Chapter 12

“The cute look.” The sullen attitude made him seem even younger than he was. “Sheer bias! How can you live with yourself, Tashiro?” He glared at me, but it wasn’t very intimidating. Kuresawa, looking exasperated, intervened. “You’ve been at an all-boys school too long, Tashiro. You’re numb.” “I’m not numb to anything! At the entrance ceremony, I thought Miyano was a girl.” “How can you say that?! He’s obviously a guy! You want cute, you should see my girlfriend!” “I’m so glad you’re my friend, Kuresawa,” Miyano said. Kuresawa nodded, but he wasn’t looking at Miyano. He was checking out his phone. It always ended up back at the girlfriend thing with him. “You could stand to act more like it,” he said. I knew he was looking at pictures of his girlfriend—again—but I decided not to say anything. I’d just end up bombarded with lovestruck babble. “You’re both a little…funny,” I said instead. “Yeah?” Kuresawa said. “You think?” Miyano asked. No harmonies this time. So close! “Pretty sure,” I replied. I didn’t want to break up whatever they had going on here, so I excused myself and went to ask some of our other classmates. Kuresawa and Miyano were obviously becoming good friends. I hadn’t seen them together much in first term, and even now it wasn’t like they were with each other all the time. To my surprise, they didn’t usually eat lunch together, for example. Instead, Kuresawa prioritized being with his club, and Miyano hung around the Disciplinary Committee. I also discovered that unlike me and Shirahama, Kuresawa and Miyano hadn’t gone to the same middle school. Wonder what their story is, I thought. On reflection, I realized the first time I’d heard Miyano mention Kuresawa had been before summer break. Kuresawa had been hurt when some other guys attacked him. Miyano and Kuresawa, along with the other members of the Disciplinary Committee and even the committee’s faculty adviser, had been conducting searches and questioning people all over school. Didn’t seem like the best time for a total bystander to go sticking his nose in. Whatever happened, some guy named Sasaki seemed to be involved. But it wasn’t until October that I figured out even that much. It was then, right about when we switched to our winter uniforms, that Sasaki started popping into our classroom from time to time. He was always looking for Miyano. Usually, they would chat for a while, and then he would leave again. They seemed pretty close—close enough that Miyano, who normally wasn’t very forceful, could be heard talking to Sasaki like he really meant it or trading barbs with him. Sasaki seemed like Miyano’s polar opposite; he looked as frivolous as Miyano did serious. With his bleached hair and piercings everywhere, he was practically the poster child for juvenile delinquents. Plus he looked sort of mean all the time. Not very approachable. The fact that he was more than 180 cm tall only made him more frightening. In spite of all that, he always seemed to sound gentle and friendly with Miyano. Very strange. The moment his expression went blank, though, he went right back to looking like a scary upperclassman. I thought maybe he and Miyano shared a “special” connection—you hear about it all the time at all-boys schools. At the same time, it was just nice to see them being friends. Once, though, I overheard Sasaki talking to Kuresawa, and it made my heart skip a beat. “I know I’m a little late, but how are your glasses?” Sasaki asked. “Fine, thanks. The lenses weren’t broken. The frame was bent beyond repair, though, so I had to get a new one.” “Scary stuff, huh? I mean, when your eyes are involved.” That was the whole conversation. The reason it stayed with me even though it was so short was the way Kuresawa seemed to get smaller. Almost withering away, as if Sasaki overwhelmed him. Kuresawa was usually completely self-possessed, so I was startled to see him like that. The conversation itself was sort of unsettling, too. It combined to create a negative impression that stayed with me. Does this mean Sasaki is the reason Kuresawa got hurt? I wondered. “Hmm…” The question bugged me, but I couldn’t exactly ask. From that day forth, I felt vaguely angry at Sasaki. If he was the one who hurt Kuresawa, then maybe Miyano was being forced to hang out with him. Maybe my friend secretly wished he could get away from the guy. It was Friday, the weekend five of us classmates were going to get cake together, and I was running down the hall. I’d been changing in my classroom when I saw a message on my phone. It was from Kuresawa, and it simply said: Notebook. “Crap!” I’d shouted. Thankfully, one of the upperclassmen heard me and let me off the hook for the start of our get-together. I told Hanzawa that I was going to go grab my notebook and water bottle and hurried back to the classroom. We were supposed to turn our notebooks in by today after class, but Kuresawa, the guy responsible for collecting