In the morning I woke up to some screaming girls τhat startled me and I ended up banging my head against the wall that was so close to me.I opened my eyes confused without processing the information that there could not be girls in the boys' room and found most of the girls in Chiasa's class over our heads. My eyes opened widely and I started making sudden movements ready to explain before a teacher saw us; but then I realized that they weren't scared but had squealed with excitement because they had seen us sleeping together; rumors were inevitable at this point.
I placed my index finger to my lips and pointed at Tanji with my head to show them that I'd rather she didn't wake up by now.Their eyes started to flutter hearts as if they thought I was some very romantic boy. I decided to make up a quick and believable story and then beg them not to reveal it to the teachers.
"Sorry for barging into your room. We had tried to meet up last night but the teachers found us and we hid in the first room we could find. "I said hurriedly with an innocent smile and wanted to let out a relieved breath when I saw that I had convinced them.
The fact that they hadn't found me alone in there but with a girl,made me look better and everything I was trying to say seemed more believable. Otherwise they would have already thought I was perverted and would have called the teachers accusing me of all sorts of things.
I turned to look at her with a sweet look the way she had fallen asleep peacefully,I owed it all to her. "Are you going to let us go without telling the teachers?" I asked putting my hands together and bowing my head.
The response I got was much better than I could have expected.They helped me get her mounted on my back so I wouldn't wake her and checked the street outside to tell me when I could get out. They had helped me a lot because if some of them hadn't woken up earlier and seen us,we would have come face to face with the teacher coming to wake them up.
"Thank you very much "I said with sincere gratitude and bowed my head before I turned my back and started walking away from that spot so there was no chance of us being linked to that class. I didn't think I could find so many friendly people if I just opened up more, let alone to the girls in another class.
This thought didn't stay in my mind for long because it was pushed by another much more important one.I had no idea where her classmates was so I could return her there but also certainly if they saw me suddenly appearing there with the missing student in a particularly vulnerable situation,they wouldn't give me the opportunity to justify myself.
I had to find some other way to get her back to her class; something that would not put me in danger because there would have been no point in me managing to avoid the risk of being found together in another class.
I rummaged through my pockets being careful not to drop her and managed to find my cell phone.After yesterday's experience in the park,there was no way I was leaving it behind. I had taken it with me just in case even though I knew we wouldn't be leaving the hotel. I wanted to be prepared just in case although I didn't expect us to be so careless that we fell asleep in another class's room.
I found the number of the teacher in charge and as it rang I had started to think about what I was going to say; from the way he answered it seemed that I had woken him up with my call and that made me feel a little guilty but I knew it was worth it if I was going to save Tanji from any weird reputation.
"Sorry to bother you so early.I went out to use the bathroom and found a student sleeping on the floor.She must have been sleepwalking." Thank goodness I had told him over the phone because he couldn't see the expressions on my face and I had to give all my attention to my voice and how it sounded.
"Where are you?Stay there and I'll be right there!" He seemed worried because you never know what might have happened to her before I showed up.I told him that I was near our class's room and stood still.
This was a lot harder than it sounded.When I was moving I didn't have time to feel her weight but now that I was still it was like she was falling more and more on top of me. A person who is asleep or unconscious is much heavier than when they are awake and this was the first time I felt it on my own skin. She was slipping out of my arms and I was turning bright red trying to pick her up again without overstepping the boundaries with my movements.
Luckily,even though she had chosen to wear a kimono to make it look like she was out of the bathroom too, she was wearing a pair of shorts and a short sleeve underneath.
I heard quick footsteps and saw the professor coming from across the corridor, bending his legs and slipping on his flip-flops. His hair was flying in all directions as he had just woken up and hadn't had time to groom himself and his glasses were worn crooked. In this strange picture it might have been the first time I realized how young he actually was; you don't usually notice this in a man who is teaching you things and seems stern and boring. You don't even care.
"Where is..?"He couldn't say the whole question because he was out of breath and his voice was hard to get out.But I didn't need any more words to understand what he was referring to.
"Here.It's Tanji Shizu."I answered immediately and turned to the side to let him see her on my back.She must have been very tired because she hadn't understood any of what had happened and continued to sleep peacefully.
I thought the professor was going to make some comment about how we both seemed to get into trouble together quite often but at that moment his work came first so he didn't. He informed her class's teacher and eventually escorted me up to the room to let her sleep there. They decided to ask her what had happened when she woke up so I left a little note in her pocket like she had done yesterday; it was my number if she wanted to text me to explain what had happened because she would definitely be confused.
Chiasa's class didn't come out to deny the rumors that I had saved her as if they understood that I needed a convincing excuse for the teachers and kept the secret. Instead of texting me when she found the note,she called me so she could yell at me and show that she wanted to kill me for getting her in so much trouble before thanking me for carrying her all the way there and finding a convincing excuse.
Her irritation was mostly because I hadn't woken her up to do all that and because she had been through an interrogation for something she didn't know about as soon as she woke up. I also thanked her for helping me and promised not to get her into trouble like that again and that I would find a way to return the favor.
In the end, visiting the room where Chiasa was sleeping didn't help me in any way. The only message we found from Kaoru told her to have fun and rest because after that trip they were having a training camp.
The games were coming up and I was sure that made sense but it indicated that I had come on that trip for no reason because they weren't meeting as a club. So I was forced to stay back at the hotel by myself as I had promised my group that I would leave them alone.
Inoya-san,our teacher, had to stay back with me and was thinking of different ways to pass the time which made me feel miserable and I was sure he felt the same as the other teachers were all together. Sometimes he would start more serious conversations that made me feel like he understood what I was doing to some extent with my attempt to avoid people so I would cut them off and leave.I could still hear his voice telling me the things I wanted to hear least of all.It was like the voice inside me had taken shape because it couldn't stand me not hearing it for so long.
"By putting people aside you don't get hurt but at the same time you don't live. For how long do you think you can go on like this?All the other years of your life?The whole point of man is that he falls down and gets up again. You stop being human like that!"
Usually he didn't try to convince me so passionately but that conversation had taken place on the last day and he was just resentful that every time he opened up a conversation I would get up and leave; it was obvious from his expression and voice how much he wanted me to listen to him and keep it all inside.
He saw me as a child who needed rescuing but I would close my ears to anything that was different from what I was comfortable with.It was a pretty bad experience even if I displayed it differently to my parents when I got back. They still thought I had had the best teenage experience.I remembered things I had seen in movies and I would tell them thanking my cell phone for the first time which was an old model because I couldn't take pictures for evidence.
Since I was so disappointed with the field trip,the thought of raising money on my own to go where they were going for training camp crossed my mind several times but luckily I realized pretty quickly that this was too crazy as a thought. I would have nothing to do while they were training and if they tracked me down I would have no way of justifying my sudden presence right where they were.
I was realizing little by little how far away I actually was from them and it was causing me a slight form of depression.I had thought I had found the perfect plan to have friends and not get hurt but now everything started to fall apart around me.I didn't know what to do to change the situation and as long as I knew they were all together creating memories, it was like I understood my place.I wanted to lock myself in and never come out.
But this was happening on a daily basis,now I had another pretty big problem. Do you remember I had promised Tanji that I would never involve her in my affairs or strange situations again?
That only lasted a few weeks.