Story About Buying My Classmate Once A Week

Chapter 69

I can't sleep because of Sendai-san — 69

Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV

Going to college.

Sendai-san had said so even before the summer vacation, and I knew without asking that the university would be out of the prefecture.

I just heard what I expected to hear.

I was just a little shocked.

To put it correctly, I just heard what I expected to hear, but I am shocked at myself for thinking about it all the time.

Sendai-san’s reasons for wanting to go out of the prefecture can be inferred from what I saw at her house during the summer vacation.

She want to get out of that house.

I think that’s about it.

If this reason is correct, I cannot change Sendai-san’s course of action.

Wrong.

That’s not it.

I am not trying to change Sendai-san’s path, and there is no point in changing it. Our relationship ends there after high school graduation. In the first place, her career path is hers to decide, not mine to meddle with.

I know this, but I have been stuck since Sendai-san left. I’m still sitting where she was sitting.

We didn’t eat dinner together, so we haven’t eaten yet.

But I’m not hungry.

I get up sluggishly and head for the bathroom with a change of clothes. I feel like I’m going to think about unnecessary things when I’m leisurely soaking in the hot water, so I take a shower and lie down on my bed.

If I keep going, I will pass the school of my choice. It’s not enough to go to the same university as Sendai-san, but it doesn’t matter because my goal is not to go to a good university.

Generally speaking, Sendai-san talks too much about me.

She does not even know my exact grades, yet she says random things about going to the same university. If I told her I wanted to go to a university outside of the prefecture, my father would say it was a good idea, but with my current grades, the same university would be absolutely impossible. Even taking into account what we both studied during the summer vacation, it would be difficult. I’m sure that if I saw the results of the upcoming mid-term test, even Sendai-san will say it’s impossible.

It would be a waste of time to apply to a university that I have no chance of getting into.

「Ah— I don’t know why I take this stuff so seriously.」

I roll over and turn off the light.

Dad doesn’t come home.

It is a little disconcerting to think that all the lights in the house are off, not just in this room.

「It’s okay.」

I’m not afraid.

I mutter in my mind and close my eyes.

Perhaps it is because it is earlier than my usual bedtime, but I am not sleepy at all. Still, I close my eyes tightly.

One sheep, two sheep.

I resort to the classic method of counting sheep, but no sleep comes. In the end, morning came without a good night’s sleep so much as a doze, and I had no choice but to go to school.

When I enter the classroom, my sleep-deprived head is still not clear.

After an hour or two of class, my mind is still foggy. I don’t remember what the teacher was talking about. The next thing I know, it’s my third break and I’m approached by Maika.

「Shiori, let’s go.」

「?」

「Next was the audiovisual room」

「Ah, yeah.」

I hurriedly pull out my textbook and notebook and stand up. Before I can check to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything, Ami grabs me by the arm. Then, she drags me out of the classroom and down the hallway.

I am not the type of person who goes to bed early or gets up early, but I am the type of person who naturally falls asleep at a reasonable hour. So it’s not often that I can’t sleep and I’m so sleep-deprived that I’m in a daze that my mornings are destroyed.

It’s Sendai-sam’s fault that I am so unshakable.

She says things that determine people’s career paths, and I’m so sleepy I can’t even take my classes properly.

It really pisses me off.

When I step forward vigorously with a feeling of anger, the hallway rings with a thump. The sound made my fuzzy head a little clearer, and I heard Ami’s voice as I stepped briskly down the hallway once more.

「Shiori, front, your front!」

「My front?」

「Here.」

Maika pulls me by the arm.

My body leans a little and my consciousness, which had been at my feet, moves forward.

My eyes met Sendai-san.

——Eh, Sendai-san?

Why?

No, it’s not that crazy.

Since I am at school, it is not strange that I met with Sendai-san. But I have never seen eye to eye with her at school until now.

I was surprised that something natural and something not natural happened at the same time, and before I knew it, I bumped shoulders with Sendai-san, who was diagonally in front of me.

「Wah!」

It was not a graze, but a pain caused by a shoulder-to-shoulder contact. I was unable to support myself as I lean back, pulled by Maika, and voices that I was about to fall.

「Shiori, are you okay?」

Maika asks while supporting me as I stumble.

「I’m okay.」

I answer with a stance.

When I return my gaze from Sendai-san to her, I see Ibaraki-san and her friend in the reflection with her.

「Hazuki, are you okay.」

「Yeah.」

I can’t take my eyes off Ibaraki-san, who is having the same conversation that Maika and I did.

——Sendai-san’s place is next to mine.

As I was trying to dismiss such a line in my head, I heard a familiar voice say,「I’m sorry.」

「It was all right.」

Sendai-san stares at me with a distant voice.

I can’t get familiar with her.

I know that, but I am not good at this kind of her.

I remove my gaze from Sendai-san.

「…It’s okay. I’m sorry, too. I was in a daze.」

If one ask who is to blame, me or Sendai-san, it must be me.

I was looking ahead, but I was not looking back.

Both Maika and Ami had told me that it would be dangerous if I continued walking, but I was too dazed to notice. If I trace the reason for this, I can get to Sendai-san, but I can’t say that here.

「Are you okay?」

Somehow I couldn’t call her「Sendai-san,」so I’m going to say a word that has been flung around many times in this place.

「I’m fine. I’ll pick it up.」

Saying this, Sendai-san picked up a textbook that had fallen into the hallway. I looked at it and finally realized that I had neither a textbook nor a notebook.

「Sorry. I’ll pick it up myself.」

I squatted down and picked up the notebook. Then, as I reached for the pen case, Sendai-san grabbed me by the wrist.

「Let me pick it.」

Sendai-san says in a calm tone.

She doesn’t let go of the wrist she has grabbed.

She grabs me so hard that it hurts.

「I’ll pick it up myself.」

If this were my room, I would just strongly tell her to let me go. But this is school and I choose to be gentle and tell her to get her hands off me.

「Ah, sorry.」

The hand that was gripping my wrist so tightly leaves.

「Is this all of it?」

Sendai-san asks as she hands me a textbook she was carrying.

「Yeah, all of it. Thank you.」

「Don’t mind it.」

After smiling like a well-made doll, Sendai-san starts to walk away. She quickly disappears from my presence, and the only sound I hear is Ibaraki-san’s voice echoing down the hallway.

I slam my textbooks and notebooks. In addition, I tap the pen case and says to Maika and Ami,「Let’s go.」

「——What have you done to Sendai-san?」

Maika taps me on the shoulder and gives me a curious look.

「What do you mean?」

「She was looking at Shiori and grabbing your arm. Didn’t you do something?」

「It didn’t hurt. I hit it pretty hard.」

I don’t think it was seen that much.

But the wrist that was grabbed was painful.

I don’t know why Sendai-san did what she did.

I look at the wrist that was grabbed.

Nothing has changed since before I bumped into Sendai-san.

I sighed, wishing there was something left in me that would not disappear.