“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a downer or anything,” I apologized.
“No, no, it’s fine. Everyone’s got their own problems they’re dealing with. Glad to know I’m not the only one… Oh, hey. Here we are,” she said, coming to a stop in front of a classroom with a big SECOND YEAR nameplate above the door. “Yep, that’s where I was sitting up until a month ago! Pretty crazy stuff.”
She proudly pushed her pointer finger against the window, while I pressed my forehead up to the glass and tried to get a better look. For how big of a classroom it was, there weren’t that many desks inside—maybe thirty at most.
“Wanna go inside?” she asked mischievously.
“If they locked the library, then I’m sure they lock up the classrooms too.”
“You’re not wrong. But whaddya know—they left the window above the door hanging wiiide open for us.”
“…This school really needs to tighten up its security.”
As I shook my head in disbelief, I heard a spry “Hup!” and looked over to find that Akari had already stepped up onto the neighboring windowsill, where she was now trying to hoist herself up and through the small open window above the door. Right when she was almost halfway through, she gave a sudden yowl of pain.
“Hey, are you all right?” I asked as she lowered herself back down into the hallway.
“Yeah, sorry…” she winced as she rubbed one side of her lower back and waist. “Thought I’d be all healed up by now, but it still kinda hurts from time to time.”
“Healed up? Did you get injured recently or something?”
“Oh, uh… Yeah, sort of. But I’m like ninety-nine percent good now, so don’t worry about it. It’s really not a big deal.”
“You sure…?”
Akari nodded, albeit with a rather melancholy expression. Whatever had happened, it was obvious that she didn’t want to talk about it, so I let it go and changed the subject.
“Okay, then why don’t I go in first and unlock the door for you from the inside?” I offered.
“That’d be great, thanks.”
I climbed up on the neighboring windowsill, just like Akari had, then wriggled my way up and into the classroom through the higher window over the door. Inside, it felt even more spacious than it had looked from the hallway. The smell of wood and fresh wax flowed into my lungs as I scanned the neat rows of empty desks. The pale blue moonlight leaking in through the windowpanes bathed the tabletops in a faint, luminous glow. I unlocked the door to let Akari in, and she stepped past me into the classroom. After giving it a good, long once-over, she headed over to a desk by the window and sat down.
“Yep, this was my spot. Have a seat, Kanae-kun,” she said, indicating the desk in front of her as she ran her other hand over the smooth wooden surface. I felt a little awkward treating myself to a random stranger’s seat, but I reluctantly obliged. “Gosh, this sure brings back memories, huh?”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I agreed. “It’s like we’re back in junior high.”
“I’d rather go back to elementary school, personally.”
“Really? …I mean, I guess I can understand that.”
Now that she mentioned it, I couldn’t summon up many fond memories from my junior high years whatsoever. I was always being treated like an outcast by my other classmates, and getting picked on, and then backstabbed by the few kids who pretended they were on my side… It was awful. But even so, I still cherished all of the time I got to spend with Akari back then.
“If you could go back to elementary school, what would you do differently?” Akari asked, propping one elbow up on her desk.
“Good question,” I answered. “Probably study real hard from day one and try to get into Tokyo U.”
“What, that’s it? Bor-riiing.”
“Yeah? Well, what about you, huh?”
“Me? Mmm…” she pondered, folding her arms as she mulled it over. I didn’t intend for it to be such an introspective question, but I waited patiently for her answer, until finally, she had a sudden flash of inspiration. “I’d wanna go on more field trips!”
It was such an anticlimactic answer after all that buildup. I couldn’t help laughing.
“You do realize those aren’t exclusive to elementary school, right?”
“Well, yeah—but we were supposed to go on a whole lot more back then, remember? They’d always get canceled due to rain or something.”
“Oh yeah, I do remember that. It was like the weather had a vendetta against our class or something—always waited until the morning of to turn nasty on us.”
“What’s that called, again? Murphy’s Law?” Akari muttered.
“Pretty sure, yeah,” I nodded.
“Hey, Kanae-kun… Do you remember that one field trip we went on in fifth grade?”
“Fifth grade? You’re not talking about the one where you fell face-first into that giant mud puddle, are you?”
“That’s the one!”
Now that brought me back. I lapsed into reminiscing about that fateful day. As I remembered it, the entire class had gone out on an excursion to hike up a small mountain over on the mainland. It was our first field trip in a long time, so we were all having a blast, Akari included—that is, until she slipped and fell deep into the muck. I would never forget the total 180 her expression made in that instant—from giddy elation to abject horror.
“But then you went and fell in right after me, Kanae-kun, remember? How’d that happen?” Akari asked, and I realized I’d totally forgotten about that part. After Akari slipped and fell, I practically dove into the mud puddle right alongside her.
“Oh, yeah… I think I just tripped on a rock or something.”
“You think?” Akari pressed, her eyes skeptical.