“What’s that?”
“Well, you’ve been talking to Kanon and Chikaze a lot lately, right?”
Who’s Chikaze again...? Oh, right—Ido-san. I rubbed my temple. “Seriously... This again?”
“Hm? What again?”
“After Hanamizawa-san started talking to me a bunch, Ido-san got suspicious and accused me of doing something shady to her.” When I explained what had happened with her, his eyes went wide. Then he burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha! Yeah, that sounds like Chikaze.”
“Hey, it isn’t funny. Isn’t that why you want to talk to me?”
“No, no.” He waved his hand in front of him. “They both seemed really stressed ever since the end of the first semester. Kanon seemed exhausted, and Chikaze was always on edge worrying so much about what other people thought of her.”
As I listened quietly, I realized that even though he looked like a dumb jock, he was actually pretty observant and had picked up on their problems.
He glanced at me and gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
“Sure, I may have picked up on it, but I couldn’t do anything. I thought that if just being around us was so hard on them, the best I could do was to pretend not to notice they were struggling.”
“I think that was probably the right decision.” I doubted the most popular kid out of the entire group of popular kids would have been able to solve Hanamizawa-san’s desire to be alone sometimes or Ido-san’s self-consciousness. If he’d said something, that might have just made it worse. “I’m sure they both appreciated that.”
“Ha ha. Thanks,” he replied, looking a little shy. “But once second semester began and they started talking to you more, they looked more relaxed, or like they had some weight lifted off their shoulders. I dunno, it’s hard to explain. But it was a good change. And I think it’s all thanks to you.” Hadori-kun gave me a good (and somewhat painful) whack on the shoulder. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you today. I got a favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“Yeah. Please don’t be so cold to those two.” He placed both hands on my shoulders and bowed his head. “You did what I couldn’t. I know this might be a pain for you, but I’m asking you to be friendly with them.”
That’s why he wanted to talk to me? And he was even bowing his head?
“Why would you go to all this trouble?”
“’Cuz they’re my friends. When they’re sad, I’m sad!” He looked up and grinned at me.
I swear, this guy... “You’re a pretty nice guy.”
“Aw, knock it off. I’m just doing it for my own satisfaction.”
He bashfully laughed it off, but I really meant it. The reason he was the most popular kid in school was because he was such a good guy.
“No, for real. You’re a nice guy,” I said firmly.
Hadori-kun laughed. “And you’re a weirdo. Honestly, at first I thought you were following them around and causing them trouble, so I might have had to give you a good whack with my kendo sword.” He gave me a demonstration, swinging around an imaginary sword. Who was the weirdo now?
“That seems dangerous.”
“I don’t mess around when it comes to stalkers. And if you ever do anything shady to them, I will hunt you down.”
“I won’t.” I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. Then I looked into his eyes. “Since you’re such a good person, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”
“What’s that?”
“Proof of why I won’t ever do anything bad to them.” I looked around to make sure we were alone. And I told him.
He looked shocked for a moment, but then burst out laughing. “Pfft, ah ha ha ha!” Okay, it’s not that funny. “Yeah, that’s pretty good proof. Heh heh.” He laughed so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
“Don’t tell anyone else.”
“I won’t. Anyway, take care of those two.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I’d say my chat with Mr. Popular went as well as could be expected.
◊◊◊
The next day during break, Ido-san and I began our back-and-forth.
“I’ll name some activities and you give me answers,” she said.
“Gotcha.”
“Bowling?”
“There are people who do that alone.”
“What about baseball?”
“You can go to a batting cage.”
“What about futsal?”
“It’s hard to play games with rules like that even with friends, don’t you think?”
“Competitive video games.”
“Lately you can play against the best gamers in the country online.”
“How can you evolve Graveler and Haunter without trading with someone else?”
“Just buy both versions and trade with yourself.”
She was trying to offer up activities that you wouldn’t be able to enjoy unless you were in a group, and I had to explain why you could enjoy them solo, or convince her that you didn’t necessarily have to do them in a group. Ever since that first day we talked, she’d been doing this a lot.
“You’re really stubborn about this, Chi-chan.”
“Shut up, Kanon!”
“Okay, okay.”
Meanwhile, Hanamizawa-san was enjoying our exchange from the sidelines. She certainly had a sadistic streak, having so much fun watching her friend squirm with frustration. Were they actually friends?
Finally, Ido-san let out a sigh. “I guess there aren’t many things you can’t enjoy alone after all.”
“See?” I said.
“Ugh, this is so frustrating!” She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. “Hmm... What about talking like this? You know, chatting and having fun with a friend. If you did it alone, you’d just be talking to yourself.”
“Yeah, but that’s pretty fun, actually.”
“Grr! Well, how about—”
“Are you and I friends, though?”
“H-Huh? Well...” she trailed off. Apparently she didn’t have a comeback this time. If she didn’t think we were friends, this probably would’ve made her angry. But since it didn’t, I wondered what she actually thought of our relationship. We really only talked during breaks like this.
Plus, when do friendships start, anyway? I guess it’s when you think of someone as a friend, and they do the same—when the feelings are mutual, I guess.
“Ooh, pick me! I think Yashiro-kun’s my friend!” Hanamizawa-san raised her hand and started hopping around.
“What? Seriously?” I asked.
“Hey, that’s cold! After we took a bath together and everything!”
“Will you stop saying things that can be taken the wrong way?! We just went to a spa together!”
“Everything I said was still true!” She stuck her tongue out teasingly.
Honestly... I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “Anyway, Ido-san. I enjoy talking with you, whether we’re friends or not.”
“R-Really? Hee hee...” She seemed a little shy now.
I nodded. “Yeah. I like watching your wheels turn when we argue.”
“Huh? Really?!”
“I totally get that,” Hanamizawa-san piped up, nodding her head.
“Don’t you get started on that too, Kanon!”
“I think you’d have better luck coming up with things you wouldn’t enjoy doing solo that aren’t group activities. Then Yashiro-kun can teach you how to enjoy them!”
“Oh, I guess that’s a good point.” Ido-san agreed with Hanamizawa-san, then looked as if she were deep in thought.
Now that Ido-san was quiet, Hanamizawa-san spoke up. “I was really surprised, by the way.”
“Hm?”
“You know, the day we went to the Royal Spa together. Remember how you showed up covered in cycling gear? I totally thought you were more of an indoors kind of guy,” she said.
“Hm? Cycling? Like a sports bike?” Ido-san jumped back into the conversation. “Hey, I ride a sports bike! It’s a good way to stay in shape and build muscle, so I’ve been using the biking trails along the river in my neighborhood lately.”
“I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing.”
“But since I’m doing it just for exercise, it doesn’t really feel fun to me, you know? I bet it would be fun to go on a long bike trip with a friend or something, but I don’t know anyone else who has a sports bike. I tried inviting Kanon to come with me, but...”
“Did you see the price tag on one of those bikes?! It’s not like I can just buy one out of the blue!” Hanamizawa-san shook her head.