather wished they’d avoid.
It seemed they were trying to solve a mystery: the mystery of why the bright and cheerful, most popular girl in class would go out for coffee on a weekend with the class’s quietest, gloomiest boy. I would have liked to know the answer myself, but as usual, I tried to avoid any unnecessary interactions with my classmates. I never got the chance to ask if they figured it out.
For a moment, it looked like they reached a consensus: she and I had gotten together for a student librarian planning meeting. So far, I hadn’t involved myself in the conversations, and I hoped that would be the end of it. Then someone with meddlesome bravery and a lack of restraint asked her directly—and loudly—and the girl answered with something even more meddlesome than that.
“We’re getting along.”
Being the focus of the class’s attention had me listening in a little more closely than I usually did. Now I noticed, but of course pretended I hadn’t, that they all kept looking at me
After the first exam, my classmates kept throwing stares my way. I would have liked to know why I had to be under such a cloud of suspicion when I had hardly even spoken to them before, but I continued ignoring them.
I was forced to become involved in the discussion only once; it happened after third period and was quickly resolved.
That meddlesome and inconsiderate girl who’d asked the question before trotted over to me and said, “Hey, [Unremarkable Classmate]-kun, are you being friendly with Sakura?”
When she asked me that question, I thought she must have been a good person. My other classmates surrounded me at a distance, watching me, while sending this one to the frontlines, taking advantage of her open, straightforward nature.
I sympathized with this girl, whose name I couldn’t recall, and I answered, “Not really. We just ran into each other yesterday.”
The virtuous and honest girl seemed to accept my response at face value and said, “Okay,” before returning to the ring of students.
I had no qualms about lying in this situation. To protect myself—and to preserve my classmate’s secret—I saw no other choice. Because our connection was directly linked to her incurable illness, I suspected she would back up my story, no matter how much trouble she typically liked to stir up.
For now, at least, the fuss was over. When the fourth and final hour of testing was over, I felt like I’d done well enough on the exams to land somewhere a little above the class average. I helped clean up the classroom without having to communicate with anyone, then I began packing up my things. With nothing else I needed to do, I planned on going straight home. The nice thing about exams was getting home before the afternoon. I was almost out the classroom door when…
“Wait. Wait up, [Classmate I Can Get Along With]-kun!”
I turned and saw the faces of all my classmates, one smiling from ear to ear, and the rest watching us with suspicion. I wanted to ignore both sets, but I was only going to get away with ignoring the latter. The former was walking toward me, and I waited for her.
She said, “We’re supposed to go to the library today. I guess there’s some work to do.”
I could sense the waves of relief from our other classmates.
“No one said anything to me,” I said.
“The librarian told me earlier. Are you busy?”
“I’m not busy, I just—”
“Let’s go then. It’s not like you’re going to study anyway.”
I thought that was a rude thing to say, but she wasn’t wrong, so I went with her.
I don’t care to go into what happened at the library in great detail, but basically, she just wanted to poke fun at me. Earnestly, I asked the librarian what work we had to do, and she and my classmate both just laughed. If it weren’t for them, I could have gone straight home, but when the librarian apologized and brought out tea and sweets, I begrudgingly forgave her.
After sipping our tea for a little while, the librarian said she wanted to close up early and chased us out. It was only then I asked my classmate why she had lied to me. I figured it had to have been for a very serious reason.
Instead, she shrugged. “I just like playing tricks on people.”
I thought, Why you little… But I didn’t let the irritation show, because that’s exactly what a prankster is expecting to get back. Instead, I decided to get even by tripping her on our way to the shoe racks, but she easily hopped over my foot and raised an eyebrow at me. Her smug look annoyed me even more.
I told her, “Keep on acting like the boy who cried wolf, and you’ll get punished for it one day—and I won’t mind it at all.”
“Is that what happened to my pancreas?” she said. “God must have been watching. You’d better not tell lies yourself, lest you meet my fate.”
“There’s no rule saying it’s okay to lie about every little thing just because your pancreas doesn’t work.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t know. Say, have you eaten lunch yet?”
Trying to put as much of a sting to it as possible, I said, “You know I haven’t. You pulled me straight from class.”
We reached the shoe racks, and she asked, “What are you doing after this?”
“I’m going to buy some things to eat at the supermarket and go home.”
“If you don’t have anything already made, come out to eat with me. My parents are gone all day, and they left me lunch money.”
As I changed into my outdoor shoes, I considered flatly dismissing her offer, but I didn’t have it in me to say no. I’d have to come up with an excuse, and I wasn’t sure I could find one. The fact that I had enjoyed spending yesterday with her—just a little bit—didn’t help.
She put on her shoes, tapped her foot impatiently, and stretched her arms up high. It was a little cloudy outside, so the sunlight wasn’t quite as bright.
“Well?” she asked. “There’s somewhere I want to go before I die.”
I thought for a moment then said, “If any of our classmates see us again, it’ll be a pain.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” she exclaimed so loud I thought she’d gone crazy. When I looked at her, she scrunched up her face to show her displeasure. “[Classmate I Can Get Along With]-kun, you said we weren’t being friendly when you were with me. What else would you call yesterday?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, “I said that, but…”
“What did I write you last night? I said, ‘let’s always get along till the day I die.’”
“What’s it matter what I told her? Having everyone staring at me is bad enough. I just wanted to stop them from coming over to talk to me and pry into my business.”
“You don’t have to lie to them,” she said. “Who cares what they think? Didn’t you say yesterday that it’s what’s real on the inside that matters?”
“Yeah, what matters is on the inside. So what’s the problem if I make them believe something else?”
“Now we’re just going in circles,” she said.
“Besides,” I explained, “I was taking precautions not to reveal your secret. I wasn’t telling pointless lies like you do. If anything, you should be thanking me, not getting mad.”
She grumbled and made a sour face, like a child who had thought too hard over something complicated.
“Our outlooks just don’t match up,” I said.
“Maybe not,” she said.
“I’m not just talking about food this time. This seems more deeply rooted.”
“Sounds heavy,” she said with a big laugh. She seemed to be back in a good mood again. Her simple nature and her quickness to discard bad moods must have been two reasons she had so many friends.
“So,” she said, “about lunch.”
“I’m fine with going to lunch together, but is it really fine with you? That’s just time you could be enjoying with your other friends.”
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I had other plans. I never double-book. I’m doing something with them tomorrow, anyway. But you’re the only one I don’t have to hide my secret from. It’s easy being with you.”
“Like taking a breather,” I offered.
“Yeah, like a breather.”
“Well, if it’s to help you out, then I suppose I can do that much for you.”
“Really? Yay.”
If going to lunch with her would help her relax, then I didn’t have any other choices. Even if our other classmates saw us, I could put up with a little hassle for a worthy cause. She needed a place where she didn’t have to keep her secret bottled up, so I could hardly say no, could I?
That was the boat of reeds speaking.
I asked, “Where are we going?”
She squinted up at the sky and breathlessly said, “Paradise.”
Would there really be a paradise for her? When we lived in a world that would steal the life from a high school girl, I wasn’t sure.