A Studious NEET

I stared at my phone in disbelief. Could it really be ten o'clock already? School had been out since three, and it couldn't have taken us but a few minutes to get the minutes to walk to the cafe. Could that mean that...we've been studying for almost seven hours straight?

Nope.

Not at all.

This was clearly a trick by some academically-inclined youkai to ruin my life, in cahoots with the developer of the clock app on my phone. Who could win against that? I set my lying phone down by my coffee and slouched back against the booth seat, sighing towards my last ally in these treacherous times.

“Geeeeezzz, Saaagiiiiriiiii.”

“Aw, Daisuke. Could it be that you're all worn out from studying? Could you be a model student, after all?” She let out a small giggle as she rested her cheek on her her hand.

Sagiri Nakano, my best-friend, the student of students, and class president of class presidents, was now staring at me with her big blue eyes. All I could do was look up at the ceiling to avoid her gaze. This was probably the first time I had a big session like this since middle school, and she had to browbeat me into it. The only reason I did good at all in school was due to my talent at cramming the night before exams. The placement exams are next year, though, and cramming didn't seem like something I could really get away with. I wanted to go a good university in a couple of years, and I'm pretty sure she'd be really upset if we couldn't go to a good school together.

My eyes drifted from the ceiling light back down to her, and she was still looking at me. She closed her eyes for a moment and began gathering her notebooks, “I'm sorry if it seems like I'm getting excited over something so small. Placements aren't until late next year and you seem to be doing good now,” my heart started racing after that last word, “but...you know...” she stopped packing her bag.

But what?

Taking a deep breathe and adjusting her glasses, she leaned over the table, “...I was worried you were going to become a NEET or something.”

My heart stopped, and was now packing its own bags to hit the road.

“H-h-h-hey n-now. L-l-let's not kid around like that! I-I-can't be one anyways, I'm a student!” I whimpered out pathetically. My eyes darted side-to-side as if I had been caught doing something heinous.

“No! I'm being serious. I mean...I hadn't really seen much of you outside of the classroom lately, and I know you like shutting yourself in to play video games. I...I...” she stammered for a bit, but regained her composure. “I just want to help you get the best out of life.” Her face was bright red, and it was now it was her to turn to avoid my gaze.

Was it really that obvious?

Unlike her, I didn't spend most of my free-time studying and my extracurricular activities were limited to the going-home club. She must have deduced that MMO's and other video games were taking up most of my life nowadays. She was right, too – since pretty much the beginning of high school I had been cutting down on my study sessions with Sagiri to binge online games bit-by-bit until we basically just did our studying together in the lunch period. I guess she was just really concerned about me and happy to see me be responsible again.

As smart as she is, however, you'd think that she would know that one of the E's in NEET is Education, but I digress.

Her face was still bright red, and was rubbing her hands together. She kept throwing me glances like she was waiting for me to say something, but would look away the moment I looked back at her. I felt really bad for making her worry about this: school was basically her entire life and she didn't have much of one outside of it. We were neighbors and lifelong friends, so having me retreat into my room and stop studying with her must have really made her anxious for my sake.

I slid out from the booth and hopped over to her side of the table. Her hands went still, and her eyes met mine. I put my hand on her shoulder and conjured up the hammiest laugh I could to reassure her, “Well, maybe I could just put more points in intelligence?”

No you damn fool, what the hell are you doing? She was now genuinely confused.

“Erm. What I meant to say was: thank you for being so considerate. I really appreciate it, and I'll go ahead and go back to being a good, responsible student.” I put my other hand on hers, which were still clutching each other, and lowered them down to her lap. “I really had fun doing this tonight, with my best-friend. Let's do it again soon?” This seemed to calm her down.

“I'm so glad.” she giggled again. “Should we walk back home now?”

“Yeah, let's get going.”

Not bothering to slide back out a second time, I just leaned over table to grab my bag and slid all my notebooks and stuff into it while she neatly put her things them in their respective compartments in hers. As we left, we waved at the cafe staff who thanked us for coming. Next time I should actually buy more than a coffee for the time I spent there, huh?

Walking back to our houses, I looked up at the stars. We lived pretty close to the city so they were kind of washed-out, but you can make out a few through the city lights. It was the first time in a while that I've had the time to look up at them from the outside. I looked to the right at Sagiri, and each time we passed one of those blue-tinted streetlights her red cheeks really stood out. In-fact, all of her above the shoulders just stood out: between the brown hair, glasses, blushing cheeks, and blue eyes, the light just seemed to bring out every one of her features.

“What's up?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Something on your mind, Sagiri?”

“Oh, uh...Nothing! No-one's on my mind!”

She kind of rapid-fired that last phrase...did she say no one?

“Uh okay.”

I was going to follow up with another question, but before I knew it we were in-front of our houses. “Even though we didn't talk much and studied the whole time, I had a lot fun with you today! Let's do it again in a couple of days, okay?”

I agreed and nodded back at her. She had the biggest smile that I've seen on her in a long time, and I couldn't help but return one myself. We wished each other a goodnight and we waved at each other while I opened the gate into my yard and walked into my house.

“I'm home...” I said softly. I took out my keys to put into the bowl next to the door and sat down to take off my shoes. But there was a light shining from my back now and...a shadow? I looked back and up the stairs towards the source, and there was a back-lit figure with closed fists resting on their hips.

“Welcome home, Big Brother.”

Oh boy.

“Didn't you hear me? Welcome home, Big Brother.” My little sister, Haruka Yoshida, was staring down at me.

“Yeah I heard ya. Did you have anything to eat yet?”

“No. No I did not. Didn't you know? Our parents won't be home tonight because of work. So make me dinner!”

Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I finished taking my shoes off and started going up the stairs, and her bright pink pajamas became clearer and clearer. Did she dye her hair brown or something? I hadn't paid attention to what she did lately.

“No way, I'm exhausted! And besides: you can cook, can't ya?” I retorted back at her, adding a light giggle afterward to soften the blow. She could, theoretically, cook – as long as you had the local fire department on stand-by. But I didn't really care at this point: I really was worn out, and didn't feel like putting anything together. I got to the top of the stairs, and met her scowl. She let me by, but didn't relent.

“Geez, Big Bro, you're so damn useless!”

I trudged towards my door and looked back at her before getting into my room.

“Hey, Sis?”

“Hm?!”

“I love you, too.” I smiled at her. She glared at for me for a few more seconds and eventually relented. “Sleep well.” she sighed, before going down the stairs. I guess I shouldn't be too rude her: she's just like Sagiri was in her third-year of middle-school in that she had to be perfect at everything...and if she weren't nearly as sweet and were a lot more athletic, that is. She was one of those people that was just wonderful to meet in public, but a complete monster at home and God help you if you pay her even a small compliment.

I closed the door, and just seeing the bed caused my exhaustion to intensify. I didn't even bother getting my pajamas out, and just got out of my school uniform, down to my underwear. I slid under my blankets and thought about my day today.

I actually had some fun at the cafe with Sagiri today. Wasn't Sagiri acting kind of weird today, though? I never knew her to be so bashful, like she was when we were leaving the cafe and going home. How strange.

It was probably nothing, though.

I could feel my eyelids getting heavy, so I just closed my eyes and turned over to get some sleep.

...

It seemed like my eyes had only been closed for just a minute, but when I opened my eyes...rather than my room ceiling, there was a massive stone ceiling high above me with a thick cloth banner looming overhead.

What the hell?