The location was the first-floor piloti. It was situated near the bicycle racks, a place that saw little traffic unless it was morning or after school. It was a prime autumn viewing spot, offering a full view of the central courtyard and the four Somei-yoshino cherry trees with their leaves dyed a brilliant red. Ichinose-san, clenching her hands tightly, explained that rather than being surrounded by nature within the courtyard, she wanted to enjoy the essence of autumn from a distance. So cute.
"Um, is this really okay? Not the library...?"
"Ah... I think it might be better for Senpai too, so..."
Natsukawa spoke as she peered into Ichinose-san’s face.
It would have been fine if it were just me, but with four people, the Library’s Resource Room would have been far too cramped, so we decided to change locations. On the way here, Ichinose-san had stopped by the library to check in with her female senior. We had worried she was pushing her duties onto her, but apparently, the senior had sent her off quite happily. Afterward, Ichinose-san confessed a rather sorrowful detail: "My senior brought some friends too... it was awkward." Well, compared to my brother’s situation, I was used to that kind of thing, I thought with a zero-delicacy internal monologue. But just as I was starting to feel a pang of guilt, she whispered, "Well... I’m used to it," with a soft sound that made me almost want to hug her. Then I saw a vision of myself being reported to the police by Natsukawa—who would be busy hugging the trembling Ichinose-san herself—while Ashida hurled insults at me.
"This place is great! It looks like it’d be cool even in the summer!"
"Y-Yes..."
Ichinose-san barely managed a response to Ashida’s high-energy praise. Ashida had a way of talking to people as if they were old friends even when meeting for the first time. I recalled reacting with a stunned "O-Oh, okay" myself in the beginning. Heck, she was already calling her "Ichinose-chan." I didn't recall her ever calling me by my actual name properly.
"Then let's eat here!"
"Yeah, sounds good."
This was the entrance into the school building leading to the school entrance. On both sides of the small three-step staircase, there were ledges at just the right height to serve as seats. It was a bit of a stretch for Natsukawa, but Ichinose-san’s legs might actually dangle a bit.
Ashida hopped onto the right side of the small stairs. She spun around and landed on the ledge with her bottom. The moment her skirt fluttered upward, Natsukawa’s eyes snapped toward me. Eh, what? I was currently too busy just trying to exist to look.
Natsukawa kept her eyes on me with a half-lidded stare as she sat down gracefully next to Ashida. The "me" inside snapped his fingers and stomped his feet in frustrated regret.
"I guess we’ll take this side."
"A-Ah, yes..."
"—Ah."
I sat on the opposite side of the small stairs from Natsukawa and Ashida. I had Ichinose-san sit on the inner side so she could see the other two. At the playful sound of her small "Nsho!" as she sat, a new persona of a middle-aged woman was born inside me, cooing, "Oh, how lovely." Do forgive me.
"Hey, hey, what was Sajocchi like at his job?"
"Starting with me already?"
"Because I’m curious."
That kind of thing always makes my heart skip a beat...
I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad trait of Ashida’s. She said suggestive things like that to everyone, not just me.
"Um... Sajou-kun was very practiced... he handled everything flawlessly."
"No, don't praise me that much."
"Ugh, gross. So gross."
"It's always something with you..."
It seemed that grinning to hide my embarrassment after being praised so earnestly was the wrong move. I received harsh words from both Ashida and Natsukawa. It was just to hide my bashfulness... It wasn’t as if I got praised normally. My Nee-chan usually punched my shoulder instead of offering a compliment.
"...I was envious."
"There’s customer service too, right? I can’t really picture Ichinose-chan doing that."
"There were a lot of twists and turns, but she's working hard now. Set aside your preconceptions and watch over her."
"Twists and turns? Ah."
"Ah..."
Ah... Crap. Come to think of it, both Ashida and Natsukawa knew about Ichinose-san's Dogeza Incident. Hadn't I even gone to Natsukawa's house to consult her about it? I hadn't used a name, but it was likely dead obvious. Right now, the image of Ichinose-san prostrating herself was surely filling their heads.
"L-Let's eat lunch! If we don't hurry, the break will be over!"
"A-Ah, yes..."
"..."
"..."
As if to cut through the atmosphere, I pulled out a plastic bag containing sweet bread. Ichinose-san, perhaps thinking I was speaking to her too, took out a small, cute lunchbox wrapped in a pale pink cloth. I felt like I was being glared at from beyond Ichinose-san, but I ignored it. Just ignore it. Take a breather.
