As June gave way to July, the rainy season lingered on, but summer was really ramping up now, with daytime temps climbing high and nights not falling until much later.
And once July rolled around, there was this prep period leading up to the mid-month finals, so sometimes we’d get out early, and starting about one or two weeks before, club activities would get put on hold.
I’m not in any clubs, so I’m not really up on the details there.
Anyway, setting that aside, I was in a bit of a tight spot myself.
Originally, I’d planned on having Kiritsuki help me study for the finals, but since her best friend Kaori was moving away, she was apparently going all out on “living their youth” with her right now.
Over here, weekdays had me barely keeping up with classes and getting buried in study sessions, weekends were all about desperately recovering my energy from morning till night—and on top of that, every now and then Hino Hana would throw these casual advances my way, leaving me wondering what the heck to do.
I’d meant to tell Hino Hana clearly that I had no intention of getting into that kind of relationship with her, but she acted like it didn’t matter at all and straight-up declared, “If I can make you fall for me, it’s my win.”
It looked like my comment about wanting her “not to hold back” had totally backfired.
Well, nothing to be done about it now.
So that’s when I asked Yamabuki if she could tutor me after school on weekdays.
…For some reason, she snapped back with “If anything, I need you to tutor me.” You’re smarter than me, aren’t you? What the hell happened?
When I asked and heard the story, apparently Hachijou had stayed over at Tomiya’s place recently.
If she got all worked up over stuff like that, being childhood friends would start feeling impossible.
In truth, Yamabuki seemed like she was approaching her emotional limit, so Souma and I took her out for a full day of fun on our day off, the three of us hanging out to help her refresh.
As for that Souma, he’d apparently had a straight-up, face-to-face talk with his childhood friend and Chino Misora.
Nothing concrete came out of it, but it seemed like they needed a little more time to deepen things.
I’d also talked recently to Chino… not her, but her mother, whom I’d gotten to know as a fellow performer, and heard about Kamase, the guy Misora had been dating.
Apparently, in everyday life, he really was a decent young man.
For a while, she said she couldn’t believe the talk about Chino and Kamase breaking up, or that it had to do with bullying or whatever.
Listening to all that, it felt like Kamase wasn’t just putting on an act—both his sides seemed like genuine parts of who he was.
It seemed he casually shared stories about taking others down with his friends, like it was no big deal.
If he liked someone, he’d pull them in close and work his way into their circle.
If he didn’t, he’d bully them without mercy and deliberately do things to upset them.
Setting ethics aside, you could probably call that a pretty normal mindset.
Sharing stuff like that was normal conversation too.
Talking about people you like or venting about ones you hate—yeah, that was probably ordinary.
When I brought it up with Souma and Tomiya, Souma just tuned it out like he wasn’t interested, while Tomiya gave this creepy smile.
I probably should’ve kept it to myself around those two.
If possible, I’d rather not get involved with him anymore…
But there’s also a part of me that wants to talk to him just one more time.
Then there’s my childhood friend Kaori—she’s the same as always.
At school, she keeps her visits to me on the down-low, but when she comes over to my place or I go to hers, she clings like crazy.
Though when I’m studying, she heads over to Kohaku’s to “not get in the way.”
So I asked her to tutor me instead, but she shot it down with “If we’re together, I’ll end up wanting to do other things besides studying, so no way.”
—And that’s how, for the past few days, on school days I’d been heading to the library or study room after classes with Miyajima Alexandra Tomo, just the two of us, setting aside time to study together.
She’d teach me English, and I’d teach her whatever I could.
If one of us didn’t get something, sometimes we’d think it through together, sometimes look it up together.
There were various reasons we ended up spending time like that, but the main one was when I was alone in the study room after school, and she asked, “Mind if I join you?”
“Tomo, mind if I open the window?”
“Sure. Then I’ll turn off the AC.”
With the time we spent together skyrocketing, I’d started calling her “Tomo” straight up.
I vaguely remembered her saying something like “Call me Sandra” before, but for whatever reason, this time she asked me to “call her by her first name without honorifics.”
Somehow, that felt less weird than a nickname, so now I call her Tomo.
That’s when I realized I don’t change how I call people very often.
I say “realized” because I’d never really thought about it before.
I mean, I call Tomiya Rikuto, who I met in middle school, just “Tomiya,” but Kurusaki Souma, who I met in high school, I call “Souma” without any formalities.
And even Hino Hana Toki, who’s basically a childhood friend from elementary school days despite going to different schools, I call “Hino Hana” by her last name.
I wondered why myself, but thinking about it didn’t seem to matter much.
It’s mostly subconscious anyway.
And changing it every time would be a hassle.
Plus, Tomo was the first one who’d ever specifically asked me to call her by a certain name.
“Ah, Aoi-san, hold on a sec.”
Suddenly, she reached out toward me.
“Mm.”
She brushed my cheek, and it tickled a bit, making me pull my face back instinctively.
“Oh, sorry. Did that tickle?”
“Nah, it’s fine. What’s up?”
“No, this.”
With that, she showed me her palm.
What was sitting there was—
“Eek!?”
“Ah, huh?”
“Wait, where’d that thing come from… what!?”
—Probably a stag beetle or something.
Too bad I know zilch about insects, so whatever.
More importantly, I hate bugs.
Looking at them is okay if I have to, but touching them? Absolutely not.
“Tomo, that thing… where’d you get it?”
“It was perched on the collar of your shirt, Aoi-san? Wonder how long it’s been there.”
Giving Tomo a sideways glance as she giggled, I immediately stripped off my shirt right there.
At that, Tomo hurriedly looked away.
“Wh-what are you doing all of a sudden!?”
“…Gonna wash it.”
“Eh… no, you don’t have to go that far, do you?”
“No, impossible. Totally impossible. For real, no way.”
The only trees near the school building are like cherry trees at best.
I don’t give a damn what kind of tree stag beetles live on, but chilling on someone’s neck? That’s outrageous, a disgrace to wild animals.
I washed the collar at a nearby faucet, wrung it out with my handkerchief, then went back to the study room, made sure to close the window, and hung it where the AC breeze would hit it.
“…Um, Aoi-san? Are you planning to stay like that for a while…?”
“More importantly, what’d you do with that stag beetle?”
“I let it go out the window, but…”
“…Then it’s fine. Let’s get back to it.”
“It’s not fine at all… I mean, your undershirt is… um, with a thin undershirt like that… you can see through it, so at least put on your jersey.”
Since she said that, I had no choice but to throw on my long-sleeved jersey and get back to studying.
“You don’t wear short sleeves, do you, Aoi-san? Even your undershirt just now was long-sleeved.”
“Ah… yeah. I hate direct sunlight.”
“Your skin’s sensitive, huh.”
“Something like that.”
Even if I got a tan, it’d mostly be hidden, so it’s not a big deal, but I personally think tanning is a no-go when it comes to wearing kagura dance costumes.
Plus, simply put, I feel like wearing long sleeves keeps me cooler than getting hit by direct sun in short sleeves.
Though that’s probably just my imagination.
“I’m a bit sensitive to sunlight too. But I do like reading books out in nature under the sun…”
Hmm, that kind of vibe is a little lost on me.
Even with our conversation not quite syncing up at times, I spent time with Tomo until the final bell to head home.
