HEY, we're going to go hang out with Kushida-chan and some other
people after class. You want to come?
I received that text message in the middle of my afternoon class while
absentmindedly jotting down notes. Ah, weren't these supposed to be the
halcyon days of our youth? This was the first time that friends had invited me
to hang out after class. I had no reason to refuse their invitation, but I thought
I'd ask who was going.
I mean, I didn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of people I didn't
know. That would be awkward.
I quickly received a reply. I saw Ike and Yamauchi's names, as well as
Kushida's. Including me, that made five people. Didn't seem like anyone
whom I didn't already know was included. Well, that sounded fine. I
confirmed that I'd go, and a response quickly followed.
Kushida-chan is my target, so don't you dare get in my way! –Ike-sama
No, no, Kushida-chan is mine. You stay out of the way! –Yamauchi
Huh? You say you're after Kushida-chan, too?! What, are you trying to
pick a fight?
It'd be nice if we all got along, but the two of them started fighting
over Kushida via text. I'd been looking forward to hanging out with
everyone, but now I thought it might be a hassle. When class ended, I left
with Ike and Yamauchi. Even though I'd been here a while, the school
grounds were so expansive that I still didn't know the area very well.
"We couldn't leave with Kushida even though we're in the same class,
huh?" I said.
"She said she had to talk to a friend from another class. Kushida-chan
is quite popular."
"Do you think maybe she's talking to a boy?" Ike mumbled.
"Relax, Ike. I've already confirmed it. She's talking to a girl,"
Yamauchi said.
"All right, all right."
"Are you guys seriously going after Kushida?" I asked.
"Of course. She's my dream girl."
Yamauchi must have shared this opinion, considering the fact he kept
nodding in agreement.
"You're interested in Horikita, aren't you? She's definitely beautiful, I
gotta say."
"No, I'm not. Really."
"Really? Didn't you guys sneakily exchange looks and nonchalantly
touch fingertips? You know, something bittersweet and yet kind of
irritating?"
While Ike relentlessly pressed me, one of the very girls we were talking
about ran over.
"Sorry for being late, but thanks for waiting!" Kushida cried.
"Oh, no worries, Kushida-chan! Hey, wait a second, why are they
here?!" Ike had been jumping up and down excitedly, but now he tumbled
over and sprawled across the ground. What an energetic guy.
"Oh, I just happened to run into them on the way, so I thought I'd
invite them along. Was that not okay?"
Kushida had brought Hirata and his girlfriend (at least, I was pretty
sure she was his girlfriend), Karuizawa. There were also two other girls,
Matsushita and Mori, who always hung around Karuizawa.
"Hey, don't we have some way of making Hirata go away?!" Ike
whispered, putting his arm around my shoulder.
"I don't think there's really any reason to make him leave," I replied.
"That pretty boy will completely overshadow us! What are you going
to do if Kushida-chan ends up liking Hirata, huh?! We can't let that pretty
boy end up with a cutie like Kushida!"
"Well, I don't know about… Hey, wait, isn't Hirata dating Karuizawa?
I wouldn't worry."
"Hey, just because you say he has a girlfriend is no guarantee. I can't relax. Besides, anyone in his right mind would choose a pretty angel like
Kushida-chan over a sloppy, easy gal like Karuizawa!"
Ike furiously prattled on, his spit spraying my ear, which grossed me
out. Not just the spit, either; his vile words were pretty disgusting, too. It was
true that Karuizawa certainly was one of those gyaru types with tanned skin
and everything, but she was plenty cute.
"Hey, Ike, you do know that there's no guarantee that Kushida-chan is
a virgin, right?" Yamauchi joined our conversation, his anxious voice a
strained whisper.
"W-well… Yeah, you might be… N-no, Kushida has to be a virgin!"
Ike said.
They continued to discuss their wild, delusional fantasies, though I
thought it was more misogyny than anything. If at all possible, I would've
rather not been involved.
"Um, if we're a bother, perhaps we can just go separately?" said Hirata
in a reserved tone. He seemed to have noticed our secret conversation.