"..."
"...W-What is it, Natsukawa?"
It was no use.
Across the small staircase from Ichinose-san, Natsukawa was staring at me so intently that I couldn't even focus on my food. Her face was so serious it was frightening. Surely she wasn't going to bring up the dogeza thing here, was she...?
"You're still eating that."
"...Eh?"
Of all the things she could have said, it was a strangely loaded comment. Natsukawa was looking at my hands with clear dissatisfaction. Apparently, she didn't like the fact that I was still eating sweet bread for lunch, even after we’d eaten together before.
"It's fine. It's cheap, there's a huge variety, and it's fun to go buy it."
"The nutritional balance is terrible."
"As a member of the basketball club, I've gotta say that eating that every day is a bit much... Are you even growing, Sajocchi?"
"Ugh..."
I probably wasn't short, but when I stood next to Yamazaki or the handsome guys in the Student Council, I was struck by a sense of inferiority. Why did those kinds of guys always hang out with people of similar height? Setting aside the basketball club, was the Student Council just trying to spite the average male student? I’d sue those bastards for infringement of my right to sunlight. I missed Yuuki-senpai's bento.
"............I'm not growing..."
"Ngh..."
Hearing her murmur that dejectedly from beside me almost made me tear up too. Hang in there, Ichinose-san! High school life has just begun! I’m sure you can still grow!
"A-Ah... By the way, Ichinose-san. Didn't you have something you wanted to consult me about?"
"Ah... yes."
If Natsukawa and Ashida, who didn't know Ichinose-san's specific background, kept control of the conversation, they might accidentally step on a landmine. I needed to steer the pace toward the reason why we were eating together in the first place.
"A consultation...? Is that so?"
"So it wasn't just a normal lunch together?"
"Oh, did I not mention it?"
""We didn't hear anything.""
"Ah, right."
I flinched involuntarily at their synchronized voices. If they sang as a duet, they’d surely conquer the world with that harmony. Don't you guys have any interest in the entertainment industry?
It was rare enough for Ichinose-san to invite me, so I thought it would be obvious that there was some kind of reason. As I said in the classroom, if you invite someone of the opposite sex to eat with you for no particular reason, that’s basically a sign of romantic interest. It's the kind of thing that makes a guy seriously think, "Wait... does she like me?" That's the trap of youth.
"I totally thought... it was because you wanted to be toge—"
"Eh, Aichi?"
"I-It's nothing!"
"...?"
It sounded like Natsukawa said something, but I couldn't hear it from here. Ashida heard it, but I didn't...? That was strange... my ears should have been able to pick up Natsukawa's voice 1.5 times better than a normal human's. Should I increase my Sound Collection Rate further? Haaaah!
"U-Um! If Ichinose-san is consulting Wataru... does that mean it's about the part-time job?"
"Ah, um... it's a little different..."
"Yeah...?"
Since my connection with Ichinose-san currently felt more centered on the job than being in the same class, I had assumed I’d be consulted about work troubles too. I was actually worried about whether I could give advice on anything else.
"The thing is... I was thinking of buying a bookshelf..."
"Oh, I see."
A bookshelf, huh? A bookshelf. Hmm, sounds good. Ichinose-san read a lot of books, and I think she’d been buying one every day since she got used to the job... Was her money okay? I wondered, but since they were only fifty to a hundred yen, it was probably like buying a can of coffee to her. Thinking about it that way, was it more reasonable than my sweet bread? Crap, I was about to fall into an existential void.
"So, I've been looking things up on my smartphone, but I can't really make up my mind about any of them..."
"I get it."
I understood the feeling. With online shopping, you couldn't quite get a grasp on the texture or size. Even with clothes, there was that "fear of regret after buying," so it must have been even scarier with a bookshelf. It might have been easier to pull the trigger on things like bed frames where the size was mostly uniform.
"So that means... you want me to go to an actual store with you and help look for a good bookshelf?"
"Ah... is that no good?"
"It's fine... but I feel like you’d know more about that kind of thing than me, Ichinose-san."
"Ah, um... actually..."
"?"
What she whispered to me was that the act of shopping itself was a Herculean task. To translate into gyaru-speak: "Like, talking to clerks is straight-up demonic, totally bad news, and it just totally kills the vibes." If she was going to buy a bookshelf, talking to a clerk was inevitable—to put it in shojo manga terms, it turned into a "What's going to happen to me!?" development.
Young lady... weren't you working as a bookstore clerk yourself?
High spirits (rip).