6 - He likes Suzumi-chan

I don’t remember the last time I spontaneously hugged someone, I would even say that I’m not the touchy type. And yet, there we were, my arms embracing him, my hands locked together so that I surely wouldn’t let go out of embarrassment.

My hat, slowly slipping off my head against his chest, was the only thing that tried to deafen the sound of his heartbeat.

Mine must’ve pulsated just as loud, not that I would ever admit it.

“Thank you, Komiya-kun.”

“Anytime. A little consolation for the speech, right?”

I pulled my head backwards, “Way to ruin the moment…”

“It’s getting dark, huh. Let’s hop on my bike, I’ll take you home.”

Any more than this and I might—

Before I allowed my heart to speak to my mind, I shook off the thought, safely put the sticker away and took a seat, sideways on his bicycle.

“You’ll lead the way again, alright?”

“Mmhmm, I will. For now, it’s to the end of the street and then to the right.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you,” he peered over his shoulder, “I’ve found a new opportunity to become more popular!”

“Hmm~ Really?”

“Uh-huh! The sports festival might be my best bet yet.”

As the evening breeze blew through my hair, I closed my eyes. Still somewhat overwhelmed by gratitude, I let my head land against his back.

“I didn’t think you were the sporty type.”

“Oh I’ll show you what kind of man I am!”

“I’ll be eagerly waiting to see it.”

I squeezed myself a little tighter onto him. I knew better than this, I knew all too well that he liked Suzumi-chan. And getting emotional over little stuff like this surely wasn’t fitting for me. And yet, I couldn’t help feeling this way. Today, Komiya-kun is mine.

* * *

“This is my place,” I said as I hopped off. “Thank you, for everything today.”

I failed to get that stupid grin off my face.

“Anytime. I should get going now… there’s someone glaring us down.”

I followed the direction of his eyes to my window, where my older sister was poorly hidden through the curtains.

“Sis?!”

I waved him goodbye and rushed to my front door. Once inside, she teleported in front of me.

“Noriko, is that the boy you’ve been talking about?”

“Hm? Who are you talking about?”

She stole my hat, wore it herself and messed with my hair until I fell to the ground, “Better spill the beans or I’ll never stop!”

“You win, you win, you win!” I kept repeating until she stopped.

The scenery changed to the living room, both of us seated on the sofa, but the topic, unfortunately, unchanged, “So, was that the library boy?” She asked with her eye glued onto her laptop.

“What are you doing there, Sis?”

“Programming for college,” she moped, “Hey, don’t change topics now!” Her laptop gently soared to the end of the sofa, “That was the library boy, right?”

“Komiya-kun.”

She threw herself on me, “Eh—? The other day you didn’t know his name.”

“That was then, but now I do. Komiya Tomomi. That’s as far as my knowledge goes. Let’s talk about something else.”

“You’re no fun,” she pushed herself up.

When she remained quiet for about a minute, I was certain she let it go, so I could finally put the Kron sticker on my phone case.

“You’re kidding me! You got your sticker on the last day?”

“Sort of,” I said as I carefully placed it on the cover.

“What do you mean ‘sort of’?”

“Well, Komiya-kun gave it to me. He said, ‘it’s your favourite, right’. That’s why I kind of let my guard down today.”

“What—? He knows about your favourites and he gave it to you just like that? And he gave you a ride home?”

Every ‘and’ she added made my face feel hotter.

“What are you trying to say?”

“You definitely like him, don’t you?”

I shook my head, “No, I don’t.”

“Well, he definitely likes you!”

A little quieter this time, I denied it again, “No, he doesn’t. He likes Suzumi-chan.”

She pressed her finger against her chin, “Suzumi, Suzumi… Oh, that’s your new friend, right?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Argh… what a headache! Does this Suzumi like him, too?”

I shook my head again, “No, she rejected him already. She also said she had some sort of boy trouble going on, but I don’t know who that boy is.”

We were keeping each other’s secrets, but my sister doesn’t really count as letting the cat out of the bag, I suppose.

