Tablet
“Hayashi, use this.”
After finishing dinner, I handed Hayashi the item. It was something I’d prepared with Hayashi in mind—a person from a generation that doesn’t own a smartphone or watch TV (same as me).
“…What’s this?”
“An old tablet.”
Besides my smartphone, I own two tablets. One’s the one I’m using now. The other is an older model that’s been gathering dust since I bought a newer one. The battery life’s starting to wane, but it’s still perfectly usable, so I decided to give it to Hayashi.
“Is it okay for me to have this?”
“No problem. I’ve got this one, after all.”
“A smartphone and a tablet? If you keep staring at screens like that, your eyes are gonna go bad, you know.”
“What are you, my mom?”
I couldn’t help but retort. The way Hayashi looked at me with genuine concern only fueled my urge to tease her back. She’s a dangerous woman, that one.
“Wow, thanks! Though, I guess I should hold off on contacting friends with it.”
“Yeah, probably. You don’t watch TV, but how about trying some video sites or games? Just, you know, steer clear of in-app purchases in those mobile games. That’s a black hole. My phone bill would go through the roof.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not good at games that need delicate movements or anything like that.”
“Seriously, are you my mom?”
Speaking of moms, they’re usually the ones who aren’t great with electronics and make their kids set up their smartphones or tablets every time they buy one.
Not sure if that’s actually a thing, but still—is this girl really a nineteen-year-old from this day and age? I’m seriously starting to wonder.
“But videos? Yeah, I might watch some. I kinda like them.”
I figure it’s not much different from TV, except maybe that you can pick exactly what you want to watch.
“What kind of videos do you watch?”
“Feel-good compilation videos.”
“Mom!?”
Moms who’ve grown up and tasted the unfairness of society tend to love those kinds of videos. They probably want to feel that sense of satisfaction in videos that they couldn’t get in real life. It’s like old-school stories like Mito Komon—tales of good triumphing over evil.
But me? I’m not a fan of those videos. It’s not that I hate stories of good versus evil.
It’s just that they need a certain level of quality. The compilation videos churned out by people who have to upload daily just to make a living—they’re all the same, and the characters in them are way too stupid. There’s no sense of reality, which is why I can’t stand that kind of content.
“…Well, it’s fine if you watch those videos, but just so you know, my accounts are synced with that tablet.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means I can see the videos you watch in my history.”
When people know someone’s watching, they tend to change their behavior.
“Oh, so that means I can see what you’ve been watching too, right?”
“Yup.”
I kept my cool, but I was sweating bullets inside. I dug my own grave. That’s what was running through my head.
The reason I hadn’t given Hayashi that tablet until now was, of course, because I needed to wipe its data first. Behind the scenes, I’d hurriedly transferred all the necessary videos to my current tablet, double-checked that everything was fine, and then handed it over to her.
But still!
The history—that’s bad news!
I mean, I try not to watch anything too sensitive on those video sites, but… lately, there’s been stuff like short dance videos of girls, you know? Sometimes, late at night, I’ll mindlessly scroll through short clips, stumble across one of those, and end up digging deeper, one video after another!
In other words, it’s bad!
Really bad!
“You’ve got the most obvious face right now, you know that?”
“It’s just your imagination.”
“It’s not just my imagination.”
“I thought I’d backed everything up.”
“You thought you’d backed everything up.”
“I was sure it’d be fine after formatting!”
“You were sure it’d be fine after formatting.”
Damn it…! In my panic, I ended up spilling the whole story without missing a beat! Hayashi narrowed her eyes in exasperation, then let out a sigh after a moment.
“Look, I’m not gonna judge your personal tastes or anything. I’m staying here thanks to you, after all.”
“…You’re not, like, worried about your safety?”
After what she went through with domestic violence, living under the same roof as a guy with a sex drive—most people would feel at least a little uneasy, right?
“You gonna attack me?”
“As if.”
“Got it.”
Hayashi let out another sigh.
“Guess I’m not that appealing, huh.”
I went silent. Hayashi, not appealing? I’ve never said that, not even once, and I’ve never thought it either. I just don’t say it out loud.
…I don’t get it. What’s the right answer here? Should I deny it and say that’s not true? But then that’d mean admitting I’m attracted to her, which would probably make her feel unsafe.
On the other hand, saying nothing… that might hurt her pride as a woman.
Damn it! What kind of question is that, you infuriating woman…! A ridiculous anger was starting to bubble up inside me. From her perspective, it’s probably anger that came out of nowhere.
“…Can we just drop this?”
“What? Teasing you is kinda fun, though.”
“Give me a break.”
“You’re way too easy to mess with.”
Well, if she’s not feeling unnecessary anxiety and can laugh at my clownish behavior, I guess that’s fine.
“…Thanks. For the tablet.”
“Yeah.”
That night, Hayashi didn’t let go of the tablet once. She’d mentioned that her smartphone got destroyed while she was living with her ex, so it was probably the first time in months she’d touched a modern electronic device. She was completely engrossed in this marvel of human ingenuity.
From the tablet, the rapid-fire voiceovers typical of compilation videos played at a decent volume. Needless to say, the sleep-disrupting storylines, dripping with the desire to put down others, kept me up that night.
