The shining sun. The deep blue sky. The green, glittering coral reef. The beach that was so white it looked fake. Young people in swimsuits were smiling as the wind ruffled their hair. The boys and girls were in the water up to their knees and holding each other’s shoulders in a friendly way…and they each even held a giant pineapple in their hands!
“Aha ha ha ha ha!”
He started to laugh. The corners of his eyes started to water. He wasn’t sad, just done in by the ridiculous juxtaposition of the beautiful scene and his current state.
The people in the picture were bright, brilliant, and really did look like they were having fun. He was like the shadow that would form under their feet. It was funny. It was actually hilarious.
Ryuuji didn’t know how Noto had interpreted that laughter, but he relaxed. Like an otter that had captured a small fish in its hands, Noto laughed, too. “Ehee hee!” It was so uncute, it was irritating.
“Aren’t you so looking forward to it?! This blue ocean! We’re so lucky that we get to go to Okinawa for a school trip! My old junior high buddy is going to Kyoto and Nara for his high school trip, and we went there during junior high, too! Like, you can only take so many temples and shrines!”
“Hee hee, how cruel! There’s this one place I definitely want to go to in Okinawa! Cape Mambo!”
He probably means Cape Manzamo… Ryuuji thought distantly.
“And also the US bases! Look, don’t they look cool?! The mariners!”
You mean marines…and normal people can’t get into the bases anyway, Ryuuji thought even more distantly. Regardless, he didn’t have the strength to make fun of Haruta.
“Aim and fire!” Haruta said, and finally Noto stopped. “You’ve got the wrong idea of Okinawa.”
“Yo, morning! You’re already looking at Okinawa guidebooks! You’re so eager to do your homework!”
They turned at the energetic voice that was so obviously that of an athlete and put up their hands in greeting. “Yo.” The boy whose friendly eyes squinted from behind his glasses as he raised his hand in reply was the student council vice president and class rep, Kitamura Yuusaku.
“Takasu, I heard you had the flu at the end of the year? That must have been tough. Are you okay now?”
“Uh…yeah…”
“What is it? What happened? You don’t seem like you’re doing great. Hah! Your high fever couldn’t have…”
Wrinkles appeared on Kitamura’s forehead as he looked fervently and intently in the vicinity of Ryuuji’s crotch. Ryuuji crossed his legs and guarded himself from the stare.
“Yo, master. Are you doing it this year, too? This thing.”
Noto hit his hands together twice and bowed his head. What he was indicating with that gesture was, of course…
“You mean being the Patron Saint of Broken Hearts? Of course I am! I’m going to get a firm grip on the students’ hearts this year, too! I’ll appeal to people with my new persona and save the brokenhearted from the darkness of… What’s wrong, Takasu? Why are you looking at me?”
“Nothing…”
Ryuuji shook his head in a fluster. He averted his eyes from Kitamura’s, which were about twice as big and more defined than Noto’s. Oh, no. He had reacted without thinking to the keyword “brokenhearted.”
“It’s just, there are issues with continuing the Patron Saint of Broken Hearts broadcast program… We’ve started to run out of brokenhearted guests. We’ve finished with the student council members and even gone through the softball underclassmen… If we keep going like this, the program will be in trouble.”
“Can’t you prepare some plants for that? Oh, look, I already found a good candidate!”
Ryuuji looked where Noto pointed and then closed his eyes. “Whoa!” He turned his face down and gripped his knees until his nails turned white. He wanted to run. He wanted to just get away, but…
“Yo, Kushieda! You cut your hair, didn’t you?! You must have had a heartbreak?! Come be on Kitamura’s broken hearts radio show!”
“Huh? Kushieda, is that why you cut your hair? You barely cut it, so it’s hard to even tell. If you’re gonna do it, be more daring about trimming it back. Make it like the bald cap I gave you! Right, Taka-chan?!”
Haruta had latched right on to his back, and he couldn’t run…
Ryuuji lifted his eyes. He gritted his back teeth and stole a glance. Taking off her tartan-checked scarf, Minori spoke as brightly as usual, like she had forgotten all about Ryuuji just ignoring her.
