Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.2

2

“I’d better get back to the flea market,” Ikumi said. They left the medical office behind.

They moved silently down the hall and out the building. That hush was soon a thing of the past, as the breeze carried the noise of the crowds their way.

“Bye.”

“Mm.”

With that, Ikumi headed off to the flea market. Sakuta stood watching her go.

Her footsteps were sure and steady. She didn’t suddenly kneel down or get attacked by a poltergeist.

When she was ten yards out, Sakuta saw someone else he knew brush past her.

Kotomi.

As they passed, Kotomi’s eyes flicked to Ikumi. Like she’d spotted an old acquaintance. But she didn’t stop to chat—instead, she came jogging over to Sakuta.

“Good! I found you.”

Apparently, she’d been looking for him. It had been over an hour since he left Mai’s side. Mai, Kaede, and Kotomi must have split up to scour the campus. There was sweat on Kotomi’s brow that somehow seemed out of place with the crisp fall breeze blowing.

“Sorry to drag you into this.”

“No prob,” she said firmly.

Then she stole a hesitant glance over her shoulder. Ikumi had already disappeared down the row of stalls.

“That was…Ikumi, right?” she asked.

Naming the girl she’d just seen him with.

“You knew her, Kano?”

There’d been a two-year age gap, but Kotomi had been at their junior high, so it wasn’t all that strange.

“Same high school.”

Kotomi had moved on to a local public prep school. The boys wore your standard black gakuran, but the girls wore a gray blazer not often seen in those parts; anyone who lived nearby knew exactly which school they went to.

“We helped prep the sports festival together. We didn’t spend all that much time together, but…”

Kotomi stared after Ikumi, a sad look in her eyes. Perhaps she was disappointed that Ikumi hadn’t recognized her.

“I doubt she expected to see you here.”

If someone wasn’t on your radar, they were easy to overlook. Same principle that kept Mai from getting spotted all the time in public.

“…The two of you were close?” Kotomi asked, glancing back at him—a bit rattled. Anyone who knew Kaede’s bullying history would probably have the same look.

They would assume Sakuta didn’t want to dwell on memories of junior high.

And that wasn’t exactly wrong. If anything, it was right on the money.

“We barely spoke at the time. No hostility or anything, but…now it’s more like, ‘Oh right, we were in the same junior high!’”

It was hard to be any more precise than that. His own position was fairly vague, and he was even less sure where Ikumi stood. They’d gone to the same junior high and wound up at the same college. And for now, he had no words to define things beyond that basic truth.

But now that they had this weird wager going, it was apparent something lay between them that Sakuta had forgotten. And what Kotomi knew about Ikumi might help him remember.

“What was Akagi like in high school?”

“That’s a broad question. Uh, first I’d better tell Kae I found you.”

Kotomi took out her phone and quickly typed out a message. “Where are we?” she asked.

“Outside the first building,” Sakuta said.

Kotomi and Kaede exchanged a couple texts, and then Kotomi closed the cover on her phone.

“You wanna know about Ikumi?”

“Yeah.”

“When I started in spring, she was the student president. She made a speech to the new students, and I remember thinking third-years seemed so grown-up.”

This news did not come as a surprise. Ikumi was totally the type to run for that office. And he could easily see her giving a speech before a sea of new students without batting an eye.

“But in hindsight, that had less to do with being a third-year and more Ikumi just being Ikumi.”

“Yeah.”

Looking back from college really put into perspective that they were definitely still just kids back in high school.

“Ikumi was real big on area volunteer work.”

“So she was always like that?”

“Mm?”

“She’s founded another volunteer group here, helping tutor kids who won’t go to school.”

“Sounds like her. She’s the kind of person who steps up and does the thing the rest of us just wait for someone else to handle. Everyone in her year relied on her, said she was amazing.”

“Amazing, hmm?”

Kotomi hadn’t used the word out of pure enthusiasm. There was a trace of something else behind it. Definitely a hint of “That’s one way to describe it.”

“But Akagi made the most of her time in high school, then,” he said.

She’d been class president, and if she’d helped out with the sports festival, she’d likely been involved with all the big-deal events.

And the fact that she was at this university proved she’d done pretty well for herself academically. Her being in the nursing school implied this had been her first choice.

That was what he meant, but Kotomi looked a little uncomfortable with the phrase.

“Am I wrong?”

“Not exactly, but…”

“But?”

“About this time last year, she got summoned by the school counselor. Several times.”

That didn’t sound like her at all.

The counselor?

Ikumi Akagi seemed like the kind of person who’d never even set foot in that office.

“Do you know why?”

“Well, I know what the rumors were.”

“I’ll take it with a grain of salt, then.”

“Supposedly, she had an older boyfriend and was living with him, never going home at all.”

“If that’s true, she was making the most of life in and out of school.”

“You…think so?”

Kotomi was clearly less sure.

“I mean, she was school president, the center of her class, helping people with volunteer work, passing her entrance exams, madly in love, and getting chewed out by teachers. That’s like student life bingo, right there.”

A résumé like that could give any coming-of-age film a run for its money.

Sadly, the boyfriend part felt like a total fabrication. He based that on how she’d acted in the medical office. If she’d lived with a man for a while, getting help with a zipper wouldn’t have flustered her nearly as much.

More likely she had her reasons for not going home and was crashing with a female friend instead. Nothing crazier than that. That made more sense to him.

“Oh, there’s Kae!”

Kotomi waved, and he spotted Kaede and Mai coming down the ginkgoes.

“Thanks, Komi! Sakuta, where’d you wander off to?”

Kaede had her cheeks puffed up like he was the troublemaker here.

“I didn’t wander.”

He’d had his reasons, but he hadn’t told her any of them, so her attitude was justified.

She grumbled a bit longer but wanted to see more of the festival. She and Kotomi soon went off together.

Leaving Mai and Sakuta alone together.

“Glad Kaede’s enjoying herself.”

“She’s a Zukki stan, so I was all worried she’d try to apply here.”

Kaede was in her second year of high school. It was about time she started narrowing down her options.

“Well, you can help tutor her.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

He was doing that for money, but at the moment, his students were all first-years. Frankly, he was hoping to avoid teaching any exam students. The responsibility was grave.

“That aside…you found Akagi?”

She gave him a searching look and put the straw of her bubble tea to her lips.

“I did.”

“Well?”

Chewing the tapioca, she held the cup out his way. He took a sip and got a mouthful of pearls. Pushing them around his mouth, he admitted, “I get her even less now.”

“Oh dear,” Mai said before inhaling more tapioca.

“My feelings exactly.”

The texture of the tapioca really ruined any tension this conversation might have had.