Days were passing by normally, as expected, except for a fact that I was spending a bit of time talking with my neighbor. We didn't talk much, only about day-to-day activities.
Just, as usual, I made my way to the school. When I reached my locker, she called out to me.
"Good morning, Kobayashi-kun."
"Morning."
When I replied to my neighbor, I could feel other boys staring daggers at me. I was almost used to this by now. Heaving a sigh, I opened my locker, only to be shocked.
There's something in there that I hadn't expected. Seeing me stand there staring at my locker, Ichinose slightly tilted her head and looked at me.
When I didn't reply she scooted a bit closer and took a peek at my locker from behind me.
"Ah?"
She was equally shocked.
When I turned around to look at her, I was a bit afraid.
I had thought of throwing the letter in the dustbin without looking at it. But when I looked at her, curiosity was leaking out from her eyes.
I quickly took out my indoor shoes and was about to shut the locker when she suddenly grabbed my hand.
"What are you going to do about it?"
She said to me but her eyes were still glued to that letter.
"I'm planning to throw it."
"Without reading?"
"Yes. Without reading."
I tried to sound as curt as possible but it did not affect her.
"You should read it okay. Who knows that it might be a letter from someone who is beautiful and you might come to like her as well."
"Why do you think that it's a love letter without even taking a look at what's inside?"
I was thinking that it could be something worse than a love letter. What if it had something related to 'that'? What if someone knew about me and wanted to let me know that, they knew me.
While I was thinking so, Ichinose extended her hand and grabbed the letter.
Written on the envelope was [For Kaito Kobayashi].
She looked at the front and back of the envelope countless times before finally opening it. It had nothing much written except one thing.
[Meet me on the rooftop during lunch break.]
It had the same cliché pattern as most of those love letters. But more than that I prayed from the bottom of my heart that it wasn't what I was thinking.
"It seems like a love letter. But….."
"But?"
"But why would any girl send a love letter to a guy like you?"
She had a point. She definitely had a point but it still hurt you know.
She brought her hand to her chin as if thinking about something.
"I will hold onto this for now. You should think about what to do regarding this."
With that, she turned and started walking towards the classroom. I could already see other students swarming around her.
That letter was meant for me but she possessed it now, without even asking the owner about it first.
I changed into my indoor shoes and made my way towards the hall where I noticed someone's gaze falling on me.
This wasn't sudden or anything. I had known that this guy, Koyanagi, was staring at me the whole time. Judging by his behavior and the soulful gazes that he gave to Ichinose, it was clear that he liked her.
So, his glaring and hostility, when he saw me talking with the girl he liked, was obvious. I feigned ignorance and reached the class.
The class was bustling with noise, all until our homeroom teacher came.
The classes were going on but I was dealing with my internal turmoil.
At first, I had thought of throwing the letter without even opening it. But I was not so sure now.
If it was a love letter, it would be piece of cake for me. I would reject the girl outright and case closed. But given my standing at school, I couldn't imagine any of that happening.
The most plausible scenario that came to my mind was that the person who had kept that letter knew about me. They knew about my past. It was not something you could discuss directly so they must have chosen this method.
If it really was what I thought it was then even if I ignored this time, they may be more upfront about it and it could prove to be more troublesome. If it meant that a confrontation with this person was inevitable then better do it fast.
After thinking it through, I decided to meet that person.
"Ichinose. Give me the letter."
After the lunch break started, I called out to Ichinose. Most of the students were already gone to the cafeteria so there weren't many people who would see us. I remember Koyanagi glaring at me before heading out of the classroom.
"So, what have you decided? Are you going?"
She handed me the letter when I nodded in reply. I put the letter in the pocket and was about to go when she suddenly stood up from her seat.
I looked at her.
"What?"
"Don't tell me you're gonna come along with me?"
"That's obvious. I want to know who is the girl confessing to you. Or do you not want me to see you get confessed?"
She said impishly.
"You aren't coming with me, get that?"
