"If you just come right out and tell me straight, I'll forgive you,
okay?"
"Tell you what straight?"
After we'd finished lunch, I was chatting with Sudou and the other
guys next to the vending machine in the hall. All of a sudden, Ike sidled up
next to me.
"We're friends, right? Comrades that stick together through thick and
thin?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess so."
"So then, naturally…you would tell us if you got yourself a girlfriend,
right?" he asked.
"Huh? A girlfriend? Well, sure. If that happens, I will."
Ike put his arm over my shoulder.
"Come on. You're going out with Horikita, aren't you? I'm not gonna
forgive you if you get ahead of us!"
"Huh?"
I noticed Yamauchi and Sudou both eyeing me suspiciously.
"You idiot. We're not dating. Absolutely not. Seriously."
"Okay, but what were you guys talking about all sneaky-like during
class today? I guess it's not a story for us, huh? Were you talking about dates
or making plans for dates, huh?! Ah, I could kill you, I'm so jealous!"
"It's nothing. Besides, Horikita isn't the dating type."
"I don't know about that. We never really talked to her before. If
Kushida hadn't brought it up, we probably wouldn't even know her name.
She disappears into the background, like a shadow."
Was that true? I couldn't recall Horikita really talking to anyone except
for Kushida or me.
"You wouldn't even know her name? That's awful." "So, do you know all your classmate's names, Ayanokouji?"
I could remember about half of their names. I got the point.
"She does have a really cute face though, doesn't she? That's why we
noticed her."
Yamauchi and the guys nodded in agreement.
"She has such an uptight personality, though. I don't like girls like
her," remarked Sudou, drinking his coffee.
"Yeah, I know. It's like she's really snippy, yeah? I'd rather go out
with a cheerful girl who I can have an easy conversation with. She has to be
cute, of course. Just like Kushida-chan." Of course. Kushida was still Ike's
favorite.
"Ahh. To go out with Kushida-chan…or rather, do naughty stuff with
her!" cried Yamauchi.
"You moron! Like hell you can date Kushida-chan! And you're
forbidden from fantasizing about her, too!" Ike cried.
"Come on, you think you can date her, Ike? Besides, I've dreamt of
sleeping next to Kushida-chan!"
"What?! Well, I've dreamt of her doing super sexy poses while in
cosplay!"
The two of them went back and forth over their wild Kushida fantasies.
Come on, guys. High school students are free to fantasize, but that's just
being plain rude to Kushida.
"Who do you have your eye on, Sudou? Seen any cute girls in
basketball?" Ike asked.
"Huh? Oh, no one. Not yet, anyway. We don't really have room for
any girls on the team right now."
"Really? If you do have a girlfriend, though, you better not be hiding
it! You have to tell us! You have to!"
"Yeah, sure," Sudou said. Despite how disgusted he seemed by the
conversation, he nodded.
The subject of girlfriends made me remember Hirata. "Oh, yeah, isn't Hirata dating Karuizawa now?" I asked.
"Yeah, you're right. Hondou saw them holding hands just the other
day!"
"Yeah, they're dating. No mistake about it. They were walking
together, shoulder to shoulder."
"They were, huh? I wonder if they've already done naughty stuff
together."
"Of course they have! Ah, I'm so jealous! I'm too jealous!"
It felt kind of unbelievable that a first-year high school student would
already have had sex. But I supposed it was true.
Unintentionally, I'd started thinking like these guys.
"Listen to me. I've got the most experience with sex and stuff," said
Yamauchi, sprawled out on the hallway floor.
"I think it'd be better to ask Hirata," Ike said.
"Do you honestly think that Hirata would give us the details? Like, if
we asked about her breasts, or if she were a virgin, or things like that? Do
you really think he'd tell us? Come on," I said.
What kind of experiences were they planning to ask about?
I walked over to the nearby vending machine to buy something to
drink.
"Get me some cocoa!" Yamauchi called.
"If you want something, buy it yourself."
"Can't. I've already almost used up all of my points. I have about 2,000
left."
"How could you possibly have used more than 90,000 points in just
three weeks?" I asked.
"I bought stuff I wanted. Here, check it out. It's awesome!" said
Yamauchi, taking out a handheld gaming device.
"I bought this with Ike. It's a PS Viva! A PS VIVA! It's amazing that a
school sells this kind of stuff." "How much did it cost?"
"About 20,000. With the optional stuff included, it came to about
25,000."
Dude, don't spend all of your points right away.
"I don't usually play games all that much, but now that I'm living in a
dorm, I figured I could play with friends. Oh, you know that Miyamoto guy
in our class? He's really good at video games."
Miyamoto was the rather plump boy. I'd never spoken to him directly,
but I got the impression he was the type who'd talk about things like games
and anime all the time.
"You should buy one too and join in. Sudou said that he'd get one with
next month's allowance."
They were already ganging up on me. Yamauchi handed over his game
system so I could give it a try. It was a lot lighter than I expected. The screen
displayed a warrior, huge sword strapped to his back, petting a pig. What
kind of world was this?
"Honestly, I'm not really that interested. What…is this, anyway? Some
kind of fighting game?"
"You've heard about Hunter Watch, right? It's sold more than 4.8
million copies worldwide, man! I've had an incredible knack for games ever
since I was a little kid. Overseas professionals constantly scouted me. I
always turned them down, though."
You can proclaim something a worldwide phenomenon, but whether or
not it's actually good is another matter. There were about seven billion
people in the world. The people who'd purchased this game accounted for
less than 0.1 percent of the global population.
"Anyway, how in the world can such a delicate girl wear such heavy
equipment? Is her armor plastic or something? If it were iron, even someone
with Sudou's physique would struggle with it."
"Ayanokouji, you really want an element of realism in your games?
What, are you a foreigner? People who say that kind of stuff are usually okay
with games where you can automatically regenerate your life. Are you one of
those? Do you want some Western-developed game where you shoot guys then hide somewhere and get all of your health back? Because, if you ask me,
those games are unrealistic!"
I couldn't understand Yamauchi at all.
"Well, you know what they say: 'seeing is believing,' right? Just try it.
When you start playing, we'll help you farm for materials. Collecting honey
is hard work, you know? So you can buy me some cocoa, then."
"For crying out loud…"
I didn't exactly need the honey, but I bought the cocoa to avoid any
further hassle.
"Ah, friendship is such a blessing! Thank you!" Yamauchi said.
I didn't want that kind of friendship. I tossed the cocoa to Yamauchi,
who caught it against his stomach. Now, what did I want to drink? Hesitating,
I noticed a button on the machine.
"Oh, so they have this, too."
There was a button for mineral water, which was free of charge.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. Just was wondering if the cafeteria offers anything for
free."
"Oh, you mean like the vegetable meal set? Ugh, there's no way I'd
want to go through school with only vegetables and water."
Yamauchi cackled as he drank his cocoa. If you used up all of your
points, then you'd have no choice but to take the free stuff, like vegetables
and water. However, it was easy to avoid that situation. As long as you didn't
spend all of your points like Yamauchi, that is.
"There are quite a few people who eat the vegetables, actually," I said.
Since I went to the cafeteria often, I recalled seeing many students
eating the free meal sets.
"It's not because they like it. It's probably because it's the end of the
month."
"Well, that might be so." While I felt a little uneasy about it, I pressed
the button for milk and took the bottle after it came tumbling down. "Ah, why can't next month come any faster? I want my dream life back
again!" Yamauchi and the other guys laughed as they lamented