VOLUME 3

Chapter 2: Part 5

As we were going about doing weird things, the clock ticked past six. The summer sun rose early, so if I didn’t hurry I wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

If you wanted to know if it was safe for a zombie to walk outside, it was much more useful to look at the ground than the sky.

If people’s shadows weren’t visible, it was fine. If the shadows were sharply visible, then it was completely a no-go.

At that time, it was… safe. I hurried to school and snuck into my cla.s.sroom.

Tomonori was sleeping in my seat. By this point, she always tried to get to school at the same time as I did. She probably got tired of waiting for me.

I sat in the seat in front of her quietly, trying not to wake her, and gave off a yawn.

Tomonori sure looked pretty silly when she was sleeping…

I fished through my pencil case, thinking that maybe I would doodle on her face, but Tomonori suddenly stretched her arms and started mumbling.

“Mnyahh… I can’t eat another bite~~…”

What a clichéd thing to say in your sleep.

“W-who are you?! You tricked me, didn’t you! My archnemesis…!”

Did she get drugged or something?!

“No, you’ve got the wrong person.”

“Double sarcasm?!” (1)

I had intended to only retort in my head so I didn’t wake her, but I ended up saying that comeback out loud.

“A-Aikawa… You’re really late…”

Yawn. Tomonori gave a shamelessly big yawn and rubbed her eyes.

“Sorry for waking you up when you were sleeping so soundly…”

“…Did you at least kiss me? Ehehehe…”

She gave off a snicker like Muttley from Wacky Races. (2)

“I’m not Orito, so I wouldn’t do something as barbaric as that.”

“I know, I knoooww… It was a joke!”

She just woke up, but she sure was hyper… You know, it’s still six in the morning…

“Ah, Aikawa. Did you remember the potatoes?”

Potatoes?

“Why potatoes?”

“… Aikawa, you… Did you forget that we have the cooking lessons today?”

I searched far and wide through my memory until I finally hit upon the conversation I had with Tomonori at the end of gym about the cooking lessons.

“… Ah!”

And then, I remembered what Tomonori had said: that I shouldn’t forget to bring potatoes…

I had completely, utterly forgotten.

“Sorry! I’m seriously sorry!”

I clasped my hands in front of me and bowed my head.

“Well, it’s fine. This feels like something Aikawa would do, after all.”

Tomonori sighed, but she grinned as she laughed.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) Literally, “he responded seriously?!” The implication being that she was joking a bit but got responded to as if it weren’t a joke. That’s what double sarcasm precisely is, although I’m not sure if it’s too much of a common term.

(2) Really old Hanna-Barbera cartoon.