“You boys are so loud! Could you keep out of people’s heads?! Pervy wervy one touchy!”
Hey, we’ve got an idiot here, that’s an idiot. Noto and Haruta pointed at Minori as they laughed at her. Even Kitamura got carried along and laughed with abandon as he stretched out his arms.
“You’re always welcome if you got your heart broken! Come jump into my arms! And then go on the radio!”
“You got it, master! Of course you’ve got a swole chest!”
“Pheew! Kushieda’s heartbroken! Pheew~!”
Ryuuji felt a twinge.
He was glad it wasn’t tears. It was just the taste of iron coming from his lips from biting too hard. Left out of the joke, he still couldn’t even look at Minori’s face.
“Tch, let’s go, Taiga. Those guys really are giant idiots! They don’t know that this haircut cost four thousand five hundred yen!”
Minori put her arm over Taiga’s shoulder and turned her around. Taiga nodded as she looked up at Minori, clinging to Minori’s waist like a koala. “This is how you steal a million!” she said over her shoulder.
Maybe because it was the new semester, or because of Okinawa, or both, but on that day, the boys (Ryuuji excluded) were reckless and in high spirits.
“Right, right, you could have Tiger as a plant, too! Kitamura, have her on the radio with you!”
“Hee hee hee, you’re right! Nice idea! Now, jump into my chest, Tiger~!”
Haruta pulled open Kitamura’s school jacket from behind. It wasn’t like there was anything to see but a long-sleeved shirt…
“Don’t go, Taiga! That’s a trap Kitamura’s made!” With both her hands, Minori was covering Taiga’s eyes firmly.
“Ow! Minorin, that hurts!”
“You mustn’t look. I’ve gotten tricked by that trap once! You think it’s not a big deal, and then while you’re looking at it, something black and unthinkable appears!”
Ha ha ha. Kitamura laughed with abandon with his jacket still open. “Hey, hey, that just sounds bad. When exactly did I show you some black thing?”
“In the summer! At Ahmin’s villa!”
Did that really happen? Kitamura tilted his head lightly.
“Oh my! Oh dear!” Haruta, who had been holding open Kitamura’s jacket, had found something on his long-sleeved shirt. He brought his face closer and strained his eyes.
“Wait, wait a sec! You idiot master Kitamura! You’ve got food all over yourself right here. How embarrassing~! Hey, Taka-chan, what kind of stains do you think these are~?”
“What did you say?!” Ryuuji reflexively stood up on hearing the word “stain.”
“Here and here,” Haruta pointed them out. He really did see the shadow of two circles on Kitamura’s chest. He observed them meticulously. Was it sauce or soy sauce? They were in the same position his nipples would be, and the longer he looked at them, the more they really did look like nipples—
“Those are just his nipples!”
Ryuuji choked. How dirty. He wanted to pull out his eyeballs, which had so diligently looked at those things, and wash them out with palm detergent. In a fluster, Kitamura pulled together the front of his jacket. His cheeks were red.
“Oh no! I forgot to wear a T-shirt underneath!”
“I’m out!” Minori arched her body backward, arms crossed in front of her.
Quickly slipping over next to Taiga, Noto poked her in the elbow. Out of all things he could have uttered, he said, “Hey! This is so lucky, Tiger! So lucky!”
Even someone who wasn’t Taiga would want to say that. Then, even Haruta immediately came to stand on his knees beside Taiga and suddenly opened the guidebook to show it to her.
“Tiger, read this part!”
“Huh?! H-hentai!”
“Hyaah! Bwa ha ha~! What? Did you hear that just now~?! I thought that might be how she’d read it~!”
Haruta still had the “Must Know Okinawan Words!” feature open to the “Haitai!” section. He probably had a death wish. At that moment, blood spurted up from Taiga’s eyes—no, not really. Ryuuji just felt bloodthirsty intent emanating from her.
Taiga grabbed Noto’s thumb with her right hand and Haruta’s with her left, and then lowered her hips. “HYAH!” she yelled. As if through some kind of sorcery, she sent Noto and Haruta somersaulting up into the air past each other. They hit the floor on their backs and couldn’t move. They were probably dead.
