Episode 38 – Troublesome Assignment

After surviving a weekend of forced shopping by my step sister, the long five days begin again. I got up, pushing aside feelings of melancholy and sleepiness I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I bought some food for dinner, but I could hardly eat anything that day. By the way, dinner was curry. I was so nauseous when I put the curry in my mouth because my mouth remembered the taste of sweets.

By the way, my step sister ate her dinner like nothing happened as usual, so I thought she was a real monster.

By the time I left my room, she had already left the house and was on her way to school. My mother and stepfather were already gone, and I was the only one left in the house.

I ate the toast that my step sister must have made, and looked at the two pieces of paper in my pocket once more.

“……This is useless to me.”

I’ll never get the chance to attend a preview of a movie, and I have a desire to go, but unfortunately, I’m not interested in mystery movies. Not that I’m sleepy, but I think I’ll be wasting my time. I have a track record of finding out the murderer faster than the main character in a Detective Conan movie, and I may end up spending my free time in the dark.

“Well, I guess I don’t have to go.”

I conclude once again that I’m not going. I could read the story published and I don’t have plans to meet up with Nanase. I put the ticket in my wallet as a reminder, put my breakfast plate in the sink, and headed off to school.

“…..The test is over, and life seems to have settled down for a while.”

There is an event called the sports festival a little ahead, but there are no particular events in between. I’m immersed in a strange sentiment that I will be able to live a quiet school life for the first time in a while.

I stopped at a convenience store to buy lunch on the way and headed to school as usual. Fortunately, Nanase was not there on the way, so I guessed that she was absent for work or something today.

With that thought in mind, I stepped into the classroom.

“So, last week……”

“Ah, good morning……”

“Sorry, today’s homework…”

The classroom as usual….or should I say it’s much louder than it was at the beginning, probably because the time has passed. first time around. I headed to my seat and saw my neighbor, the only quiet one in the classroom.

“……”

“……”

There’s no greeting between us. We don’t talk more than necessary, we don’t interfere. That is the distance between me and Yukihana.

But this day was a little different.

“……Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Yukihana turned her face to me and spoke to me with the same expressionless face as usual. She hasn’t talked to me recently, so I’m a little surprised, but I was able to suppress it with my rational mind.

“What is it?”

I replied, and Yukihana turned not only her face but also her body to me and gave me a serious look.

“……I’d like to ask you something.”

“?”

I’m not used to her asking me questions in this way, so I ended up widening my eyes. I have no particular reason to refuse, so I affirm my willingness to listen with a gesture. I tried to anticipate some of the questions she would ask, but Yukihana betrayed me.

“……What is a present that a boy would be happy to receive?”

“……Ah?”

Not only did I not expect it at all, but I didn’t expect such words to come out of this girl’s mouth, so I completely froze in my thoughts. But I quickly regained my composure and answered her question with a question.

“Is there someone you want to give a gift to?”

“……Something like that. Not you, by the way.”

Yukihana flatly denied that the recipient of the gift was not me with a disgusted face.

In that case, I would like to ask who, but I don’t think it has anything to do with me, so I will answer appropriately without going too deep.

“Well, can’t it be something simple like food?”

“……Preferably something other than that.”

The moment I mentioned the word “food,” Yukihana dismissed the idea. Well, like me, Yukihana brings a convenience store bento almost every day, so she might not be good at cooking.

By the way, I just don’t cook, but I can cook better than my step sister if I wanted to. Well, that’s why my step sister’s competitive streak has kicked in and she won’t let me stand in the kitchen.

“In that case, manga or something.”

“……Assuming that he’s not too interested in that kind of work.”

I thought of someone who was close to Yukihana and assumed she was going to send something to the nerdy guy. But then again, it’s fair to say that I have very few ideas. After all, I myself had never received many gifts.

(No, wait a minute.)

I thought about how to lead them on, and started off the conversation in a safe way.

“How about a movie?”

“….Huh?”

Yukihana tilted her head, squinting her eyes, as if she didn’t expect such words to come out of my mouth. Without waiting for Yukihana’s reaction, I immediately start presenting the movie.

“If it’s funny, it’ll make you laugh, and before you know it, there are many that draw you in. Recently, mystery movies seem to be popular.”

“A movie….huh.”

Hearing what I said on the spur of the moment, Yukihana turned her head seriously while putting her hand on her chin. Apparently, she wants to be very particular about the gift she gives to the mystery man.

Then I gave her a final push.

“I have a movie ticket in my pocket right now. I’ll give it to you.”

“……What are you talking about out of the blue?”

I guess she couldn’t keep up with the flow of the story, and Yukihana looked at me with suspicious eyes. The moment I showed her the movie ticket, she changed the color of her eyes.

“…..I-is this the bizarre school series?”

“What, you know about it?”

Nanase didn’t say anything in particular, so I thought it was definitely a minor movie. However, it seems to be different for Yukihana.

‘”…..A tremendous masterpiece of a novel. I have read it at least four times. It is a story in which the main character solves a series of bizarre incidents that occur at school, always betraying the reader’s expectations in a good way. Moreover, there is foreshadowing and misleading in almost every page, and the more you read, the more you discover something new in this timeless masterpiece. My guess is the heroine, who is the friend of the hero and holds the key to the story…..”

“Okay, okay, calm down.’

Apparently, this is a work that Yukihana has quite a strong emotional attachment to. I mean, this movie was originally a novel. I had forgotten that Yukihana is an otaku.

After a lot of talking, she calmed down and asked me a simple question again.

“……I was planning to go see the movie too, of course, but this won’t be released until later and tickets aren’t even out yet. How is it that you have them?”

“……That’s a secret.”

There is indeed no need to talk about what happened with Nanase. It invites unnecessary misunderstandings, and it’s a strange story for me to bring her up as a topic. Therefore, mislead them appropriately.

“But I do in fact have tickets to a preview of the film, tickets that are not for sale and will allow me to see the finished film before anyone else does.”

“…….”

“This would please the guy, wouldn’t it?”

The man, or rather Yukihana, would be delighted. Yukihana asks me if I’m spinning my head more than during the test.

“……Is there any exchange condition?”

I can’t blame her for thinking so. I’m not Yukihana’s friend, and we are in a contractual relationship. We are just using each other for our mutual benefit.

But this time it’s different.

“I’d like to say nothing in particular, but there is one thing I would like you to do. Let me know what you think when you see the movie. That’s all.”

“….My thoughts.”

“Yeah, I want you to tell me what you thought of it, and I want you to put it together. What was your impression of the movie, and show me a summary of it. That is the only condition for me to give you this ticket.”

From Yukihana’s point of view, it would be a meaningless request. However, if I’m asked for my impressions of the movie by Nanase, I’ll be able to deceive her.

Nanase is one of the most well-known people in the school. If I let my relationship with such a person deteriorate, I don’t know what kind of trouble I could get into. There are a lot of people in school who are obsessed with Nanase or who are involved in her activities. To avoid problems with them, it is important to ask her what they think of the movie.

After thinking for a while, Yukihana asked the last question.

“……Don’t you want to see the movie?”

“It just doesn’t fit my schedule that day.”

“….I see.”

With that, I handed Yukihana the preview ticket. I did it timidly, but Yukihana did accept the ticket.

“Give me your impressions in a loose-leaf document.”

“…Okay.”

Yukihana was not able to hide her joy, even though she said it in a casual manner. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like I’ve done something charitable.

Thus, the preview tickets were used to promote Yukihana’s activities.