Washed out

Holding a backpack in his right hand, Alto makes his way to the library that is on the third floor of the other school’s building. Instead of taking his usual route, he walks hastily upstairs to walk past Sana’s classroom while trying to find her as well, trying his luck if she’s still there after school is over. With a hurried look, Alto glanced at each classroom sign to see which one match her class until he arrived in front of the class that has a matching sign.

「Ah...」he started to catch his breath while he looks at every corner of the sunlit classroom to only find particles flying around, it looked like she had already come back home.

He then took another breather and walked straight to the library.

…

After putting his backpack inside the library locker, he noticed that the library door was wide open, and a ‘Taking a break’ sign was placed on top of the desk where Ms. Sydney usually is. Walking through the door and closing it, he notices that the library is still empty like usual. Going straight to the chemistry section, he picks up the book and brought it to the desk that are facing the large window as usual.

Until…he is startled by a loud thud followed by another, and another one from his behind.

Looking around the library from his desk, he can’t see anything out of the ordinary, there was no book falling or is there anyone or anything that caused that noise, so he gets up and decided to check it out himself, he thought that he might accidentally caused some book to get loose and fall after taking out the chemistry book.

As he is walking to the chemistry section, he heard a distant rustling noise, it sounds like a fabric being pressed against each other repeatedly like when someone is moving around in their clothes. Knowing that, he comes up to it slowly and peeked behind the bookshelves until he saw the source of that rustling noise.

Books are scattered across the library floor, and on top of them, there’s this girl that is struggling to puts each of the books back in its place. Her washed-out blond hair bounces around while she moved and her over-saturated green eyes went everywhere there is a book.

「...looks like you need some help.」Alto immediately walks up to her and helps her with it, she doesn’t seem to be startled.

“Oh…thank you”

They worked on it without wasting too much time talking, and it was done in a flash as the girl then picks out the same book Alto picked earlier and he noticed her notebook that said…

Class…

A.

…

「Are you looking for the last 10 questions on the chemistry exam as well?」

“...ah, I did. Are you?”

「Same here」

…

“I see, then good luck on that too” she walked away to the other side of the bookshelves as she said it.

…

「Eh…wait up, maybe we can also…work on it together?」Alto said after catching up to her.

“...” she stopped and looks at Alto right in his eyes.

“I’m just planning to take a photo of it, so it won’t be long”

「...ah, alright then」

…

「W-w-w-wait! Last one- now that I helped you tidy that up, can I at least ask for a little help in your place?」

“...I see, I guess that’s fair enough. How can I help you?”

「...well」

“…?”

「Can I have one of your classmates' phone numbers?」

“...sure, who could that be?” she pulled out her phone.

「...It’s Sana」

“It’s…-”

“...” she paused for a second, and he noticed that she seemed to be…irritated.

「Umm…Is there something wrong?」

“Well…It’s nothing, here.” she put her phone on top of Alto’s hand.

「Thanks a lot…」Alto also pulled out his phone and started to copy the number. But now that he has got Sana’s number, there’s something that is stuck in his mind, why does she…acts like that when he mentioned Sana?

「...Ah, sorry. I haven’t introduced myself yet, I’m Alto from class E.」he reached out his hand to her while also giving back her phone.

“...Hina, class A”

「Hina…thanks a lot again.」

“You just thanked me twice, is she really that special to you or something?”

Crap…what should I say to her?

「...Ah.」

“...well?” she turned her head, and she looks…even more irritated than before.

Damn, what’s with her face…?

「For now…I found a book with her name on it.」

“For now? And you could have just given it to me and I can give it to her you know?”

Good god, she’s so cranky!?

「I left it at home…」Alto turned his gaze away from her as he started to sweat for a bit.

“Hmm…”

To be honest…I never realized how…short she is.

“Alright, you owe me another one now.”

「...why is that? And did I ever owe anything to you…?」

“I just noticed, you laughed at me this morning. Didn’t you?”

「A-ack…so that’s you…」

“Damn right! Then I’ll be off right now!” she ran away before she left a sticky note on Alto’s shirt.

「W-what…is this?」

+8144-39…-

It’s her number!? Why though!???

Alto peeled the sticky note from his shirt and pulled out his phone, he was in a shambles as to what just happened, but he felt the need to add her number…he felt a little guilty after remembering what he did, though he had never expected her to act like that.

What’s going on today…?- the library door suddenly closed and lets out a quite loud thud.

“Alto, it’s you.”

「Oh…good afternoon Ms. Sydney, did you…?」

“Yeah, I saw it, she seemed to be very…mad, her face is all red when she sprinted through me”

「I-i see…」

“Did you reject her or something?”

「N-no…she didn’t confess to me or something…」

“...” she seemed to be…waiting.

Ah…come on, let me catch a break.

…

After a lengthy explanation and a quick review of the material problem, Alto’s finally on his ride home with his bicycle, rolling downhill as he’s gazing far into the Otaru’s port that is glowing with many colors.

Finally…it’s over, I can definitely sleep soundly in bed after I arrived…

He changed the gear on his bike and an audible click is heard, he turns around to the road on his left before he strolls by the frozen Katsunai River. His bicycle headlights stretched far into the road ahead of him, until out of nowhere, he saw a pair of glowing eyes jump out from a bush, his bicycle screeched as he pressed his brake by moment he noticed it.

Damn! What was that…

It crossed the road with its wiggling brown tail before Alto could even notice it, he then parked his bicycle on the side of the road because of it.

Shit…I need to get rehydrated very soon…That was dangerous…

He then noticed a vending machine not far away from where he parked his bike, so he walked toward it and inserted a coin.

…alright, hot hojicha…D-7- It came out almost instantly as he pressed it.

「...hm, it’s lukewarm」he said after taking a generous sip out of it, his face is displeased but after a second of drinking it again, he lets out a smile before…

「Y-yes…」he clenched his fist of victory.

I actually got it, what are the chances…

…

Though…there are also a lot of things I have to do…the Alkenes and Hina…what’s up with her when I mentioned Sana…?

…she seemed to have a problem with Sana, I don’t know what or why though…

“Well…It’s nothing”

…

Gosh…let’s just go home for now, I can’t take all of this anymore…

He throws the can into the trash bin and pedaled his bicycle away through the snowy road.