"I'm sorry, boy. But I'm not going to back down."
"Didn't I say not to come along with me?"
This time she shuddered. My voice was a bit more forceful than before. But that was not the only reason. She had a habit of looking into my eyes whenever she talked to me. So, she definitely saw and understood my intentions from the cold look in my eyes.
After that, she backed down.
I wouldn't have minded if it was just going to be a confession. But there was a possibility that it was all related to my past and I didn't want her or anyone else to hear about that. So that was a necessary thing that I had to do to ensure no one else will hear the contents.
I made my way towards the rooftop. The door was already unlocked which meant that the person was already here.
I opened the door and saw the person I expected the least waiting there.
"Koyanagi?"
"Yo, Kobayashi-kun. I didn't think you would come."
He said, obviously amused by the fact that I had shown up here. But I couldn't understand why he was here. I don't remember seeing him back there. So, he shouldn't know anything about me. So, why was he here?
"I will get straight to the point."
He had a serious look on his face.
"What kind of relationship do you have with Ichinose-san?"
"Come again?"
"Like I said, what kind of relationship do you have with her?"
I was a bit relieved to hear his question because it didn't seem like he had something to talk about my past. I internally sighed.
"What do you mean by that?"
I said as if I had no idea what he was talking about. However, I knew very well what he had wanted to talk about.
Exasperated he sighed and looked at me.
"Lately haven't you two been getting closer?"
That was true. We were getting closer and we talked quite often. But it was all at home. From what I had noticed his home was in opposite direction to ours from school. So, he shouldn't possibly have known that. And the most we did at school was greet each other. I didn't understand why he had arrived at this conclusion from just that.
"Does just greeting each other make us seem closer? Doesn't she greet others as well?"
"Yeah. She does. But she only greets someone when s/he greet her first. But in your case, she is the one who always greets you first. And also…."
He paused and looked dead center in my eyes.
"Whenever she talks to you, she always makes eye contact which she doesn't do while talking with other boys."
I was impressed with this boy. He really kept a tab on each and everything about her. This guy really had feelings for her.
"Isn't that she just being nice?"
"Huh?"
He couldn't understand what I was getting at.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know that I sort of stand out in the school in a bad way and people always try to avoid me. I also don't want to talk with others much so that's a good thing for me. But, Ichinose is a good girl. Don't you think she's trying to look out to me by trying to talk to me?"
"How?"
"Since I don't talk with others, I basically have no friends. Also, I am a new student here. She might have thought that I would feel kind of left out and depressed due to my surroundings and decided that she would talk to me to ensure that I wasn't left out. Isn't this she just being kind?"
His face showed an expression that seemed to convey that he had just realized something.
"That is also a possibility."
He muttered to himself. I thought that it was now over but he called out to me again when I was about to leave.
"Can I ask you one more thing?"
I nodded.
"There's really nothing going on in between you right?"
I nodded.
After a bit of a pause, he again spoke.
"So, is it alright if I propose to her?"
He was clenching his fists and determination was clear in his eyes.
I nodded and said.
"Yeah. And I will be rooting for you."
"Why would you be rooting for me?"
"I just thought that it would be good to see a good person like her get a good boyfriend."
It took some time for him to realize what I had said.
"G-Good boyfriend?!"
He said while looking clearly flustered.
"Yeah. I think you're a good person. If you had wanted you could have directly confronted me in front of everyone. But you didn't because you thought that it would trouble Ichinose if she saw someone fighting because of her. So, you went in a roundabout way of putting that letter."
I continued.
"If you had wanted you could have arranged for some boys to gang up on me and threaten me to stop talking with her. But instead, you came here alone with no such intentions. You came here prepared to give up on her if something was going on in between us, right?"
That probably caught him off guard as he flinched backward a bit. I still didn't know if he was good or bad because people didn't always be what they showed to others or what we observed at first. They may have another side to them which I had learned firsthand.
But whatever I said was true.
With that, I headed out from the rooftop.