I still didn’t know who Nekura-kun was, but the opportunity to pursue the matter was rapidly disappearing.
I felt that since we had come to love each other without even seeing each other, we were somewhat afraid of seeing each other and were trying to postpone it.
I still talk to him, and when the topic of family structure comes up, I sometimes find myself trying to hide the fact that I have an older sister.
I don’t have to hide it. I should stop hiding, but I’m so comfortable at the moment that I’ve become a coward.
Nekura-kun’s image is getting bigger and bigger with all the information I’m getting. And yet, there are no concrete images, they remain scattered.
I wonder if Nekura-kun will be disappointed when he sees me. Not only that but if I were to be disappointed when I saw Nekura-kun… I’m afraid of that too. Whatever it is, this relationship is going to fall apart.
Nekura-kun and I had been delaying our meeting by asking each other a lot of evasive questions, and we were still very careful about meeting up so that we wouldn’t accidentally run into each other.
However, we started to ask each other questions every now and then that didn’t seem to get to the root of things such as blood type. It was as if we were hoping to be revealed a little naturally, and yet, we were desperately trying not to find out. It was a contradictory battle.
Recently, I found out that Nekura-kun is a second-year student. I no longer needed to look for a third-year student.
The more we get to know each other, the more we dread meeting in person. Especially since neither of us is a good communicator. If we had a lot of friends, we would have met as soon as possible.
Still, my impatience to hurry up was slowly growing, and my desire to stay like this was holding me back.
But one day, the answer came out of nowhere.
Before I was even prepared for it.
＊
It was after school, a pleasant afternoon.
The air was a little cooler than the usual Autumn day. The clouds were moving just a little bit.
That day, Nekura-kun went in first, and I came in later.
“What shall we do?”
There are only so many things you can do in this arrangement.
We’ve already played Shiritori, and we’ve talked about lots of other things. I don’t know his name or class, but I’ve learned that he’s friends with a cat in the neighborhood that looks like curry rice, or that he knows a good Takuan store.
We randomly bounced ideas off each other to see if there was a game we could play with this distance and situation.
Nekura-kun murmured.
“Hmm, pocky game.”
“That sounds fun!”
“…it’s nothing, it just popped into my head when I was just randomly tossing around ideas! It’s probably impossible! Forget it!”
“Yeah, but it’s a game with a cute name.”
“Forget it! I’m so sorry, forget it!”
I laughed again at his panic, it was so cute.
Suddenly I remembered something that had been bothering me for a while and casually asked him about it.
“What is 0923 in your address, Nekura-kun?”
“Um…”
Nekura-kun seemed to be a little confused, but eventually, he told me.
“It’s my birthday.”
“I know someone who has the same birthday… It’s an amazing coincidence. Happy birthday.”
“Thank you. I have heard that there are a lot of people with the same birthday.”
“Eh, Why?”
“…if you calculate backward… it’s New Year’s day…” (TN: you should know what it means.)
“Hmm? Ah, I remember now!”
“Eh, what?”
That’s right! Come to think of it, the principal also might have his birthday on that day. I see. There really are a lot of them, aren’t there? I remembered and was convinced. I tried not to look at the little twinge that had sprung up in my chest and let the topic go.
We talked a lot of nonsense, and after a short break, I rested my cheeks from laughing and exhaled.
“Nekura-kun, can we meet some more?”
I do most of the texting, and I’m the one who calls to set up meetings. It seems like I am the only one who wants to meet, and since I have become like a… girlfriend, I think I can demand some improvement in that area.
“I’m sorry. I can’t always get out during recess, and I have to help out at home after school, too.”
“What do you mean, help out at home?”
I casually asked that question back, which I would later regret deeply.
“We have a set meal restaurant.”
Dokun~.
When I heard that, my heart jumped and I cringed.
The suspicion that I had momentarily thrown away when I heard his birthday and tried not to look at it came back to haunt me.
No way right?
My heartbeat got louder and faster.
This possibility had been dismissed in my mind very early on and was always never discussed at all. Because it would never happen.
With that in mind, I once again scrutinized a few things in my mind that had been bugging me.
I think there are a lot of people who work part-time during the holidays.
I’m sure there are many people who live near that station, which is a little far away but still possible to commute to school.
Birthdays are just a coincidence, aren’t they? He said many were born on that day.
But I wonder if there are many people whose home is a set meal restaurant.
As I thought, there is too much overlap.
