Kimi no Sei de Kyō Mo Shinenai

Title: Taking shelter from the rain with Mitsumine in the silence

That day, it was raining. It was a humid, lukewarm rain, reminiscent of a summer shower.
“Mitsumine, do you have an umbrella?”
“Nope. Do you?”
“Obviously———I don’t. So we’re matching, huh.”
“I really don’t want to match with you of all people, though.”
Mitsumine sighed at my light banter. After repeating this kind of exchange several times, I’ve gotten used to listening to her sigh.
On rainy days, the empty classroom gives off a sort of gloomy vibe and has a scent peculiar to only rainy days, both of which make the atmosphere of the classroom feel calmer than normal.
Perhaps influenced by this, the two of us kept our voices more subdued than normal. The sound of our breaths, which were audible only to the two of us and felt closer and more vivid than normal, were making me feel a bit tense.
“Well, how about we stay here until 6 and try to wait out the rain. If it doesn’t let up by then, we can just give up and go home.”
“I guess that works. But what are we even going to spend another 30 minutes doing?”
It was currently 5:30. We still had time until 6, but we had been sitting here since 4 and had already spent a good chunk of time playing card games and pop-up pirate, so I was kind of out of things to do.
“…..Well….Occasionally, I want to hear you talk about yourself, you know.”
“Huh?”
“Like I said, I want to hear things about you. It’s not fair that you know all sorts of stuff about me, but I know basically nothing about you.”
“I see? But, unlike you, I’m just a mob character that blends into society, so it can’t be helped, can it? Like what’s the point in asking for my profile anyway.” 
“No, there’s no way a “unique” mob character like you could blend into society. And it doesn’t matter, just tell me something about you. Who knows, the information might even be useful in the future.”
“Are you just trying to get me to spill all my weaknesses!?”
Instead of replying to my question, she turned to me and flashed me a perfect smile.
Ugh, this pressure is next level. Why do people with pretty faces always do stuff like this?
“……I don’t think there’s any part of that that’s interesting, though?”
“I’m not particularly looking to be entertained. It doesn’t have to be that entertaining, I just want to hear a bit about you. Do you understand?” 
It appears that I am unable to flee from this situation.
“Okay, okay, I got it. Then I guess I’ll start with my basic characteristics. My favorite foods are sushi and yakiniku, and my favorite phrases are ‘day off’ and ‘many hours of sleep.’  Oh and, of course, I also love the phrase ‘all you can eat’ too. Like a lot. Hooray for all you can eat. And then my current obsession is—”


In the end, the rain hadn’t stopped by 6. The two of us ended up choosing to run to the nearest convenience store to buy plastic umbrellas, but, by the time we reached the convenience store, we were soaking wet, so the trip ended up being completely pointless.
“We seriously have bad luck, huh….”
“You can say that again. I guess I should’ve checked the weather forecast before leaving the house.”
“Well, I was checking horoscopes this morning, so I ended up barely missing the weather forecast….”
We kept talking as we boarded the train that had just arrived. Leaning against the train doors, the two of us did our best to wipe down the parts of us that were wet, talking about dumb things all the while. We were about halfway to our stop when a bunch of people boarded the train. It seems that, because of the time we spent in the empty classroom waiting out the rain, we had become mixed up in the evening rush hour.
That being said, it wasn’t like it was overly cramped, but, more people on the train meant that, inevitably, the distance between me and Mitsumine would decrease.
“Oh, sorry…..”
Mitsumine was pushed out of position by the wave of people coming aboard, causing her arm to lightly strike mine. She instantly murmured an apology and leaned towards me slightly.
Even in this slightly cramped position, we could see each other’s faces and converse.
If anything, our faces were closer than they were before.
Despite that, I felt strangely awkward for some reason and so the conversation we were having just moments ago was suspended, and we fell into an uncomfortable silence.
Even as I tried to look around at the surroundings to try to divert my attention, I found my consciousness tied to Mitsumine, who I could just barely see at the edge of my vision.
Even though there were supposed to be a bunch of people on the train, every person in my field of view except Mitsumine was growing hazy. It felt like Mitsumine was the only person present.


“…..Rainy days get so humid. I really hate them.”
This was after we had passed around 2 stations. Because of the volume of her voice, I could barely tell if she was actually talking to me or just monologuing, but, after she spoke, she took the black elastic hair band wrapped on her wrist and used it to tie her hair back.
I could visibly tell that Mitsumine’s black hair, which was normally silky, was damp with drops of water all over it. Then, she twisted her body a little towards the train’s window to check her reflection, and, perhaps satisfied with her appearance, the corners of her mouth lifted up slightly. 
“Um–………”
Watching this situation, I unconsciously spoke up, but not knowing what to actually say, I abruptly cut off. It felt as if I had fallen under some sort of spell, making me unable to properly move my own body. Despite this, my heart kept pounding loudly, as if it was trying to cry out to make up for my absent voice.
Mitsumine usually wore her hair down, so this was the first time I had seen her hair in a ponytail. Perhaps it was because of that. Or perhaps it was because we were closer together than we were normally. But, regardless of what was causing it, for some reason, each time her ponytail swayed with the movement of the train, I felt myself grow a bit nervous. 
Even though, normally, it would be easy for me to talk to her or ask her to play shiritori or whatever, today, for whatever reason, I was unable to make words come out of my mouth. I couldn’t look away either. All I could do was stare at Mitsumine’s listless profile reflected in the rain drops on the window.
In the end, we didn’t speak another word before getting off the train. Other than us, no one else got off at our station, and the station platform was completely empty. Within the silence, there was only the sound of rain pitter-pattering as it pounded against the platform.

“Hey”
Amidst the uncertain tension of figuring out who would start speaking first, Mitsumine, in a voice so low that it was close to being drowned out by the rain, began to talk.
“It’s about what we were talking about earlier, but….It wasn’t bad. It was interesting.”
Her whispering voice, mixed in with the sounds of rain, made my heart skip a beat.
“I don’t dislike hearing things about you, A-kun. If it rains again, I’ll listen to you talk about yourself again.”
It wasn’t like she was saying that she liked me. She did say that she doesn’t “dislike” me, but, coming from Mitsumine, I’m fully aware that there probably isn’t a special meaning to those words.
“In that case, I’ll sleep with the Teru Teru Bozu hanging upside down tonight.”
So I wonder why my heart is burning so much.
This is why I hate people with pretty faces. I hate how, in just a few words, they can make you feel so elated. I hate how they make it so easy for you to get carried away.
I could feel the sound of rain that should’ve been echoing in my ears growing distant.

And I still couldn’t hear the sound of an approaching train.

[TLN: Teru Teru Bozu: Childish(?) doll to pray for sunny weather. Guy is joking about praying for rain]

[TLN: I had power outage, aka no league, aka time to translate ]