When she saw my expression, she looked hurt and pursed her lips.
I sighed and shook my head. “Sorry. I’ll wait for you.”
What kind of club president was rude to a member wanting to attend the club?
Odajima shook her head and looked down at the floor. “I won’t yell at you like I did yesterday.”
“It’s fine. You were probably right anyway.”
I was unable to look at myself objectively, so the things she said to me had probably been correct. I just didn’t have the guts to admit it before.
We finished packing, and as soon as Odajima stood up, I headed out of the classroom. She hesitantly followed after me.
Out in the hallway, I spotted two classmates walking side by side.
“Ah…”
One of the students stopped and looked at me.
It was Ai.
Andou stood next to her.
“Odajima and…Yuzuru.” She hesitantly lifted a hand and smiled awkwardly at us.
“…Mizuno,” I said quietly in response.
She flinched and looked down with a conflicted expression. I could’ve called her Ai like she wanted me to, but for some reason I didn’t.
“A-are you two going to your club now?” she asked after looking up again.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
She gave us a stiff smile and nodded back. “Oh. I’m—”
“She’s going on a date with me. Aren’t you?” Andou interrupted her.
A date. I felt a throbbing pain in my chest at Andou’s words.
Ai hastily waved her hand. “N-no, it’s not a date… But I said we could hang out. He promised to go anywhere with me, so…”
“Yeah, we can go wherever you want, Mizuno. Anywhere’s fun with a cute girl like you,” he said cheerfully. It was a pretty cheesy line, but it sounded strangely fine coming from him. It seemed natural.
Anywhere would be fun with Ai.
I remembered there was a time when I thought the same thing. And if I hadn’t had all those unnecessary feelings, then maybe we could’ve stayed together forever.
“Well, we’ll see ya then.” Andou waved and winked at me. As he walked past, he whispered, “I’ll take you out to eat sometime.” Then he continued down the hallway.
Ai turned back once to look at me, then awkwardly glanced away.
I stared absently after them until I felt an elbow jab into my side, right into my rib. I yelped out in pain.
“Ow! What’d you do that for?!”
“Are you stupid or something? You’re really okay with this?” Odajima was glaring at me.
See, she is mad.
I pursed my lips and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter if I’m okay with it. It’s none of my—”
“That’s not the look someone gets on their face when it’s none of their business!” Odajima yelled. It felt like the air around us had completely frozen.
Our classmates, who had been chatting inside the classroom, glanced toward us in surprise. Odajima noticed and awkwardly cleared her throat. “I’m going to the club room,” she said.
I frowned. “I don’t like being yelled at.”
“I said I wasn’t gonna yell at you!” Odajima yelled.
I knew that I was being pathetic. But I thought that Odajima was being a little too impatient as well.
“Lately you really irritate me, you know that, Yuzu?” Odajima said as soon as we reached the club room. She glanced over at me as she spoke.
The room had been closed up during the school day, so it was muggy, but not hot enough to turn on the air conditioner. I listened to Odajima as I opened the windows. The humid summer breeze blew inside, and it felt a little easier to breathe for a moment.
The wind tousled Odajima’s wavy hair. She pushed it out of her face with irritation and sat down on the sofa.
“Yuzu,” she said, her gaze on the floor. She spoke quietly, but since the room was so small, I could hear her loud and clear. “You always seem so calm and objective… You’re different from other guys.”
I looked at her with wide eyes and shook my head. “That’s not true—”
“You don’t get it at all, Yuzu!” She raised her voice, her words overlapping with mine. Then she gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. “…I’m sorry.”
She was apologizing because she’d promised not to yell at me.
“It’s fine. I know you’re mad,” I said, and she nodded. But then she shook her head.
“No, I’m not mad. I’m irritated.”
“Because you found out I’m not the person you thought I was?” My voice came out sounding cold again. It seemed like I couldn’t control my emotions at all.
She was speechless for a moment but then shook her head. “…No, I just didn’t know. This is who you are, too, right? And that’s fine.” She looked down at the floor again.
Her eyes seemed restless as she spoke, and I got the feeling she was carefully choosing her words.
“Before, I said you didn’t get it at all. But…I could say the same thing about myself.” She looked up at me. “So please…tell me about you and Mizuno.”
She was staring so intently at me that I felt flustered, like I didn’t have anywhere to run. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.
Odajima had never asked me for anything before. She was always laid-back, showing up now and then like a stray cat. That was the kind of girl she was.
Yet lately, she’d started raising her voice at me, and that voice, along with her eyes, seemed desperate to tell me something.
And now she was asking to hear my pathetic story.
“Why…?” I tried to squeeze out a reply, but the only thing I managed to express was my desire to run away. “Why do you want to know about that?”
Odajima, her face still serious, replied, “Because you’re worried about it.”
“But it’s…,” I started to say, then stopped myself when I saw Odajima getting angrier.
“Don’t say it’s none of my business!”