Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 10 - Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2 - Catching The Wavelength

1

The next day was October 4, and Sakuta greeted it like any other morning.

First, he woke up to Nasuno pawing his face. She meowed once, demanding breakfast, and that forced him up and into the living room. He poured some dry food into her bowl, then got breakfast for two on the table. At the same time, he made himself a lunch. Best to save money where you could.

He ate breakfast alone, then went to the door with his sister’s name on it, calling out, “Kaede, it’s morning.”

She didn’t answer, and he didn’t open the door.

The whole teenager thing seemed to have caught up with Kaede at last, and if he opened the door unbidden, he’d have his ear chewed off.

So he left her to it.

After a long minute, she emerged, mumbling, “Mornin’, Sakuta.”

Her eyes were definitely not open.

“Make sure you wash the plate after.”

“Yawn… Okay, see you later.”

She saw him out the door with another yawn.

It was mostly sunny.

There were clouds like strings of cotton candy, but plenty of blue beyond. The air itself was dry, and it felt like fall was finally here. Beneath that beautiful backdrop, he made his way to Fujisawa Station. There, he took the JR Tokaido Line to Yokohama Station and changed to the Keikyu Line for another twenty-minute ride. He got off at Kanazawa-hakkei Station, where his university’s gates awaited. It was a solid hour commute from home.

Outside the station gates, a crowd of students were streaming toward the campus.

Some spotted friends along the way and called out to them, while others were talking or texting on their phones. A few were walking quietly, listening to their headphones. Sakuta was one of several stifling a yawn, fighting off the urge to sleep.

This was what he saw every morning.

Inside the main gates, there were even more students, and the campus buzzed with energy. It always did.

His college looked just like it had yesterday.

As did the students.

Some people would grow bored with the student routine. He often heard people grumble about how they thought college life was supposed to be a lot more fun.

But Sakuta wasn’t one to complain about a little tedium.

Nothing happening meant things were good.

All was as it should be.

His mind on these things, Sakuta passed through the familiar sights into the building where his second-period class was held.

Up the stairs, he turned into room 201. Here, Sakuta had to take a required class that covered linear algebra.

Maybe a third of the seats were full. Everyone here was in his major. Mostly first-years. There were four or five second-years who’d failed the class last year—a fact that had come out during the orientation lecture last week. The professor had warned them not to fail it a second time.

He saw a familiar back in the center of the room.

Takumi.

Sakuta headed his way. Takumi spotted him and raised a hand. “’Sup,” he said, and shifted one seat down the row. “Warmed that seat for ya,” he said.

It was far too early to savor the warmth of another man’s ass, so Sakuta said, “Cool,” and sat down one row farther in.

“You got something against me?” Takumi asked.

“I just like my seats ice-cold.”

“Like your beers!”

While they bantered about nothing, Sakuta opened the linear algebra textbook and took out his notes. The textbook they were using bore the name of the professor teaching it. This was not the only class that worked like that; quite a few college professors wrote their own textbooks. And they earned royalties for the purchases, which seemed like one way to keep the world going round.

Sakuta absentmindedly glanced at the clock. It was 10:25. Five minutes till class started.

Shrill laughter from the front of the room drew his eye. It was that group of girls, once again all dressed alike. They were doing something on their phones—taking short videos and showing them to each other. Uzuki was with them.

Two rows back, a boy had his nose in a book. He kept grinning, so it probably wasn’t anything deep.

The student next to him had his head down, sound asleep. Before class could even begin. Bold.

Most everyone else was playing with their phones or chatting with a friend.

It was all typical pre-class stuff. Nothing weird about it. But something about this scene was bugging Sakuta.

Something about one girl had struck him as odd. Still did.

He focused on one of the six girls in the group up front. She was wearing the same kind of skirt they were. The same kind of blouse. It was Uzuki.

She was riffing off her friends’ jokes and feeding them setups, laughing with the same timing they had.

That itself was typical behavior for any group of girls. Something you saw all the time around campus. Nothing weird about it. That’s why he couldn’t quite figure out why it was bugging him. He didn’t know what seemed so off here.

He sat watching Uzuki, feeling like he was playing a super tough game of spot the difference. Eventually, she felt him staring, and her eyes met his.

Any other day, she’d have waved enthusiastically and called out to him, drawing so much attention it sort of made him wince.

But today, she was acting different. She looked at Sakuta, and her mouth opened slightly like she’d just remembered something. Then she said, “Gimme a minute,” and moved away from her friends.

She came right over to Sakuta and glanced around quickly to see if anyone was watching. Then she leaned in and whispered, “You hear from Nodoka?”

Softly enough that only he could hear.

“Should I have?” he asked, unsure what she meant.

“Shoulda coulda woulda.”

That rhymed, but it didn’t clear much up.

“I’m lost,” Sakuta said.

Uzuki made a face at him, but he genuinely didn’t know what she was after here.

“Something go down between you two?”

Nodoka had told him about their “fight,” and he couldn’t imagine anything else this could be.

But in his mind, that problem was already solved. He and Nodoka had talked about it, and she said she was gonna work it out with Uzuki—so there was nothing left for him to do.

“I was busy with my shoot all day yesterday, so I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Or heard from her?”

“Not yesterday.”

Curious phrasing. If she specified yesterday, that made it sound like she had today. And Sakuta’s suspicion proved warranted.

“I just got a text from her asking if I was on campus today,” Uzuki added.

“And?”

“A question like that makes it sound like she needs to talk.”

“Not sure that’s universally true.”

He didn’t think Uzuki would have taken it that way a day before. She’d have shot back, “What’s up, Nodoka?!” before any conjecture. If she’d been in a position to call, she probably would have rung her on the spot. Not probably—definitely.

And that made him think something was up with her again.

“Hirokawa, are you sure nothing happened with you yesterday?” he asked.

“What would?”

“Woulda coulda shoulda.”

“You’re copying me!”

She laughed, like she was trying to lighten the mood. That also seemed off to him. Uzuki, faking a smile? He’d never seen her do that. At least, not until today.

And if asked if something happened, the Uzuki Hirokawa he knew would have blown right through whatever he meant by the question, blurting, “I fell over during the shoot and hit my butt!” or whatever else popped into her head.

Why did this feel so wrong?

He was still trying to work it out when she laughed again and said, “I’m in good form today.”

She was looking away, at the girls up front.

“Like I’m on their wavelength.”

He looked her over again, and she was definitely dressed the way they were.

“Looks like,” he said.

Maybe there were just days like that.

But even Uzuki seemed to think she was different. Feeling like she was in sync with the girls, performing better than usual socially.

While he mulled that over, the professor came in, softly saying, “Take your seats.”

The students faced front, and Uzuki dashed back up to her friends.

“Yo, Fukuyama,” Sakuta said over his shoulder, eyes on Uzuki’s back.

“Mm?”

“What’d you make of her today?”

“She was cute.”

“Anything else?”

“She was cute.”

That sure sounded like Takumi.

“A valuable take, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sakuta glanced around and confirmed that no one else seemed concerned about her. Only he felt anything was amiss.

Maybe it was all in his head.

It could just be coincidence that they’d all dressed alike and were laughing at the same things. Maybe it was pure chance she’d just happened to worry about Nodoka’s text.

She was in good form.

And Sakuta was probably overthinking it.

Hoping that was the case, he opened his linear algebra book.