"W-we don't really mind at all, do we? Right, Yamauchi?"
"Y-yeah. Let's all go together. The more the merrier, you know. Right,
Ike?"
Moments ago, those two had shouted that others would "be in the way"
and that they needed to get rid of Hirata. But if they did such a thing, then
Kushida might like them less. Whether or not there was any chance she'd like
them in the first place was another matter.
"Well, obviously, that was the idea. Why are you three whispering
about us?" Karuizawa's words were certainly understandable, but I was
shocked to be lumped together with Ike and Yamauchi.
"Well, here's my thought. If we include Hirata and Karuizawa, then
we'll have the same number of boys and girls. So that means it'd be a triple
date. Ayanokouji, this could be your chance, you know?"
"So, you're good with Matsushita, Yamauchi? I'm gonna talk to
Kushida-chan," Ike said.
"Hey, don't screw with me! I'm the one after Kushida-chan! We're
going to get married under an old cherry blossom tree, exchanging vows like a sweet promise between childhood friends! It's fate!"
"You're full of crap! I've thought about doing that for a while now.
You're a total liar!"
"Huh? It's all true, all of it!"
If you were to believe everything Yamauchi Haruki said, then he had
been a skilled gamer since childhood, scouted by professionals from
overseas, and a national ping pong competitor. Then, in junior high, he'd
been his baseball team's ace player and a promising future star. What an
incredibly gifted man.
Though there was no confirmation that any of that was the truth.
I didn't know where we were headed, so I quietly hung to the back of
the group. While Ike and Yamauchi daydreamed about Kushida, they flanked
Hirata on both sides.
"I'm just going to ask you, Hirata. Are you going out with
Karuizawa?" Ike asked point-blank to determine whether or not Hirata was
his enemy.
"Uh…where did you hear that?" Hirata asked. As expected, he looked
a little surprised, or even panicked, by that question. "Oh, guess you figured
it out, huh? Yeah, we're dating."
Karuizawa latched onto Hirata's arm before he could say anything.
Hirata just lightly scratched his cheek, as if signaling resignation.
"Seriously?! I'm so jealous that you're dating such a cute girl like
Karuizawa!" said Yamauchi, feigning envy. You'd think that lying while
being unaware that you're lying would be easy, but it was surprisingly
difficult.
"Kushida-chan, do you have a boyfriend?" Ike managed to shift
attention over to Kushida without missing a beat. Pretty clever, huh?
"Me? Oh, no, unfortunately," she said.
Both Ike and Yamauchi clearly rejoiced, breaking out in massive grins.
Their joy leaked out for everyone to see. Although it was possible that
Kushida was hiding the fact that she had a boyfriend, she'd basically
confirmed that she was available. I was a little glad to hear that, too. "Oh, no, I'm crying…"
"Don't cry, Yamauchi! We're finally almost at the summit!"
Their destination no longer waited at the peak of an insurmountable
mountain, but instead at the end of a precipitous path…
Hirata, Karuizawa, Ike, and Yamauchi all surrounded Kushida as they
walked. The rather uninteresting pair of Matsushita and Mori followed
behind the main group, while I walked farther behind them, alone.
"Hey, Ike. Where are we going?" someone asked.
"It hasn't been that long since the entrance ceremony, remember? Just
wanted to check out the campus facilities," Ike answered, seemingly irritated.
So, there was no clear destination, which meant that this somewhat
awkward experience would go on for a while…
My unpleasant expectations unexpectedly changed.
"Hey, Matsushita-san, Mori-san. What do you two want to go see?"
While Ike and Yamauchi happily chatted with each other, Kushida fell
back to talk to the other two girls.
"Huh? Oh, um, well…I've wanted to see the movie theater at least
once."
"Yeah. Since school's done for the day, I wanted to go, too."
"Oh, yeah! I've wanted to go as well, but haven't gotten around to it
yet. Karuizawa-san, have you gone to any special places on dates?"
Kushida started to organize us into three groups, just as I'd expect of
her. No matter how hard I tried, I could never have done something like that.
Also, as a nice bonus, she occasionally turned and smiled sweetly at me. I
didn't expect that.
