A dejected person

A few days after Ishida’s wedding.

Hayashi and I continue living together in my room as usual.

“Hayashi, the pot.”

“Oh, uh…”

Hayashi hurriedly turned off the noisy simmering pot. At least she didn’t burn herself like before.

While thinking about that, I noticed something.

Lately… specifically, since we attended Ishida’s wedding, Hayashi’s been acting a bit strange.

It’s like… she’s always spacing out, slow to respond when I call her, and above all, she lacks her usual energy.

“You okay?”

I ask, but Hayashi doesn’t respond.

Completely spaced out. This is the epitome of it.

…Well, to be fair, it’s not exactly rare for Hayashi to be lost in her own world since she started staying here.

That said, just because it’s not unusual doesn’t mean I should just ignore it.

While eating dinner, I was racking my brain alone.

Why is Hayashi acting like this lately?

…I don’t know.

It’s only natural. We met back in high school, but back then, our relationship was pretty bad. We barely even talked.

Even though we’ve been living together for a little over two months now, there’s no way I could read her true feelings.

Well, to begin with, no matter how long you’ve known someone, you might never fully understand their true intentions.

“Did something happen?”

Getting annoyed with my own overthinking, I decided to just ask Hayashi directly about what’s been causing her recent mood.

I should’ve done this from the start.

When you don’t understand something, just ask honestly. That’s the simplest way.

“…Nothing really.”

I thought it’d be simple.

But if she won’t answer, what’s the point?

“Got it.”

Still, I don’t push further.

If I were in her shoes, I’d hate it if someone forced me to talk about something I didn’t want to share.

You shouldn’t do to others what you wouldn’t want done to you.

“You’re not gonna ask?”

…Damn, this girl.

I let it slide out of consideration for her feelings, and now she’s pouting and acting all sulky.

“Would you tell me if I asked?”

“That’s… that’s not the point right now, is it?”

I think it’s exactly the point, though?

What if I keep pressing and it just ends up being a waste of effort? What if I annoy her by being too pushy? Are you seriously telling me to step on a landmine here?

I got a bit irritated, but… compared to how she was in high school, this is still somewhat reasonable.

I let out a breath to calm myself down.

“You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk, so I didn’t pry. If you do want to talk, just say it.”

At this point, I might as well just be upfront about what I’m thinking.

“…Sorry. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Alright.”

“Yeah.”

“…Is it something to do with me?”

Her blunt refusal to talk only made me more curious, and I ended up blurting it out in the flow of the moment.

Hayashi’s body twitched slightly. It was an obvious reaction.

“Sorry about that. Did I unintentionally cause you trouble again?”

When it comes to myself, all my earlier reasoning goes out the window.

I hurriedly apologized.

“No, stop it… It’s not your fault.”

“That’s not true. I know I can come off as stubborn and clueless about reading the room.”

“Don’t say that about yourself… Well, I can’t exactly deny it given the situation.”

“Right? So it’s probably my fault for causing you trouble, isn’t it?”

“…It’s not.”

Then what is it?

As I fixed a serious gaze on Hayashi, our eyes met briefly before she quickly looked away.

She turned her head, looking a bit guilty.

“…Accounting.”

Hayashi muttered.

“My accounting studies aren’t going well.”

Accounting.

At some point, Hayashi told me she’d given up on returning to university and decided to focus on getting a job. Since that day, she’s been studying for qualifications in every spare moment outside of chores and rest.

…Hayashi’s face still didn’t brighten.

Her real problem right now probably isn’t about her accounting studies.

…With the level of trust Hayashi has in me right now, I guess I can’t get her to open up about her true feelings.

Oh well.

If that’s the case, I’ll just have to build up that trust little by little from now on.

“I’ll help you study.”

With that decided, I figured I’d help solve Hayashi’s problem to start building that trust.

I jumped at the bait she’d dangled in front of me.

“…Huh?”

“What, you don’t trust me to teach you?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. But I feel bad.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’re living together. When one of us is in trouble, we help each other out, right?”

“…You’re such a…”

Hayashi narrowed her eyes and said that much, but didn’t continue, letting out a big sigh instead. That sigh felt a bit like a jab at me.

“Alright, I’ll take you up on that.”

“Leave it to me.”

Right after we finished dinner and washing the dishes, we started studying.