them from us, had asked us to give them to him by noon. Class was already over, and if I didn’t catch him, I was finished. I flung the door open and shouted, “Is Kuresawa still here?!” “Yeah, barely,” he said, looking at his phone and not sounding very impressed. He didn’t even glance at me, but I thought I could almost see a halo shining around his head. “I’m so sorry! Please hand in my notebook for me…” I pulled it out of my desk and handed it to Kuresawa, sighing with relief. He’d sworn vengeance against any of us who didn’t hand our stuff in on time, but he didn’t look like he was going to run me through right there. He was nice that way. Miyano was in the room too, although he didn’t look like he had any reason to still be there. I thought maybe he was waiting for Kuresawa, but evidently he was on after-class duty and was busy getting the daily report together. It’s just the two of them… I guess it would have been rude to call this my chance, but I didn’t think there was going to be a better time to ask what was on my mind. My curiosity led me to finally break my silence about the relationship between Sasaki and Miyano. Were there feelings involved? Or was Miyano actually cornered? “Say, Miyano,” I said, “I’ve been wanting to ask you. Are you going out with that upperclassman who’s always coming around?” “What in the world would make you think that?!” “’Cause this is an all-boys school? And that guy is constantly calling you cute. Huh… So he’s just using you?” “You’ve got it all wrong!” After a lengthy discussion, I learned that my assumptions had been just that—assumptions. Totally baseless. In fact, Sasaki was the one who had saved Kuresawa from a violent attack. He was practically a hero. Sasaki and Miyano were just good friends. Now I feel bad for doubting him, I thought. I left the classroom ruminating on this reminder that “to assume only makes an ass of you and me.” I went along nice and slow, not running, but as I reached the gym, I realized I’d forgotten something important. I was still empty-handed. “Whoopsie! Forgot my water bottle!” I said in a soft singsong tone, and headed back to the classroom. Miyano had already locked up, and I had to go to the faculty office to get the key. Huh…? When I got back to the classroom, though, I found the door ajar. That was weird. I was sure it had been closed earlier. I peeked in and saw two figures. One of them was Miyano, but the other wasn’t Kuresawa. It was the notorious Sasaki. Well, I guess he’s not really notorious. It turned out he was helping. I had to make sure I remembered that. I backed off a little. This didn’t look like a moment when someone should be butting in. They were talking, but their voices didn’t carry to the hallway. Miyano’s face was hidden behind the daily report. Sasaki, meanwhile, was stretched out lazily over the desk where Miyano had been writing. I couldn’t get a good look at the situation from where I was. The heck is going on? I worried that they were having a fight or something. I took a step forward again, but I still couldn’t bring myself to enter the room. Miyano and Kuresawa had insisted that Sasaki was a stand-up guy, but I still hadn’t quite gotten over the feeling that he seemed a little scary. If it looked like anything was about to happen, I would scream. That would be my plan. If Miyano was in trouble, I had to help him. I was ready. Silhouetted against the light from the window, I could clearly see Sasaki reach toward Miyano as if he were about to touch him—then draw back without doing anything. Miyano couldn’t see it because of the daily report. He probably didn’t know it had happened. But I was sure. Just now, that was… I swallowed slowly, heavily. Their conversation began to drift to me in snatches. Miyano was speaking unreservedly about what seemed to be the manga he was interested in. Sasaki didn’t look like much of a reader. Maybe he was just humoring Miyano. “Y’know, I saw an ad for something I think was a BL manga at the convenience store today,” Sasaki was saying. “Do you know it, Miyaaa?” “What was the title? Do you remember any of it?” “Uh, yeah… Wonder if I could search for it. Oh, here it is.” “Oh, this one. It’s almost BL but not quite.” Huh? He wasn’t scared of Sasaki? Wait… That almost-touch Sasaki gave him, could that have been—? I was starting to think I could see what was going on between Sasaki and Miyano, and with that, I resolved to stop asking questions. If Miyano was okay with it, that was all I needed to know. What a load off my chest, I thought, feeling almost physically lighter. I practically skipped back to the gym, where I announced, “I’m back! I turned my notebook in on time!” Hanzawa, who seemed to be taking a quick break, said hi to me and then added, “Where’s your water bottle?” “Oh crap!” I looked at the ceiling, realizing I’d forgotten all about it. I definitely didn’t want to go back to that classroom, though. Too embarrassing!