CHAPTER SIXTHEEN – Longest yard…

"Hey, Okazaki." The lesson isn`t over yet when someone called me. It was our homeroom teacher so I ignore it.

"Didn`t you hear me, Okazaki?" You`re persistent.

"What is it?" I look at him dubiously. I made eye to eye contact with him. 

"Where`s Sunohara?"

"Sunohara?" I look beside me. Sure enough, he wasn`t there.

"Who knows?"

"Won`t you go look for him?"

"Eh? Me?"

"Yeah, you, Okazaki."

"And why?"

"I was thinking that you can guess where he is."

"I can`t."

"I see..."

"If so, you`ll be called out instead."

"To where?"

"To the staff room, of course."

"And why? 

"Do you have any idea how many times you`ve come late for my classes?"

"But I`m not as bad as Sunohara. I even came early this morning."

"But you`re not that far away from him."

"Anyway, if Sunohara`s not here, then there`ll be no other choice but to call you."

"Sigh..." It`s a depressing situation. But, I think it would be better if I honestly go and search for Sunohara if I think about ditching class right now.

"I understand. I`ll go and search for him then." I turn away and start to walk. 

"Hey, Okazaki, I`m not saying now. Do it after the lesson ends!" I pretend not to hear his last words. With this, I wouldn`t be at fault for skipping class, and it`s all thanks to our homeroom teacher. I`m certain Sunohara will be here during lunch break. But, I`m not sure I`d be able to attend fifth period. Because I would continue sleeping for more than an hour. In the first place, the rugby members had probably taken him somewhere.

"In that case, no matter where I look, he`ll probably show up at dusk..." I start to lost my will to go search for him when I think about it. I`m about to get tired strolling around like this. I try to think about the places he could be.

"..." Can`t figure it out... Honestly, I don`t care about Sunohara anymore. It`s probably all right to return to class at the last moment. I`ll go somewhere I want.

I think I`ll go to the library. This reminds me of the girl who was sitting comfortably on the floor.

"Did she say her name was Kotomi?" Yesterday, she said she plans to read lots of book in the afternoon. She might be there even now. As I was about to turn a corner, I notice someone was walking down the hallway. Rather than the sound of slippers, it`s the sound of indoor shoes. It wasn`t a teacher, but a student. There`s not much on this floor, it`s just the library and all those empty classrooms. And also a single person who comes to the library during lessons.

I decided to frighten him. 

"... ehem... Ahhh, ahhh..." I clear my throat to frighten him. I trot silently towards that carefree footsteps that doesn`t have an idea what`s going to happen.

... ready...

"Hey! What the hell are you doing walking around during lessons!"

"UWAA!"

"Sorry, my stomach hurts and my head feels weird but I got lost on my way to the clinic..."

"..." The idiot is here. Man, you apologize too quickly whenever you`re in trouble.

"Okazaki!? What the hell are you doing!"

"Sorry, I mistook you for someone."

"And who could that someone be!?"

"There isn`t anyone in this school who skips lessons other than Okazaki and I."

"Not within this area though."

"Hah?"

"Have you tried going inside the library here?"

"Library? Is there such a thing here?"

"Is there such a thing here?! You really are one stupid pupil here inthis school..."

"You`re the only one I don`t want to hear that from." Two fools speaking ill of each other. It was very sour.

"Anyway, there`s a library here that you haven`t seen before. And inside it is a mysterious yet beautiful girl reading some hard to understand books. If you talk to her, she`ll give you a cut-piece of a paper. She will also share her lunch box with you..."

"..." When I actually tried putting it into words, I suddenly realized that it must all be a lie. I don`t think anything like that can happen in reality. Did I really meet such a girl...? Sunohara timidly responds to me.

"Introduce me to her!" As always, he believes everything I say.

"Well... try going inside, if you`re lucky, you might meet her." I point at the library as I said that. Sunohara looked at the library entrance door with a face showing a clear motive. He then asks me something.

"Even though it says `Closed`?" 

