Shizuka Torigoe

I was playing games on my phone Saturday night, when I received a couple of texts.

Ping! A third one arrived. I opened them up.

From Hina:

It went well today!

Not perfectly, but ^^;

I never would’ve done it if you hadn’t encouraged me to ask him! Thank you!

Guess Fushimi had fun on her date with Takamori—she even messaged me about it.

So sincere and polite.

I still wasn’t quite sure how to interact with her. Takamori’s rapport with her I could understand, what with them being childhood friends, but I didn’t have that connection.

Eventually, I just replied, You’re welcome.

Talking with the princess of the school always made me feel inferior, and I wanted to distance myself from her. You could probably see it in that short, straightforward response.

She’s a good person, I know, but…

As the saying goes, no fish will live in water too clean, and the Fushimi River is too pure for me.

Approaching her was especially hard considering I was the plain librarian no one paid attention to.

Meanwhile, Fushimi’s followers were there by her side during every single break.

I don’t know what Takamori thinks, but to me, it seems many of her followers are just trying to get a leg up in the social hierarchy.

It was too obvious they were trying to use that Fushimi buff I’d talked to Takamori about, and I didn’t like anybody whose only interest was pretending they were interesting.

Wanna eat lunch together sometime?

When Fushimi texted me, I thought for a while about how to reply. If she went to the physics room, her hangers-on would follow, as they did.

“I…wouldn’t like that, no…,” I muttered to my phone while lying on my bed. It was pretty obvious it wasn’t me she wanted to have lunch with.

If I accept, then she’ll easily have access to the physics room, where Takamori also spends lunchtime.

Although…I wonder. Is that really it?

She didn’t seem like the type to hide her true intentions, so maybe she really just wanted to have lunch with me.

“…In any case…”

Hina Fushimi was at the center of our class—of our whole school, really. She would attract all the iron sand like the magnet she was, bringing that unwanted company with her.

It wasn’t Fushimi’s fault, although, I did wish she were more aware of her own position. Maybe that was her only failing.

Even so, I couldn’t turn her down. A pleb like me didn’t have the right to turn down the princess.

That was how school society worked.

I sent another blunt reply.

Hina Fushimi

Once I finished basking in the afterglow of my date with Ryou, I sent Torigoe a message thanking her and asking her to have lunch together.

OK

The reply took a while to arrive.

“Oh, good…”

I was getting worried she actually hated me. After all, I’d taken the title of class rep from her.

The reply was pretty blunt, but that was how she seemed to be. The kind of girl who’s probably always quiet, reading some book while holding her head in her hand.

Every time I asked her what she always talked about with Ryou during lunchtime, she never gave me much of a reply: “Nothing.” “Not much.” And so on.

Even if they didn’t talk, they must spend lunch together because they find each other’s presence comfortable.

I was curious to know what kind of girl would make Ryou feel like that, and I hoped to make her a friend.

“It’s a quiet place…so I wouldn’t want everyone making it all noisy…”

I mulled it over, trying to find a way to be alone during lunch. I didn’t want to ruin their break.

Ryouuuuu

I texted him, and he immediately answered:

?

Knowing the guy I loved would answer when I called gave me a thrill of joy.

Can I visit you at the physics room during lunch?

no

That was fast… Now I’m sad…

But I’d expected that answer.

Even if he wasn’t the greatest at reading the room or whatever, he never beat around the bush. It felt good just seeing him. He never wore a mask, whether it was with me or with our classmates or even with our teachers. He never pretended to be someone else.

Meanwhile, everyone else—and I mean literally everyone else—always paid attention to the time, place, and occasion; they always tried to see where the wind was blowing; they always concerned themselves with what others would think—they always pretended to be someone else.

Ryou could be himself at school, and that made him a hero in my eyes.

He never forced himself to do anything he didn’t want, no matter who he was talking to, and that gave me this special sense of calm.

Although he also never holds back, so sometimes his remarks can cut pretty deep…

I found it strange when I started talking to him again, since I didn’t really remember that side of him. But it was refreshing and made me want to know him even more.

Despite our history together, we hadn’t really had much contact since middle school. I only knew his grade-school self.

I never knew what he was like during that in-between period, and I was only now getting to know him as a high schooler. Of course, I knew what he was like in the classroom, but that’s only, like, twenty percent of your true self.

I wrote and rewrote a new message for Torigoe again and again, but I didn’t know what to say. I ended up closing the app.

…Maybe Torigoe was the one who knew Ryou better now. The idea made my chest hurt just a little bit.