“Um, what exactly are you trying to do?” I asked.
“Hey, don’t give me that look,” she pouted. “When you think about it, it’s kinda their own fault for never fixing the lock.”
“Wow. So you can open it from this side, just like that?”
“Uh, yeah? Didn’t you already know this?”
I was officially confused. How could I possibly know that? I never went to school here.
“Oh, wait,” Akari exclaimed, slapping her forehead as if struck by an epiphany. “Sorry, I’m stupid—of course you wouldn’t know about that yet. Duh.”
For a moment, a huge question mark popped up over my head, but then I quickly figured it out. Judging from her tone, there’d been some moment over the past few days in which she’d told me about the broken window lock, but it was one that I hadn’t personally experienced yet. In which case, it made sense why she thought she’d already told me, but I had no clue what she was talking about. Upon realizing her blunder, Akari proceeded to explain.
“Yeah, so basically, all these windows have sash locks, but this one’s kinda janky, so the handle won’t turn all the way, and the latch doesn’t engage. So if you kinda wiggle it around like this and apply a little bit of horizontal pressure…” she said, then proceeded to demonstrate. Sure enough, the window popped right open, and she looked back at me with a smug grin. “Aaand presto! See? Piece o’ cake.”
“Well, well! Color me impressed. You sure do know all the ins and outs of this place.”
“Yeah, I mean, I would hope so! Been goin’ here for two whole years now.”
Akari hoisted herself up onto the windowsill and jumped inside. This still felt a little too close to breaking and entering for my liking, but I followed after her anyway. Once inside, I realized that we were in the girls’ bathroom. It was completely empty, but I still felt like a bit of a trespasser in there, so I quickly shuffled out into the main hallway.
“Whoa… Now this is pretty cool,” I marveled quietly to myself—though even that was enough to echo loudly through the empty corridor. The soft moonlight pouring in through the windows did offer some illumination, but it was still very dark inside the school. I looked down toward the other end of the hallway, where the only thing I could see was the eerie spectral glow of the fire alarm’s big red bulb. As someone who had no problem wandering through the abandoned part of town, even I had to admit this was pretty spooky. On the other hand, it was also kind of exhilarating—this was the first time I’d ever snuck into a school at night. I hesitantly started to make my way down the hall, but then a stressful thought hit me.
“Aw, crap. I didn’t take my shoes off.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Akari, coming out of the girls’ bathroom just as I was kneeling down to unlace my sneakers. “They let us wear our street shoes here, it’s no biggie.”
“Oh, for real? I had no idea. Never even set foot in Sodeshima High before.”
“Then allow me to give you the grand tour!”
Akari strode off down the hall, and I followed after her. There wasn’t a hint of trepidation in her step—on the contrary, she seemed almost comfortable here.
“Sheesh, Akari. Slow down,” I said, strolling up alongside her. “I mean, aren’t you scared at all?”
“Oh, please. This is a cakewalk compared to yesterday. Plus, I’ve got you here with me, don’t I? What do I have to be afraid of?”
“W-well, if you say so.”
I didn’t really know what to say to that. I wished she would stop saying things that could be misinterpreted as flirting, though, because I never knew how to react. What was this about yesterday, anyway? Had we really gone out and done something even spookier than breaking into the school at night? I couldn’t even fathom what that entailed.
“Why, are you scared, Kanae-kun?”
“Who, me? Psh, as if. I’m just shakin’ in my boots a little bit, that’s all.”
“So you’re terrified. Got it,” she snarked, then slowed to a stop before a pair of mysterious double doors. “Oh hey, here’s the library. You wanna check it out?”
“I mean, can we even get inside?”
“Let’s find out,” she said, then grabbed both door handles and pulled hard, but they didn’t budge. “Well, shoot. It’s locked.”
“Yeah, not surprised,” I said with a wry smirk as Akari scratched her cheek and laughed sheepishly. We proceeded past the library and soon arrived at the main stairwell.
“You used to spend a bunch of time in the library, didn’t you, Kanae-kun? Do you still read a lot of books?” she asked as we were walking up the stairs.
“Not so much lately… Studying kinda eats up all of my free time.”
“Dang, it’s that brutal over there, huh?”
“I’m struggling just to keep up, yeah. If I’m not careful, I might get held back this year.”
“Seriously? That’s really surprising to me. You always had such good grades in junior high.”
“Yeah, by Sodeshima standards, maybe,” I sighed as we reached the second-floor landing. I continued ranting as I followed Akari into the main hall: “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I thought I was a pretty bright kid back then too. But once I got to Tokyo, it was like all bets were off. So much competition there, y’know? You’ve really gotta go above and beyond to stand out. It’s…stifling, honestly.”
It wasn’t until after I finished talking that I realized I was basically venting at this point. I felt bad. Akari wasn’t my therapist, and it couldn’t be much fun for her to hear me complaining like this.