Ever since the day before, all I’d been able to think about was Ai.
I set my book down on the desk just as the door opened with a rattle.
“Is this the literature club?!”
Odajima and I looked up, shocked. The person who had thrown open the door was Ai. She now stood there, panting.
“Y-yeah…,” I said, nodding, and Ai smiled at me.
“Mind if I observe today?” she asked enthusiastically.
I automatically glanced over at Odajima on the sofa. She shrugged and said, “You’re the president, you decide.” Great, she just left it up to me…
I sighed and turned back to Ai. “There’s really nothing to observe,” I said, but Ai shook her head vehemently.
“Aren’t you reading?”
“Well, yeah… But why would you want to watch us read?”
“That’s exactly what I came here for! I’ll just sit in the corner, so don’t mind me and keep on reading!” Ai barged in and sat on the three-cushioned sofa at the opposite end from Odajima. She placed both hands on her knees and smiled brightly like a child.
“Do whatever you want, I guess.”
“Okay!”
I nodded and opened my novel again, but now I was even less focused than before. I had a feeling that if I tried to read now, I’d have to read it all over again later. Odajima looked a little uncomfortable, too, but she was still staring down at her phone.
It was quiet in the room for a while.
But then Ai, who had been sitting still, gradually began to fidget. Suddenly, she spoke. “Are you reading on your phone, Odajima?”
The other girl smiled awkwardly and showed Ai her phone screen. “Is that what it looks like?”
“Whoa, you’re playing a game?”
“Yeah, it’s a puzzle app.”
“Do you like puzzles?”
“Not really. I’m just killing time.”
Ai seemed confused by this answer, but then her usual carefree smile reappeared. “So you choose to come here to do things you could do anywhere?”
“Huh?”
“You must really like this room!” Ai said innocently.
Odajima didn’t seem to know how to answer and said vaguely, “Um, not really…”
“Or is it because you like Yuzuru?”
“N-no!” Odajima cried loudly, leaping to her feet. Then she hastily looked at me and waved her hand from side to side. “Oh, sorry… It’s just… It’s not like that.”
It seemed like she was worried that she’d hurt my feelings, but it wasn’t some shocking revelation or anything.
“Don’t worry. I already knew that,” I said, grinning. I closed my book and set it on the desk.
I knew that Odajima was only here to kill time, and that was all. She didn’t get along well with her parents, so she didn’t have a good home environment. But no one would bother her or make her feel uncomfortable at the club. In fact, I was usually the only one here.
“Ai, this isn’t a serious club,” I said. “I’m the only member who actually reads.” Ai looked baffled. I nodded and continued, “Everyone at this school is expected to join a club. Almost no one goes home right after class unless they have some kind of special circumstances.”
According to the current principal’s wishes, our school—Sagisawadai High School—greatly emphasized club activities. As I’d told Ai, unless you had some exceptional reason, you were expected to join a club. Because of that, everyone except very rebellious students participated.
“So even though everyone belongs to a club, most of them don’t really care and barely show up.”
“Oh, I see…” Ai nodded.
“But if you join a sports club, they have games and stuff, so it would be pretty obvious if you didn’t show up to those. The literature club doesn’t have matches or anything, and the only club activity is reading, which is pretty vague. Basically, this is a great club to join if you want to ghost.”
The more I talked, the more pathetic it sounded, but it was the truth.
What’s more, out of all the clubs in our school, our advisor, the notoriously irresponsible Hirakazu Ogasawara, was probably the least enthusiastic.
“Our advisor, Hirakazu Ogasawara…”
“Oh, isn’t that your homeroom teacher?”
“Yeah. He’s a huge slacker. Come to think of it, for some reason he’s also the guidance counselor.”
Personally, I thought it was a huge mistake assigning him that role, but nevertheless, he had it. And one of the counselor’s duties was to provide guidance for students who hadn’t joined a club.
“That guy keeps telling unaffiliated students to join the literature club, saying, ‘It’s fine if you don’t show up.’”
“Ah-ha-ha. What a joke.”
“Right? That’s how Odajima joined,” I said. The girl in question sniffed awkwardly. “And that’s why most of our members don’t show up. No one else besides Odajima and I come, and she’s just here to kill time until she goes home. But I don’t mind.”
Ai looked back at me. I still didn’t know if she understood or not. “Are you coming here to kill time, too?” she asked.
For a moment, I wasn’t sure how to answer. But then I nodded. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I read, but…I could do this at home, too.”
“Oh, I see.” It seemed like Ai had finally figured it out. But what she said next surprised both Odajima and me—“That’s wonderful.”
“Huh?” My voice came out a little funny, but Ai smiled softly at me as she continued.
“Well, you come here every day, and now and then Odajima joins you… You’re both living your lives right here.”
“I mean…I guess so…”
“So basically, this is the ‘living my life club’ for you two. And I think that’s really wonderful!” Ai nodded as she spoke.
I was at a complete loss. Odajima stopped playing her puzzle game and stared at Ai.
Meanwhile, Ai abruptly stood up from the sofa. “Well, sorry I bothered you!”
“Huh? You’re leaving?” I blurted out.
Ai looked at me mischievously. “Do you want me to stay?”
I felt my face flush. That wasn’t what I’d meant. “Not really…,” I replied, pouting. For a split second, Ai’s smile faltered. But then she grinned again.
“Okay. Well, I’m gonna go explore the school and then go home!” she said before bouncing out of the room. “Sorry again!”
She closed the door, and we heard the sound of her footsteps as she ran down the hallway. I stared after her until I couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore.
“You should’ve just told her you wanted her to stay,” Odajima muttered.
I turned and glared at her. “I didn’t want her to stay.”
“Oh?”
“She was interrupting club activities.”
“I thought we were both here just to kill time?”
“……”
She’d caught me, and I fell silent.
Odajima snorted triumphantly, then looked back down at her phone. She tapped on her screen a few times and then said quietly, “She’s like a whirlwind, isn’t she?”
I inhaled slowly and nodded. “Yeah…” Then I exhaled.
Odajima was spot-on. Ai really was like a whirlwind.
My opinion of her hadn’t changed a bit. She was always so open with her feelings, but I was never sure how to take any of them. I still wasn’t.
At the same time, I was exasperated with my own lack of change.
I felt Odajima staring at me, so I looked over at her, and she made a show of averting her gaze.
“What?” I asked.
She pursed her lips grumpily and replied, “Nothing.”
It was clear she wanted to say something, but I didn’t feel like trying to pry it out of her just now.
I was full of all sorts of conflicting emotions as I picked up my book. I opened it, but just like the day before, nothing I read stuck in my head.