Chapter - 8

"Senior, I'm late, but I'm here, Araki Maya."

Before I knew it, the head of a junior student was beside me.

I wondered if he hadn't been able to see her because of her short stature.

"I didn't even call out to you...you really only come when you're in the way."

Kurumi sighed and put her hand to her cheek while saying that.

Her tone was joking, and she was purposely pretending to say something harsh, but her eyes were not smiling.

"Yeah, because I can't have you getting bitten by some weirdo Beach-san and getting rabies while I'm distracted."

Araki agrees politely, but immediately snatches my bag from my hand and tries to grab my hand.

I shake my weak arm, constantly sizing up the gap.

"Ahaha, Araki, do you know the phrase Yankee Go Home?"

"I wonder, was Ayase-senpai born before or during the war? Ohhh, so Showa-ze is different, indeed. I'm at a loss for words at your amazing anachronisms. After all, you and I are Heisei-born humans, full of surprises from the Ongoji gods."

"You're not the one with the weird hair, Araki. I was born in Heisei, too."

"In that case, Ayase-senpai, I'll tell you, I'm Japanese, too. When I hear the word Yankee, all I can think of is a race that went extinct and fossilized decades ago, a race that breaks windows at school in the middle of the night and rides stolen motorcycles."

"I can easily picture a kid who doesn't steal motorcycles but is full of ideas about stealing other people's men."

The words came right out of their mouths as they were criticizing each other.

I barely recognized Kurumi's frustration as a response.

"...Wait a minute, Araki. What did you call Yo-kun again?"

"What? I called him Yohei-senpai. Isn't that right?"

"What?"

My whole body is shaking.

"Why are you calling Yo-kun Yohei?"

"No, I'm calling him "senior" after that."

"Shut up!"

Kurumi shouted. Something seemed to have touched her anger.

"Hey, Kurumi, why..."

Her breathing became ragged.

She squeezes her eyes shut tightly, as if trying to control herself from running away.

"Yo-kun, it's okay to call me by my first name..."

In a voice that sounds like it's being squeezed.

"It's just me...!"

Slowly, he opens his eyelids to reveal his real eyes, barely holding back his anger.

A tremor runs through his hands.

A desperate voice with absolutely no slack in it.

Araki treats it with the same stubborn, stern face she had when she met me.

A strangely high-pressure gleam in his eyes, like he's looking down even though he's being looked down upon.

He snorts and says.

"You look like an idiot."

Suddenly, Araki's cheeks twitched.

It was caused by a palm slap that seemed to flow without time to dry.

Kurumi's hand flailing, a chilling expression on her face as she fights back against Araki.

I get chills.

This guy has never looked like this, not even in his cocky phase when they met.

But I can only remember seeing Kurumi turn this sullen once before.

We weren't close, but that memory exists in a very gentle time, when Kurumi's flowers hadn't yet bloomed and I could call him "friend" without any reservations.

He and I were in the same class.

I was then, as I am now, an unremarkable kid, not very good in grades or athletics, and not the kind of fun kid who would set the mood around me.

When I hung out with Kurumi, I was rarely teased or given the cold shoulder, but I was rarely genuinely jealous, so I was able to get along with her without any problems.

But Kurumi couldn't seem to get along that way.

I think she was a little jealous of precocious girls who pretended to be adults while treating men as children.

Her body hadn't grown much yet, so she was only moderately developed, but her hair was pretty compared to her peers.

There was a girl who was particularly conscious of Kurumi, who had taken a step forward from "cute" to "beautiful".

She wasn't a striking beauty, but she wasn't ugly either.

Adults would have encouraged her to be herself, saying that she was cute and pretty enough, but it seems that girls' society was based on comparison.

Apparently, "good enough" wasn't enough.

In addition to her beauty, there was also a rumor that a sixth-grade boy had a crush on Kurumi.

I don't know much about the truth of that rumor, as I only heard it overheard, but I do know that there was a rumor.

The jealousy in her heart must have been amplified many times over.

What she adopted as a result of her depression was not a head-on fight, but a simple diversion.

She thought to weaken Kurumi by clinging to me and treating me poorly, a man with whom Kurumi was very close.

I felt a little sorry for him because he realized that he couldn't win through normal means, but it was annoying for me to have to pretend to be close to him as a diversion, and I think it was unpleasant for Kurumi as well.

For a while, I put up with it, but then it became an argument.

It's not like we're in a relationship. It's stupid to get serious──

Kurumi was speechless when she heard those words mixed with laughter.

At the time, I was too young and didn't have the brains to realize that I was in a relationship, so I couldn't really refute them.

No, now that I think about it, maybe it's the same situation now.

Anyway, the girl was emboldened by that, and she tried to get me to go out with her.

I knew it was a joke, so I firmly said "no".

Eh, don't say that, Yohei──

The moment he said my name, Kurumi's expression instantly changed.

"Don't just call Yo-kun... without honorifics."

It was an expression that was missing something even more frightening than her anger.

Kurumi had casually called me "Yohei, Yohei" without honorifics when she was in her cocky phase, but after she showed a cheerful smile, she began to call me "Yo-kun" with a sense of intimacy.

I protested that the nickname was embarrassing, even for an elementary school student, but he wouldn't listen.

I said, "I'd rather call him like before, without the honorific, because that's how I call Kurumi too.

"I can't. That's not me anymore."

After saying that, she puffed out her chest and made a gesture that seemed to say, "Hmm, but."

"If... me and Yo-kun become lovers, then I'll call him "Yohei" again, so why don't you wait until then?"

I said.

With a smile, he added, "And don't let the other kids call him that, either."

I didn't think much of it, thinking it must be a new kind of joke.

I immediately put it out of my mind.

It was only the boys who were called "Yohei" because they couldn't have girlfriends other than Kurumi.

Maybe for Kurumi.

"Maybe my common name, Yohei, has become a sacred oath──

The fight ended coolly, with Kurumi showing her true colors, and there was no continuation.

And now that I think about it, I have a feeling that Kurumi's flowers started to enlarge from that point on....