During the summer vacation, Sakura-Kun’s mother took me to his house, and at the entrance, I saw a bear figurine.
But it can’t be.
There are overlaps, but there are also parts that don’t add up.
Nekura-kun is supposed to be a boy who is not popular with girls, has no male friends, and lacks self-confidence. It’s impossible.
Everything that has happened so far kept coming back to me.
I want to think I am wrong. I think I want to be wrong. I wonder which one it is. I want to know.
But I don’t want to go back with things as they are.
I put my hands on the wall and stood up without a sound.
I couldn’t help but confirm the thought that had just occurred to me. My heart was beating so loudly that I could hear it clearly.
On the other side of the bookshelf, Nekura-kun continued to talk.
“So I can’t do much in the way of extracurricular activities… It’s not like there was anything I wanted to be a part of…”
I heard fragments of his words, but they made no sense to me. My breathing became erratic.
“The onigiri I made before …… might be …because… from the store”
Nothing entered my mind.
My trembling legs brought me to the edge of the bookshelf that served as the threshold between us. If I look over there from here, I can see his face.
I was frightened by the vulnerability of the situation because it was much easier than I thought it would be if I did it.
Hah~, hah~.
I was out of breath for no reason, though it wasn’t even after running. I had no sense of reality.
I imagined myself peeking over there again and again, but I couldn’t act on it, as if I was trying to force myself to wake up in my sleep. Maybe this was a dream.
In contrast to the dimly lit entrance where I was, the other side of the bookshelf was brightly lit by the light shining through the window.
Nekura-kun in my mind. He is a shy boy with no friends, no popularity, and no confidence in himself. I looked for the image of such a thing. One step, to the area on the other side of the bookshelf.
I heard a small creak of the floor. The sound of my own footsteps sounded strangely loud.
“Nekura-kun?”
I called out in a small voice. My voice trembled and shook.
In an instant, all the images I had imagined of the person in the room, a featureless schoolboy, were erased from my mind.
It was overwritten in the blink of an eye, and I couldn’t go back.
There it was, just as I thought it would be, the right answer I didn’t want to see.
At that place.
Sakura Souji was sitting there with his long legs outstretched.
He looked at me blankly with widened eyes.
I still didn’t know who Nekura-kun was, but the opportunity to pursue the matter was rapidly disappearing.
I felt that since we had come to love each other without even seeing each other, we were somewhat afraid of seeing each other and were trying to postpone it.
I still talk to him, and when the topic of family structure comes up, I sometimes find myself trying to hide the fact that I have an older sister.
I don’t have to hide it. I should stop hiding, but I’m so comfortable at the moment that I’ve become a coward.
Nekura-kun’s image is getting bigger and bigger with all the information I’m getting. And yet, there are no concrete images, they remain scattered.
I wonder if Nekura-kun will be disappointed when he sees me. Not only that but if I were to be disappointed when I saw Nekura-kun… I’m afraid of that too. Whatever it is, this relationship is going to fall apart.
Nekura-kun and I had been delaying our meeting by asking each other a lot of evasive questions, and we were still very careful about meeting up so that we wouldn’t accidentally run into each other.
However, we started to ask each other questions every now and then that didn’t seem to get to the root of things such as blood type. It was as if we were hoping to be revealed a little naturally, and yet, we were desperately trying not to find out. It was a contradictory battle.
Recently, I found out that Nekura-kun is a second-year student. I no longer needed to look for a third-year student.
The more we get to know each other, the more we dread meeting in person. Especially since neither of us is a good communicator. If we had a lot of friends, we would have met as soon as possible.
Still, my impatience to hurry up was slowly growing, and my desire to stay like this was holding me back.
But one day, the answer came out of nowhere.
Before I was even prepared for it.
＊
It was after school, a pleasant afternoon.
The air was a little cooler than the usual Autumn day. The clouds were moving just a little bit.
That day, Nekura-kun went in first, and I came in later.
“What shall we do?”
There are only so many things you can do in this arrangement.
We’ve already played Shiritori, and we’ve talked about lots of other things. I don’t know his name or class, but I’ve learned that he’s friends with a cat in the neighborhood that looks like curry rice, or that he knows a good Takuan store.
We randomly bounced ideas off each other to see if there was a game we could play with this distance and situation.
Nekura-kun murmured.
“Hmm, pocky game.”
“That sounds fun!”