"Even still, she`s in there, and it`s mysterious."

"She`s really beautiful, right?"

"By all means."

"She`s reading books all alone, right?"

"Perhaps."

"All right!" He leaves in high spirits.

"I`ll bring her out and let her see the outside world..."... slide, slide. He opens the sliding door and goes inside the library. I have plenty of time myself so I`ll wait for him. One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes... There`s nothing happening. Five minutes have passed.... 

Blag! Swooosh! Thud...! I began to hear some unusual sounds inside the library. Is he running amok? Or has he lost his patience and started attacking? Or probably rampaging for revenge because there`s no one there. Anyway, I guess I should go and check it for myself. Sunohara finally appeared as I was thinking those things.

"Sigh..." Closing the door behind him, he takes a deep breath. He looks somewhat tired. And of course, he didn`t manage to take anyone outside.

"... she`s not inside?" I ask him that.

"No, she was there."

"Did you get a cut-off piece of a paper?"

"She to~~~tally ignored me." He accumulated all his strength just to say that.

"I tried flirting with her too, but she didn`t respond and just kept on reading."

"Maybe your presence is too weak?"

"It isn`t like that, I tried various things too. I dropped books all around her..."

"So that noise before was because of that..."

"Finally, I thought about pushing down the bookshelves but she didn`t even move from the floor..."

"You might have been really annoying..."

"Damn... Who the hell is that girl?" 

"I don`t really know either though..." For sure, I don`t really know her. The only thing I know is…

"She said her name is Kotomi."

"Kotomi?"His eyebrows shift as he says that.

"I see... She`s Ichinose Kotomi then..." He mutters annoyingly.

"You know her?"

"Isn`t she famous?" Though he said so, I have no idea.

"Didn`t we see it on the ranking chart of the mock examinations? Her name is certainly at the top."

"Ranking chart? What`s that?"

"... you really are a no good student in this school."

"You`re the only person I don`t want to hear that from."

"I`m returning all those words you said to me."

"I`ll also be giving it back to you, with a pink ribbon attached."

"..."

".... anyway, Ichinose Kotomi is a special scholar student here."

"The same as you, right?"

"I got recommended through sports, but she got here through her academic excellency. Don`t compare me to her." I don`t really understand, but Sunohara is fussing about it, it seems.

"Moreover, her exams never drop from the top ten, as she`s a hard working girl. Well, my hobbies are different." 

"I`ll put your hobbies and hard work to something obsolete though... Top ten in this school? That`s nothing."

"You`re naive. That`s nation-wide."

"... NATION-WIDE?!" In short, she`s always at the top ten in the list of people who`s going to university. I didn`t even imagine it, it`s a fearful world.

"She`s completely beyond our level, she`s exempted from lessons since she can study by herself."

"Exempted from lessons...? What`s that?"

"I`m saying she can do anything, even if her attendance is low."

"Rumours say she`s not in any club, and she doesn`t seem to talk much in class." He explained it to me in a depressing manner. For sure, I thought it was weird that she`s just a class skipper. Bringing along some technical books written in foreign language and reading it easily... there`s no way she`s not smart. Her "lessons which I have to be in" has a completely different meaning from mine.

"Well, she lives in a different world from us, huh." Sunohara turns away from me as he says that.

"If you have nothing to say anymore, I`ll be going."

"Our homeroom teacher is searching for you. It seems he`s set his eyes on you lately."

"I could say the same for you. Don`t you think you should be careful too?"

"That`s a big help."

"You too." Putting my hands in my pockets, I watched Sunohara`s back disappear from the corridor. I don`t really have any place to go to. I`m probably the same as him...

"Sigh..." I sighed... Skipping class to walk around, this makes me think that I`m a worthless person. I think about what Sunohara said to me. A prodigy that`s always at the top ten of national exams... She`s getting some special treatment because of her academic excellency. I can`t think of having anything in common with such a person.... should I go back to the classroom? I slowly walk. I turn my head and look at the library`s entrance door one more time.