Loss 2: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Sopping

Loss 2: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Sopping

Loss 2:

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Sopping

T HE MONDAY AFTER A BREAK WAS NEVER AN EASY thing to contend with. And yet, brave soldiers that we were, we still managed to trudge all the way to the end of the day. Waiting for us at homeroom, however, was a depression darker still.

“Guess what, class? One of Sensei’s friends has big news. She’s got a new boyfriend.” Our beloved Amanatsu-sensei was on yet another one of her tirades. She rested her elbow on the podium and idly twirled her hair in her finger. “Which is crazy, ’cause I don’t even remember her breaking up with the first one. Must be nice, huh? Living in a surplus world. Me? Stuck in the Bronze Age, I guess.”

I had a feeling I knew who that friend was. Didn’t need to hear the rest of this.

While the Amanatsu Show did its thing, I cast my eyes toward the window, where Yakishio sat. Her cheek was in her hand, and she stared lazily outside.

The go-home club. I never gave her my answer. After that bombshell, we just walked in silence all the way back to the aquarium. Then we split up. And just like that, my very first date was over. If the ramen I had at Sugakiya later hadn’t been so good, that might have been all she wrote for me.

“Oh, the weather’s too chilly? You ‘crave the warmth of another’? What about me? Who’s gonna treat my hypothermia? All poor Konuki-chan’s got is cats, you guys. It’s winter all year round for me.”

This homeroom was gonna be year-round if she didn’t wrap this up soon. And she was fishing for split ends now, which usually meant that wasn’t happening.

A dozen plucks of those, and she finally got bored, staggering to her feet. “Anyway, it’s March. Graduation ceremony’s Friday. Next year, you folks’ll be senpai.” Life returned to my classmates’ eyes. Sensei scanned us with a straight face. “And that means you’ll be in different classes. I’ve only got a handful of days left with you folks, and I gotta say, it’s been a pleasure.”

That was actually pretty nice for her. That made me worried for the rest of the week. She was spending those golden words awfully early.

Sensei smacked the class roster against her podium. “Dismissed! Now y’all be good boys and girls and get home safe.”

Freedom at last. I stood and searched for Yakishio among my stirring classmates. I hadn’t said a word to her all day, but I had to say something to her.

“Yakishio!”

She flinched as I leapt in front of her. “Nukkun? What? Sheesh, that was loud.”

“I, um, wanted to talk about yesterday.”

Great. Now what? I hadn’t thought this far ahead.

Yakishio awkwardly twiddled her fingers. “Right. Sorry about that. Probably shouldn’t have dumped that on you.”

“No, it’s fine. It was just sudden is all.”

What had all that been about? Where had it come from? If something had happened in our club that was eating at her, I needed to know. But there were a million and one questions running through my head, and all I managed to do was stand there and fidget like an idiot.

“I’m sure it sounded sudden to you,” she said. “But it’s been a long time coming for me.” She peered up at me. “I’d still like you to think it over. If that’s okay.”

“O-of course.” I nodded clumsily.

Yakishio flapped her skirt. “Anyway, today’s gym day. Gotta get going.”

“Oh. Okay. Bye.”

She trotted off, leaving the silent classroom behind her. All I could do was watch… Wait, why was it so quiet?

I remembered where I was and scanned the classroom. Every single person was staring straight at me. Even Yanami. Yikes. I’d never seen her look at me that way before. Didn’t even know it was possible for her eyes to get that wide.

All of a sudden, there was bubbly BGM and a floral scent in the air. Himemiya Karen planted herself in front of me. “Can I borrow you, Nukumizu-kun?”

“No thanks.” I started to retreat, but my back hit some kind of massive, immovable object.

“Look at this dweeb, turning you down, Karen-chan. Someone’s grown a pair.” Yanami stood firm behind me, and she wasn’t budging.

8K in the front. 4K in the back. It was over. Tsuwabuki’s famous 12K combo had me cornered.

***

We came to a diner. A very special dive, far from school. But today, my sanctuary was a prison.

Trembling, I sipped on my soda. Across from me, over an ocean of french fries, sat a beaming Himemiya Karen and a bug-eyed Yanami Anna.

“So,” the former said, her smile threatening in its stillness, “care to tell us about what you and Yakishio-san were talking about?”

Not to someone who had nothing to do with the lit club.

“Look, Himemiya-san, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t really concern you. I don’t think I should—”

The pink-haired protagonist slammed her fist on the table. “Doesn’t concern me?! If it concerns my best friend, Anna, then you bet it concerns me!”

What concerned me was why Yakishio’s business concerned Yanami. Also, it was a good thing she reminded me they were “best friends.” It was easy to forget that.

“I was going to fill her in,” I said. “But, we went out yesterday. Yakishio and I.”

“On a date.” Yanami glared daggers at me.

“Well, it, er, doesn’t really matter what it was.”

More daggers. This time from Himemiya-san. “How can you say that in front of Anna?! Does she mean nothing to you?!” Not unless they added her to the dictionary. Where did that come from? Even Yanami looked confused. “You can’t go on dates when your girlfriend’s literally right here !”

The plot: lost.

“My what?! Me and Yanami-san?! We’re not going out!”

“What?” Himemiya-san stole Yanami’s bug eyes. Which was a feat given her eyes were already pretty dang big. She glanced between us. “Anna, did it happen agai—”

“We’re not going out! We’ve never been going out!” One look at Yanami told me we were one letter away from a nuclear incident. “Tell her, Yanami-san!”

Slowly, like a rusty animatronic, she turned to face me. “L-looks like we’ve got a misunderstanding to clear up.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“Like, ‘again’? I’m the one who turned you down.”

“Uh, in your dreams maybe.”

Oh, she wanted to play this game, huh? Fine. I could play this game.

I downed my soda and clunked the glass down. “It’s time we got to the bottom of this. Last July was the source of it all. You misread my intentions, and that’s warped your thinking ever sense.”

“My thinking, huh?” Yanami raised an eyebrow. Ate a french fry.

I nodded, reaching for one myself before the rest could vanish. “Consider the observation deck a few months back, when you told me to confess to you. That’s just insane. No average person with a normal frame of mind would leap to that under typical circumstances. Which is to say—”

Yanami pointed a fry at me.

“You think I’m insecure.”

I answered with silence.

Yanami’s eyes narrowed. Her lips curved into a lopsided sneer. “That’s where you’re wrong, Nukumizu-kun. Boy meets girl. All alone. Boy has something important to say. If that’s not a confession, then what is, I ask you!”

“It wasn’t. That’s literally what I just said.”

She shook her head with the weariness of an older sister trying to explain arithmetic to her impatient younger brother. “Clearly you missed the invite to the collective unconscious. You misunderstood, my friend. Whether you were aware of it or not, that was a confession.” The collective what? She was just using big words to sound smart now. “And I said no. I turned ya down, bud.”

“Except you didn’t.”

“And the thing a few months ago? That was basically me shooting you down in advance. You’re welcome for saving you the trouble.”

The audacity of this sophist. It was high time someone gave her a reality check.

“How about we let Himemiya-san be the judge?” I said.

“I can accept that. Karen-chan would never betray me.”

“Me?” she questioned with a surprised twitch. She looked at me, then at Yanami. “So is this a…situationship sort of deal?”