Episode 22 – The Goddess’ Past

I, Ichikawa Aoi, was a plain student.
I was not particularly outstanding in athletics, studies, or appearance, and lived a modest and quiet life.

I would be lying if I said that I did not admire them.
I want to live a sparkling school life like them. With such a monthly thought in my mind, I lived each day without incident.

[[You like that, too?]]

He talked to me like that.
He was like the sun, shining brilliantly in class, and he fished me out of the shade into the sun without belonging anywhere.

For a long time, no one looked at me. I don’t know whether I am there or not.
He helped me to see the outside world…

….It is not that. People around me didn’t allow it.

[[You got carried away just because Kou kun was nice to you.]]
[[People like you should stay at the edge of the classroom.]]
[[Listen? People like you only get sympathy]]

[[Oi, what are you guys doing !? are you okay?!]]

[[It’s your fault!]]
[[The worst]]
[[Don’t come to school anymore]]

The more he stood for me, the more I was brought back into the shade.
Go to a deeper and darker place than before.

I was alone again.

[[You look so bored.]]

That was my first encounter with that person I admired so much.

＊＊＊

“Ichikawa san”
“…….”
“Ichikawa san !”
“…….”

I suddenly opened my eyes and there he was.
He was looking at me with kind eyes like that boy back then.

“Se, I….ts. Good morning, Komiya kun”
“It’s not [good morning]…you make me worried”
“I see. It looks like it took you a long time to find me.”
“That’s…I thought I would find you on the stairs, but you were not there. I went to the infirmary, but you weren’t there. I was in class, so it was hard to find you.”
“But how did you know where to find me?”

I raise my body with a whimper.
It was still early afternoon, and the sun was shining relentlessly.

Mid-April has passed.
If you stay outside too much, you may need sunscreen.

“You wouldn’t expect me to be on a rooftop you’re not supposed to get in right? How did you get in?”
“I don’t know? Maybe it was unlocked.”

Actually, the story is true, the lock on the rooftop here has been broken for quite some time.
Maybe someone else might know it too, but I have never met another student here before.

Maybe it’s because I don’t come here often.

“So …… what happened?”
“What?”
“You don’t have to act like that. I’ve never seen Ichikawa san like that”
“……I see”

Komiya kun glances at me as if he thinks that I don’t want to talk.
He seems to think that he has not been exposed to it.

Fufu. So clumsy.

“I was angry.”
“Eh?”
“I was irresistibly angry that my boyfriend, Komiya kun, was being made fun of by them.”
“…That kind of thing?”

Komiya kun looked surprised that I had done something like that for such a reason.

But this is true as well.
To be honest, I never expected Komiya kun would be treated this badly.

I thought it was only rumored at most. Because Komiya kun was not that much disliked by those around him. But I was wrong.
It was a complete lack of imagination. I was angry with myself for that.

“I don’t see why not. I think that’s a good enough reason.”
“No, well about that. I don’t know what to say……. I didn’t think Ichikawa san would get mad at them for my sake. Even if it weren’t for that, Ichikawa-san would probably tell me to see how well I could beat them.”
“I wonder what you think I am?”

That’s just rude.
And no matter how much I would have said something like that if it had been …… always just the two of us.

“N-no..Not just that. Ichikawa san looked so distressed at that time. I thought there was a bigger reason.”
“………..”

I was surprised.
“…… You’re looking at me more than I think.”
“I think it’s normal for most people to think there was something wrong. So what happened? Ah, it’s okay if you don’t want to.”
“This is that kind of day for me”
“Eh?”

Komiya-kun looks as if he has been caught off guard by this sudden confession.
Then he became obviously suspicious of my behavior as if he understood what I meant.

Seeing him like that makes me smile. It’s funny.

“I’m just frustrated, that’s all. Don’t worry about it.”
“Y-Yeah….”
“My stomach still throbs and It hurts.”
“Eh??!”

Without waiting for Komiya kun’s reply, I rest my head on his lap.
Komiya kun’s face, seen from below, is tinted red, is he embarrassed ? he does not make eye contact with me.

“…Well, that’s a relieve”
“Fufu, Thanks for worrying about me.”

I fooled him.
But not everything was a lie. Half of it is true and half of it is a lie.
It’s true that Komiya kun was annoyed at being made fun of, but that’s not all.

“Hey, Komiya kun”
“….what’s up?”
“Why don’t we tell everyone about our relationship?”

◆

[Why don’t we tell everyone about our relationship?]

The girl resting in my lap said that before she fell asleep.
Even with her eyes closed, she is a beauty to fall in love with.

Now she’s sleeping and regularly breathing smoothly

“……….”

I feel it would be profitable just to take a picture of this sleeping face and resell it.

“Nono, what am I thinking !!”
“Fufu, Komiya kun is a pervert”
“Tss!?”
“………”

I hear Ichikawa san breathing in her sleep again, just as she did earlier.

“You’re talking in your sleep.”

For a second I thought my heart was going to skip a beat.
I mean, what kind of sleep-talking was that?

I stare intently at Ichikawa san’s face as she sleeps peacefully.
I can’t look at her properly unless it’s a time like this.

More and more, I don’t think she is too good to be my girlfriend.
Still, I couldn’t leave her alone if she showed me a face like that.

“I’m sure she’s hiding something.”

I suppose it’s also true that she got mad at them for making fun of me.
But there’s another reason she bared so much emotion.

I kind of thought so.

“This is bad. I, towards Ichikawa san…”

My ears were burning when I said it out loud.