Airi at School

"Oh, that's Ninomiya-san, isn't she?"

During recess, Kazuma spotted Airi as we were walking through the hallway.

She passed the others and me as she smiled and chatted with some girls, apparently they were on the move too.

My eyes and Airi's eyes met for a moment, but nothing special happened. Both of us pretended to be complete strangers.

"She's really pretty when you look at her up close. She has a beautiful smile."

"You're right, her smile is beautiful."

It was indeed a beautiful smile, but clearly not of the same quality that I had recently seen at home.

It was the pasted-on fake smile that I had seen when I first asked about her hair.

I hadn't seen that smile at home lately, but my heart still buzzed when I saw that smile.

I guess that's how she usually kept her distance from others.

"If you don't call out to her soon, she'll be taken by someone else."

"What do you mean taken? It's not like she belongs to anyone."

Kazuma looked at me with his usual grin.

I didn't feel good about treating women like objects, so my voice to Kazuma was somewhat deeper.

"For now, not yet. But I heard quite a few people have confessed to her."

Kazuma said as if it was someone else's problem. In fact, it was. He had a girlfriend named Momose, so I guessed he didn't really care that much.

I expected only one confession as it had only been about two weeks since the new school year had started, but apparently many people had already confessed.

It took a lot of courage to confess without knowing each other well. People who confessed were probably confident in themselves, or maybe they were just reckless.

Well, she was good looking, so I guessed many people were attracted to her.

Remembering Airi's disgusted face, I chuckled inwardly.

"What's the result, by the way?"

"They said it was a total wipeout. They said there was nothing they could do."

Kazuma made a sound of dismay and shook his head.

I asked him about the results, which I already knew. If she was dating someone, there would have been talk about it, but there were no rumors.

I was convinced that she had rejected all of them, since the way she spent her time at home hadn't changed since the beginning.

"Some people call her an ice doll because she rejects confessions with a blank expression and only says, 'I'm sorry, I'm not interested in you.' "

"Ice doll… That's quite the name."

Kazuma's face turned into a frown, I also raised an eyebrow when I heard Kazuma's story. It wasn't about Airi's response, it was about the bad attitude of the people who confessed to her.

It was true that with her silver hair, blue eyes, and blank expression, you might expect her to be called that way. In fact, I also thought her expressionless face was like a doll at first.

But that didn't mean they should call her that straight to her face.

"It's almost as if they're angry that they were rejected. I also heard that she is cold to the boys in class whenever they talk to her. Shiori also said, 'Ninomiya-san's response to boys is always chilling!' "

"I guess she doesn't like boys who come to her with ulterior motives."

In fact, Airi didn't want to engage with me outside the house because she didn't want to provide a topic of conversation for such boys.

I threw the possibility of Airi and I getting involved as our looks didn't match at all.

"Probably so, that kind of thing is obvious to girls."

Kazuma shook his head in disbelief.

Although Kazuma looked light-hearted, Momose had warned him not to look at her with ulterior motives, so he had been very careful. His ability to take care of himself in this area was probably the reason why he was so popular in the class.

"But not everyone calls her that way, right?"

"That's true. Though, it's still not pleasant to hear."

"Yeah…"

That's what you would think if you only saw Airi at school. However, I no longer thought of her as a doll as I had seen her various other expressions at home.

I had also seen some horrifying blank expressions, but that was only when I stepped on a landmine.

These days, I was careful not to step on any landmines.

So I knew that her expressions weren't just a blank or a pasted-on smile, but of course… other people didn't know that.

"By the way, I haven't been to Minato's house lately. Can I come there sometime?"

"No."

It was true that when we were first years, Kazuma often came to my house. But now that Airi was here, I couldn't invite him to my house anymore.

When I immediately refused, Kazuma stared at me with a scowl.

"Why? You're not the type to have a messy room."

"I've been slacking on my cleaning lately, and my room is becoming a mess. I'll go to your house next time, so give me a break."

I thought we would just keep on talking, but suddenly Kazuma's face clouded over.

"Minato, are you okay?"

"What? I'm fine, but why are you asking all of a sudden?"

I didn't have a cold, nor did I have any chronic illness. There was no reason to be worried.

"You've been looking strangely tired lately, and I've noticed that you've been rubbing your shoulders and back."

"Eh, really?"

"You didn't realize?"

I, myself, was completely unaware that I was rubbing my shoulders and back. When I questioned Kazuma with a straight face, he stared at me with moist eyes.

As a matter of fact, I had been feeling strangely tired lately, and when he said shoulders and back, I knew exactly what he meant.

(Was it bad to sleep on the floor after all?).

It had been about two weeks since I had started sleeping on the floor, and I must have accumulated a lot of fatigue.

Something had to be done about it, I thought.

"Grandpa is old enough to know better."

"What's with that? At his age, Grandpa Minato is too senseless."

When I said it in a deliberately old-fashioned way, he laughed at me.

Although I hadn't expected to be mocked so much, I was able to digress.

Let me change the subject further.

"By the way, Kazuma, you just called Ninomiya-san a ridiculously beautiful woman, I wonder what Momose would say if she heard that?"

"Minato-san, please. Will you keep your mouth shut?"

"Hmm.. What should I do…"

He apologized profusely, but of course I tipped off Momose. It was a punishment for having a girlfriend and setting your eyes on someone else.

I headed to my part-time job, while watching him being punished after school.

"Kazuma, you already have a girlfriend!"

"Minato, you! I'll remember this!"

"See you later, you two."