“…it’s nothing, it just popped into my head when I was just randomly tossing around ideas! It’s probably impossible! Forget it!”
“Yeah, but it’s a game with a cute name.”
“Forget it! I’m so sorry, forget it!”
I laughed again at his panic, it was so cute.
Suddenly I remembered something that had been bothering me for a while and casually asked him about it.
“What is 0923 in your address, Nekura-kun?”
“Um…”
Nekura-kun seemed to be a little confused, but eventually, he told me.
“It’s my birthday.”
“I know someone who has the same birthday… It’s an amazing coincidence. Happy birthday.”
“Thank you. I have heard that there are a lot of people with the same birthday.”
“Eh, Why?”
“…if you calculate backward… it’s New Year’s day…” (TN: you should know what it means.)
“Hmm? Ah, I remember now!”
“Eh, what?”
That’s right! Come to think of it, the principal also might have his birthday on that day. I see. There really are a lot of them, aren’t there? I remembered and was convinced. I tried not to look at the little twinge that had sprung up in my chest and let the topic go.
We talked a lot of nonsense, and after a short break, I rested my cheeks from laughing and exhaled.
“Nekura-kun, can we meet some more?”
I do most of the texting, and I’m the one who calls to set up meetings. It seems like I am the only one who wants to meet, and since I have become like a… girlfriend, I think I can demand some improvement in that area.
“I’m sorry. I can’t always get out during recess, and I have to help out at home after school, too.”
“What do you mean, help out at home?”
I casually asked that question back, which I would later regret deeply.
“We have a set meal restaurant.”
Dokun~.
When I heard that, my heart jumped and I cringed.
The suspicion that I had momentarily thrown away when I heard his birthday and tried not to look at it came back to haunt me.
No way right?
My heartbeat got louder and faster.
This possibility had been dismissed in my mind very early on and was always never discussed at all. Because it would never happen.
With that in mind, I once again scrutinized a few things in my mind that had been bugging me.
I think there are a lot of people who work part-time during the holidays.
I’m sure there are many people who live near that station, which is a little far away but still possible to commute to school.
Birthdays are just a coincidence, aren’t they? He said many were born on that day.
But I wonder if there are many people whose home is a set meal restaurant.
As I thought, there is too much overlap.
During the summer vacation, Sakura-Kun’s mother took me to his house, and at the entrance, I saw a bear figurine.
But it can’t be.
There are overlaps, but there are also parts that don’t add up.
Nekura-kun is supposed to be a boy who is not popular with girls, has no male friends, and lacks self-confidence. It’s impossible.
Everything that has happened so far kept coming back to me.
I want to think I am wrong. I think I want to be wrong. I wonder which one it is. I want to know.
But I don’t want to go back with things as they are.
I put my hands on the wall and stood up without a sound.
I couldn’t help but confirm the thought that had just occurred to me. My heart was beating so loudly that I could hear it clearly.
On the other side of the bookshelf, Nekura-kun continued to talk.
“So I can’t do much in the way of extracurricular activities… It’s not like there was anything I wanted to be a part of…”
I heard fragments of his words, but they made no sense to me. My breathing became erratic.
“The onigiri I made before …… might be …because… from the store”
Nothing entered my mind.
My trembling legs brought me to the edge of the bookshelf that served as the threshold between us. If I look over there from here, I can see his face.
I was frightened by the vulnerability of the situation because it was much easier than I thought it would be if I did it.
Hah~, hah~.
I was out of breath for no reason, though it wasn’t even after running. I had no sense of reality.
I imagined myself peeking over there again and again, but I couldn’t act on it, as if I was trying to force myself to wake up in my sleep. Maybe this was a dream.
In contrast to the dimly lit entrance where I was, the other side of the bookshelf was brightly lit by the light shining through the window.
Nekura-kun in my mind. He is a shy boy with no friends, no popularity, and no confidence in himself. I looked for the image of such a thing. One step, to the area on the other side of the bookshelf.
I heard a small creak of the floor. The sound of my own footsteps sounded strangely loud.
“Nekura-kun?”
I called out in a small voice. My voice trembled and shook.
In an instant, all the images I had imagined of the person in the room, a featureless schoolboy, were erased from my mind.
It was overwritten in the blink of an eye, and I couldn’t go back.
There it was, just as I thought it would be, the right answer I didn’t want to see.
At that place.
Sakura Souji was sitting there with his long legs outstretched.
He looked at me blankly with widened eyes.