Then, Taiga raised her face and said a single word, incredibly loudly. “Haitai!”
Minori grinned. “You’ve done it!”
Kitamura was still shyly holding his chest.
Unable to follow the series of skits being enacted before him, Ryuuji could only stand there, dumbfounded. Without thinking, he lifted his eyes and looked at Minori, who was standing next to him.
It took him by surprise.
He felt like he had been happy-go-luckily crossing a wooden bridge, only to suddenly glimpse a muddy stream under his feet between the slats. Something Ryuuji didn’t need to think about came to his mind.
It was good that everyone was having fun. It was just, how could Minori act like everything was normal the way she was doing right now? How could she be bright and unchanged from usual when he—the person she had just rejected—was right in front of her eyes?
Was it that, to Minori, that event—that event that had happened not even two weeks ago—was something she could easily forget? Nothing more than a trifling accident?
“…”
His breath caught.
Maybe noticing Ryuuji’s gaze, Minori also lifted her head. Their gazes collided, but immediately, Minori’s usual smile formed on her face. “What’s up with you?” she whispered in a slightly jokey tone.
It seemed she’d already forgotten that Ryuuji had ignored her—she had forgotten Ryuuji’s low and scummy behavior.
That was his limit. Ryuuji pried his eyes off of her, then turned his back to Minori and started running away. He went by himself at a high speed away from his circle of friends. In a situation like this, it seemed that the too-sensitive, awkward, rejected boy could only go hide in the bathroom.
“Oh, this is perfect timing! Takasu-kun, do you remember me?!”
When he headed toward the door, he noticed a boy he didn’t recall peeking into the classroom from the hallway and waving at him.
“Look, I was the guy wearing the bear kigurumi at the Christmas Eve student council party, and—”
“Oh, right, when that happened…”
He remembered. On Christmas Eve, Ryuuji had made a proposition to some guy in a bear outfit, to the effect of “Would you trade clothes with me?!” They had traded his suit for the bear. So much had happened afterward that he completely pushed it from his memory. Ryuuji bowed his head in a fluster.
“Sorry, I completely forgot. Thanks for coming all the way over here.”
“No, whenever is fine with me. I just got mine from a party store. More importantly, this suit looked super expensive, so my mom told me to hurry up and give it back.”
“Oh, you even got it dry cleaned… Thank you so much, really, I’m really sorry.”
Ryuuji received the suit, which was still in the plastic bag from the cleaners, and once again bowed his head. Oh no, oh no. He still needed to get the bear suit over to the cleaners and properly repay him.
“More importantly, here’s this. It was in the pocket, but you didn’t get in any trouble because of that, did you? I looked around for you, but I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“Oh…”
The guy handed the small, wrapped box apologetically to Ryuuji, and a current ran through Ryuuji’s hand. This was the Christmas present he had planned to give Minori while confessing to her.
Ryuuji took it and replied, “No, it’s fine. This is… I just didn’t need it on that day.”
He shook his head back and forth and, in his mind, added, Really.
Really, I didn’t need this. Even if he’d had it, he probably wouldn’t have been able to give it to her, anyway.
“I see. Oh, that’s a relief! Actually, I was a little scared of coming here. I was like, what’ll I do if Takasu-kun is actually a delinquent? Murase and the others said that you’re ‘Really a normal and good guy, so it’s okay.’ So it’s true.”
Ryuuji looked down. It was true he wasn’t a delinquent, but he didn’t know whether he was really a good guy anymore. Was a guy who ignored the person who rejected him actually good? He was definitely a petty guy, at the very least.
He asked the boy’s name one last time, promised that he would return the bear outfit, and watched as the seemingly agreeable person, who appeared to be friends with Murase from the student council, left.
The contents of the present left behind in his hand was a hairpin that he picked out two weeks ago. It had been at a random goods store. The girl at the shop had looked terrified by him as he hemmed and hawed and persevered to pick it out.
