Yuu-3

I spent an hour coaxing her after that, but in the end, Anna-san hardly said anything at all. For now, I decided to cut her debt balance to a mere 36,000 yen. Anna-san was crying with joy.

Kusaoka-san and I left MOL Burger behind us. When I looked up at the sky, there were neon lights: varied and squalid, the emblem of man-made greed.

In the city we live in, there is no such thing as darkness. Today, the city was sparkling so brilliantly it made my heart ache.

“That was an outrageous story, wasn’t it?” As I walked along the white section of the pedestrian crossing, I turned my gaze to Kusaoka-kun, who was walking on the black section. It was as if the two of us symbolised an angel and devil.

We had learned only one thing from the meek Anna-san.

“So money exchanged hands in the student counselling room next to the staffroom…”

“…I can’t imagine using a place like that, though.”

“Indeed.” I had never realised that a safe zone like that existed. It was nothing less than an outrage.

Then again, only the teachers could use it freely. The idea of the clergy making a meal out of students on the black market signifies the end of the world. They warranted a firm denouncement. If she made a mistake, Anna-san deserved a denouncement too.

The scene at MOL Burger had taken up quite a lot of time. As if competing with the night sky pressing down from above, the neon lights shone with gaudy bl.u.s.ter.

Prosperity usually has a shadowy side.

The giant department store, a relic of a bygone era, brings to mind the objet d’art known as the oversized sh.e.l.l. When it fell, the crowds became sacrifices. There is no end to the repair work being done on the highway, which stretches out across the city like a blanket. The Olympics are only just around the corner, but there are rumours that the operations have been stopped because of a peculiar political judgement.

If you venture into the back alley, there is a smorgasbord of oddb.a.l.l.s and eccentrics: vagrants who sit and s...o...b..r while drinking some kind of medicine, religious folk who chant things like “Repent” and “The world is ending” under their breath, elderly women hugging soft toys as they scan the skies for their infant children. Their life-changing burdens constantly come to a head, and not a day goes past when I don’t hear the ambulance siren blaring.

However.

I bear no ill feeling towards this town full of open seams. I wonder if this would be considered the kind of love people reserve for their hometown. The more one lays eyes upon defects, the more one’s love is inflamed.

Before I knew it, I was humming.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” Kusaoka-san teased me politely. Somehow, it seemed as if he was in a good mood too.

“Now then, when we consider Shia-san’s whereabouts and the true nature of the other loan shark, there are many, many more things to investigate. We can also spend more time together, Haruma-san!”

“Um, but I want to go home?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

I was astonished at his unexpected response.

Take a deep, deep breath. In and out. That way, I could calm my heartbeat.

As I fought to keep my breathing under control, I looked up at Kusaoka-san, trembling like a leaf. “What a thing to say out of the blue… The two of us are still high school students, you know.”

“Huh?”

“When you invite someone of the opposite s.e.x to a private place, I would like you to know that person well enough first.”

“Huh? Why would you want to come to my house?”

“Huh? Don’t tell me you wanted to leave me and go home by yourself?”

“Well, yeah…”

“H-Huuuuh?”

I was no longer aware how many times my questions had been answered with questions. By the end, my stunned face met his, and that left me even more perplexed.

I can only say that our communication was dead. I wondered what on earth this person was thinking.

By your side is the perfect girl whom you fell in love with at first sight, with unrivalled good looks and a wonderful personality. Above anything else, you are being told that she has a lot of time to spare right now.

Why must you take actions that foil your chances right before your eyes? I am at a loss for words right now!

“…Okay! I’ve decided!”

“Er, um, what. s.h.i.t, I’m scared.”

“Our business is finished for today!”

“Huh, seriously? Now I’m scared for the opposite reasons.”

“And tomorrow we shall meet again! Haruma-san, you have no right to refuse!”

“Huh? Now I’m really scared.”

I have a favourite motto: Volunteer for unpopular service.

Kusaoka-san somehow seemed like the type of person who had few friends. Much as I find it hard to believe, he did have those moments of awkward communication. Even the caveman with his straw skirt and stone hammer learned to cooperate with others in order to hunt.

In today’s concrete jungle, I wonder if a child sent from heaven intended to live all alone. They would be considered a grotesque anomaly, even an enemy of society itself. For that very reason, only I was capable of taking action with him. I would make him into an enemy of society. That is the duty of a person on the receiving end of love at first sight. I would do it even if every person in the world were to reject him.

“Please leave everything to me! I will make you into a new man, Haruma-san! Being forced to do something you hate doing is what your mother taught you.”

“Uh, about that…”

Kusaoka-san nodded almost indiscernibly.

I wondered if my sincere, pa.s.sionate feelings had gotten through to him. Beyond what he had already said, he did not display any reasons for rejecting me.