“Well, if she doesn’t like him, you should just go for it!” She pumped her fists.

For some reason, I mimicked her and pumped mine, before coming back to my senses, “No, I won’t.”

* * *

The following week I had to give the assembly speech for the first years. Against my wishes, I went with Komiya-kun’s advice and gave last year’s speech my own spin.

I was already on edge, the principal who had been blathering the morning away didn’t exactly help. Each time he adjusted his top hat, he pulled another topic out of it like some sort of magician.

“Goodness me, I’ve been hoarding the microphone, haven’t I,” he tittered at his own remark. “I would like nothing more than to give the word to our talented, most studious student—but more than anything, fellow hat enthusiast, Ishiwata Noriko.

Breath in.

A single stride forward increased my nerves tenfold.

Breath in.

I lost control of my breathing way quicker than usual. Before I appeared from behind the curtains, I felt like the battle was already lost.

Applause roared through the room when the principal left the podium.

I can do this, I whispered without a single ounce of belief behind it. Even that feigned confidence evaporated the second the entirety of our school’s first years were staring at me.

“Students of—"

Too close to the microphone, I made it beep twice as loud as the applause earlier. The students in front of me all wore painful faces, covering their ears. Of course I knew that the sound of the microphone is what made them react that way, and yet I felt rejected and dejected before I managed to get a single sentence out.

Then, as if it couldn’t get any worse, my eyes happened to land on Komiya-kun, two seats away from Suzumi-chan. He smiled. Even from a distance I could tell he believed in me. The pressure was high as it was, and he only made it more severe.

“Students of Boushi High School, I hope you have felt welcomed by our school’s hospitable approach in the last two weeks. It is not a coincidence if you find yourself settled to a point where this doesn’t feel like your first year at all, let alone your first two weeks. Our teachers, staff and our upperclassmen in all clubs do everything they can to make school feel like a second home.”

Just when I dared thinking I was doing pretty well, I realised I was speaking without my speech in front of me. This was as far as I remembered off the top of my head. I tried taking the speech out of my skirt’s pocket, only for it to drop on the floor.

Should I get it? Should I keep it going?

Before I knew, the room had started whispering.

Just how long have I been quiet now?

The more I crept into my own head, the harder it became to move. I froze. More of my silence meant more of their whispers.

“Oh, right, the question cue!” A voice all too familiar yelled, getting the entire first year body staring at him. He raised his hand into the air as if there was a single hint of attention left that wasn’t directed his way, “Noriko, can I go first?”

I had no clue at what he was thinking, I never did, really. Yet, I trusted him and went along with it.
“Go ahead.”

“Which club would be a good fit for me?”

The palm of his right hand was held perpendicularly up, his other hand pointing at it. This signal surely meant he was indicating Suzumi-chan. Conflicted as I was, I still hit the low-blow he offered me.

“Anything but the tea ceremony club.”

More than enough people knew about their situation given how many people laughed at that joke.
He should consider the drama club with the performance he was giving us; he grasped his heart through his shirt and watched his clenched fist slowly fall open.

“Is there no other way for me to raise my status?”

Oh, like a lightbulb lighting up above my head, the rest of my speech popped back into mind. Seriously, all screws in that head of his are super loose. Still, he managed to get me back on course.

“Well, your best shot might be the upcoming sports festival! At our school, two classes will be combined, across all years, to form a team. For example, class B and D across all three years form the white team. Even though all years compete separately, the points will be tallied up at the end to declare the true winner.”

I tried to excite the crowd with the various activities they could be competing in. The speech came to a close in a strait-laced way, for Komiya-kun’s standards. Looking back, asking him to read it was what saved the day beyond coming up with a closing statement.

“I have been Ishiwata Noriko, speaking for the first year representatives, featured by Komiya-kun, I suppose.”

That filled the air with plenty of chuckles.

“It might be a little early for this, but class B, fight!”

“Oh!” a couple of sporty classmates were quick to respond.