This Is a Story From a Long Time Ago.

There’s no need to dwell on it now, but back in high school, I didn’t have many friends. Actually, I didn’t need to limit it to high school. Ever since I was born, I’ve been a bit more cynical than most, which meant I was destined to live a life with few friends. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind it all that much. Having friends around can sometimes stop you from doing what you want. It restricts your actions. There were times I even thought, with a certain defiance, that I didn’t need close friends I could open up to if it meant dealing with that kind of hassle.

Of course, that kind of personality could turn into a disaster depending on the time and place, and the number of times I struggled because of it was more than I could count on both hands.

Specifically, my falling out with Hayashi was one of those disasters. But, being naturally stubborn, I never once considered changing my personality, even when it caused real problems.

It was, if I recall correctly, during the winter of my second year in high school.

The high school I attended was a typical public school, the kind you’d find in any rural area. In the class I was in, there was a rule that once a week, two students were assigned to take out the trash after school. The trash duty always consisted of one boy and one girl, taking turns each week.

Trash duty was a job that students generally despised. Some, like Hayashi, felt disgusted just carrying garbage that who-knows-who threw out, while others, also like Hayashi, would fly into a rage at the mere smell of food waste. As a result, some classmates, influenced by Hayashi’s queen-like attitude, would skip trash duty altogether. It got to the point where, about once a month, our homeroom teacher would lose it during the end-of-day short homeroom and scold the class.

Come to think of it, despite all her complaints, Hayashi always grumbled but never actually skipped her trash duty. She did it diligently… but that’s another story.

Anyway, in our class during my second year, there was an unspoken understanding among the students that skipping trash duty wasn’t a big deal. That’s all you need to know about the context.

And so, we come to the day in question.

That day, the ones assigned to trash duty were me and Kasahara. But Kasahara, perhaps forgetting about her duty, left the classroom in a hurry and went home.

My partner in duty had ditched me. Surprisingly, I wasn’t all that upset about it. It might sound like an excuse, but at the time, I didn’t have any particular feelings toward Kasahara. To me, she was just one of Hayashi’s lackeys, always hanging around that loudmouth. I only saw her as one of the girls who fawned over Hayashi.

So why wasn’t I mad about her skipping out? Well, skipping trash duty had become so common in our class that complaining about it would’ve made you the odd one out.

Still, that incident left me with the impression that Kasahara was an irresponsible girl.

Honestly, though, I didn’t have many friends, so even if I judged someone negatively, it rarely affected them. Chances are, they wouldn’t even know what I thought of them.

“Might as well get it over with.”

I got up and took care of the trash duty. Combustible trash mixed with food waste. Non-combustible trash. PET bottles. And paper waste. Carrying four trash bags accumulated over a week by thirty classmates was no small feat, but since I was into strength training at the time, I oddly felt motivated, thinking of it as an extension of my workout.

I hauled the four trash bags to the garbage area outside.

Just before reaching the garbage area, I passed by a male student. His face was a bit hazy in my memory, but I think he had refined features.

After he passed, I found myself staring at his back for a while. Something felt off. It wasn’t unusual to see a student walking around the school, of course. What caught my attention was how he seemed to be hurrying away, almost as if he were escaping.

I tilted my head in confusion and continued toward the garbage area… only to freeze in place when I spotted a girl standing there, looking down.

“…Kasahara.”

It was Kasahara, the one I thought had ditched trash duty and gone home. She stood there, radiating an air of melancholy.

“…Oh, Yamamoto-kun.”

“I’m surprised. You actually know my name.”

“Huh? …Of course I do. We’re classmates, aren’t we?”

“You’d be surprised how many classmates don’t know my name.”

“…Really?”

The atmosphere Kasahara was giving off.

And the boy who had just hurried away.

Somehow, I was starting to piece together why she had skipped trash duty.

“Oh, sorry. I totally forgot I was on trash duty today.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was actually a great workout. Honestly, I’m more satisfied with the fact that I managed to handle it alone.”

“…Haha, really, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

I walked past Kasahara, who was still standing there, and started tossing the trash into the garbage area.

“…Yamamoto-kun, did you pass by a guy just now?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. A guy walking away quickly, like he was trying to escape or something.”

“…That was him. His name’s Sekine-senpai, a third-year. He’s the captain of the tennis club, went to the Kanto tournament, and is super popular with the girls.”

“Huh.”

I gave a half-hearted response, but inside, I was hesitating. Should I ask?

“Did you turn him down?”

After wavering, I decided to ask. Honestly, it was probably just my curiosity for some juicy gossip driving me.

…Well, it didn’t seem like an unusual scene to me.

Kasahara was pretty popular among the second-year guys. Even more so than the loud Hayashi, she was one of the popular girls. A good-looking guy and a beautiful girl—a perfect couple, right?

He probably thought so too, confessed to Kasahara… got rejected, and hurried away. That’s how it went, I figured.

“No. I was the one who got rejected.”

But Kasahara’s words caught me off guard.

I couldn’t even respond and slowly turned to look at her.

“Sekine-senpai rejected me.”

Looking back now, this conversation was probably the first real one I ever had with Kasahara.