Chapter 75: Hazy

Hazy

Summer vacation had begun.

If it were any other year, I wouldn’t have thought twice about spending three days straight holed up at home…

“…It’s hot.”

“…”

I sorted through the stacks of books, placing them into cardboard boxes.

Next to me, Kiriha was performing the same task, moving her hands listlessly, clearly drained.

This bookshelf reorganization had been “requested”—though in reality, ordered—by Suzaku-sensei.

Three times a week, we came to school to carry out this monotonous work.

…It was an absolute pain.

Of all the ways to spend summer vacation, this had to be the worst.

And yet…

“Hey, Kiriha. These encyclopedias go in this box, right?”

“—!! …Y-Yeah, probably.”

Kiriha quickly put some distance between us, averting her gaze as she answered.

That’s right—Kiriha, my work partner, had been acting strangely distant lately.

She was never the warm and friendly type to begin with, but this level of avoidance was hard to ignore.

“…”

She kept her head down, working in silence.

She had absolutely no intention of speaking to me.

I had no clue what had caused this.

And since I had no idea, there wasn’t much I could do about it…

“…Maybe I’m just overthinking it.”

It’s just Kiriha.

We’re not friends. We’re not even particularly close acquaintances.

If anything, she probably doesn’t think highly of me at all. Getting hung up on this would do neither of us any good.

…With that in mind.

I resigned myself to silently carrying out mindless labor in the peak of summer—at this point, it was less a task and more a ritual of atonement.

Then, one day—

A junior who, like Kiriha and me, had skipped too many committee meetings and been ordered to show up was supposed to come… but they ditched even that.

Just as we were lamenting the lack of manpower, an unexpected helper arrived.

“Let’s do our best, Arata-kun!”

“O-Oh. Yeah, looking forward to working with you, Akari.”

“Mhm! I don’t know why, but reorganizing bookshelves just gets me excited! Do you think it’ll make me smarter?!”

“You might want to let go of that expectation now…”

Akari was brimming with enthusiasm.

After countless days of this same repetitive work—made even more stifling by the awkward air between me and Kiriha—her presence was nothing short of a miracle.

“Wow, there are so many different kinds of books in the world!”

“Yeah. Our school’s actually pretty old, so we even have some antique books. …Which is precisely why sorting all of this is such a hassle, though.”

“Old books…! Oh, I know! Like hieroglyphs and those clay tablets with cuneiform writing!!”

“That’s ancient history. Also, no, our library doesn’t have clay tablets.”

“O-Oh… R-Right, that was just a joke.”

“You totally thought we had them, didn’t you…?”

“It was a joke! …Geez!”

Sometimes, Akari’s misconceptions were so wild it was genuinely concerning.

But even that somehow added to her charm, making her all the more terrifyingly endearing.

In my next life, I’d like to be a pretty girl who doesn’t get hated by other girls.

And so, as we worked, I found myself chatting with Akari.

Since I was the one teaching her how to organize the books, we were basically working as a pair.

“…”

That’s when I noticed it—Kiriha’s gaze.

“—!!!”

The moment our eyes met, she hurriedly looked away and walked off somewhere.

…Something was definitely off.

And after that, her strange behavior only continued.

“Kiriha, this plant encyclopedia ended up in the mystery section.”

“…Huh?!”

“Well, plants are mysterious, but they don’t exactly have foreshadowing or famous detectives…”

“Shut up!”

“…What?”

Another time, I caught her holding both a pen and a book, about to write something—

“Hey, Kiriha! That’s a book! Not the box!”

“Ah!”

“Jeez, be careful. You’ve been spacing out a lot today.”

“…!! Shut up, idiot!”

“…Idiot?! Seriously?!”

Kiriha was acting weirder than ever today.

Akari and I started worrying that maybe she wasn’t feeling well, but…

“…I’m fine.”

That was all she would say before storming off.

“I wonder what’s wrong with Kiriha-san.”

“Yeah, seriously…”

Watching her retreating figure, Akari and I exchanged puzzled glances.

Once we finished up for the day,

Kiriha, who had left ahead of us, was already gone.

Akari and I left the school together, strolling through the golden hues of the evening.

“S-So, um, Arata-kun… Do you have any plans for summer break?”

“Plans? …Not really. Just these book-sorting purifications three times a week. Other than that, I’ll mostly be at home.”

“P-Purifications?”

“Yep. Purifications.”

“…O-Okay!”

Akari clearly didn’t get it, but she just nodded anyway.

Then, after fidgeting for a moment, she seemed to psych herself up, muttering a quiet “Alright,” before reaching into her bag.

“U-Um! If you’re okay with it…”

She held out a pair of tickets.

“…An aquarium?”

“Y-Yeah! My mom gave them to me… well, more like forced them on me… But anyway! There are two, so… wanna go together?”

“…?! With me?”

“Y-Yeah… Just the two of us…”

Akari looked down.

…I was stunned.

I never thought she’d invite me out.

“…Would that be… bad?”

“N-No! Not at all! I mean… I’d actually… really appreciate it.”

“!!!”

Suddenly, I felt embarrassingly flustered, my body heating up.

“L-Like, you know! You don’t often get to see fish alive, right?! So when you eat fish, you don’t really feel the weight of taking a life, and that’s bad! You need to regularly see moving fish to stay human! Like… a health checkup! Yeah, it’s a necessary place!”

“Y-Yeah! Exactly! The aquarium is a health checkup! So we have to go! It’s natural!”

“R-Right!”

Akari’s speech had turned oddly broken, but I was too flustered to even notice.

Me and Akari, at the aquarium.

During summer vacation.

“…I’m looking forward to it.”

“…Yeah.”

And so, I ended up making summer plans with Akari.

Knowing full well that this heat wasn’t just because of the season.

Kiriha Kirino’s Perspective

As I walked home, I pressed my hands against my burning face.

Deep inside my chest, a swirling, uneasy feeling refused to settle.

There was no doubt—it was because I had seen him and Irara talking.

“…No, that’s not it.”

I shook my head desperately.

That couldn’t be it.

The reason I’d been avoiding him lately, the reason I couldn’t talk to him properly—

The reason my body instinctively pulled away whenever he got close—

It was all just because…

“…There’s no way I like him. No way at all…”

As the relentless midsummer sun scorched me from above, that hazy feeling inside me refused to fade.