He thought that a one-thousand-yen hairpin might be a little too dull, but he didn’t want to get her a weirdly grand gift when they weren’t even dating. He also remembered that Minori had been tying up her bangs, which got in her way while they were taking their tests. He thought a pen case or pouch might do, but rather than something practical, he felt like giving her something that glittered and would be pretty. Even if it was cheap, it was fitting for Christmas night, and he wanted to get her something beautiful.
I’ll throw it away.
That’s what he thought. I’ll throw this away immediately.
It was almost a subconscious instinct, but he didn’t want to put this thing, which was connected to the difficult memory of that night, in his own pocket.
He tried to throw it into a trash bin without thinking, but his hands stopped. He clicked his tongue and roughly pulled off the unnecessary Christmas tree-print wrapping paper. Was he really separating the trash at a time like this…? He was; he couldn’t help it. He opened the box and pulled out the properly wrapped hairpin. He crumpled the ribbon on the packaging he no longer needed and threw it into the burnables section of the trash. It was unnecessary wrapping and annoying.
Ryuuji grabbed the incombustible hairpin. He looked at it with his sanpaku eyes without reservation. It was large and silver, with a wavy pattern. It had transparent, gold, and orange glittering glass beads in a pattern that made them look like splashing bubbles.
He thought that it looked like something that suited Minori. Among the hairpins of many colors and many different shapes, this one suited her the best. He thought that she could wear it during class, at softball club, and when she was working. When she would put it on, she could remember him. Whenever he saw her wearing it, he would feel like his feelings had gotten through to her.
But he hadn’t given it to her. He didn’t need it anymore.
“Save me, Taka-chan~! Look at this! Tiger bit me! Here’s the proof! Look at those bite marks!”
“It’s because you keep saying haitai haitai haitai and won’t stop! What’s with you, you long haired bug?! I’ll exterminate you! We’ve got to get rid of you for the sake of the planet!”
Haruta, mid-squabble with Taiga, ran into Ryuuji’s back like a tattling kid. Taiga, who was following, also came over. The two of them noticed the hairpin in Ryuuji’s hand at the same time, but Haruta was first to respond.
“Huh? What’s that thing? What are you doing with it?”
Taiga groaned a little. Ah. He had told her he had bought Min
ori a hairpin. She glanced at the trash, saw the clearly Christmas-themed wrapping paper, and seemed to understand what it was. Taiga was generally oblivious, but at times like these, she could be tactful.
“This is, well, what can I say…? I don’t need it…”
“Huh, you don’t need it?! Then give it to me! Look, I kind of feel like my bangs are getting in the way!”
Haruta, who had no clue about anything, took the hairpin, put it on his bangs, and posed. “How’s it look?!”
This had gone quite differently than Ryuuji imagined. He stared in melancholy at his friend, who looked so bad with the hairpin that it made him nauseated.
“G-give it back!”
“Ow ow ow?! Wait, what, why?!”
“It doesn’t matter, just give it back! Give it back! Give it back! Give it back! Give it baaack!”
Jumping onto Haruta’s back, Taiga climbed the tall idiot like a tree and tried to extract the hairpin from his long hair. “Gyaa~!” Haruta shrieked.
“That’s—still—Ryuuji’s! Just hurry up and give it back—”
The door opened and the homeroom teacher appeared, carrying the attendance record in one hand. Several hairs from Haruta’s head were sacrificed, pulled right out along with the hairpin.
“It burned down!”
Huh? The students of class 2-C could only look uneasily at Koigakubo Yuri, the bachelorette (age 30) standing at the teacher’s platform.
The bachelorette (age 30) said “Thank you! Thank you!” as she took the permission slips that Kitamura had gathered, stacked them together, quickly put them into an envelope, and sandwiched it under her arm with the attendance sheet. Then she looked around at the students’ faces with an unspeakably iffy smile.
“It burned down. It’s unfortunate. Um, but, we won’t cancel it. So, well, um, it’s fine. It is. It’ll go on as planned. Okay?”
“Teach…we don’t get what you’re saying at all. Please be clearer.”
At Kitamura’s completely reasonable words, the bachelorette (age 30) seemed to have given up on deceiving them.
“It’s the hotel!”
As though fortifying herself, she raised her voice in a teacher-like way.
Toradora! Vol. 8 Page 4