Terrible Person

A Chance of Happiness Chapter 25: Terrible Person

“Did you know her? Kashiwa-san’s sister I mean.” Mina asked.

“Well… yeah… I guess so…” Jin responded as he scratched his head.

“Like know her… know her?”

Jin gave her a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”

“N-Nevermind. I was just curious.” Mina broke eye contact as she began to think to herself. “What am I doing? Why did I even ask?”

“I think she was on the student council, right? At our old school.” Kazuto interjected.

“Was she? Wow… that’s interesting…”

“She was pretty cute too.”

Mina tensed up and turned to Kazuto, who was looking expectantly for her reaction. Mina panicked for a moment before turning to glance at Jin, who seemed preoccupied on his phone. Her quick glance turned into staring as she noticed his expression become more relieved.

“Did something happen?”

Jin looked up from his phone. “Oh… nothing bad… my father just let me know he was home and was wondering when I’d be back.”

“Are… you two close?”

“We try to be. He just works a lot so he isn’t home very often.”

“I see… sorry… I know what that's like.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. He just… has a lot…” Jin paused for a moment. “... to deal with. What about you? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Well… my father isn’t home very often because of all his business projects. My Mom’s usually with him so they aren’t usually around either. It’s typically just me and my sister.”

“I see, I know how hard that can be sometimes. I’m sure it’s nice to have your sister around.”

“It is. She can be a handful sometimes but she’s really–”

“Ahem, you two. We’re here.” Kazuto interrupted, pointing at the terminals.

Jin and Mina froze up, completely forgetting Kazuto was even with them. The three boarded the trains and headed off to their stops. Jin and Mina sat in silence as Kazuto kept looking back and forth between them.

“This is my stop.” Jin got out of his seat as the train came to a stop.

“Oh… well…” Mina began.

“Goodnight! Get home safe!” Kazuto waved, cutting off Mina.

Mina shrugged up shyly as Jin got off the train. Kazuto laid back in his chair as the doors closed and the train began to move.

“Phew.” Kazuto sighed. “I really started to feel like a third wheel there for a second.”

“W-W-What?! N-No it wasn’t… like that! We were just talking!” Mina stammered, her face red with embarrassment.

“Aw well, you two seem to be getting along really well. I’m a little surprised.”

Mina gave a confused expression. “I don’t know…”

“Don’t know what?”

Jin exited the station and began to walk home as he stopped for a moment at a streetlight. He raised his hand to find it was shaking.

“Why… did I say all that? It was a normal conversation… but… it felt so different…”

“I don’t know… why it felt so easy to talk to her(him).” Jin and Mina spoke in unison.

Jin walked through his front door, slightly calmed down.

“I’m home.” Jin called as he began to unpack his things.

“Welcome back!” a voice called from behind as a man with black hair ran up and hugged him. “Did you have fun with your friends?”

“Friends…” Jin thought to himself. “... Yes… it was… fun…”

“That’s great! We have so much to catch up on! You can tell me all about it over dinner!”

“... Sure. And… Dad…”

“Hm?”

“How… was your day?”

His father cast a joyful smile. “Fantastic, even better now that you're here.”

Jin smiled back as he finished unpacking his things.

The two sat at the dinner table as they relayed their experiences over the past few days.

“So you did get to see her?”

“Earlier today as a matter of fact. I got my work done early today and went to see her.”

“How was she?”

“She’s doing well. So you don’t have to worry so much.” His father smiled. “Now… about this group project… any cute girls? Or guys?”

Jin nearly choked on his pork katsu as his father looked at him expectantly.

“Dad!” Jin coughed, still in shock.

“What? You never know! Besides, what's the harm in asking?”

Jin looked up with a serious expression as he was still coughing.

“Well it’s not like that one was my fault.”

Jin rolled his eyes and cleared his throat, still caught off guard by the question.

“Come on! You can tell your old man anything!”

“Or I can just tell you nothing.” Jin replied, regaining his composure.

His father let out a sigh of defeat as he laid his head down on the table, seemingly disappointed.

Jin watched his father in disbelief as he began to think to himself. “It’s not like… I would know anyways…”

Jin sat in his homeroom class as students began to find their seats. He looked at his phone to see a message from Aoyuki.

I dropped off the rocket at Hirata-sensei’s class.

“It feels like it went by so quickly.” Jin thought to himself.

“Mornin’.” A voice called from in front of him.

Jin looked up to see Vernon putting his bag down and taking a seat.

“Morning–” Jin paused for a moment as he saw Vernon was wearing black sunglasses. “Are you hungover?!”

“What?! No– I… I just didn’t sleep much.” Vernon replied, lowering his glasses to reveal the bags under his eyes and his tired expression.

“What’s going on?”

Vernon placed his elbow on his desk and propped his head up. “I’m… really not too sure myself.”

“Is it about Fujimura-san?”

Vernon gave him a surprised look for a moment. “Right… you’re basically a mind reader.”

“What happened?”

Vernon frowned. “Well that's the thing… nothing’s happened. But now it’s bothering me… and I just… don’t know why…”

“Did you try reaching out?”

“Actually… yeah, I did. I mean… I saw you going so far out of your comfort zone after I felt like it’d be hypocritical of me not to…” Vernon paused, letting out a sigh. “I’m just so confused…”

“About what?”

“Honestly… everything. I still see her around campus but she blows me off. I even started going over to her house but she never answers the door. And… her friends…”

“What about them?”

“Well… after asking around it just seemed like… without Dai-san and Midori-san… she doesn’t… have anyone else…”

“I thought she had a lot of friends in junior high?”

“I thought so too… but now that I think about it… it might have been my fault. She hung out with me, and by association, she was around you from time to time. Eventually… she started hanging around me less and less. Or maybe… it was the other way around…”

“You don’t know that for a fact.”

“I don’t but… the thought alone… has been eating away at me. Even worse… the fact that the thought never even crossed my mind until now about one of my closest friends… really makes me wonder…” Vernon paused as his tired expression began showing signs of breaking down into something else entirely. “... am I… a terrible person for not realizing?”