I tried not to talk unnecessarily, as I felt that would just be a hassle. I
tried to look at Kushida in a way that showed I wasn't ignoring her. If
Kushida couldn't read the room, and merely liked being the constant center
of attention, then the message probably wouldn't reach her.
However, there are people who will lash out and say something like,
"Why can't you read the situation?" to a friend after he refuses to do karaoke,
even though they know that friend said he didn't want to sing. There are, after all, self-absorbed, simple-minded people who assume that because karaoke is
fun for them, that means everyone will love it. They simply cannot
comprehend that some people dislike singing.
While I'd been mulling over this venomous topic, my surroundings had
changed. Apparently, we'd stopped at a clothing store on campus. More
precisely, it was a boutique. Everyone seemed to have come to this store a
few times already, so we entered without hesitation. Generally, I wore my
uniform on weekdays, and since I usually stayed in my dorm on my days off,
I hadn't bought any clothes for going out.
There were many students inside, though few upperclassmen. The
majority appeared to be first-year students. Perhaps it was because of my
newness, but I felt really inexperienced and anxious in this atmosphere. We
checked out many different items on the racks and, afterward, went to a
nearby café. Hirata carried the clothes that Karuizawa had purchased, which
cost about 30,000 points.
"Have you all gotten used to this school yet?"
"At first, I was really perplexed, but now I've settled in perfectly. It's
like living in a dream. I don't ever want to graduate!"
"Ha ha! I get the feeling Ike-kun is enjoying his time here to the
fullest!"
"I just wish we had more points, you know? Maybe 200,000 or
300,000 a month? After buying cosmetics and clothes and stuff, I've already
used up almost all of my points," Karuizawa said.
"Don't you think it's abnormal for a high school student to get 300,000
points as a monthly allowance?" Hirata asked.
"Well, if you put it like that, yeah. Even 100,000 is pretty outlandish.
I'm a little scared, to be honest. I'm worried about what life after graduation
will be like if I keep on spending my school days like this."
"Do you mean you'll lose your sense of money management? Yeah,
that does sound pretty scary, actually."
Everyone felt differently about our monthly allowance. Karuizawa and
Ike both wanted more points, while Hirata and Kushida were terrified of what
would happen when our life of luxury ended. "What about you, Ayanokouji-kun? Do you think that 100,000 points is
a lot or not enough?"
At that point, I'd only intended to listen, but Kushida asked me my
thoughts.
"Hmm, well, I don't really fully understand it yet. I'm not sure," I
replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think I understand what you're getting at, Ayanokouji-kun. This is
honestly completely different from any normal school. It's hard to understand
it without really knowing all the details."
"Well, there's no point worrying about it. I'm super glad that I got into
this school. I can just go out and buy whatever I want. In fact, yesterday I
went out and bought some new clothes." Ike lived a positive life, always
forging directly ahead.
"Kushida-chan and Hirata aside, Ike, you and Karuizawa also managed
to get into this place. Aren't you guys pretty dumb, though?"
"You don't strike me as being very smart either, Yamauchi."
"Huh? I'll have you know that I scored 900 points on the APEC."
"What's the APEC?"
"You don't even know? It's a super tough test for English."
"Um, don't you mean the TOEIC, not APEC?"
Kushida gently brought Yamauchi back down to earth. APEC actually
stood for Asia-Pacific Economic Partnership.
"Th-they're related though, aren't they?" he asked.
They were as far apart as it's possible to get.
"Well, this school's mission is to nurture young people who will pave
the way to the future, right? So, they probably don't choose people solely on
their test scores. Honestly, if this school only took in people based on
standardized tests, I wouldn't have taken the entrance exam."
"Yeah, yeah. Young people who will pave the way to the future. That's
exactly how I'd describe myself." Ike crossed his arms and nodded. Despite being the premier institution in Japan, with stellar rates of
advancement into higher education and employment, this school didn't
appear to determine the criteria for passing or failing through test scores. If
that was the case, then how in the world did it select potential students? I
found myself suddenly curious.