Inspiration

After school ended on Monday and we left Yamato on his own, Hikari and I found ourselves in front of the college gate.

The campus area was mostly empty, as most lectures for the day must have ended already. The security guard questioned us a little, but he seemed not to bother with us and let us in without much convincing. So, we started exploring the place.

"This place is huge!" Hikari exclaimed, "I'm getting lost already!"

"You should also remember where we're going. Don't leave the whole direction thing for me." 

I tried to follow all the little signboards. He kept pointing at random things, wasting our time. He turned around at pointed at a big clock. "That is so much bigger than the one we have at school." This has to stop. I held his hand, and that finally made him tone it down.

"Souma, what are you doing?"
"You might get lost—" Should I even say that!? "Just... we need to hurry up, walk faster." I dragged him ahead before he could say anything about that. Surprisingly, he didn't protest.

"Souma, are you mad? Don't be mad at me..." I didn't reply and just kept pulling him with me. "Well, I might not go to college, I need to get a good look at everything,"

Hikari says things like that sometimes which make no sense. I didn't say much after that, thinking, why would he say such a thing? Why would he not go to college? It's not really my business... but he didn't say it in a happy tone.

By then, we were lurking outside an empty lecture room. The whole place was empty. Something interesting about this college was how big an area the whole place was. Usually one would find doors to only one side of a corridor, but here, there were doors on both sides. Right next to the hall we were sneaking in, there was another room. There was a familiar, and yet unpleasant smell coming from that room but we didn't pay it any attention.

"Wait." We heard a girl's creepy whisper coming from behind us.

Hikari tightened his grasp on my hand and even I did not have the guts to turn around and face this situation. And then, something one would expect in a horror film happened. I felt a hand on my left shoulder and I screamed. Hikari screamed after hearing me too. It was a mess.

The girl started laughing at us. "Wow, didn't expect you both to be such cowards!" It turns out, she recognised me from behind and came to ask us what we were doing there.

"Ah, you're right about that! Saeko, that girl, she really had no friends!" She had led us into the funky-smelling room. The smell was apparently from a lot of old paint and other chemicals used in art. She didn't elaborate on that. Anyways, this girl, twenty-three years old was Chiharu Tanabe, a senior whom Saeko was somewhat close to. We told her about our little adventure.

"The thing is, I don't have much to tell you either. I don't think you'll find anyone in this college who's talked to her more than I did, because as you can see, I make art! And for art, I need to know my muse!" She gave us two stools to sit on, as she started arranging? materials into a box. I had half the mind to ask her about what she was doing, but Hikari seemed deeply engrossed in the conversation, nodding at every little thing, and watching her carefully.

"What do you mean by muse? Did you make a painting of her?" Hikari asked and tilted his head.

She hummed thoughtfully. "I mean, you could say so? I only dragged her here for anatomy though. Drawing a full human body is really difficult... so I just wanted her to do poses."

"Just doing poses wouldn't make her your muse though." I interfered.

"I'm getting to that, geez!" She huffed, "Well, she didn't have any friends and I always found work for her to do here. For such a thin-looking girl, she was quite strong, you know? She lifted all the heavy things, or she held difficult poses for so long without getting tired."

When we were very young, Saeko used to lift me on her back and run around the house. Sometimes, I would get our shuttle stuck in a tree branch, and she had no trouble climbing up the tree to get it down. Those were times we were very innocent. She had the confidence to tell me every day before I left for school, "If anyone ever gives you trouble, you have to tell your older sister!" And I believed her. I wonder what changed?

"Souma, you're listening?" Hikari shook me. I nodded in response.

Chiharu smiled at me, "Missing your older sister?" I nodded again. "I think you're looking for something that no one can really get you back. This kid is trying his best, though." She pointed at Hikari.

She was right, it wasn't as if doing these things would bring her back. But, there were some things that I had subconsciously forgotten about. She was strong... I sort of knew that already, and yet I needed this reminder from a stranger to think about it. Hikari stayed oddly quiet.

"How did she end up as your muse, though? I don't remember her standing out in terms of looks." I asked and broke the silence.

"It wasn't really the way she looked..." Chiharu paused in between, looking at a big wooden frame hidden behind a cloth. "That's the piece. I'm still working on it though, so no peaking!" She giggled. "Saeko was, how do I say this... plain? If someone is aware that they're plain and average... yeah, that's what she was. She didn't try to stand out, in fact, she made sure to stay behind other people; hidden." She seemed to be looking for words that she was unable to find. "She helped everyone, you know. But she didn't take credit for her work, or, she did work that was so unnoticeable, that no one cared to thank her?"

"What does that mean?" I asked again and this time, it seemed to irritate her.

"Ugh, think about it like this. We walk into the lecture room and expect the lights to be turned on, and the board to be clean. But no one does things like this. Only when we notice that the job is undone, someone takes the initiative to do it. Then again... what if someone already did it before anyone even noticed? That's what your sister used to do. She never said no to requests, and she made others comfortable enough that they wouldn't notice her at all. At first, I was also fooled by this. But then, I tried to know what kind of a person she was... and the more I noticed, the more I wanted to discover new things!"

Both I and Hikari didn't have much to say. I was busy with my own thoughts. It made sense, all the things she said about Saeko, really made sense to me. That was exactly how my sister was. Hikari also seemed to be lost in his own thinking.

Chiharu couldn't take it anymore, "I'll tell you what," She snapped her fingers to catch our attention. "Saeko wanted to see that painting when I told her she was the inspiration!" She pointed towards that big frame again. "I'm participating in a joint exhibition in a few days. You both buy a ticket for that and I'll try to have this piece displayed there. How does that sound?" She smirked proudly.

"We'll definitely come by!" Hikari exclaimed. "I want to see it."

"Yes... Thank you, we'd appreciate that, really." I also stood up and said.

Hikari chattered on with her some more, and then she sent us back forcefully. I also had in mind the train timings so we'd reach home in time, but she did seem responsible enough to remind us again and again. While walking out, I saw the campus basketball court and stopped for a few seconds staring. Hikari commented on it, "It looks really big!"

"Yeah, it does. It looks bigger than it actually is."