“We’re here,” Issa announced after bringing the car to a stop.
We’d been on the road for about four hours, and it was just past nine PM.
“You must be exhausted from all that driving,” I said to him.
“Yes, I do feel a bit tired,” he replied, smiling and stretching his limbs.
I looked over at Sayu and found that she was snoring softly with her head resting against the window.
It felt wrong to wake her, but now that we’d arrived at our destination, I didn’t have a choice.
“Hey, Sayu. Looks like we’re here.”
“Mm… Huh?”
“I said we’re here.”
“Already…?”
“It’s been four hours.”
“What? …Have I been asleep that long?”
Sayu rubbed her bleary eyes and squinted out the car window.
Soon, I heard her gasp.
We were parked outside her old high school.
She spent a few seconds gazing at the school buildings through the car window, the light in her eyes wavering with emotion. Then she slowly opened the car door and got out.
It was late, and there wasn’t a single light on in the school. The streetlamps outside the grounds cast only a faint glow over the area.
Sayu kept staring at the school, an unreadable look on her face.
At last, she calmly announced, “All right, then… I’ll be back.”
Issa and I both looked at her in shock.
“What? You’re going inside?” Issa asked, panicked.
Sayu grinned and casually replied, “Yeah, I know how to get in.”
Sayu’s defiant smile stopped him in his tracks, and while he still looked uncomfortable, he ultimately relented. All he said was “Don’t do anything dangerous.”
At first, I was worried about sending a girl alone into a school building so late at night. But Sayu seemed so confident that it would be fine, I decided she must know better than I did.
Plus, when I took another look at the school, no one else seemed to be around.
I didn’t want to say something unnecessary and shake her resolve, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and see her off…or at least, that’s what I’d planned on doing.
Sayu trudged over to me and grasped my sleeve.
“I want you to come with me, Mr. Yoshida,” she said.
“Huh?” I let out a strange yelp at her unexpected request. “Why?”
“…I’m scared to go alone,” she answered simply, and I sighed, instantly deflating.
It was her old school, but in the dark of the night, it must have looked like a whole other world.
If she was simply scared of walking alone in the dark, she’d definitely be better off with someone by her side.
I looked to Issa to get his permission, and he nodded silently.
“All right,” I said, earning a small sigh of relief from Sayu.
“Okay. I’ll be back soon,” she repeated.
“See you in a bit,” her brother replied succinctly before turning to me. “Look after Sayu, okay?”
“I will,” I assured him, deeply moved by this show of trust.
“All right,” Sayu said, taking a few determined strides toward the school.
I followed after her, but to my surprise, she passed by the front gate and instead proceeded along the outside fence.
“Aren’t we going through the gate?” I asked, but she just shook her head.
“The school’s pretty light on security, but there’s still a camera facing the gate.”
“Oh, okay.”
“It’s not like anyone would really sneak in, though.”
“Isn’t that exactly what we’re doing…?”
“Yeah, but we’re not doing anything bad,” Sayu answered breezily, continuing to march around the fence’s perimeter.
As I walked by her side, I scrutinized her expression, but I couldn’t tell how she felt about this visit to her old school. All I could do was speculate.
I repeatedly considered just asking her but decided not to in the end.
If this was what she wanted to do, that was all that mattered. It would be selfish of me to press her for a reason.
So instead, I decided to keep the mood light.
“This would definitely be considered trespassing,” I said, and Sayu cackled.
“You’re right.”
“Why do you sound so chill? Sure, you might be able to get away with it. But if I got caught, it’d be a whole other story.”
“I told you, no one’s gonna be in this Podunk school this late at night,” she replied. Then she shot me a mischievous look. “Besides, your other crimes are much worse.”
“…Can’t argue with that.”
Simply trespassing on school grounds was nothing compared to hiding a high school girl in your apartment.
Both were illegal, but the latter was much more serious.
“Okay, we’re here.”
Before I knew it, we were at the back of the school. I’d been so distracted by our idle conversation that I hadn’t noticed.
“Look at that. I’m so glad they still haven’t fixed it.”
Sayu pointed at a section of the chain-link fence surrounding the back area of the school.
There was a hole big enough for a single person to crawl under. Judging from its shape, it was obvious someone had made it intentionally.
“Students who ditch class in the middle of the day keep expanding it. Now you only need to crouch down, and you can go straight through.”
Sayu demonstrated this as she spoke, slipping into the school grounds easily.
I watched her with an air of detachment. There was no way I was going through that hole. But soon, Sayu stuck out her hand, beckoning me from the other side of the fence.
“Here,” she said. “Hurry up, Mr. Yoshida.”
“Uh, hmm…,” I replied, still hesitant.
I’d never trespassed before. To make matters worse, I had no connection whatsoever to this place.
Seeing how reluctant I was, Sayu snickered in amusement and said, “Come on—you’ll be my accomplice.”
“Don’t try to make it sound like a fun game. I’d rather not break the law…”
Sayu snickered again. “It’s a little exciting, though, isn’t it?”
“Didn’t I just say I don’t want to…?”
Sayu’s teasing gradually eased my nerves, and I stopped caring so much. With a sigh, I squatted and crawled through the hole.
Whatever happens, happens, I thought.
Once I’d made it across, Sayu shot me a smug smile.
Soon, she was marching off again, less hesitant than I’d expected. I followed after her toward the dimly lit school building.
“If they didn’t repair the hole, then…”